We’ve been keeping up with VA Beach rapper/singer/musician/raconteur/general party animal Lloyd Vines for quite a while now
We’ve been keeping up with VA Beach rapper/singer/musician/raconteur/general party animal Lloyd Vines for quite a while now–ever since he and Landen Rose released the first album by their collaborative project, Rose & Vines, back in 2011. That album was more of a multi-genre mash-up, but what Vines and Rose are currently working on is more of a straight-up hip hop project, and it gets showcased on this new travelogue from Vines’ recent time in France.
“Halloween In Paris” is, in one sense, exactly what the title says: over the course of 15 minutes, Lloyd Vines and friends wander around Paris on Halloween night in costume–hanging out, skateboarding, and acting the fool. It’s an appropriate holiday for these sorts of antics, which Lloyd enacts while wearing a Slick Rick costume that I totally thought was One-Eyed Willy from The Goonies the first time I saw this video. I guess I’m not always as knowledgeable about hip hop as I’d like to think I am–but I do know I dig all the tracks that are excerpted on this video. “Halloween In Paris” acts as a preview/sampler for Crucial Style Vol. 1, which Lloyd’s been working on with Landen Rose for something like three years now and will finally drop around the beginning of 2015.
“Halloween In Paris” is bookended by brief excerpts from the song “Horses,” which samples that “Goodbye Horses” song you probably remember from the Buffalo Bill scenes in Silence Of The Lambs. That’s pretty cool, but personally, I’m more impressed with the King Crimson sample that drives “You Think It’s Easy.” The cover of RZA’s “Build Strong” is also a bit surprising, as I don’t think I’ve ever heard a rapper cover another rapper’s song before. Vines makes it his own, though, with a very different style of delivery and production than RZA used on the original. And of course, we already knew “Virginia Fleezers Song” and “Kissed Her On The Mouth” were great. It all just builds up the anticipation that much higher for the release of Crucial Style Vol 1. We’ll be looking for it!
Check out Lloyd’s recent interview with Frank and keep up with what he’s got going on over at evenifyanothot.com.
