Hopsin Takes Over the Subway in “Crown Me” Video

Rap deals in archetypes. Plenty has been written about the paradigm shift away from gangsta rap in the commercial sphere--a shift that coincided with, and was largely caused by Kanye West's 2004 debut. In 50 Cent and DMX's place was a more vulnerable, more conventionally emotive rap star. Hopsin, however, has staked his career on a peculiar kind of revivalism. His music hearkens back to Eminem's heyday, when indiscriminate angst was a meal ticket you could get stamped at TRL and 106 & Park. His latest video, "Crown Me," precedes his long-anticipated Pound Syndrome, due out July 24. "I'm from that small city called Panorama," the "Ill Mind" star raps, "Where the vatos roam and they blast they hammers." But his vocals aren't from Southern California so much as they are from a locked bedroom in 2000, with plenty of legal pads, rhyming dictionaries agitating pop culture images on loop.

Filed Under: Hopsin, pound syndrome, Rap Videos

Categories: Music, New Music