(product links go to sponsored Amazon products, previous post links go to related pages on my blog, news and place links go to source pages)
The "best rapper of all time" debate is one that always ignites passion, some willing to hand it to 2Pac because of his highest peaks and untimely death but forgetting that his immense output includes a lot of sub-par work; others prefer The Notorious B.I.G. because he, too, died too soon; others go back to the first masters of the genre, your street intellectuals Rakim, LL Cool J, and KRS-One. Millennials might have a soft spot for Jay-Z or Eminem, while the best voice in the game is undoubtedly Snoop Dogg, but he disqualifies himself for contenting himself with spelling his name out for over a decade, mid-career.
However, when it comes to square, 4/4, old-school rhyming, no one comes close to Ice Cube, save perhaps Everlast. Cube invented gangsta rap with N.W.A., became an even bigger star by going solo after refusing to get screwed over in a poor record deal, became a film star when he lacked inspiration in music, and came back to rap with material more incisive than ever at the turn of the millennium. Here he is, back again, doing what he does best: claiming he's the best:
That's It's My Ego, from the forthcoming album Man Down!, directed by Gabriel "Videogod" Hart.
Showing posts with label Hip Hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hip Hop. Show all posts
Sunday, November 3, 2024
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Video Of The Week: Eminem, Big Sean & BabyTron
(product links go to sponsored Amazon products, previous post links go to related pages on my blog, news and place links go to source pages)
Eminem made the news recently when he was the surprise headliner of the concert that marked the reopening of Michigan Central, a building whose dereliction had come to symbolize the city's financial struggles. It was a Detroit-centric show, a Detroit-centric performance with his guest stars, and he continues the theme here with fellow Detroit MC Big Sean and Michigander BabyTron, on Em's latest single, Tobey: It's a little too "trapy" for my taste, as it gets repetitive between standout lines throughout the verses, but Big Sean and Eminem have a few strokes of genius here and there, particularly the eight-bar Melle Mel diss.
25 years in and still current, with references that draw from the past and present equally. Solid.
The video itself was directed by frequent Eminem collaborator and pioneer of underground rap for the past decade Cole Bennett, from what was probably an insanely long storyboard, and the special effects are well done for something that probably didn't cost plural millions, seeing as videos aren't really a thing anymore with no ratings-driven TV station to play them.
Eminem made the news recently when he was the surprise headliner of the concert that marked the reopening of Michigan Central, a building whose dereliction had come to symbolize the city's financial struggles. It was a Detroit-centric show, a Detroit-centric performance with his guest stars, and he continues the theme here with fellow Detroit MC Big Sean and Michigander BabyTron, on Em's latest single, Tobey: It's a little too "trapy" for my taste, as it gets repetitive between standout lines throughout the verses, but Big Sean and Eminem have a few strokes of genius here and there, particularly the eight-bar Melle Mel diss.
25 years in and still current, with references that draw from the past and present equally. Solid.
The video itself was directed by frequent Eminem collaborator and pioneer of underground rap for the past decade Cole Bennett, from what was probably an insanely long storyboard, and the special effects are well done for something that probably didn't cost plural millions, seeing as videos aren't really a thing anymore with no ratings-driven TV station to play them.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Eminem (& The World) Vs Trump
By now, you've probably heard Eminem's cypher (freestyle rap devoid of music or even straight beats), but in case you haven't, here it is:
That was first released during the BET Awards, which have made a tradition of releasing some throughout the years. This was Eminem's third or fourth such cypher for the event in the past decade.
What I mostly came to post about was the amount of support Em received by doing so:
That was first released during the BET Awards, which have made a tradition of releasing some throughout the years. This was Eminem's third or fourth such cypher for the event in the past decade.
What I mostly came to post about was the amount of support Em received by doing so:
Friday, June 9, 2017
Video Of The Week: Ice Cube
If you were to categorize the best rappers of all time, chances are Tupac Shakur's in your top-3; he's in mine as well. Eminem has taken himself out of contention because his most recent material doesn't match the quality of his previous output - say, anything until the 8 Mile soundtrack; it seems he's been trying to re-do Lose Yourself all the time since then, except perhaps for Berzerk. Ice Cube, the king of squared, 4/4 rap, also makes my cut, and the third spot is a toss-up between Busta Rhymes, Mos Def and a few members of the Wu-Tang Clan, particularly Raekwon and Ghostface Killah.
In terms of rap lyricists, my #1 pick would be Public Enemy's Chuck D, who's always stayed on point regardless of how long he's been in the game, his words always current, carrying the political weight of truth. I'd probably go with Everlast (House Of Pain, Warpon Industries) in second place and, again, Ice Cube in third. KRS-One misses by just a bit, as does Tupac.
My favourite current-day rapper just might be Donald Glover, though - a.k.a. Childish Gambino: smart, incisive, good flow, diverse subject mater, equally at ease rapping about toys from the 1980s as he is politics.
Which makes Cube the rapper I find to be most important. And, as I've mentioned here before, he's kept his output quality at a high level throughout the decades - ok, maybe his records aren't all killer and there are fillers, but his records' high points are always consistent.
For Good Cop Bad Cop, which will appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition of his seminal Death Certificate album, he tackles the subject of racism and police brutality in a post-Black Lives Mater world, and his conclusion is fairly simple: we are no better off today than in 1988 when his group N.W.A. sang "Fuck The Police".
Good Cop Bad Cop (Official Video, Explicit) by Ice Cube on VEVO.
The video was directed by Gabriel Hart.
In terms of rap lyricists, my #1 pick would be Public Enemy's Chuck D, who's always stayed on point regardless of how long he's been in the game, his words always current, carrying the political weight of truth. I'd probably go with Everlast (House Of Pain, Warpon Industries) in second place and, again, Ice Cube in third. KRS-One misses by just a bit, as does Tupac.
My favourite current-day rapper just might be Donald Glover, though - a.k.a. Childish Gambino: smart, incisive, good flow, diverse subject mater, equally at ease rapping about toys from the 1980s as he is politics.
Which makes Cube the rapper I find to be most important. And, as I've mentioned here before, he's kept his output quality at a high level throughout the decades - ok, maybe his records aren't all killer and there are fillers, but his records' high points are always consistent.
For Good Cop Bad Cop, which will appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition of his seminal Death Certificate album, he tackles the subject of racism and police brutality in a post-Black Lives Mater world, and his conclusion is fairly simple: we are no better off today than in 1988 when his group N.W.A. sang "Fuck The Police".
Good Cop Bad Cop (Official Video, Explicit) by Ice Cube on VEVO.
The video was directed by Gabriel Hart.
Friday, May 12, 2017
Video Of The Week: Sagat
1994 was a weird and formative year for me. It encompassed Grades 10 and 11, which were my best years of high school. It was the year where I had sex for the first time. It was the first time I played in a touring band, comprised of guys who were adults - six, seven years older than I was.
It was when I first started doing "adult things" like going to clubs, and started realizing I wanted to do something creative for a living, perhaps as much as or even more so than play hockey, a decision that would be made for me by my rights being traded away in 1996.
One club anthem that year was Sagat's Fuk Dat, which got some radio and video play in an edited version called Funk Dat, which you can see below, in the video directed by fashion designers Kurt & Bart (Bart Mueller and Kurt Swanson, who designed the costumes for such films as 2010's Howl, 2013's Stoker and Dallas Buyers Club, this year's Ghost In The Shell and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 and Part 2):
By 1994, I was already buying not only a ton of CDs, but was especially fond of CD singles, which usually either had terrific rare b-sides (Pearl Jam) or amazing and/or hugely different remixes (Nine Inch Nails). Sagat's single of this song - which preceded the album release by nearly a full year - had four or five remixes that gave you the satisfaction of hearing the song without the annoyance of always hearing the same version over and over again. It's one way of not tiring the audience out.
And, like early-to-mid-1990s gangsta rap, this song deals with matters pertaining to racism-related issues the Black Lives Matter movement would put at the forefront some twenty years later.
It was when I first started doing "adult things" like going to clubs, and started realizing I wanted to do something creative for a living, perhaps as much as or even more so than play hockey, a decision that would be made for me by my rights being traded away in 1996.
One club anthem that year was Sagat's Fuk Dat, which got some radio and video play in an edited version called Funk Dat, which you can see below, in the video directed by fashion designers Kurt & Bart (Bart Mueller and Kurt Swanson, who designed the costumes for such films as 2010's Howl, 2013's Stoker and Dallas Buyers Club, this year's Ghost In The Shell and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 and Part 2):
By 1994, I was already buying not only a ton of CDs, but was especially fond of CD singles, which usually either had terrific rare b-sides (Pearl Jam) or amazing and/or hugely different remixes (Nine Inch Nails). Sagat's single of this song - which preceded the album release by nearly a full year - had four or five remixes that gave you the satisfaction of hearing the song without the annoyance of always hearing the same version over and over again. It's one way of not tiring the audience out.
And, like early-to-mid-1990s gangsta rap, this song deals with matters pertaining to racism-related issues the Black Lives Matter movement would put at the forefront some twenty years later.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Video Of The Week: WARPORN Industries
Twice in a row?
Yep, I can do this.
I'm really into WARPORN Industries these days... Again, Everlast, Sick Jacken and Divine Styler make the music, Chad A. Marshall films it (in colour this time, featuring a tag-filled abandoned bus and one-room shelter as well as green hills and terrific landscape), and second-school hip-hop dominates...
This is the World's End:
Yep, I can do this.
I'm really into WARPORN Industries these days... Again, Everlast, Sick Jacken and Divine Styler make the music, Chad A. Marshall films it (in colour this time, featuring a tag-filled abandoned bus and one-room shelter as well as green hills and terrific landscape), and second-school hip-hop dominates...
This is the World's End:
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Video Of The Week: WARPORN Industries
Everlast can basically do no wrong (apart from his cheesy first album). His solo records are among the best music released in the 00s, House Of Pain's three albums are classics, and he helped launch La Coka Nostra into a solid career through terrific beginnings.
Now, he returns to his old-time friends (all of them save for Ice-T and the guys from Funkdoobiest) on a brand-new supergroup mixtape, launching WARPORN Industries (with Divine Styler and Sick Jacken), with strong features over the eleven tracks, including Cypress Hill's B-Real, Big Daddy Kane, Vinnie Paz, Gravity Christ, Termanology, and Rakaa.
This latest single and video, released today, is Warporn Industry, featuring B-Real and directed by Chad A. Marshall, like all of the group's clips:
Everlast's delivery is classic, and he looks like the coolest grandpa in the entire world.
Now, he returns to his old-time friends (all of them save for Ice-T and the guys from Funkdoobiest) on a brand-new supergroup mixtape, launching WARPORN Industries (with Divine Styler and Sick Jacken), with strong features over the eleven tracks, including Cypress Hill's B-Real, Big Daddy Kane, Vinnie Paz, Gravity Christ, Termanology, and Rakaa.
This latest single and video, released today, is Warporn Industry, featuring B-Real and directed by Chad A. Marshall, like all of the group's clips:
Everlast's delivery is classic, and he looks like the coolest grandpa in the entire world.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Video Of The Week: Joey Bada$$
Some young fellas get into rap dreaming of jewels, cars and being surrounded by promiscuous women, and those are usually the type who get airplay and have the bumping songs that play in clubs and cars with their windows open; once in a while, though, one of them has a message that needs to be heard, and early this year, that rapper is Joey Bada$$, a 22-year-old from Brooklyn.
He's still young and impulsive, still "reps his crew" Pro Era and claims to be signed to an independent label - which may have been true at the time of his signing, but in the present day fails to acknowledge that Cinematic Records is now distributed by Sony...
Still, his All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ record, which (finally) came out on Thursday after having been announced for last August, seems to be an impactful record, and the current single, Land Of The Free, packs a nice punch in the heart of one of the two issues currently affecting the United States, racial tension.
The video, co-directed by Nathan R. Smith and Bada$$ himself, keeps the focus on the message instead of the packaging, showing him teaching history to children and facing police extremism (we're way past "brutality" when murder's involved):
He still has to perfect his skills (the introductory pre-song statement says "You know" twice in less than ten words), but his mind is clear and delivery is extremely efficient.
He's still young and impulsive, still "reps his crew" Pro Era and claims to be signed to an independent label - which may have been true at the time of his signing, but in the present day fails to acknowledge that Cinematic Records is now distributed by Sony...
Still, his All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ record, which (finally) came out on Thursday after having been announced for last August, seems to be an impactful record, and the current single, Land Of The Free, packs a nice punch in the heart of one of the two issues currently affecting the United States, racial tension.
The video, co-directed by Nathan R. Smith and Bada$$ himself, keeps the focus on the message instead of the packaging, showing him teaching history to children and facing police extremism (we're way past "brutality" when murder's involved):
He still has to perfect his skills (the introductory pre-song statement says "You know" twice in less than ten words), but his mind is clear and delivery is extremely efficient.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Video Of The Week: 2Pac & James Brown
The only song I've listened to more often than Outkast's Spottieottiedopaliscious this past week (including the hour-long loop of the horn section, which I've listened to at least twice a day, yay unemployment!) is this gem from the Django Unchained soundtrack:
That's a remix that goes by the name of Unchained, which combines the James Brown classic The Payback and 2Pac's Untouchable; the official video is just scenes from the Quentin Tarantino movie (expertly) spliced together to fit the narrative. Officially, Tarantino is listed as the director.
Should you not know who Tarantino is, he's a groundbreaking film director and the best screenwriter of the 1990s. The three films he wrote but didn't direct are True Romance (1993, Tony Scott), Natural Born Killers (1994, Oliver Stone) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1995, Robert Rodriguez).
Perhaps I could rank the films he directed in order of preference:
11. Four Rooms (1994, segment: The Man From Hollywood)
10. Death Proof (2007)
9. The Hateful Eight (2015)
8. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
7. Django Unchained (2012)
6. Inglorious Basterds (2009)
5. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
4. Jackie Brown (1997)
3. Sin City (2005, segment with Bruce Willis)
2. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
I used to have a lot less love for Jackie Brown, but since it's the last of his more, uh, classic period, it has definitely grown on me. I was always high on Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster Michael Keaton, and Chris Tucker's performances, but even Robert De Niro's and Bridget Fonda's have grown on me since.
That's a remix that goes by the name of Unchained, which combines the James Brown classic The Payback and 2Pac's Untouchable; the official video is just scenes from the Quentin Tarantino movie (expertly) spliced together to fit the narrative. Officially, Tarantino is listed as the director.
Should you not know who Tarantino is, he's a groundbreaking film director and the best screenwriter of the 1990s. The three films he wrote but didn't direct are True Romance (1993, Tony Scott), Natural Born Killers (1994, Oliver Stone) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1995, Robert Rodriguez).
Perhaps I could rank the films he directed in order of preference:
11. Four Rooms (1994, segment: The Man From Hollywood)
10. Death Proof (2007)
9. The Hateful Eight (2015)
8. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
7. Django Unchained (2012)
6. Inglorious Basterds (2009)
5. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
4. Jackie Brown (1997)
3. Sin City (2005, segment with Bruce Willis)
2. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
I used to have a lot less love for Jackie Brown, but since it's the last of his more, uh, classic period, it has definitely grown on me. I was always high on Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster Michael Keaton, and Chris Tucker's performances, but even Robert De Niro's and Bridget Fonda's have grown on me since.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Video Of The Week: Ice Cube
It's a laid-back Sunday morning, drinking an orange-flavoured Rockstar Recovery drink along with my breakfast - a slit bagel with cretons (pork spread) and mustard on each side - on a relatively warm winter day.
Things are looking up, as I'm chilling and writing on a comfortable leather couch. Life's good.
Which brings me back to Ice Cube's 1994 chilling classic You Know How We Do It, from the seminal album Lethal Injection (my favourite of his until 2008's Raw Footage came out). All in all, the record is more "gangsta rap" than "political commentary", but this song, despite some trademark Cube boasting, is so laid-back in its essence that when I'm not listening to it, I actually remember it as slower than it actually is, more like Evelyne "Champagne" King's The Show Is Over, which it samples.
The video, directed by Marcus Raboy (director of Friday After Next as well as Naughty By Nature's O.P.P., Mary J. Blige's Real Love, Reminisce, and Deep Inside, Rancid's Time Bomb, Luscious Jackson's Naked Eye, Santana's Maria Maria and Put Your Lights On, Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige's 911, Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls, Shakira's Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) and Avril Lavigne's What The Hell, among others), shows Ice Cube riding shotgun on the old Las Vegas strip and gambling, because having him smoke weed on a beach might not have been as entertaining and camera-friendly:
Things are looking up, as I'm chilling and writing on a comfortable leather couch. Life's good.
Which brings me back to Ice Cube's 1994 chilling classic You Know How We Do It, from the seminal album Lethal Injection (my favourite of his until 2008's Raw Footage came out). All in all, the record is more "gangsta rap" than "political commentary", but this song, despite some trademark Cube boasting, is so laid-back in its essence that when I'm not listening to it, I actually remember it as slower than it actually is, more like Evelyne "Champagne" King's The Show Is Over, which it samples.
The video, directed by Marcus Raboy (director of Friday After Next as well as Naughty By Nature's O.P.P., Mary J. Blige's Real Love, Reminisce, and Deep Inside, Rancid's Time Bomb, Luscious Jackson's Naked Eye, Santana's Maria Maria and Put Your Lights On, Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige's 911, Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls, Shakira's Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) and Avril Lavigne's What The Hell, among others), shows Ice Cube riding shotgun on the old Las Vegas strip and gambling, because having him smoke weed on a beach might not have been as entertaining and camera-friendly:
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Video Of The Week: Rage Against The Machine
It may have been too long since I last featured Rage Against The Machine, so I thought I could show them from yet another single from their 1999 masterpiece The Battle Of Los Angeles, this time with Guerilla Radio, directed by Honey (the husband-and-wife directing duo of Laura Kelly and Nicholas Brooks:
It's a parody of the early-to-mid 1990s Gap ads directed by Pedro Romhanyi where people would dance around in the brand's clothing in a white backdrop while the "hip" music of the day (among which punk band Rancid) ran in the background. Instead, RATM use the video to criticize the garment industry.
It's a parody of the early-to-mid 1990s Gap ads directed by Pedro Romhanyi where people would dance around in the brand's clothing in a white backdrop while the "hip" music of the day (among which punk band Rancid) ran in the background. Instead, RATM use the video to criticize the garment industry.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Video Of The Week: Walk Off The Earth
One thing Walk Off The Earth specializes in is covering popular songs, and in their latest video, directed by Tom MacLeod, they take on Snoop Lion's Lighters Up - with special guest Snoop Dogg himself:
The video may not have all the visual and instrumental trickery of some of WOTE's earlier work, but it shows us a glimpse of studio life, and in particular studio life when a lifelong pot smoker enters the fray and gets the entire atmosphere to chill out.
The video may not have all the visual and instrumental trickery of some of WOTE's earlier work, but it shows us a glimpse of studio life, and in particular studio life when a lifelong pot smoker enters the fray and gets the entire atmosphere to chill out.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Video Of The Week: DJ Khaled Featuring Jay Z & Future
I didn't know of DJ Khaled until I saw the one episode of Hot Takes where he totally chickened out and couldn't eat hot wings; I thought he had a pretty big ego for someone whom I'd never heard of and had gone to high school with Joey Fatone of N*Sync.
I'm not saying he's living up to it, but at least his song I Got The Keys, which features rappers Future and Jay Z and whose music was produced and created by Southside, Jake One and G Coop (which really makes you wonder what the fuck Khaled Khaled did on the fucking track to begin with), is somewhat decent.
It was directed in black and white by Daniel Kaufman and features Khaled, Jay Z, and Future, as well as cameos by Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Pusha T, ASAP Ferg, T.I., Swizz Beatz, Fabolous, Yo Gotti, Bryson Tiller and Zoey Dollaz, all playing prison inmates, with fully-armed/borderline military black ops white guys playing the guards:
The racial tension is intense, reflecting the shit going on on American streets, but Jigga rapping how he's still a slave when his marriage with Beyoncé makes his daughter the heiress to a billion-dollar empire is a tad laughable. And the same can be said for Ross - a former correctional officer - and Khaled himself, who grew up in an upper-middle-class/rich family and neighbourhood.
I'm not saying he's living up to it, but at least his song I Got The Keys, which features rappers Future and Jay Z and whose music was produced and created by Southside, Jake One and G Coop (which really makes you wonder what the fuck Khaled Khaled did on the fucking track to begin with), is somewhat decent.
It was directed in black and white by Daniel Kaufman and features Khaled, Jay Z, and Future, as well as cameos by Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Pusha T, ASAP Ferg, T.I., Swizz Beatz, Fabolous, Yo Gotti, Bryson Tiller and Zoey Dollaz, all playing prison inmates, with fully-armed/borderline military black ops white guys playing the guards:
The racial tension is intense, reflecting the shit going on on American streets, but Jigga rapping how he's still a slave when his marriage with Beyoncé makes his daughter the heiress to a billion-dollar empire is a tad laughable. And the same can be said for Ross - a former correctional officer - and Khaled himself, who grew up in an upper-middle-class/rich family and neighbourhood.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Video Of The Week: Beyoncé
So, uh... Beyoncé's Lemonade has caused quite a stir, eh?
While she hasn't yet released any individual videos yet, there are three songs that deal with infidelity, which of course the media treats as the main story line (not empowerment, which comes through in every fucking song) and most of the official coverage has been about Jay-Z's alleged infidelities.
Which of course got me thinking about Drunk In Love, when Bey wanted to ride Jigga's wooden surfboard and get drunk, and the black-and-white video, directed by Hype Williams, is a great watch:
I hate to agree with Kanye West, but Queen Bey still reigns in the pop game. She just rules this current decade, both in the quality of her output and artistic merit - and that's saying nothing of her business savvy; this is, after all, the second straight time she releases a #1 record without either any publicity or even announcing it firsthand.
By the way, she released Lemonade on Tidal first, Jay-Z's music service. Why would she do that if she really did have beef with him? Pundits should let art be art and only analyse it in the end.
While she hasn't yet released any individual videos yet, there are three songs that deal with infidelity, which of course the media treats as the main story line (not empowerment, which comes through in every fucking song) and most of the official coverage has been about Jay-Z's alleged infidelities.
Which of course got me thinking about Drunk In Love, when Bey wanted to ride Jigga's wooden surfboard and get drunk, and the black-and-white video, directed by Hype Williams, is a great watch:
I hate to agree with Kanye West, but Queen Bey still reigns in the pop game. She just rules this current decade, both in the quality of her output and artistic merit - and that's saying nothing of her business savvy; this is, after all, the second straight time she releases a #1 record without either any publicity or even announcing it firsthand.
By the way, she released Lemonade on Tidal first, Jay-Z's music service. Why would she do that if she really did have beef with him? Pundits should let art be art and only analyse it in the end.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Video Of The Week: Massive Attack feat. Young Fathers
This week's featured video was directed by British director Ringan Lewidge (2006's Gone, as well as a controversial grocery store chain - Sainsbury - ad in 2014) and features actress Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) dancing solo in an empty hall - not unlike Christopher Walker in Fatboy Slim's Weapon Of Choice or Jamiroquai's lead singer Jay Kay in Virtual Insanity - except here she really seems like she's losing her mind, whereas they were just moving through space. Her dance moves are more of the "classic modern dance" variety than theirs, but the song and visuals match up perfectly.
Speaking of which, it's Voodoo In My Blood, by Massive Attack and Young Fathers:
The colour palette (green and yellow) is reminiscent of turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club and the Matrix sequels (whereas many current films delve into more of an orange-y vibe these days, from the Star Trek films to Man Of Steel to 300).
I'm not a huge fan of Pike's and I prefer my Massive Attack when they're slow and moody instead of loud and obnoxious/obvious, but this is a solid piece of art regardless.
Speaking of which, it's Voodoo In My Blood, by Massive Attack and Young Fathers:
The colour palette (green and yellow) is reminiscent of turn-of-the-millennium films such as Fight Club and the Matrix sequels (whereas many current films delve into more of an orange-y vibe these days, from the Star Trek films to Man Of Steel to 300).
I'm not a huge fan of Pike's and I prefer my Massive Attack when they're slow and moody instead of loud and obnoxious/obvious, but this is a solid piece of art regardless.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Video Of The Week: Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar
The Grammys are a predictable, pseudo-artistic mess that recognizes just about what it needs to and celebrates and rewards its own as a means of justifying its own existence, like many other award shows. Thus it needs to reward actual artistic merit once in a while but usually also needs to have the most poplar artists reap the most trophies so that the masses feel that what were force-fed for an entire year and whom they helped become millionaires did so out of merit rather than pure commercialism and the financial means of the corporations pushing them.
So, for every Arcade Fire, there has to be a Taylor Swift, a couple of Céline Dions, a Christina Aguilera, and Michael Jackson has to remain the one point of comparison that sets the standard.
This year's nominations were all about Swift and Kendrick Lamar, so it's fitting that I feature them together in this video directed by Joseph Kahn (Britney Spears' Toxic and Womanizer, Eminem's Without Me, We Made You and Love The Way You Lie) for the remix of Bad Blood:
What's great is the sheer number of cameos in the video, in order of appearance after Swift: Selena Gomez as Arsyn, Karlie Kloss as Knockout, Lamar as Welvin Da Great, Martha Hunt as HomeSlice, Jessica Alba as Domino, Serayah as Dilemma, Lena Dunham as Lucky Fiori, Hailee Steinfeld as The Trinity, Ellie Goulding as Destructa X, GiGi Hadid as Slay-Z, Hayley Williams as The Crimson Curse, Zendaya as Cut-Throat, Lily Aldridge as Frostbyte, Ellen Pompeo as Luna, Mariska Hargitay as Justice, Cara Delevingne as Mother Chucker, and Cindy Crawford as Headmistress.
Full disclosure: I think the lyrics are god-awful (cut and done are terrible rhymes for blood, worthy of early Avril Lavigne songs, just sayin'), and I find it odd that Hayley Williams appears in the video considering "Swift's voice" sounds just like hers in the chorus; it feels like there's ghost-singing going on here, for sure.
So, for every Arcade Fire, there has to be a Taylor Swift, a couple of Céline Dions, a Christina Aguilera, and Michael Jackson has to remain the one point of comparison that sets the standard.
This year's nominations were all about Swift and Kendrick Lamar, so it's fitting that I feature them together in this video directed by Joseph Kahn (Britney Spears' Toxic and Womanizer, Eminem's Without Me, We Made You and Love The Way You Lie) for the remix of Bad Blood:
What's great is the sheer number of cameos in the video, in order of appearance after Swift: Selena Gomez as Arsyn, Karlie Kloss as Knockout, Lamar as Welvin Da Great, Martha Hunt as HomeSlice, Jessica Alba as Domino, Serayah as Dilemma, Lena Dunham as Lucky Fiori, Hailee Steinfeld as The Trinity, Ellie Goulding as Destructa X, GiGi Hadid as Slay-Z, Hayley Williams as The Crimson Curse, Zendaya as Cut-Throat, Lily Aldridge as Frostbyte, Ellen Pompeo as Luna, Mariska Hargitay as Justice, Cara Delevingne as Mother Chucker, and Cindy Crawford as Headmistress.
Full disclosure: I think the lyrics are god-awful (cut and done are terrible rhymes for blood, worthy of early Avril Lavigne songs, just sayin'), and I find it odd that Hayley Williams appears in the video considering "Swift's voice" sounds just like hers in the chorus; it feels like there's ghost-singing going on here, for sure.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Video Of The Week: Kendrick Lamar
I understand those who don't like this song, Alright, by Kendrick Lamar. It's not full of catchy hooks and big, thumping radio beats. And some people aren't even into hip hop; that's fine. Musical taste can hardly be argued (though I argue it on here all the time).
But the black-and-white video by Colin Tilley is no doubt a work of art. Possibly the nest video of the past five years, or at least in that conversation if I'm forgetting some. Sure, it deals with gritty issues such as racism and police brutality (well, police murdering people, which is beyond just brutality) that seem like they belong more in a documentary than in something stylistic, but this video is in the same vein as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in terms of depicting awfulness beautifully. And, yes, this is the same Colin Tilley who directed Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video; he's fast becoming the go-to director for high-quality, high-profile cinematography in short clips.
But the black-and-white video by Colin Tilley is no doubt a work of art. Possibly the nest video of the past five years, or at least in that conversation if I'm forgetting some. Sure, it deals with gritty issues such as racism and police brutality (well, police murdering people, which is beyond just brutality) that seem like they belong more in a documentary than in something stylistic, but this video is in the same vein as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in terms of depicting awfulness beautifully. And, yes, this is the same Colin Tilley who directed Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video; he's fast becoming the go-to director for high-quality, high-profile cinematography in short clips.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Video Of The Week: N.W.A.
A couple of weeks ago, I went and saw Straight Outta Compton, the biopic telling the tale of rap group N.W.A., and figured I'd feature the song that inspired the title. But time passed, and I went a week without doing so.
Now is that time.
I recommend seeing the movie; as far as biopics go, I put it in the same category as Ray and Walk The Line, as good movies that tell a tale while taking a bit of liberties with history to make the story fit a two-hour time frame narrative. But if you're curious to find out about how Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and MC Ren got started (and got in trouble), how their relationships were torn apart, how hip hop feuds can get violent, the arrivals of Snoop Doggy Dogg, Suge Knight, Da Lench Mob and The D.O.C. to the mix and just the ambiance of early-1990s West Coast rap in general.
However, I'd already featured Straight Outta Compton at the time of the album's 20th anniversary, so instead I opted to show Express Yourself this week, featuring a lead rap by Dr. Dre and samples from the eponymous classic by Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band and a sweet cameo from Tone Loc:
Now is that time.
I recommend seeing the movie; as far as biopics go, I put it in the same category as Ray and Walk The Line, as good movies that tell a tale while taking a bit of liberties with history to make the story fit a two-hour time frame narrative. But if you're curious to find out about how Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, and MC Ren got started (and got in trouble), how their relationships were torn apart, how hip hop feuds can get violent, the arrivals of Snoop Doggy Dogg, Suge Knight, Da Lench Mob and The D.O.C. to the mix and just the ambiance of early-1990s West Coast rap in general.
However, I'd already featured Straight Outta Compton at the time of the album's 20th anniversary, so instead I opted to show Express Yourself this week, featuring a lead rap by Dr. Dre and samples from the eponymous classic by Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band and a sweet cameo from Tone Loc:
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Video Of The Week: Rage Against The Machine
I was walking and talking with a friend who's younger than me this week, and for some reason the conversation came to Rage Against The Machine. I was certain that their impact had been so huge, so grandiose, that everyone under the age of 40 would instantly know who they were, from Wake Up playing at the end of The Matrix to the perfect-for-high-schooolers end of Killing In The Name with its ending of more than twenty repetitions of the phrase ''Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me''.
Alas, no. Even folks who claim to have ''listened to subversive music'' in their teens can live their lives Rage-free.
And so, as a favor for all those lost souls, I decided to feature them once more, and while I did juggle with the idea of featuring Killing In The Name, in the end, I opted for the Michael Moore-directed Sleep Now In The Fire, chronicling the day where RATM closed the New York Stock Exchange ten minutes early and in which, during a parody of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, they display facts about wealth and income inequality.
It gets both Rage's and Moore's main messages across, but it also gives Moore the chance to go outside his now-inevitable documentary film-making and go back to just plain storytelling, and the cheesy green screen effects in front of which the band pretends to croon act like his follow-up to Canadian Bacon.
There are a variety of tones use in the less-than-four-minute video, and it's rich in meaning and Truth.
Alas, no. Even folks who claim to have ''listened to subversive music'' in their teens can live their lives Rage-free.
And so, as a favor for all those lost souls, I decided to feature them once more, and while I did juggle with the idea of featuring Killing In The Name, in the end, I opted for the Michael Moore-directed Sleep Now In The Fire, chronicling the day where RATM closed the New York Stock Exchange ten minutes early and in which, during a parody of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, they display facts about wealth and income inequality.
It gets both Rage's and Moore's main messages across, but it also gives Moore the chance to go outside his now-inevitable documentary film-making and go back to just plain storytelling, and the cheesy green screen effects in front of which the band pretends to croon act like his follow-up to Canadian Bacon.
There are a variety of tones use in the less-than-four-minute video, and it's rich in meaning and Truth.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Video Of The Week: Kwabs
I didn't have my mind set up on a specific track to feature this week, but when I fell on British R&B singer Kwabs' Walk recently after months of not hearing it, it just made sense to me. It reflects parts of my current life, parts of my recent past, and parts of life in general where you've got to keep your chin up, and move on to bigger and greater things.
In a ''very post-millennial music world'' turn of events, I just realized today that while the song was released in September 2014, the album it will be on is only set for release in September... 2015. Singles: the way of the 1950s, and the way of the present.
I'm sure it must have cost a shitload of money, but the special effects used in the video are both subtle and impressive, and they blend with the beat and picture seamlessly - a fine piece of direction and editing by David Mould, I really like how they increase in intensity all the way through:
In a ''very post-millennial music world'' turn of events, I just realized today that while the song was released in September 2014, the album it will be on is only set for release in September... 2015. Singles: the way of the 1950s, and the way of the present.
I'm sure it must have cost a shitload of money, but the special effects used in the video are both subtle and impressive, and they blend with the beat and picture seamlessly - a fine piece of direction and editing by David Mould, I really like how they increase in intensity all the way through:
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