Aug22

15 Minutes: Champagne Champagne

Champagne Champagne

There was something explicitly beautiful when I first heard The Marshall Mathers LP and that was vulnerability, heartache and pure rage flowing through Eminem like cold rainy wind. It’s this vulnerability that is incredibly hard to reproduce and not come across as disingenuous-worse off in Hip-Hop, being too emotional can be your demise and alienate you as a mope. I think a lot of it of course is this strange journey this beautiful music has had to go through. Of course such a young genre so pumped with money and misogyny is bound to hit bumps not only in the mainstream but also amongst groups themselves. Hip-Hop in it’s purest form is poetry, poetry like the kind Emily Dickinson wrote. Whether or not older Americans want to recognize this is up to them but of course how easy is it for people who’s only interaction with Hip-Hop is listening to Snoop Dogg cameo some lame lines to Katy Perry’s “California Girls” or Soulja Boy’s song du jour. This is not to say there is no place for that music in the world today. But Hip-Hop at least at the most mainstream and even at times indie level is only seen as this glassy overly produced ticket to fortunes and riches.
It’s 2010, though and people like Snoop are aging. I mean can you really be 40 and rap about popping some girls pussy and Hummers?
Champagne Champagne is an interesting cross section of all these things. The only current counterpart I can only think of is BBU from Chicago.
Champagne Champagne is composed of Pearl Dragon, Sir Thomas Gray, Mark Gadjadhar who come together in the city, once hailed by Rolling Stone as “junkie town”, Seattle.
Champagne Champagne just keeps reminding me of Santigold. Their beats, that inevitable sleekness and execution. From their myspace songs it seems like a study of their maleness and what Hip-Hop is while trying to stuff their sounds from all their world views. Songs like “Molly Ringwald” and “Cover girls” seems like poetic soliloquies rare in Hip-Hop. The way they describe these women, as beautiful, glorious even triumphant despite their own demise is something incredibly refreshing because we can see a different relationship and role women play in Hip-Hop. People in general in Hip-Hop never seem to be equal they are more or less the other, the problem or someone we can exploit.
Champagne Champagne is of course still new, and still susceptible to change but even at the level they are at now and the fact that they have a counterpart means that paradigms are beginning to change. For this genre is growing up, learning from it’s mistakes but still giving room for those club bangers. This group is one to watch, one to mount to success and one to provide beauty into all our lives so long as they don’t corrupt themselves.
Check out Champagne Champagne’s Black Cab Session below and then head on over to listen more on their myspace.

There was something explicitly beautiful when I first heard The Marshall Mathers LP and that was vulnerability, heartache and pure rage flowing through Eminem like cold rainy wind. It’s this vulnerability that is incredibly hard to reproduce and not come across as disingenuous-worse off in Hip-Hop, being too emotional can be your demise and alienate you as a mope. Being too different, too smart being anything than the status quo tends to be met with a certain backlash. I think a lot of it of course is this strange journey this beautiful music has had to go through. Of course such a young genre so pumped with money and misogyny is bound to hit bumps not only in the mainstream but also amongst groups themselves. Hip-Hop in it’s purest form is poetry, poetry like the kind Emily Dickinson wrote. It’s difficult to recognize this when sometimes most of our interaction with Hip-Hop is bombarded with just the same repeated cameos or Soulja Boy’s song du jour. This is not to say there is no place for that music in the world today. But Hip-Hop at least at the most mainstream and even at times indie level is only seen as this glassy overly produced ticket to fortunes and riches.

It’s 2010 and people like Snoop are aging. I mean can you really be 40 and rap about popping some girls pussy and Hummers?

Champagne Champagne is an interesting cross section of all these things. The only current counterpart I can think of is BBU from Chicago. Champagne Champagne is composed of Pearl Dragon, Sir Thomas Gray, Mark Gadjadhar who come together in the city, once hailed by Rolling Stone as “junkie town”, Seattle.

Champagne Champagne reminds me a lot of Santigold. Their beats, that inevitable sleekness and execution. From their myspace songs it seems like a study of their maleness and what Hip-Hop is to them, while trying to stuff their sounds from all their world views. Songs like “Molly Ringwald” and “Cover Girls” seems like poetic soliloquies rare in Hip-Hop. The way they describe these women as beautiful, glorious even triumphant despite their own demise is something incredibly refreshing because we can see a different relationship and role women play in Hip-Hop. People in general in Hip-Hop never seem to be equal they are more or less the other, the problem or someone we can exploit.

Champagne Champagne is of course still new, and still susceptible to change but even at the level they are at now and the fact that they have a counterpart means that paradigms are beginning to change. For this genre is growing up, learning from it’s mistakes but still giving room for those club bangers. This group is one to watch, one to mount to success and one to provide beauty into all our lives so long as they don’t corrupt themselves.

Check out Champagne Champagne’s performance of “Molly Ringwald” live at the KEXP BBQ below and then head on over to listen more on their myspace.


Share/Bookmark

Previous Post: Antony and The Johnsons “Thank You For Your Love” Music Video

Next Post: Øya Festival, Norway. 10.-14. August 2010. (Review)

Leave a Reply