New Year, New Name, Same Kills. Watch Navarro's New Video For "Sin Sangre En Las Vinas"
"Son of a mother and a father who done did themselves, them dollars calling cause them pesos never added up well."
"Sin Sangre En Las Venas" is the newest single from longtime friend of the program, Navarro - who many rubyhornet readers will know very well as Scheme. For good measure, peep our video from 2010 of Scheme cooking up "Lose Your Soul" with Mikkey Halsted.
While the name has changed, the skills have not diminished in the slightest. Perhaps you could say the lyrical sword is as sharp as ever on "Sin Sangre En Las Venas", which translates to "No Blood In The Veins". As the title can suggest, this is not necessarily a happy track you dance to. It is a pointed narration of an immigrant's experience, and starts fitting with a news report about life in the barrio and songs of the street. Navarro picks up where the newscaster left off, giving the listener a visitor's pass.
The song begins in Spanish, with mentions of Cadillacs and Cervezas, before Navarro switches seamlessly to English for a proper introduction - "manifesting ghetto glory, tell'em this that boy, Scheme," he raps.
The single is the first from Modern Mexican Art: Radio Sonido, his first proper LP since he started the Beats and Bars program, where he mentors CPS students through the creation of new music and videos.
Frequent collaborator, Nascent is supplies the production and Gerardo Duran provides the visuals for "Sin Sangre En Las Vinas". There is something both triumph and haunting about the song and the story that Navarro tells. There is plenty of hope amongst the despair and struggle, and there plenty of quotables to keep the rewind button busy. Navarro saves one of his most potent bars for last, as he ends with "It's all power, I'm just trying to make it further, But Rahm could try to hide my murder."
Enjoy.
[Short Film] Top Floor
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Last week, we posted the trailer for Nascent's short film, Top Floor. Today, the short film is here for all of you to enjoy.
Top Floor uses a nonlinear narrative covering three days in the lives of two bank robbers, Cindy and Kathleen. Following a successful bank robbery, the two attempt to escape Chicago. However, a presumed secret Kathleen is keeping from Cindy causes the latter's increasing jealousy to erupt. The short film attracts viewers with its style and energy, exuding a very Pulp Fiction/Quentin Tarantino-esque style. Top Floor's influenced and inspired by pulpy, '70s exploitation films, and it shows. The two leads put in well enough performances, but auxiliary characters fumble a bit.
One other complaint is how the short ends abruptly. I can understand the attempt to keep the story short and simple with a cliffhanger ending, but there's a huge difference between leaving viewers guessing and simply going to black on a dime. However, in saying that, I express my interest in wanting more. The 12-minute runtime doesn't do Top Floor justice. Here's hoping the concept gets expanded in the future.
[Trailer] Top Floor
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Some of you may know who Nascent is, a producer whose beats were last heard here in JDott Trife's video for "Homicide," this past May. Besides producing for the aforementioned JDott Trife, he's also done some work with 50 Cent, Joe Budden, CyHi the Prynce, and more. However, some of you may not know Chris Ruelas, the talented artist behind the Nascent name. It's in this next project that Ruelas is attempting to express his talents beyond music.
Top Floor is a short film written, directed, and scored by Ruelas. The trailer for the short features two partners in crime, Cindy and Kathleen, who are desperate to go clean. However, Kathleen is withholding a secret from Cindy that could destroy everything they've worked up to. The trailer's pacing and tone got me hooked to see more; I'm also a sucker for short crime dramas.
Top Floor has a special screening premiere tomorrow in New York (RSVPs are closed, unfortunately), but we'll hopefully have more information soon; a beat tape produced by Nascent will be also released alongside the short film.
TwoLetterz: "War" (prod. by Nascent)
Nascent hooked TwoLetterz up with a banger in "War" and the emcee comes correct by murking the instrumental with straight-up gritty lyricism. This freebie is for the fans who've been waiting on Chasing Dead People 4, but the official single should be released soon.
[Closed Sessions] CyHi The Prynce: "Good For Me" (prod by Nascent & QB)
CyHi The Prynce was close to the edge. Close to living in a car, close to finding a dead end in the music business. Then it all changed. He caught the attention of Kanye West, signed to G.O.O.D. Music, had a grand breaking out party during the B.E.T. Cypher, propelling himself to the cover of XXL as a Freshman of 2011. Not many artists can go from being virtually unknown to a feature alongside Hip Hop royalty such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, and The Rza, but CyHi did it.
CyHi had a co-sign from one of Chicago's favorite sons in Kanye West, but in November of 2010, he still had yet to ever visit the windy city. That changed when CyHi came to Chicago to perform at Digital Freshness and participate in a Closed Session at SoundScape studio. A little unsure of what was to come, CyHi setup shop at the studio and let us into his world, penning bar after bar, telling his story. The result it is "Good For Me", a song produced by Nascent and QB, that CyHi called his version of "Exhibit C", and one that will be a cornerstone of his catalog. We go into the studio with CyHi as well as follow him to WGCI for his first radio interview, and his sold out show at Digital Freshness in the latest from Closed Sessions Vol. 2.
Watch the new Closed Sessions documentary via MTV2 Sucker Free and download "Good For Me" on the next page. Closed Sessions Vol. 2 drops in full August 30th. Video by Tony Shane.