Critical Praise for DaVinci:
"[DaVinci's] wider goals as an artist, his views on the world outside the music, seem like the kind of thing that fans of rap from all corners might find appealing." - Pitchfork
"Hard-nosed, raw, and without compromise... one of the best rap records of the year thus far." - Jeff Weiss
"The epitome of what it means to be a 'street' rapper, DaVinci offers stark and realistic commentary on his surroundings and the people in it." - Maurice Garland, Ozone Magazine
Selected as a member of 106 KMEL's (the biggest Bay Area hip-hop station) Freshmen Class of 2010.
The Video:
DaVinci has never shied away from life's harsher realities. It's not quite that he embraces the negative – he doesn't – but like any truly good, honest storyteller, DaVinci knows that in order to move forward we first need to make sense of the past and understand the present, and we see DaVinci doing just that in the video for "D.R.E.A.M.," a song that served as the lead single from DaVinci's recently released EP, Feast Or Famine. "The details and personal confliction within hustling is something people tend ignore," explains DaVinci on the video's inspiration. "I was as specific to my own experiences as possible; it puts you in my mind – in my environment – so the listener can start to understand the hidden meanings in the lyrics."
The video, directed by Johan Thomas and Alex Jieh and edited by Tim Jieh, is right in step with the song's stark imagery, as DaVinci is filmed waking up in the morning and starting his daily hustle: cooking crack. Interspersed with old school news clips and pictures of friends lost, the video continues to shine light on the dichotomies that DaVinci continues to tackle with his music. "Real life problems are always complex," explains DaVinci. "Right and wrong becomes gray when people are forced to deal with certain human conditions, and it's important that we communicated that in the video."
Watch the video for "D.R.E.A.M." here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv9nSRrcMOo
Feast Or Famine is available, and can be downloaded here: http://davinci.swtbrds.com/
For more information on DaVinci please contact Michelle or Dan at Audible Treats.
The
Background:
San Francisco's Fillmore District, better known to residents as 'The Moe', has bred more rappers per capita than any other district in the city, and is on par with Bay Area hip-hop hotbeds Vallejo and Oakland. DaVinci, is the latest rapper to emerge from the historic district and has done so in high fashion. Since dropping his debut album, The Day The Turf Stood Still, last year, DaVinci's rise has been a meteoric one. The album earned DaVinci a coveted spot on 106.1 KMEL's inaugural Bay Area's Freshman 10 of 2010, and a guest appearance on DJ Muggs' Shade45 radio show "Soul Assassins Radio: The West Wing," along with a litany of stellar coverage from the likes of Pitchfork, The FADER, HipHopDX.com, PrefixMag.com, Ozone Magazine, Wax Poetics, XLR8R Magazine, SF Weekly, East Bay Express, The New York Times' Bay Citizen, and more. DaVinci's follow-up EP, Feast Or Famine, released August 24, 2011, further shows the evolution of DaVinci's sound, and serves as a precursor to DaVinci's forthcoming sophomore LP, The Moena Lisa, which will be released later this year.
SWTBRDS
Background:
SWTBRDS (pronounced Sweetbreads) is a Bay Area-based record label that exemplifies the raw, rare and boutique qualities of its namesake. Founded in 2009, it houses rapper, DaVinci, renaissance DJ, Prince Aries, DJ + rapper duo StreetMedia, as well as the dynamic production team, Drums & Ammo, featuring the collective musical work of producers Ammbush, REL, Al Jieh and 6Fingers. Their first release was the self-titled StreetMedia LP, followed by Adrian Champion Presents: Stars & Stripes - The White Stripes Reimagined in Winter & Spring of 2009. Their most recent release was The Day The Turf Stood Still by DaVinci, his debut album, which received critical acclaim from publications such as Pitchfork.com, Wax Poetics, SF Weekly, XLR8R, Ozone Magazine, URB.com, and more. With a diverse release schedule on the horizon, SWTBRDS kicks 2011 off with Prince Aries' Clean Ass Whip mixtape, an ode to West Coast Hip-Hop's cruising aesthetic, dropping in May 2011. Soon to follow are DaVinci’s Feast or Famine EP and The MOEna Lisa LP, Drums & Ammo, Vol. 1, the self-titled first installment of a new instrumental series, REL's sophomore solo instrumental album, The Orchestration 2, Ammbush's solo artist EP, and StreetMedia's sophomore album.
Stay up-to-date at http://www.swtbrds.com/, http://twitter.com/swtbrds, and http://www.facebook.com/SWTBRDS.
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