A Week In Hip Hop
Sometimes I get bored of Mike Tyson, but then I slap myself a few times and realise that Mike Tyson is a fantastic human being. The folks at Citizens Of Humanity decided that they wouldn't interview Tyson, but they would get someone equally as interesting to do the job - Earl Sweatshirt.
As you can imagine it's a pretty interesting read with a variety of topics covered, but if you're looking for your stock standard question and answer type of session ... don't. It's kind of equally as interesting in terms of Earl as it is reading the thoughts of Tyson so it's rather cool. It's pretty much perfect and here's a snap shot of a bit of it but I definitely encourage you to have a geeze yourself at the full monty.
Last week we had a rather special live performance from J Cole on a late night talk show and this week's it's the turn of Kendrick Lamar. I honestly feel sorry for people who expect the same style of music from Lamar that he has produced, I try to stay away from that whole 'I'm a better fan than you are hipster shit' but this new shit from Lamar is funky. Creatively, it stands alone and ... musically ... I don't know the correct term but the sounds and variety of instruments used is un-matched. Also peep how the song is crafted, it has builds to a climax while throwing in other ups and downs all within a few minutes. This dude (and a few others) are blazing a path, a path that I love and a path that everyone who loves music should allow themselves to journey down.
Hopsin has given up the rap game and has moved to Straya! Yup, the lyricist who has a bit of a cult following has decided to move down under to start a new life where he can be a normal human being. I don't think there are many rappers who are as disliked as Hopsin (while being widely liked as well), but you've got to respect the idea of giving it all up just to enjoy the ride of life.
YG continues to grow on me despite me not really digging too deep in to his crates. His new track '2015 Flow' is pretty slick and shows that YG is much more than just a gangsta dude who loves bitches, as we all do. This interview with DJ Skee gives you an insight in to his thinking with his new short film out, YG says some shit that makes you giggle - he's pretty charismatic. My highlight is when Skee asks him why he's in to doing movies and a bunch of different creative stuff, to which YG replies along the lines of - I'm from the hood, I wanna do everything. Big up to that mentality.
If you have an hour or so to spare, peep this J Cole interview with Angie Martinez. He drops knowledge and it serves as a great insight in to his thinking, allowing you to greater understand the message(s) behind the tunes. As you may have picked up, I love how there's a group of rappers doing their thing creatively but they know they have a greater purpose and they're on that path towards it.