After three album-less years, K-OS is finally following up on his Atlantis: Hymns for Disco. Next Tuesday (April 14), the Toronto MC will release his exclamatory fourth album Yes! through his newly minted Crown Loyalist Recordings, which K-OS launched last year through Universal.
The first two Yes! singles are already out there in radioland and online: "4321" and "Uptown Girl" (no this isn’t a Billy Joel cover, but it does have a ”Love Buzz” thing going for it). You can check out both over on K-OS’s MySpace page and head over to his website if you care to partake in a little contest. In it, you can win a signed copy of the album, a meet ’n ’greet with K-OS and get two free concert ticket to his upcoming, but yet-to-be-announced, Canadian tour.
Yes! is also getting its own companion album next week, which comes from another contest that asked fans to remix the album and turn in the results. That one is dubbed Yes! It’s Yours and is out April 14 as well.
Stayed tuned for those tour dates. In the meantime...
Yes!:
1. "Zambony"
2. "Astronaut"
3. "Burning Bridges"
4. "Uptown Girl"
5. "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman"
6. "4321"
7. "Eye Know Something"
8. "The Aviator"
9. "FUN!"
10. "Mr. Telephone Man"
11. "WhipC.R.E.A.M."
12. "The Avenue"
Yes! It's Yours:
1. "Zambony"(Phil Azer Remix)
2. "Astronaut" (Tee L. Remix)
3. "Burning Bridges" (TheSoundCrate Remix)
4. "Uptown GirL" (Jalyn Remix)
5. "4321" (TheSoundCrate Remix)
6. "Eye Know Something" (Herr Kaschke Remix)
7. "The Aviator" (Len Afrosaxon Remix)
8. "FUN!" (Ric's Notes Remix)
9. "Mr. Telephone Man" (Len Afrosaxon Remix)
10. "WhipC.R.E.A.M." (Remot Remix)
11. "The Avenue" (Zack W. Remix)
By Brock Threissen from Exclaim!
So like I said yesterday, I really wanted to have rap artists weigh in on the discussion on the word “Negro,” and a more offensive “n-word” that sometimes seems ubiquitous in hip hop.I called Shad while he was on a quick lunch break at Simon Fraser University, where he’s doing a Masters in philosophy and literature.
I asked him what he thinks of when he hears the word “Negro.”
“It’s a word from another era,” he said. “I wouldn’t use it now, not because I think it’s offensive, but because it describes something else. To me, it describes a different time, people with less rights. Not lesser people, of course, but people with less rights,” he says. “I wouldn’t use it alternatingly with ‘black people,’ or ‘African-Americans.’ It means something different.”
What about the “n-word”?
“It’s complicated,” he said, “Especially with hip-hop music and with hip-hop culture being everywhere. It’s something that makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. It still has that tone and meaning that most of us associate with it, for me, anyway. Personally, I don’t use it.”
“There are no hard and fast rules,” he continued. “It’s one of those things where it kind of feels wrong coming from some people and doesn’t feel wrong coming from other people. For me, it’s never been a word that I use commonly so it never made sense for me to use it in music. It didn’t feel genuine.”
K-Os had thoughts on the “n-word,” too, and its onomatopoeic nature. I got his thoughts in a late-night e-mail while he was putting the final touches on his upcoming album.
“The ‘n-word’ is a swear word like f---,” he wrote. “No one really knows what it means or even really cares.” He continued to compare the two words by saying, “They just use it to make a point and because of its harsh onomatopoeic tone, f--- like the ‘n-word’ has survived through the ages.”
“That being said, linking any one word to any one group of people is a form of subjugation and propaganda created to box a people in, and the fact that the ‘n-word’ still exists today, fresh in its form, is just a sullen reminder that sticks and stones break bones and…,” K-Os left it with a dot-dot-dot. I think we all know the rest of the saying.
“Words can be powerful tools of truth and illusion – I use them for a living. When I investigate the use of the ‘n-word,’ which at its birth was primarily the Portuguese/Spanish way of saying black or ‘negro,’ it becomes a complex scuba dive to understand why this word still has so much power today!”
Exactly, K-Os — it is complex!
Keep watching this spot to see what K’Naan thinks on this topic. He’s one of my fave rap artists and he not only uses the “n-word,” he and his friends have an interesting usage of the word “Negro.”
Hannah
Click Here for the article and comments.
Check out the winners and runner-ups of each song:
Fads fade, people age, but true beauty remains the same. Only K-OS could have delivered a design that speaks to the foundations and at the same time the innovations in arts and music. A goddess preserved in stone, but forever alive on your YBP tee. Be inspired and help inspire future generations through OneXOne the foundation that is dedicated to helping children around the world. Ancient arts with a modern philanthropist flair.Life belongs to everyone.So purports ONEXONE - a non-profit foundation whose mandate is to support, preserve and improve the lives of children at home in Canada, the United States, and around the world. Through an annual campaign, ONEXONE is dedicated to helping create a world where children can live safely and with dignity.
This charity is supported by k-os. Support this cause and get you t-shirts HERE.
"K-os, born Kevin Brereton, is a genuine neo-crossover rap n' roller whose music, much like your Ipod, might speak to hipster club kidz, pop chart gazers, Canadian indie rockers, dirty south electronic rap renegades, or reggae rude boys simultaneously. As it should - his rhyme and crooning skills took root in arguably the most polyglot and multi-cultural city on the planet, Toronto. And he's quite vocal about his not belonging to any one genre - he belongs to them all."
