The Audacity of Dope

Honestly, this video is a little bit of a hot mess.  Hype’s shots just seem so boring these days, the performances aren’t anything special, and the clips from LeBron’s movie just make it all look odd.  Definitely would have been better served to not appear on the soundtrack and perhaps have a little more creativity with the scenes.  With my day job involving music videos, I see 10 cooler clips than this a day…which is pretty sad when you think about all the major players that were involved with this project.

That said:

“she insists she got more class…WE KNOW“

is one of the hardest lines of the year.  Drizzy!

New visuals from Fresno’s Fashawn, produced by Exile.  This is the lead joint from Fash’s upcoming Boy Meets World album, which is setting up to be an incredible release.  Could it be another Below The Heavens?

Ahhhhh, are you kidding me?  This is so ridiculously fresh.  As soon as I heard this song a while back, it was an instant classic.  The video is simple, but works and captures the mid-90’s vibe nicely.  If you missed Pac Div on SNSS, check out the interview here and please download Church League Champions ASAP if you’re still sleeping…

(“n****s got wait till 2 in the morn’ to hear Tor get on/it’s like that now, it won’t be like that for long” – true words…SNSS can relate)

I swear, when I watched this for the first time, Tor reached through my monitor and slapped the ish out me.  It’s that hard.

Cop Marco & Torae’s excellent Double Barrel project if you haven’t already…though if you haven’t, Tor’s probably slapped you too…and rightly so.

I absolutely love this track off The Kid Daytona’s Come Fly With Me project (download here).  The homey 6th Sense murdered the beat and Tona’s flow is so ill on it.  Shout to Three/21 Media and Derek Pike on the direction for the visuals too.  Great job all around.

Some words from the director Derek Pike:

Last week I shot the “Air Born” video for The Kid Daytona featuring Bun B. The beat which is produced by 6th Sense has this real mellow floaty vibe to it so I knew I wanted to shoot the majority of this video with someone or something floating in midair. Since shooting in outerspace wasn’t in the budget, I had to settle for NYC. Luckily, Daytona knew someone here on earth that could defy gravity for us, EBCstar Africa. We shot the whole video at a little park downtown, no permits. Aside from having to work around screaming kids at camp, and a basketball leagues scheduled game everything went surprisingly smooth. Daytona and Bun B are two of the nicest and most laid back artists I have ever worked with. Shout outs to the Three/21 fam Rik, Nancy and Steve, Jamal, Owen, Jordan at Sneaktip, Dan, Evan, and of course Daytona, Bun B, 6th and Africa.
-Derek Pike

Brand new visuals for one of the best records of the past year.  Sai-giddy’s Warning Shots 2 drops on the 29th on Amalgam Digital and while we still don’t know when that Atlantic project will ever be released, at least we’ll continue to get some good music in the meantime.

Oh, and if you don’t know, Red 5ive is Just Blaze’s alter ego when he decides to sing hooks.  The name is derived from Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing jet in Star Wars:

“It’s a trap!”

Dubs in the air.

Damn, when we first played this song on Sound Session a while ago, apparently it wasn’t finished.  I had know idea the homies Budo, Krukid, and M.anifest were getting Ali on there too!  This is a big tune…

A.R.M. ft. Brother Ali – “Heaven Only Knows”

Check out their site and stay up to date with one of my favorite up and coming crews out there.

After weeks of teaser pics, behind the scenes vignettes, sneak previews (and sneak previews of sneak previews), the long awaited follow up to Drake’s “Best I Ever Had” video has finally hit the net.

First off, I prefer the mixtape version of this song from So Far Gone (minus Weezy’s completely unnecessary appearance) rather than this edit with an added verse from Trey Songz.  Plus the hook just doesn’t catch the same without hearing “the hoooooooes.”  Why is “hoes” even edited?  That’s not a bad word at all.  “Hoes.”  See?  No censor.  Thank you Don Imus.

Aside from the [Ludacris] HOErrible [/Luda] censorship, visually, I think the video is pretty much spot on.  If there was one iota of sunshine in this clip, I would have been livid.  The beat, melody, subject matter, etc. all combine for a perfect late night soundtrack.  It’s almost too bad the single couldn’t drop later in the year.  This would be ideal for the cold Pacific Northwest winter.

I already know what you’re thinking: did Hyphen really just post a LMFAO video on TAOD?

Yeah, I did…here’s why:

1. I’m currently infatuated with Jonna from the Real World Cancun (strangely, this obsession started after the threesome episode that aired last week…hmmmm) and she’s looking great in this clip.  KW did point out that she clearly didn’t get the “video girls don’t have to kiss the artist” memo though.
2. Chelsea from the Paradiso Girls isn’t that bad either (she’s killing the Kelly Kapowski look here…I approve).
3. The theme is a nod to the late John Hughes.
4. Keytar dude, keytar.
5. And, to be honest, I kinda like this song.  Sue me.  That hook is a smash.

Maybe I’m watching too many of these Euro dance videos that come across my desk at the day job, I dunno.

Quick!  Somebody make a generic, wannabe Premo beat that reminds me of the Rawkus days so I can tighten my Jansport.