L.A.

By L.A. Abbott

Fame comes at a price.  For hip hop creative Kanye West it means that once one enters the arena of celebrity, you must bear it all for the camera .  Literally.  With the help of equally known colleagues, friends and enemies, Ye does just that for his latest music video 'Famous'.  Luckily for them, the wax poetic rapper enlisted the help of some wax figures that would be worthy of Madame Tussands after dark.  We get to see the glorious guts, abs and gluteus maximi of Kanye, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Donald Trump, Amber Rose, Ray J, Taylor Swift, Bill Cosby, Ana Wintour. George Bush. Caitlyn Jenner all of the expense of a video that surpasses the length of the song.

Before we delve into the nuances of this voyeuristic music video, it's key to note that the visuals have nothing to do with the song outside of a shout out to one notably upset pseudo-country singer.   Does the song make total sense? No.  Will you be asking yourself ' What the hell did I just watch?'  Yes.  Is this a bad thing?  No.  Here is why.  Kanye West did not put much musical effort into this song, but he decided to make a statement with the video.  Every single public figure that is portrayed in this homage to Vincent Disiderio's mural 'Sleep' has exponentially gained more fame due to social media and news coverage.  Each superstar, whether the editor of Elle or president-to-be,  has garnered more exposure that led to more money. Most would say that is a reasonable trade off.  Less privacy in return for a private chef and mansion that  looks like a set for a 'Cribs' reboot.  Except everyone wasn't that great of a sport when their fake hind parts were exposed for twitter trolls and critics alike. Out of the twelve subjects, only one mannequin made headlines. Taylor Swift.  The one person on that panel that has been blindly defended the most through this whole exhibition of art.  Something that has been dismissed by most, was used as artillery for the songstress to fuel more bad blood over Kanye.    What is the only difference?  Privilege of never being contested.  Player's are going to hate, indeed.  One can say there is a very unsavory lyric targeted against Taylor but video/audio evidence has proved that she was on board from the beginning.   Swift's biggest battle has been between writing crude lyrics for her exes and an honest opinion from a very drunk Kanye.   But the silver lining out of all this muck, is that we have witnessed who is the most spoiled of the lot.  In this day of smoke and mirrors, clarity is key.  Even if it comes from an asshole.

Love him or not, Kanye is pointing the mirror in the face of celebrity and framing the reflection for all of the world to see.  The very same fans that contributed to the meteoric rise of the famous, are getting a glimpse of what it's like to be at the epicenter of fame.  We, the public, are the creepy, heavy breathing viewer that judges these people and their everyday problems from afar.  The very same avenue of social media that makes someone America's sweetheart, is the very same battling ground that attacks them.  It makes one ask, 'Is the fame worth it?'  

Shake it Off,

Lawrence Abbott

P.S. I say it's worth it.

Colors

It was created just for you.  A little bit of nostalgia.  A lot a bit of soul. A pinch of mysticism.  Earnest youth and rebellion. All authentic. OSHUN.

If you havnt heard of the talented duo, OSHUN, the best way to describe them is how they describe them selves. Two fire signs still smooth like the water.  The name of the group, OSHUN, comes from the goddess of love to Yoruba culture.  And that is exactly what message this NYC based team boasts on a track to track basis. Love. The group coined their own genre of music as Iya-Sol: A mixture of soul and teaching. OSHUN have built their buzz from their soulful ep, AFAHYE, and then mesmerizing crowds and shutting down shows at every performance.  Now Niambi Sala and Thandiwe give us their latest piece of brilliance, ASASE YAA.

Seeing as OSHUN is a goddess of water as well,it was very fitting for the duo to start off with their own rendition of the well known negro spiritual wade in the water on their introductory song, PREEECH.  They set the tone while we hear shackled slaves making their way through the brush ushered into a heavy bass banging track screaming for freedom.

On That Day Thandi sings about self worth after an overzealous suitor tries to peg exactly who she is.  That’s one of the best things about OSHUN.  They are not one thing that you can box in.  And they let you know that.

Solid Scheme provides a smooth piano loop on Next Day, a song where the group get to show their hip hop influence.  Theirs flows over the low key jazz beat about their past selves and their new identity is one of finest landmarks of the album.

I Wake Up/Stay Woke kicks off as a slam poem that is a battle cry for revolution and turns into an anthem of making your dreams come true.  Touching on the simplest struggles as an alarm clock ruining your actual dream make this track all to relatable.

His honey is a love song for a clueless beaux that turns into Oxum, a pure rant about the gang of dudes that are in heavy pursuit for her affection.  The dopest part of the song has to be Thandi tough talking a mix of twitter jargon and street talk with earthy sensibilities. Hilarious. 

Gods puts the group over a mixture of upbeat drums and keyboard chords for this inspiring song. As it features Pro Era songstress T’nah Apex the song uses the Nas ‘I Can’ theme as the hook.

OSHUN walks you through a meditating exercise on Protect Your Self before they give the holistic version of a Meek Mill lyric I have ever heard.

The soulful duo channels their inner Jill Scott and closes out strong with the song BROWN.  The drummer stays in the pocket for this simple groove while they expound on their adoration for their favorite color.

The name of the album, ASASE YAA, is based on the goddess of fertility and with this beautiful body of work they created, OSHUN has bright future ahead of them.  In the meantime, OSHUN will be performing will be performing their masteripeices around the way and you can find them at http://www.oshunnyc.com/

Model - Rhea

Photography - L.A. Abbott

If I don't tell you these stories, it means that they don't exist and everything is fine.  If I tell you these stories, it means that I am complaining and making myself out to be the victim. Once when I was a little kid, maybe around the age of attending the 5th grade, I got passionately yelled at by my mother.  The hardest that I have ever been screamed at by her to this date.  I was playing in the dark.  Running as fast as I can down the street.  Sprinting really.  I was really getting into soccer at the time and just found out that I was actually pretty fast.  So I wanted to try out this new found talent.  Over and over and over.  Back and forth down the street.  Then my mother stormed out of the house, grabbed me by the arm and looked deep into my eyes.   'YOU DON'T RUN IN THE DARK.' She looked as much scared as she did mad.  Almost shaking.  But not quite yet.  Besides this time I have only seen her this scared for my well being one other time. 'I'm just running' I replied confused.   'You are a little black boy running in the dark.  The police will think you are running from something that you didn't do!' 'But I DIDN'T do anything' 'I know that!  But they don't!' Then just like that I got whisked inside.  This didn't make sense to me. Isn't this why you and dad moved from New York City to the suburbs of New Jersey?  Because it's safer?  or more understanding?  It began to make more sense to me later that year but while I was in my G&T English class.  I was removed from it for a number of reasons.  I was too much of a distraction to the other children when I finished my assignments too fast.   I got a F for a project that the teacher believed I didn't do because it was 'too good'.  My father had to have done it.  And the final straw that broke the bigots back was that I stole a colored pencil from the student that resembled one of those American Doll Company toys. And to be honest there was whole baseball team filled of those toys in there.  Anywho, it rolled off her desk to the ground, I picked it up and I coincidentally needed canary yellow at the time for my boring ass assignment.  So I used it. Sidenote: We should really think about changing the name of those art supplies to something like 'full spectrum of light drawing sticks'.  Colored is so antiquated. Pencils too.  I digress. Who knows why, but this American Doll started crying and kicking up major dust about this canary yellow.  I don't even want to know the back story for her separation anxiety to that color.  I always thought 'laser lemon' gave the right enough kick to a picture.  Low and behold that was the defining factor of me being demoted  to regular english.  No!  This class actually had more reading and writing assignments and less art projects.  How dare they.  I was cool with making dioramas about excerpts from books rather than actually talking about them.  And now look at me.  Reading words from pages.  Aloud!  But that didn't last for long.  After taking the state issued standardized test and scoring in the 98 percentile for reading and language arts, the principle of the school personally wrote an exclamation laden note on the report card that I must be in G&T.  And I had to be scathingly 'let' me back in to my lofty class setting.  Thank goodness it wasn't the same teacher this time around.  But get this!  Her girlfriend was the teacher of this G&T english course. So say the least, it didn't go much smoother. That was my real first experience of having the kitchen table  thrown at you for reasons unbeknownst to you.  Later in life it would become more serious.  Like being pulled over by the police for the first time at 17 and receiving 5 tickets.  One of which is for the little pine tree hanging from the rear view mirror.  Then later in college, while visiting friends at Georgetown when I got boxed in by undercover cop cars and asked to step out.   'WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!' 'visiting?' 'Who do you have to see here?' 'A friend?' I thought this was a ruse by some scumbags trying to squeeze whatever they thought that I had out of me until two regular DC cop cars pulled up as well and actually asked to talk to my Georgetonian friend.  After his validation was confirmed I was allowed back into my car.  They 'let me go' mentioning that it was a mix up for a similar description. 'Was that real' my friend asked as he broke up sour diesel into a dutch. I affirmed it was sadly true as I turned down his extended hand of his offering.  While visiting friends at Rutgers, a cop car hopped the curb cutting off the rest of the sidewalk.  Yes!  Like in a movie, with the spotlight and loud speaker echoing, 'Stop right there'.  A cop car cut me and my friend off at the pass while walking in front of a Krauzer's deli in New Brunswick.  My white counter part (Another Georgetown kid) was pissed off that I was the only one that got patted down, claiming this was bullshit.  But with my seasoned experience in this situation, I assured him to (respectfully) shut the fuck up or it can get way worse.  He trusted me and zipped his lips.  The befuddled cop that came up empty asked Headquarters for the description of the perpetrator again.  Comically, he let HQ respond over the loud speaker.  I was wearing the exact opposite of everything the supposed criminal had on.  Khakis. Jeans. White. Blue. Tee shirt. Button up. And much later it was very evident.  Walking home from a childhood friend's house around midnight.  Both of us were a month away from college graduation and decided to just spend our last spring break relaxing in our hometown in New Jersey. On the very same street that my mother yelled at me as a 5th grader for having fun in the dark, three cop cars cut me off and made me put my hands on the hood of the car.  With my house in sight, they asked what I was doing in this neighborhood.  And when they asked for my identification, I sternly told them that it was in my back pocket.  They told me that I can get it but after insisting they get it because of my fear for something going awry, they let me go. And etc, etc, etc. These are just my stories.  I am not asking for a hug or for you to weep for me.  I don't need sympathy, empathy or any other type of pathy.  I don't expect a parade or a day time special to scream at the top of my lungs that this is wrong.  You should already know what wrong is.  And even if you don't think it's wrong, GOD bless you.  I also don't need you to scoff when someone explains their side of their story.  Rolling your eyes and murmuring 'here we go again' isn't a worthy retort.  Of course their are two sides to a story, but sometimes it gets exhausting when some whole heartedly only choose one.  I just believe that people do need to know that this does happen.  There isn't an exaggeration every single time.  This exists.  And I don't know what is worse.  That I have to deal with it daily or that I am so used to it. by L.A. Abbott

@ldotadot

Model - Sophia

After releasing his 10 Day album, Chance the Rapper grew up quite a bit.  Well at least he got to experience life a bit more.  He got to do performances and eventually went on tour along side some up and coming hip hop notables.  Amidst rubbing elbows with Va$tie and rocking crowds with Childish Gambino, Chance has released his latest project, Acid Rap.

Don't let the title of the album box you into a theme.  Chance hardly talks about dropping acid nor are there any crazy drug filled, dream-like vignettes.  It merely just serves as the backdrop for collection of works that the young man experimented with. Its less of a trip and more of a ride.

Good Ass intro is exactly as it is titled.  There is so much going on in this track from @chancetherapper rambling about his journey from his last project 10Day to the horn section compliments of Will of the o'mys and JP Floyd of Kids these days.  Not to mention the talent of the vocalists being stacked with BJ the chicago kid, Lilli K, Peter cottontail, and Kiara Lanier.

Chance doesn't skip a beat after the high standard of production he set on the intro as he moves right on to the two part Pusha Man.  The first part allows for him freely flow and jazz scat while the second serves as a public service announcement to the violence during Chicago summers.

 On Cocoa Butter Kisses opens up about his new habits and how that has pushed his mother and her loving away.  Vic Mensa of the now defunct Kids These Days leans in on the verse and a pleasant surprise of Chicago veteran Twista intervenes to give his perspective of still  missing hugs from momma.

Chancellor claims he has gotten a bit more popular on Juice while still poking fun at popularity by spitting,'God give me one more sentence more// maybe I just gotta get suspended more// hash tag it, get mentions for it// make you love it, get it trending more// And then act humble"

Everybody's Somebody throws some Detroit love by tweaking a slowed down version of Slum Village's Fall in Love while Chance drops an impressive flow impersonation of Eminem.

Labeling the track, Thats Love, as an interlude is a severe understatement.  Equipped with a baby grand piano and electric guitar riff to lay as a background for Chance to listing all the dope things in life according to him.  Add some soulful gospel hums and a smidge of a trap beat snare roll and that's a full out song.  Not a damn interlude.  My rant aside, it's amazing.  

The second half of Acid Rap is joined by some of the rapper's more famous friends.  Quadruple threat Childish Gambino is enlisted for Favorite Song as the two rhyme over a sample from Betty Wrights' Clean up Woman.  You are more than likely to do the water dance whilst listening to this.  Hip Hop heavy weight ( in size/not catalog) Action Bronson sings along on the Jack Wilkins Red Clay sampled NaNa.  Although your not the biggest Jack Wilkins fan, Im sure you will catch a shot nostalgia via Tribe Called Quest classic, Sucka Ni$%A.  Black Hippy affiliate Ab Soul jumps onto Smoke Again to croon over the bass heavy anthem on the puff puff pass.  Chance turns down the energy a bit with Acid Rain to self reflect and give himself a reality check.  Finally, he decides to give a proper send off to his hometown on Everything's Good (Good Ass Outro) by delivering a Chicago style juke song after recalling everything thats good.  Whether it be listening to first time to Dilla or being better than the last time. Crescendo.

 You can check out more of Chance chea and you can get the free album chea.

Mamba x Milky Way

by L.A. Abbott

I know what you are thinking.  This is a long album title.  Noble Black Society presents One Black Man: The Audacity of Soul with love Fuze the Mc.  And with as many different concepts in the title of  this third installment of his catalog, there are as many different styles that he showcases.

The intro blares a wailing Mahalia Jackson and ushers in Fuze to give you his credo of his philosophical influences. In Trouble of the World  Fuze revamps a mike Jones adage with 'they loving now, the didn't remember then. Came in the knick of time. Rap's Jeremy Lin'.  Which still applies today!  When's the last time you heard a knick fan utter the Harvard point guard lately? I digress. Fuze also scores clever cool points with putting himself in the ranks of rhyming royalty Dr. Seuss. With help from the Jackson 5, Vibrations, Fuze introduces his story of how he got stated in the music industry through the business end while Wager,  proves his flow over a piano loop and manages to drop a quick quip here and there like, 'In this game of hip hop, It's sort of like spades; It's more of who you play with and less of how you play'.

Fuze tags his team (Just Plain Jones, Ashley Joy, Kyle Jamaal and Nicole Renee )in on tracks On the Road Until, Moonlight, Almost, Enjoy yourself, and Lately.  With these features and collaborations Fuze shows that he can play nicely with other artists and make songs that can touch different sets of ears.  With that said, The Mc shines the hardest on The Vent where he speaks on his job, his self described repulsive diet compliments of fast food venues near his beloved Howard University to ego driven social platforms.  And from his use of the word bitch to his passion over money. 

One thing is  very clear about Fuze the Mc.  This dude loves everything about music.  From the words to the beats.  To the look and the feel.  And the most certain, his passion.

You can catch more FTM here.

MailxMan

Kids These Days: TrapHouse Rock

The title of the album says it all.  Trap House Rock.  It is all cemented by their creative and open minded sense of music exhibited on the tempo bending introduction Mental. Add the nostalgia of your childhood a la' school house rock.  Sprinkled in with the new age not-give-a fuckery of trap music and you have trap house rock.These Chicago kids know what they are doing and have pulled from every musical angle possible.

Their second intro Freakwheness tunes you through various radio station of different genres to preface the their project filled of stylistic homages. See, the beauty in this Kids These Days project is not that they do mash ups.  Every one can do that.  It is that they make unimaginable blends that sonicaly some how make sense.  That is just the ground work, because they rap, harmonize and sing all their own lyrics over these compositions.  And straight out the gate Kids These Days bring a couple of the most iconic songs with Ghetto. Blending in Kurt Cobain's Smell's like teen spirit guitar riff with Curtis Mayfield's Moving on up (most recently sampled for Kanye West's Touch the Sky) Much respect is giving to the forefather's of grunge, The Pixies, on Doo Wah.  The piano roll of Where is my mind sets the mood for songstress Macie Stewart and rapper Vic Mensa to deliver their insight on a relationship gone wrong. Male vocalist of the group Liam Cunningham soulfully lightens up the mood with some gems from his pops.  Nico Segal on trumpet and J.P. Floyd on trombone close out the song with some uplifting hornery.  Pause. The pity party ends early with the angry tirade of their lead single, Don’t Harsh My Mellow.  Between the amorphous flow Vic, the ska rock inspired hook and the trappish closing, mosh pits around the globe will happily bruise one another.  Vic and crew show their softer side on Talk 2 You, a take on writing songs after staring at the bottom of a bottle.  Don’t Fall In Love enlists the a cover of Mary J Blige's and Method Man's Your All I Need (Dare I say a little of 50 cent's Wanksta) for their warning to stay away from heartache as Vic weaves an morbidly intricate story of a double homicide suicide.  Drummer Greg Landfair Jr and Macie smooth out the Debbie downer of the album with some jazz stylings to close out the melodramatic medley.

This seven piece band @kidsTheseDays continues with their creative streak on Bud Billiken when theypay homage to Crucial Conflicts In the middle of the barn.  Vic reminisces of his adolescent love affair with greenest of green.  And out of nowhere a sweet rendition of Radiohead's Creep interludes. And just to through their rock in there Liam shreddy kruegs the finale for you.  The very cinematic Don’t Blame Me (For You) showcases the band to it's fullest by equally every single members dopeness.  The twists and turns of the piece makes you forget that it is just one song.  Bassist Lane Beckstrom lays down the intoxicating base line from what sounds like a Sly and the Family Stone track in Wasting Time.  Fellow Chicagoan Chance The Rapper tosses his two cents on whether or not he is wasting the time of his darling Nikki.  Kids These days show more of their range  getting gospel funkadellic on Who Do U-Luv.  The yoda of neo soul himself, D'angelo would be proud of his rendition of Africa on L’Afrique.  A Man’s Medley gives a platform for Liam and Macie to show respectively their singing chops for covers of James Brown's It's a Man's world and George Gershwin's Summertime while the horn section finally gets free range to show you what they got.

Kids These Days have made a stamp in the music world by making the medley theirs.  Taking the old and the new plus the righteous and the ratchet to lay the foundation for their very own words and voice.

You can check out more of Kids these days here and download their album here.

by L.A.

ChamberXLain

by L.A.

From the Darkness

What are some of your favorite and most memorable images of your youth?  If your answer consisted of action adventure plots, music icons  wu tang clan/the Notorious B.I.G./Mobb Deep and kung fu then we should be friends.  Also, you might have a new read to pick up with Shadow Precinct. Author, Christian Porter, leads us along a story of the remarkable young man coming to terms with his adulthood.  But this isn't your regular  ol' run of the mill Wonder Years type coming of age tale.  No disrespect to the great Fred Savage.  This is however set in the not so distant dysotopian future.  And not even the regular type of dysotopian future but a one  filled with shuriken throwing ninjas, NRA ran terrorist groups and pen wielding crime bosses.  No lie.  And it all blends together perfectly.

This literary gumbo makes perfect sense seeing as this talented author has emerged from the eclectic city of New Orleans.  The very same place where seasonal parades, exchanging beads for peek-a-boos and Mystical make perfect sense.  A little bit of everything.  Shadow Precinct follows the same credo as protagonist, Everett Santeux, finds himself to be apart of a movement much bigger than he could have ever imagined.  A movement involving his job as an enforcer of the law, his government and even his very own family.  And since I am not one to alert the spoils, I will leave you with just two words to sum up your new literary adventure.  Witty Unpredictable.

In the not so distant future we will be able to follow the adventure of Everett Santeaux and company.   You can check out more about the novel here and cop it here.

By L.A. 

SkyXHook

by L.A.

We all need love.  We all need to methodically nod our heads to funky funky beats.  Luckily for us Producer Knxledge gives breath to some loved and sometimes forgotten R&B favorites in his Hexual Sealings 3.5.  Win, Win. 

Knxwledge eases you into the project with some stumbling drum breaks, jingle bells and church organs on altoids[sunhumn][OHBLiV.REWRK]. The tone for the album is set with a transcendent version of Donnell Jones claim to fame, You know What's up.  In  'mssngyew[TWRK]' Case gets an synth saturated overhaul of his hit 'I'm missing you'.  You get some thug loving with smooth remix to Styles P's ( of the Lox) Blow your Mind as he goes through a memory of one of his favorite loves on BlowYuhMnd[TWRK].  Knxwledge makes a doo wop version of Usher's I need a girl on ' NeedaGirl[TWRK] while a helium induced  Diddy gives a run down of his apple of his eye.  Knxwledge slows down the project with a screwed version 'Why I love You' of on forst[w.i.l.y]  Leave it up to this dude to make me like a B2k song.  And he keeps the band boy vibe going with a marques houston remake on thtgrl[TWRK]

Hexual.Sealings.Pt.3.5 by Knxwledge.

Knxwledge snaps you out of his two step set and throws you for a loop.  This third and half installment of Hexual.Sealings keeps the party going with a jumbled version of the The Terror squads's take me home on taykemehoam[TWRK].  I was as confused as if an EDM laced flashbang got tossed into my man cave.  Pause.

Thankfully Knxwledge unleashes the flutes on us on born_ on a laid back yet gravelly instrumental.  The song cloes with a very short piano roll of Janet Jackson's I get so Lonely.  Now if he made that whole song with that, I think we have a contender for best hip hop producer top 20.  And just as you were feeling lovingly joyous, Knxwldege throws you into a dystopian future filled with machine gun firing and power ups in Onblast.bootleg.sonnilood[TWRK].  Somehow he still keeps it relaxing chill.  I blame video games. 

ignishun[TWRK]  gives chicago crooner R.Kelly shine to live out his glory days as a sped up Kells (eerily sounding like Aaliyah)  commands you to bounce, bounce, bounce, so forth and so on.

You can cop the album here for the low low.

by L.A.

spaceXjam

by L.A.

The Cali based metal group released their 7th studio album Koi No Yokan to add to their steady stable of adrenaline rushing music.The Japanese inspired title of the album is translated into an inevitable love when you first meet someone.  In this case its something.  From the opening rock ballad Swerve City to the throaty battle cry of Leathers, Chino Moreno and company give you a slight selection to choose from.  They even take you back to some of their most memorable classic styling with Goon Squad and even a little spacey on the sentimental Entombed

You can catch more of Deftones here.

by L.A.