The Audacity of Dope

You may remember Paul from his work with the homies Inverse, but it’s clear from this video that he’s far more than just a dope violin player.  Woah.

As I was saying, the talent in the 206 is immense right now.  I meant to put this on TAOD when Ryan first sent it to me, but I failed.  Thankfully, 2DopeBoyz posted it up and reminded me about it.

In Ryan’s own words:

All summer I’ve been working on my thesis project to graduate from the UW. It’s another still-image motion picture like the 2Pac Vs. Franz Ferdinand mash-up I made last year. It features Macklemore and a few other people you may know (list below). Take in mind this is version one. Between limited access, finances, etc I couldn’t really pursue a lot of the ideas I originally envisioned in efforts to make it epic. I feel like the music got there more than the storyline. However, we may do an improved remix of it for the VS. (Macklemore/RyanLewis) EP featuring Mack rapping and a revised production more like a music video, shot with actual video.

It was shot entirely with regular still-image cameras (Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D300 and a Nikon D3), batch-edited in Photoshop and produced in Final Cut Pro. The music was probably the biggest Pro-Tools session I’ve ever ran. Although it samples the original Fake Empire’s piano and backing vocals, everything else was recorded live over numerous sessions.

Thanks a ton to everyone who helped:

The National – Fake Empire (Sample)
JkoePhoto.com (Jason Koenig) – Photographer
MazagranPhoto.com (Johnny Valencia) – Photographer
Myspace.com/Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) – Main Actor
Tricia Davis – Actor
Kevin Veatch – Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Engineer
Andrew Joslyn – Violins and plucking
Zach Fleury – Main Drums, Percussion
Jonah Peters – Percussion
Ryan Lewis – Music Production, Photography, Film Production, Drums, Key Strings, Organ

We shot 100 + strangers portraits who choose a sticker that pertained to an organization/company that has either consumed them or acted as an alternative means of communication to operate with society.

Group Vocals –

P Smoov (Mad Rad)
Rosanna Veatch
Zach Fleury
Sol
Xperience
Macklemore
Anna Clausen
Isabella Du Graf
and more.

Also, Ryan has been working with a dope MC/vocalist named Symmetry for about 3 years now and I believe they’re just about to drop their full project for the masses.  Here’s a taste:

Symmetry / Ryan Lewis – “Fireflies”

Seeing as how I’m currently infatuated with Drake’s So Far Gone mixtape, I was excited to see this dope fan made project for the first 2 tracks off that project.  Lyle at 5846 Films mashed up “Lust For Life” and “HoustAtlantaVegas” with footage from Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046.  I’ve never seen that movie, but the visuals alone look fly.  Combining them with Drake’s melancholy intro and ode to the ladies in the club turned out to be a great fit.

Rock to this and if you haven’t downloaded the mixtape yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for…

Damn, the homey Ryan Lewis is insanely talented.  Not only does he take incredible photographs and make dope beats, but apparently he remixes and does video production too?  Here’s a little class project he recently created, mashing together some Franz Ferdinand and 2Pac.

If you’re looking for any sort of dope artistry, definitely holler at him.  Peep his new website here.  Oh, and he designed his own page as well…obviously. Leave some talent for the rest of us dude.

The Commissioner Mick Boogie collaborated with his homey Terry Urban for their latest mixtape, Viva La Hova.  As you can probably guess, it’s a Jay-Z/Coldplay mash up…and it’s dope.  When has Mick ever dropped something wack?  Back cover, tracklisting, and download link after the jump.

If all goes right, we’ll get Mick and Terry out to the 206 in the near future…

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Ready to go!