Wednesday, February 18, 2009

K. Sparks - Hip Hop

Hear The Track Here

A track request from my blog now and an absolutely new name to me, K Sparks is a (and I quote) 'hiphop/rap/jazz' artist from New York City who has nonetheless racked up some 1.3m views over at Myspazz; a not inconsiderable achievement. There again, the guy also has over 40,000 'friends' over there so that would account for some activity I reckon. When you go to his page the first track to play is aptly titled All That Jazz and shows that the jazz tag is deserved, and I have to say I am glad for that. I've always had an ear for certain kinds of jazz and I get really bent out of shape about the number of modern artists who use the tag to prop up something that is most certainly nothing like the jazz I know and love. On that score, I'd recommend you listen to that track too while you are checking this excellent rapper out.

Its immediately obvious that K Sparks has some professional help in his tracks, either from seasoned musicians or a producer as such. Further reading of his page will show that quickly enough, as well as the fact that several people contribute to this extremely commercial sound, and that's never a bad thing. Of course it means nothing unless you have the musical chops (or even lyrical visions) to make the whole thing work and if All That Jazz is any kind of example, this is a musical entity with massive production, performance and lyrical skills to bring to the party.

There is no doubt that I have a problem with a lot of commercially oriented hiphop/rap and that is usually down to the awful, unending banality of most of the current 'stars' of the scene. There is only such much you can write about amassing riches and bitches after all, and even less scope is the increasingly tired macho bullshit from the 'rougher' end of the genre. K.Sparks, then, is like a breath of fresh air for jaded palates such as mine, being both commercially viable AND doing it without crossing any of my major no-no lines. Just goes to show that you don't have to be sensationalist to BE sensational. If you have become tired of hiphop K. Sparks may well change that, at least as far as the commercial end of it goes.

Highly Recommended, very smooth hiphop.

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