Watch Henok Achido's "High On Life (When The Drugs Don't Work)" on Tripletimexl.com!

Is Henok Achido's video for "High On Life (When The Drugs Don't Work)" one of the best Independent rap video to ever come out in Europe? You decide. Here's my opinion:
It's one of the only rap videos currently in circulation that doesn't depict images of jewelry, cars, cash, models, and fashion; but that's not what makes the video great. The reason why this piece is so captivating is because tackles issues that are rarely spoken about in the hip-hop community. Issues such as isolation, depression, homelessness and mortality. It shows a side of urban life, that the public rarely gets to see. The social aspects, such as, the night clubs, parties, public gatherings, are replaced with images of confinement, paranoia, and desolation. When looking at the big city, we often focus on the lights, skyscrapers, and glamorous events, yet, we rarely think about the thousands of people confined within their apartments living with an array of social anxieties, addictions and mental disorders. We see a beautiful bridge in Brooklyn, but we don't see the people living under it.
Henok Achido, once again, proves that he's simply cut from a different cloth. A rapper that refuses to follow the mainstream trends of the music industry. Henok Achido has exalted himself to an unreachable plateau by creating one of the best Independent rap videos to ever come out in Europe.

"High On Life (When The Drugs Don't Work)"
Artist: Henok Achido
Music Producer: Vito
Album: Almaz Charming Child
Year: 2009
Director: Mattis Gustafsson & Oskar Ljungholm of www.slagskottfilm.com
Cinematographer: Erik Nordlund of www.skapetskasta.se
Editor: Alexander Widerberg
3D Imager: Fredrik Nilsson
Henok Achido on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/henokachido
Record Label: DLX Entertainment/Secret Society Club
Contact: thesecretsocietyclub@gmail.com

This is the full and finished video for Jay-Z newest song "Run This Town" which features Rihanna and Kanye West. It's the second single off his album "Blueprint 3" which is scheduled to be released on September 11, 2009.

"Run This Town"
Artist: Jay-Z
Featuring: Rihanna and Kanye West
Album: Blue Print 3
Year: 2009
Location: New York
Label: Roc Nation

Someone on youtube said "What a good wedding song!". Sorry, I had to laugh at that one. This is another typical Akon record, with a catchy hook, a great instrumental and a chorus that glorifies strippers and gold diggers. All around it's a good song. Sway, from the UK, did a great job in putting this song together. I spoke to him a couple weeks ago when he was in New York City and he told me that Konvict Muzik was planning to release and market this song here in America before the end of the year. He performed it at the Urban Music Awards, earlier in the month. It received a lukewarm response, possibly due to his British accent. At times, I felt as if I was the only person in the front row dancing to it… maybe I was. He made a reference to his accent in “Silver and Gold“, when he says ""She's always telling me that she loves my accent but she's thinking to herself what the hell is he saying". Personally, I don't think the UK accent is really that hard to understand, although, maybe I’m just accustomed to hearing people use it because I have family over there. Last year when Sway released the "Go Hard" freestyle, he spoke about how his accent prevented him from getting signed to many American major labels. ""I was in New York trying to give them my disc, walked into Shady Records and said listen to this… Peter Rosenberg said 'this is a hit but because of your accent, I'm going to give it a miss.'" In my opinion, Sway's accent is barely noticeable especially when you compare it to other UK rappers such as Ghetts. But that's the way my country is, everyone knows that if "Silver and Gold" featured a rapper with an American accent, the song would be 3x platinum and #1 on the Billboard Charts. No matter what the underground critics in the UK say about Sway‘s new sound, you have to absolutely respect him. He's breaking down a lot of barriers here in this country and he's opening the doors for UK rappers to market their music and find success here in America.

"Silver and Gold"
Artist: Sway
Featuring: Akon
Album: The Signature LP
Year: 2009
Location: UK
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/swaydasafo
Label: Konvict Muzik

This is a fantastic video for Smoke Bulga's "Money On My Mind" featuring Jim Jones! It was directed by DanTheMan, who has filmed music videos for Prodigy, Termanology, 50 Cent and more. It was filmed on location, all throughout Boston (except for the scenes with Jim Jones which were filmed in New York City).

This is by far, the most expensive video and song that any Boston rapper has created all year. The rentals alone that are featured in this video will probably amount to $5,000 or more. Jim Jones was most likely paid, somewhere in the thousands, to appear on the song. Dan The Man is one of the best hip-hop music video directors in the Northeast. His camera alone, the Panasonic AG-HVX200, is worth over $5,000. The production costs of this video must have went "through the roof". I don't think anyone from Boston is going to top this one. At least not this year. Not with a recession… and a 8.7% Massachusetts unemployment rate. Smoke Bulga is the definition of "Ballin"! Ballin in a recession. Overall, Great song, Great video, Thumbs up!

"Money On My Mind"
Artist: Smoke Bulga
Featuring: Jim Jones
Director: Dan The Man
Location: Boston & New York City
Year: 2009
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/smokebulga
Label: http://www.myspace.com/smokebulga
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SmokeBulga

I'm only posting this because it's local… and I'm just doing what I can to support the local community!

"On and On"
Artist: Famoe
Featuring: Makio (From MTV's Making the Band Season 4)
Production Company: SureFire Music
Location: Northern Massachusetts
Year: 2009
Label: SureFire Music Group
Myspace: www.myspace.com/thisisfamoe
Website: http://www.famoe-music.com/

This is an exclusive video (from the good folks at the Secret Society Club) of Kid Cudi and Henok Achido doing their thangs in Sweden at the Hultsfredfestival. Now, I know that I've mentioned millions of times that Henok is one of the best rappers… out, but now I feel the need to re-emphasize that fact and remind everyone one more time that this guy is going to become a global hip-hop icon when it's all said and done.
The people that follow Henok, that go to his shows and buy his music are fans of him for one reason and one reason only… because he's a good rapper. Not because he's rapping on trendy instrumentals, not because of his sneakers, or his borough… they just want to hear him rap… because he's clearly a good rapper. Nothing more nothing less. He's not following himself around with a camera, he's not walking around in shutter shades, he's not wearing the ball-gripping skinny jeans. His female fans aren't daydreaming about his image, they just wanna hear him rap. His male fans aren't envious of his clothing, they just wanna hear him rap. Most of today's new 2009 and 2010 acts are entertainers, they're not just rappers. They sing, they dance, they hop around on stage, they post funny youtube videos; they entertain people. They have little gimmicks; their clothes, their looks, their videos, their blogs, their sneakers, their dj's. Henok just raps, and that's it. They're aren't a lot of new rappers like that. Ghetts from the UK is one of them, but that’s really it. No matter how much you cut and slice it, Henok Achido is the real deal. No if, ands, or skinny jeans about it.

Finally, The official video for Eva Simons "Silly Boy". The is a very futuristic video and it blends perfectly well with the music. The designers did a great job with building the sets and setting up the brilliant light show. And Eva Simons definitely doesn't disappoint when she steps in front of the camera. August 14th 2009 is when the record is going to be released on Itunes. Mark your calendars! Support the Mohawk!

"Silly Boy"
Artist: Eva Simons
Producer: Tearce Keaz
Management: Walboomers Music
Label: EMI
Country: Netherlands
Year 2009
Website: Evasimons.com
Myspace: Myspace.com/evasimons
Twitter: Twitter.com/EvaSimons

Let's get into this one, new music from Million Stylez of Sweden. This is a brand spanking video released about 9 hours ago, thanks to Universal Music in Sweden. The video for Million Stylez new single, titled "Love We Deal With", is directed by David Dawoodi, who is best known for his unique advertising spots for Adidas, Playstation, Budweiser and Lexus. This video, which looks like it was filmed on a moderately low budget, contains many great shots with numerous camera angles that showcase the musicians doing a live performance in an empty concrete building. Overall, it's a great video shot by one of the most creative directors in Sweden.

"Love We Deal With"
Artist: Million Stylez
Director: David Dawoodi
Country: Sweden
Year: 2009
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/millionstylezonline
Label: Adonai Music/Universal Music Sweden
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQEuoTC1En8&feature=channel_page

Beyonce has just released one of her best videos of 2009, with "Sweet Dreams". This was the first song that was leaked off of the album "I Am… Sasha Fierce", back in March of 2008. After about a year and some change, the video is finally released to the general public. The song was originally met with mixed reviews by many of the international critics that first reviewed it, however, in America it was seen as a potential ground-breaking smash hit. By releasing it in the summer of 2009, Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams" fits perfectly with many of the top singles in the current American mainstream radio rotation including Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow", Jeremih's "Birthday Sex (Dance Mix)", and Lady Gaga's "LoveGame". The timing of this record couldn't have been any better. "Sweet Dreams" is on it's way to become one of the biggest songs of 2009.

Now, the astonishing feat lies with Beyonce releasing six singles from her album "I Am… Sasha Fierce". It's very very rare for any artist in this era to release an album with six hit singles. Beyonce's previous album "B'Day" had a whopping seven singles, something that is absolutely unheard of in popular music. The late Michael Jackson, in his hey day, was creating albums with seven, eight and nine singles; the same goes for Janet Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. But in the 2000's, the era of music downloads, dwindling CD sales, and not to mention… a recession, releasing an album with six or more singles twice in a row is an amazing accomplishment. This album is on pace to sell another 5 million units globally before the year ends.

The video for "Sweet Dreams", is just monumental… there's simply no other way to put it. Beyonce obviously pays homage to other futuristic dance videos that came before it such as Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's "Scream" video, which is known as the most expensive music video of all time. She was also influenced by the innovative fashion designer Thierry Mugler who recently became the main costume designer for her "I Am…" tour. "Sweet Dreams" is now reinvented with the launch of this new earth-shattering video and the newly released deluxe single is going to be a global success. The CD and digital release date for the United Kingdom is going to be on August 3rd 2009.

"Sweet Dreams"
Artist: Beyonce
Producer: Jim Jonsin and Wayne Wilkins
Writer: Rico Love
Album: I Am… Sasha Fierce
Video Director: Adria Petty
Year: 2009
Country: USA
Label: Columbia
Beyonce's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/beyonce
Adria Petty's Website: http://www.adriapetty.com/

This is J-Son's newest video for his single "My Window" (produced by Addeboy vs. Cliff). The background vocals were sung by Yaiya, a Swedish pop singer who is currently prepping the release of her new song, titled "What's4Dinner", which features Eboi. The video was directed by the animation and stop motion wizard Arvid Tappert. Arvid Tappert has produced video clips for many major companies and he's also won dozens of awards throughout his amazing career.
The stop motion team which worked on the video did a phenomenal job in making seamless transitions during the frame by effects. Stop motion videos can be very difficult to produce, yet Gifford Film managed to make those visualizations very look easy.
The chorus of "My Window", which is sung in a similar fashion of Seal (from his album "System"), is about waking up with and knowing that you can accomplish anything that your mind can manifest. This song contains a valuable message about the importance of staying positive and making all of your dreams come true.
J-Son has a new album titled "Never Half Steppin", which is scheduled to be released during September of 2009.

"My Window"
Artist: J-Son
Featuring: Yaiya
Music Producers: Addeboy vs. Cliff
Director: Arvid Tappert
Production Company: Gifford Film
Cinematographer: Hannes Isaksson
Strop Motion Photographer: Klara G
Set Designer: Anja-Lisa Rudka
Compositing: Sam Brandhild, Robert Eskekarr, Claudio Salas
Album: Never Half Steppin
Release Date: September 2009
Country: Sweden
J-Son's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jsonsb
Label: Same Blood Entertainment
Contact: Thierry@Sameblood.com