No Name No Brain Productions are certainly making a lot of waves in Richmond hip-hop lately. I feel like a month ago I’d never heard of them, and now suddenly I’m seeing their name everywhere. Directing videos, dropping mixtapes, basically making things happen. A lot of things, and fast. Here’s the newest thing they’re making happen–a video series called 16 Bars, starring up-and-coming local rapper Jo Casino.
No Name No Brain Productions are certainly making a lot of waves in Richmond hip-hop lately. I feel like a month ago I’d never heard of them, and now suddenly I’m seeing their name everywhere. Directing videos, dropping mixtapes, basically making things happen. A lot of things, and fast. Here’s the newest thing they’re making happen–a video series called 16 Bars, starring up-and-coming local rapper Jo Casino. Jo’s been building things up for a while now; after scoring somewhat of a viral hit with his “Eli Porter” video last year (and by the way, if you don’t know who Eli Porter is, click here), he released Cloud Browse, his first full-length, in fall 2011. He, Mix Breed Entertainment producer Cons, and No Name No Brain put together a series of 16 Bars back at the end of last year too, with four episodes going up in December. But now, with the release of Jo’s Gritty Gully EP in April, they’ve decided to return to the 16 Bars concept, and this time the videos are significantly more elaborate.
The new series began at the beginning of June with this kaleidoscopic video full of multiple Jo Casinos fading into each other. A Hiroshima reference triggers a mushroom cloud at the end of the video, but otherwise, this first episode keeps things relatively simple on a visual level. True to the title of the series, this video is just one verse, but it sounds like something that could easily be expanded into a full song.
Week two brings us an episode based around a song called “New Day,” and the video is themed appropriately. Beginning with Jo Casino lying in bed, it quickly progresses to a messy living room in which a bunch of guys, including a shirtless Cons and presumably some other members of the No Name No Brain/Mix Breed crew, sit around playing video games, finishing off the remaining beers from the night before, and engaging in that proud tradition known as “wake and bake.” It’s funny to see this kind of socially-deviant activity performed by a bunch of really young-looking kids, some of whom have X’s on their hands–presumably they’re too young to drink at the club, because they certainly aren’t straight edge. This video is still only one verse long, but both song and video are easily good enough to be stretched out to full length. Perhaps that’ll happen sometime in the future?
Now, today, comes the unveiling of episode three, which features a track called “Laid Back,” again with production by Cons (this guy makes some nice beats). The video reminds me of Pharcyde’s “Drop” clip, due to the fact that most of it runs backwards. Jo Casino begins the video running backwards away from the camera, then puts a necklace back on someone’s neck, brings a bottle of water up from the ground into someone’s hand, picks up a bottle of orange juice and inhales a mouthful out of the air… so yeah, it’s really a reversed video of the man being obnoxious, but it’s funnier that way. Eventually Casino ends up sitting under a tree, and the video starts to run forward again as he raps the last few lines of the single verse that’s used in the video.
None of these clips last longer than 2:30, and some are quite a bit shorter than that, so at the same time that they give you a nice taste of a good hip-hop song, they also end way too quick and leave you wanting more. Which is a good strategy, when you think about it. As it is right now, I’m looking forward to next Friday’s release of episode four, because each video in this series has steadily gotten more elaborate, and I can’t imagine what they’re gonna do next.
Keep an eye out for the next episode of 16 Bars, and other new No Name No Brain videos, on their youtube channel, and see what else they’re up to on tumblr and their website. And check out more of Jo Casino’s music at his Bandcamp and Soundcloud pages. These guys are moving at a fast pace lately, so I’m betting there’ll be new stuff to see and hear before you know it.
