Various Artists UK Hip Hop Untapped Vol. 1 (Video)
I’m starting to think that my copy is different to Riz’s now I’ve read his review. I don’t think this is the kind of video that the UK needs at all. How are we ever going to shift the image of Yankophile amateurs if this represents our visual output? We need to make quality images if we are to be taken seriously, and we certainly don’t need a thinly veiled advertising and ego-stroking exercise like this. All the ingredients needed to cook up a fine video are available and done extremely well in this country, we have everything we need to make the best hiphop eye-candy there is and we have to settle for this? I don’t really want to spend my hard earned on some murky home video with poor sound quality. This to me just looks like Dark’n’Cold are trying to further their own interests rather than those of the music. Doesn’t it make them look like heroes for them to take the risk and put out a video like this? Well maybe, until you watch it.
Now I know Pioneers was a bit low on musical content and more concerned with the story but it is a video that’s well crafted. It’s something you feel was made for the love of film-making and hiphop and this is what I shell out my cash for. Now I know its not going to stand up to the seven figure budgets of US hiphop videos. This won’t be happening for a while and I’m not really interested in it happening at all but at least it looks like we’re serious. I like Dark’n’Cold’s angle in that they wanted a bit of ‘rawness’ and they wanted to show more actual performance but overall the video has no structure or direction and wouldn’t have suffered if it had been a bit more brutally edited. I’m not going to name the names of some of the MC’s that should have stayed at home to practice that day but lets thank God or someone that Chester, Skinnyman, Rodney P and the rest decided to show.
I know I can’t credit the Out da Ville video to Dark’n’Cold but it is a good example of the point I’m trying to make. No one can deny it looks very good and they obviously worked hard on it to a tight budget, but is that representative of the UK? Or is it a failed attempt at Hype-Williams-by-numbers? That’s a bit harsh I know, I like the tune and the video made me smile. It’s good to see someone making the effort and I look forward to seeing it develop.
I don’t write a whole lot for this site and it never seems to be that complimentary. I have enough enemies in real life already, but this sort of thing is important to me and i want it represented well not just to our peeps in the hiphop shops but worldwide to all fans of all music. I want to see innovation and unquestionable quality. I hate MTV as much as you do but will anyone who has caught more than ten minutes of that really be able to sit through this?
Oh and if I wanted a Dark’n’Cold t-shirt I’d have bought one by now.
- Dave | profile
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