Every now and then a song or video comes out of no-where and catches me by surprise. This time around the song and video comes from a west-coast based rap duo by the name of Audio Push. The name of the song is titled Turn Down. When I first saw the title of the song, I thought this could be a breath of fresh air. Just by looking at the title I thought that it seemed to suggest that we need to chill out some of the time and stop all the wild behavior that has become synonymous with the overly used term "Turn Up". For those that are not in the know when it comes to this term, it simply means to have a wild and crazy time. Other will say it means to just have a good time at what ever you're doing. So when you her all of these new songs and artists promoting and using the "turn up" term you now know what they're talking about.
Audio Push's new music video and song again titled Turn Down is what I like to call the anti turn up song. When you listen to the slowed down mellow vibe of the production of the track, you would start to understand what I mean by anti turn up. The music is reminiscent of the production of the legendary Hip Hop crew Tribe Called Quest. The Tribe almost all of the time used jazz infused sounds to set a laid back relaxed form of Hip Hop music. If you're not familiar with the music of the The Tribe but like smooth production and a more chill out vibe than you need to check out some of their music and videos. To me, I think that the perfect way for new comers to get involved in what I am calling the "Anti-Turn Down Movement" will be to check out this video from Audio Push.
When you listen to the lyrics of the song you will be more convinced that we all need to take a break from time to time in-regards to turning up. I like the fact that a rap group is not only going against the status quot to promote and uplift mature behavior. But what I like the most about it is that Audio Push don't care about if the subject matter is corny or not. They know and understand that what's been said and portrayed in the song and video needed to be said and done. Now this is what true Hip Hop is all about. To go against the grain at any cost to bring something fresh to the table.
Another song that I think needs mentioning comes from this same rap duo titled Shine On. Now when I first saw the video I thought this is kinda different and fresh. Unlike the other song (Turn Down) Shine On has a more up beat kinda vibe to it. What I noticed first about the song was the lyrical flow of the two mc's. They didn't sound like the typical new breed rappers. They sounded like they have studied the games history and you could easily tell that their influence came from Hip Hop's glorious past. Another thing that got me about the Shine On track was the Janet Jackson sample that was used in the production. But the hottest thing about the song was the video. Simple put it was funny as hell. During the video the rappers were acting out Chris Tucker and Ice Cube's roles from the classic movie Friday. All in all Audio Push has every thing that's needed to become Hip Hop's next to blow.
