There is so much good hip hop being produced in the RVA area these days. It’s tough to even keep track of it all. Teleport Team make it even more complicated by moving back and forth between RVA and the Hampton Roads area–but every time they show up on my radar, I’m reminded all over again of the talent they’re bringing to their work.
There is so much good hip hop being produced in the RVA area these days. It’s tough to even keep track of it all. Teleport Team make it even more complicated by moving back and forth between RVA and the Hampton Roads area–but every time they show up on my radar, I’m reminded all over again of the talent they’re bringing to their work. Their new video for “Smokey Like Robinson” is just the latest reminder. This track from their Crack Is Back mixtape features an amazing sample by the legendary Motown singer referenced in the title, which is cut up, rearranged, and made a whole different type of funky by producer J-Lah. Mikealis and Don Mimosa proceed to drop some dope lines as Smokey croons in the background, and make enough marijuana references to prove that the song title’s pun was totally appropriate.
The video for “Smokey Like Robinson,” directed by American Tourist Films, is almost twice as long as the song itself–and while the song is great, the video’s extended length puts things on slightly less certain footing. For one thing, it starts with nearly 90 seconds of soft-rock chestnut “Who’s Crying Now” by Journey. Maybe it’s different for younger people, but as someone who remembers the days when Journey were all over the radio (and hell, if you’re in a doctor’s office or an elevator, they’re STILL all over the radio), I’ve heard enough of most of their songs to last me my whole life. As Mikealis and Don Mimosa walked around a variety of nature scenes, checking out beaches and bamboo forests, looking vaguely uneasy and lost, I found myself thinking, “Please tell me they’re not gonna rap over this terrible song.” The eventual arrival of the real song was a major relief. The video gets its momentum going after that, with Mikealis and Don Mimosa rapping on rooftops and eating popcorn in cornfields–though I didn’t totally like the mid-song break where we get 30 seconds of Teleport Team and their friends smoking blunts in a basement laundry room while a Bob Marley song plays. Just keep the song playing, fellas! The song is great.
Don’t get me wrong, the video’s pretty great too, and you should absolutely watch it (perhaps with the volume down during the Journey section…). But if you want to hear “Smokey Like Robinson” in uninterrupted form, you can download Teleport Team’s Crack Is Back mixtape from Datpiff and play it to your heart’s content. Download Crack Is Back HERE. Then head over to TeleportTeam.com to check out a brand new song, “Real Estate (BVillain Remix),” that they just posted as a free download yesterday. Keep an eye out for these guys as we head into 2014–we expect great things.
By Andrew Necci
