A Week In Hip Hop
I'm going to take a slightly different point of attack this week, I've got an idea. Leadership in hip hop. Leadership is huge in a sporting sense, but it's cool to see some leaders appearing in the game as well as veterans adding their leadership. They are on a mission and it's a mission that I like. Watch this interview with Joey Bada$$...
Now watch his latest music video.
That's a pretty sick video, it gets me in some sort of mood where I wanna chuck on a silver face mask and join in. The lyrics and the creative concept of the video are awesome, simply done to send across a strong message. The message is clear and Joey continues to cut through the clutter as someone who has a greater purpose than simply making dope music. Kendrick Lamar's in the same boat with his new single 'i' and his thoughts about his creative direction and so is J Cole.
Slightly different tone, less aggressive-riotish-Wu Tang like. On a big platform, J Cole performs from his soul and has a strong message. Sure the singing, not sure if it's singing but the thing he does at the start might be slightly weird, but it's different so who gives a shit? He's got a similar message and delivers it in a similar way to Joey - they do it their own unique way.
The Wu Tang Clan have a similar approach, albeit from a different perspective. I'll talk about it more when I drop the review to A Better Tomorrow. Much respect to these guys, like Joey said, no change will come when the people who are in a great position to inspire change are quiet. The majority of the top rappers don't really voice their opinions and if they do, the point gets lost because they are Kanye West and they have problems.
Speaking of Kdot, it looks like he's going to wearing Reebok kicks for a while...
Noisey, the wonderful folk who bring us Action Bronson's 'Fuck, That's Delicious' have been serving up this Rap Monument series of videos. Just cool rappers rapping really, here's Killer Mike dropping some goodness.
Aaand here's YG, slightly different but he still sounds all good.
Interesting thoughts here from 50 Cent, who is always keen to drop some wisdom - I make sure I tune in whenever he's talking business and just life in general. You could do a lot worse than getting some knowledge off 50 Cent.