Weekly Artist Profile #1

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Wale.



No even though his fitted cap says NY, Wale Forlain is a 23 year old hip hop artist from Washington D.C. of all places. 2006 was Wale's breakout year as he dominated the Mid Atlantic from DC to Virginia with a slew of radio hits and captivating shows that edified his buzz. 2007 proved to be even more successful for Wale as he acquired press in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The Washington Post, all without a record deal. With substantial radio play in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, Wale also saw a great response from fans on both coasts by selling out shows in LA, New York, San Francisco, Philly, and Atlanta. Also in 2007, Wale took the European music scene by storm when he toured with famous DJ and musician Mark Ronson. His appeal was so great that he ended up signing a production deal with Ronson's Allido Records. With well over 2 million plays on Myspace and being sponsored by street wear companies such as Starr African Rum and LRG, Wale has become a hip hop and lifestyle phenomenon. He is one of the artists to look out for in 2008 and subsequent years to come.

Here is one of Wale's more popular songs from his third mixtape "100 Miles And Running"

And the Grammy goes to the...vocoder?!

Now you no doubt have heard of rapper turned singer T-Pain over the last couple years. Since his debut in 2005, this Tallahassee singer-songwriter has produced such hits as "Buy You A Drank," "Bartender," and most recently "Cant Believe It." I'm not trying to put down all that he has accomplished up to this point, but there is just one problem: he can't sing. For his entire career, T-Pain has been continually criticized for using the infamous vocoder. This device can enhance the sound quality of the user's voice and, when used correctly, gives the illusion that the user is very talented. T-Pain was the first artist to make this "instrument" popular and other artists were quick to follow in his footsteps. Platinum recording artists like Lil' Wayne and Kanye West have jumped the bandwagon and have made use of the device as well. As a matter of fact, every song I've heard from Kanye West's upcoming album, "8O8s and Heartbreaks," he has been guilty of using the dreaded vocoder.

Now I say "dreaded vocoder" because the machine has tampered with hip hop's life support system. Rappers are now relying on the vocoder to improve their music. Instead of taking the time out to rhyme about contemporary topics, they've resorted to only appealing to a female audience by focusing on the chorus of a song. The chorus, of course, is the repeated part of a song and the part that everybody remembers the most. The chorus in rap songs is usually sung by a R&B singer, but their services are no longer necessary thanks to the handy dandy vocoder. Rappers take it upon themselves to sing the chorus. Which brings me to my number one issue with the vocoder: it makes the artist's voice all distorted. T-Pain has mastered the art of "vocodering" and the distortion in his voice is very minimal. This is not the case for others however. I'm anxious to see and hear how T-Pain and other vocoder artists perform their songs on stage. Are they really singing? How do they hide the vocoder component from audience members? These and other questions will be going through my head, if I ever do stoop low enough to attend one of T-Pain's concert. The vocoder has and will have nothing but detrimental effects to the rap game if it continues to be implemented in every other song that is released.

P.S. Check out the video

Rap: Is it dead or just on life support?

In an era when critics and rappers themselves jump to declare the death of hip hop, it is my personal opinion that rap is on life support. The genre is in need of someone to breathe new life into it, an artist with fresh sound and impressive wordplay. There is a certain level of "artisticness" in hip hop that I find is kind of missing. But fear not, I plan to find new found hype that will bring soul, live instrumentation, and showmanship to the masses. In this blog, I will have weekly profiles of certain artists that I feel will eventually change the game. I hope my search is not in vain and that I have to change the acronym from standing for "Rap In Peril" to "Rest In Peace." However, every once in a while an artist comes along and does completely change the game: Jay-Z, Nelly, Pharrell, and Kanye West. Who's got next?

P.S. Here is a little something from back in the day