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Official Art

Music Genre: Hip-Hop | Jazz | Funk

Seeing changes within the hip-hop culture around the new millennium was a bit saddening when candy-kids began to flood the scene with their fashion shows and gave praise to a more mainstream appeal. This caused an instant reaction where emcees were coming out of the woodwork, and sadly most had neither stage presence nor direction. It was like the culture needed a cleansing.

What I recall that helped bring heads back together was the cross-over music trend that filtered through the classic hip-hop sound; when more and more live hip-hop bands came to the stage. Let’s take ArtOfficial for example, a 6-piece band (two of them MCs) that brings in a Jazz and Funk element to its hip-hop roots. I’m sold whenever live instruments are in action, especially when lyricists compliment the band. As I listened to ArtOfficial’s “Big City Bright Lights” single, it was like a breath of fresh air in the sense that it’s not just positive music, but also reaches a level of maturity in musicianship. College, mix-show and Internet radio needs to pick this up if not done so already.