Here we go – Happy are about to premiere a video for an Aussie Hip Hop artist. Yep, you read that correctly – Aussie Hip Hop. Well, let’s get rolling down this slippery slope into becoming TheMusic.com and reviewing Illy’s latest album and get this premiere the fresh new video for Jon‘s Like Flow out of the way.
Woah, wait… this is Aussie Hip Hop? Where is the nasal Queensland accent? Where are the lyrics lamenting the loss of Paul Keating? Where are the awful neo-soul samples?
Jon’s single Like Flow is Aussie Hip Hop by technicality only – it is Hip Hop music that happens to be made in Australia. Thankfully, the aesthetic, the sound and any cultural signifiers that link to the long and proud history of messing up Hip Hop in this country are absent on Jon’s track. What is does have is an amazingly stripped back production, an awesome synthesised bassline and some pretty sick flow.
The video was directed and edited by Harrison Friend & Sam Stevenson, who have spared no expense in bringing you the most 80’s backgrounds, typefaces, production techniques and dance moves. Well, that last one is all down to Jon himself, but I’m sure there was a long meeting in the Bedlam Records boardroom about exactly how outdated the planned choreography was going to be.
I think at one point Jon cracks out The Carlton. The vid and the song loses points for the absence of a dynamite saxophone break, but other than that this shit is spot on. I give it an 1990 out of 10*
Jon’s Like Flow is available now through Bedlam Records and the full EP H22 will be dropping on the 20th of June – pick yourself up a copy via the Bedlam site or via iTunes.
*Ed. would like to take this opportunity to introduce our readers to Eric B and Rakim circa 1988.
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