![]() On the song "God Flow," he celebrates his own lyrical ability. With "Hidden Animosity," LaRussell pens a piece about internal community issues. 'We're Always on Edge'įrom there, The Field Effect 2 covers a lot of territory. And a push for self-accountability: "Unfamiliar, quite peculiar, do you know yourself? / Are you tending to your garden, do you grow yourself?" LaRussell raps. Frustration and distrust of the government, specifically the police. It's the first track on the album, and serves as an introduction to what he’s about. "African nigga in a European whip / like we ain't come here in a European ship," LaRussell raps in the song's opening lines. "We dropped (the video) the very next day, and that shit took off,” LaRussell says with a laugh.īut the track is far from comical. He shot it the night before he released his album The Field Effect 2, simply as album promotion. So now, LaRussell himself is in the latest batch of Good Compenny videos, performing a verse of his track "Do That Little Dance." Given the lack of live events due to COVID-19, videos are the bridge. They also fill a gap in the ways artists can get discovered. “Platforms like this," says LaRussell, "are launch pads for the artists.” XXL's Freshman Cypher and BET's Hip Hop Awards Cypher are staples in the industry. Looking at local renditions, Thizzler's " The Best of Thizzler" filmed cyphers have been cracking for years. And recently, artists like Shy'an G and the Grand Nationxl collective have released taped live performances on their own. I'm a firm believer that while the concept of seeing an artist at work isn't new, it doesn't really get old-especially when done right.Ī few platforms are doing pretty well: the COLORS series is entertaining, and of course NPR's Tiny Desk is good. I grew up watching my favorite artists drop bars inside the booth on BET's Rap City and show vulnerability during live tapings of MTV Unplugged. It's one thing to hear them be interviewed, he says, but "we wanna see them ball." Fairfield’s Tah-Hir spits a verse of life perspective over a sample of the classic Black Rob track “Whoa." The Alameda-bred vocalist and model Zharmila sends her soulful voice floating on a track named “Honey.” East Bay artist Jazs pleads with a partner to get out of the same old routine in the acoustic-soul track "Riot."įrom the audience perspective, LaRussell looks at artists like they're professional athletes. ![]() So far, LaRussell's short videos feature mostly Bay Area artists. It must be the way the LED lighting accents the pure talent of the artists who aren't household names. But there's something that's unique, refreshing, and kind of intimate about the clips coming from Good Compenny. We're a year into a whole pandemic, and I can't think of too many artists who haven't done some sort of video performance.
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