[Video] Kaiser Chiefs: "Coming Home"
British indie-rock band, Kaiser Chiefs, have been together for over a decade and are releasing their fifth studio album Education, Education, Education & War on March 31 via Universal Music. As a preview for the new album they dropped a music video for the debut single "Coming Home."
Lead vocalist Ricky Wilson is shown waltzing around the British countryside, passing various random characters, including his bandmates. Pre-order Education, Education, Education & War here and view the video below.
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[Video] Jordan Bratton: "Stranger"
Jordan Bratton, an 18-year-old 'alternative R&B' singer from Long Island, New York dropped a hell of a debut project in December of last year called The Grey Area. Endlessly compared to Justin Bieber because of his age and talent, Bratton possess an edge and brevity to his voice that is lost on his 19-year-old Canadian peer. The project, which left room to grow, also established Bratton on a larger scene as a vocalist to take note of. Similar to the way Frank Ocean's 2011 project, Nostalgia/Ultra got insiders and music aficionados talking, The Grey Area may be the vessel Bratton needs to break out of his hometown in New York. The video for one of the standout tracks on the project, "Stranger" got a visual today, premiering on The Guardian. Thus far, Bratton has kept his face and identity somewhat out of the public sphere, allowing for the tracks to be the focus of listeners. In the video for "Stranger", directed by Ronald Reid, the camera follows Bratton on his journey to the studio via BMX bike. As the story goes, Bratton, who lives in Long Island, travels across the boroughs to make his music. Check out the full video for "Stranger" below, with the full stream/DL of The Grey Area.
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[Video] Mic Terror: "15 Minutes"
March 4, Chicago independent hip-hop label Closed Sessions will be releasing the latest project for Treated Crew's Mic Terror, titled The Fresh Prince of Darkness. The video, a cinematic piece directed and shot by Andrew Zeiter and Bryan Lamb, follows Mic and Hollywood Holt as they figure out how to ties up the loose ends of a night gone wrong. "15 Minutes" is off the project and the second single to drop since "Anti-Swag" his track with fellow Chicagoan Taylor Bennett. Those two, as well as St. Millie and Treated Crew will be in the house March 7 at The Hard Rock to celebrate the release. Tickets are still available, but why not win yourself a free pair on us? We still have our ticket giveaway for the March 7 date, details here.
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[Album Stream] Schoolboy Q: "Oxymoron"
All the hype has finally led to this: the highly-anticipated and talked about major debut for Schoolboy Q. With the release of his album, Oxymoron, tomorrow, Q follows a tough act from fellow TDE-signee Kendrick Lamar who set the bar with 2012's Good Kid, m.A.A.d City. It's also the first substantial release we've had from him since 2011's lauded Habits & Contradictions. In the lead-up to the release, the L.A. native also dropped a visual for he song "Break The Bank" which features his four-year-old daughter Joy, who also helped him announce the release dates late last year. The soulful, piano-infused track sets the tone for that should prove to be one of the better hip-hop releases to reach the public in recent memory. Kendrick Lamar took over the rap game with his proper debut, it will be interesting to see if the public connects with Schoolboy Q the same way. Pick up the full project and listen to it streaming via iTunes
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50 Cent Leaves Shady/Interscope, Releases "Funeral"
It doesn't seem like a big thing, a major artist leaving his record deal after more than a decade relationship. People grow, things change and circumstances often dictate changing where one does business. This is not the case for 50 Cent and his departure from Jimmy Iovine's behemoth Interscope Records. To be sure, 50 Cent is a dinosaur of sorts navigating a new, somewhat unfamiliar landscape. His 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin' broke sales records and firmly placed him amongst rap's elite. I may be wrong on this, but, at least for my adolescent self, Get Rich or Die Tryin' seemed to be the last major, MTV-fueled hip-hop album to really make a mark. Obviously, The College Dropout followed a year later, eventually pitting 'Ye and 50 against each other in a sales battle upon the releases of Graduation and Curtis in 2007, which 50 was beaten.
50 exiting the major label industry is a big deal. It leaves Eminem honestly as one of the last holdovers for the major label format that existed a decade ago, and that only because of his individual label, Shady, which 50 Cent was a part of. Back in 1999, with the advent of Napster, we saw the inklings of what the music industry would become, a business that is just now manifesting itself with Grammy award-winning acts not signed to a major and acts putting out free projects that reach the charts. 50's decision to release his next project, Animal Ambition through Caroline, a distributorship owned by Universal. Similar to the deal Macklemore & Ryan Lewis employed with The Heist, albeit with a lot more of a budget thanks to smart business moves by Fiddy over the years. “I have had great success to date with Shady/Aftermath/Interscope, and I’d like to thank Eminem and Dr. Dre for giving me an incredible opportunity,” 50 Cent said in a statement. “I’ve learned so much from them through the years. I am excited to enter this new era where I can carry out my creative vision.”
50 Cent's independent debut will begin on June 3 with Animal Ambition, an unexpected turn for fans who expected the long-teased project Street King Immortal. “I recorded so many album-quality songs that I’m going to put the Animal project out as my viral marketing plan and then [Street King] will come out after,” he explained at a recent press conference. “[Animal Ambition] is about prosperity ... ambition and prosperity.”
Check out the video for 50's new song "The Funeral," released today, below.
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[Video] Lucki Eck$: "Boomin"
The economy may not be doing well still, but Chicago's own Lucki Eck$, who popped up onto the national radar last year with his sinewy, shadowy rhymes calmly detailing how he served folks on the corner dropped a new video today to debut his fresh track, "Boomin" which details how he has invigorated himself with his own version of a stimulus package. The latest to emerge from Lucki's camp is a continuation of where we saw him last summer, in the dark, carefully detailing his stories of dealing while draped from head to toe in Jugrnaut. Lucki spent last year establishing his name on the back of his excellent breakthrough project, Alternative Trap, it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here. Check out the full video for "Boomin" streaming below.
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[Video Premiere] Barber Greene: "Desires"
Indie-folk rocker Barber Greene AKA Matt Evert is premiering his latest music video for "Desires," the first single off his upcoming record Takes, due out this Spring via Yes Club Records. Evert plays all of the instruments on "Desires,"proving his one man band a continued success with this sunny track.
The video was shot by Jess Price and follows Evert and company around Humbolt park in Chicago, while they shoot hoops with neighborhood kids and run around on the playground. The video matches the sound of "Desires" perfectly, capturing the carefree vibe and packing a ton of fun into just over two minutes. Evert keeps it short and sweet while convincing me that a little bit of sunshine can go a long way.
Barber Greene will be playing the Public House Records Showcase this Friday, Feb. 21 at The Burlington in Chicago with Landmarks, Ne-Hi, and Richard Album.
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Is Nicki Minaj Really 'The Queen' of Hip-Hop?
Let's face it, Nicki Minaj has never been one to shy from controversy or public discourse. She's sexual, abrasive, and at times, down right raunchy, but now that Lil' Kim is pregnant, the public is in need of the next "super femcee". In much the same way that the public is regularly appeased by the rolling out of one addition to our daily lives that make things "diverse" (think Howard Cain's candidacy, the new 'hispanic' Bachelor, Wes Welker at receiver) that are placed there to end the 'controversy' of their absence. In short, if we have one person/thing that's different, we've covered our bases. It's this line of thinking that has vaulted Nicki Minaj to the forefront of females in hip-hop and has raised plenty of talking points on whether she deserves it.
Just before the weekend, Minaj returned from relative silence to drop the song and accompanying visual for "Lookin Ass N**ga." It's a powerful lyrical undertaking that calls to mind her ruthless verse on 2010's "Monster." It's a riveting, bone shaking verse that make plenty of statements and conjectures for the game to take note of, but does it really make Nicki deserving of the 'top female title'? And is she the best image to portray?
Before we get carried away, let's back up. It's an age-old tale in hip hop that anyone without a Y chromosome is placed into a separate category called "female rappers". From there, it splits into two distinctly different camps. For sake of the argument, let's call them the Lauryn and Kim camps, the former being Ms. Hill and the latter, Lil' Kim of Bad Boy fame. Female artists, much more than their male counterparts, are subject to fitting into one of two stereotypes: artistic or ratchet. Either you have the ass to go with the shaky bars and the money that comes with it, or you focus on the craft and sacrifice the fame and money. Female artists have always been highly marketed in hip-hop as sex objects, Lil Kim thrust her pelvis at more front rows than many working girls in attempts to sell records and Nicki Minaj is shrouded by rumors of drastic plastic surgery to achieve that continent-sized backside. But what about the artistry? Sure, Nicki has tremendous skill, that is exemplified in the "Lookin' Ass N**ga" video and beyond, but would she have the same impact, would she be referred to as the best female rapper, if she didn't have the assets?
Artists like Rapsody, Rah Digga, Angel Haze and Jean Grae represent several generations of female artists brave enough to not exploit their femininity for a superficial commercial success. Nicki Minaj is widely regarded as the best female MC in the game, regardless of the fact that her last label project was 2012's Roman Reloaded which, despite debuting at No. 1 thanks to the Cash Money push, was described by Randall Roberts of the LA Times as a "disjointed, artistically confused" album. As much as I can appreciate the skill with which Nicki addresses how people approach her, but how much can she really complain about people looking at her ass when she promotes it more than a Thursday night NBC sitcom? Anyway, my point is, Nicki can do her thing for sure, but I'd rather see someone else get the spotlight for once.
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