Let’s get this out right away. This is not my style of music. I tend to shun anything dubbed hip hop or rap. But with a name like Art Vandelay — insert Seinfeld bass-line here — and I couldn’t help at least giving the guy a listen. And DAMN! am I glad I did!
Together, wordsmith Ricky Pharoe and producer Mack Formway have put together something truly amazing with LP Eye 8 The Crow. You get a sense of their accomplishment in their split video for back-to-back highlight tracks “Eye 8 The Crow” and “So What?”
The former finds Pharoe dropping rhymes while two vixenous ladies threaten him with knives; the latter removes all color for a very Seattle black-and-white mix that focuses on Pharoe clad in flannel and singing that he has a “Kurt Cobain type of mind frame.”
Given the double-whammy element of the video, Art Vandelay cuts away some of each song, leaving them pared down but no less powerful. Still, I miss one key lyric from “So What?” — All I need’s a shotgun / I already got one / It works pretty awesome — before diving back into the Kurt Cobain type of mind frame chorus.
Still, he does keep my second favorite lyric: Look into the mirror, only time I get star-struck / Yeah, make that motherfucker melt. Check out the double-feature below, then drop down for more on Art Vandelay’s latest video.
“Emilio Estevez” is the latest video off Eye 8 the Crow and like much of Art Vandelay’s music and videos, it centers around pop culture (obviously, with a title like “Emilio Estevez”). It samples film footage of an Estevez film where he’s in a fit of rage while Pharoe splits his time smoking weed, laying on a therapist-like couch, and aside a television.
1:56 minute mark, the song and video change, dropping in actual percussion with rim shots and a some toms backed by a nice beat and synth line. Here, a well-dressed Pharoe converses (via subtitles) and plays a game of chess against a weed-smoking version of himself.
Check out “Emilio Estevez” below. Eye 8 The Crow is out April 2.