Dope Music Videos: The Art of Simplicity

I was thinking about some music videos that stand out to me, and a lot of them are super simple in concept and in creating. I wanted to share some of the videos that came to mind with you. The reason I was thinking about it, is because I was thinking about what I want to do for my next music video. Yeah. For my next video I’m going to try and capture the same effect – simplicity and creativity. Here’s some music videos that are ridiculously simple, both conceptually and in filming/editing, but that I feel are very creative and have managed to cut through the clutter and stand out in my mind.

First off we’ve got “Guarantees” by Atmosphere.

Then, more recently, we’ve got “Freaks and Geeks” by Childish Gambino.

And then we’ve got the classic example, “Here It Goes Again” by OK Go.

Look out for what I come up with for my next music video. Oh, and in case you haven’t caught it yet. Here’s the music video for my song Sleep Walkin’.

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Sapient New Music Video – Blissless Yield Remix

So. Sapient. You know, from Sandpeople. Dope dude. Met him in person a few times, did a show with him a while back. Barely anybody showed up, but whatever. We rocked the small crowd that was there. After how shitty the draw was I had to pay him way too big of a guarantee for the show, but eff it, losing the money was worth the networking opportunity to me. Anyways, by far one of the sickest hip hop artists from Portland in my opinion. Dude (by dude I mean we’re still talking about my boy Sape here) just released a new music video the other day for his joint Blissless Yield Remix off of his latest album Tusks! that just dropped. I went tothe album release for that, too. Picked up my copy of the record. Killer show.

I swear this dude pushes out sick music videos faster than I can put out lame ass webcam clips for my YouTube channel. Any dude that can work that hard and still put his family above everything else, and make hip hop that doesn’t blow, deserves recognition. So check out the video…

Sapient kills.

My adventure to Vagabond Sound in Oak Harbor, WA

So on Friday August 5th, 2011 I took a day long road trip down to Oak Harbor, WA with a van full of friends for a show I was doing at Vagabond Sound. I had a lot of fun, but it was most definitely tiring. We left at about noon on Friday and didn’t get home until about 5AM Saturday morning. We hit a couple snags too, like hitting mad traffic and barely making it to the show on time, almost not having enough gas money to get home, and figuring out we had to ride a ferry to get to Oak Harbor. But all and all the trip and the show was a success, and there’s nothing I would’ve rather spent my weekend doing. So shout out to every one in Oak Harbor who made it out to the show, and to Vagabond Sound for having me out! Here’s a little video footage for ya:

On the road heading there…

Footage from the show…

Aaaand some more footage from the show…

Yeah.

Kublakai is takin’ it back to the basics.. Again.

So I’m a fan of Kublakai‘s work. Kubie is a Seattle native hip hop artist, and he makes dope music. I first heard about him indirectly through the work he’s done with Grynch. I copped a free download of his EP Lights For The Dark Nights back in the day, and I’ve been sold on him ever since. We’ve connected via Twitter and e-mail a few times, and might even have an upcoming show together. So stay posted for more info on if that goes through or not. But regardless, he’s dropping his long awaited The Basics 2 album on August 22nd. I should have a sampler from him in the mail any day now, and I’m stoked to hear it. I’ll let you know when it comes through. But from what I have heard already, the album is going to be ridiculously filthy. Don’t believe me? Well check out this music video Kubie just dropped…

Oh, and cop a free download of these songs too, they’re dope.

The Basics 2 coming August 22nd. Good shit Kubie. Support GOOD hip hop from the NW. Holler.

You have to read this. Too funny!

So the other morning I was just getting out of the shower, getting ready and getting dressed for an all day trip down to Washington for a show I was doing in Oak Harbor. I dry myself off with my towel, pick up my clean socks and underwear, and then all of a sudden, BAM! A little spider falls out and lands down on the tile floor of the bathroom. Scared the shit out of me for a second, but I didn’t scream or anything. I didn’t realize my roommate was on the other side of the door waiting for me to come out so we could leave. I crouch down and look at the spider and say,

“Hey little fella, what are you doing? How did you get down there?”

All of a sudden from the other side of the door I hear my roommate say,

“Dude. Are you talking to your penis?”

I was like,

“Huh? What? NO! I was talking to a spider, it just fell out of my underwear.”

And his response,

“Oh. Dude, what was a spider doing in your underwear?”

LOL. Classic.

Are sleeping on Sleep Walkin’?

It just hit me that I hadn’t shared this on my blog yet. So last week at my album release party for The Kennel Testimony I premiered the music video for my song Sleep Walkin’ off of the album. And on August 4th I posted the video online to share with the world. So if you haven’t caught it yet, without further ado I present to you the music video for Sleep Walkin’…

 

Even though we ain’t got money, I’m so in love with ya honey…

So I did my album release show this last Sunday. Want to know how it went?

The cover was $8 a head, the show grossed $72. That wasn’t enough to even pay the sound and door guys.

I brought about 50 CDs and 65 t-shirts with me to sell. Just in case. I sold 5 CDs.

I had a mailing list sign-up form. Nobody joined. Partly my fault, I did a horrible job of making the people there aware of it.

I still had to pay out the artists that opened for me. I lost a lot of money this week. Out of the 50-ish people who told me they’d come, about 5 of them showed up. Luckily some of them brought a friend with them, and the other artists I did the show with drawed out a small handful of people each. Plus I’m pretty sure some random strangers showed up just to drink. I go out to a lot of local hip hop shows, you know, trying to be a member of the community and support the scene in my area. But to be real honest, 90% of the shows I see around here aren’t half as good as the one I put together. I had a dope lineup. I’m a big fan of the acts I did my show with, Sapient and State of the Artist. They’re both sick artists and performers. I think I’m pretty good too. More so than losing the money, I’m just bummed that more people didn’t get to see the show. I know that Portland sits through a lot of shitty hip hop shows, and I just wish more people knew how good this one was. The 5 people who were standing at the front of the stage during the show were amped! Everyone who did come out really enjoyed it. But you know what did make the show really, really worth it? You want to know why I didn’t feel like a failure? Because I woke up the next morning and had these two comments posted on my Facebook Wall:

AWESOME show last night man!!

Thanks for stopping in Portland! I came to see SotA but left a fan of everyone who played.

Thank you. I’m doing a show tomorrow out in Oak Harbor, WA. That’s like a 5 or 6 hour drive. I’ve never done a show in Washington before. I don’t know how the turnout is going to be. I’m not familiar with any of the artists on the bill with me, but I’m gonna listen up on their music for several hours today. The gas money to get out there will cost me more than what I’ll make from the show, for sure. I’ll for sure lose money again, I’m going to be in a car for 10 hours in one day, and I might be in front of a damn near empty crowd again. We’ll see. But I wouldn’t miss it for the world. No way. I might wake up the next day with more comments on my Facebook.