They're large, colorful and rife with political and social symbolism. The paintings also open a door on the often enigmatic urban youth point of view.
Williams also points to works by 10 colleagues, all members of the art group God City, artists who find creative inspiration in hip-hop music.
Their works, some of which are featured in an exhibit at UNCC through Dec. 19, acknowledge feelings of being powerful, powerless, conflicted, disconnected or plugged in.
The 15 works in God City's "Indie-Visual" exhibit certainly are not mainstream art, sometimes portraying comic book and movie-character figures and employing graffiti-style art techniques.
But the collection defies prevalent images of hip-hop culture, which often gets recognition for preoccupation with money, profane lyrics and unflattering portrayals of women.
That's why the exhibit is important, Williams said. These artists argue that today's hip-hop music and the international youth culture that sustains it are multidimensional and not easily categorized.
Within the culture, there are mainstream, alternative and underground movements, each with distinctive art and music. God City represents a glimpse at one part of the whole.
"Art is a way to let people see different perspectives of the world," Williams said. "We want to show the creative and intelligent aspect of hip-hop. Those are things that our community does not often get to see."
Read more about the collective and exhibit here.
They helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream, revitalized the career of Aerosmith and now, Run-DMC could be headed to Broadway.
Paula Wagner, the veteran Hollywood producer, said that her Chestnut Ridge Productions company was working with the rappers Joseph Simmons (known as Run) and Darryl McDaniels (DMC) as well as the estate of Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay) to produce a stage musical about Run-DMC, the seminal hip-hop group.
“Their work speaks to everybody,” Ms. Wagner said in a telephone interview, “and the story of their rise to fame is innately theatrical.”
Ms. Wagner is best known for her long association with Tom Cruise, having worked as his agent, a producer of several of his films (including the “Mission: Impossible” movies and “War of the Worlds”) and the chief executive of his revived United Artists studio. She began her career on stage as a 13-year-old actor at the Youngstown Theater in Ohio. She earned her B.F.A. in theater at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, has published plays of her own and performed at the Yale Repertory Theater.
Ms. Wagner said she was also a lifelong Run-DMC fan. “Their lyrics and their music is infectious,” she said. “It’s vibrant, it’s alive. Who they are and what they did was a culturally defining moment. It embraced everybody.”
Ms. Wagner acknowledged that her film-producing experience was no guarantee that she could execute a stage musical, and she said she was talking to other producers and potential team members to help bring the project to Broadway. “I have a number of good friends,” she said, “and I think I will be turning to all my friends.”
Ms. Wagner said there was no timetable for the Run-DMC project to come to Broadway, and no specific shows that it was seeking to emulate — though she and Mr. Simmons and Mr. McDaniels did take in a performance of “In the Heights” last week.
Read more about the RUN-DMC/Paula Wagner team-up here.
Gabriel, a onetime member of the hit UK rock group Genesis (also including drummer and singer Phil Collins), who left the group to go solo, had developed a reputation for marrying his music with unusual and groundbreaking visuals and graphic design (see the covers of his albums II (aka Scratch) and III (aka Melt). Gabriel took things to a whole other level-- that "other level" with the music video for "sledgehammer". The single became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. in July. And the video, a stop motion animation tour de force, played on MTV seemingly around the clock- keeping viewers staring at the TV screen in awe every time it came on. I can say that this was indeed the case for myself. To this day It's one of the most stimulating music videos ever made with the stop-motion animation techniques employed for its execution only adding to its tangible textured appeal (now that we live in a easily added in shiny computer generated special effects world).
“Sledgehammer” was one of those cuts that caught play on the turntables of Black folks where the single found a home amongst record collections alongside other Black artists. Taking into account the influence on the song, this should come as no surprise. Apparently for “Sledgehammer”, Gabriel was influenced by the Black soul music sounds of the 1960s. There is evidence of this influence found in the fact that the song employed the use of the distinctive Horns which were provided by the Memphis Horns, house musicians for the legendary Black soul music label known as Stax records. The music video, which helped propel the song to become Gabriel’s only ever number 1 US hit, was directed by Stephen R. Johnson. What we here at StereoTyped find interesting about the production of this music video is that the animation for the video was produced by the legendary Aardman Animation studios (in the UK) in association with the Brothers Quay. Aardman Animation is the studio responsible for the wonderful stop-motion animation series Wallace and Gromit created by the renowned stop-motion animator and Aardman associate, Nick Park. Together, Aardman, founded by Peter Lord, Park and the Brothers Quay, delivered the now trademark claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation to the video that brought the song's images to life.
For Gabriel, it required his laying under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time was completed. And Park, who back then was still developing/refining his technique for plasticine animation, was responsible for the famous two headless and featherless dancing chickens sequence.
Rap and hip-hop goes way back in the day. Common, dressed down, as freed slave Elam Ferguson .
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1.)
groan…
The commodification of hip-hop continues, much to its detriment. A truly special art form instrinsically tied to the history of NYC will be played out in tights on the Great White Way. I can’t wait for “Beastie Boys On Ice.”
And what exactly qualifies Ms. Wagner to take on such a project? Owning a couple CDs does not imbue one with a true understanding of the group’s contributions to the advancement of rap music.
On the business front, I really don’t see the retired matinee set lining up for this one, nor the tour bus folks from Middle America. TDF, here I come.
— lowbrow2.)
lowbrow -
Have you ever been to a musical? It’s not all rainbows and unicorns like you make it out to be. I remember going to the Queen musical awhile back and it was one of the most enjoying experiences of my life. The ending was the entire audience stomping their feet to “We Will Rock You” and then singing along to “Bohemian Rhapsody”. If this Run DMC musical is anything like that, I’m sure it will stick in my memory for years to come considering how big of a hiphop fan I am.
— John