Tag Archives: Kanye West

Apr 22 2012
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Movies, Music, THINGS WE LOVE

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

As much as we personally love rap and respect it as an art form, it remains unfortunately all too true that hip-hop is still not considered “real” art a lot of the time… and by a large number of people, mostly white. Much of the time, rap is placed in this racialized ghetto away from what music’s establishment considers “real.”

Ice-T is actively trying to change this perception this summer with the movie he’s directing, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap. He’s managed to get many of the most important and most prominent rappers alive today to collaborate with him on this movie, explaining their own processes and the importance of what they do. AND IT LOOKS AMAZING! Here’s the trailer:

“Dignity behind that rhyme” is probably the best quote from this trailer that sums up why we want to watch it. This film focuses on the artists themselves (basically every rapper ever) and it gives them a chance to really open up and explain their art. Hip-hop is an extremely important movement and has been for decades. This is legitimately one of the movies we are most looking forward to seeing this summer. While we may spend hours at a time looking up hip-hop music videos and artist interviews, we realize that not everyone else does. Ice-T has taken the time to piece together an amazing film that synthesizes the story of hip-hop, from its conception to its current status in popular culture today.

As the quote featured on the poster from Grandmaster Chaz says, “Hip-hop didn’t invent anything. Hip-hop re-invented everything.” This is so true–the number of things that hip-hop as a cultural movement had a major influence on is absolutely incredible, and our cultural landscape today would be unimaginable without it. Seeing the thoughts of the people involved in creating this huge movement is so important and we are so glad that Ice-T has put this together!

Also Snoop Dogg = Tae Kwon Do. We love him. Seriously. And we can’t wait for this movie.

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Apr 15 2012
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Music

Theraflu: The One Where Kanye Talks About Kim

Oh Yeezy. How we love you. For those of you who have somehow missed it, Kanye’s new song “Theraflu” was leaked to all of his adoring fans (and haters) on the internet. While some people may think that this song is egotistical and arrogant, we have to respect Kanye for just being himself. He may be a bit of a cray, but he doesn’t try to be anything else in this song – which is exactly what we like about Kanye. And after all, aren’t all geniuses a little bit insane?

Make sure to listen to this song – at the moment we only have the YouTube audio version for you to watch. (Though we seriously cannot wait for a music video!) We like the way YouTube member syrupticious did the lyrics. And his/her sense of humor. And his/her name.

Doesn’t that just remind you why you love Kanye??? Doesn’t it just encapsulate all of his crazy awesome genius self in those lyrics???? For those of you too blown away by the epic-ness of the song, we went ahead and compiled the reasons why this songs represents everything that is amazing about Kanye.

 

  • Allusions to other artists: At the beginning “Funkmaster Flex night” is a reference to the DJ/hip hop producer by the same name. Kanye is known to sample from a lot of different artists in his records. Also, we would like to think that “Uhh, can the headphones go louder?” is a tribute to his mentor, Jay-Z. At the beginning of “Dirt Off Your Shoulders” Jay-Z says “Turn the music up in the headphones” in a similar way – it serves to kind of pick up and really start the song. These two have been known to allude to each other’s past work in their songs. Despite Kanye’s love for himself, he still recognizes other people and can stay (sort of) humble.
  • Suck it PETA!: Kanye’s chorus is just too good. “Can’t a young ni**a get money anymore? / Tell PETA my mink is draggin’ on the floor / Can I have a bad bitch wit’out no flaws / Come to meet me wit’out no drawers?” Basically, what we learn about here is #kanyeproblems. Doesn’t it just suck when you get your mink all dirty from it dragging on the floor? And, seriously, why can’t perfect women just show up to your house with no drawers? WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO WHEN KANYE DOES NOT HAVE AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN AND MINK?
  • The Deets on His Personal Life: OMG. At 1:31, he just admitted that he is in love with Kim Kardashian! Like whaaaatt? After all of this speculation in tabloids he just comes out and says it in a song. Not to mention his shout out to Wiz, a.k.a. Wiz Khalifa, a.k.a. the guy who is dating Kanye’s ex Amber Rose. And then the part where he thought about asking Jay-Z to drop Chris Humphries from the Nets!! This song is better than TMZ.
  • The Longest Shout-Out to Chicago Ever: So for like the last minute of the song there are all these shout-outs to Chicago. Like a lot of shout-outs to Chicago. We maybe stopped listening after 30 seconds of them.


So Yeezy, thank you for this song. Thank you for reminding us with your clever lyrics and badass beat of all the reasons that we love you. Keep making songs like this because we will buy all of them. And to all you Kanye-haters out there, we just have to quote Kanye on this one at 0:55, “So whoever think they words affect me is too stupid / And if you could do it better then you do it.”

 

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Feb 12 2012
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Music, THINGS WE LOVE

Ni**as in Paris Music Video!

Jay-Z and Kanye West finally released a video for their biggest hit from the Watch the Throne album, “Ni**as in Paris.” Some epic shit is going down here, people. They have basically set up the video to be like a mini concert experience, only with more awesomeness.
So at the concert, there was a notable absence of the Greek / Roman / Medieval Imagery that was a key feature of Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy concert. When we saw him perform at Austin City Limits, Kanye performed with a Roman / Greek sculptural relief as his background. If we were better acquainted with ancient art we might be able to tell you which famous relief it was – but as it is, we are woefully uncultured in that respect. However, in this music video, Kanye managed to fit in lots of fancy imagery! (See Fancy Imagery List at the bottom.) However, the fancy imagery wasn’t only the beginning of the amazing-ness! Here is a list of our favorite parts:

Favorite parts:
-THAT TIGER. Some people were extremely confused when we were trying to describe the animal imagery present at the concert to them, but here it is for everyone to see. Except that because of the kaleidoscope theme, there are like 6 tigers!
-The kaleidoscope. Really, really cool, especially when they had all of the random multiplying models that were definitely not in the concert audience.
-Monuments. Apparently Jay-Z and Kanye can make Paris monuments pop up out of the ground. We always suspected, but now we’ve seen it firsthand.
-Kanye’s skirt. As we’ve discussed, this leather skirt is one of the most amazing things we’ve ever seen… and now everyone can see it!
-Kanye doing the exact same dance as Justin Bieber ! Remember that heinous Christmas duet with Mariah Carey?! See Kanye doing some sweet moves at 1:17, and Justin Bieber doing it in “All I Want for Christmas is You” at 0:40. Admittedly when Kanye does it, it is a lot more badass.
-Roc-a-fella hand sign (that diamond) prominently featured. Kanye and Jay-Z are nothing if not branding geniuses.

Fancy Imagery List
-2:00 → circular sculptural relief
-2:58 → flying horse sculpture maybe?
-3:04 → Kaleidoscope view of the Notre Dame Cathedral
-3:22 → distressed sculpture man
-3:27 → woman and cherub looking things
-3:32 → Lion and horse
-3:44 → Roman soldier with a LIGHT SABER

Guys, this video is TOTALLY worth watching! Especially if you are an Art History Major! Or enthusiast! We hope that they keep making music videos like this together!

Also has everyone seen the new pictures of Blue Ivy Carter?? She is seriously a gorgeous baby. Jay-Z and Beyonce look happier than ever and we are so happy for them!

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Dec 21 2011
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THINGS WE LOVE

WATCH THE THRONE/First post!

EPICNESS.

In honor of Jay-Z and Kanye West ending their epic Watch the Throne tour, we are dedicating our very first post to our favorite rappers/showmen. So here is the story of how we came to write this post:

March 2011: Cried tears of joy at the announcement that these BFFs were doing an entire album together.

August 2011: Watch the Throne was released. Cried again. (Especially that one song New Day about their sons!!!!! SO SWEET)

October 2011: Miraculously managed to purchase tickets to the Watch the Throne tour. Told everyone we’d ever met that we were going. Some reacted with disinterest. We are no longer friends with them.

December 2011: Actually attended the Watch the Throne concert. Continued telling literally everyone that we’d ever met that we went.

We’re aware that there are people out there who said the album was a disappointment. Basically we don’t give a shit what they think, they’re clearly just jealous of Kanye and Jay-Z’s skills. And fortunately for everyone, they don’t give a shit either. Their tour just ended, and at the last stop, they performed Ni**as in Paris eleven times. When we saw it they only performed it like 5 times, which felt like a lot then, but was evidently just a warmup.

So yes, we did get to go to a Watch the Throne concert. Would you like for us to tell you about it? We would be really happy to talk about it some more.

THE CUBES / LITERAL IMAGERY: So there were these giant rising platforms that had videos playing on each side of them. One was for Jay-Z to stand on, and one was for Kanye to stand on. Having seen Kanye perform at Austin City Limits Music Festival, we were expecting a repeat of the Greek/Roman/Mythological/Pretentious Imagery. But, like LIGHTNING Kanye never does the same thing twice! (We don’t actually know that much about lightning.)

  • H.A.M. – For those of you who don’t know yet, H.A.M. stands for Hard as a Motherfucker. Urban dictionary that shit if you are still confused. To let us know just how hard they were going, Jay-Z and Kanye had videos of a rottweiler and then a great white shark playing. Unclear which of them was the rottweiler and which was the shark. Or maybe we were the rottweiler? Whatevs. It was H.A.M.
  • Welcome to the Jungle – During this song, they were back on the stage and the cubes had receded, but that does not mean there was no video. NO SIR. There was video. Of some sweet jungle scenes going on in the background. CUE SAFARI CHEETAH HUNTING A GAZELLE VIDEO.


THE KANYE: At this point we are fairly certain that Kanye is treating performances as therapy that he gets paid for instead of paying. Seriously, he was like working through some heavy shit out there. Especially the section where he performed Runaway, Heartless and Stronger. “Don’t listen to me cause baby I’m an asshole!” We love you anyway, Yeezy.

THE SKIRT: Kanye had a sweet leather skirt on over his jeans but UNDER his baggy t-shirt. We weren’t really sure what was happening with that situation, but we liked it.

THE JAY-Z: Throughout the concert, he performed many of his big hits like Hard Knock Life, Empire State of Mind, Big Pimpin, U Don’t Know, Dirt off Your Shoulder and 99 Problems. Unlike Kanye, Jay-Z was not working through anything heavy at all and had a gigantic grin on throughout the majority of the concert.

THE DUETS: SO GOOD. We maybe cried during “New Day?” Maybe. Jay-Z asked us to cheer for all of the dads that didn’t leave their kids and it was really sweet okay? Seriously though, their chemistry together was absolutely insane and led to probably the most energized crowd that either of us has ever seen.

Basically, as we already knew, Jay-Z and Kanye put on a kick-ass show and are seriously the best rappers around right now. We’re pretty sure they don’t need to watch that throne too much–it is definitely secure.

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