Grimes - Oblivion

Bad photoshop, or blatant eye trick? Grimes is mysterious like that.

Grimes is an eccentric in an age where the word means nothing. An age where a rapper can get an ice cream tattoo on his face or wear a kilt and a hoodie with blatant religious imagery on it to a hurricane Sandy concert. Where artists mask themselves, use dopplegangers for concerts they don't feel like going to, and hide from the public for a long time, Grimes is both totally open and wonderfully enigmatic. She looks like one of the Russian ballerinas with the striking features bordering on manly, but she's still very much a girl. She would blend in perfectly as a Japanese or Korean K-pop star with her outfits and general cute demeanor, but as quirky as she is, she also likes to keep it real. She's also pretty funny, and keeps the public updated on her general quirkiness through Twitter and her blog.

inside the ancient sacred hindu cave i went into today there was also a massive poster of justin bieber
— Grimes the elf (@Grimezsz) March 11, 2013

now that kim kardashian is carrying the spawn of god who will marry blue ivy to create of the Kwisatz Haderach, i kind of like her
— Grimes the elf (@Grimezsz) January 1, 2013

She also attempted to be Nicolas Cage on Twitter, which leads me to believe she's either in cahoots with 4 Chan or she knows how to cater to them. Either way, Grimes is all of the above, and also happens to make amazing electronic music. It's rare for an artists music to escape their persona, which is an unfortunate truth. People don't judge Chris Brown on his music, they judge him on his antics. Either way he's shitty, but at least if he was judged solely on his music we could have a legit reason to shun the art rather than the artist and the art together. It's the same with Kanye West. Most people, unless you're a soccer mom on Yahoo who only listens to Shania Twain, knows what Kanye has done, and continues to do for music. Yet, from Swfitgate to his impregnation of Kim Kardashian, so many stupid people judge the artist on his personal life rather than his music (or maybe I read too many comments by ignorant rednecks and soccer moms on Yahoo articles). That isn't to say an artists personal life doesn't affect their music, it definitely does a lot. But we must separate the noise form the sound.

She also loves Dune which is just cool in general.

That's whats cool about Grimes. Beyond all her strange style choices and quirky characteristics, she's mainly known for the music, and for the great songs. That's always an admirable trait for an artist, and rare enough too. Even legends like Michael Jackson, Elvis, and The Beatles have something else come to mind first before the music in many cases. With all that being said, I have spent the last 3 paragraphs speaking on everything but Grimes' music, so let's do just that. She has a lot of great songs to pick from, but for today's Track Genius, I'll focus on the track "Oblivion" off of the album Visions.

With her signature sampling and spacey synthesizers, Oblivion encapsulates everything that is good about Grimes' music. It's all at once complicated and nuanced, while still being very accessible and simply structured. It's the closest Grimes has gotten to the instantly appealing dream-pop aesthetics most associate with her strangeness, but her back-catalog is much deeper and more abstract. The video is all at once strange and comforting as Grimes dances around in 2 Canadian stadiums during a football game and a motocross rally. At once she is among shirtless frat boys who seem to be soaking up the attention of the camera . A candid moment occurs when an individual realizes he's about to walk past the camera and Grimes signals for him to move on, continuing to lip-sync. It's very organic and quite funny. She mentioned in a Pitchfork interview that the video was about "art giving me an outlet where I can be aggressive in a world where I usually can't be, and part of it was asserting this abstract female power in these male-dominated arenas—the video is somewhat about objectifying men. Not in a disrespectful way, though" and in an interview with Spin, she revealed that the song is about "going into this masculine world that is associated with sexual assault, but presented as something really welcoming and nice. The song's sort of about being—I was assaulted and I had a really hard time engaging in any types of relationship with men, because I was just so terrified of men for a while". Even when the message is clearly given by the artist, it still doesn't completely define the music, and in this case, leaves everything more to interpretation. The whole feel of the track and video is of innocence and nighttime adventures, while Grimes warns of the dangers of dark excursions in her airy falsetto. It's both ominous and equally comforting, as she lovingly says to the listener "see you on a dark night" as if she actually will timidly approach you under a single lamppost and tell you everything is alright. Maybe only in a dream, but its still a nice thought. The pop indulgences mixed with the characteristic style of Grimes makes this a wonderful, dream like song.

Grimes, shown here looking particularly clean.

For all that can be said about the quirkiness of Grimes, or of her future of her as an artist, there's one thing for sure. No one is making music like her, and if they are, they aren't making it anywhere near as well as she is. So Grimes, continue to be strange and enchant us all with your fairy-like persona. Continue to play great live shows and let everyone know that you are awesome. The influences of Mariah Carey, Kanye, Left-Eye, Akira, Dune, and Werner Herzog, all combine into something totally fresh and cool.

Obligatory Terry Richardson mention* (But seriously he hasn't done a photo shoot with her, it's amazing)

If she got one thing right, it's that Grimes is the Nicolas Cage of music. A singular voice that wants to make you happy, but ultimately gives 0 fucks about any opinion or tidbit of information that pervades their enclosed utopias. Doing everything their way, and letting people enjoy the art is an important facet of any genre of music or any medium really. Thankfully, Grimes blowing up on the internet lets her do that on her own terms. Let's just hope she doesn't go the way that ol' Nic Cage did.

As always, enjoy and spread the love. Peace.

A$AP Rocky - Suddenly

Don't let A$AP Rocky & Pusha T be examples of  prospering with braids. 9 times out of 10 thou shalt not prosper.

If you have even a passing interest in music, hip-hop, or the fashion world, you've definitely heard of A$AP Rocky or at least been in the presence of his influence. He's the rowdy PMF from Harlem that exploded in what seemed like a matter of days to the brink of super-stardom and ushered in a new wave of style with his music, fashion, and the whole A$AP Mob movement (which really is such a loose term these days, what isn't a "movement"). Some called it swag rap, others called it the new wave, and still others called it the natural progression of hip-hop music. In the words of the immortal KRS-One.

    "An MC is a representative of hip-hop culture, a rapper is a representative of commercial interest. An MC can be a rapper, but a rapper can never be an MC."

Very true words spoken by what many would call one of the legends of the culture and of rap music. Both an MC and a rapper. Yet, if artists like KRS-One, Nas, Jay-Z, Rakim and so many other legends are representatives of both the MC and rapper cultures, then where does someone like A$AP Rocky fall? Born in New York but incorporating the chopped and stylized Southern rap characteristics pioneered by the likes of UGK, Three 6 Mafia, and DJ Screw, Rocky (born Rakim Mayers and named after the aforementioned NY & Hip-Hop legend, Rakim) eschews the "multi-syllabic, super lyrical, miracle, spiritual" raps for a more accessible, and some would argue, style driven rap structure. Raised on the internet, like so many other young artists, A$AP Rocky directed all his own videos, from Purple Swag to Pe$o, his eye and ear for hits was bringing in millions of Youtube views and blog love, anywhere from his home in the hoods of Harlem to the suburbs of Texas. He was successful and smart enough to align himself with other acts that fucked with him like SpaceghostPurp (whom he would later go on to have beef with) as well as being called upon by Drake for his Club Paradise tour along with Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz, two other up and comers. From the beefs with Raider Klan and Odd Future to the 3 million upfront deal with Sony/RCA and the subsequent formation of his own A$AP Worldwide label, Rocky was on the rise like few others, except maybe fellow artists Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean. It was unprecedented, and this was all off of a small EP and a debut mixtape, and all before he was 24 years of age.

If anything, Rocky is a singular voice in fashion and hip-hop, rivaled only by Kanye West.

Whether people wanted the New York rap void to be filled was not the issue, it was whom they wanted it to be filled by. Jay-Z ostensibly retired, as he repped his business with Barclay'sCenter and Beyoncé

more than Brooklyn or New York itself, and Dipset and G-Unit were nowhere to be seen. They even locked up Max B. Those monsters. So, if we can't find a new Rakim, Jay-Z, Nas etc. then what was a New Yorker to do? Well, the kid with the haute couture fashion sense and southern rap aspirations wasn't really being well-received around those parts. Rejected by Houstonites and New Yorkers alike, Rocky was truly of the internet. A worldwide man, equally accepted in California as he was in Paris. Live LoveA$AP was very well received, and Rocky made friends with some powerful people, and other youngbloods (Kendrick, Schoolboy Q, Danny Brown etc.) as well as a whole bevy of producers (Clams Clasino, A$AP Ty Beats etc.) that helped cultivate his sound scape and style.

There's so much Rocky has done and been through in such a short period of time. But everything you've just read is irrelevant. From his upbringing in Harlem and listening to anything from Dipset to UGK, to his meteoric rise, it's all very unimportant in the big picture. That picture is framed in a singular question. What makes A$AP Rocky so polarizing and so endearing? He can rap well enough, but he isn't Kendrick or even Drake for that matter. His hooks are good too but he's no 50 Cent or Method Man. What is it then?

 

It's the fact that he was himself. He was a creature of his environment, soaking up all the music and fashion he loved and creating an original and confident voice that payed homage to its forefathers without ever copying them. It was simultaneously nothing new and everything new at the same time. Being A$AP Rocky is what he did best and in the internet age, that's all anyone really wants from an artist. It was the lifestyle of purple weed and lean, Colt 45's, and designer fashions you couldn't afford but still wanted to be around. The telegenic and chanting swag. The syrup-slow Houston ride flows atop the lean hazed instrumentals. It was all style over substance and it still wasn't even that. It was all about having a voice.

This all brings me to the present, where even though it leaked a month early, Rocky's debut album, Long Live A$AP. managed to generate an amazing amount of sales and popular singles. It had all paid off. But for all the noise about label wars, legal issues, debates on heritage and style, sound and fashion, all of it, a single track stood out for me on the album. "Suddenly".

 

Inspired by the Kanye West produced "Let the Beat Build" by Lil Wayne, Rocky waxes poetic about his childhood and upbringing. He takes us on a hazy tour of his life to the point where he began his meteoric rise to the top of the rap world and made friends, and a few enemies along the way. The production is handled partly by Rocky himself, as the beat slowly builds with a wonderful sample of Cytation's "Suddenly" to a unexpected crescendo where-in Rocky confidently ushers in his typical disoriented fast raps that are so common on songs like "Goldie". It's crazy. What's most wonderful is the declarations Rocky makes. It is a singular song that explains everything I just wrote in the entirety of this post and all of Rocky's complex life, in less than 5 minutes. If one line had to be taken from this, it would be a simple one. "Suddenly everything changed before my eyes". And that perfectly explains the rise of A$AP Rocky.

Photo shoots with Terry Richardson. Tell moms we made it.

From all the noise about not representing New York (even though Nas fucks with this song heavy) to the arguments of style over substance, none of it really matters. We can come full circle and say that A$AP Rocky is an MC, not only in the sense of representing hip-hop, but also in the sense that he is putting on display who he is. What really matters is that A$AP Rocky does, and continues to make good music for people who like to listen to it. Isn't that all we can really ask for?

As always, enjoy and spread the love. Peace.