by Ore Fakorede
In today’s list: one sci-fi music video, a hot new single, one free album from a massively talented rapper and the epic preview of an epic movie.
Watch: Owl City’s electronic sounds gained universal acclaim with the mushy chart-topping single ‘Fireflies’ from the synthpop musical project’s 2009 major label debut, ‘Ocean Eyes’. Two years down the line, front man Adam Young and his retinue return with ‘Alligator Sky‘, the oddly-titled first single off their upcoming sophomore album ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ (due June ). Featuring fast-rising intellectual hip-hop head Shawn Chrystopher, ‘Alligator Sky’ is a slight departure from Owl City’s usual audio ambience as Chrystopher’s eclectic rhymes dominate the electronic soundtrack. The accompanying music video is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth with Chrystopher and Adam Young cast as bubble-headed explorers from outer space. Enough said, see it for yourself.
Listen: If you think that the best Nigerian music acts are the ones resident within the country (read: Lagos), you obviously haven’t heard May7ven sing. Born Yemisi May Odegbami, May7ven is a 27 year-old Afro/R&B artiste who lives in the United Kingdom. In 2009, May rode into the limelight on the back of ’Hands Up’, an up-beat single which featured the songwriting talent of British producer Aeon Manahan. The Ibadan native has since ventured into music production and artiste management, with relative success. This month, she jump-starts her singing career with ‘Number’, her brand-new high-octane single. The ‘repeat‘ button must have been made for this song.
View: Barring a reboot in the future, the epic big-screen saga of boy-wizard Harry Potter and his magically-gifted friends will finally come to an end on the 15th of July with the highly anticipated worldwide opening of ‘Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2‘. Warner Bros Pictures, producers of the money-spinning franchise, have deemed it fit to drive our delicate nervous systems into an adrenaline rage with the first cinematic trailer that sets the stage for the ultimate showdown. Watch Master Potter and Lord Voldermort duke it out on the hallowed grounds of Hogwarts for eternal stakes!
Download: Shawn Chrystopher must be something special to have appeared twice on this list. At sixteen, his razor-sharp mind earned him a scholarship to study at the prestigious University Of Southern California, but he chose to defer that scholarship and pursue an unclear future in rap music instead. Now 24 and with two critically-acclaimed compilations under his belt, Chrystopher has obviously put his smarts to good use and is widely acknowledged as a connoisseur of intellectual wordplay. Content to be an independent artiste, he has racked up over 285,000 downloads of his audio material and about 250,000 YouTube views of his official music videos. The artiste has also signed endorsement deals with Guinness and MySpace, all without the influence or financial muscle of a record label. He’s really something special.
The most recent offering from the Inglewood, California rapper is ‘You, and Only You’, a thirteen-track album. Apparently, the digital copy of the album is priceless, so Shawn is giving it out for free. Download it, enjoy it, and in appreciation, you should follow him on Twitter.
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