Since we began shooting Common for Embedded, we have built a great relationship with him and his team. They came to us for Make Common’s Day because they knew Current had experience in doing these sort of viewer-created video call outs, and they wanted to take a unique approach to making a video for the song.
It was an opportunity with a big name artist that we couldn’t really pass up. It sort of plays off the VCAM initiatives as well as the Writer in Residence project, but seemed like a perfect way to bring Current’s filmmaker community together with Common to create something special.
From what Common’s team told me, he chose this one because it was overall a different vibe than your typical clichéd rap music video. It had a fun feel to it, and the use of clip art was simple yet effective, as was the way the producers integrated the green screen footage, and gave it a grainy clip art feel.
Watch Common’s pick for his favorite “Make My Day” video here, and tune in tonight just after our Embedded with Common special—so, about 11:30/10:30c—to see it make its TV premiere:
And check out these photos from when we shot the green screen footage:
On his newest album, “The Ecstatic,” Mos Def worked with producer Madlib on a handful of tracks, including “Auditorium.” Madlib has become a well-respected and highly-sought hip-hop producer, working with many of the most prolific names in the genre, from Erykah Badu to Mos Def to De La Soul. He also spends time as an artist, creating new material under a variety of pseudonyms and exploring genres beyond hip-hop.
For instance, in 2001, Madlib started Yesterday’s New Quintet, a jazz-based group consisting of Madlib under his real name, Otis Jackson Jr, and then four fictitious characters. His official first use of the name Madlib came with the release of 2002’s “Blunted In The Bomb Shelter,” but he really found fame in the hip-hop community when he worked with fellow producer J Dilla in 2003 to release “Champion Sounds” and then MF Doom in 2004 on “Madvillain.”
Check out Madlib play around with a beat in the documentary Brasialintime
Considering how big a Doom fan Mos Def is, it’s no real surprise that he’d be moved by Madlib’s work. He draws from mainstream media and the obscure to create beats. The beat for “Auditorium” originated on Madlibs 2007 instrumental album Beat Konducta Vol 3-4: Beat Konducta in India. It’s a track called “Movie Finale,” and Mos also enlists British-American emcee Slick Rick to give the track flavor.
Slick Rick is a hip-hop veteran in his own right, after dropping his first album in 1988 and continuing to appear on tracks along today’s well-known artists like Mos, Chamillionaire, and others. Mos Def’s obsession with Slick Rick goes back more than 10 years, if only judging by the fact that he and Talib Kweli re-imagined “Children’s Story” for Black Star’s album, one of the rapper’s best known singles.
UPDATE: In this Embbeded Outtake, Mos talks about why “Auditorium” is special and why it’s special to him.
Josh Heller from Online Comedy went to Fever Ray last night at the Fonda in LA. This is his recap and some YouTube clips from the show. —SNK
Last night I went to the Music Box at the Fonda to see the most anticipated show of the year. That may be a subjective claim, because my friend convinced me to buy tickets six months in advance, he was sure this show would sell out. He ended up forgetting a ticket, and bought one at the door.
We edged our way towards the stage, for the last ten minutes of Nosaj Thing’s set. I wish we got their earlier because I’m a sucker for the ethereal dancey bleeps and bloops that come out of people’s computers. Instead, I was splitting a #3 at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. The curtains closed after his set, and the house lights went on. Strange mood-setting ambient sounds trickled out of the speakers. My friend said it sounded like we were about to be attacked by The Smoke Monster from LOST.
Fortunately we didn’t get attacked by any monsters, just a parade of drunk girls, who apologized for being so annoying.
The tempo of the hypnotic music moved faster, then the curtains finally opened. The audience was blasted with fog, air-conditioning, and the scent of patchouli. It smelled like a used-record store inside of a Wal-Mart. Smoke filled the space. The men standing in front of synthesizers and percussion, wore tall hats and Age of Enlightenment make-up. They looked like they’ve been haunting Versailles since the 1680s. Fever Ray, née Karin Dreijer Andersson, entered the stage dressed inside of what looked like a buffalo.
Lasers formed a virtual tent above the crowd, as she started her hour long set. The light show was very impressive. The lighting changed for each song during the performance. At one point antique lamps illuminated on beat, making you feel like you were at Disney’s Haunted Mansion. The coolest laser effects acted like an iTunes visualizer.
I’m very happy that I didn’t arrive at the concert in a time machine. If you had time-traveled from Colonial Massachusetts you’d be sure that you were witnessing a Pagan ritual. At some point Fever Ray took off her buffalo, and the spotlight shined on to this spooky lady, who vaguely resembled the witch from Army of Darkness.
During the performance she moved her hands into the shape of a triangle. I’m sure this led conspiracy theorists to say she was a mason and a member of the illuminati. It led me to say “HOV” and presume that she was in fact Jay-Z.
She played her entire album, and I didn’t even get bored until the last two songs. Which is very impressive, because at most shows I’m bored after the first few minutes. Fever Ray played an excellent show that outstandingly translated the eeriness of her album on to the stage.
It would suck though, if you thought you were going to a Sugar Ray concert.
We know you’ve been waiting so eagerly for a sneak peek of Current Music Presents: Embedded, and believe me, I’ve been dying to get you one.
Today we went live on MySpace Music with a special clip of Mos Def performing”Auditorium,” live in Japan—plus an extended preview of Embedded you won’t see anywhere else. Check it out, go join our Embedded group to stay in touch with all our updates, and please, let us know what you think!
Please welcome Current Comedy’s Josh Heller, moonlighting here with a mini-lesson about an unexpected musical discovery…
Amoeba Records has a cool video series called What’s In My Bag. I stumbled upon it when I was looking for one of my favorite artists, Mexican Institute of Sound. MIS (or IMS en Español) is a sampled based artist akin to DJ Shadow or The Avalanches. Camilo Lara (the man behind MIS) splits his time between performances and heading up the record label EMI Mexico.
In this rendition of What’s in My Bag, Lara picked up some rebajadas, a form of music I had not been familiar with. Rebajadas are cumbia tracks slowed to a molasses pace. Cumbias are known for their upbeat danceability, rebajadas are the same singles, but played way slower. Imagine taking a 45 single, and then playing it at 33 1/3 RPM. Not only does the speed decrease, but the pitch lowers. It’s low-end music. A Latin dub.
Rebajadas became popular in Monterrey, Mexico, which has an internationally recognized music scene. Since the ’60s the city has been known for Norteño and other regional Mexican music. In the ’90s the city gained famed for its alternative rock scene.
Now I’m going to go out on a limb. Bear with me because I think it might work. Monterrey is 400 miles from Houston. Musically Houston is not known for much except their rap scene (and I guess ZZ Top.) An important feature of Houston rap is the chopped and screwed style of playing records at half their speed. This is a good primer on the history of the Houston rap scene:
DJ Screw pioneered the style of playing records slowly. He enjoyed the sound because it emulated the way he felt when he was hitting the sizzurp. (Sizzurp or Purple Drank is a beverage consisting of Sprite and prescription-grade cough syrup. The concoction of codeine, promethazine, and high fructose corn syrup—can you guess the active ingredient?—proverbially fucks your shit up.)
The slow, low drawl of these records marked the Houston rap scene. The mass appeal of this sound probably suggests that there are more factors at play than just presuming everyone is drinking cough syrup. Perhaps its popularity has to do with the weather. Rapper Bun-B suggests that the music reflects the “slowed down laid back chill southern vibe.” Houston writer Lance Scott Walker proposes that music (along with the drugs) reflect “Houston is a big sprawling slow hot city” with “9 months of summer.”
This seems like a very similar environment to where rebajadas came from.
And the rebajada seems to be growing in popularity outside of Monterrey. South American artist Sonido Martines and Boston-based DJ /rupture have incorporated the sound into mixes. Dr Auratheft even has an excellent rebajada mix on his blog and gives a more obvious explanation: “Early low-key/ghetto cumbia gigs in Mexico would use really shitty/dysfunctional turntables, not only slowing down but also fluctuating.”
So perhaps my theory about creating music to emulate the slow-placed borderland lifestyle is trumped by malfunctioning technology. Either way, rebajadas are a sound that at first seemed silly, but now have a hypnotizing bassline that keeps drawing me back.
