hip hop

The 8hands Mega-Team Puts An End To 2007! Part 3

Dania — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:47:17 -0500

This time, Dania goes sentimental and picks her special album of the year, "Kala" by M.I.A.

It's strange that what I'm about to say, seems to be controversial. Because to me, there is no doubt as to my album of the year: M.I.A.'s Kala. There is no other album that more succinctly defined 2007. The album was not only groundbreaking from a musical standpoint, giving us a whole new ghetto global sound, but was also the most exciting thing to hit the fashion and music video world this year. This album transcended to capture the zeitgeist of the time like no other.

Kala was an album whose influence I felt from the beginning of the year. Singles started trickling in like Bird Flu and Boyz, and were written about everywhere from Pitchfork to the NY Times. And then we started hearing stories. M.I.A. was denied a visa back to the States where she'd taken residence in Brooklyn. She was traveling around the world – recording with a slew of producers – among them Diplo, Switch, Blackstarr, and Timbaland – and new artists – African Boy, the Wilcannia Mob - wherever she went. A new sound was forming that could have only been made in a post George Bush overly interactive world, for the third world democracy, as she calls it.

The oft written criticism of the album – that's it’s a disjointed hodgepodge – is exactly what is its' genius. It's messy, dirty, all over the place – an album with A.D.D. that lifts a mirror to our shell shocked world, showing us in all our glory, warts and all.

And the look – the look! First her MySpace hit, fully reveling in the trashy-lo-res-nasty-pixel-epileptic-flashy-basic-RGB vibe of it all. Her videos for Bird Flu, and especially Boyz were revolutionary, taking the MySpace style and translating it to the moving image. And the fashion… Yo!! Just like her music and videos, her look showcased the insane late 80s early 90s revival with a dose of Cassette Playa mixed in with trashy metallics, by way of vintage Stussy and Cross Colours.

No other artist in any field came close to M.I.A. And in the year of the fallen female pop star saying no no no to rehab, M.I.A. went the other way, stood up and made it political.

8hands Featured Video: "Sensual Seduction" by Snoop Dogg

alon — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 07:58:17 -0500

We 8hands people are very sophisticated, that's for sure. Still, we love Snoop Dogg's pimpish ways – we were into him since '92. I mean, how can you not like the d-o-double-g?

Ok, let me get to the point - the godfather of rap is back. Not that he had ever left, but his new single, "Sensual Seduction", is already a classic and it doesn't even matter if you heard it or not.

This time Snoop Dogg is not the only one running the show. The song, which is some freakish and totally amazing ode to the early eighties Prince era, was produced by Shawty Redd who provided the robot-voice effect and the cheesy-as-hell tune, and the video was directed by Melina, who made sure to put all of the clichés that were common in music videos 25 years ago in one place.

Snoop, as always, dropped it like it's hot and entered the soft ladies-man position without a single hiccup. P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

8hands Featured Artist: Why?

alon — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:54:04 -0500

Why?, AKA Yoni Wolf, is no fool. After being an integral part of cLOUDDEAD - the avant-garde threesome that showed the world how to mix smart electronics with witty hip hop - he did what his two other friends didn't and became a mega-indie-star.

It’s not that Odd Nosdam and Doseone, his cLOUDDEAD friends, have disappeared, it's just that they stayed in the same territories of scratchy noises, weird soundtracks and patronizing attitudes (not that there's anything wrong with that). Why? on the other hand, completely blew up, releasing several great EPs, some LPs and one masterpiece: "Elephant Eyelash", his 2005 album.

Now, while Why? is working on a follow up that will see the light of day by March 2008, he brought us a little release – "The Hollows EP" that will be released in two days and will prove that Why? is well appreciated and loved.

You know you made it in this indie game when big shot musicians are remixing your music or covering your songs, and that is exactly what you can find in "The Hollows EP" track list: besides one brand new song we have two awesome remixes by Boards of Canada and Dntel, and amazing covers by Xiu Xiu, Dump and Half-Handed Cloud.

We gathered around three of these songs for you, as they were legally found on imeem (as you can see through this whole post). We urge you to run and get them all, because both the Xiu Xiu and Dump covers of the emotional track "Yo Yo Bye Bye", are nothing less than brilliant.

8hands Featured Artist: Saul Williams

alon — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:29:11 -0500

I know what you're thinking: Everybody wants to be Radiohead and that's why Saul Williams' new album "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!" gives us all a choice – pay 5 dollars and download the full album in a great 320Kbps MP3 format or pay nothing and download the full album in an almost-as-good 192Kbs MP3 format (just so you'll know, Radiohead's album came in a disappointing 160Kbs MP3 format).

But Saul Williams is not aiming to be Radiohead. Actually, it won't surprise me if I find out that Williams thought of this great idea long before anyone else. See, I adore Radiohead - just like the rest of the world I'm in love with "In Rainbows" and believe that these British guys are pure geniuses, but free music for the masses sounds like a good ol' Saul Williams thang, right?

Of course, what matter is not the how but the what, and Saul Williams' new album, again - kinda like Radiohead's one, is one gigantic superlicous "what". As soon as our tiny 8hands octopus got a hold of it he started to throw all of his hands in the air. In other words, our purple little friend went social, and I'm not talking about networking.

Saul Williams was always a political being and a great musician and he still is. He also used to be a hip-hopper and a poet, but not no more – he took his hip-hopping to such a far away place that you could hardly find it and he left his preaching ways in the street that raised him. Seriously, you can hardly recognize the new Saul Williams.

His lyrics are still sharp and his attitude is as hard as ever, but the theme changed – he sings, yells and pushes the beats that Trent Reznor produced for him to the maximum. You can find tons of different influences in it – from the album title's "NiggyTardust" through the hardcore Autechre-like "Black History Month" and all the way to the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" cover. Saul Williams is no longer a rapper or a poet, that's true. But he is one talented artist. So download his album, for free or not for free. It doesn't really matter, as long as you listen to the music.

8hands Featured Artist: Devin the Dude

alon — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:32:43 -0400

I once read a smart saying about Devin the Dude: He is a rapper that the rappers themselves enjoy listening to. Think about it – he has done collaborations with the best of them. He is no stranger to Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Xzibit, Nas, UGK, Lil' Wayne, Outkast and other gigantic names, yet he is fairly unknown to the general population.

I'm not even going to try and explain why he isn't bigger than… I don't know… let's say 50 cent? The simple thing is to state the fact that true geniuses are never really succeeding to be a part of pop culture. I can also throw some claims about how indie artists are always better – but when it comes to hip-hop, that is rarely the case. In other words – why Devin isn't a house hold name is beyond me.

I'm not a rapper. Hell, I couldn't hold a decent flow even if my life were dependent on it. Nevertheless, I love Devin the Dude. He's got the best attitude in the world, he's always laid back and his rhymes are always smart, witty & kinda funny. He is dirty & nasty by definition, as most southern hip-hop artists are, but somehow he makes it sound all cute & sweet – maybe it's because his voice is so mellow and delicate or maybe it's because he is the biggest pot head since we were introduced to a different dude, Mr. Lebowski.

It's almost absurd – every Devin the Dude song got something about weed in it. In between he talks about alcohol and girls, but that's about it. He himself said in his first album "I smoke weed / I drink booze / that's all I rap about / cause shit / that's all I do". Charming, right?

So far Devin released four LPs and guest appeared on half a million records. In my opinion, everything he had ever done can put a big wide smile on your face. If you've got any love for hip-hop be sure to check him out, so he won't stay in the shadows forever.