Tkay Maidza and Australian Hip-Hop

This is something new I'm trying after a suggestion a friend made. I want to keep this an art blog, but sometimes there's stuff I want to talk about, so here's some art I did specifically so that I could talk about something I wanted to.

Tkay Maidza's someone I've learned about recently, who seems like a musician tailor-made for me. A singer / songwriter / rapper from here in Oz, with a distinctive style and flow, plus a penchant for cool anime-inspired music videos? Result.

So here's my response to her whole hip-hop afrofuturist thing she's got going on. I was especially inspired by her latest video, M.O.B., which I've stuck below. It's a great song even without the video, but with all this anime sci-fi space stuff going on, It's something else.

I'm going to be really interested if this is something that sparks a subgenre of Aussie hip hop. I love that Maidza's sound incorporates plenty of Electronic Dance Music, as that is something that represents a big part of Australia's music scene. I know Flume has done pretty well, and big EDM festivals like DEFQON show that it's a big deal here.

I love hip-hop first and foremost, but I think a country or region needs to find its distinctive voice for hip-hop to thrive. The UK had great rappers the whole time I was growing up, people like Roots Manuva, Ty, Estelle (nowadays maybe better know as Garnet on Steven Universe) and Blak Twang, but it was only when the UK hip-hop scene incorporated home-grown styles, like Grime and Dubstep, that it really took hold and started to break through like it has in the last decade with people like Tinie Tempah and of course Dizzee Rascal.

It was the same when hip-hop started to leave it's New York birthing ground: The West Coast took a while to really break out with NWA and Ice Cube, and really defined itself with G-Funk; The South needed acts like Outkast and Lil' Jon and the Crunk scene.

I loved watching these voices be found, and I'm excited to see if what Maidza's found is her voice, or the voice of something bigger. Either way, there's great music being created, so I'm happy to wait and see.
 

The original photo I based my picture off, from Sodwee.

 
©2015 James Mathurin

The Assault on Alton Lane makes the Local Press - Street Art Superheroes

This is a bit of an experiment. Tammy suggested that it'd be cool to add a sense of narrative to my street-art superheroes, so I've been giving it some thought. After coming up with the background for Assault on Alton Lane, I thought it should be reported on by the media.

©2015 James Mathurin

James Mathurin Art is on Etsy now!

I've opened up a store on Etsy to sell some products I've made with my designs on. Have a look below in the handy widget-thing they let me use.

Here's a better look at the items on sale; they're all based on either the Street Art Superheroes or the Cyberpunk Art Nouveau sets, but I'll add more as I'm able to source products: 

 

 The Gentleman tote bag

 L'ermitage tote bag

 The Battle of Brick Lane tote bag

 Street Art Superheroes Postcard set

Cyber-Art Nouveau Postcard set

 ©2015 James Mathurin

Melee in Melbourne

So, here's another Street Art Superhero piece. The art for this one is from Melbourne, and as for the characters... I'm not entirely sure. Still, I'm pretty happy with it.

©2015 James Mathurin

Free Comic Book Day!

My haul from Free Comic Book Day. In the end I stopped by Kings , Kinokunya and Superhero Comics in Sydney and Newtown.

 I picked up Earth2 from Kings because they also had a sale on, but the rest were free.

I haven't read through them all yet, but the Marvel Avengers story is a good one. It takes a really interesting new lineup (new Thor, new Captain America (The Falcon), Iron Man, Vision and young heroes Nova, Ms Marvel and Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales) and introduces them in a way that shows how they'll work as a team,and gives you an idea of what the book will be about

Also, Captain Fluffy tried to get in on my free comics.

Sorry mate, you should have queued up like everybody else!

©2015 James Mathurin