I guess I am going to hate right now, but has anyone seen the Retro Kidz video? How are these kids getting this kind of shine? They’re trapped in a time warp.
Now you have seen it. Did you like it? Doesn’t it seem odd that these kids think recreating the cast of “A Different World” and barely having any music talent is commerically viable? It seems like they got famous for dressing like their parents did in college and didn’t know how to monetize the fame except trying to make music. I respect your hustle but please guys no more. How do you evolve from this?
So at different times every year magazines and websites like to ask what rapper’s are you looking forward too? I guess this is no different except I feel that with each year this question gets harder and harder to answer. Every day I log onto these hip hop websites I see new songs from new artists I have never heard of and few months later it’s a whole new batch of new artists and I end up not hearing from the previous batch of new artists. Point being it’s hard to standout in this crowded hip hop landscape these days especially when the hip hop market share is decreasing.
So everyday I go on the Internet I see a few new names popping up consistently over the past whatever amount of months and then I see a few old names. Below is a list of the artist’s I am seeing pop up all over the Internet these days. Let me know which one’s you are actually looking forward too and also where you are from. Write-ins are allowed but not encouraged. Unless you are getting crazy placements on the internet (nah-right, hiphhopgame, worldstar, etc.) don’t tell us to look out for you. I am talking real buzz.
Charles Hamilton
Mickey Factz
Maino
Max B
Cory Gunz
Joell Ortiz
Glasses Malone
Asher Roth
Wale
Crooked I
Termanology
Skyzoo
Torae
I know I missed some people on this one but seriously let me know. Who’s music do you really like that is new? What does it take for these artist’s to rise above the rest?
Gucci has one of the longest running traditions of being “hot” in Hip Hop fashion. Right now it seems that Gucci is about the most popular thing you can have on. Everywhere I go i see Gucci belts, sneakers, and bags. Thankfully the Gucci bucket craze is not back because those looked stupid. I’ll admit I toyed with getting one back in 2000, but thankfully i was just toying.
One of my gripes with hip-hop fashion is that it’s not about standing out but about keeping up. Just because everyone has a Gucci belt doesn’t mean you have to have one as well. If you were really on it you would find a way to flip the Gucci belt. Get one that nobody else has. Scour Ebay and vintage stores and really murder people when you bring it out. Below are two vintage sweaters that may not show off the green and red stripe or the monogram pattern that screams Gucci but will make people ask you what kind of sweater that is.
Are you aware of this song and video? I was initially lured in by the fact he added DJ Khaled to the lineup. I am sucker for any Khaled visual. (Pause) (Do I really have to write that?) The video starts off with Khaled on a private jet sitting next to Shawty Lo, who is dissing T.I.. Did you know that if you sell 138,986 albums you can fly private? Good for Shawty Lo though. Private is the only way to travel.
Seriously though who is the A&R genius who thought it would be a good idea to have Jim Jones, Rick Ross, and Birdman on the song with an incompetent rapper like Shawty Lo. (Is that Joey IE handing off a duffle bag in the video?) I am not writing to say hip hop is dead or anything but come on guys Ross is the only one on the song who can hardly rap. The best part of this video occurs when we see Birdman, who at this point must be pushing 45, and he is using a vocoder. As he if wasn’t bad enough at rapping already he blesses the track with one of the worst vocoder verses ever. Birdman you are probably old enough to have known Roger Troutman. But in all seriousness if Birdman is using the vocoder then can we all agree that it is time to put it away? Any artistic value this instrument once had is done for the time being Shawty Lo, take all your money and invest it something other than music. At least don’t invest in your own.
