December 18, 2006

Video: Raekwon, "Incarcerated Scarfaces"

The video selection for this month is Raekwon's "Incarcerated Scarfaces" (circa 1995), off his classic debut album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx -- unarguably one of hip-hop's finest, most mind-bending journeys and a major template for all of today's considerably less intellectual coke rap. The song is vintage Rae -- full of his involuted, free-floating slang and razor-cut deliveries. The video is classic mid-90s NYC -- lots of shots of masses of people moving around menacingly, clad in decidedly less stylish gear than we've become used to as of late. People often ask what the deal with me and Wu Tang is. My answer: they embody a certain approach to the craft, one that emphasized the beauty of words and the potential for abstraction, without ever retreating from their reality. Concrete aesthetics .
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