Thirstin Howl the 3rd is one of those rare visionaries in Hip-Hop who wants to move the culture upward using dynamic visual content, better known as the moving pictures.
TH3’s production company, Skillusions Filmwworks, doesn’t just make videos for Thirstin Howl, but his entire camp and cadre of comrades from Fi-Lo to J-Love to Meyhem Lauren and so on.
The video below is the title track from his latest album ‘Natural Born Skiller’ and is the perfect complement to All Hallow’s Eve festivities.
‘Sucker MCs’
Run-DMC is forever etched in my mind as the first hardcore rap band. They didn’t rhyme over disco breaks. Run-DMC was simply hard rhymes over a drum beat. This is the stripped down essence of Hip-Hop music. The drum and the voice. Simplicity. Perfection.
‘Perfection’
Run-DMC changed the way rappers would present themselves to their audience. The disco dance club influenced regalia was replaced with the stoic gangster ‘hood uniform. Black leather jackets and Lee jeans. Run-DMC were the OG all Black everything.
Everything except for their kicks. Run-DMC wore adidas Superstar lowtops in the most gangster way possible. With NO shoelaces. This drove progressive ghetto parents bananas because the only people who wore sneakers with no shoelaces were convicts. Parents just don’t understand. This was the style of the youth and Run-DMC rhymed to hard to be denied.
‘Beats To The Rhyme’
You can’t even imagine how geeked I was to get this box from adidas. I already knew what was inside but I didn’t know just how detailed and thorough adidas had packaged this shoe release. Twenty-five years ago Run-DMC forever cemented Hip-Hop’s relationship with sneakers. This song is the definition of ‘kicking it’.
‘My adidas’
Extra laces, printed insoles and lace aglets, 14K gold rope chain dubrays.
God is in the details and adidas definitely took some cues from heaven above when constructing this release.
The reason the heel tabs and the striping look grey from the camera flash is because the material has DuPont 3M coating which will reflect light when flashed upon.
Shining in the dark is a fitting tribute to Jam Master Jay. R.I.P.
El-P is one hard rapping dude and a pretty slick producer to boot.
I fux with him from the homies Das Racist. Now I’m realizing I need to check for him a bit more.
I picked up this track over at Byron Crawford’s website.
I took a few flicks from my trips to Paris in 2001 and 2005 to make this clip.
Hopefully this video will catch some of the buzz created by KanYe performing in his Illuminati indoctrination gown.
Let me get one thing clear, I fux with Wale. I dig his rhymestyle and his content has always felt smart to me. After his Seinfeld themed mixtape I was a fan. I still give Wale mad credit for namedropping Oksana Bauil. Who does that crazy shit?!? Wale does, but only on mixtapes.
Wale’s albums are a disappointment to me for not having the consistency of cleverness that his mixtapes boast. They are just… Meh. I felt that way about his debut CD ‘Attention Deficit‘ and I feel similarly nonplussed about this new project ‘Ambition’. Wale isn’t a bad rapper and he is far from boring but he does not dominate on his tracks the way he should. Wale is becoming a background rapper on his OWN music. I fux with the tracks I posted below tho’ almost all of them are R&B rap tracks.
When the Maybach Music honcho tabbed Wale for his team I thought that would be the watershed moment for his breakthrough. No one is more confident than Rick Ross. Who else in rap has survived as many fuck ups as Rick Ross? He’s gone from stealing the swag of a drug dealer, being a former law enforcement officer, to battling bloggers and the beast of all rappers, 50 Cent. If Rick Ross can rise up from all of that so can Wale from an embarrassing internets meme moment.
And Wale has risen up. His singular and obvious contribution to Maybach Music is that their sports references have jumped up several levels, and no one knows high end designer hypebeast shit like Wale. You see how crazy Rick Ross sneaker game is now? Give Wale the credit for that. I wish Ross would imbue Wale with the ability to make a consistent album. Not even a great album, just a joint not populated with features which disappear Wale into the background of his own ambitions.
‘Lotus Flower Bomb’ featuring Lloyd
‘Focused’ featuring Kid Cudi
‘Slight Work’ featuring Big Sean
‘That Way’ featuring Jeremih and Rick Ross