The Audacity of Dope

Kris Bowers takes you through 40 tracks, highlighting the history of the jazz piano over more than 100 years.  Great stuff.  Respect the OG’s!

As soon as I saw the still for this video, I noticed Frank and director Dave Wilson didn’t actually use an Integra, but as Mr. Ocean mentioned on his blog, the visuals were a “decent excuse to drive a NSX through mountains.”  I’m not mad one bit.  The song itself is simply constructed, with Frank riffing over an Adele-esque piano loop, so the video is a fitting accompaniment.

However, I am a little salty that I can’t see a NSX without thinking of one of my exes, who was obsessed with them hahaha.  What up girrrrrrrrrl?

I have mixed feelings about this song and video.  First off, since switching to a job where I see hundreds of music videos a week, I’m afraid Hype’s clips just don’t do much for me these days.  Perhaps he was at his pinnacle when I was younger and I was easily impressed by the old super glossy, big budget videos he shot, but I haven’t seen anything from him lately that’s absolutely wowed me.  This one is cool visually, but nothing too special and I see more innovative clips every day at the office.

Secondly, you will never, ever…[old school Jay] eva eva eva eva [/old Hov]…look cool/hard playing the piano in a video.  So while Alicia is quite possibly the hottest girl out there right now, I still think the piano shots look hilarious.  I don’t care if you’re a guy or a girl, you just can’t try to look cool in a video while playing the piano.  Sorry, just how it is.

Lastly, this song is overrated to me.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good, but it seems like everyone is trying to make it some epic, classic record.  Sorry again, it’s not.  The beat is cool, but not great, and there’s a horrible glitching sound in the loop from where they cut off the tambourine that comes around every time and annoys the hell out of me.  Jay’s lyrics are dope, but that sing-song flow gets old real quick and makes for boring repeated listens too.  Being one of the best songs on Blueprint 3 doesn’t mean it’s an incredible record.  It just means it’s not “Forever Young.”

I think this is a classic case of the music industry being a bit too NYC-centric.  With a lot of the labels, magazines, websites, and TV stations centered out there, they automatically assume what’s big in NY should be big all over the country (and the world).  NYC isn’t the center of the hip-hop universe anymore and just because this record is a great anthem for them, doesn’t mean it’s going to resonate with everyone else throughout the country.  Or if it does, not nearly to the extent they think.

It’s kinda like when XXL pressed up this cover:

There’s no way in hell…in 2009…that cover ever should have been made for a national publication.  None of those artists are remotely hot or popular outside of the Northeast.  I’d say 90% of people who listen to hip-hop on the west coast don’t even know who Freekey Zekey is, let alone like him.  Anyway, I get a similar feeling when I hear all these magazines, TV hosts, and label dudes tell me how classic “Empire State Of Mind” is.

If you’re from NY?  Sure.  Bang it.

If you’re not from NYC?  It’s cool, but it’s not a classic hip-hop record and nowhere near one of Jay’s best.

And this video isn’t either.

While chilling at the Inverse show last night, a few of the homies reminded me that I haven’t been posting much on TAOD.  My bad y’all, but my time is stretched so tight that it’s tough to handle all the biz and also [Unk] blog it out [/Unk] consistently.  Also, to be blunt, there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff that I saw this past week that seemed dope enough to post.

However, this new video from B.o.B. was one notable exception.  “I’ll Be In The Sky” is one of my favorite joints of the past year or so and I really hope programmers realize how catchy the hook is.  I would love to see a joint like this catch on, because if you pay attention to the verses, Bobby Ray is actually speaking on some real ish.  Look out for cameos from Playboy Tre and B. Rich, and then be sure to peep the interview I did with all three from a little while back.

Be sure to tune in to Sound Session tonight.  I’ll have a whole bunch of new music plus the Inverse homies will be live in studio…