Cardi B and Lady Leshurr

Cardi B
8 x 8 inches, stencil on paper, ed. 43, 2018

Another round of teaching art appreciation, another round of stencils to trade with students. I choose popular musicians to trade with them and for this session I picked Cardi B. I like to double the stencil assignment with a top 100 entry and so I set out to listen to a bunch of her songs to nominate one for this year's list. I settled on I Believe the Children Are Our Future in a collaboration with MonoNeon. It's actually really great and so is the video that comes along with it. The subtitle to I Believe the Children Are Our Future shows Cardi B at her characteristic finest: "But not today tho, Today I'm Wilin', Today I'm Buggin' and Thuggin'." After a bit of searching I had to conclude that the song shouldn't be filed under Cardi B in my archive but rather under her collaborator MonoNeon. MonoNeon is a kind of YouTube star who does mash-ups of existing content. MonoNeon is the bass player Dywane Thomas Jr. who really has quite some credentials. His discography is extensive and include work with Prince (he was one of the last musicians to work with Prince), his influences include Dada, conceptual art and John Cage, his instrument is a "ready-made bass" that uses duct tape and other mundane items and turn the instrument into a quarter note instrument. His style of playing is also unique and inventive and is lauded by numerous musicians. Unknowingly I picked out a tune that fits right in with the avant garde lean of this year's list. Since I haven't quite forwarded all the paintings from last year I'll stay on topic with the stencil print I did last semester of another hip-hop star. Lady Leshurr had already been on the list in 2016 with Lego one of my all time favorite raps.

Lady Leshurr
8 x 8 inches, stencil print, ed. 18, 2018