VICE + Spotify – Music Loves Art – Episode 1: Nas, Luis Gispert and Rashid Johnson

Since it’s birth, Hip-Hop has had a symbiotic relationship with other forms of art, especially, visual art. Fab Five Freddy, Ramo, Keith Harring, Blondie, Basquiat; these names conjure up images of graffiti, bright colors, head-spinning and outrageous outfits.

This is symbiotic marriage continues today. VICE + Spotify are celebrating this union with a 4-part mini-series titled Music Loves Art. The series can be viewed on VICE.com. The series is shot on location at Spotify’s Art Basel events held at the Ricochet Lounge in Miami Beach. Music Loves Art features exclusive rap-sessions and performances betwixt heavyweights from the music and art world. For the first installment, Nas, Luis Gispert and Rashid Johnson discuss the creative process and Nas’s iconic album Illmatic.

Nas is an icon – he needs no introduction. It is important to know that Nasir was part of the second wave of lyrically inclined thugged-out spitters from the East Coast to move large numbers of records at the retail level. Rakim and Kool G Rap were Nas’s predecessors in genre and swag. His first album, Illmatic, is a true classic. If you have never seen Nas perform live, you need to watch Music Loves Art. Nas performs a set of his classics in a small club setting. Nas is a super-star and it is rare that you will catch him performing classics in an intimate setting.

Luis Gispert is an artist living and working in BKNY. He has earned his stripes as a sculptor, photographer and filmmaker. Gispert’s most recent “photographs of landscapes viewed through the windows of customized vehicles. . . ” It’s so hood,  tasteful and flossy. Many of these photographs are being sold for over $25,000. When viewing these photographs, you feel as if you are in a tricked out donk viewing a “panoramic” view of a fresh-ass landscape. I’m not even going to get into the fact he uses Gucci and Louis Vuitton textiles to drape the inside of vehicles. I know, CRAZY. You have to look at these photographs.

Rashid Johnson is another artist- icon living in New York.  He works in a wide range of everyday materials, too many to list. He is most often identified with the post-black art movement; however, the works he produces are deeply rooted in Hip-Hop.  He’s a unique artists that combines art, science, alchemy and black history in his work.  In April 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago will present his first major museum solo exhibition.