70 Elevators
celebrating lyrical mastery
RAPPERs
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Read This First: An Introduction
Where does hip-hop music truly live and thrive? On which continents? In which languages? Since the music industry spotlight is still mainly aimed at the most shallow, narcissistic and destructive manifestations of the rap genre, I felt I had to play my part in drawing attention to rappers who are elevating the art form. Of course I…
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Elevator 31: Michael Stork
Michael Stork is arguably one of the most sophisticated, versatile and imaginative rappers to have ever grabbed a mic and he’s been my favourite rapper for years. I’ve been anticipating writing that sentence since I started 70elevators. Yes, he’s one of my best friends. Yes, I was in a rap group with him. Yes, I’m…
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Elevator 30: Emicida
Leandro Roque de Oliveira was born into a poor São Paulo family in the summer of 1985. He is now one of Brazil’s most popular rappers. Leandro aka Emicida is Elevator 30. What kickstarted Emicida’s popularity was his ability as a freestyler. In São Paulo rap battles don’t just take place under the glare of…
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Elevator 29: Andre 3000
Andre Benjamin aka Andre 3000 is hard to ignore. It’s very likely you’ve already heard this rap master as part of the hip hop duo Outkast, but is there more behind the flair and panache of Southern rap’s most convivial voice? After the perfect drum fill 24 seconds into Outkast’s debut single ‘Player’s Ball’ Andre was unleashed on the world and…
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Elevator 28: Boots Riley
For a while Ice Cube’s grimace was a potent symbol of post-Black Panthers, pro-Black, anti-government resistance. Somewhere along the line he traded it in for a Hollywood smile. There are painfully few sharp-tongued, politically active rappers who are willing to put their community before their own career. Boots Riley seems to be just such a…
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MUSIC BY ME & MY FRIENDS
SXXTSTORM (released Sept 2022)
PANDÜZIMA (released Oct 2022)
UNEARTHED (released Dec 2021)
ABOUT the blogger
Joel Wilson is a film maker, writer, rap lyricist, Alastair McIntosh quoter and Afrofuturism enthusiast. He believes we’re living in rap’s golden era right now.
70 Elevators 