ARTIST: Chester French
ALBUM: Love The Future
SOUNDS LIKE: Pop-rock made by kids who love hip-hop
FUN FACT: Chester French’s founding members D.A. Wallach (left) and Maxwell Drummey named the group after the American sculptor Daniel Chester French, who designed the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
WHY COMPLEX IS CO-SIGNING IT: Anyone who can get Pharrell Williams and Kanye West into a bidding war is worth taking a listen to. (For the record, Skateboard P won.) First featured on Entourage, the two Harvard University grads have been making music together ever since their freshman year in 2003. After signing with Star Trak, the duo in recent months have toured on and off with acts such as N*E*R*D and Lady Gaga and performed at SXSW. They’ve also released a free mixtape—Jacques Jams Vol. 1: Endurance—on their website that has artists like Pharrell, Bun B, Talib Kweli, Jadakiss, Diddy, Jermaine Dupri and Wale rapping over their instrumentals. Even if its genre isn’t your thing, Love The Future is accessible pop-rock with a hip-hop sensibility.
To promote their new album, which drops today, Maxwell and D.A. came by the office to give an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of Love The Future. Check out their behind-the-scenes stories and listen to snippets from the new LP below…
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Each week, Complex’s resident music expert DJ Treats will be bringing you key tracks from a variety of genres. Click on a link below to hear the song and learn about the artist!
ELECTRO/POP: Lily Allen “Everyone’s At It”
RAP: Werdplay “Big Wheel”
ROCK: Bloc Party “Talons”
POP: Justin Timberlake “Magic”
DANCE/ELECTRONICA: M.I.A. “Shells”
If Shaggy and Sean Paul were the pinnacle of the dancehall’s cross-over success in the mid-to-late ’90s, singer Tami Chynn has the potential to become the female equivalent today. With the exception of Rihanna, singers from the Caribbean have largely been unable to break out of the dancehall mold to achieve lasting success.
One thing’s for sure, it helps to have a major label backing the effort, which Universal did in 2006 when they released Tami Chynn’s debut Out Of Many One. While the rhythms were catchy and sexy to match Tami’s drop-dead-gorgeous looks, they catered to the raw, traditional riddim format of dancehall tracks. But for her sophomore follow-up, she’s going pop under the guidance of Akon and with the support of Steve Rifkin’s SRC label. Last week, Complex chopped it up with Tami about her new album Prima Donna, cat-calling in ATL, and becoming fodder for Jamaican tabloids…
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There’s a lot of '80s nostalgia going on in hip-hop right now, but most of it has more to do with Rakim than A-Ha. But judging from Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80’s!, the new cover album from Little Brother’s Phonte (a.k.a. Tigallo) and Detroit producer Zo!, '80s pop was just as influential on some MCs as golden age hip-hop.
After showing his crooning skills on past LB projects and Playaz Circle’s “Paper Chaser,” Phonte’s left field full-length side project left shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80’s! is set to be released this July in a limited quantity of 2500 copies. Before it hits stores, listen to Phontigga’s version of three '80s bangers below.
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