Tag Archives: hip hop

Why Kanye West Should Be Twitter’s CEO

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Twitter should ask Kanye West to be its CEO — or at least a member of its board.

In 72 hours, Kanye has done more to make Twitter relevant and compelling than anything its beleaguered executive team has done during the past year.

First came the #SWISH moment on January 24, when he tweeted a hand-scrawled image of the track list for his forthcoming album, Swish, with the words “So happy to be finished with the best album of all time.”

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The low-tech picture ignited a fire. His tweet about the long-awaited album was re-tweeted 160,000 times and liked 210,000 times. But more importantly, he and Twitter both gained positive coverage in media such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal — an incredible feat given that Twitter had announced mass executive departures the same day. For once, Twitter was not on the receiving end of doomsday coverage. Twitter rode Kanye’s coat tails and became relevant: one of the world’s biggest and controversial entertainers had chosen the platform to announce significant news.

And then things got weird for Kanye — and better for Twitter.

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Rapper Mike Lo: “Those Beats Talk to Me”

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He’s Mike Lo if you didn’t know.

Underground rapper Mike Lo sings with the swagger of Eminem and smirks like one of the Beastie Boys. He lives in two worlds — the one he needs to make ends meet and the one he creates for himself. His day job consists of tending tables in the Chicago suburbs, where he is known for being exceptionally polite and considerate. But even when he’s tending tables, he has one foot in the world he built — full of swagger, drinking, and raw sexuality. While at work, he frequently uses his cell phone like an artist’s palette, recording snatches of dialogue and building lyrics into the songs he raps at bars and parties.

Those songs become videos — where he parties with his own posse (“Rack City”), lands in jail after drinking and driving (“Bars After Bars”), and laughs like could care less.

His recently released 17-track mixtape, Fully Lo Did, reveals a sound that is at times aggressive (“Fully Lo Did”) and reflective (“Up All Night”) — but it’s always moving fast, with catchy beats (check out the beginning of “This Is Wack” or “Floatin”) and cocky bravado. His songs remind me of what Dr. Dre once said about his own songs — music made for adult ears.

And, yeah, his word play is clever and smooth, whether he’s celebrating the joys of partying or smoking, similar to rapper Wiz Khalifa, whose Tumblr site features fan-uploaded videos including Mike Lo’s. (“Bars After Bars” was featured on Viewhiphop.com as well.)

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I asked Mike Lo to describe his songs to me and explain how he constructs them. As it turns out, he lives by the beat. The beats talk to him and fuel his words, giving him energy that he processes and throws back at you through his songs. He lives off energy of the audiences where he performs, whether he’s at a party or a bar. As he says, “I feed off all energy. I even feed off negativity. It keeps me going.”

Here is Mike Lo — in case you didn’t know. Discover Mike Lo on Reverbnation, Facebook, Twitter, and Global 14.

How did you get started in music?

I come from a very diverse family. My mom is white/Puerto Rican and my father is white/black. I am from Elgin, Illinois, born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Music has always been around me. Riding in the car, I grew up listening to my dad playing songs on the radio in the car, and I sang along with everything I heard, whether from Snoop Dogg or NWA. As I got older and started really getting into music, I listened to Eminem and 50 Cent.

Eminem

I have always been into rapping. I have been writing lyrics since I was in sixth grade, and I’ve never stopped. Back in sixth grade, I played on the boys basketball team, and during road games on the back of the bus, you could find me writing and rapping.  I didn’t know I wanted to pursue music as a career until I was about 21. Whenever I heard a rap song, I would wonder, “Damn, why can’t I do this?” So I went out and tried it.

How did your diverse background affect you growing up?

I believe growing up with such a diverse family had a major effect on my life. I never really knew how to label myself, or knew which friends would accept me because I’m a certain color. Everyone was always asking me what my race was, and I simply respond “mixed.” Even if I had labeled “white,” people knew I wasn’t just white. It wasn’t until I was older that understood more clearly. My background encourages me to show people no matter where you come from or what your background may be, you can do whatever you want if you do it with passion and work hard at it daily.

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A Slice of Hip-Hop: “Hotel x Music” by BruthaZ-N-ArmZ

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The song “Hotel x Music” by BruthaZ-N-ArmZ has been going through my head for a few months now, which is a good sign that I should highlight it on Superhype.

The video for “Hotel x Music” seems prosaic on first viewing: a bunch of slow-mo shots of guys hanging around in a hotel not doing much of anything. But in fact there’s more going on: a group of hip-hop artists holed up in a hotel take a hard look at their lives (“”The fans . . . consider us popular/we ain’t goin’ nowhere/It’s safe to admit that”) while appreciating for the moment (“Cool life I’m livin’/Hotel lifestyle”).

My favorite moment occurs about 27 seconds into the song, after the band quietly watches the lights of the city outside the hotel, before an infectious  horn and percussion sample straight out of James Brown kicks in — a recurring riff that carries the song.

I first heard about “Hotel x Music” on Global 14, which is a social site run by Jermaine Dupri and source of vibrant communities who share lifestyle interests ranging from hip hop to relationships. Check out BruthaZ-N-ArmZ here.

The hip-hop journey of Prince Mick

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The music and film of hip-hop artist Prince Mick takes you on an extraordinary journey: his own. The journey begins on the streets of the west side of Chicago, where Prince Mick once lived the violent life of a gangbanger. His song and video “Imma Beast” captures that life with a raw, gritty style, and a brutal honesty (a visual statement about the world that once defined him appears 14 seconds into the video: his own neck, pock-marked with a bullet wound).

But Prince Mick as he wants you to know him today is a changed man – or at least he’s trying to be one. With the help of his mother, he’s left his criminal past behind and now uses his art to express his spiritual values. As he told me in the following interview, “The essence of my story is my spiritual journey. I believe in God. But I am not perfect. I fight demons.”

His spiritual side with his street past explains why an examination of street life like “Imma Beast,” and the raunchy “Miss a Nigga” live alongside an urgent spiritual bulletin like “War Stories,” and his contemplative video essay “Heaven or Hell” on his YouTube channel.

I met the 22-year-old Prince Mick on Global 14, the social community founded by music mogul Jermaine Dupri. After we swapped a few messages, he sent me his music, which I featured on my blog. Our interview, which we conducted over the telephone between breaks in his schedule attending junior college near Chicago, contrasts sharply with my recent profile of Indiana-based hip-hop artist Symon G. Seyz. Whereas Symon G. Seyz views himself as a J. Cole protégé playing for a middle-class audience, Prince Mick says he sings for the streets. “The streets mean the neighborhoods I grew up in and the places where I made my mark,” he says – the kinds of places he depicts in songs like “City Streets,” which is a documentary-style tour of his old west-side neighborhood.

“I’m not a happy-go-lucky rapper,” he says. “I’m telling stories. I’m telling you real life. God does not just reach out to people who are good but also to the thugs, murderers, prostitutes, and the lost.”

Thugs. Murderers. The lost. They’re still part of Prince Mick’s world: but as his audience now, not his peers.

Learn more about Prince Mick’s spiritual journey through our interview:

Tell me about yourself. How would you describe yourself in one sentence? A filmmaker? Musician?

I consider myself as a songwriter and storyteller. I started off as a storyteller with a camera, and I do so now through film and music.

The essence of my story is my spiritual journey. I believe in God. But I am not perfect. I fight demons.

I celebrate life, too, which you see coming through in my secular music.

Where did you grow up? How did those experiences influence your art?

I grew up in the west side of Chicago. I was raised to believe in God, and so I had a spiritual side for my entire life. But I also grew up in a thug’s life. I remember when I was about 4 years old. We were living in the projects, a lot us playing in the park. The thugs started firing shots from the top of the roof. The kids started scattering, but I didn’t know what was going on. My aunt screamed, “Baby, run!” I said, “Aren’t those fireworks?” “She said, “Those aren’t fireworks.”

That experience exposed me early on to a violent lifestyle. I eventually joined a gang and became a top dog. I got kicked out of school. I became a stick-up kid and was harming a lot of people.

Because my parents lived apart (my parents separated when I was young), I would visit my mom in the suburbs and be exposed to a better way of life. But life was good in Chicago, or so I thought.

My thug’s life led to me being was shot in the neck at age 16. The bullet came from the right side and out the left side. Blood was spurting out my neck and my mouth.

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Jermaine Dupri builds a real community with Global 14

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Look at the headlines Facebook has generated lately: the company files for a multi-billion dollar initial public offering. Mark Zuckerberg spends $700,000 flying private planes in one year. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg begins building a new mansion in Menlo Park, California. There’s one important element missing from these stories: community. That’s one of the reasons I’m excited about Global 14, a social community that music mogul Jermaine Dupri launched in 2011 – and the catalyst for a co-branding relationship that Dupri and my employer iCrossing announced on February 8. As a community of shared interests, Global 14 offers a model for brands and advertisers who might seek an alternative to the sprawling 850-million member country known as Facebook.

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A slice of hip-hop: “Put My Mack Down” by Aye-P

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Aye-P performs some sweet alchemy with “Put My Mack Down.” He takes a familiar scenario – a guy coming on to a woman in a club – and creates a funky rap built on top of his own beats and samples of Isaac Hayes’s version of “Look of Love” and Lil Wayne’s “Fireman” (a line from the latter being the inspiration for the title).

This song moves. After the soulful Hayes intro, Aye-P and fellow rapper Rell trade verses about a guy making the move on a woman with “Bright red skin/Light Brown eyes/Slim in the waist/Thick in the thighs.”

What makes the song for me is the interplay between the bass and tenor rap of Aye-P and Rell combined with the steady mix groove. The pace of their rap picks up gradually as they repeat their pick-up line, creating a sense of urgency before the song drops you with a brief burst of whammy guitar.

Aye-P, a music student in Jacksonville, Florida, says he first got serious about hip-hop in 2007. He cites Pimp C and Scarface as his musical influences. He created “Put My Mack Down” in a garage.

“I felt like writing a club song about how dudes might approach girls in a club,” he told me. “I made the beat first by sampling Isaac Hayes and then built on top of it.”

He said he started writing the song about a year ago. “I’m a perfectionist,” he said. “If it doesn’t sound exactly like I want it to sound, I won’t put it out.”

I think the song was worth the wait.

I first heard about Aye-P and “Put My Mack Down” on Global 14, which is a social site run by Jermaine Dupri and source of vibrant communities who share lifestyle interests ranging from hip hop to relationships. Check out Aye-P on Global 14 and follow him on Twitter @dopetracks904.

A slice of hip hop: “Wait for Me” by ILL Son

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“Wait for Me” by ILL Son requires a close listen to appreciate. When I first heard the sweet female chorus and the gentle chimes that open the song, I thought ILL Son had shared with me another love song like his lush production of “Get 2 You.” But then ILL Son’s voice kicks in with a rap that reveals a man in torment over a girl who is with the wrong guy.

“Fast track marter rail/on your way to excel,” he raps. “But you want to give it up/say that you feeling him/Wrong step your life is full of wages minimum/that’s your world when you live with a criminal.”

And at the same time, I sense that the narrator isn’t so sure he’s the right choice, either (“I can’t keep putting you thu this hell”).

What else tells me this song is not all sweetness and light? The fuzzy guitar line, which provides some extra sting to the rap.

I got to know ILL Son, who is based in Atlanta, on Global 14, which is a social site run by Jermaine Dupri and source of vibrant communities who share lifestyle interests ranging from hip hop to relationships. Check out ILL Son on Global 14 and follow him on Twitter @ill_son.

A slice of hip hop: “Imma Beast” by Prince Mick

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“Imma Beast” by 22-year-old Prince Mick is raw and powerful, as is the video featured here. The gritty groove, built on top of a driving drumbeat, captures the feel of the stark, bleak Chicago cityscape captured in the video. Prince Mick raps with conviction and hell-bent fury. And no wonder: that’s his neck you see with a bullet hole in it during the opening scenes of the video.

The song is a compelling statement of purpose from someone whose life has changed. “Music is my new hustle,” he raps — and nothing will stop him, not even bullets.

Prince Mick cites inspiration both profane and spiritual for this song and video.

“My change in life inspired me to do that video,” he wrote to me. “I shot that video in my hometown Chicago. I just went to all of my old neighborhoods because it brings back so many memories. I have a story for each location I shot my scenes at. I’m inspired by God and His worship, I’m inspired by 2Pac, Da Brat, and pretty much Music and its legends.”

Prince Mick

Prince Mick, who is based in Chicago, shared “Imma Best” on Global 14 — a social community run by Jermaine Dupri and a hotbed of hip hop. Check out Global 14 and follow Prince Mick on Twitter @princemick1.

Music I like: “Get 2 You” by ILL Son

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“Get 2 You” by ILL Son is sweet. The song evokes hip hop and urban contemporary (for some reason I thought of “Knockin’ Da Boots by H-Town when I first heard this song).

When you listen to “Get 2 You,” you feel a sense of urgency for ILL Son to get the girl (”life is like sports with many short careers”), which suggests “Just Wanna Love You Tonight” by the Average White Band. You don’t know if ILL Son will succeed, and I like that.

Here is what ILL Son told me about the song: “The inspiration for writing the song came from my real life experience — a life altering relationship that has brought forth not only the song but the basis of my entire project, ILLSONOMICS= THE STUDY OF WOMAN THRU A MUSICAL PERSPECTIVE.

ILL Son

ILL Son, who is based in Atlanta, shared “Get 2 You” on Global 14 — a social community run by Jermaine Dupri and a hotbed of hip hop. Check out Global 14 and follow ILL Son on Twitter @ill_son.

Music I like: “Be With-Without You” by Symon G. Seyz

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Be With-Out You by SymonG,Seyz
“Be With-Without You” by Symon G. Seyz caught my ear because of its smooth arrangement reminiscent of better ‘70s R&B. What makes the song is SymonG’s soulful rap punctuated by a recurring Isley Brothers-style guitar riff (listen for it 27 seconds into the song).

Symon G. Seyz shared this one with me via Jermaine Dupri’s Global 14 social destination, which is an outstanding source of emerging music from aspiring hip-hip and rap stars.

Symon G. is an emerging artist from Hammond, Indiana, and he has a string of mix tapes under his belt. He cites his early influences as Silkk, the Shocker, Mystikal. As he commented to me, “It is so hard getting people to check me out because none of my songs are about drugs or shooting people . . . I’m fighting an uphill battle.”

So please check him out.