Invincible and Waajeed: The Making of 'Detroit Summer'

Invincible + Waajeed - The Making of the Detroit Summer Video from Waajeed on Vimeo.

As anticipation boils over for the release of Detroit Summer/Emergence, the collaborative 7” project by Invincible + Waajeed dropping on August 10, the duo have once again created more video work to accompany the release.

The full music video for "Detroit Summer/Emergence" by EMERGENCE in-house director, El Iqaa, is coming next week. In the meantime, check out exclusive behind the scenes footage shot, directed, and edited entirely by Waajeed himself. The forthcoming music video is on the serious side, lyrically and visually showcasing the vibrancy of Detroit that most people don't see. But Waajeed's behind-the-scenes footage balances that out with plenty of humor and hijinks, and also shows the process of what it is like to make a video in Detroit.

“I think I was able to capture the obstacles that we went through just making the video,” Waajeed says, “from being harassed by the cops, almost drowning in a boat, etc., but despite the adversities – just like the city of Detroit itself – regardless of what we face, we keep going.”

The behind-the-scenes video is also the first time we get to see video guru El-Iqaa on the other side of the camera. Once the "Detroit Summer/Emergence" music video is released next week, his directorial skills should get the nationwide attention they deserve. Keep this in mind: Invincible + Waajeed decided to make one powerful video for the single's title track "Detroit Summer" and the B-side single, “Emergence.” That's not an easy task, but Iqaa collected iconic images of Detroit in the summertime – in the midst of the historic Allied Media Conference and U.S. Social Forum – and then pieced together critical cameos from Detroit activists and music figures to create a video that truly is Hip-Hop art.

And stay tuned for the full music video and Detroit Summer/Emergence in both limited edition 7" vinyl and digital format dropping August 10. All vinyl purchases come with a digital download code as well.

Detroit Summer/Emergence is a prequel to the full length album from Invincible + Waajeed dropping in 2011. Neither of these songs will be on that album so get yours now. Stay plugged in to EMERGENCEmedia.org for updates and to pre-order the 7″.

Support the work of the organization DetroitSummer.org featured in the video.

John Murph on PPP (Platinum Pied Pipers)

from The Root

Motown 2.0
by John Murph

Detroit supergroup PPP’s new album, ‘Abundance,’ celebrates the Motown sound with a snazzy hipster edge.

***

R&B albums rarely combine the multiple musical legacies of one given city and catch the zeitgeist of its time as masterfully as PPP’s sophomore disc, Abundance (Ubiquity). As the title suggests, producer Waajeed and multi-instrumentalist Saadiq—the group’s two brainiacs—pack so much historical reference, so much modern perspective, so much deft musicality, so much lyrical ingenuity, and so much vivacity that Abundance is full of artistic riches.

Hailing from Detroit, it comes as no surprise that PPP (formerly Platinum Pied Pipers) bolsters much of Abundance with the epochal sounds of Motown, which celebrates its golden anniversary this year. But Motown, particularly its ’60s halcyon years, has informed a motherlode of recent albums, notably Amy Winehouse’s 2006’s breakout disc, Back to Black (Island), Solange Knowles’ nifty Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams (Music World/Geffen, 2008) and Raphael Saadiq’s fawning The Way I See It. Referencing Motown now seems purely trendy if not passé.

Although syncopated handclaps, snazzy snare-drum intros and soulful doo-wop harmonies rouse songs like “Go Go Go,” “Countless Excuses” and “Rocket Science,” Abundance channels more of Norman Whitfield’s urgent soul psychadelica that he wrote for the Undisputed Truth and Edwin Starr rather than Holland-Dozier-Holland’s sweet innocence that other current Motown-inspired discs bite.

Read Full Essay Here

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from NPR

Platinum Pied Pipers: In Pursuit Of 'Abundance'
by John Murph