Pardison Fontaine (HHH Journalism) - HipHop

Pardison Fontaine (HHH Journalism)
This past week Future has had "Mask Off" and "Used to This" go Platinum, "Low Life" go 3x Platinum, "F*ck Up Some Commas" go 2x Platinum, and "Blow a Bag" go Gold. His albums "Honest" and "Pluto have both also been certified Gold.
[FRESH] Frank Ocean - Lens
Kendrick Earns Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With Biggest Debut of 2017
blonded Radio 004 - Game Thread
Why Kendrick Lamar and Sounwave Camped Out in Sleeping Bags to Make 'DAMN.'
Ski Mask The Slump God's Album to Be Distributed Through G.O.O.D. Music
[FRESH] Ski Mask The Slump God - Babywipe
Sun Tzu's The Art of War audiobook layered over Wu-Tang Clan instrumentals.
Giggs performs his verse on KMT in London. Crowd goes nuts.
Mike WiLL Made-It -Perfect Pints ft. Kendrick Lamar, Gucci Mane andRae Sremmurd
Travis Scott "Antidote" in now 3X Platinum!
The original Kung Fu Kenny
ScHoolboy Q - Blind THreats (feat Raekwon)
Frank Ocean- Be Yourself
[FRESH] Frank Ocean - Lens
Saw the Swedish dudes post about Swedish Hip Hop, so I'll continue the trend. Here's some Estonian hip-hop.
Daily Discussion Thread 04/22/2017
Saw the Korean dudes post about Korean Hip Hop. And i want to start a non-English hip hop trend and show you some Swedish rap
Run The Jewels - Panther Like a Panther (Original Demo Version)
Today is Record Store Day!
Kendrick Lamar - She Needs Me
A 30 Year Old Virgin Raps About His Addiction To Jacking Off
Saba - GPS feat. Twista

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 03:43 PM PDT

Pardison Fontaine
By Bill Piersa
I remember a beer and a restaurant. No Pardison Fontaine. No Nas cosign or XXL Freshman to be, or Khaled in sight. Then, his manager starts looking around for him. He's stalking around the restaurant, all five foot five of him, as if he can find Pardi.
But he's not there. So he pulls me into this green stick shift kia, and we clank about a mile up the road to Fontaine's house. There's cd's spilling out of the sides of his car, generic ones some recently released danger to the public is passing out on a sidewalk somewhere in the Bronx. It's almost impressive. They don't move at all while he drives, and he's driving with his phone calling up 30 different people, the most common one being named "FEVA" and passing a bottle to the cup holder and back over and over.
When we finally clank up to the house there's no sign of Pardison. He won't pick up his phone either. So his manager, who for all intents and purpose will be called Warwick, begins balling up snow and cursing. These things are hitting the house hard - he's got an arm that's gonna break a window if he doesn't come outside soon. But there's no one inside.
Warwick hops back in the car and we ride out to the restaurant. He's telling me about weed here versus the west coast and why Fabulous smoked a shit ton of weed. As we pull into the parking lot he gets into demographics, and connections, and markets.
I throw on a tape recorder and he answers a few questions for me while finishing his beer in the lot but again still no Pardison. Then we go in. We sit there for a few minutes, getting whisked away to the back, in some dimly lit corner. It takes about twenty minutes of talking inside, fifty minutes in total, and then finally it happens. Pardison walks in almost careless, all six foot five of him crammed into a sweat suit matching with his manager - "We share them shits," he says.
Fontaine tells me "he makes music." Then he asks if it means he raps. He never says it. The million plays on soundcloud and spotify do. But he doesn't.
I've been told Fontaine has no style. From my earbuds, he raps like a doberman pincher strangling itself with the metal chain around its neck as it runs off at you. But, you can tell it's controlled with some burgeoning concentration. He jumps on a beat like Michael Bay filming with a blank check. He wants to murder a beat, not dance with it. And he moves through bars like Russell Westbrook in the paint- the same ferocity, half-sliding, half-jumping, pounding in the ball, making you wonder if he'll break his hand or the rim first. So I try to figure out what makes the style.
Fontaine delves into his dreams. He played basketball for years, "It was all I wanted to do," he says. But then he got kicked out of the private school his AAU coach dragged him to. He tells us that story.
The school had these low ceilings, the kind that call you out when you're over six foot, under twelfth grade. So why not answer? He jumps, his friend boosts him up, and one day he hits sheetrock. Ceiling tiles tend to collect an absurd amount of dust, the type that destroys contractors' lungs, both due to the fact that the tiles themselves shed and that it provides an ideal space for it to build up. Boom! Dust everywhere.
A teacher's down the hall, "yelling at us to 'Get back here!'" They duck out and get to class, looking as inconspicuous as two six footers stomping away from the priest can. Despite his best efforts, it was the dust on his shoulders that gave him away. ( Jigga's advice, get it off your shoulders. Can't have anything.) The teachers come in and call him down to the office, but there's no trial. No apology. It's been decided. He's kicked out. Most rappers resemble things that go bump in the night. Pardison prefers passing periods.
He tells me he doesn't listen to a lot of rappers, but there's a select few that he follows. They make him jealous when they drop. At least they used to. Now, instead of envy, he's filled with that immediate urge to run to the nearest booth and write sixteen bars, bark into a mic, and make them irrelevant. And that's how he "know's he's surpassed them".
At this point in the story, he's graduated high school. A friend grabs him to play a pickup game at some college upstate. He falls asleep on the ride there, wakes up an hour away in Sullivan, New York, but it doesn't matter because anywhere not Newburgh might as well have been Narnia at that point. They hit the court, and a game later the coaches have him in the office trying to get him to sign paperwork.
But he doesn't, yet. Two weeks later he's outside. Two girls are talking on the sidewalk. They say they're going to Sullivan. That day, he was as well. Half a year later he signs a scholarship deal with another college in Delaware. And after another six months he walks into the coach's office. There's an idea rattling in his head, he's tried bouncing it off his teammates. "Bro, anybody else in the world, that told me they wanted to do this bullshit, I'd tell them they dumb as hell," he says, recollecting, "But you my nigga, like, you got an opportunity to do something." So he takes an opportunity. His Mom won't give him a straight answer. But he has to. As his team suits up in the locker room he sits down and tells his coaches he's dropping out.
The summer after he drops out he drops "Dream Job." It's nothing special. "I knew it wasn't the end result." He says he didn't even know he was good until his first freestyle. Then he realized that wasn't good. "Nowhere close to good." he says. This is what he dropped out for. "Now I feel elite." he says.
And Nas thinks so too. "It only took a minute for him to know. Heard the song and had to meet me. Me? Nas?" he says. So does the waitress who's yelling his name from a few tables up.
I bring up the idea of longevity in the music industry. Pardison doesn't want to eat in peace for a while. He's okay with the risks needed for it, the changing up of styles, controversies when albums drop. He says he's "got no style, only feelings." The fanbase he's built up? It can be gone in an album that way. But it's needed. Fontaine isn't one for the easy road, or the straightest one.
Soon they'll still be a hint of decency, but the damning truths and orders of the world he lives in will make it hard to be with him except for pure commerce. His managers and friends and handlers will rush him from one scheduled appearance to concert to the next. I can't imagine his time becoming distributed on anything but publicity and dollar value. He'll have planned responses and a planned sincerity. And maybe he'll still have that grin on his face, not because he knows who he is, but because he knows he's deadly effective due to the thousand retweets and reviews someone will show him. But for now it's the beginning.
When he walked into Dj Khaled's house he thought, "Don't break anything." They talked for a bit, took a picture, and he played Khaled some music. Khaled said, "Yo, I gotta work with you." Pardison's friends said, "Why'd you have your shoes off?" But it's simple. When you're here to stay you take off your coat. Might as well take off the shoes too.
There's a dead end loneliness to a man who writes his own rules. It's about as hopeful as being lost in the desert, surviving off of peyote buttons and dung beetle deposits. In the end that's what writing this interview has been, in some sense.
Pardison read a rough draft and came to the conclusion that he needed changes to be made. After three phone calls and a series of texts, we never fully understood what those changes were. We were never told what they were.
Maybe it's the loneliness of being the only rapper north of Yonkers not named Drake. Or it's the back to the wall mentality of a rapper on the cusp of everything. But we'd hope they'd reach out to us rather than this self inflicted solitary confinement. As I hit send I wonder about the regrets I should have writing this article. Or if maybe I should've western unioned it to reach him.
Either way, most of my homing pigeons have been killed by the recent cold fronts. So that leaves us here at a crossroads. In a few months you'll hear about some journalist shoved out of a car, trying to wind wash a half can of mace out of his nostrils, snarling about "the first amendment and freedom of speech" or you'll see us at Governor's Ball. In a few months you'll either hear about some upstate New York rapper blowing up or you won't. While bringing change the status quo is rarely followed. It wasn't in this interview, on either end.
Fontaine is yours to make of him. His manager can't even define his style. And his personality points out nothing that hints at what his style should be, other than authentic. There's rumours of what's to come, what to expect. So play him. It's not always bad to be a bit early on some things.

submitted by /u/hhhjournalism
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This past week Future has had "Mask Off" and "Used to This" go Platinum, "Low Life" go 3x Platinum, "F*ck Up Some Commas" go 2x Platinum, and "Blow a Bag" go Gold. His albums "Honest" and "Pluto have both also been certified Gold.

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 12:34 PM PDT

submitted by /u/Zurdo112
[link] [comments]

[FRESH] Frank Ocean - Lens

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:15 PM PDT

submitted by /u/Griiffiin
[link] [comments]

Kendrick Earns Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With Biggest Debut of 2017

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 07:44 PM PDT

submitted by /u/Jennica
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blonded Radio 004 - Game Thread

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 09:42 PM PDT

(Prior thread was deleted by an AutoModerator.) Apologies for the repost. :(

NEW SONG: FRANK OCEAN - "LENS"

ARTWORK

Zane Lowe tweet

Beats 1 Radio

TEMPERATURE: LA - 71°F / NYC - 52°F / LDN - 48°F

HUMIDITY: LA - 41% / NYC - 63% / LDN - 66%

WIND SPEED & DIRECTION: LA - 5MPH West / NYC - 3 MPH West / LDN - 8MPH East-Southeast

DEW POINT: LA - 52°F / NYC - 37°F / LDN - 38°F

ETA:

10:00 PM PST
1:00 AM EST
6:00 AM GMT

TRACKLIST:

Budgie - Confession
Deniece Williams - Free
Jazmine Sullivan - Mascara
Playboi Carti - Magnolia
Kodak Black - Up in Here
Smino - blkjuptr
ScHoolboy Q - Big Body (feat. The Dogg Pound)
Tee Grizzley - From the D to the A (feat. Lil Yachty)
Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3
Ezro - Dreams from the Hood
Kendrick Lamar - LUST.
DOM KENNEDY - T.P.O
Babyfather - Meditation (feat. Arca)
O'Bryan - I'm Freaky
Boards of Canada - Olson
Julee Cruise - Falling
Burna Boy - Fa so La Ti Do
Mike Jones - Flossin
FRANK OCEAN - LENS

submitted by /u/davidjlosi
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Why Kendrick Lamar and Sounwave Camped Out in Sleeping Bags to Make 'DAMN.'

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:31 AM PDT

submitted by /u/bjzisook
[link] [comments]

Ski Mask The Slump God's Album to Be Distributed Through G.O.O.D. Music

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:39 AM PDT

submitted by /u/dubmaxx
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[FRESH] Ski Mask The Slump God - Babywipe

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:15 PM PDT

submitted by /u/NinjaGaara
[link] [comments]

Sun Tzu's The Art of War audiobook layered over Wu-Tang Clan instrumentals.

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:36 PM PDT

submitted by /u/5960312
[link] [comments]

Giggs performs his verse on KMT in London. Crowd goes nuts.

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 03:59 AM PDT

submitted by /u/LorcanGullySquad
[link] [comments]

Mike WiLL Made-It -Perfect Pints ft. Kendrick Lamar, Gucci Mane andRae Sremmurd

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:27 PM PDT

submitted by /u/Raindot
[link] [comments]

Travis Scott "Antidote" in now 3X Platinum!

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:19 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Mustgogame
[link] [comments]

The original Kung Fu Kenny

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 06:40 PM PDT

submitted by /u/sikteknique
[link] [comments]

ScHoolboy Q - Blind THreats (feat Raekwon)

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 04:39 PM PDT

submitted by /u/Ogswank_47
[link] [comments]

Frank Ocean- Be Yourself

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 08:06 AM PDT

submitted by /u/dieselsmith
[link] [comments]

[FRESH] Frank Ocean - Lens

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 11:16 PM PDT

submitted by /u/damnsonnlol
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Saw the Swedish dudes post about Swedish Hip Hop, so I'll continue the trend. Here's some Estonian hip-hop.

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 10:49 AM PDT

Estonian scene has gotten pretty big lately. It has always been quite big, but now it's actually going somewhere. We also have annual Estonian Hip-Hop festival, which lasts from Friday to Sunday. It's pretty amazing.

So, the first one is the oldest rap group in Estonia. It's called A-Rühm, A-Team in English. They recently got back together, although one of them, Revo, died of cancer in 2011 :( They made a charity after his death, called FoRevo, which helps raise awareness about melanoma. The first event raised a bit over 4000 euros. They do this event every year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnjLz13IijQ
Their most recent song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEbwzwF8p84

This guy made the first hip-hop album in Estonia. He is the Godfather of estonian rap. The song is about estonians, that we are cold hearted and all we have are forests and rocks and so on. He fell off a bit, imo. Also, a member of A-Rühm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOR906kzWlw

He is also one of the Godfathers of estonian hip-hop. He also has a metal band and he is very versatile and consistent. Also a member of A-Rühm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC80a0_igqY

Next up, my favorite group, Toe Tag. Genka is in this group also. And also Revo was in that group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klsqFRvXFFs
My personal favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ylsD7lOzmU

Chalice. A very very talented guy, who started out as a rapper and now he is just amazing musician, composer, instrument player or whatever. You name it. Fun fact - he made a musical, called Lindmees. Lindmees in english would be - Birdman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRPvWqfeSUI
We have annual Song and Dance Celebration and he sang his song there. With a fucking choir. It's a shitty video, but you'll get the idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HIwR1ETp-8

Only group with that oldschool boom-bap sound. You can guess where their name came from. Really cool guys. The main guy, s'Poom is a really great artist. He drew this video by himself. He works as a graphic designer or some shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K0wvnX9Dp8

DVPH - Dragan Volta(producer) and Põhjamaade Hirm(rapper, his name means Nordic fear) One of the greatest duos I've heard. Ever. If you would understand the language, the first thing you would remember, would be how fucking great and complex lyrics he has.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A1qlXNobhI

12 EEK Monkey. EEK was estonian currency until 2010. There's a funny story behind the name, but I'll talk about it some other time. It features Genka, the guy you saw before, and Põhjamaade Hirm. They worked on this project for 12 years. Yea, they had pauses and shit, but the idea was there and they finally finished it and it's epic. The whole album is really dark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MswXxCdpbOg

Kuuluud(direct translation would be MoonBones :D) Tatmo Savvos and Põhjamaade Hirm's project. Really great sound, really great flow and lyrics. Everyone likes Kuuluud. People here will probably think you're retarded if you don't like Kuuluud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is9ITSxxSLI

Beebilõust a.k.a Babyface. Estonias one and only gangsta rapper. Had a really rough childhood. He was in bedlam(?), got in trouble with police alot and went to prison for stabbing a guy with a broken bottle. In prison he started rapping and writing poems. He was without troubles for years, but now he is in jail again, because he threatened a shopkeeper with a really big knife. He got fucked in the head and started drinking again and took some drugs and when the police came, he said that he wants to go back. It's a really complicated story. The video is made by the same guy who made videos for G-Unit and 50 Cent - Timo Albert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PrA1MG4FGw

The guy from the island of Saaremaa. Beebilõust was also from our little island called Saaremaa, he and Okym kinda grew up together. They are both very well known. Has really complex lyrics. Half of the time I still don't know what the fuck he is trying to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDcnEWjggPs

They also just got back together again. Really great lyrics, really good rappers. One of them, Tommyboy, is also one of the "oldheads".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLBOGQCSLq4

The most hated guy in Estonian scene. Beebilõust wanted to beat him up, while Abraham was on stage lol :D He fucks around with everyone, there's not a single person in Estonia that he hasn't dissed. He is a cool guy, he just likes to fuck with people. The song talks about gays. He also has a project with before-mentioned Tommyboy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB8hx7kgcDs

Suur Papa(Big Papa in English). One of my favorite rappers in the scene currently. He is releasing a new album soon. Has really great flow and lyrics. He and Abraham dissed each other for a long time. I guess they still do, somehow. He also made an annual event callled Battle for Sugar which is a acapella battlerap contest. Check it out from youtube, although you wouldnt understand shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoFRxdhvLeU
He also has one song about a girl that sounds like ASAP Rocky :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7trUCgOQGI
Also really great freestyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-P6tuMJuo

Hood rats(not in a bad way) from my town. Really cool guys and talented rappers. They got really really big in Estonia once they showed what they are capable of. They criticize government and talk about opening your eyes. Stay woke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajBdKUeR4WE

Grinks a.k.a Gringo, one of the guys from Hanf Kung. Only estonian grime rapper. Just dropped a mixtape. Also a friend of mine ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kzkNoXybkc

AZMA - one of the best lyricists in Estonia. He seems angry all the time, but I guess he is a bit. Had a rough childhood, but now he is one of the greatest. The video is really really fucking cool. He is also a member of Hanf Kung.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnN4eWj84vE

Kozinak. Guy from Lasnamäe - a poor area of our capital, Tallinn. I'm not sure if he is really from Lasnamäe, but he talks about Lasna in his music alot. Also a member of Hanf Kung. Great flow. Drops a solo album soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R5aRLg1gao

Reket - great looking guy that gets your girl wet. Nothing else to say here honestly, look for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eLj8YqGx18

Metsakutsu(stray dog basically, not exactly the most accurate translation). Estonian "fashion rapper". Likes sneakers a lot, has a website called Hooligan Hamlet, which is basically like Estonias own Complex magazine. His older shit was better imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGKLlyJzmEY
Older shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJmGPE0tKG8

615 a.k.a ÕIS which translates to flower. Couple of friends from my hometown, really cool "oldheads" once again. Not so mainstream but every true hiphop fan in Estonia knows them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiZozQVJ4xw

Gorõ Lana - estonian-russian rap group. We have about 400 000 russians in Estonia. The music from them is just epic, although I myself don't speak russian and can't understand most of it. If it sounds good, then why the fuck not, am I right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF_6ttywOl0

FastK a.k.a Kiire Karl - I think he doesn't make that much music nowadays, but when I was young this guy was in my every playlist. Has this unique style, at least for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRqUhzLhCUk

EiK - youngest Estonian rapper. I think he is 16 or 17 at the moment and the video was shot 2 years ago. Has his unique style, it's like more poetic. Also oppresses on the faults of Estonia and people who live here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtC6TKIqOa8

WST - My absolute favorite Estonian rapper. In my opinion he is the best lyricist this country has seen. He just rips every beat, has really good lyrics and flow. Also from my hometown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6TJqsdcvec

5MIINUST - "party rappers" who mostly talk about partying, fucking your girlfriend and about taking drugs. Really cool guys imo. They only came out about a year ago and blew up instantly. Now it's full house every fucking weekend for them. As they said "we aren't making rap music, we are making put-this-on-from-youtube-at-a-party music"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9FDkEGnsQ

ÖÖKÜLM - one of them is a good friend of mine. Has a really unique style and has much fun on a beat. Really good freestyler also. Funny guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD21kPmPdgM

And last, but not least, the most famous estonian rapper - Tommy Cash. The video speaks for itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGMrZKIjKU -

Many of them together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxis1qN0k-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pVL7WSrhco

Generally everyone in Estonian hip-hop scene are really close and get along really well, but there has been a few incidents. It's still hip-hop you know. I actually did not realize how much is there to talk about, until now, when I started writing this. Theres alot more and when I say alot, I mean A LOT. I was born on '94, exactly when estonian hip-hop started and it has been a fun ride. It really has.

If you want to ask something, then feel free to do it. I will happily answer to everyone.

submitted by /u/hullwtf
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Daily Discussion Thread 04/22/2017

Posted: 22 Apr 2017 06:52 AM PDT

Welcome to the /r/hiphopheads daily discussion thread!

This thread is for:

objective questions with right/wrong answers (e.g. "Does anyone know what is happening with MIXTAPE?", "What is the sample in SONG?")
general hip-hop discussion
meta posts...e.g. ideas for the sub

Thread Guidelines

Do not create a separate self post for these types of discussions outside of this thread - if you do, your post will be removed.
Please be helpful and friendly.
If a question has been asked many times before, provide a link to a thread that contains the answer.

Other ways to interact

There are a number of other ways to interact with other members of HHH: