Free Album: Copywrite – Carbon Copy’s Phony Art Pub Scam
Columbus-based rapper Copywrite releases his free album Carbon Copy’s Phony Art Pub Scam through Man Bites Dog Records. The title of the album, which was premiered by OkayPlayer, is a play on The Beatles’ famous record Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and starting with the album cover, it’s a mix of honorary sampling coupled with what can feel like irreverence. However, there’s nothing but genuine excitement in this project which is, for Copy, his way, “of paying homage to one of my favorite groups and albums of all time.”
Feeling burnt out on hip-hop after releasing two albums in the past year, Copy was craving something different. He went on a Beatles and Beach Boys binge, and one day, while listening to Sgt. Pepper’s, he recounts, “I had the headphone jack halfway in and it played only the speaker with the music and not the vocals.” Immediately struck by the unorthodox time signatures, Copy was excited by the challenge of it. “I love rapping complex and crazy, but I never really have the platform for that,” says Copy, “It was perfect.”
Lennon’s lyric “It was 20 years ago today” resonated with Copy’s long history with the genre. “I started when I was 14 and now I’m 34,” says Copy explaining the way it hit him, “I felt as if Lennon was talking to that young emcee out of bumfuck Ohio.” He continues, “I’m rapping about things I’ve never rapped about in my 20 years of emceeing.” There’s a brooding weight to the tracks, which are often self-reflective, darkly personal narratives. Dealing with new territory in subject matter also influenced its production. “I’m rapping using a different delivery on this,” Copy says, it’s “more close to my regular speaking voice.”
Stand-outs “ADHD Quality”, “Read A…” and “When I’m (In The) Six (One) Four” incorporate delicate melodies with very recognizable samples from the classic tracks, a complement which adds gravity to Copy’s verse. Despite the seriousness of the songs, Copy adds that “I had a lot of fun with this, more than any album I’ve made before.” That enjoyment shows because throughout, the production is considered carefully with layers of news clips, radio and television samples mingling with Beatles parts. Tracks like “I Love Lucy”, “High With Friendz” and “Your Life In A Day” stick more closely to the themes of the original songs, while others veer off in very different directions. There’s a lot going on in Carbon Copy’s Phony Art Pub Scam, but for Copy, it comes down to some simple and important things. He says, “I just hope I can turn some kids on to the fab 4 and push the envelope a little!”
New Video: Copywrite – “Ghosts In The Machine” Ft. Context
Earlier this month, Copywrite released God Save The King: Proper English Version. The album, a deluxe edition re-release of his God Save The King album released earlier this year, featured Copywrite enlisting a number of the UK’s brightest up-and-coming rappers to remix tracks from God Save The King, names like Dru Blu, Mystro, SAS, Akala, and Iron Braydz, along with Context, who was voted as MTV UK’s New Artist Of The Year in 2011, and who appears on this latest single, “Ghosts In The Machine.”
The song, “Ghost In The Machine,” finds Copywrite and Context taking aim at those jealous of their position in rap, and in particular at the rare breed of haters who waste their day leaving negative comments online. Copywrite opens the track forcefully, rapping, “You hide behind your blog/ I’m hiding behind your garage/ With a barrage of bullets right on your front lawn,” and continues to poke fun with slick lines like, “Ultimate compliment/ When a hater gets stalkerish/ Since they gave every compliment/ They have nothing to talk but shit.” The video, directed by R.M.L., humorously plays off the song’s concept, working together a mix of performance shots with a host of funny shots, as fans spend their days watching Copywrite videos and aimlessly directing their hate to the comments section.
