A-F-R-O: 17-Year-Old Rap Prodigy

Sometimes, because so much of today's music seems fabricated by the big record labels, you start to wonder if any raw talent is actually making its way to the surface. You wonder if the "inspiration stories" you used to hear about, where kids push the limits and climb their way to fame, ever happen anymore.

Then you see this.

The video tells the story of A-F-R-O, a young rapper who was discovered in an online contest. When A-F-R-O submitted his tape he was only 16 years old, but the judges mistook him for a 30-year-old man. Maybe that's because of his deep voice and fluid vocabulary, but either way, he made his mark.

The video poses the question, "can this 17-year-old reignite the golden age of hip-hop?". After hearing A-F-R-O's unbelievably inventive freestyles and diving into his impressive discography, I definitely think so. 

But beyond his obvious natural talent, A-F-R-O's going to make an impact because he's doing this for the right reasons. Like he says in the video, he just wants to save someone's life the way music saved his. 

And when that's the motivation and passion behind his art, you know he's bound to make it big.

Great Film Scoring - "The Shawshank Redemption"

Today I'd like to start taking a look at the world of film scoring, a sector of the music industry I've been drawn to for a number of years.

Though there's so much to discuss and dissect in this industry, for now I'd just like to talk about one of my favorite soundtracks. It's an album I consider a truly great film score; it's one of the scores that opened my eyes to the emotion behind film music and inspired me to experiment with my own composition.

The album I'm talking about is Thomas Newman's original 1994 soundtrack for The Shawshank Redemption.

I was a junior in high school when I first watched Shawshank, and its compelling story of the human spirit - victory over oppression - really spoke to me. The movie seemed to exude a sense of triumph, but only after bringing the viewer on an honest journey of highs and lows. I realized that a large part of the film's emotion, while powerful on its own, was owed to its music. 

I bought a copy of the soundtrack and listened to it many times. Something about it was so mesmerizing; maybe it was the way the strings determinedly yet solemnly introduced the opening notes (aptly titled Stoic Theme). Maybe it was the melodic glimmers of hope contrasted with an otherwise bleak motif. Maybe it was the way the music seemed to tell the movie's story all by itself.

Whatever it was, just by listening to Newman's score I could grasp the same sense of triumph that the film portrayed. And that's why I consider it a truly great score - it has an evocative power all of its own. 

I don't come across soundtracks very often that do this as well as Shawshank, but exciting things are still happening in the world of film composition. So next time you watch a movie, pay attention to the score - there's a lot to discover.

Disruptive Creativity

Sometimes in the world of music we think there's nothing new under the sun. We hit creative walls and don't know how to get past them. We think all musical ideas have been covered before - that there are no new chord progressions, no new melodies, no new styles.

So when something so innovative and fresh comes out, I wonder, "how did the artist come up with that? Did it just pop into their head? Was it something they heard that inspired their sound?"

Take a look at this TED talk. Tim Harford talks about how sometimes the best way to solve a problem (or get past a creative wall) is through disruption. He suggests that we take random, even stupid steps to get new results. For example, he talks about Coldplay, and how during the production of one of their albums they didn't like what they were writing. So each band member decided to switch instruments with one another - a seemingly pointless move - and the resulting sound turned out to be just what they were looking for.

Of the anecdotes he shares, my favorite is about Keith Jarrett and the unplayable piano. It's the perfect case of a "messy problem": Jarrett, a world-renowned jazz pianist, shows up to play a solo concert in Cologne, and discovers that the piano is in poor condition and won't serve for his performance. But after being persuaded to play, Jarrett adapts his playing to meet the piano's deficiencies. The result? The #1 solo jazz piano album of all time.

So next time you hit a wall, remember to mix things up. Try something stupid and random. Break out of your boundaries. Disrupt your creativity. 

Writer's Choice: Album of the Year 2016

The five official Grammy nominees for the 2016 Album of the Year are Alabama Shakes' "Sound and Color", Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly", Chris Stapleton's "Traveller", Taylor Swift's "1989", and The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind the Madness". 

Which do I hope wins it? Easy - Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly."

"To Pimp a Butterfly"

From the early single release of "King Kunta" (track three on the album), I could tell that Kendrick was aiming for an old-school sound. After all, the entirety of the video was shot in a 90s-esque Compton - a deliberate nod to early NWA influence. I loved the style and hoped the rest of the album lived up to the hype. 

I was not disappointed. The first time I listened to the album from start to finish, I was somewhere in Ohio, hours into a cross-country road trip. My brother served as a quasi listening guide, explaining the meaning of the album as we progressed through the tracks. He pointed out that To Pimp a Butterfly deals with the modern rapper's plight of being "pimped" by the industry - in other words, how the rap game takes raw talent and warps it into materialistic mindlessness. 

And although we observed that the album was directed primarily at a black audience, I was impressed by how accessible the music was. The lyrics felt so real and so raw - something I hadn't heard in modern Hip-hop in a long time. 

Production quality on the album is phenomenal. The beats range from be-bop jazz trios to hypnotizing ghetto anthems, and they never settle for a dull moment. 

So much more can be said and analyzed about this album, but suffice it to say it deserves its Grammy; To Pimp a Butterfly is a technical feat, both musically and conceptually.