Tag: hip-hop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kool Keith Teams Up with Marc Live and Ice-T on Swaggering “The Formula”

Kool Keith has a long-held reputation for being one of hip-hop’s most eccentric and unusual characters, as well as one of the genre’s most prolific artists, recording and releasing 33 albums as a solo artist and through a number of different collaborations, including the legendary Ultramagnetic MCs.

The Bronx-born emcee’s 34th album, Black Elvis 2 is the long-awaited sequel to 1999’s Black Elvis/Lost in Space. The album is slated for a June 16, 2023 release through Mello Music Group and features guest spots from Marc Live, Raaddrr Van, Dynamite, Agallah and Ice-T. Sonically, the album reportedly sees the legendary and eccentric Bronx-born emcee taking his information-age rhymes to a whole new label with a sound that’s equal parts street shit hip-hop and outer space.

Black Elvis 2′s latest single “The Formula” is a partial Analog Brothers reunion featuring Marc Live, a.k.a. Marc Moog and Ice T, a.k.a. Ice Oscillator alongside Kool Keith, a.k.a. Black Elvis and Keith Kong. Marc Live’s eerie street boom-bap meets outer space production built around shimmering and atmospheric synths and skittering boom bap beats that’s roomy enough for each emcee to spit swaggering bars full of pop culture references and mayhem with each emcee seemingly pushing each other. But by far, it’s probably the hardest and most menacing you’ve heard Ice-T in quite some time.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 59th Birthday, DMC!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates DMC’s 59th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Heavy D!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 56th anniversary of Heavy D’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 51st Birthday, Biggie!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 51st anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Genesis Owusu Shares Breakneck Anthem “Leaving The Light”

Over the course of the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the acclaimed and rapidly rising Ghanian-born, Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu. With the release of his debut EP, 2017’s Cardrive, Owusu — born Kofi Owusu-Anash — quickly established a reputation for being a restless, genre-blurring chameleon, whose work is rooted in powerful and deeply personal storytelling. 

Owusu-Anash’s critically applauded full-length debut, 2021’s Smiling With No Teeth as the acclaimed Ghanian-Aussie JOVM mainstay explained is essentially about ” “performing what the world wants to see, even if you don’t have the capacity to do so honestly. Slathering honey on your demons to make them palatable to people, who only want to know if you’re okay, if the answer is yes. That’s the idea, turned into beautiful, youthful, ugly, timeless and strange music.”

Building upon the momentum of Smiling With No Teeth, Owusu released the Missing Molars EP in July 2021. The five-track EP served as an accompaniment to his full-length debut. Recorded during the Smiling With No Teeth sessions, the Missing Molars EP hit the cutting floor and didn’t make the album, but they manage to further continue the soul-baring narrative of its predecessor. “Missing Molars is an extension of Smiling With No Teeth,” Owusu-Anash explains. “A small collection of tracks from the SWNT sessions that take the already established world-building groundwork of the album, and expand that universe into new and unexplored places. These are all tracks that I felt were special in their own right and needed to be shared. This is music without boundaries.” 

Adding to a breakthrough year, Owusu-Anash made his Stateside late night TV debut and went on several sold-out tours to support both SWNT and Missing Molars EP. SWNT landed on a number of Best of Lists across the globe — with  triple j naming it their album of the year. The album also earned four ARIA Awards. including Album of the Year, Hip Hop Release, Artwork and Independent Release. 

Building upon a rapidly growing profile both nationally and internationally, last year was an even busier year for the JOVM mainstay: He spent much of last year on the road, making stops across the global festival circuit, with sets at Lollapalooza, Osheaga and others. He also made his headlining Stateside debut, which included a high-energy, captivating stop at Bowery Ballroom, which I covered for my friends at Musicology.xyz. The JOVM also opened for a serious of internationally acclaimed and renowned artists including Khraungbin, Thundercat, and Tame Impala.

The JOVM mainstay also managed to release two standalone singles over the past calendar year or so:

  • “GTFO,” a woozy and anthemic song featuring a looped, warbling choir and wobbling bass serving as an eerie yet soaring bed for Owusu-Anash’s rapid-fire flow, military beats, explosive cymbal crashes and a shout-along-worthy chorus. While further cementing his reputation for being a restlessly experimental artist, the song also finds the listener thrown even deeper into the Ghanian-Aussie artist’s innermost world with an unvarnished, unsettling honesty. 

  • “Get Inspired,” a Dann Hume and Andrew Klippel co-produced seamless synthesis of elements of New Wave, EDM, punk and hip-hop centered around an angular and propulsive bass line, a relentless mootrik groove, distorted guitars and the JOVM’s punchily delivered lyrical jabs and uppercuts. Continuing Owusu-Anash’s reputation for boldly defying and mashing genres, there’s even a falsetto delivered breakdown roughly halfway through the song. (A portion of “Get Inspired” was used in an Apple Fitness+ ad campaign. So you’ve probably heard it without realizing it.)

You might also recall that Grammy-nominated musician and producer ZHU remixed “Get Inspired” turning the menacing hybrid punk song into a grimy, club track centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, trap triplets paired with tweeter and woofer rattling beats. ZHU retains Owusu-Anash’s rapid fire lyrical jabs and uppercuts but also contributes a couple of auto-tuned yet swaggering bars to a remix that steps up the world-dominating swagger.

Owusu’s highly-anticipated sophomore album STRUGGLER is slated for an August 16, 2023 release through OURNESS/AWAL. Where Smiling With No Teeth thematically uncovered one Black man’s battles against — and with — depression and racism, STRUGGLER is reportedly an exploration of the chaos and absurdity of life, our ability to endure and how to get through it all. The album’s material is deeply inspired by a close friend hitting the brink and coming through the other side, along with questions of life and beauty that he found himself contemplating during readings of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

Recorded between the States and Australia, STRUGGLER‘s producers traverse musical genres — and includes Jason Evigan, who has worked with RUFUS DU SOL and SZA; Mikey Freedom Hart, who worked on Jon Batiste’s 2021 Grammy of the Year Album, We Are; Sol Was, who worked on Beyoncé’s Renaissance; and his long-time collaborators and producers Andrew Klippel and Dave Hammer.

Additionally, Owusu has collaborated with Lisa Reihana on the album’s complete visual identity. Reihana’s work has been showcased in elite institutions throughout the States and the EU, including the Venice Biennale for her critically-acclaimed video installation, In Pursuit of Venus [Infected]. Her work spans across a diverse of media — including film, costume and body adornment and video installation, and as a result she has earned a reputation as a world-renowned artist and producer, who engages in thought-provoking dialogues around the concert of culture.

STRUGGLER‘s urgent first official single “Leaving the Light’ begins with a spine-crawling run of bass notes before quickly morphing into a breakneck Freedom of Choice-era DEVO-like anthem paired with the JOVM’s swaggering, larger-than-life presence and his unerring knack for rousing, shout along worthy choruses with a punk rock snarl. At its core, “Leaving The Light” is a fervent and cathartic song about survival and perseverance that feels necessary.

Directed by Lisa Reihana, the accompanying video for “Leaving the Light” maneuvering through a computer-generated post apocalyptic hellscape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Minneapolis’ FUTURE BABEL Shares Trippy, Genre-Defying “Not Exactly”

FUTURE BABEL is Minneapolis-based outfit that describes their sound as “a towering collage — a hodgepodge of driving beats, spacey guitars and a stark vocal delivery of philosophical soap-boxing that blurs the line between alternative hip-hop and spoken word.”

“Not Exactly,” off FUTURE BABEL’s debut EP The Future’s Just A Head is a weird yet accessible bop centered around off-kilter, skittering beats, twinkling keys, wavy bursts of guitars and a driving groove paired with emcees spitting philosophy-inspired bars and a lysergic-feeling bridge with screeching guitars and industrial clang and clatter.

This track caught my attention because it explodes with a brash and defiant originality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Flo Assy Shares Chilled Out Banger “Face à Moi-Même”

Currently based in Reunion Island, Flo Assy is a French-born rapper, who spent a portion of his childhood in Côte d’Ivoire. He emerged into the French hip-hop scene with his first two releases — 2015’s C’est La Vie and 2016’s Et Ta Dame? EP.

“Face à Moi-Même,” sees him firmly establishing himself as a chill yet revolutionary French hip hop. Rooted behind a dusty, DJ Premier-like production featuring a looping and eerie string sample paired with boom bap beats and the French emcee’s dexterous, rapid-fire flow. While lovingly informed by hip-hop’s golden era, the song is remarkably contemporary.

The accompanying video follows a young woman, listening to “Face à Moi-Méme” on her old-school earbuds, rocking out and bopping along to the song on a beautiful yet frosty day. If she doesn’t remind you of cats here in NYC, spitting along to their favorite song, then you haven’t really lived here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy (Belated) 52nd Birthday, DMX!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 52nd anniversary of DMX’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Knoxville’s Black Fuchsia Shares a Woozy Banger

Emerging Knoxville-based hip-hop duo Black Fuchsia formed during late 2020. And although the project is a relatively new project, the act is comprised of seasoned Knoxville music scene vets, who have worked together in various other projects over the years. Suffice to say, the members of Black Fuchsia have a rather unique musical chemistry, rooted in their shared history.

Influenced by their shared love of Griselda, Madlib, and A$AP Rocky, the duo specializes in in a sound that blends their influences, deep-cutting production, intricate songwriting, thought-provoking concepts and balanced energy levels.

The Knoxville-based duo’s four-track debut ep Cotton shows their willingness to explore sonic narration in a fusion of rap and ambient dance in a period where rap/hip-hop is constantly being reimagined and subcategorized.

Cotton‘s latest single “Nasty” features two emcees self-assuredly trading dexterous and densely worded bars delivered with unique flows over a lush and woozily psychedelic-leaning production featuring reverb-drenched wah wah pedaled guitar, skittering boom bap. Simply put, it’s the element of real hip hop: dope production and dope emcees spitting bars upon bars.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Le Ice Shares Woozy Banger “Whap”

Le Ice is a rising Laval, Quebec-born and-based emcee. He started rapping when he turned 12 — and when he started, he knew how to stand out with a unique, sharp flow. By the time he was a teenager, the Laval-based emcee left his family home, and was on the streets, hustling to survive. His experienced helped forge a steely mindset and an unparalleled entrepreneurial spirit.

Over the past few years, Le Ice has made a name for himself in the Montreal Francophone hip-hop scene with collaborations with the likes of Lary Kidd, Mike Zup, Raccoon, Shreez, and Tizzo. Building upon a growing profile within both Montreal and the rest of Quebec, the rising emcee has made the rounds of the provincial festival circuit with stops at Francos de Montreal, Metro Metro, Osheaga, and LVLUP among others.

Released last year, his full-length debut J‘ta l’eau pour un boute was well-received by the public, and has helped position Le Ice as an artist to watch.

His latest single, the Gavin-produced “WHAP” pairs skittering trap triplets with tweeter and woofer rattling thump, a woozy and pitchy Middle Eastern-like vocal sample, shimmering synth arpeggios and glitchy video game noises with the Laval-based emcee’s self-assured, razor sharp flow and an enormous hook. Simply put, it’s a banger.

Directed by Le Ice, the accompanying video features the Laval-based emcee and his crew at a house party, with strippers, making it rain — with American dollars, no less.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Danger Mouse and Black Thought’s Posthumous Team Up with MF DOOM

Danger Mouse (born Brian Burton) is arguably one of the most versatile and prolific artists and producers in music right now: As an artist he has been one-half of Broken Bells and Grammy Award-winning Gnarls Barkley. As a producer, he has recorded collaborative albums with  Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ Karen O and the late, legendary MF DOOM. And he has worked with Adele, U2, The Black Keys, Gorillaz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Kiwanuka, Parquet Courts and a lengthy list of others. 

Black Thought (born Tariq Trotter) is a co-founder and frontman of Grammy Award winning, pioneering hip-hop act The Roots. Trotter is also an accomplished solo artist who has released a critically applauded album and two EPs: 2020’s Streams of Thought Vol. 3: Cane & Able and 2018’s Streams of Thought Vol. 1 EP and Streams of Thought Vol. 2 EP, which helped further his reputation among the cognoscenti — and real hip hop heads — as one of the dopest emcees to ever spit bars. Adding to a lengthy list of accolades and accomplishments, Trotter has acted in film and theater, along with having writing and producer credits.

The acclaimed duo’s long-rumored, long-awaited and highly-anticipated joint album Cheat Codes was released earlier this year through BMG. While Cheat Codes simultaneously marks Danger Mouse’s first hip-hop album since 2005’s DANGERDOOM with MF DOOM and the follow-up to Black Thoughts’ solo trilogy Streams of Thought, their collaboration can be traced back almost almost 20 years earlier: Trotter and Burton first met back in 2005. They started working on material — but time went on, life happened, other projects and obligations came up. 

Following 2004’s acclaimed The Grey Album, Burton became one of the most in-demand and prolific producers of the day, helming several commercially and critically successful projects, which led to a bevy of accolades and awards. He also developed collaborations with a unique and eclectic array of artists while expanding upon and honing his own musicianship, production and writing. 

During that same period of time, The Roots released a batch of critically applauded albums and became the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon then The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Trotter released his aforementioned, critically applauded solo trilogy Streams of Thought. He collaborated with the likes of Eminem, John Legend, Pusha T., Griselda, and a list of others. He wrote, composed and starred in the widely-praised off-Broadway show Black No More. And adding to a lengthy list of accomplishments, he co-produced a TV series with his Roots bandmate Questlove. 

Each mistakenly thought that the other had moved on and their collaboration just died, but as it turned out, neither one never stopped wanting to work together. Burton had long felt an instinctive need to return to his roots and make a timeless hip-hop album. He knew that Trotter was one of the few emcees truly capable of fulfilling that vision. Simultaneously, Trotter was seeking a space, where he could express himself musically and creatively beyond the confines and structures of his own band. 

This time, Burton was a far more seasoned songwriter and producer, Trotter an even more extraordinary emcee.  So, setting aside all distractions, Burton played Trotter some new music he had had. The ideas and words quickly flowed — and the experience was liberating. 

Meticulously built over a period of several years, Cheat Codes finds Burton pushing widescreen, soul-infused hip-hop soundscapes to new directions paired with Trotter’s commanding presence, incisive lyricism and dexterous wordplay. Unlike the typical producer-meets-rapper/side project, Cheat Codes is an effort between two like-minded collaborators, who raise each other’s games to new heights. 

The album also features an equally acclaimed cast of guests including A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, MF DOOM, Michael Kiwanuka, Joey Bada$$, Russ, Raekwon, and Conway the Machine. 

In the lead up to Cheat Codes‘ release, I managed to write about three of the album’s singles:  

  • “No Gold Teeth,” which featured a warm and dusty psych soul-like production that brings RZA, Pete Rock, and DJ Premier to mind, that serves as a lush bed for Black Thought’s dense, rapid fire, lyrical deluge. 

  • “Because,” which features a slow-burning, psych soul-inspired production paired with a vocal hook by Dylan Cartlidge. While being another example of the deep and uncannily innate simpatico shared between the two acclaimed collaborators, “Because” is chock full of dope bars, impressive wordplay and mind-blowing inner and outer rhyme schemes in an easy-going yet urgent cypher between Black Thought, Joey Bada$$ and Russ, that weaves in and out of the political and the personal. 

  • “Aquamarine,” a woozy and cinematic song featuring skittering hi-hat, thumping beats and squiggling bursts paired with a soaring hook from acclaimed British soul artist Micheal Kiwanuka. The production is a lush and roomy bed for Black Thought’s imitable, hard-hitting bars. “For ‘Aquamarine,’ when I heard the music I just had a feeling to sing about standing up for something that’s unique and following that path”, Kiwanuka says. “I don’t know why but that’s what came out.  Sometimes when you’re following something that’s unique to you it’s as if ‘enemies are all around’. At times life can feel fragile like ‘everything’s burning down’. For some reason the chords and music made me feel that way.”  

  • “Strangers,” a neck-snapping banger featuring four of the game’s dopest emcees right no — Black Thought, A$AP Rocky, Killer Mike and El-P spitting flames on a woozy and dusty production paired with tweeter and woofer rattling beats, sampled B-movie dialogue and soulful vocal samples.

The album’s latest single “Belize” finds Danger Mouse crafting a woozily cinematic soundscape featuring warm and soulful brass, a driving and hypnotic bas line paired with twinkling and reverb-drenched keys and an equally soulful vocal sample. The production is complex yet flexible enough to accommodate Black Thought’s razor sharp and precise bars and MF DOOM’s loose, almost conversational flow.

“Belize” much like the album’s other singles is an example of the power and creativity of like-minded collaborators pushing each other — and their respective work in brilliant, new directions. But it’s also a powerful reminder that the legendary artists never really die.

Shot in a gorgeously cinematic black and white, the accompanying video features Black Thought in a sparsely arranged, old office space with a spotlight. The camera pulls back to reveal Danger Mouse in shadow, shooting his friend and collaborator. When DOOM starts his verses, Danger Mouse puts the camera on a tripod, so that he could pay his respects to the late legend.