Th Ballerina Matrix

Over the history of Hip Hop, the use of sampling has played an integral role in both tying the genre into and paying homage to the broad history of music that came behind it.  At the first the samples were largely drawn from old soul and R&B, but with the rise of producers such J Dilla, Madlib, Kanye West and others, the range of source material drawn from has increased both in terms of genre as well as obscurity.  This has lead to a blurring of genres and what Hip Hop is supposed to be, as opposed to what it is in reality.

The newest thing, Ballet.

Kanye West and Big Boi, who have released two of the best new Hip Hop records of 2010 (Big Boi's Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty; and Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), both released music videos in which ballet is a very major theme.

Sure using Ballet in a rap video is not the same thing as Madlib mining bollywood, but just as sampling began to blur the lines between genres; These two ballet rap video show the blurring of mediums and the distinction between high brow and low brow culture.

Enjoy

Big Boi "The Train, Pt. 2"


The Train, Pt. 2 (Sir Lucious Saves the Day) from Big Boi on Vimeo.

Kanye West "Runaway feat. Pusha T"



By the way, if anyone has yet to listen to either of these albums, they are both amazing.  Two of the best albums of 2010.