Unsupported Claims About Hip-Hop [The Rap Thread]

[Antero]

[Continued from here.]

DB Tha General - "Upgrade Um 2"

[Thermofusion]

Music Video: Milli Mars - "The Alarm"

I love this, but I know exactly zero about this dude. Some dark stuff outta San Antonio. Great vid.

[Antero]

Never heard of the guy either.  Pretty tight video indeed.  Check the credits - same people as ASAP Rocky had doing the "Peso" video.  This cat's got money behind him.  Promotional push imminent.

[edit] It feels weird to say that.

[peacocks]

whoa that video is bad ass

db tha general is annooooying. but when he's talking super fast saying the n word constantly that is kinda lol. It's like on portlandia when the lady says cacao, except scary.

this has been ignorant peacocks' hip hop corner

[peacocks]

omg thermo this guy

milli mars-holly

[Antero]

Guys, I am getting crazy astroturf vibes.  Dude has like 420 twitter followers and no even that many hits on any of his songs on youtube prior to this.

[peacocks]

what does astroturf vibes mean, like he's being promoted without a fan base?

[YojimboMonkey]

Hm, out of nowhere, nobody knows anything about him, name starts with Milli.... does he dance around in spandex alot? (I'll be fucked if I'm watching the video)

[peacocks]

http://ghostpizza.com/2011/06/13/new-music-milli-mars/

[alistarr*]

what does astroturf vibes mean, like he's being promoted without a fan base?

a fake grass roots movement - like you pay people to comment on your music/idea/product and spread it around as if they're just regular commenters, then the real regular commenters see the fake interest and think it's for real, and therefore that the artist/idea/product must be worth their attention because other people are paying attention.

[peacocks]

but what if you like it just because you like it?

[alistarr*]

That's kind of separate to whether or not there's an astroturf campaign happening.

[peacocks]

Ok. Does having been astroturfed have any weight on how much you like or respect an artist or is it more of an observation?

[coldforge]

It's a pretty dishonest marketing tactic; I would be more negatively predisposed to an artist who employed it.

[peacocks]

yeah, I feel that way too but I listened to most of YMID on youtube just now and it's pretty cool.

[alistarr*]

It's dishonest marketing, but most mainstream marketing is dishonest to some degree. Where astroturfing gets really interesting is in the political arena - stuff like oil companies paying people to concern troll the comments sections of online newspaper articles about climate change, etc.

[Antero]

It's a pretty dishonest marketing tactic; I would be more negatively predisposed to an artist who employed it.

This, basically.  I can't help but view a guy with suspicion when he suddenly appears with no official major label backing, no page views, and an extremely slick video courtesy of the same people who worked with the also-heavily-astroturfed ASAP Rocky.*

Like, this guy is a straight up nonentity before a few months ago.  We're talking approximately as many google hits as I get searching for my government name.

*That shit was weird.  realniggatumblr was a legit rap blog and wasn't explicitly pushing ASAP at first, it just sort of wormed its way in and then all of a sudden he's openly shilling for the guy as his manager, and now that the deal is official and the LiveLoveASAP is out the blog sits vacant and untouched and dude's twitter has become the official ASAP account.  What the fuck, yo.

Another odd pull-the-curtain-back blogger/manager was the reveal that walkmasterflex of Space Age Hustle was managing Main Attrakionz... that one seemed less nefarious though, because a) the Space Age Hustle guys were already blogging, b) Green Ova still has a budget of zilch, and c) Squadda and Mondre could only become stars in a radically altered pop landscape.  They're weird looking and have voices that are pure Bay Area.

[peacocks]

hmm, that is very interesting. It seems like ghostpizza is a collective out of San Antonio but it's really super small. Milli only has 145 likes on fb and whizKIDZ have pretty much 0 hits on google. Where do they get the money to make a video like that? I mean, local bands in my city have more buzz than that*. Azaelia Banks doesn't have nearly the amount of songs on youtube as milli mars but all of her views are in the thousands. Sorry to be all "music how does it work?" but I'm being all that so deal with it.

*and they are all broke as hell.

[Thermofusion]

Keep the discussion going, guys, I get paid every time y'all post about him.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

have we talked about nht boyz here? deej of somanyshrimp just mentioned their record from last year, power triangle, and it's pretty tremendous, sort of waka-esque personalities meeting boom-bap. (this description could be way off, i just started listening)

they also have a new single out called chee$e and it bangs like hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3g8FnDYfOI

[Antero]

hmm, that is very interesting. It seems like ghostpizza is a collective out of San Antonio but it's really super small. Milli only has 145 likes on fb and whizKIDZ have pretty much 0 hits on google. Where do they get the money to make a video like that?

Someone with money is trying to push them - maybe a major with a stealth deal.  I imagine that, given his apparent competency and total lack of internet presence, Milli Mars was previously performing under a different name and has been repackaged.

have we talked about nht boyz here? deej of somanyshrimp just mentioned their record from last year, power triangle, and it's pretty tremendous, sort of waka-esque personalities meeting boom-bap. (this description could be way off, i just started listening)

they also have a new single out called chee$e and it bangs like hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3g8FnDYfOI

I have not yet listened to that tape, I do have it waiting for me though.  Need to.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

brb gonna listen to "chee$e" until i'm dead

[peacocks]

yeah that backing track is way catchy.

[Thermofusion]

http://millimars.bandcamp.com/album/ymid

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

No seriously I just listened to the whole thing. Conspiracy theories or no, it's good. Not 100% sold on the dude as an MC but the production is idiosyncratic enough to keep me engaged. Some of the beats are actually really awesome.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[shai faithe]

What. The. Fuck. Happened.