One of the standout tracks from the “You Wouldn’t Know” EP gets some beautiful imagery to pair the vocals: the MC collaborating with director Bertrand Touchard (InDaProd) to create a versatile mix of visuals ranging from Aaron performing in an all-black room to a somber room full of balloons and party favors floating around Aaron as he holds a glass of wine in his hand.

These are some of the best visuals yet from the up-and-coming MC. This won’t be the last time you’ll be seeing the ICK leader. Here’s what Aaron had to say about the project:

“I feel like rappers tend to glorify their vices rather than speak on them realistically. L.E.G. is kind of about the flip side to the drugs, women and money. Yes, the shit’s fun, I want all of that stuff too, but people end up unhappy cause they’re chasing a fantasy. Myself included.”

The post New Video: Aaron Cohen – “L.E.G. (Lust, Envy, Greed)” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

The Duck Down Records latest signee Chelsea Reject has had a lot of changes in her life in the past couple of months. Fresh from inking with Buckshot’s independent label, Reject has been busy opening up for Jay Electronica at the A3C Festival and opening on a couple of dates of the The Smokers Club Tour alongside Method Man & Redman, B-Real (of Cypress Hill), Berner and Mick Jenkins.

It’s been a long way coming for Chelsea Reject’s career. I first caught wind of the Brooklyn-bred MC in early 2011 at a Lyve Life showcase Dyme-a-Duzin used to put together, and she’s been bubbling ever since.

Three years later, her latest video “Everything’s Change” is setting up the release of her full-length project “CMPLX” due sometime this year. The video itself has a real spacey vibe to its aesthetic, the smooth jazz instrumental blends well with Chelsea’s laid-back flow as she spits about all the changes going around her including friends, passion, and the desire for artistic growth. Here’s what Reject had to say about the video:

“Everything’s Change” is about life and seasons and how “change” is the only consistent thing I know. Somehow it’s still the same shit.

Check out the latest visual and let us know what you think!

The post New Video: Chelsea Reject – “Everything’s Change” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Washington D.C.’s fat fool takes on a popular track from Dom Kennedy‘s Yellow Album. Fat Trel‘s lazy yet cocky flow fits well to the “My Type of Party” instrumental delivering lines like, “Her girlfriend on my shoulder. I think she heard what I told her. That if you coming to my party I’m going to need you to pop this molly.” You can catch Fat Trel on The Smoker’s Club Tour with Juicy J, Chevy Woods, Smoke Dza, and more.

The post Fat Trel Freestyles over Dom Kennedy’s “My Type of Party” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

RESPECT.‘s Peter Marrack got out to the Smoker’s Club Tour in downtown Toronto, and reports back with his findings…

In an old BBC interview documenting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, late American author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson remarks, “I have no idea whether you think you’re making a film about [Raoul] Duke [Thompson’s fiction character/ego] or Thompson… I’m never sure which one people expect me to be, and very often they conflict… I’m really in the way as a person. The myth has taken over… I’m not only no longer necessary, I’m in the way. It would be much better if I died.” Which is exactly what HST did in the Forward to The Great Shark Hunt, a collection of his finest works. HST’s Raoul Duke character, the drug-enticed meddler with a freakish appetite for the Truth, who starred in Fear and Loathing, and a number of earlier Thompson works, had finally exhausted itself, and exhausted Thompson as a person. HST continually felt pressure to do drugs, behave erratically, and drink to the excess, in order to satisfy the image/brand he had created for himself in Duke. The two entities ultimately crossed, or rather, the man and the monster became one.

A similar affliction, the adjoining of man and his image, can be witnessed in the world of hip-hop, where artists like Rick Ross are pressured to behave like their musical personas, whether that means packing guns, doing drugs, or even assaulting people. Right around the time the hip-hop community, spearheaded by 50 Cent, accused Rick Ross of assuming a fraudulent stage identity, channeling former drug kingpin Freeway Rick Ross, Ricky Rozay ordered a violent assault on popular DJ and hip-hop personality, DJ Vlad, who suffered nerve damage as a result of the incident. I have to question, was this William Leonard Roberts II (Ross’s government name) who ordered the assault on DJ Vlad, or was it a desperate rapper looking to regain credibility by personifying the character he created for himself? In other words, where’s the fine line between man and his myth, and where do the two identities intersect? These are no doubt valiant questions to be considered within the realm of hip-hop culture… so as to provide insight into the stage presences of rappers like Method Man, who have spent so much time on-stage over the years that their identities, personal and public, have become almost inseparable, a la Hunter S. Thompson.

When my intern (and botanist) Drago and I arrived at the Kool Haus in downtown Toronto, to cover the Smoker’s Club Tour presentation of Smoke DZA, Big K.R.I.T., Curren$y, and Method Man, we immediately crowded the press booth to receive our badges. Of course, there was no record of any correspondence between RESPECT. and the press office, besides written proof I held in the palm of my hand, on my BlackBerry. After several minutes of hassling, “RESPECT.?” “You’re from RESPECT.?” “Don’t they operate out of New York City?”, we finally received our deserved badges, two photography access passes, although neither Drago or I carried suitable SLR cameras. After all, I am a writer, sometimes a journalist, and at hip-hop shows, or really any musical performance, journalists are treated like villains. And not even cool villains, like the Joker or the Sandman, but pests, rodents, cockroaches, vile rapper-wannabes capable of exposing the ugly and not-so-glamorous side of the hip-hop hustle, rap racket, per se.

Once inside the venue, Drago and I approached the merchandise booth, which displayed an assortment of JETS, Wu-Tang, and Big K.R.I.T. gear, along with a brand out of New Orleans, sponsored by Curren$y and his crew, called Sikkis Clothing. After some friendly debate and shirt sizing, I strolled away from the booth with a new green Sikkis tee… almost on the house, as I strolled away from the merch dude without paying. “I wondered whether you were gonna pay the guy,” chuckled Drago, but my attention, rather my ear, had already realigned itself with the stage, and one surprise performer I recognized from his Reagan-era drug anthem, “Light Up”. Rich Hil, dressed in a vintage Led Zeppelin tee, green army slacks, black boots, and dirty brown locks down to his shoulders, rocked the crowd with a suspicious amount of hype, reminiscent of his basshead buddy The Weeknd. Rich Hil performed “Be Here”, “Light Up”, and two unreleased Lex Luger records, one on which Hil refrains, “ring-a-ring-a-roses, a pocket full of posies.” It’s an infectious jam. When I ran into Rich backstage, adorning a shiny black Support Your Local Drug Dealer jacket, led by his beautiful girlfriend Krystal Martos, he paced a straight line to the tour van, halting briefly to say ‘what up’ to an opening act from Toronto, who was handing out free tapes to the headliners backstage. Rich turned out to be the only performer to give the dude a morsel of his attention, while the rest of the crews pretended he didn’t exist.

While backstage, I also managed to approach Dutch, manager to the JETS, as I had previously organized an interview with Curren$y’s homie and tour-mate, Trademark Da Skydiver, an impressive stoner emcee responsible for a string of mixtapes entitled, Issue #1, #2, and #3. Trademark lumbered off the JETS tour bus high as a bird (I doubt from second-hand cocaine powder), and proceeded to humor me with a relatively inconclusive interview. He even refused to smoke a free Canadian doobie… not to say I still don’t fuck with the dude. Here’s how the interview went down:

I wanted to ask you, I talked to Lex Luger about two months ago or so, and he said you were his boy, you guys were working on something.

Yeah.

I haven’t heard any of them yet.

Actually I got caught in doing a project, me and Roddy working on a project now, coming out November 29th.

Yeah, Jet Life.

Yeah. But me and Lex definitely cool. That’s my dude, you know what I’m saying. We definitely going to cook up some shit and make it happen. Because I got caught up with the Jet Life shit, so I had to tackle that, but definitely, be on the lookout for some Trademark and Lex Luger shit, for sure.

Yeah, he told me and I was pumped, because you guys go hard on the “B.M.F.” record.

Word, word. Definitely.

You guys smoke any Canadian weed yet?

Yeah, man. Beaver Kush. Yeah, I’m stoned right now.

Besides Jet Life, you working on anything else?

Yeah, I’m working on a solo mixtape, dropping for free. I’ll be working on Issue #4 to come out sometime in February.

Back inside the Kool Haus, a relatively large venue along Queen’s Quay, done up in all-black with a neon marquee, Smoke DZA nursed an extra-large doobie, warming up for his set. Unfortunately, Big K.R.I.T. would be a no-show in Toronto, for reasons I’m still unsure of… So DZA, dressed in dark blue denim, a grey concert hoodie, and a winter toque with ear flaps, took to the stage next, rocking the floor with one of the heaviest, knocking beats of the night, the Lex Luger-produced banger, “Loaded”. As expected, a handful of Lex Luger beats, The Alchemist-produced “BBS” off Curren$y’s Covert Coup, and pretty much every RZA beat, trounced the speakers and commanded the audience better than the lesser-known productions, and for good reason.

Next to perform was fan-favorite Curren$y, along with Young Roddy, Trademark Da Skydiver, and Smoke DZA, who was invited to stick around for the entire JETS gig. Rolled out on the stage prior to the performance was a large suede couch, as well as three projection screens designed to mimic Curren$y’s living room back home… as the New Orleans emcee wore a cast and could not stand up on his own two feet. It’s definitely a testament to the talented emcee when charisma alone, minus the physicality of bounding around stage, can carry a performance, which Curren$y succeeded in doing. Throughout a sufficiently-tight set, drawing from both Pilot Talk’s, “King Kong”, “Michael Knight”, “Hold On”, Covert Coup, “BBS”, among others, Weekend at Burnie’s, the DJ Drama-assisted Verde Terrace, and Smokey Robinson, Curren$y invited some of the most-animated and cutest girls from the crowd to join him up on the couch. Two of the chicks, an asian broad in a cut-off that exposed her brown tummy and bellybutton piercing, and her co-conspirator, a tipsy brunette with black nylons, gyrated together on-stage, grinding to the groovy tunes of Ski Beatz and co., threatening tour fixers with a potential repeat of the Akon fiasco from 2007. Nonetheless, Curren$y’s profound charisma and commanding personality kept the increasingly-raucous crowd at bay, even as the real hip-hop heads yearned for that nostalgic Wu energy they’d dropped 40 bucks online or at the door to witness. Unfortunately, it would be another hour or so before Tical blessed them with his presence, as he was caught up on the tour bus. Would ish be worth the wait?

For members of the press, yes. After all, we are free to travel between the floor and backstage – where none of the silly pedestrian rules apply, like No Smoking or No Unlawful Exposure. Those privileged enough to land an all-access press badge, which I got bumped up to after interviewing Trademark, can lawfully run amok backstage, as well as report back to their non-press buddies who want the headliner’s ETA. You know a show’s about to pop off when an artist’s manager and crew begin to linger stage-side.

When Method Man’s DJ and manager arrived backstage at the Kool Haus, I was on my way into a corridor which led to the dressing rooms, and nearly collided with DJ Allah Mathematics. Allah is an occasional producer, and official DJ for the Wu-Tang Clan. Trailing behind Allah was a short Southeast Asian gentleman, and a black woman wearing heels, who would have been Meth’s management. They appeared professional and composed. By this point, I could feel a buzz sweeping over the building, as Meth finally entered the venue. I hurried back to the photo pit to meet Drago, and we awaited Meth’s arrival on-stage. Glancing around, the crowd dynamics had changed dramatically from the end of the JETS set, as a more mature and malnourished Wu following replaced the teenie bangers who often show up for any Curren$y, Big Sean, Mac Miller, or Wiz Khalifa show.

Google Images search: Wiz Khalifa fan

It was an electric feeling when Method Man finally burst on-stage at the Kool Haus, dressed in frayed denim, a Champion hoodie, and a New Era cap fitted over his navy do-rag. Meth was accompanied on-stage by fellow Wu-member and hype-man, Streetlife, whose baggy army slacks and buckwheat boots I immediately wanted. Meth proceeded to launch into a set of bangers and crowd pleasers, including “All I Need”, “What the Blood Clot”, a couple from Blackout! and Blackout! 2, as well as some Wu records, and a brief tribute to ODB, during which the crowd sung a cappella to “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and “Got Your Money”. However, the most impressive part of the show had to be the interludes, when Meth got the entire building chanting along along with him, “All the ladies in the house say ‘Heyo!’, say ‘Ho! Ho!’”. Or when Allah Mathematics demonstrated his scratching game by tying his shoelaces on the turntables. Or heck, when Meth did the front flip over the pit and landed in the audience. Or when he puffed on a joint, held it on his tongue, appeared to swallow, blew smoke out his nose, and regurgitated the doobie back between his lips. Hell, even Meth’s dancing was worth the price of admission. I could go on forever about the God’s performance expertise, his on-stage bag of tricks, or how I felt guilty about lowering my lighter when Meth ordered the crowd to keep them raised to the sky. I figured I was letting the God down. After all, he had been suffering from food poisoning all day, and now he was sweating buckets, looking (relatively) pale and feverish. Least the audience could do was jump around when the Wu God commanded, right?

If you responded ‘yes’, then you’re probably amongst that clan of five-percenters who believe Method Man is the true embodiment of hip-hop. Meth is raw, mean, uncensored, abrasive. He smokes weed. His beaten-down face is a living testament to the trials and tribulations of oppressed New Yorkers during the 80s. The rageaholic narcissist Method Man portrays on-stage is merely an extension of his former self, Clifford Smith from Staten Island, who came out the bowels of New York already wise to the pre-requisites of hip-hop stardom: drugs, poverty, breakdancing, a love for music, and well, hoes. Artists like Hunter S. Thompson, on the other hand, gained notoriety in their profession by immersing themselves in a culture they were not sufficiently prepared for. For instance, Method Man may have experienced ample hustle-nomics in the hood to prep himself for the music biz, or label politics, however, HST had not experimented with enough hard drugs to hang with the Hells Angels, or LSD Guru Ken Kesey, and come out the other side unscathed. That’s probably why he got beaten to a pulp by a mob of Angels, and later became addicted to speed, mescaline, and acid. HST had created a character in himself – the drug pincher, hell raiser, masochist – who was far enough removed from his former self, that he no longer knew who he was. In other words, HST became his work (as opposed to his work coming from him). He became Raoul Duke, the infamous alter-ego from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, whom Hunter eventually tried to kill off in the Forward to The Great Shark Hunt. “So I suppose my plans are to figure out some new identity. I have to kill off one life, and start another one,” writes Thompson in his book, a line which often reminds me of Rick Ross’s metamorphosis from C.O. to cocaine kingpin. A potentially lethal morphing…

Deuces

Photography by Far Fetched Future

The post Op.Ed.: Smoker’s Club Tour Toronto appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Smoke DZA performed the Lexus Luger-produced banger, “Loaded”, Friday night at the Kool Haus in Toronto, part of the on-going Smoker’s Club Tour, which features DZA, Big K.R.I.T., Curren$y, and Method Man. The Luger-tailored trap beat is one of the hardest in Brick Squad‘s book of beats, especially live, especially in contrast to Smoke DZA‘s typical stoner grooves. The Alchemist and Lex Luger continue to hypnotize me live, not to mention The RZA‘s eerie underground piano keys and Samari samples.

Watch the video for Smoke DZA’s “Loaded”.

The post Op-Ed.: Biggest Hitting Lex Luger Beat, Live appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

It’s been a busy week for Spitta Andretti.  After breaking his ankle Saturday at Rock the Bells in LA some worried that Curren$y’s newest project, Verde Terrace, would be delayed, but rest assured the mixtape dropped on time earlier today.  As for Curren$y’s role in the upcoming Smoker’s Club Tour, his agent Mousa has assured fans that they plan to honor their commitment (the tour kicks off October 12th).  I digress though, the big news hook of the day still belongs to Spitta’s mixtape.

If you’ve been following Curren$y for any period of time, you’ll see that Verde Terrace is vintage Spitta.  Spitta’s bars are centerstage and upfront, but there is some interesting work put it on the production side of the project courtesy of DJ Drama.  Most of the beats on the New Orleans-bred emcee’s mixtape err on the side of mellow, but a few joints break from the mold.  To his credit, Curren$y’s last two projects (Weekend At Burnie’s prior to Verde Terrace) have included a good deal of variety beat-wise.  Nevertheless, the entirety of both projects make for easy listening.  Not that he needs an introduction, but to get you in the listening mood here are my top five tracks off Curren$y’s new mixtape.

Jet Business:  Curren$y spits some smooth bars over a beat to match on the second track of the album.  This joint brings a much more upbeat flow to the forefront, and provides a nice segue early on in the album.

“Spitta Mr. Been-On-That, switch the style up and let my Mini-Mes run that.”

Music To Ride To:  Much like their appearances on Weekend at Burnie’s, Young Roddy and Trademark come in with Curren$y to provide some much needed variety.  The trio puts in work on a fast-paced beat, but Spitta’s hook make the song.

“Got my mind on my money, and money on my mind.  I’m double-time on my hustle and all ya bitches mine.  It’s that ride-n-smoking music that you can smoke-n-ride to, other niggas try to do it, but they don’t sound like I do.”

One For Da Wave: This is Curren$y’s shortest offering on the album, but his flow is never at a premium.  Though some might criticize his one verse on this joint, an uninterrupted one-minute verse is tougher to come by then you might think.  Nonetheless, the track is sandwiched between two other bangers so it’s tough to find fault.

“Few styles been stolen, don’t think I haven’t noticed.  But a couple nuggets ain’t much to the fuckin’ grower.”

Run Dat Shit:  Middle of the album, time to drop a bomb.  Curren$y finds his zone on this one and murders a mellow beat in doing so.  Spitta has never been one to let the beat overshadow what he’s got to say.

“Never been one of those caught up in a fad, they say it out of style I bring that shit back.”

Sky Miles: This track has one of the tougher beats on the album, and Spitta’s collaboration with Willie the Kid provides the perfect contrast.  The duo’s bars meld over an energy charged beat that is sure to have you twisting your dials to the right.

“Ninja turtle marijuana, cut it down.  Leonardo’s katanas, we in town.”

Honorable Mention:

Crack BC (ft. Young Roddy): Any song that samples a Notorious B.I.G. joint will raise some eyebrows, but needs to bring some serious heat to back it up.  Curren$y steps aside to let Young Roddy do his thing on this track.  I would’ve loved to see Spitta take a stab at this joint, but given the fallout from Monica’s “Anything To Find You” maybe it’s better he didn’t.  Nevertheless, Roddy goes in on Biggie’s classic.  Tracks 7-10 are sure to have you head bumping along for the ride.

“Rule number one: no serving in front of cameras cuz that’s the quickest way to get you thrown in the slammer.”

Listen to and download the mixtape below:

The post Mixtape Review: Curren$y’s Verde Terrace appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

via HipHopDX

The Smoker’s Club Tour is getting prepped for its fall run.  Method Man will headline the tour, and joining him on the road are Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T and Smoke DZA.  Meth and company will be blazing a trail across the country with the tour set to finish in Allentown, PA on November 22nd.  Get your tickets soon, before you know it these guys will be lighting up your hometown.

Read more on the tour and check out the schedule HERE.

The post The Smoker’s Club Tour: Part Two appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.