Lady Leshurr (hip-hop vs. dancehall)

Lady Leshurr
24" x 12", oil on board, 2012

An NPR story on Reggae in the UK had a mention of one Lady Leshurr that goes like this: "The Birmingham-born MC got her start as a teenager climbing the ranks of the U.K. garage scene.  Leshurr's parents are from St. Kitts in the Caribbean—she has a vocal style that veers toward dancehall-style chat"(ed. from Reggae in The UK: A Steady Force.) From there I followed a link to a YouTube video of her track Lego and the intro of it hit me right away as something new and very exciting. (And the rest didn't disappoint me either.) It heard a sound I hadn't heard in hip-hop before and not in dancehall either. Back to NPR: "Producer Res Kwame says the U.K. music scene produces innovative hybrids because it's less confined by genre than in the U.S.: 'Our producers are just doing it in our neighborhood and we have the means of getting it out: pirate stations. Because we're coming from a culture where radio in the main has not been receptive to black music, we've had to find our own way and means of doing things. And that's led to a creativity at the street level.'"

It sounds a lot like the early days of rap and hip-hop. But rap and hip-hop have now become mainstream. And where then to look to find innovation and excitement?... Exactly "at the street level". Leshurr mentions both dancehall diva Lady Saw and hip-hop's Lil Wayne as her influences. The imaginary circle that contains the early Jamiacan DJs (such as King Stitt) and reggae, as well as the history of hip-hop music in the US has been completed...in England.

Lady Leshurr was born as Melesha O’ggaro. She released two mixed tapes (that can be downloaded for free) before recording her first single Lego in 2011 for an actual record label.

The Moldy Peaches (2)

Panda Delilah, 
daughter of Kimya Dawson
oil on board
24" x 12", 2012

Panda Delilah was born in 2006, daughter of Kimya Dawson, singer for the Moldy Peaches. All the while when I was trying to paint the Kimya painting (previous post, below), Panda was sticking her tongue out at me so I felt the need to give that goofy little girl her own painting.

My favorite song thus far from the CD The Moldy Peaches is Nothing Came Out while the first Kimya Dawson solo song to enter the Top 100 is Hadlock Padlock from the CD Cute Friend Sweet Angel. The image of Panda is from the same photo that I used to paint her mother from that I found on Celebrity Babies. Even though Panda and Kimya were joined in the photo the two separate paintings of them don't go together very well because of differences in scale and color. But they are both part of the same series: The Top 100 2012. The two are the first of a new 100.

The Moldy Peaches (1)

Kimya Dawson
24" x 12"
oil on board, 2011

Browsing through a friend's CD cabinet my eyes fell on a disc titled The Moldy Peaches. Curiosity made me put it in the CD player, and I was hooked. I heard very happy upbeat lo-fi pop songs even though the lyrics are far from that, but the one-take performances radiated lots of joy. I borrowed the CD and my friend added a Kimya Dawson solo CD called My Cute Friend Sweet Princess to it. Kimya Dawson is one half of the band The Moldy Peaches, Adam Green is the other. I'll make a painting of him soon too. The Moldy Peaches released by Rough Trade Records in 2001 is the first official disc on Which Kimya Dawson can be heard, My Cute Friend Sweet Princess is from 2004. Kimya Malaika Dawson was born in Bedford, NY 1972. Kimya Malaika is Swahili meaning silent angel but she doesn't have any Swahili ancesters. Her brother's name is Akida (chief) Junglefoot Dawson. Kimya Dawson and the Moldy Peaches are best known for their work on the Juno soundtrack. Their music was given the label "Anti-Folk". Last thing I should mention here is that the image I modeled the painting after is from the blog Celebrity Babies, hosted by People.com. Her baby Panda is up next!

2012, let's get started.

To start off the Top 100 2012 here are some predictions on what will make the list. these are well informed predictions I should add. Here’s  a sampler of the music I bought the past month(s) and listened to so far this year:

• Le Tigre – Who Put the Bomp? is a DVD of live concerts by Le Tigre. I saw Le Tigre perform many years ago in Columbus, OH. The lovely DVD made me also play my Bikini Kill records again. Timeless!
• Andrew Graham/The Alwood Sisters/El Jesus de Magico/Ugly Stick —Music from Columbus, Ohio given to me by their respective performers. The CDs accompanied me on my long drive back from Ohio to Florida.
• The focus and core of my collection has been historical field recordings of indigenous people from around the world. The last new item I found are recordings from 1930s expeditions to the Belgian Congo. On it: some very old recordings of pygmy music, the oldest I have.
• The site Bodega Pop is forwarding the most exciting music at a very high pace. I predict 10%. Outstanding examples so far: Maxima Mejia from Mexico and the Japanese punk/jazz band Midori.
• Talking about Mexico. The local thrift stores seem to have an incessant supply of Mexican records, I’ll buy ‘em all (it seems like it, but not really).
• Exploring a friend’s CD cabinet led me the the music of The Moldy Peaches and the solo work of their female half Kimya Dawson.

I’m really addicted to painting these musicians and I want to do it all the time. So while we’re waiting on the first top 100 paintings to come in, I’ll tell about this little commercial side project I started that hopefully will allow me to paint them all the time: In stead of painting the (mostly obscure) musicians of my own choice, I’m doing a series of musicians based on their popularity, using a style that I’ve learned and devised through the more than a thousand top 100 paintings I’ve made. The celebrity paintings I will offer for sale through a web site and through eBay. First up: Adele. Interested? I’ll forward a link right here as soon as it becomes available.
I just wonder how much of the celebrities will spill over into the Top 100.

Adele
14" x 12"
oil on canvas, 2012