Paper Diamond and Christian Rich featuring Angela McCluskey “XIX”
Paper Diamond are preparing to release a new EP Paragon on April 16th. The lead single is is “XIX” featuring Christian Rich and Angela McCluskey. The video deals with a husband, wife, and mistress. We begin with our guilty husband sitting at the dining room table. His wife hands him a cup filled with either coffee or tea. It’s really your call. She then goes to answer the door. The mistress sees the wife, and nervously returns a scarf and coat that she won’t be needing on her scurry home. The wife collects these items and shuts the door returning to the dining room. After blowing out the one, solitary candle she walks over to her husband who is now leaning lifeless on the table. She works fast. She covers him with the coat, collects his cup and makes her way to the living room. Kicking her feet up, she wraps herself in the scarf and appears to be ready to finish whatever is in that cup. I think we have a classic murder suicide here. In mythology Perseus is said to have obtained the most powerful weapon in the world when he cut off Medusa’s head. I think the Greeks had it right. There is little more dangerous than a woman’s head when it is put to bad use.
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Primal Scream “It’s Alright, It’s OK”
Primal Scream has released the lead track from their upcoming album More Light due out on May 13th. The track is called “It’s Alright, It’s OK”. The video is shot in black and white and jumps between two ongoing events. One is a performance of Primal Scream in a small apartment of sorts. The other shows footage that could be taken as a film depicting life back during the Civil Rights Movement. We follow a young black man with full afro and some nice shades. I think my favorite scene is when he just walks right through the middle of a touch football game being played in the street. He does it on purpose just to be an ass. He basically spends the rest of the video walking around looking for something. I’m going to say drugs, not because of his skin color but because he doesn’t seem to have any other purpose. Well, at one point he does try to strike a conversation with a woman. She seems to turn him away quickly. It’s
like Primal Scream let us know, it’s alright, it’s ok.
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Eddy B “Paper”
As North Carolina rapper Eddy B prepares to release his first solo album Hopeless Act we get to see a different side to him in his video for “Paper”. Eddy B takes off in his beat up white Chevy driving down the streets of, I presume North Carolina. He pulls up to a convenience market where he enters and the white cashier seems to be very suspicious. Here’s where the twist comes. Eddy B is typically the good kid. Not this time. He pulls stalkings over his face and robs the cashier at gunpoint. He grabs the bag, runs to his car, and drives home. Upon getting home he goes to empty the contents of his duffel bag onto his bed. He finds out that he has been tricked. Instead of money, the cashier filled his bag with Ramen Noodles. An exasperated Eddy B sits on the floor and buries his head in his hands. He is interrupted by a phone call, and we are promised that this all will be continued. In a nutshell, I could see this really being the case. It’s not that I don’t think Eddy B is the type of person who cannot commit a crime. I just think crime is unnatural for him. He’s more the college attending rapper type. It’s just nice to know that so far, no one has gotten hurt.
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Dizzy Wright “Killem Wit Kindness”
Dizzy Wright is preparing to release a mixtape which he hasn’t named yet. The lead video from the mixtape is “Killem Wit Kindness”. The video demonstrates a dual mentality in the young rapper. If you listen to the lyrics you quickly get the sense of a man who is trying to change what it means to be a rapper as he tries to remain one while growing up. The video demonstrates that, too. We get shots of Dizzy sitting in an office behind a computer appearing to discuss how he feels with some comrades. We get shots of just Dizzy spitting his flow. We even get the shots of Dizzy smoking weed. In between all these we get shots of Dizzy with his kids. It shows the family man that he is and coincides with lyrics where he talks about wanting his kids to know that he was doing the best that he could, even if something sinister should happen such as his murder. He understands now that giving is important, but just as he raps he knows that those he has helped are “running out of favors.” It’s not often that you get a serious rap song, but here we get a Dizzy Wright who is dealing with the blurred line between reality and fantasy that rap creates. Dizzy’s got the right idea, you have to kill them with kindness.
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Polly Scattergood “Wanderlust”
As Polly Scattergood readies herself for the June 18th release of her album Arrows, we see the debut for her video “Wanderlust” featured on the album. The video can be described as layering. We start with a woman who seems to be doing a terrible job of trying to perform a very menial dance routine. What we see is that this is no dance. Every time she walks through the door on the right she walks back into her pattern of movement only we see more and more of what is happening around her. The duck she makes as she enters the room is necessary for the two arms that are extended out in front of her. The weird jump and turn to face the room with a push off in mid-air turns out to be her being pulled back by a man whom she shoves away. In one way, this is the perfect description of how one is to watch a play or movie, or tv show for that matter. You cannot on one viewing spy all that is happening in the scene. You have to watch it over and over. Alfred Hitchcock was notorious for wanting people to watch his movies multiple times, which is why he packed his scenes with so much stuff that you couldn’t possibly get it all in one take. And here’s where the title of the song, “Wanderlust”, sort of makes sense. If you find your mind wandering you miss everything that happens even though they have replayed it for you a million times. It’ll really test your ADD.
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