You Better Know What You’re Fighting For
I find Janelle Monae’s new music video for her latest single “Cold War” very interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, it’s not busy and flashy, as the sonics would suggest. In lesser hands, a director or manager might have convinced her to do some ill-conceived Love-is-War style video, and maybe even have the [...]
Let’s Go Back
Every day for the past several weeks I’ve started my morning by entering the following phrase into the search bar of Hype Machine: “DELS – Shapeshift”. The video for London MC Kieran Dicken’s Joe Goddard (Hot Chip)-produced single has been showing its wonderful face for upwards of a month, but with no legal mp3 floating [...]
Art Beat / Nguzunguzu’s Transgender Life
Nguzunguzu are not really transsexuals (at least not to my knowledge), but the LA bass wobbling duo have taken on music direction duties for Wu Tsang’s documentary film, Damelo Todo: Give Me Everything. Damelo Todo tells the story of the subculture of Mexican and Central American transgendered women who’ve immigrated to Los Angeles and found [...]
S’All Because Of You
The-Dream’s Love King is about 75% better than I had anticipated. On a scale of 1-10 it lands at 20. If his next album is to really be his last, he’s gearing up for one hell of a grand exit; one I personally feel will unfold into an epic, multi-part audiovisual curtain closing ceremony. The [...]
FREE SH!T :: Public Enemy + BBU @ Congress Theater :: Chicago
Local hip-hop faves BBU and DJ Avi Sic join storied legends Public Enemy Saturday, June 26 at Congress Theater and they’re giving away lots of free tickets HERE. I’ve seen the BBU guys live too many times to count now and their energy is undeniable. Check out Jams Dean’s interview with the group and their [...]
Afternoon Jamz :: Ciara (ft. Ludacris) – Ride
Hottest video since I don’t know when. Killer dance moves, swagger on lock. Ciara’s basically the girl I always wanted to be on this track. Ludacris even manages to turn off his recent carousel clown routine and deliver a few decent verses. “Ride” is the female-fronted “Pony” and Ciara gives Ginuwine a run for his [...]
Afternoon Jamz :: Busta Rhymes (ft. Zhané) – It’s A Party
Welcome to the very first Afternoon Jamz. Check back mid-afternoons for a selected daily jam to get you through the last few hours of the workday (school day, whatever). (Hint: We’ll probably be posting a lot of summer hip-hop.) —Enjoy!
This track is summer and I’m not accepting any arguments otherwise. The first two top-rated YouTube [...]
Grovesnor Makes It Timeless
The much celebrated former Hot Chip member turned solo-artist, Grovesnor, put out a new music video this week. It’s a gem that tells a really great (read: creepy) story for the hit song, “Dan”. “Dan” is one of my favorite tracks off Soft Return, and not just because it’s also my name. The song as [...]
