Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Mo Ichi Do (One more time)

Again. Hip-hop and Takashi Murakami (Previously: Kanye West's Graduation album cover & Pharrell's The Simple Things) @1:54 in Jay-Z's video for "Blue Magic."




I wonder, what's the mutual attraction between Murakami and hip-hop artists?

additional Notes...

  • Like Pharrell, Jay-Z owns some original Murakamis.
  • Comparing Damien Hirst on money and death to Jay-Z on money and death=AWESOME: "As in Jay-Z’s music, [Damien] Hirst’s meditations on wealth frequently accompany meditations on mortality. The Hirst pieces Jay-Z gravitates toward are those in which this theme is especially prominent: the diamond skull, which references memento mori, and which Hirst has described as a laugh 'in the face of' death; the spin-art skull paintings...dominate Jay-Z’s 'Blue Magic' video."
  • Speaking in a sweeping generalization, does this mean that hip-hop(read:black) artists enjoy contemporary and/or pop art, and folksy/rock(read:white) artists like Fleet Foxes or Deep Purple dig early Netherlandish art?
  • This brings us ALMOST back full circle (kinda): Jay-Z references Hirst references memento mori, a motif in Vanitas paintings (oft-associated with Flanders/Netherlands, countries which churned these out about a century or two after Bruegel and Bosch), which "are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death."

3 comments:

  1. RE the sweeping generalizations, I think if you're talking contemporary and/or pop art, Lady Gaga would be sad if you didn't mention her. She's doing her darndest to channel Warhol, among others.

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  2. I'm not up to date enough to know anything about Lady Gaga? I think something has to be like 5+ years old for it to penetrate my consciousness of it. Is she that old yet?

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  3. both Murakami & hip hop artists realize C.R.E.A.M.

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