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akeem ali December 21, 2020
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Akeem Ali is the new rapper keeping jive turkeys in check

Pimping never dies. It only evolves and thrives. Following in that tradition is Jackson, Mississippi artist, Akeem Ali.

The pimp persona is a staple of hip-hop, setting the groundwork for storytellers like Too $hort, Suga Free, and the legendary Pimp C.

Introducing Keemy Casanova: Akeem Ali’s pimp alter ego

So, who is Akeem Ali? Well, the Missippi rapper has been making quite a name for himself on Social Media with the release of his single, “Keemy Casanova.”

The song is a throwback to the prime pimp age of the 70s with a video that makes Ali look slicker than Richard Roundtree in the original Shaft. 

It’s still at its core, hip-hop. Ali weaves in and out of bars with a flow thats “colder than Nova Scotia” and every much his own unique southern style.

The open-collared shirt, the old school camera recording, and a beautiful lady at his side complete the Superfly aesthetic he goes for. He’s the pimp we didn’t know we needed, but also the one we deserve.

The Kassanova Supreme.

Pimp! Pimp! HOORAY!

Good things come to those who wait. The same can be said for the Missippi rapper.

“Keemy Casanova” was released over two months ago but has been catching steady attention over the last few weeks.

https://twitter.com/DFoodgee/status/1338691548611919875?s=20

Akeem Ali has caught the attention of hip-hop heavyweights like Snoop Dogg and 9th Wonder with his name growing online more and more each day with the latest look for Ali being featured as a guest on Chico Bean and Karlous Miller’s “Eighty Vybe” show. 

The future is bright like a shade in the light

The future is bright for the young artist. Akeem Ali is on his way to building a body of work. His 2019 project “Rollin” brings the same soul and vibe of his recent single while building upon his clever wordplay and southern charm.

The momentum an artist needs is on his side now due to his recent social media buzz.

Only a matter of time before the world has to kiss Keemy Casanova’s ring.

Future in F&N music video
baby pluto December 11, 2020
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Who are the creatives behind Future’s most toxic moments?

Future reigns supreme over toxic moments. Toxicity is the signature aesthetic that makes him palatable and entertaining as an artist.

A far cry from the days of him singing loving duets with Kelly Rowland, Future has leaned into his darker side not only through music but visually also with the help of some key collaborators.

Here are six creatives responsible for Future’s visual descent into the toxic realms of man.

Meet Anthony Hillard: The personal photographer giving us glimpses into Future’s toxic life

Two years ago Hillard hit Noisey with an interview documenting his life as Future’s personal photographer in ATL. From spewing dollar bills at Blue Flames strip club to watching the “toxic rapper” count up $1 million racks, Hillard has seen it all.

He reminisced on a time he spent with the rapper in a strip club:

“Future is the event. He brings everybody out in Atlanta, it’s crazy, people absolutely love him and look up to him. Everything was a moment, everything was a memory there. It’s something to see, it really is.”

– Anthony Hillard For Noisey, Vice 2018

Meet Marrett Fay: The photographer taking us to Pluto

Marrett Fay is a Miami-based photographer and a sniper with the lens capturing a variety of artists from A$AP Ferg, Post Malone, and of course, Future. Fay recently captured images for Future and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Pluto x Baby Pluto” album.

Many of the shots, including the leading promotion teaser, show Future in a mentor role teaching Baby Pluto his toxic ways in the same way fathers and sons bond over a game.

Future has been in the game for years now and his toxicity increases with age. What better way to capture his masculine wisdom than through the optics of Fay’s lens?

Meet Rambino: The videographer capturing Future’s toxic fast-paced lifestyle

Rambino is a video director and founder of Krew Studios. His most recent collaboration with Future is the music video for “Hard to Choose One.”

With flashy, fast cutting visuals in exotic locations, offroad cars speeding in the desert, and beautiful women everywhere, Rambino makes Future look like he’s teaming up with Ludacris and Tyrese in the next Fast and Furious. It’s frenetic but 100% Future.

A fast-paced visual for his fast-paced lifestyle.

Meet Danny Clinch: The director documenting the toxic tycoon

Danny Clinch is an OG in the world of videography and photo, especially in the realm of hip-hop, working with artists like Jay-Z and Tupac Shakur.

He brings that experience with him to direct the music video for Future’s song “Tycoon.” The video works as a character piece focusing solely on Future.

Clinch places him in the desert to show the world the magnitude of his presence next to mountains and streams of water. 

Set to a jumping jack tempo beat from trap producer Wheezy, the video contrasts Future’s lyrics of making it out the streets and being true to himself with the calm nature of the world around him.

A man who can exist in the world but finds himself often operating outside of it. Much like classic sci-fi movies where aliens crash land into the desert, Future is the unidentified object in the video. The rap Pluto for scientists to discover.

Meet Collin Tilley: The filmmaker turning Future into the toxic villain we’ve always wanted

Collin Tilley runs Boy In The Castle productions. His directing style brings the best out of artists, tapping directly into their brand aesthetic and visual imagination.

With video credits like Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” to Cardi B’s “WAP,” Tilley has made some of the biggest videos for the culture in recent years. 

With Future, Tilley made the video for “Jumpin on a Jet.” The video is Mission Impossible-Esque with Future looking like prime Tom Cruise rapping on an open plane with cargo falling out.

It’s the perfect video for a man whose raps display him as an action hero.

Spike Jordan: The visionary behind Future’s toxic wonderland

Spike Jordan focuses his lens on some of the biggest artists of today from Lil Uzi Vert to Meek Mill and even legends like Nas. Jordan is the photographer/videographer responsible for Future’s winter wonderland video for “Crushed Up.”

With snowflakes falling from every corner in a large mansion setting, Jordan brings the audience into Future’s toxic snowglobe moment of women, ice, and everything nice.

The little boy in the video looking into the globe sees the Future as the king of the castle. Perhaps this is a young future looking up to himself and his accomplishments.

The spinning camera shots make this a modern hip-hop fairytale. An escape into the cold-hearted mind of a toxic artist comfortable in who he is.

Watch the video below for more of Future’s most toxic and savage moments.

Bruh November 13, 2020
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Stacey Abrams and her pursuit of voting rights represents a new America

Stacey Abrams and her selfless pursuit of voting rights for all ensured that democracy was upheld in Georgia, and the United States this November.

In 2020, as we have been in desperate need of positive news and inspiration, Abrams is a shining example of turning tragedy into triumph. Losing her race for governor in Georgia in 2018 illustrates this fact.

Losing is the real test of our character.

It is easy to celebrate a win and engorge in our successes, but how do we react when we take a loss, especially one we believe we deserved?

Stacey Abrams: The Peoples’ Governor of 2018

Stacey Abrams’ 2018 race for governor in the state of Georgia was historic. A Black woman running for the highest office in a historically red state against insurmountable odds was remarkable.

Abrams’ candidacy showed how far we have come as a country. But it also showed us how far we still have to go.

Despite amassing a passionate base of voters ready to elect what would have been the first Black-woman-governor in America, Abrams fell short of her goal and lost the election.

The odds stacked against her were immense. There were years of coordinated voter suppression tactics in the South that kept voter turnout in many of Georgia’s minority populated areas low. This contributed heavily to her defeat to Republican Brian Kemp.

Instead of wallowing in despair and claiming that the election was unfair, Abrams took the defeat gracefully. She realized that this was only the beginning and that the real work was yet to come. Republicans may have won the battle, but Abrams prepared for the war.

The Blue Crusade

In 2020, Stacey Abrams and the Democratic Party are reaping the fruits of her labor. Numbers are needed to win elections and create change.

Abrams understood this and immediately went to work registering over 800,000 voters in Georgia, many of which were in the same minority communities that suffered from voter suppression tactics. 

Abrams’s goal is to build a Georgia of fairness and equality. For Abrams, this is not about what the state can become in the future. This kind of Georgia already exists.

Much like the changing demographics of the nation, Georgia also represents the diversity that we cherish as Americans. Abrams prioritizing registering young voters, voters of color, voters representing the LGBTQ community, and more, represents the evolving makeup of modern-day America.

Eyes on the Prize

Just like a sports team focuses on winning championships, Abrams kept her eyes on the prize in this country. That prize was the hearts and minds of the people.

With grassroots organizations like Fair Fight and additionally The New Georgia Project working collectively to register and educate voters, a movement formed behind her.

This groundwork led to Georgia being one of the centerpieces of the 2020 election, thus sitting on the verge of becoming blue.

Two Democratic Senate candidates in the state, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, will likely benefit from this increase in voter registration and participation, potentially giving the Democratic party control in the Senate during the first two years of the upcoming Biden presidency.

Abrams herself has signaled that she intends to run again for governor. The state of Georgia may not have been ready for Abrams in 2018, but the future of Georgia is brighter because of her work.

With voting rights prioritized, 2022 just may be the year that Georgia elects its governor of the people, Stacey Abrams.

jaime harrison November 11, 2020
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Why Jaime Harrison’s campaign for a New South gives me hope

Jaime Harrison is leading the charge for a new American South.

The South has signaled for years its need for change. Big-ticket races in Georgia with Stacey Abrams, and Florida with Andrew Gillum, have brought the region to this moment. The latest battleground in this fight is in South Carolina, the same state that helped push now-President-elect Joe Biden to victory in the primaries. 

After years of failing schools, a lack of rural hospitals, and a raging pandemic that infected all facets of South Carolinian’s lives, the state needed a new hope. And Harrison emerged as its Jedi savior.

A New Hope

I got the opportunity to be an organizer for the Harrison campaign. I joined early on back in June and watched this movement grow from the very beginning.

No one expected Jaime to have a real chance against Lindsey Graham. Graham was a twenty-year incumbent who, during the Trump era, routinely placed his own interests over the needs of South Carolinians. In politics, time brings with it security, so this race became a battle, as Jaime loved to call it, between David and Goliath. 

Being an organizer, I was on the ground level of this campaign. As a native of South Carolina myself, I knew firsthand the problems that plague the people of this state.

Speaking with other residents, I could hear the pain in their voices. Stories of jobs lost, medical struggles, and fighting obstacles just to make ends meet were heartbreaking to hear. Even still, each person I spoke with, no matter their situation, had a quiver of hope in their voices that grew as we talked more about Jaime. The New South was truly embodied by Jaime Harrison.

The goal for this campaign was to bring hope back to South Carolina, but this message quickly extended even further. Organizing in the midst of a global pandemic came with its own challenges.

Navigating a campaign in the midst of a pandemic

While other campaigns continued to organize and engage with communities in person, Jaime wanted to ensure the safety of all of his staff, and thus limited organizing work to be remote. The drawbacks of this approach are obvious.

The face-to-face interactions, the large rallies, the hugs, cheers, and tears of a normal campaign were all gone but with it sprouted the ability to reach people beyond South Carolina to join in this movement. The New South led by Jaime Harrison, but also people from across the entire nation.

Volunteers poured in from all across the country to help get Jaime’s name out to the people. People from New York, Chicago, California, and many other places heard this message of hope and were inspired.

This level of support inspired me as I quickly realized that no matter the result of this election, the work that we did started a movement that will extend long past November 3rd.

The Empire Strikes Back

When Election Day came, the team and I were prepared for the fight of our lives. We believed that this race would come down to a field-margin of votes. A fight to the end that could result in a recount situation.

Later that night we quickly realized that wouldn’t be the case. After all of our hard work, the red empire of the South struck back. 

After weeks of headline embarrassments from crying on national television about fundraising, to confirming a Supreme Court Justice during an election year, Graham found himself on the verge of victory with a commanding 10-point lead. We lost.

We shed tears that night the same way we would have celebrated. Together. It was the perfect time to lose hope, but the fight goes on. 

Return of the Jedi

It’s been days since the Harrison loss but, even in defeat, our hope prevailed. With the election of President-elect Biden, America can return to a place of decency.

The shadow of despair that hovered over the nation opened up to shine a light on a brighter future. 

Collectively, we chose to believe in love. We elected to believe in leaders that care about the people they serve. Working on this campaign taught me to keep dreaming of a brighter future, no matter the circumstances.

While South Carolina didn’t elect Jaime, Georgia is on the verge of turning blue due in large part of the work from Stacey Abrams and the many organizers like myself in the community pushing for change. 

What Abrams has done for Georgia is nothing short of amazing, turning a loss into a beacon of change. I believe Jaime can be that for South Carolina and this nation.

This moment is only the beginning for him. South Carolina still needs change. It just has to wait for the return of its Jedi.