The What Makes A Great Concert Film?
As the value of music fluctuates based on the ever-flowing value systems of CEO’s of labels and streaming companies, one thing remains the same, content of any kind is the passive revenue stream that will take care of most artists as they age. Whether it’s a major payout for a film to be on Netflix or the royalty checks from being placed in a nationally run ad campaign, these revenue streams are expanding, and one field has been only recently brought back to the forefront; concert films. Rock and roll has had legendary concert films (Talking Heads “Stop Making Sense” or Queen’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” come to mind) but hip-hop and R&B have only in the last 2 decades gotten the opportunity to have their live shows put to the forefront, and most of them have come by way or short form specials from "MTV Unplugged". For the future of hip-hop ditching brand partnerships and shifting into creative content is the key, and what better way to bring the most lyrically dense and insightful genre in America to life than by film. Over the last few decades artists have paved the way on the stage to create immaculate live shows for future generations to build upon. Kanye, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and The Roots have long been adored for their live shows, but what exactly can we learn from the biggest acts today and others to create the perfect live concert film?
Innovative Stage Design
In dramas and horror movies the settings of a scene can effect the experience as much if not more than the actual dialogue, and the same can be said for live shows. Some artists do have the power to stand in front of a brick wall and mesmerize, but to keep an at home audience on thier toes for 90-180 minutes the setting you as an artist exist in hold power. Acts like Kanye, J. Cole, Kid Cudi and Tyler The Creator have brought the worlds they create on record to life, wether it be a multi-story mountain, a full forest or a childhood home they've all taken the extra step to create a foreground that matches the tone of their shows and the themes the music represents like no other.
Incorporating A Live Band
What makes hip-hop beautiful is the fact that to create it you need no instruments and no classical training to become a successful producer or rapper. But having nothing on stage but a DJ to play your instrumentals and yell phrases to hype up the crowd while you perform is one large amounts of viewers aren't ready to buy into even 50 years into the genres existence. Spicing up the instrumentation of a record by replacing the samples with a live band to recreate the drums, chords, and beautiful melodies adds not only a sonic change to keep fans interested, but a visual one. Famously Jay-Z gave one of the best "MTV Unplugged" shows, while being backed by The Roots. Contemporary acts like Migos and Chance The Rapper have done shows as well with a full band, or in the Migos case, a full classical orchestra, creating some of the most interest performances of the last decade.
Behind The Scenes Footage
"In order for everything to be perfect, everybody has to be focused. You don't know how hard it is to get everyone on the same page at the same time, for one thing." A quote from Jay-Z in relation to creating his final album, transfers over into creating a concert film. "Dave Chappelles's Block Party" is a tentpole film in hip-hop media, not only for the stacked line up, but watching the comedian build the festival from the ground up side-by-side with his friends famous or not. Seeing the work in real time builds a stronger emotional connection between fan and artist, as well as builds a story around the show itself. Themes of hard work and dedication, or the struggles of being an artist can't always be understood by hearing it rapped to you. Seeing it brings it to life, and this behind the scenes footage has created some of the best Easter Eggs in hip-hop. In Jay-Z's "Fade To Black" you see outtakes of Pharrell, Kanye West and Timbaland showing beats to Jay in preparation for his "final" album "The Black Album", sometimes showing records that ended up with other artists. In "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" during a cut scene of the crowd, a young J. Cole can be spotted towering above the other concert goers, rapping along to the show. The moments you can't script, are sometimes the most memorable, and adding these opportunities into your production only allows for more greatness to shine through.
RIP Young Dolph, The King Of Memphis
Lil Wayne's lighter flick. Gucci Mane’s “Burr!”. A Wiz Khalifa or Jadakiss laugh. All iconic calling cards in a genre full of artists who make a living off personality. Over the last few years, Young Dolph’s self-idolizing “It’s Dolph!” has reigned supreme in this category. It’s a forewarning that the next 3 minutes are going to make you laugh, side-eye your closest cohorts, and work harder than any cup of coffee ever could push you to work. Dolph, born Adolf Robert Thorten Jr., was gunned down Wednesday afternoon outside a family owned bakery in his beloved home of Memphis.
In a career dating back to over a decade, Dolph has consistently released high quality solo projects (from the days of Datpiff to the modern streaming era) as well as collaborative projects with Gucci Mane, PeeWee Longway, and protege Key Glock. He first rose to my attention with the release of "16 Zips", a mixtape full of production from the era’s biggest names, with beats from TM88 and Zaytoven, and raps from T.I., Paul Wall, and Jadakiss among others. To much controversy, he labeled himself the King Of Memphis by way of his 2016 mixtape barring the same name. Each of his album covers that adorned a face were updated to feature surgical masks in the wake of COVID shutting down the world. These album covers, where Dolph would show himself in the womb wearing a fitted cap and Jordans or Benjamin Franklin with the cleanest line up known to man, were creative extensions of himself that also were brought to light in his raps.
Throughout his journey Dolph has made some of the most outlandishly hilarious records in contemporary music. On “Talkin’ To My Scale” he berates his engineer for fading a beat out to early. He disses fellow Memphis rapper Yo Gotti with near childlike haymakers on “Play Wit Yo B****”. A personal favorite is the pure intentioned dedication to his mother and father “Black Queen”, which seems like the type of track that would be a career defining moment of clarity. Unless you’re Dolph that is. An entire album in 2017 was dedicated to make fun of a failed attempt on his life back from earlier that year. In that attempt Dolph came out unscathed from over 100 shots being sent into his SUV, an attack that from the outside seemed to leave him unphased. On any given song the bars were arranged as comedic set-ups, with his ad-libs being the closing zinger. He laughed in the face of danger on record, calling out by name the people he believed to be responsible. Never in my years as a rap fan have I heard someone on record be so disgusted by how bad someone's aim was (see the "Bulletproof" intro “100 Shots”). Many of his disses in some way connect to the aforementioned Gotti and his crew of artists ranging from another hip-hop comedian Blac Youngsta and the rising star Moneybagg Yo. Wether this shooting is in some way tied to that beef, one that has been the fuel of many other attacks to both camps, is to be seen. One thing that is for sure is Dolph never strayed far from the streets of Memphis that bred him into a hustler as well as one of the patron saints in a storied history of Tennessee artists.
Dolph preached independence in every album he blessed his voice with. His label, Paper Route Empire, has sparked the careers of Key Glock, Jay Fizzle and Snupe Bandz, and created a home for artists looking to circumnavigate an industry that survives off artist exploitation. To this day Dolph owns the masters of his recordings, meaning any music bought or streamed from these albums goes directly into his family's pocket. Key Glock recently released his newest project "Yellow Tape 2", coming in at #1 on Billboard's Independent Music Charts, a trend Glock and Dolph have repeated numerous times over as solo artists, or together via the collaborative "Dum and Dummer" album series.
Bringing artists from his hometown into the limelight was a focus of Dolph’s; he was someone from the streets that wanted to make life easier for the people still trapped within them. He and his family run the Ida Mae Foundation, a non-profit organization that runs youth conferences, donates clothing to survivors of domestic abuse, and runs food programs to ease homes during the holidays. After 2 students from Duke University were fired from their jobs working as baristas in a campus coffee shop due to playing his music in the store, he gifted each of them $20,000 and brought them free of charge to his Rolling Loud performance that year. The 2020 album "Rich Slave" featured a cartoon of him driving an orange and blue Lamborghini, one that he owned in real life and gifted to a fan. He would be seen frequently boosting up local restaurants and businesses within Memphis via his social media platforms, spreading their name to his over 5 million followers.
Dolph passed away a father, mogul, community leader, tutor to the next generation of artists, and a legend in Southern hip-hop.
Album Review: pinkpantheress - To Hell With It
TikTok has boosted careers of artists in a slump with revitalizing singles that may have fallen flat (Sada Babys "Whole Lotta Choppas" comes to mind) but hasn't truly given us a star that didn't exist previous to the apps global domination. And then came pinkpantheress. Not only did the UK singer and producer gain traction off "Just For Me", the highest charting single from the project peaking at #27 in the UK, but also with the release of songs "Pain" and "Break You Off". She is the first in a growing universe of TikTok musicians to gain and release a major record, and also the most promising star yet. Her debut project, released on October 15th, gives us a whirlwind 19 minute experience guided by drum and bass style loops and samples from across the globe, further showing she has a chance to become a household name.
Her soft spoken poems flow at the same pace as the club ready drums, blurring the lines between singing and rapping in a way that's yet to be done. The clearest example of this new flow can be found on "Last Valentines", a 73 second tale about a failed love that she still craves to keep in her life. This theme of complicated love and the fallout from it is held up across the record, sometimes hiding in plain sight. "Passion" focuses on fallouts with loved ones such as family more so than a romantic lover, meanwhile the catchy guitar based "Just For Me" is a warehouse rave ready cut based around begging for love to be returned her way. Underpinning each record are some combination of replayed chords from hit records ("I Must Apologise" creeping dangerously close to T.I.'s "Why You Wanna") guitar loops (this is my official petition to have Gunna remix "Just For Me") and ethereal strings ( as seen on "Nineteen", a song begging to be placed in Netflix's next coming of age love story).
To Hell With It is built to survive in this streaming era, but not only due to the music being fantastic, but due to the structure of the records itself. It's 10 records long, with only 3 going over the 2-minute mark. It's built to be ran back time and again, with each rewind becoming easier to find your footing to really sink in and recognize the high level writing. Her songwriting and ear for garage and drum-and-bass percussion are her strong-suits, but she falls short in the actual strength of her vocals. Not to say the vocals are bad, because they aren't. They sit over the production the way a satin shirt sits on your body; a soft and cooling experience that as the day goes on you might forget it's even there. Vocal power is not a focus for pinkpantheress, because honestly it doesn't need to be. If she came through with gospel powered vocals, it would clash with the high speed percussions and take away from the stories delicately weaved between each glittering piano key.
On the album cover and across the multiple visualizer videos released, you see pinkpantheress herself in-front of a small cottage home in the middle of a storming night, and it's not without intention. At 19 years old most of the stories she sings of happened in her early years, at a time where kids are in high school dealing with first heartbreaks and the struggles of becoming a real person. What is a young person to do when dealing with these emotions? Parents don't always understand, and friends may be the cause of these heartbreaks so talking to them is out of the question. The cover works as a representation not only of the times when these memories were made, but of the moments after the fact when it's just you to deal with the repercussions. Alone in the late night, not far from a safe place but always close enough to where you can have some sort of protection. This record pulses to the heartbeat of an emotional youth living through the formative years that have shaped us all into who we are, and is wrapped in that aesthetic on the cover as well as anyone could ask.
Best Songs: "Last Valentines" and "Nineteen"
Best Beat: "Break It Off"
Similar Projects: Crush EP by Rayvn Lenae
Overall: 7/10
Album Review: MIKE - Disco!
7 long years sprinkled with 9 full length projects and a handful of EP's has lead MIKE to what seems like his first truly fun album. As co-harbinger (side-by-side with Earl Sweatshirt) to an entire underground scene rolled tight with depression, self-reflection, and a quest for understanding what it means to grow in a world that seems built for someone else, there hasn't been much time for big smiles with MIKE. But that's what makes his smile seem even brighter, the fact it's a rare sight. On his last project "Weight Of The World" the sun shines through for moments, but the script seems flipped this time around. It's light with clouds sometimes rolling through, as compared to a dark night where the moon fights through the clouds. The record opens with a beautiful sampled loop of "Talkin' Bout The Right One" and continues on a brighter pat production wise through most of the LP. In the past where MIKE has surrounded himself with nearly inaudible record chops or dragged out piano keys, he now pushes himself forward into brighter tones. "Aww (Zaza)" is structured to be an off kilter crowd pleaser, "Crystal Ball" is 2-step ready, and "Spiral" has the lifting spirit of a home cooked meal. The lyrics are tighter, with flows full of guided purpose as compared to ones that seemed intentionally lost within the beats around it. A long rap feature is dropped in early into the record by fellow Yankee, the ever evolving Sideshow on standout track "Alarmed!". In a year where rap albums are more so collections of pandemic demos, "Disco!" comes across as the most focused record in MIKE's catalog, and the start of a new era in the young legends career.
Best Songs: "Frogville (MK Ultra)" and "Evil Eye"
Best Beat: "Alarmed!"
Overall: 8.5/10
Professional Writing: Reflection Post
Across this class we've done many assignments, but the final proposal draft has by far been the biggest learning experience and also my proudest moment. Due to the amount of research needed to put forth a quality product, it forced me to focus in an perfect an idea that I originally didn't put much thought into. Taking something that was a throwaway idea and turning it into a high quality final product was a proud moment for myself, as well as something to build upon for future classes. Thanks to this assignment and many others, a more advanced eye for research is a skill gained from this course that will transfer over into my future courses.
The focus on peer response in this particular class has been a major learning moment for myself. Thanks to Kayla's reply to my final proposal I realize the need to clean up and simplify certain aspects of my writing, and possibly incorporate charts and bullet point ideas into my writing. Obviously our goal for these proposals was to present a clear and concise plan of action for a future partner, and having verbiage and sentence structure that is confusing is the last thing I would want to present.
With this course coming to a close I feel like I have gained a new perspective on how I present myself in professional writing situations. Having my own font across things such as resumes and proposals is a main improvement for myself. It allows me to add a subtle piece of my personality into these typically bland pieces of paperwork.
(Originally posted 5/26/2020 for the 3300+ Climbing Blog)
It’s a no brainer that the sound of contemporary music is influenced by Hip-Hop music first and foremost, but the business side for generations, has been shifted by acts beneath the surface of what is now the biggest genre in music. Take for example the firefighter by day, poet by night, known as Ka. He’s one of Hip-Hop’s most talented writers, who has always found connections in history to relate to his life as a youth in the ’80s, in Brownsville New York. In his music he’s rapped tales of finding his way and becoming a man through figures like Orpheus or ancient samurai, and with his new album Descendants Of Cain he finds similarities between his life and the Biblical tale of Cain and Able. As much as his sonic footprint is indebted to the past, his business model is also a nod to the entrepreneurial spirit of Hip-Hop’s legends.
In the late ’80s, you could find the Bay Area trailblazer, Too $hort selling tens of thousands of copies of his early albums and custom made singles from the trunk of his car across California, eventually catching the eye of Jive Records. The early ’90s saw the rise of Master P and his No Limit label, which sold over an estimated 80 million records while maintaining almost full independence (while they owned the masters and total creative control, Priority Records took 20% off the top as the distributors). Though seemingly Too $hort, Master P, and Ka have little common musically, they do share a common thread. At the time, the world wasn’t ready for their songs to be mass consumed. Too $hort was vulgar in his language and treatment towards women on records. Master P was a born and bred southerner, who had no reservations in showing where he was from in an industry dominated by the East and West coasts. Ka raps over cold and barren beats, rarely raising his voice above a whisper. Making a sound that wasn’t the standards of their era meant no labels would come knocking and being independent was the only option. It also wasn’t until later years you get full-fledged indie rap labels like Rawkus and Rhymesayers, who were focused on keeping rappers who weren’t mainstream stars set up to still make a living.
There was almost no way in the early times of Master P and Too $hort to mass distribute CDs, vinyl, and other merch cross country if you were a one-man show. Now in 2020, you insert the internet and the beauty of digital commerce, and you get a new monster for indie rappers to live off of. Using these tools and following the path of those before them, acts like Ka and his frequent rap partner Roc Marciano have taken their fate into their own hands. With no label behind them, no distribution deal, a sound too off the beaten path to end up going platinum, and little corporate ties, they were forced to find a new way to earn money. You search Apple Music or Spotify for the release dates of each of their albums, you’ll be left fruitless. Instead of trying to keep up with major acts and how they release their records, Roc and Ka have both used their websites to go directly to consumers weeks before putting the album on streaming services. In a way to reward hardcore fans with first dibs, and show their appreciation for people willing to put $20+ of raw cash in their hands, they’ve seemingly cracked the code of being indie in the modern age. A mix of hand-to-hand purchases, providing high-quality physical records, and the still untapped potential of streaming side-by-side set them up for success in different ways. This same model for indie rappers can be seen in a wider range through the existence of Bandcamp.
Before Bandcamp became a mainstay, in years past the iTunes store was the central online music hub, but little acts would get drowned out by ones with major label backing. Then came websites like Datpiff and LiveMixtapes, a place to upload full projects for free download that became the springboard for the careers of J. Cole, A$AP Rocky and Wiz Khalifa among others, and gave new outlets for veterans like Lil Wayne and Jadakiss. The mixtapes were uploaded for a small fee and brought in zero revenue to these artists unless you were a known commodity that promised exclusivity to whichever site you chose. Yet what it lacked in revenue it made up for in full creative control. Due to artists typically seeing zero income on these songs, the need for sample clearances was unneeded, leading to acts releasing tapes full of freestyles over famous hip-hop and indie songs with no drawbacks. These sites all still exist, but major acts are re-releasing their fan-favorite tapes on Apple Music and Tidal, making the need for these sites limited to only those who can’t get around the legalities of clearing these samples.
Bandcamp now being an online flea market for music of all genres across the world has become the go-to site for Hip-Hops underground. On one end of the spectrum you see artists like the glitch-punk leaning JPEGMAFIA, giving the option for consumers to choose their price on each album download as they feel (and yes, you can choose to pay $0). On the other side, you get Mach-Hommy, the Haitian MC who caught the ears of Jay-Z and Cypress Hills,’ DJ Muggs by matching bar heavy raps and love of dusty yet warm beats, with a beautiful selection of vinyl that reached prices upwards of, at times, $1000 for one single album. Though now he has transitioned into nearly everything going through his website, he has also, in an action against the mediocre pay from streaming sites, withheld most of his catalog from these streaming giants.
Independence and owning the rights to your music has been a hot topic in the last few years. As the average act becomes more business savvy, these alternatives have and will become more the norm. Until consumers driving to a store to buy a physical CD decides to come back in style, those below the surface who think outside the box will continue to evolve music commerce and reap the greatest benefits.
Like Water For Chocolate, 20 Years Later
(Originally posted 3/24/2020 on the 3300+ Climbing blog, and edited for clarity 10/21/2021)
Formally known as Common Sense, the Chicago MC we know today as the voice of NBA All-Star Weekend and Microsoft commercials, was at one point a ruff-neck underground rapper. After 3 albums, a beef with Ice Cube, and departing from a working relationship with No ID, Common Sense became Common. A rapper with all the potential in the world now backed by MCA Records after years of working with the now-defunct underground staple Relativity Records. Recorded across 1999, at the guidance of a young upstart Detroit producer named Jay Dee and the budding mastermind Questlove, “Like Water For Chocolate" was starting to take form. According to Questlove himself, it was during the creation of a song for this album he realized what would eventually be named the Soulquarians was taking full form.
The legend goes that in exchange for what would become "Chicken Grease", Common asked for “Geto Heaven Pt. 2” from R&B recluse D'Angelo. Whether Macy Gray was already in place or if it was just a beat, it’s still a major moment and eye-opener to just how tightly knit the Soulquarians were. A group consisting of The Roots, Common, J Dilla, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Roy Hargrove, Q-Tip, Bilal, and Pino Palladino, among more with more minor affiliations with Kanye West and Jill Scott, defined a section of not just hip-hop, but music as a whole that was going underserved. It was fresh, soulful, complex, and deeply indebted to its ancestors all at the same time.
This record though would be still just an idea without the grandmaster beat-maker himself, J Dilla. After years of sharpening his blade in the basements of Detroit, J crafted the “Fan-tas-tic” series of albums for Slum Village almost completely by himself. It’s also impossible to state the effect of Slum Village’s rapping style influenced Com during these years. Though “Vol. 2” wouldn’t be released until after “Like Water”, it’s creation spawned from years earlier. Nobody besides the Slum Village crew had gone over Dilla beats for a whole album so adapting T3 and Baatin's rapping styles were for survival. His elastic and jittering flow accompanied by a slew of "uh"s and "oooh"'s were essential to making the record work, though at times it seems like he came in the booth unprepared rather than doing it as an artistic decision. The collab “Thelonious” was even featured on both records due to the artists' friendship with one another. Dilla’s trial with SV also led to the forming of The Ummah, a production trio consisting of himself, Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammed who as a trio thier most notable work came from doing the heavy lifting on A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Love Movement” in ‘98. After laboring out that LP, Jay Dee and Common (now venturing outside of his typical go-to producer No ID) it’s obvious they both reached new heights after years of honing in on their styles without one another. Across the album they never really develop any new versions of themselves, just better versions. It’s the difference between being an All-Star player, and an All NBA player. Not bending into new sounds but digging deeper trying to discover a new layer of the one you currently reside in is the road less traveled in hip-hop. The commonality across those who have long careers is the constant change and experimentation outside of themselves. Where would LL have been without “I Need Love”, or Kanye West without “808’s & Heartbreak”.
Enter "Time Travelin’ (A Tribute To Fela)", the intro into a world born of the seeds of Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti, molded by incense and a radical philosophy. Opening with a soft horn and African chants, bouncing drums and a rainforest of instruments, the world melts around your ears. As Common checks in the instrumental becomes more full, with his voice being muffled and augmented from its usual wood grain smoothness to prepare you for what's to come. This face-first dive into an alternate sonic landscape from the one hip-hop normally focuses on is a shock, and one that would be repeated later by Kendrick Lamar on “Wesley’s Theory”, a G-Funk and jazz dipped version of an aggressively aware MC trying to change the world. As intriguing as "Time Travelin'" is, the true intro to the record comes next with “Heat”. As Dilla hops in to help on the hook and ad-libs, it shows why Jay Dee would eventually become a great rapper. He feels at home in his own jerky universe of beats. That swing that radiated from his unquantized instrumentals is something we haven’t seen before him or done quite the same way since.
Dilla and Common together touched rare air, with dense production and an even denser lyrical character leading the way. The middle of the album is a whirlwind of gender politics, street bravado, and Hotep rhetoric (both the good and bad sides of it) while featuring rare guest spots from MC Lyte, Mos Def and DJ Premier.
“Like Water” still holds truest in its final chapter, sealed off by spoken word raps from Commons father. Catching the spirit of Gil Scott-Heron, his pops reveals his admiration for his son and his musically inclined friends on the best installation of the "Pops Rap" song series. Among the ending suit is "A Song For Assata" which was inspired by Common’s real-life admiration for Assata Shakur, leading to him visiting her while she remained a political refugee in Cuba post her 1979 prison break. The last piece of the record features a live recording of Assata speaking on what freedom is, from that same trip. Rarely do hip-hop albums come entrenched in such real history, mostly being surrounded with an air of artificial hype caused by beef, off-record drama, and a good marketing team. But that’s the exact kind of thing the Soulquarians wanted to avoid, which is why Common fit in so calmly. Looking to turn a new leaf after his famous sit down with Ice Cube and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the New York scene accepted him with open arms.
Two decades have passed since the release of “Like Water”, and still it’s hard to place its importance in rap history. Though Common would later depart from this funk and soul wrapped production on his next record, him digging to perfect and create new terrain in the lane forged by A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul is an admirable one, which also yielded one of the best albums of the millennium. It was something created in such an isolated corner of hip-hop that few would truly latch on to it and understand it fully. But for those that did they wear the admiration on their sleeve. In recent years Royce Da 5’9’s “The Allegory”, Kendrick’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”, and Blu’s “Good To Be Home” hold DNA strands of Common’s magnum opus (and the first of 2 classic albums in his catalog), though never openly admitted. But that place in history is fitting. As long as music has been around the mainstream or future artists borrow concepts from the underground, waters them down, never to fully shine the light on where the ideas came from. Though during the Soulquarian Era nearly every act received more success than previously in their entire careers, they still have yet to fully receive their flowers. So for today we look back and admire Common as one of the best rappers of all time, and the late J Dilla as one of the faces cemented on a beatmakers Mt. Rushmore, and this album as a masterpiece.
Best Song: "Funky For You"
Best Feature: MC Lyte on “A Film Called Pimp”
Best Beat: "The Light"