Original Artwork: Oliver Barrett

For those unfamiliar with Detroit’s Red Pill, just know it’s not too late. He’s a force to be reckoned with, offering nothing short of brutal honesty and sincerity on records for years now. A lot of heads jumped on board and took notice after Ugly Heroes (Apollo Brown, Verbal Kent & Red Pill) formed and released their acclaimed, self-titled Lp in 2013. After a line up of successful works alongside Brown and Kent, he proved that he is more than equipped to deliver quality solo projects as well. With that being said, Red Pill is set to release his solo debut via Mello Music Group on April 7th titled Look What This World Did To Us. Below you can check out his latest visual for “Rap Game Cranky,” and see what he has to say about it.

One thing fans generally note is your content on records and your brutally honest lyrics. You really dig into the blue collar background and touch on a lot of struggles everyday folks can relate to. Can you elaborate on that a little bit for us?

Yeah man, I mean that’s how I grew up in Michigan. That’s the way we live here. We work and we go through stuff, and deal with things. People all over the place go through this type of stuff. Most of us don’t come from money and stuff like that. So, for me to write about anything different would be crazy. I’m glad the content resonates.

Ugly Heroes is quite the group. You three really put out some quality material these past couple years that the masses responded beyond well to. How did you three come about and join forces exactly?

I initially met Apollo Brown around 2010 at a local beat battle event in Michigan that I was asked to be a judge at. I knew of his work prior to meeting him and was definitely looking forward to it. I gave him a copy of a project I had out that I pressed up at the time. He didn’t pay me much attention really, which is totally cool and understandable (laughs). Probably about a year later we met again at a going away party for a mutual friend of ours, where we chopped it up some more. Not too long after we fully connected and he asked me to do the “This Is Life” record. He was impressed, and shortly after this led into doing the whole Ugly Heroes project. It’s funny because I was not too familiar with Verbal Kent prior to this project forming, so we got to know each other on the spot more or less. It was all a part of Apollo Brown’s plan that worked out beautifully, and I’m grateful for it.

You’ve been running alongside Mello Music Group now for a little while, which is arguably one of the best, most authentic labels on the scene currently. Fans have built serious trust around them and for you to be apart of this is a blessing. Can you talk a little bit about your experience working alongside them?

Mello Music group is all about the art, which I respect the hell out of. It’s not about the dollar with them. The creativity and quality of the product is what matters here. That’s not to say the artists aren’t taken care of, because we are. But yeah man, it has been an amazing ride so far. I hope that my career starts and ends with Mello Music Group.

What should we be expecting with your new solo debut dropping April 7th? The few records you have released are all stellar and it gives fans a good idea of what to expect, but we want to hear more. Are you looking forward to the release?

It’s jazzy, man – kind of different. It’s still a general boom-bap sound and straight forward delivery. I had a lot of goals with this record, and the fact that it’s my first solo release under Mello is an important career accomplishment. I did my thing with Ugly Heroes, and I love all of that. But this is moving forward and allowing me to really put my own stamp on something which is important to me. It’s the most complete project I have ever worked on. I want this to be something that fans sit down with and run front to back, and there is an experience that happens with it. This is my best work to date for sure.

Since we are featuring the newer “Rap Game Cranky” video do you mind talking a little bit about this record? It’s almost depressing, in a beautiful sense of course. I think a lot of people can relate to this track, and setting, on so many levels.

The record is a little depressing, and like you said I hope in a good way (laughs). It was a time in my life when I was going through some stuff; a mild depression I was experiencing that hadn’t came along in a while. Some of the stuff I wrote while going through it, and some of it was written after the fact. I touch on alcoholism on the record, as well as on previous records, and I hope it helps in some fashion for people going through it. It was less about glorifying it, and more just reality from my perspective.

Don’t forget to get your pre-order by the time you close out this article. Also, Red Pill has a few live performances coming up: Majestic Café in Detriot, MI (3/27) and The Loving Touch in Ferndale, MI (4/3). If you are in the area you probably shouldn’t miss him bless the stage. Hard copies of the new Lp will be available at The Loving Touch show. For more information on the locations and general concerns, hit up Red Pill’s Facebook page here. Lastly, Mello Music Group just released their latest compilation project ‘Persona’, with features from Red Pill, Apollo Brown, Oddisee, Ras Kass, Masta Ace, Quelle Chris, yU and more. It’s beyond loaded, so definitely check that out below right now. Peace and love, world.

The post Red Pill Discusses Upcoming Album, Working With Mello Music Group & Inspirations appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Photo By: Julia Schur

Exhausted. That’s what 20 year-old, rap-phenom Chancelor Bennett, aka Chance The Rapper, should be by now. It all started when he dropped the video for his single “Juice”  on January 31st. A few short months later, Chance dropped Acid Rap, a mixtape that’s both critically adored and wildly popular in the hip-hop blogosphere and beyond. As you probably know, Acid Rap propelled Chance into space. This summer he toured the world and opened with some of rap’s biggest names, from Eminem to Macklemore to Kendrick Lamar to Odd Future; recorded songs with both megastars (‘You Song’ on Lil Wayne’s Dedication 5’ and up-and-comers (‘Wendy N’ Becky’ with Joey BadA$$); and went on his own country-wide tour, the Social Experiment Tour, which spanned 30 cities in just under 2 months – it just ended on December 7th.

Last Monday night, on one of his final dates of the tour, Chance arrived at Oberlin College – a small liberal college, home to just under 3,000 students, located 35 minutes west of Cleveland, Ohio – and took the stage at the Dionysus Disco. The ‘Sco is in the basement of Oberlin’s Student Union and is fully equipped with a half-bar, slightly usable restrooms, a stage fit for a children’s church choir, and capacity for 250-300 uncomfortable people. In other words, it’s not exactly a place you’d expect the next big thing in hip-hop to be performing at. You’d expect Chance to at least be in Cleveland, possibly at the House of Blues, or maybe even the Grog Shop or Peabody’s. But no, sitting in a not-so-hidden parking lot right next door to ‘Sco was Chance‘s tour “bus,” a mini-van with “Acid Rap” detailed into the sides.  But though his bus wasn’t a marvel, he’d nonetheless been selling out shows in nearly every city he’s been to; everyone – hip-hop heads, hipsters,  word nerds, smokers, groupies, and generally curious individuals – has been clamoring to see this kid from the Windy City.

Accordingly, here he was, performing in the basement of a liberal arts college’s student center, in Ohio, early in December, as his first country-wide headlining tour was winding down. He didn’t have to leave his heart on the stage, he didn’t have to perform like this was his first show, he didn’t have to bring those Michael Jackson-esque dance moves that he’s been busting for the last six months, and he didn’t have to give not one, but two encore performances. He should’ve been tired, he should’ve been beaten down by the road, the studio and the shows. He should have been exhausted. Alas, somehow he was not.

When you play Acid Rap through your car speakers, or in your headphones, the tape is beautiful and bloated. The cover art is a cartoonish picture of Chance, lost in the woods, surrounded by his trippy world, and that’s exactly how the tape plays out. You never fully know where he’s going, but it’s worth the ride. The mixtape oscillates between stratospheric highs and painfully grounded lows. In a live setting, these dynamics are exploded even further. The Chicago acid jazz that influenced the mixtape is as important to the live show as Chance is. Chance frequently gave the floor to the instrumentation as often as he did himself, and the jazz vibe of the show made the emotional intimacy overwhelming. The complexity of Chance‘s songs really plays out a bit more raw in person. This tape is rejuvenating on record, but in a live setting, it’s actually kind of exhausting. Well, it was for the crowd. Chance himself? He just kept on going.

People used to – and still do – complain about seeing Lauryn Hill live because she would take her powerful, soulful songs and turn them into electro-future tracks. Fans wanted the hits, and they weren’t getting them – at least not the way they sound on her album. Chance flips the Lauryn approach on it’s head; where Hill changed her songs, and removed much of what made them soulful, Chance doubles down and super-sizes the soul. There’s trumpet solos by Nico Segal, there’s James Brown-meets-Footwork dance breaks, and on more than one occasion it felt like Chance was going to either breakdown crying or pass out on the spot. Live instrumentation has a way of doing that, especially when soul is involved. In fact, this set was soulful that it transformed the ‘Sco from a basement at a small liberal arts school to a speakeasy playing the latest and coolest jazz. On that stage, Chance wasn’t the latest incarnation of Kanye or Andre. Nah. Chance was the reincarnation Howlin’ Wolf, cooing at the moon, controlling the crowd, feeling every note, every word.

It felt unfair to have this boiling pot of talent trapped in a basement with a  handful of fans jumping and screaming every word to every song, but at the same time it felt so right. When he finished that show, and the tour, it felt like things were winding down for the young kid from Chicago. It felt like he was just finishing one of the longest, most successful, and hardest working years in hip-hop. It was as if he had just finished a marathon. And at the end of the night, as he closed the show with “Chain Smoker,” we felt like that was the moment he would finally give in. We thought the lights would go down, the curtain would fall and he would collapse, exhausted. Instead,  it felt like Chance the Rapper was just getting started.

The post Howlin’ Wolf is Back: A Concert Review and Reflection on Chance The Rapper’s Marathon Year appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Young Phil Post keeps it gutta with this new dertbag Brick Season 2012-2013 collection. Check out the “beware of the kufi smacka” lookbook video and more product shots below. Then head over to dertbag’s online shop as soon as you can to score some gear.

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The post dertbag Brick Season 2013 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Haroshi is back, and the Jonathan Levine Gallery is providing him an outlet in 2013. This gallery has a skill for showing some of the greatest and most unique contemporary artists.

Vinz

DALeast

The gallery brings street artist such as Vinz and DALeast and now this Japanese artist who recycles used skateboards into innovative sculpture. With a deep understanding of shape and movement, this is the exhibit to go see to start off 2013 on a creative note!

“Virtual Reality” opens January 12 and runs through February 9.

Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 W. 20th St., 9th Floor
New York, NY 10011
United States

The post Haroshi’s Virtual Reality Hits the Gallery appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.