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In these fast-paced days of uninterrupted 24:7 multi-channel music TV and instant access to online file-sharing systems, it's easy to forget the importance of the rap video and to underplay the enduring impact they made on rap fans during the artform's heyday of the late '80s golden age. Whilst crude and simplistic in both style and content, the first decade or so of rap video, typified by static camera, direct address lip-sinking interspersed with dance steps and other inserted clips has been a major influential force. The sprinkling of iconic images amid the hanging-with-the-homeboys scenarios succeeded to evoke strong responses at the time and went on to seep deep into the sub-conscious of all those who witnessed them. Even now, journalist Peter Agoston remains passionate about Why the video remains so important: "I'm a child of the music video. In the States, MTV was a huge influence on the children of the 80's. Music videos from the likes of Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, NWA, EPMD and so forth created a larger than life perception of these artists - I feel like that relayed back into their music and albums, in turn cultivating what so many aging hip-hop fans of today hold so dear to their hearts: an individuality and uniqueness that is a lot more rare today than before… But not gone." Ever since the days when LL Cool J and Run DMC ruled the rap world, videos have been compelling trend setters and lucrative style tracers for both those who would consider themselves part of hiphop culture and those with no connection to it. For this reason, it would also be foolish to under-estimate the artform's ongoing significance as both an artform and a promotional tool. As well as becoming big art, they've also become big business…
Over the past twenty years, the rap video has come a long-long way from the days of static shots of the emcee and his mates scowling and doing the bogie-flick hand gesture in front of their car or prison backdrop. Rap music is now said to be the biggest selling genre in the world and accordingly, budgets and technology for promotional videos have soared. Fifteen years ago, the ceiling for the average rap video was $50,000…Now in 2004, $200,000 is considered "low budget." The legacy of Thriller and Michael Jackson's other landmark videos has enabled directors like Hype Williams to transform the rap landscape into a Findeseicle gangster's paradise. Videos for songs by P Diddy, The Fugees, Missy Elliot and Busta Rhymes are full of cinematic pyrotechnics, jet planes, extravagant CGI special effects and other stylish elements and so routinely exhaust seven figure budgets. As well as securing their stars high chart positions, the rapid evolution of the music video has seen DVD anthologies by artists like Nas or Wutang and Directors like Williams or Hunter becoming rental favourites alongside the latest Hollywood blockbusters. The rap promo continues getting bigger but not necessarily better and whereas sophistication of style has evolved, if anything merit of content has regressed. Unfortunately, something went wrong along the way and from small acorns, giant triffids have grown.
Agoston would be the first to champion positive debate on the growing power of the rap video but that's not to say that he's happy about the course of evolution indicated by the current crop of high profile promos. For every one imaginative, evocative video, there's always a dozen comprising a cynical bundle of "Flaunting, disrespecting women, profiling, fake shit, wooden in-studio shots and too many tasteless effects." This immoral sophistication of style over meaningfulness is symptomatic of a culture of alienation and wilful estrangement. Firstly, as the monumentally irrelevant scenarios of videos for the music of Missy Elliot, P Diddy and their ilk demonstrate, the creative symbiosis between the music and the visuals has been utterly atrophied. Secondly, it is as if the bigger rap acts see it as a badge of prestige to be able to leave all the creativity to directors, cinematographers, choreographers costume and set designers and all the other professionals to whom should only be delegated technical responsibilities. Given such complicitous estrangement, These days, The Not the nine o clock news spoof song Nice video, Shame about the song message rings uncomfortably truer than ever before - and the shame is, the videos aren't even that nice. For Agoston, the term "video" is about the complementary relationship between the audio and the visual: "I find it difficult to enjoy a video if the music's not good - Unless their is obvious irony in the video.
Exposure of most videos is limited and critical coverage of the few videos that do get exposure is all but non existent. Nobody, either in mainstream or specialist media is concerned with documenting and critiquing the Rap video in a serious way. We live in a visually oriented culture and yet whereas lyrics, beats, samples and scratches all receive extensive attention in print, critical Documentation of hiphop videos, their creation and the industry that surrounds them is scarce. Coverage of prominent directors like Lance "UN" Rivera, Paul Hunter, Meza and Hudson is out there but rarely delves any deeper than unctuous name-dropping gossip. There is a conspicuous absence of any websites, magazines or even TV shows that deal with videos in the same way that they explicate lyrics, discuss sampling or annotate scratch solos. It's been over twenty years since the original MTV video awards which do include technical categories for best editing, direction, cinematography and innovation. However, there's no serious examination of the hows and whys and acts like Jay-Z and Outkast get all the credit without being able to talk about the work for which they are being rewarded. Whereas essays on the videos for work by pop stars like Madonna are commonplace both in print and online, the only rap videographies known to Google are ridiculously slim summaries for the work of Tupac, De La Soul and Public Enemy. On the whole, the only coverage rap videos get tend to represent videos as symptoms of some societal pathology and not as art. It's easy to find content analyses which catalogue the number of times selected props (be that guns, a model of car or a fashion label) feature in certain videos but such attention is as valuable to humanity as a Christian scholar listing the number of times the word "the" appears in the bible. Plenty feminists, literary critics and sociologists will gladly dissect the latest 50 Cent or Snoop video as long as it helps to advance their own professional agenda but nobody who loves hiphop culture is stepping up to evaluate rap videos in their own right, on their own merit. Nobody is criticising rap videos for what they are; not what has been removed from them or who they could be influencing. A constructive reaction is even more lacking than the existing critical reception of the rap video. Whereas there's plenty websites through which aspiring artists present and exchange beats and rhymes, there is no forum dedicated to the writing of rap video treatments.
Nobody it seems is conversant in the critical terminology of music video explication in order to talk about the use of colour/black & white film, point-of-view, fixed/tracking cameras, storyboarding, lighting, the use of logos and symbols on costumes or scenery -or even the use of additional dialogue and sound effects either over or interrupting the song. And yet, it is of utmost importance (and arguably a matter of some urgency) that hiphop fans start tending to their music videos because Hollywood, advertisers and even party political propagandists are already enjoying a head start; studying and exploiting that which hiphop fans take so for granted. Rap videos and product placement within them is big business and if the hiphop community are to reclaim their own, they must agree on the terms to commence a constructive critical tradition.
Culturama champions hiphop videos with the biggest hearts and not the biggest budgets. Culturama is about celebrating the most creative rap videos out there - even if "some aren't as 'well-made', if you will, than others," Selecting videos for inclusion is a time-consuming but pleasurable process: "I sift through several videos before laying down a compilation, so I take the more creative, unique, different and special efforts I find, and expose them to as many people as possible." The music is diverse but all of high quality and so the selection spares its audience the usual cliquish biases and industry obligations that dictate the content of most compilations. Agoston is keen to allow his audience to see past any hyped up beefs, summarising "I was intrigued by Anticon's Sole and Themselves' Videos and El-P's Deep Space 9mm is incredible,…" When asked to single out his favourite video from Culturama volume 4, his response was predictable but convincing: "I love them all - I really would not of included any of them if I didn't feel that way." Nonetheless, when pushed to select his favourites, he did have three nominations for three very good reasons "Abstract Rude Stop Bitin', for it's textures and colors and attitude. Motion Man Come On for it's incredible stop-motion action-figure animation, Dominant Mammals Fresh & Dope, for the acting" - see that, not because the director paid for the right car, jewellery, models or rented the right mansion. With many of the videos included on Culturama 5, the story behind their making is as interesting as the finished product. For instance: "I was definitely partial to the J. Rawls and Fat Jon Black Brigade of Cincinnati (Outcome) music video that my brother Attila Agoston shot while in Thailand, all on Super8 film too." Whereas the evidence suggests that most heads are video illiterate, Agoston wants to talk until the cows come home about videos: "I could really go on and on that's why watching the Culturama video's every night during shows is no problem for me! I love it."
Everybody involved with or who attended the European outings of the video showcases has got something out of Culturama. In exchange for letting European heads see his favourite indyground videos, Agoston's learnt about "The universality of hip-hop music and culture, and that even if you don't speak English, or even necessarily comprehend the ranging cultural differences between American hip-hop artists and their non-American fanbase, that the visual medium behind music videos can be related to anyone with the eyes to watch them. Oh, and that Curry is the new Fish N' Chips." He's already written articles for Grand Slam and a few US magazines about the P-Brothers and Agoston remains determined to edutain as many as possible both sides of the Atlantic about each others' scenes. Agoston is also eager to forge stronger links between hiphop and academia: "The panel went well and I'm anticipating the prospect of a possible touring panel, which may be featured at high school's across the UK if possible. I'd love to do that and be a part of that," So far, Culturama has dealt with what Agoston has been able to access, namely the underground hiphop of Canada and America but there's no reason for it to stay this way. Culturama is ready willing and able to start featuring videos from these shores on volume 6 and beyond: "I hope that the P Brothers will make a video for their new album. No one from Europe has truly approached me since Loop Troop did a while back."
Were you at any of the Culturama film festivals and would like to provide some feedback? Have you got a video that you think should be considered for inclusion on a future volume of Culturama? Are you interested in booking the Culturama Rap Music Video Festival? If so, you can email PeterAgoston via peeay@hotmail.com.
To find out more about Culturama and Peter Agoston's activities, please visit culturama.org. There you'll find the latest Culturama news as well as a collection of quality articles, interviews and photos taken by Peter & pals.
© Copyright 2004 CD Goldie for ukhh.com
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09.10.04 words Sumo Kaplunk
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In many respects, the rap video has become a victim of its own commercial success. The artform of the rap video has killed itself by saturating the market with soulless Technicolor special effects one-upmanship. For those who can afford it, the goal is only to be bigger and brasher than the competition and as a result, the once innovative standards set by Hype Williams have deteriorated into a pantomimic parade of clichés, portrayed through a fish-eye lens. Aside from the quality of the videos themselves, the media that gives (or more pertinently, denies) them exposure has a strong case to answer regarding the perversion of the course of rap video evolution. Within under 25 years, MTV and other channels have gone from blackballing rap through to an equally deplorable foregrounding of all the worst ideas and images that rap videos have to offer. For the first two years of its existence, MTV dismissed rap as little more than a passing fad but after Run DMC broke the ban and broke musical barriers, they couldn't get enough of it. Nowadays, heavy rotation of a select few big name promos on a twenty-minute loop is great for the handful that get on but even when not compromised by commercial considerations, playlisting always advances the few at the severe expense of the many; giving precedence to the now over any lasting period. Exclusion from the mainstream has been seized as an opportunity for artists to exercise creative freedom and do it themselves. Some artists have attempted to circumvent media obstacles by putting out their own DVDs and Loud records pioneered the enhanced CD format which is now widespread. Unfortunately, whilst Ice-T creating a complete video for his OG: Original Gangster album and Atmosphere compiling videos and live footage are great for those in the know, they are only preaching to the converted.
Culturama is a first bold step in the right direction toward the development of a meaningful, non-exploitational critical culture surrounding the rap video. Founded three years ago in LA by Peter Agoston, Culturama obeys a bold mission statement: "Preservation Through Documentation." Combating the media trend of aggressive short-termist playlisting, Agoston aims to get a fix on the fleeting and, having secured traces on specific significant videos, hopes to establish a credible record of the artform's evolution. Agoston underscores the urgency of what he's doing when explaining the reason behind the formation of Culturama: "I created Culturama to preserve the contemporary version of hiphop through a visual and print based documentation - whether it be through my writing or music videos. I feel this is vital to the sustainment of a culture that is dying as quickly as it's multiplying." Unlike BET or MTV which show the same big name videos in heavy rotation for a hot minute, only to deny their existence the minute the hype goes cold, Culturama is about giving exposure to the videos and songs that deserve it because they are good. Subsequently, it's out with the gaudy big budget non-efforts and in with a diverse collection of videos for work by a strange assortment of artists: Bus Driver, Scarab, Non Phixion, Ill advised, Raw Produce and Pip Skid. Agoston did direct many of the videos on the Culturama series (including The Jigmastas & Sadat X Don't Get it Twisted, Lexicon Nikehead, Sole I Don't Rap In Bumperstickers and Moka Only Chek My Style) but the important unifying factor is the presence of a meaningful link between the songs and their videos which, as The Madvillian All Caps and the Nelia Vertical Trees With Horizontal Leaves epitomise, may be "completely different from one another yet wholly defining of each artist at hand." Moreover, Culturama is about the real stories and real people behind the reel images. Rather than taunting the viewer with yet more decadent exhibitions of unattainable wealth, the Culturama compilation series strives to present a relevant access-all-areas view of hiphop. Agoston wants to show hiphop behind the front and that's why he "shot most of the stuff in between the videos. I've filmed everyone from the Wu Tang Clan to The Coup to Group Home to People Under The Stairs and more, in the documentary sense, as in the studio, talking, walking, eating, living life, on stage and more." With the archiving of hiphop videos and related documentary footage under way, Agoston feels we can now progress to a critical dialogue. It was refreshing to have somebody who could match every negative comment about hiphop with a positive suggestion. He's clear about what he doesn't want and Agoston is equally clear when articulating his desire to see more "Black and white 16mm/35mm filming, unpredictable cameos, real life situations, smiling, laughing, original story lines, better acting, more innovative conceptualizing, distinctive scenery and realistic relationship scenarios" in more rap videos.
The first three volumes went straight to video and straight to the shelves but Agoston knew that to make a difference, he had to get Culturama straight to the people. "I had collaborated with a close friend in Los Angeles by the name of Michelle Cartier who had worked at a theatre in Hollywood, this was for the very first one nearly two years ago." Since then, Culturama has toured North America and last year even came to the UK. Culturama's UK visits presented Agoston with a steep learning curve concerning presentation. Whereas Underground hiphop Stateside has developed a reasonable infrastructure and has forged working links with "The legitimate stage," there's nothing to compare over here. Nonetheless, surprisingly, Agoston places the first and the recent second Culturama UK tour in the same context as the organisation's LA birth which he describes as a "huge success." It would have been a sufficiently risky venture to stage the first European outing of Culturama in the trendier regions of North London but the pubs and clubs of post-industrial Northern cities Sheffield and Newcastle were an extraordinary choice of locations for a UK tour - not that Agoston thinks so: "I'll take the showing wherever will have me/it." Culturama 4 did receive a mixed reception with the Sheffield Easter Saturday in store and club show achieving a very poor turn out. Turn out was much better for the Newcastle show but
as Peter later confided, , "There was one cat in Newcastle that demanded his money back because he would consider what he watched a 'documentary'." However, as he recalls having pointed out to this disgruntled punter, "there's a good reason for the event and documentary is not a dirty word." Agoston soon found that whilst the showcase alone lacked pulling power, it was effective when packaged within a night of the universal language. The UK shows in Sheffield, Newcastle and then London employed local deejays and friends of Agoston J-Rawls and VsStile to provide popular sounds because "you can't really have too many variations of dancing in a club, no matter what country you're in." It was a pleasant surprise to find that, rather than blow their own trumpets and play out their own and their mates' material that Sheffield gig, Phonetics resident DJ Riles and the Culturama crew of J-Rawls, VsStile and Agoston worked to keep the party moving with an exhilarating mix of rap, bashment and dance beats. Turn out came in slow dribbles during the video showcase but when the videos were being shown during the deejay sets, the crowd loved it. That episode of Culturama went on till 3 in the morning so although few got to hear the music of Mr Complex, Kerbie Dominant et al, they did appreciate the videos which played on in the background to the sound of Grafdabusup and The Funky Summer... Like the Newcastle shows over a year before, Culturama 5's 2004 European tour was well timed to coincide with the 2004 summer festival season; getting showings in Eastnor Castle at The Big Chill Festival, the Globe theatre in Dublin and then Hiphop Kemp in Prague. Whether it's alongside deejay sets or amid live performances by the likes of Killa Kela, Louis Logic and 7L & Esoteric, this mixture of video, recorded and live performance music has proven a winning formula. Looking at the achievements of Culturama 4 and 5, Agoston is jubilant: "I loved every second of the vibe in the UK clubs, while I was there. Maybe it was because we were on a vacation of sorts from the States, maybe because the States are saturated, maybe because the people in the UK that came out to our shows were a lot more lively and appreciative…(it was) very special to be received as we were. It was inspiring. More so than out here."
All the European dates so far have given Agoston nothing but good memories and motivation to keep on keeping on. "Now I am even more inspired to take the festival across the world, even more so outside of America to all the fans and supporters that may appreciate the visual art of hip-hop that much more." Pairing the videos with as many different performances and deejay sets as possible makes strategic sense because Agoston always has his fingers in many other pies. Agoston is a journalism graduate who contributes to hiphopsite, HHC, several stateside mags and fanzines - he works as a deejay and now as a label founder. "I started Female Fun Records because I was ready to impress myself some how. I've been doing hip-hop things on a serious level since before my teen years, it's embedded in side of me. Having been Deejaying, writing, filming, working for other labels and record stores for so long, I was finally ready to take on a venture conceptualized by myself, with a vision that was pure from my standpoint. My old friend Tim Holland (bka Sole) had established a distribution company of his own, for his own group Anticon, after several distribution problems here in the States. Soon after, he asked if I'd like to start a record label to be housed within it. With no hesitation I agreed. I contacted my friend DJ Fisher (Day By Day Ent) and asked him if MF Doom would be interested in doing an instrumental release of his album Operation Doomsday… A few calls later, it was in the works and the first of the Special Herbs... records dropped in December of 2001." Female Fun is a real labour of love: "it wasn't easy to establish and it's not gotten any easier whatsoever as the time progresses. It's an incredibly consuming undertaking, it's costly, both emotionally and monetarily. I do it alone, I don't have partners or associates. A few friends and family lend advice, but I'm my own publicist, promotion director, street team, marketing strategist, all of that and more. I love it and I appreciate every ounce of help any one has provided along the way." In terms of the label's stylistic bent, Agoston confides "My only agenda is to be interesting to the ears of people that have an open mind. The slant of the label is on the instrumental because, as Peter explained, my original concept for the label. Female's having fun on the dancefloor…I've been Djing all my life, so the instrumental projects I've spawned come from the love of the beat, whether it be on the radio, in a car, at home, in a club or pub, anywhere. The movement of beats, because words are becoming too cliché. But I will always try my best to make each release as exceptional as the last." When asked about the release and career structure for the roster that includes MF Doom, DJ Spinna, J Rawls, Raw Produce, Gametightelectro, Chris Lowe and others, it turns out that "No one is really signed on full time, largely it's a release by release operation. Gametightelectro (aka Supermarket) could be the closest thing to be completely signed to the label because they were the first group I really approached when I started Female Fun. They are basically the reason why I started the label, they define my original concept for the label; Female's having fun on the dancefloor."
If it were simply a matter of getting his selection of videos out to more people, Agoston could have easily made them all available via subscription-only webcast or have bought better advertising for the VHS and DVD copies - but Culturama is as much about informative interactivity as impassive presentation. Looking back on the response to the first UK Culturama tour, Agoston explains "Each screening was an oppotunity to meet similarly likeminded people, in different places, with different influences and tastes. And different kinds of Beer." Indeed! As well as showing the videos and spinning the instrumentals that Sheffield show, Agoston and J Rawls were both eager to speak with punters about "UK hiphop ." At a time when Rap music in the British Isles is breaking itself up into ever smaller sub-genres and in/out groups, it was refreshing to find high profile hiphop activists such as Rawls and Agoston who are prepared to talk about the likes of 50 pence, pitman, The Streets and Funky DL in the same terms as more credible acts like The P Brothers, Ty, Lewis Parker and the horde of English emcees who'd covered Pharoahe Monch's Simon Says. His re-enactment of his encounter with that Geordie heckler during our conversation affords Agoston the opportunity to get on his soap-box and reiterate his point to more than that one guy: "I looked at him, and said, 'I'm sorry. But if you really look at it with an imagination, rap music video's have been one of the only forms of documentation truly capturing the changing times within our culture and music and its history. From the growth of the music, the growth of fashion and grooming artists for shoots, to the technology used to film. Everything. For an amazing amount of hip-hop heads, music videos have moulded their whole perception of the music and culture that has become hip-hop. We're living in a documentary every day.'" That's a powerful argument and whereas Agoston could so far only advance it on a one-to-one basis, the tour for Culturama 5 has given him the right platform to convey and discuss his views on a larger scale. The coupling of Culturama 5 with panel forums was hoped to attract " Intellectual hip-hop fans, non-hip-hop fans and video enthusiasts." This forum found Agoston speaking about independent video making alongside high profile English Urban music industry insiders: Film-maker Kevin Fitzgerald, Deejay/producer, Richy Pitch, the Nextmens' Brad Baloo and Muzik/Big Dada's Will Ashon. The interactive format of this Culturama fest proved even more successful than the previous straight-forward showcases and Agoston is overflowing with gratitude: "Being the only American on the panel was a fantastic opportunity though, and I would go back as soon as the offer was given to me." The BBC's Rebecca Ford and 3 Hedz collective compiled and posed the questions covering all aspects of hiphop be that the industry, technology or artistry. It turns out that these forums were as informative for Agoston as his audience: "I felt most intrigued by the idea of identity in British Hip-Hop and the conflicts that so often arise within the UK scene, when paired against American artists. Judging by the panel, it also seemed very London-centralized, which I didn't really realize until I left the London area. Outside of London, UK artists didn't seem to have the same competitive or cliquey nature that I was told of while in London."
It's been a couple months since the conclusion of Culturama 5's European outing but there's no rest for the wicked. As I am writing this, Agoston's back on the road in California to celebrate Culturama's third anniversary and putting feelers out for more information and excitement. Whether it's the label, the videos, his deejaying or journalism, Agoston's always got something new on the horizon: "there is so much more to come hopefully, so stay in my corner and watch some special things happen."
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