DELS "Shapeshift"

I received a lovely little gift in my inbox the other day, that being this creatively put together music video for hip-hop musician DELS from the UK. With hip-hop and rap these days being inundated with crass and comically narcissistic lyrical "virtuosos," it was refreshing to see a music video and hear a track that avoids the smarmy tropes that put so many people (like myself) off of the genre. While I'm no hip-hop historian, I do understand that there's a public symposium revolving around who will come out as the proverbial "return to classic hip-hop."

Some people have floated Childish Gambino to the forefront, which I personally find puzzling as from the little I have heard, it seems like a satire of the clichéd sexually potent and pop culture geyserness persona that plagues the industry. The satire falls flat when you hear Donald Glover talk about his music, in which he's open and modest about his music being predominantly about his interests -- namely having lots and lots of sex and money. To be fair, leaving it at just that would be unfairly limiting the scope of his lyrics, and as funny and witty as Donald is in his comedy, it reflects just as much in his rapping. But I wouldn't consider witty lyrics to be a staple of "classic hip-hop," as he is quick to point out that witty/funny rappers are a dime-a-dozen in the mainstream scene (citing Kanye and Lil Wayne among the likes of The Lonely Island).

Now, I am not qualified to say that DELS is the second-coming of classic hip-hop, but I would be able to argue against the necessity of that designation in the first place. For starters, defining something as ambiguous as "classic hip-hop" is frivolous at best. Are we talking about Nas or Tupac? Or something more along the lines of Kid N Play or Run-DMC? Hip-hop, like all genres of music, has undergone decades of change and evolution -- some for better, and some for worse. What we're seeing in the industry today are collaborations between musicians that cross genres. DELS, for example, collaborates with producer Joe Goddard from the legendary UK band Hot Chip. The glitchy electronic beats that back DELS' rapping combine to be something euphoric, catchy, and ultimately unique, which I think (more than a return to classic hip-hop) is the best praise  I can give it.

When you're done enjoying the clever and creative music video above (which is a compilation of some rather impressive compositing techniques), check out his other more lo-fi video for his single Trumpalump. Forgoing any green screening or post-production work, DELS and his video team decided to do all of the special effects (the black-and-white) in paint. Then check out the behind-the-scenes feature for the Trumpalump video here, in which DELS speaks about the process, concept, and interpretations of his music.