When two of the world’s biggest selling artists announce that they have created an album together, it’s only right that one of the world’s top directors is drafted in to create the video. ‘Otis’ is the first single from Jay-Z and Kanye West’s collaboration album, ‘Watch The Throne’, and legendary filmmaker Spike Jonze has directed the video.
A world away from the low-budget look of Jonze’s famed work on the Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’ video, ‘Otis’ oozes money. The track, which heavily samples Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness’, is playing over the opening long shot of a pristine Maybach. Jay Z and Kanye approach the car carrying heavy-duty tools and a team begins to pull the Maybach apart as Jay Z and Kanye West rap against the backdrop of a huge American flag. Once the Maybach is sufficiently destroyed, Jay Z and Kanye jump in for a ride, accompanied by four beautiful women and lashings of bling.
Spike Jonze’s slick camera work captures the thrill of riding around in a Maybach with no doors and his ability to get up-close and personal with the rap stars makes for thoroughly entertaining viewing. The video for ‘Otis’ is the ultimate in the American Dream and the red, white and blue color scheme runs through everything from the clear sky to the laces in Jay Z’s sneakers.
The message is simple here: the American Dream is attainable and it’s nothing but girls, money and fun, but until you get there enjoy watching us having a ball.
Proving that it’s important to give back when you’re raking in the dollars, Jay Z and Kanye West are putting the destroyed Maybach from the video up for auction to raise money for the East African Drought Disaster. Check out the video here.
News that Jay-Z and Kanye West were to collaborate on a full-length release, titled ‘Watch The Throne’, was greeted with understandably absurd levels of excitement. To be fair, it’s hard to overstate the significance of this team up. It’s not just about rap; these are two of the biggest names in music. Between them, they’ve racked up more Grammys and hit records than you could comfortably count. In terms of sheer star power, it’s like having Spider-Man and Batman in the same movie.
Throughout its creation, the record has been shrouded in mystery. Recording sessions took place in New York, Paris, Australia and Los Angeles, whenever the two protagonists’ busy schedules allowed. Early previews were extremely exclusive, Jay-Z himself gathering a handful of journalists in a New York hotel room and playing the tracks from his laptop. So it’s no surprise that this early salvo from ‘Watch The Throne’ is causing such a massive stir.
The track teases a sample of Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ into unfamiliar shapes, creating a decidedly unusual canvas for the duo’s lyrics to be splattered over. It’s playful and inventive, just as you’d expect from two artists who have always balanced mainstream appeal with innovation.
While ‘Watch The Throne’ features collaborations with artists like Beyonce, Pharrell Williams and Q-Tip, ‘Otis’ is very much a Jay-Z/Kanye joint. The duo trade rhymes with customary style, covering everything from their latest bling to smoking Cuban cigars with Fidel Castro. ‘Watch The Throne’ is going to be one of the biggest records of the year and ‘Otis’ makes for an excellent preview.
Jay-Z & Kanye West storm to the top of the Shazam New Release Chart USA. Expect big things when their collaborative album, ‘Watch The Throne’, is released.
After releasing mixtape’s to the hip-hop world in America since 2007, Big Sean’s debut album has finally been released and the rapper has respectfully claimed his title for fame and honour. Sean, real name Sean Michael Anderson, met Kanye West in 2005 and impressed him with a spontaneous freestyle, Kanye made note to remember his name. A few years later with mixtapes achieving hundreds of thousands of downloads on Datpiff, Sean was signed to Kanye’s G.O.O.D Music record label.
The album boasts production from Kanye West, iconic producer No I.D., Boi-1da and others including Pharrell. The stand-out tracks are undoubtedly those created by No I.D. including ‘I Do It’, ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’ and ‘So Much More’. Sean worked with Chris Brown on the single ‘My Last’ which reached #4 in the Shazam Tag Charts back in March this year. The collaboration with Kanye on ‘Marvin & Chardonnay’ sees Sean work with Roscoe Dash, who delivers a classic Roscoe sing-a-long hook. With tracks like these the album received glowing reviews from Hip-Hop’s top platforms including an “XL” from XXL magazine.
Sean’s lyrical content has been better in past mixtapes, but his humour continues to amuse and there are occasional sparks of top word play that ignite with the solid beats creating up-tempo, strong, soulful tracks. The album’s other featured artists include Wiz Khalifa, The Dream, Lupe Fiasco, Chiddy-Bang and John Legend and is available to buy now.
Hassling Kanye West in the middle of a radio interview is not usually a great idea, but it paid off big time for Sean Anderson. Big Sean not only left a big impression but also a demo tape, a recording which eventually saw him signed up to West’s GOOD Music label. Under West’s tutelage Sean got cracking with a trio of mixtapes to lay the ground for his debut album, the appropriately titled ‘Finally Famous’. The album not only featured a massive roll-call of A-list contributors, The Dream, Drake to Mr. Hudson and Mike Posner to name a few, but also had Mr West in the producer’s chair. ‘My Last’ was the first single from the album and sees Sean team up with Chris Brown and legendary Chicago producer No I.D (Common, Jermaine Dupri) to come up with a piano driven number underpinned by some neat chord progressions and rolling percussion. Brown adds a smooth touch to the choruses but it’s really a platform for Sean to show what he’s made of.
If you’re a music fan, musician, or industry person then you’re bound to have read or heard something about SXSW by now. That being said, we’ll keep this short and sweet.
SXSW is still an exciting event for all things music, but the festival also covers digital and film. Whether you’re an aspiring artist or creative mind – you’ll be sure to learn something in Austin. However, it’s not for the faint hearted. 40K global folks come into town to share their wares, music, gadgets and movies. So if you plan on making a statement down there – best start working on it now!
None the less, cutting through the noise is still very possible. There is still that crazy opportunity to perform in front of industry brass (see Lord Huron) or seeing an already developed group perform a pop-up show (Foo Fighters, Kanye West and Jack White all laid down not-so-secret gigs this year). Heck the only wack moment? Waiting in line to get into the Rachel Ray Party – just to see her introduce Das Racist: the band cancelled their set due to throat issues.
It’s a matter of how long you want to wait in line and have patience with drunken frat boys. Some highlights from this festival attendee’s experience – in no particular order: Puro Instinct,Curren$y, James Blake, The Sandwitches, Other Lives and Sheep Dogs. Links are provided for you to go explore.
And one last tip. For food, Stubbs BBQ is amazin’. And the insider info: go to bar during lunch hours and get served pulled pork sandwich pronto. You did not hear that from me. SXSW is great time to tap into culture discovery with friends. It’s a festival built on building memories patiently waiting for a song.
Big Sean is one of the latest rapper’s to be climbing the ladder of stardom following two of our tips for 2011; CyHi Da Prynce and Wiz Khalifa. Unlike Khalifa, Big Sean was picked up by the one and only KanYe West back in 2007, signing him to his G.O.O.D. Music label. However this wasn’t the first time Yeezy had encountered the rapper. Back in 2005, Big Sean was spotted outside WHTD 102.7FM, while KanYe was on-air. Sean approached West while he was leaving the station and dropped a spontaneous freestyle, allowing KanYe to grasp the talent and also his mixtape. Two years later, Big Sean released another mixtape called ‘Finally Famous Vol 1’. This received critical acclaim from The Source magazine and Mr. West eventually snapped him up.
Big Sean, real name Sean Anderson, has worked with a numerous amount of Hip-Hop stars from Bun B, Curren$y, Tyga, Drake and even Mike Posner in his past mixtapes. Now Sean is working on his debut with help from his peers including; KanYe, Pharrell, Eminem and Kid CuDi just to name a few. The album is tipped for release in August this year, but in the meantime Sean has hooked up with Chris Brown to release his debut single ‘My Last’ which was made available on iTunes 1st March. The Hip-Hop track has a smooth ballad feel, rolling pianos and classic big kick drums and crunchy snares. Chris Brown adds the hook and delivers a well polished touch to the song.
2011 looks to be a successful year for style icon Big Sean, a character that will no doubt pop up in further collaborations and future hits. Check out the video for ‘My Last’ here.
It’s clear Kanye West has never heard the old adage “too many cooks spoil the broth”. His latest single sees Yeezy delve in to his rolodex to wrangle an unbelievably huge list of A-list collaborators: namely Alicia Keys, John Legend, The-Dream, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Tony Williams, Elly Jackson, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, and Rihanna.
On paper ‘All Of The Lights’ should be an absolute disaster. An oversaturated ‘We Are The World’ with all of the philanthropy sucked out. However, the record is actually a remarkably well thought out piece of work. Kanye arranges his arsenal of celeb vocalists as a choir giving him room to take the lead alongside Rihanna and one of the most guttural hip hop beats of the year. The ostentatious way the record puts multimillion selling artists in the background fits in perfectly with West’s own spend-money-like-it’s-water persona. Like when West got all his teeth replaced by diamonds last year, the number of singers on ‘All Of The Lights’ is totally over the top but you’re not surprised that West has gone that far.
The video, directed by hip hop film guru Hype Williams, has already caused a stir as the rapid fire lighting used has been cited as a possible trigger for epileptic seizures.
Since he dropped ‘The Prynce Of Jacks’ mixtape at the start of 2010, CyHi Da Prynce’s has been turning plenty of heads in the world of hip hop – even ending up as one of Shazam’s tips for 2011. Of course, it’s done CyHi’s reputation no harm that one of his biggest cheerleaders is also one of the most powerful men in the music industry – a certain Mr Kanye West.
After signing to Kanye’s GOOD Music record label back in September, Da Prynce has been put on the fast track to the top. A guest appearance on ‘So Appalled’, a track from Kanye’s own recent number one album, helped introduce him to the mainstream, while collaborations with newcomers like Yelawolf have marked him out as one of the most exciting rappers around.
From his work so far it would seem that CyHi has the talent to back up his status as a rising star. His gruff Atlanta drawl is not totally dissimilar from Lil Wayne’s, but his lyrics have a dexterity that’s more similar to New York rappers like Nas or Mos Def. He even finds time to slip in references to events of world resonance – Haitian disasters and the Iraq war – amongst the usual boasting about expensive alcoholic drinks.
His track ‘Hero’, taken from his recent ‘Royal Flush’ mixtape, serves as a raw counterpoint to the shiny auto-tuned hip hop that’s finding favour with radio stations the world over. Now working on a new mixtape, provisionally entitled ‘Allies’, expect CyHi to continue to be one of the most talked about rappers around.
