Hip-Hop to Britpop: New releases from Kellee Maize, Mace Ballard, Summer-Winter and Black Crash
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Kellee Maize. -
Mace Ballard. -
Black Crash.
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A lot of artists freak out when their albums leak before the release date.
Pittsburgh rapper Kellee Maize leaked her latest album, "Integration," herself last week on Frostwire, a music site that delivered 135,000 downloads of her previous, second album.
"I like the idea that it's free and everybody has access to it and it doesn't require money to do it," she says. "At the same time, artists need to make money, and I think from a long-term perspective, the most important thing for me is to continue to build my fanbase so it is sustainable. And I believe I'll have a better chance of that if people get an opportunity to sample it without having to pay for it and they can have it in their car, have it in their iPod and it's not just something where they see a random YouTube video or stream."
Obviously, the record isn't worth anything if she isn't any good, but that's not the case with the Central Pennsylvania native who came here for college in 1998 and stayed. For starters, she goes against the norm with conscious rap that has a spiritual, political, feminist vibe while also being tough and aggressive sonically, sounding at times like Nicki Minaj. Beyond that, she has a pretty, sexy voice and a flair for hooks. The musical styles range from reggaeton to Indian to dubstep to electropop that's almost radio-friendly.
"I love to dance. So, I gravitate towards tracks and producers that have more upbeat tempos," she says. "It's more dance music as opposed to mainstream or pop. I know that my content is left of center and tends to fall more in the realm of indie hip-hop, and yeah, some of the songs have more of an underground feeling, but I definitely feel that this album has so many different types of songs. So, I'm interested to see what some people like."
The boldest track is "Mad Humans," which attacks the stereotypes of women in culture and calls for "putting the patriarchy to bed." It was inspired by a book called "Unplugging the Patriarchy" by Lucia Rene.
"I read it with a group of women at a book club and was deeply impacted by it," she says. "The beginning part of it is this woman being exposed to how the world actually works, the whole means of control, everything from the bludgeoning of the Third World to the Fed and how our monetary system is so corrupt. She delves into her spirituality and realizes she holds the patriarchy within her ... In the song, I resolve in the end that it's something we all have to take responsibility for."
First Published November 10, 2011 12:00 am
