Getting into the Sunshine Theatre on East Houston Street was going to be a clusterfuck last night. The theatre was hosting KanYe West’s premiere of his movie ‘Runaway‘. The film is a rap opera reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ which could be considered the rock music counterpart.
‘Runaway’ is ambitious in it’s attempt to tell the story of redemption and release. Victoria Secret’s model Selita Edwards provides her beauty as the ultimate muse. A phoenix. She is destined to burn herself into ashes but KanYe wants to preserve her.
Ultimately she must burn up and he must be alone.
The film is visually stunning. There are scenes that are unlike anything we have seen created from a Hip-Hop artist. With this film KanYe West transcends rap music. He isn’t bigger than Hip-Hop. He just sits above Hip-Hop.
I suppose KanYe West could spend less of his money on Louis V. luggage and more (some, any?) on getting some good pyschological help. But he wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining if he removed his social Tourettes. KanYe still says that shit that is on many of our minds with a crass wit most of us wish we had. He doesn’t know how to let go of the shit he loves. I can relate to separation anxiety my damn self.
‘Runaway’ will be dissected, debated, dissed and at the end of the day you will see that KanYe West has complete autonomy for the projects he wants to deliver. He has taken his personal losses to fuel his current success. KanYe is taking over this rap shit just like Mos Def promised us he would. But I don’t know how many people are ready for this dude’s interpretation of ‘our’ music.
Does anyone even care about rap shit anymore?
i think a lot of people don’t care about this rap shit anymore, b/c so much of this shit has gone past making good music (no pun intended). you said it yourself – kanye west is sitting above all of this shit. his major interviews are with ellen degeneres. the music is good, but his major coverage is over wack album art and diamond teeth.
i love this rap shit, and i feel as if i care about this rap shit, but i always wonder if i’m the only one…
Khal,
You love Hip-Hop more than 99.9% of the people that I have encountered.
Just so you know… It is you.
I’ll take the idosyncrasies and “Social Tourettes” (great term Dallas) of Mr. West and the artistry it creates over the industrially manufactured McDonalds rap of his “big brother” Jay-Z. Artists are supposed to be off kilter and prone to fits of wackiness. Thats what makes them artists. If Van Gogh thought like Jay-Z he would have just talked about “I should cut off my ear” and then talk about “I made cutting off ears more famous than Van Gogh did” all the while his two ears are intact and his fans are now physically deformed. Ye Tudda will lop his ear off, he will offend his “political connects”, and it alot of ways Kanyeezie “loses” as much as Nas (the dumbest expression ever). What people don’t care about in this rap shit no more is the fact of being an artist. Rap music has become a protracted job interview for nigglets. Its the only music form where “artists” (if you can call them that) rush head long into corporate validation, just to become some high end employee as a corporate shill (Jay-Z included). If that was your ultimate goal then you should have got a job fuck hip-hop. Anyway… Keep doing your unpredictable crazy shit Ye. Rap music needs that more than your “big brother’s” shameless corporatizing of it…
Diesel Hath Spoken.
Khal: what do you think of Rick Ross or Young Jeezy? Can you stand them? I’ll admit I did liked one Ross tune “Pots & Pans” but when they are your culture’s standard bearers… Or, Shyne, who at least proves big corp $$$ promotion (in guise of hip-hop ‘journalism’) can’t buy everything.
Co-sign Diesel + question, for anyone:
Is “Runaway” “better” or in any way comparable to Prince “Under A Cherry Moon”? (I like Kanye “808s” but Prince “Parade” is better.) The parallels aren’t many career-wise (Prince a prodigy, Kanye a scuffler’s triumph) but in terms of extra-musical vision… RZA has it too (I’m not too optimistic about his directorial plans but would love to be surprised) as did MJ (and please fuck all Kanye video celebrations unless all antecedents in Michael’s videography are noted while doing so) but…
More power to Kanye for dong weird shit– I’ll say the same to Prodigy when he gets out; that and please be careful.
It pains me to say this but I think it’s true: rap has become embarrassing on so many levels that the slick fakery of Jay-Z ** seems ** a reliable “brand” of shit– like U2 is for white people or something I can’t really bare to contemplate.
As far as future music goes, since NYC seems nearly DEVOID of young rap talent (please prove me wrong) and the “underground” has even MORE orthodox crap than the mainstream–
I’m going with the Ghostface & Sean Price-inspired Grown Man Rap movement, which I hope includes now-labelmate Pharaoh Monche too.
“taking the Helmut Newton type photo and bringing it to real life and crashing it against Jim Henson and George Lucas type whimsy and taking, like, a [Federico] Fellini, [Stanley] Kubrick pacing and a very graphic novel/ comic book type setup on all the shots. There’s a lot of shots that are borderline illegal for a film student. It just breaks rules, because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.” -KanYe West
. . . blah, blah, blah, blah . . . I haven’t heard so much pretentious-film-student-crap in a while but this sh*t right here, this sh*t right here. Takes the cake.
Khal! Salute.
I just keep bumping some old stuff, enjoy some of the new and tune out the bs talk.
” (and please fuck all Kanye video celebrations unless all antecedents in Michael’s videography are noted while doing so) but… ”
COSIGN!
Not for nothing I do recall a lot of creative rap videos back in the day without big budgets and Victoria Secret models.
But in the end I’ll give KanYe his props for being a passionate artist that wants to be better than his peers and grow artistically.
“I just keep bumping some old stuff, enjoy some of the new and tune out the bs talk.”
This is my standard approach to music. What the problem lies is that something that used to be completely aural has now become predominantly visual and most can’t separate the two. Case in point for me are the following two artists – Kanye & Amy Winehouse. Kanye will be discussed ad nauseum here so I’ll just go to my girl Amy. AW has released two stellar albums IMO, and I hope she stays alive long enough to make a third. Sadly enough though when ever I talk Winehouse with people all they bring up is her jack o’lantern teeth, her dopefiend body, and her manic behavior. But does any of that really fuckin’ matter when I’m listening to her music? I think no. In this visual first music era, I think a lot of musical greats of the last 50-60 years would have fallen way short of their greatness if they came out today just because they wouldn’t have passed the image & paparazzi and 24-hour media cycle test.
“Khal: what do you think of Rick Ross or Young Jeezy? Can you stand them? I’ll admit I did liked one Ross tune “Pots & Pans” but when they are your culture’s standard bearers… Or, Shyne, who at least proves big corp $$$ promotion (in guise of hip-hop ‘journalism’) can’t buy everything.”
Trick question, as I don’t define my love for Hip-Hop based on what the “masters” put out as hip-hop. This is 2010, if your Hip-Hop love is defined by a Billboard chart, you’re losing. But, I loved the production on Rick Ross’ album. Am I banging it now? No, but I wish there was an instrumental version. Jeezy? Jizzle? No, I pass. And I don’t fuck with Shyne.
See, I’m either listening to the Hip-Hop I grew up on, or listening to a lot of the ill shit coming from the “underground”. Again, it’s 2010 – there are 8 yr old Asian girls who rip any DJ you grew up watching cut to pieces. It’s a different game out here, I just think people aren’t really checking for a LOT of shit. Hell, I saw a random blog a few weeks ago where someone was shitting on Sean Price, as if he was just another nigga.
I am a different animal, though, so I might be a lil more obsessive/leftfield with my way of thinking.
Good answer, Khal. Can you hit us with your underground playlist? I have to admit I was there a few years and got as burned– and burned out– as anywhere else. I’m not “complaining” per se– great music of today co-exists with all other musics & I have plenty to listen to, inc. classical, jazz, Paul Robeson, old rhythm & blues etc on to the present.
The only label I check for with any optimism these days is Duck Down and, of the albums I’m aware of coming out later this year, only Nas & Ghost are definite listens.
(I did like that Jada + 50 track last week too.)
I still maintain I should have stayed home and just caught the live stream of this tomorrow. meh. he didn’t stick around for Q&A on the 2nd round. shenanigans!
my take:
http://untitledtype.com/2010/10/lets-have-a-toast-to-standing-in-line/
Vado is aiyt with me… He remind of the old Killa Cam…
Duck Down is always a good place to start. There’s cats like Tanya Morgan (Von Pea’s solo album, “Pea’s Gotta Have It”, dropped this week). The Brown Bag AllStars collective out of NY are always dropping heat. Hell, DP could tell you about the kid Maffew Ragazino.
Guys like Joell Ortiz, St. Joe Louis (their “30,000 Feet High & Rising” project dropped earlier this year), Cy Yung (grab his long-awaited “Soul Train Dancer: A Tribute To Rosie Perez” album), L.E.G.A.C.Y., YC The Cynic, Brokn.Englsh, Black Milk… I could really go on. There’s a lot of dope Hip-Hop out there, at least on the blogs. I won’t flood the homey DP’s comment box with outside, but Google them tings forreal.
And on a sidenote, it’s hard to really go by the “label as a powerhouse” mantra that we had back in the day. I couldn’t name 5 solid, buy-on-sight labels out there anymore. Duck Down might be one of the sole survivors of that era, nahmean?
Prince’s ‘Under The Cherry Moon’ is still more ambitious than the KanYe ‘Runaway’ project. UTCM was a feature film while this project tops at 35 minutes.
It is not a long form music video and even tho’ Michael Jackson is referenced (from a fan standpoint) I don’t think MJ is owed anything for this project. KanYe takes influences from all of pop culture. There are just as many iconic commercials references in this film if you can remember older Calvin Klein ads.
Khal, the next powerhouse label in my opinion is Starbucks. Fools won’t buy a $10 CD but will copp a $5 coffee on the regulack. Starbucks and McDonald’s are the next “labels” so I don’t expect music to become any less commercial in the clear and present future
Starbucks or one of those streetwear t-shirt companies. Niggas like shirts. $20 for a CD and a limited tee sounds golden to these fashion first niggas.
Thanks for reply, DP. I’ve not seen “Ruanway” so I didn’t mean to imply it had MJ debt but those “808s” video sure did. My fave Kanye video so far– because the weirdest, least slick– is “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSpCf8-AE94
The skinny white dude in video is one of the VERY few ‘indie’ people I still abide, Will Oldham.
The problem I foresee with Kanye as with most others in his position is that the rise is nearly always more compelling that the “travails” of being on top. I hope “808s” didn’t exorcise all his grief and regular man anger.
Khal– I hear you about labels tho’ I don’t know that Starbucks is the answer– they tried that racket a few years ago and bailed out.
I don’t wanna be unkind to friend of DP but, as somebody who used to look v. much forward to Joell Ortiz verses (even bought “Who The #$^%@ Is ?” at Beat Street before they closed), I think dude needs to slow down, recharge, reinvent somehow.
Of course, that’s the PERIL of all this mixtape shit is how many top notch verses, let alone concepts, do most MCs have? In today’s climate, by the time a dude can present himself properly he might already be washed up.
Also, for the kids on the internets–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO7SYplYBVo
most people dont care about rap shit…they care about the brand
Everyone wants to be a part of a brand – from Kanye to lil dude from across the street. Brands help sell shit, period. People like comfort when making purchases. it’s all about attaching these fire MCs to a brand you can clearly trust, to paraphrase a KRS line.