Ne-Yo - Part Of The List

Ne-Yo, will you please serenade me?? He sure has his way with his words.
New single from Ne-Yo which has been on repeat all day for me!

Gimmie Sympathy

Gimmie Sympathy new single from Metric.

It'll Knock You Down

Keri Hilson's new album In A Perfect World drops today! Here is her new video Knock You Down featuring Kanye (again!) and Ne-Yo.

Yezzy's a painter?!?! Told you he was Manet! Haha

ear candy

Thought I'd share a few songs that are currently on repeat on the pod.

1. The Dream featuring Rihanna - Livin' A Lie

2. N.A.S.A. featuring Kanye West, Santogold, and Lykki Li - Gifted

3. John Legend - Lay You're Head Down

There are no actual videos released for these songs yet so enjoy these fan made youtube videos. I Hope you enjoy em!

Artist as Subject

When I should have been reading about Manet and an article by James Rubin entitled The Artist as Subject: the Paris of Édouard Manet. I actually went on a blog break and came across this wicked Kanye West video for his song Heartless. It’s not his next single, Amazing will be. He is dropping the idea since there’s another video out there that’s doing the same technique.

I had this idea to relate Kanye West to Impressionist painter Édouard Manet in order to relieve my guilt for procrastination. In my research I found that both approach the expression of art in a similar fashion. Manet took his own world as subject matter for painting, declaring a social position and artistic attitude much like Courbet. Manet’s art had captured something of a modern consciousness where his visual and social experiences were coextensive. He referred to his hometown and always put his origins and loyalties on display. Manet’s name was associated with radical, avant-garde destruction to tradition and throughout the decade received lots of criticism for his painting style, particularly for his paintings Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia. Manet painted with Monet and Renoir at Argenteuil where they influenced each other a lot and shared an interest in modern subject. A critic named Louis Gonse considered Manet to be the "father of modernism."

Édouard Manet - Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia (1863)

If you really think about it Kanye West is not so different in producing music and clothing instead of paintings. His lyrics are similar in Manet’s subject matter in that he rhymes about what he’s about and his experiences and loyalties. His recent album 808s & Heartbreak pushes the boundaries of what is considered to be acceptable in rap music. On the subject of criticism, Kanye has been dubbed “Mr. Controversial” and has received a plethora of criticism during his career about his political lyrics and his memorable Bush line during the Hurricane Katrina fundraiser.

Kanye West’s music videos are an art form of their own. They are iconoclastic and innovative going above and beyond to produce an effective visual to illustrate what he raps (or sings) about. Like any artist they become influenced by their peers and their environment this is not any different in the hip-hop world. Kanye has been influenced by producer RZA from Wu-Tang Clan, Daft Punk, Michael Jackson, and Jay Z just to name a few. He has worked with numerous artists throughout his career who have shared his creative vision and have integrated it into their works of art. Kanye West has been considered to be one of the most commercially successful "back-pack" rappers. (Back-pack rapper: Person who raps about real life stuff that matters and his experiences. He is true to himself while rapping and uses his head and heart to write not simply with a pen and producing meaningless words). Perhaps Kanye West is our modern day Manet?

So there you have it: Art history meets Hip-hop. I wonder if Professor Carney would appreciate my juxtaposition? McCleary would for sure!

Images
1. en.wikipedia.org
2 & 3. fadis.com
4. prettymuchamazing.com
5. youtube.com (Screenshot of a fanmade typographic video for Amazing)

G is for Gangsterism

Is there anything better than T.I. and Justin Timberlake together?? Noope! Finally the new music video for their single - Dead and Gone.
Enjoy!

My posts are all over the place today ranging from ladies to gangsters!
Variety is the spice of life right?

Swagger Like Us

Source: www.grammy.com

Source: www.mtv.com

This was the only reason why I actually watched the 51st Grammy awards on Sunday to see Kanye West, T.I. (whom I'm kind of sort of obsessed with right now!) Jay Z, Lil Wayne and (a very preggers) M.I.A perform Swagger Like Us. They also won the Grammy for best rap performance by a duo or group. To see these hip-hop moguls on stage together is something that probably won't happen again. It wasn't amazing but it was good and I was a fan of their outfits. They were very well put together except for M.I.A but she's M.I.A so she can get away with anything. Kanye was sporting some crazy back in the day hair which we decided only he could pull off.

A Little Bit in Love with Lykke Li

Thank you Sweden for giving us another one of your lovable imports aside from H&M and Ikea (I know, I know Sweden is known for so much more!). Sweden has made their mark on the music map with pop/indie/electronic/alternative singer Lykke (apparently pronounced Luk-kah) Li.

On Friday February 6th 2009 Lykke Li performed in front of hundreds at the Phoenix concert hall. I had the lucky opportunity to be 4 rows away from the stage and had a pretty good view thanks to my wonderful friend Angela for casually pushing her way through the crowd (and you can bet we had a few angry patrons lol! But this was all forgotten as soon as Lykke Li hit the stage). This is Lykke Li’s second time in Toronto but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to her first show.

She puts on a fun, passionate, soulful and energetic show. I think only Lykke Li can put together a show where she incorporates the use of a kazoo, megaphone, mini portable electric piano, and bangs on the drum during her performance. I think she wanted to show the audience that she is more than just a pretty face and has all these wonderful little talents. The show had a very intimate feel complete with her cute Swedish band accompanying her. Lykke Li was moving and jumping around all over the stage with her signature arm moves and robotic dance style that I have become familiar with in her videos (See: I’m Good I’m Gone and Little Bit).

One of the highlights of the show was when she did a cover of Lil Wayne’s A Milli. The lyrics were hard to hear as the crowd was overcome with excitement and she went beat crazy on the drums. She also did a Kings of Leon song and gave her guests a special gift of singing us a song from her upcoming album. You can check out the video here:

I loved Lykke Li’s outfit but was wondering how she was dealing with the temperature. She wore a black tunic and this long black scarf with pleats and ruffles which can be seen in the photos, complete with black opaque stockings and Doc martins. I totally want that scarf!

Hearing her belt out her ballads including Little Bit, Tonight, Everybody but me sounded even better live. Her soft sweet voice adds an innocence to her music. It was almost rather haunting but enjoyable and I and the other Lykke fans couldn’t help but sing along and really try to feel the emotions and her wicked dance moves.

Despite the lack of energy some of the crowd possessed I must say I enjoyed her a lot. All in all it was a really good concert and made me appreciate Lykke Li “a little bit” more. I can’t wait to see her grow and evolve as an artist. For those of you who haven’t heard of Lykke Li you can check her out at: http://www.lykkeli.com/.

More photos after the jump! There would have been more videos but blogger takes forever to upload! If there's a faster way please let me know!