Friday Night Videos: X:144!

X:144 is a rapper/producer/director who’s is close to Swamburger of Solillaquists of Sound. That’s pretty much all I know about him (well, that and his views on Egypt and some aspects of hip hop culture). Together he and Samburger made a couple really fun videos for Solilla songs that I thought would make great Friday Night Videos, even for the non-hop hop folks out there.

Let me first assure you that yes, you read that right: Swamburger of Solillaquists of Sound. That’s even spelled correctly. What is Solillaquists of Sound? It’s a hip hop group comprised of the aforementioned Swamburger, an MC specializing in super-humanly fast and precise rapping, along with Alexandrah, a smooth-voiced singer/rapper, Divinci, a DJ and producer whose beats and rhythms are incredibly rich and complex, and Tonya Combs, a poet whose lyrics are filled with allusions to comic books, movies, and all sorts of stuff that I have to look up to get. They are pretty much as good as underground hip hop gets, but their music can be kind of heavy at times, so X:144 came along and, without losing the darkness, added some comic book fun worthy of a post. First

And then the sequel, which is set to one of my favorite rap songs of the last few years:

It’s like Beastie Boys meets Arrested Development, with a quarter of the budget and the rapping on double speed (listen to the dual rapping around 2:58 of “Marvel”; that ain’t easy).

Take a little credit for your faults…
Halt that personal closure towards your vault
Better the bitter proportionate pro
Hoarding cheddar for the fortunate goal
Found a bit of material
Literal definition for the record that the pitiful action is boxed in
Plus circuit of worth is boxed in
Stuck wording the mouth
Alerting the route
Blurting the ouch, the truth hurts
Ain’t no better example than our faults. (via Rap Genius)

OK, so the lyrics are even more opaque than the videos. They’re still fun in combination.

Oh, and X:144 does make regular ol’ music videos, and they’re pretty cool as well:

I hope you’re all off work for several days, and taking the opportunity to spend time with family and friends, or just relaxin’.