[SXSW] Music Festival 2014 Recap
Photo by Kristen Wrzesniewski
In 1977, a water skiing Henry Winkler wore a leather coat and life preserver and attempted to 'jump the shark' in a move that become synonymous with the beginning of the end of a good thing. In that regard it was the long-running "Happy Days" sitcom. Last week in Austin, Texas, it was the South by Southwest Music conference that took the leap from humble beginnings to corporate cash in it's own rendition of 'jumping the shark'. No one pointed it out better than TDE-signee and Oxymoron artist Schoolboy Q, who interrupted his set at the Complex House several times to address several SXSW sets he played for 'yuppies' while his real fans stood outside unable to get in. Alas, the 2014 edition of SXSW couldn't have been described better. An armful of wristbands, garnered through careful planning and RSVPs was instantly trumped by a litany of barriers between them and the artists they had traveled to see. When it began in 1987, the festival was a place for new and unsigned artists to get recognized and for true fans to catch them before they hit the big time. Today, to put it the words of my Journalism professor, it is essentially 'one big blow job'. Despite a lack of a real industry, or perhaps because of it, record labels funnel top-tier artists to the highest bidders, who more often than not come with long guest lists that leave fans sitting outside wondering where all the public transportation in this 'city' is. Even the Illmore, the exclusive house party that has become a staple of the fest, running late into the night with star-studded performance, seemed a bit too big this year in it's new home at a sterile youth center.
For me, the best part of the week was living vicariously as if the SXSW Schoolboy Q encountered was somewhere else. I hustled interviews with true rising acts in Philadelphia-based Cheers Elephant, who's onstage presence is obviously culled from years of performing together and who I'm sure saw a significant boost afterwards, The Tontons, a Houston indie/soul group with a personality to match that hit SXSW on the heels of their latest project, the well received Make Out King and Other Stories of Love. Then there was Radkey, the trio of young brothers, aged 16, 18 and 20 respectively who single-handedly got me back into punk rock with one of the wildest, most raw sets I have seen in a long time, and 17-year-old Bishop Nehru who very well may be the second coming of Nas, The Lonely Biscuits, a band of Belmont University students who stopped down to ATX between projects and mid-terms. They weren't a sit down with Rick Ross, or an in-depth on Phantogram, but the stories I was able to dig up throughout my time at SXSW made me proud to be able to say I saw through the thick haze of bullshit and gerrymandering that descends on the city for a week and actually seek out acts that benefited from the experience.
To be sure, it was two Chicago artists who not only embodied all that SXSW should be, but capitalized on it to continue their independent, organic rises out of their hometown. A year ago, Chance The Rapper ran around SXSW playing sets in anticipation of his yet-to-be-released album, Acid Rap that turned 2013 into a roller coaster of experiences for the 20-year-old MC. At that time, Vic Mensa was still performing as part of the band Kids These Days, which broke up soon after Chance dropped his project on April 30. The two close friends arrived again in Austin at wildly different points in their careers. Chance, with just about every accolade possible under his belt is becoming the biggest independent artist in recent memory, while Mensa, fresh off a plane from Norway, put on a marathon of sets throughout the week that had crowds buzzing in the street about the kid from the Midwest with the funky, different flow to him. Chance's only show was cut short by Fire Marshalls, an ode to his popularity and a crux of the festival at large while also picking up a Woodie award with Austin Vesely for the "Everybody's Something" video. As independent, self-funded artists, Chance and Vic may have embodied the spirit of what SXSW is supposed to be better than anyone else in Austin this week.
In 1977, Fonzie made history by ruining a good thing while ten feet in the air on water skis, in 2014 Lady Gaga did the same by performing beneath a carefully-placed canopy of Doritos bags. Corporate money has always been prevalent (early 2000s 'ringtone rap), and it's just another chapter in the money making something so genuine so utterly unrecognizable.
[Video] Twista: "Intro Freestyle"
Twista, long one of the pillars of the Chicago hip-hop scene since entering the game in the late '90s with Do Or Die, Kanye and the old guard of the Windy City. Seemingly re-invigorated by the new crop of artists blossoming in his hometown, Twista has headed back to the studio to work on his forthcoming EP, Back to Basics. It's a fitting title for the 100 word-per-second MC, formerly known as Tung Twista in his early days, who had been largely quiet before jumping on Chance The Rapper's "Cocoa Butter Kisses" track with Vic Mensa and doing a feature with another fellow Chicagoan when he added a verse to R. Kelly's "Throwin' My Money" before hopping on Lady Gaga's "Jewels and Drugs". He literally goes back to his early days, linking back up with Adrenaline Rush producer, Legendary Traxster for this latest release.
After celebrating his birthday this weekend taking in Chance's show at The Riviera on Chicago's north side last Wednesday, the self-described fastest rapper in the world released the Traxster-produced intro off Back to the Basics, a prelude to his major-label release, Dark Horse, his first such album since 2010s The Perfect Storm. Catch the "Intro Freestyle" to Back to the Basics below and keep a look out for Dark Horse, out
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Lady Gaga Loves Chicago Hip Hop
Lady has certainly thrust herself back into the public spectrum lately in the wake of her latest album drop, Art Pop, released November 6. Between dry-humping R. Kelly live onstage on Saturday Night Live and announcing plans to perform from space in 2015, Gaga also found time to show up to last nights AMA Awards red carpet on horseback in a crystal bodysuit.
After gracefully leaving the horse with the valet, Gaga strutted the red carpet where she was asked what she has been listening to. The answer was a bit different than what many would probably have guessed. The Art Pop crooner pointed out the Chicago hip-hop scene as one she has taken note of and specifically singled out GBE superstar Chief Keef as someone she regularly listened to, saying she "has been listening to a lot of Chief Keef." Keef, who was absent from the award show while serving time in a rehab facility, was watching the show and tweeted after hearing Gaga's endrosement. "I love Lady Gaga For Sayin She Listens to a lot of me and What's so crazy I was jus Watchin Dis redcarpet shit Like damn dis Girl fine ??"
With both artists signed to Interscope, a collaboration may just be in the near future. As two of the more polarizing figures in their respective genres, a Chief Keef/Lady Gaga joint would be interesting to say the least. If anything, the endorsement is just yet another reflection of the resurgence that Chicago has seen musically over the past couple of years.
YouTube Music Awards... Interesting
The inaugural YouTube Music Awards (YMA) took place Sunday night in New York City. The website-sponsored music awards show, touted as a celebration of the do it yourself content environment Youtube helped to foster. It was billed as the crowning moment of years worth of artists that have taken things into their own hands to make it on their own terms. From the sounds of it, the YouTube Music Awards seemed poised to crown those who had used the website as a come up. Think Mac Miller, Macklemore, Chance The Rapper and the hundreds of young artists and directors across the country using the site to get their art to the world.
Instead, the YMAs featured headliners Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga and Eminem performing while shooting live music videos with program director and legendary video director Spike Jonze. It was, in the words of one of my former Journalism professors, one of the biggest public blowjobs in the history of already blowy award shows. The awards show was, in essence, Jonze's wet dream, a grand stage for the director to remind everyone he's pretty good at what he does. Add in the fact that hosts Jason Schwartzmann and Reggie Watts rarely had any idea what to say and you have yourself a show with a production value seemingly lower than many of the videos the site hosts.
In a similar position to that of MTV on September 14, 1984 when the Video Music Awards first entered the world, YouTube finds itself as the de facto landing spot for music videos in today's media climate. Perhaps because of this distinction, the YMAs came to fruition yesterday. Jonze, earlier last week, voiced his interest in creating "live music videos" at the awards show. While playing on YouTube's reputation as an open-source type format from which anyone can make a name for themselves, Jonze missed the mark in directing videos for larger-than-life acts such as Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Eminem and Avicii; forgoing the up and comers that make the greatest use of the streaming video site.
It wasn't all bad. While the artists featured may have been different from what I had in mind when first picturing the YMAs, organizers did get plenty right. For one, by producing a live awards show, albeit a show Jonze described beforehand as one in which "We’ve been given a lot of room to make a mess,” YouTube was able to step up and prove itself a viable alternative to traditional television-an important distinction as viewers increasingly ditch the tube and cable for free streaming service via the website. Winners were also voted on by fans, a nod to the user-generated content and interaction that has made YouTube the media Goliath it is today. While Eminem interestingly won 'Artist of the Year' days before his first album in two years came out and kid's group Girls' Generation won best video, it was a good move to leave it to the fans. . . I guess.
Regardless of what I or anyone else thought of the show last night, it happened, and that's all that really matters at the end of the day. The web was flooded with fresh memes and, soon, a slew of new Jonze-directed videos. Any first run is going to be a little rough around the edges (see: early VMAs), but it will be interesting to see where YouTube takes the fledgling awards setup-to the mainstream or tailored to the users actually frequenting the site and providing much of the content. Either way, organizers of the show and YouTube can sleep easy knowing they're having a better week than former YouTube owner Chad Hurley, who got himself in Kanye West's line of fire this week, although Tyler, The Creator may feel differently (see below).
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Sunday Coffee Sipper: The Week in Music
A lot went down in the music world since I last sat down to write a Coffee Sipper piece a week ago. Instead of trying to choose one event to focus on for an entire piece, I decided to dig deeper into several of the goings-on that came to light since last Sunday.
Chance The Rapper begins Tour: Chicago's own Chance The Rapper kicked off a tour of his own Friday night in Champaign, Illinois, just outside the campus of the University of Illinois. Setting out on his first solo headlining tour, dubbed the "Social Experiment Tour" Chance, music director Peter CottonTale and backing band Greg Landfair and Nico Segal rehearsed for a week with stage hands and sound to make sure there were no surprises the day of. Renting out the Metro and Reggie's on different occasions throughout the week, the team had everything down before heading south where Chance's two part show (one half solo, the other half with a band) went off without a hitch. Vic Mensa joined him onstage for an encore of "Cocoa Butter Kisses" and seemingly all of Save Money made the two hour trip to send Chano off to Pittsburgh appropriately. Stay tuned to RH for updates as the tour moves across the country.
Lady Gaga: "Do What U Want" (feat. R. Kelly)
Lady Gaga is known as an unapologetic artist who's not afraid to get raunchy, so a collaboration with the king of R&B shouldn't be that much of a surprise to music aficionados. That's right, the multi-platinum songstress has linked up with none other than R. Kelly and the two are not holding anything back in "Do What U Want". The song will find itself in Gaga's forthcoming album ARTPOP and it's produced by Chicago's own DJ White Shadow.
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Arcade Fire, Eminem, Lady Gaga to headline Youtube Music Awards
Oh, how the world changes. When I was in high school we were still downloading videos off of Kazaa, wondering what this Youtube thing was. Today, the seminal website has it's own award show, the Youtube Music Awards, which today announced Eminem, Arcade Fire and Lady Gaga as headliner of the event that will take place live in New York City on November 3. The show, directed by Spike Jonze and hosted by Jason Schwartzman is "a celebration of music honoring the artists and songs that YouTube fans have turned into global hits over the past year." Watch a video announcing the awards show below.
http://youtu.be/9ckE_S5Y5QM