Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Ameer’s 25th Hour
MySpace rap reaches an artistic apex of sorts.
Posted In: Columnists, Bol's Saturday Night Workout by Byron Crawford
MySpace is one of the best promotional strategies for an upcoming artist evar, except that it isn’t. As long as it’s been around, the only person I ever heard of who got (somewhat) famous off of being on MySpace was Tila Tequila, and obviously that wasn’t for her singing ability.
[You know Asian people can’t sing. Come on.]
To be sure, there’s been any number of bands, rappers and what have you who had a MySpace profile and ended up signed to some sort of label. Even yours truly (413 “friends” and counting) put a profile up a while before I was down with Interscope making Bugs Bunny money.
But you have to wonder how many of these groups wouldn’t be signed at all if it wasn’t for MySpace, let alone whether any of them will go on to successful careers as recording artists.
Because I live to hate on shit (as the doctor told my mother the day I was born), I just take it for granted that any artist with a MySpace profile is not at all worth listening to. Even I artists I liked before there was a such thing as a MySpace I like somewhat less after visiting their page.
That said, my lifestyle, such as it is, does afford me a certain amount of free time. So every once in a while I’ll go check out some kid’s profile (no boutros), on the outside chance that I might discover the next Skyballs or whatever.
I don’t know if Ameer - or any artist, for that matter - considers himself a “MySpace artist,” but he’s certainly on there, and he certainly uses it to promote himself and his music. His new album the 25th Hour was released (to whom?) this Tuesday, as I’ve been informed once or twice now.
Also, the dude’s got an interesting gimmick. The entire album, which I received the other day via Sendspace, is recorded over backwards music. Like, some dude plays instrumental versions of rap songs in reverse and he raps over them.
Admittedly, this is hardly the most novel gimmick for a rap album. Other artists have attempted this sort of thing at least as far as Supreme Clientele (I think), and it didn’t strike me as a particularly brilliant idea back then either.
But it does more or less work. As noted in the promotional material accompanying my copy of the album, “the music is being played backwards… and it all sounds like music!” And Ameer benefits to a certain degree from rappin’ over beats that were already a hit for someone else, which has been the Clipse’ main artistic conceit as of late.
Also, the dude can rap. I’d compare his flow to Cormega, but with less of a speech impediment, and also AZ, with whom he’s recorded a few records. If you’re into that sort of thing, you might want to check this out.
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Speaking of MySpace, it looks like our good friend Rey (er, Rey!) could use a few friends. No Jeff Gannon.
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