No matter whom your candidate of choice is in the 2008 election, the reverberations of change and history could be felt a few nights ago when Barack Obama took the stage in St. Paul and announced that he is the presumptive nominee for the democratic party. Since the beginning of hip hop music MCs have used beats and rhymes as a platform to voice descent, opinion and protest. However, the actual political process of conducting a campaign for a candidate has been few and far in-between. There has always been a pervasive feeling amongst the urban community that politicians are non-responsive to their problems or concerns. Therefore, advocating for a president seemed useless or even counterproductive.
However, this seemed to all wash away since Obama, the first African American democratic nominee, first announced his candidacy as several MCs took to the studio to pen rhymes as inspirational as the man himself. The most notable pro Obama song so far is Will I Am’s “Yes We Can” which was actually featured at several Obama rallies. Now one of the most outspoken MCs on the political front, Nas takes on the subject matter with his release “Black President”. The DJ Green Lantern Produced track splices parts of Obama’s speeches as Nas lends his poetical prose to a thoughtful track about the possibility of the first black president.
Listen to the track [HERE]
The fact that Chicago native Lupe Fiasco once gave a shout out to HYPEBEAST in a fashion magazine feature on him, as well as the last track on his debut album not to mention he once had a blog on this very site that he updated frequently speaks volumes about his place in youth culture. It shows that he isn’t simply using the internet to his advantage as a slick marketing tool, rather he is of the generation that logs in every day, checks for new music, the latest clothes and kicks and news. This has endeared him to millions of fans that see themselves in the artist and makes him that much more relatable.
However, Lupe knows all too well what a double edged sword the internet can be. Lupe’s debut album “Food and Liquor” leaked on the net months before its release date probably significantly cutting into the sales of the album. Also, last year Lupe was embroiled in a minor controversy concerning fumbling a few lyrics from his tribute to A Tribe Called Quest. Die hard Tribe fans hit the message boards and took aim like heat seeking missiles. But at the end of the day what it all comes down to is the music, and what cannot be denied is Lupes’ lyrical prowess. His ability to string together a shocking amount of similes and metaphors, his abstract rhyme structures and immense vocabulary has easily made him one of the top lyricists of today. This unreleased gem from “The Cool” entitled “Cold World” is another example of this. This is no longer the wave of the future; it’s the soundtrack of today.
Listen to the track [HERE].
Nas could have easily looked at his enduring legacy in hip hop, sat back, relaxed and gave himself a congratulatory pat on the back. He could have easily gone the way of several legendary MCs whose flow got lethargic and stale and decided instead of deciding to push forward took a long deep look into the past. No one would have blamed him either. He would easily go down as one of the most poetic influential important street poets to ever lay his voice on wax not just in Hip Hop but in music in general. But as Nas stated on the intro to his Stillmatic album “They thought I’ll make another Illmatic/but it’s always forward I’m moving stupid never backwards here’s another classic.” This is the feeling that has summed up the later part of Nas’ career.
Just about every album he has dropped in the new millennium has either been thoughtfully penned beautifully tragic pieces like the slightly somber “God’s Son” penned in the wake of his mother’s death, or an affirmation of his hardcore gritty NY rap roots with the double album “Streets Disciple”, or the intentionally controversial titled semi concept album “Hip Hop is Dead”. Just the titles alone shows an artist hell bent on leaving a huge dent in hip hop before he bows out. His new album was to be titled the most offensive racial epithet ever uttered (yes that one). Although Nas changed the album title to simply “Nas” he assured the fans that the content will be just as politically charged and incendiary as the former album title conveys. One look at the cover of the new album the viewer gets an incredibly powerful statement that an entire music career or volumes of books for that matter couldn’t convey. If the new album dropping July 1st is half as powerful as the album cover, we’re in for another classic.
Hot 97’s Summer Jam is Hip Hops’ annual equivalent of Woodstock. The festival takes the most popular, best selling and most celebrated MCs and R&B artists of the year and ensembles them into a one night only performance. The show has become almost historical in the hip hop world for the surprise guests that take the stage (Michael Jackson moon walked on the stage as Jay-z’s special guest), the ever present possibility of spontaneous disses (Jay-z’s first unveiling of Takeover, The Game’s presentment of a mascot rat to represent 50 cent) and of course the headliner of the show who usually holds the crown as top MC of the year.
Summer Jam 2008 took place this past weekend and this year’s the line-up included: Alicia Keys, T-pain, Public Enemy, Lil Wayne, D-Block, Ray-J, Young Berg and Kanye West amongst many others. The highlights of the show include an always spirited performance by Lil Wayne who tore his way through his early hits, his latest joints and mix tape favorites driving the audience in attendance into frenzy. Kanye brought a mini version of his high energy Glow in the Dark tour performance to the stage including our personal favorite “HYPEBEAST” punch line freestyle. Alicia Keys shocked the crowd by bringing out legendary MCs Method Man and Raekwon. One of the biggest highlights of the night is when both Wayne and Kanye took the stage with each other to perform the “Lollipop Remix”.
At some point the evil geniuses over at Apple decided that the best soundtrack for their high tech gadget pornography was happy reassuring folk indie rock. Maybe this was done to balance out the feeling of a cold computer age with visuals of science fiction devices with very human organic music. In any case the plan worked to perfection as I-phones, I-touches, I-books and I-anything else flew off the shelves as soon as they stocked them. The commercials also served as an excellent marketing tool for the musicians on the commercials. Soon the indie darlings featured in the adds where getting goggled and downloaded like crazy and enjoyed by more people than the hipster sipping lattes in the independent coffee shop.
One of said artists is indie folk singer songwriter Orba Squara whose song “Perfect Timing (This Morning)” was heavily featured in the early I-phone commercials making the song practically synonymous with the product and instantly recognizable. Orba’s brand of organic rock replacing tuned down guitars, driving bass and hard snares and kicks with violin, accordion and toy pianos give his music a dramatic baroque pop feel with a whispery lyrical delivery. The sonic landscape of the tracks paint dream induced pictures of fairy tale sequences dressed in pastel. His latest video and single “Gravel” from his album “Sunshyness” is another foray into softly plucked acoustic guitar lucid fantasy rock with a surreal video to match. If Apple ever considered going into the atomic bomb business, as long as they played something this good for the accompanying add, we may consider purchasing it.
Ed Rec Vol 3, produced by famous French music label Ed Banger, is set to release with an exhibition at Colette, featuring 22 portraits of Busy P. This volume includes many great artists including Uffie, Mr Oizo, Feadz, Sebastian, Krazy Baldhead, Mr Flash, DJ Medhi, Justice, and DSL. Ed Banger also collaborated with Colette on a very limited tote bag that will be released on June 9th. Also available is a collector box that includes 6 vinyls, 1 CD, and various stickers. With only 2000 available, be sure to hurry and check it out at Colette.
I don’t exactly how I first heard about Jay Electronica but I suspect it might have been some small blog entry with maybe a sentence long description or maybe a recommendation from an achingly avant-garde hip friend of mine. Either way I have a disturbing small confession to make. I was almost immediately nonchalantly dismissive on the basis of name alone. I somehow began to conjure up images of loquacious word drunken nerd rappers who made what would be the hip hop equivalent of pretentious progressive rock. That is until I actually heard the man rhyme. I believe the first track I heard from him was the joint he did over the score to the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. Jay dismantled the drum less track with a crystal clear impeccable delivery and a cerebral assault on words mixing and matching abstract non sequiturs with a flow that can only be described as a much more coherent MF Doom.
I obviously wasn’t the only one floored by the 31 year old New Orleans native’s raw talent. Jay eventually caught the eye and ear of industry heavyweights such as Just Blaze, Erykah Badu and Nas amongst others who all have eventually collaborated with the MC all before he has even dropped an album. Although Jay has attracted the attention of several established artists his “do it yourself” ethics are obviously still intact as he pieces together clips from old films or old rock videos to provide a visual for his backing tracks. On “Drugs and Bitches” Jay spits a venomous attack at cliché conventional rap subject matter yet still keeping a self deprecating tone throughout. Needless to say I won’t be making any snap judgments again anytime soon.
The self proclaimed, Atlanta bred “flower punk” band The Black Lips are infamous for their live shows. Despite claims from the band that they have “matured a bit”, on any given night you may see the band performing in full frontal nudity, chasing a chicken on stage, full on make out session between band members, urination and other Iggy Pop inspired outrageous protopunk antics. Their energetic shows match perfectly with their brand of skuzzy guitar feedback induced garage punk rock with surprisingly catchy sing along choruses. Not content to simply ride out their bad boy images the band released their fourth album “Good Bad Not Evil” last year to reviews commenting on the bands advancement sonically and lyrically while staying true to their hardcore roots.
The most recent video and single “It Feels Alright” from last year’s album is an ode to the most famous strip club in Atlanta “Magic City”. Already immortalized in several hip hop songs, the band takes on the subject without any tongue in cheek sarcasm but rather a full on anthem to getting drunk and riding down Peachtree street for a night of debauchery. The video is a black and white tour guide to Atlanta and of course some well appreciated obligatory shots of the gyrating dancers from the club. Let’s just hope next time you’re at Magic City you hear this blasting through the speakers.
Genre bending hip hop, funk, electro, experimental band N*E*R*D have their fans sitting on pins and needles waiting for the group to release their third album “Seeing Sounds” on June 10th. Early accounts of the album including a short clip sample floating around somewhere on the net suggest that the band is in rare form with their most head nodding, ear drum banging, mosh pit inducing effort yet. However, fans and critics have to wait until the actual album drops (or until the inevitable internet album leak) to completely pass judgment. Until then HYPEBEAST has the new album cover complete with a over sized psychedelic neon colored primate representing the monstrous sound the band members must see every time they lay down a track and all three N*E*R*D boys staring in amazement draped in Billionaire Boy Clothing.
Let’s have small recap here just to see if you’re keeping up (yes students there will be a test on this later). Kanye West drops his highly anticipated third album “Graduation” amidst an ingenious giant marketing campaign pitting him against 50 cent. Kanye walks away victorious in the record sales race and his new album is highly praised by critics as a successful mesh of infectious pop, soul full hip hop and a healthy dose of electro. One of the standout tracks on the album is “Flashing Lights”. The song combines soft melody with hard electronic kicks and snares as Kanye cryptically raps about the pitfalls of materialism and the trappings of fame. Because this was obviously going to be a surefire single, almost immediately fans began to discuss what they think the video will look like down to the director he may choose.
However, when the Spike Jonze directed video was released in all of its lingerie clad, Rita G slow motion glory (thank you Spike) the short clip baffled some fans and was lauded by others as a masterpiece. Version 2 of the video leaked on the internet about a week ago and was much more literal then the first version. The video showed another model obviously deeply intertwined in the night life and the danger and tragedy that can come from it. Just a few days ago, yet another version of the video was leaked on the internet and seems to be frustrating and delighting fans equally. This version seems to have no connection with the other two videos and appears to be a cinematic cross between a horror film and high fashion couture add. As far as storyline goes, it’s hard to make rhyme or reason of it but we don’t mind watching again and again.
Street wear and hip hop are a seamless mesh. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the top brands at the moment, 10 deep hooked up with one of the top underground MCs, Wale for a collaboration t-shirt celebrating and commemorating the release of Wale’s highly anticipated new mix tape entitled “Mix tape About Nothing”. What is surprising is that the mix tape and the shirt draw inspiration from 90s sitcom staple Seinfeld, whose only sign of street wear and hip hop seemed to be the endless supply of sneakers that graced Jerry’s feet in each episode.
However, when the mix tape is digested and listened to in its entirety it’s apparent that Wale has taken the eccentric and convention destroying elements that Seinfeld captured and utilized it as in his own schizophrenic rhyme schemes. The good people at 10 deep have made the Costanza inspired mix available for free download at their official website starting today. The t-shirt is also available in limited edition “Serenity Now!” tee is an instantly recognizable catchphrase to any die hard Seinfeld fan. Also, each purchase made from the 10 Deep webstore during the first week of June will come with a hard copy of the mix tape.
You can listen to the mixtape [HERE]
Hip Hop artists and fictional comic book characters make an easier fit then one would think. Although Hip Hop since its inception has been steeped in rhetoric about reality and the importance of being authentic, there has always been an undertone of hyper reality or reality amplified teetering on the fantastic. This is why aliases are so paramount in the genre. The stage names are almost the MCs other identity when they take the mic. The most legendary MCs have made careers on boasting how dope they are with clever punch lines amplifying their abilities to almost super human characteristics. No one knows this better or has exploited it more than the legendary Wu Tang Clan. Part of the Clans mystique has been the incorporation of kung fu excerpts in their music and comic book characteristics in their persona. This clever tactic has allowed the group to make a balance between hardcore, gritty east coast rap and absurd fantasy as each MC takes on a new moniker and throw themselves into the character.
This past year has seen a bit of a rift in the legendary crew as a few of the top lyricists in the group have broken ranks and showed their distaste for last years’ “8 Diagrams”, most notably for the RZAs production on the album. Undaunted by the criticism RZA takes solace in his comic book persona; Bobby Digital to produce a new album entitled “Digi Snax” due later this summer. The first single “You Can’t Stop Me Now” has the instantly recognizable Wu sound with sampled guitar licks, dirty drum kicks and ominous chanting on the chorus complete with the late Ol Dirty Bastard’s drunken crooning. The video is a comic book inspired visual acid trip. Lyrically the song finds RZA in a retrospective state contemplating his street days and his early career achievements. The subject matter of early Wu leads one to believe maybe he was affected a little more by the voices of dissent then he leads on. But, it’s nothing a comic book hero can’t handle.
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