XXL just recently announced the 2015 Freshman class, featuring rising stars like of Dej Loaf, Vince Staples, and Kidd Kidd. The Freshman list is always the subject of heated debate about what artists should or should not have made the roster, especially now in the digital age where Reddit and the like have flipped the concept of “opinions being like a#######” to a lucrative business. But one thing that is not subject to opinion is that up-and-coming emcees pine for a chance to be featured in the class. Vision The Kid, like his name implies, has a vision to one day penetrate the masses with his music.
Vision the Kid’s debut album, Lost Summer, lasted over 10 weeks on the College Media Journal’s Hip Hop charts, peaking at the #12 position. The latest Ep, BrokenRadioLove, also appeared in CMJ’s Hip Hop charts, cracking into the top 40 for multiple Weeks. Vision the Kid’s debut music video, “Lost Summer,” is featured on MTV.com, along with an MTV artist page. His music has been featured on MTV’s The Real World and E! Network’s Kourtney & Kim Take Miami. In 2013, Vision the Kid was voted Best Local Rapper in the Minneapolis publication Vita.mn.
Despite being born and raised in Minneapolis, a city with no strong ties to Hip Hop, VTK grew up like many emcees adoring the multitude of masterpieces released in the 90’s like Mobb Deep’s The Infamous or Nas’ Illmatic . Nowadays, there is not only an influx of retro sneakers, but Hip Hop as well. Artists like Joey Bada$$, Logic, Action Bronson and Kendrick Lamar have proved that creativity and poetical lyricism is far from dead.
While not yet as widely known as the aforementioned artists, VTK’s music is laced in similar ambitions, especially with his new mixtape from appropriately titled Golden Era. According to VTK: “This is my homage to the Hip Hop I grew up with, the Hip Hop that made me love Hip Hop. Salute to all the 90s heads.”
Not many emcees trying to stimulate buzz by taking on the daunting task of rhyming over ingenious Large Professor and DJ Premier instrumentals, but along with Noam The Drummer mixing the tracks, VTK displays a breadth of lyricism not typically witnessed by Top 40 radio artists. To further illustrate, Pete Rock’s brilliant “T.R.O.Y” beat is difficult to rhyme over because attention tends to focus on the gravitational pull of the songs themselves instead of the emcee, but But the most remarkable aspect of VTK’s approach is his versatility. Regardless of the structure of the legendary sonics at play, the emcee is able to adapt with various flow patterns. Many rappers reply on a singular cadence that is masked by catchy beats, but VTK accelerates and decelerates in deliberate fashion.
If you’re tired of hearing the same old s### (excuse my language) on the radio, download a stream of VTK’s Golden Era via Bandcamp, where you can name your own price.
http://visionthekid.bandcamp.com/album/golden-era
As always, if you like what you hear, track Vision The Kid’s movements on the interwebs:
Music video links:
Devil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl4Cj_Ns9d8
Rose in the Valley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74yZyjCzbdA
Live From the Midwest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-KaJkrlysE
Lost Summer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amUnYN0Z0xg
Websites/Social Media:
http://visionthekid.com
http://facebook.com/visionthekid
http://twitter.com/visionthekid
http://youtube.com/visionthekid
http://visionthekid.bandcamp.com
http://soundcloud.com/visionthekid http://www.mtv.com/artists/vision-the-kid http://www.reverbnation.com/visionthekid
http://beeasymusic.com