Tag Archives: rapper

EVENT
Ujamaa Presents: Joey Bada$$ featuring Project Sterling and E.Oks

McKenzii Webster ’13 invites you to hear your word-wise peers rub elbows with some old-school hip-hop (featured on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”):

Joey Bada$$, a 17-year old rhyme slayer, is on the come up! He is a member of Pro.Era, a group of talented Brooklyn MCs. He is signed to Cinematic Music Group (home to Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA, Fat Trel, and SO MANY MORE) and has recently inked a deal with Green Label Sound. Joey dropped his highly acclaimed mixtape ‘1999’ this Summer, and the buzz surrounding it has yet to die.

Joey will be performing at Psi U on Friday!!! Project Sterling (Eric Wilson ’15) and E.Oks (Evan Okun ’13) will be opening!

Date: Friday, November 9
Time: 10 pm-12 am  (Doors open at 9:30 pm and will close at 10:30 pm)
Place: Psi U
Cost: FREE!!

FEATURED
Le1f ’11 “Gettin’ Light in his Loafers” in Debut Video

“I make a neo-nazi kamikaze wanna firebomb.”

It’s official: Wesleyan’s own Le1f is da bomb diggity and he’s got ya moms feelin’ him.

New York’s pioneering queer-rap personality went by Khalif Diouf ’11 at Wesleyan and drew heated acclaim last spring for his Dark York mixtape, which FADER called “one of the most provocative rap releases so far this year.” This week, Le1f dropped his debut video, and it’s probably the most outrageously booty-shaking YouTube spot this side of Big Freedia’s “Y’all Get Back Now.”

Highlights include shots of the bold rapper swinging from the ceiling like a bat, spitting speed rhymes from the lap of a Picachu-masked stranger, and shaking his scantily clad booty in many directions.  (Not coincidentally, Le1f opened up for the Booty Queen herself in Eclectic last April.) Directed by Sam Jones ’10 and produced by Josh Koenig ’09 (and featuring a few other alums along the way), the video has clear viral potential, but the track’s no slacker on its own, offering up an infectious horn-honk of a groove that stutters lightly over Le1f’s grimy drum claps and deep-voiced chant of a hook.

Is this Le1f’s big break?

Continue reading →

MUSIC
Bernstein ’10 Directs, Produces Hip Hop Video

PRISM from Ben Bernstein on Vimeo.

Ben Bernstein ’10, better known round this blog as the esteemed (and dearly missed) B C B, has made a successful foray into the cutthroat world of hip hop video production!

You might remember Bernstein for “Bad Island,” his senior thesis slash opera, or his work with the bands Cous Cous and Decora. More recently, Bernstein completed a video for up-and-coming-but-not-quite-googlable rapper Jared (“I was so compelled hearing how adventurous this rap is that I wanted to make the video”), and it’s got more WesKids than Jamaica’s got mangos. More specifically: Gianna Palmer ’10 co-stars, Brian Papish ’10 worked on cinematography, and Bernstein directed and produced. The video was entirely shot in some “weird little outdoor park” in Crown Heights; it contains a lot of chess, and I’m pretty sure Jared mentions tubgirl in the lyrics. Make of that what you will.

“Keep up the good fight,” Bernstein adds. “We salute you down in Brooklyn!”