1979. Le hip-hop fait ses premiers pas (Rapper’s Delight, de Sugar Hill Gang, vient de sortir), mais déjà le potentiel commercial du nouveau venu fait saliver les businessmen. Un journaliste du magazine musical Billboard, observateur de l’émergence d’une nouvelle scène urbaine new-yorkaise et bien au fait de la manne que représente le succès d’une chanson de Noël, met au point une version rappée du classique poème du XIX^e siècle A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Pour l’incarner, il fait appel à Kurtis Blow, un rappeur de Harlem qui monte.

La première chanson de Noël façon hip-hop est née. Cinq cent mille exemplaires vendus plus tard, le coup de poker est un tube, et Blow signe avec le label Mercury, devenant ainsi la première star du rap grand public. Quarante ans ont passé, le hip-hop est aujourd’hui le genre musical dominant, et ses figures les plus illustres comme ses artistes les plus obscurs se sont quasiment tous, un jour ou l’autre, essayé à la chanson de Noël. De Kanye West à Tyler, The Creator en passant par le regretté XXXTentacion… Jay-Z est, pour le moment, un des rares à avoir résisté à l’appel du carillon.

World Opinions News – lemonde.fr

L’article Quand le rap chante Noël.. Vidéo est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Since emerging earlier this year with his self-produced debut single, the skittering, jazz-flecked Imaginary Friends, 23-year-old rapper-singer Wesley Joseph has written, directed and scored his own short film, Pandomony, as well as directing the video for his undulating second single, Martyrs.

While he delegated the animated visuals for July’s glitchy Ghostin’ to Pixar’s former technical director Najeeb Tarazi, the video’s fusion of the hyperreal and the mundane marries purposefully with the intention of his music. “When you look back at life, the romanticised memories are… more poignant than the reality,” he told TheFace. “But music allows you to relive those moments as over-exaggerated, melodramatic soundbites. And I want to provide those soundbites.”

Born in Birmingham and raised in Walsall, where he was a member of the OG Horse collective alongside Jorja Smith, Joseph moved to London in 2016 to study film. He also started making beats on his laptop, converting his bedroom into a makeshift studio. That ad hoc, DIY ethos permeates everything he does, with the lyrics to Ghostin’ written quickly on the bus home from a session with the song’s producer, electronic pioneer Joy Orbison. He’s also working closely with Jai Paul associate Lexxx, who mixed his appropriately titled new single Thrilla. A heady fusion of bass-rupturing beats, warm organ and Joseph’s playful, André 3000-esque rapid-fire flow, it ends with a question: “Why don’t you call me?”. They probably assumed you’d be too busy, to be honest.

Thrilla is released on 16 Oct

By Michael Cragg – theguardian.com

L’article Music. One to watch: Wesley Joseph.. Video est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.