Tagged with Rap …

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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Jan 29 2012
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Music

Nicki Minaj: “Stupid Hoe”

So Nicki Minaj, instead of taking all the goodwill she had from 2011 and making an epic girl power song, chose instead to make her first big release of 2012 “Stupid Hoe.” She had just made all of these awesome strides for women in Hip Hop and Rap, and then put out that gem of a song and music video. Now don’t get us wrong, we love Nicki. We really, really just don’t like this song. And if the dislike bar on YouTube is any indicator, not very many other people like it either. Here are all the problems we have with this video:

  • She opens with insulting Jennifer Aniston. NOT COOL.
  • The Lyrics. Seriously? “I piss on b*tches, you can suck my disnick, if you don’t like these disses, give my ass some kisses.” That is honestly horrifying. And it is a woman singing it!
  • Philosophical Question: If you are in lingerie, a blond wig, and crawling around in a cage on camera, can you call someone else a stupid hoe?
  • The number of times she says, “You a stupid hoe” and “F*ck stupid hoes.” We were just so uncomfortable. Is this a thing? Is it not apparent that this is kind of unacceptable?
  • The singing part where it seems like she is making fun of the Christina/Mariah/Alicia Keys/Beyonce type singers who actually put out songs that have lyrics that are not “stupid hoe”
  • Unclear if she is singing this about a specific stupid hoe, are is just bent on insulting all women in general. Way to have the most misogynistic song of 2012 so far be by a woman, Nicki.
  • Frankly this song is just a waste of her talents. Nicki Minaj really can rap… but she’s just saying “stupid hoe” over and over and over. This is not actually the way to get back at your haters, Nicki. The way to win is by ACTUALLY RAPPING WELL.
  • Please think about those little girls from the YouTube video singing “Super Bass” that went on Ellen listening to this song. Disturbed yet?

This song in general is just not what we expect from Nicki and is a disappointing way to start off 2012. Perhaps it is a sign that 2012 really is the end of the world… Nicki, prove us wrong and get back to rapping actual songs again.

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