When Nas dropped his album Hip Hop is Dead, and speculation swirled that it actually was, our Jason Newport came back with an argument for its enduring success:
…Hip-Hop is dynamic. It is often reduced to being widely known simply as a music genre, but it is not synonymous with rap music. It is a lifestyle and perhaps the most significant cross-cultural influence.
America and the rest of the world have borrowed and will continue to borrow from Hip-Hop’s forward-thinking and unique fashion sense, vernacular, and swagger. Hip-Hop remains the cornerstone of cool and if it was dead, the inspiration behind the bulk of consumable mass media would experience a similar fate. Not to mention mass media would need to sniff out a fresh food-feeding hand to bite.
Now a stunning new video from Kanye (excuse me, Mr.) West provides a perfect example of this.
This video for “Stronger” recreates scenes from the Anime movie classic Akira in live-action. Most rap videos all draw from the same script: booties, bling, and blatant cell phone placement. This one, directed by the legendary Hype Williams, has a futuristic, highly-stylized feel that is completely unexpected. The song also samples Parisian Punk Electronic superstars Daft Punk’s hit “Harder, Faster, Stronger.” (These genre mashups are becoming more and more popular on mixtapes, it’s cool to see an artist getting ahead of the curve.)
The fusion of Asian culture and Hip-Hop has been brewing for years in fashion, and this takes it one step further. Mr. West’s visionary mashups show that Hip-Hop is not a trend, but a trend beacon whose influence can transcend cultural, geographical, and industrial boundaries.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Paul // Jul 26, 2007 at 2:28 am
Dude,
You need to check out the original Daft Punk video.
Kayne is the king of the rip-off (albeit a talented one!).
2 Katana // Aug 29, 2007 at 12:34 am
It would be appreciated if you checked the facts before creating such a post. In fact its Daft Punk who created this, and Kanye (conveniently) failed to name them. A little credit where it’s due would be nice.
Leave a Comment