Chanes We Can Believe In

Lee Chanes (or L. Chanes, sometimes simply Chanes) is an artist representing Brooklyn who approached us late last year, and who we put off repeatedly because we were working to revamp our site and get our act together. Well, he reached out from time to time, to remind us about him, never being overbearing, and while we like to think that we would have remembered on our own, we’re thankful he kept himself on our radar.

So now we have a quiet moment to assemble and check out his material, and report what we found, giving our audience another slice of the NY hip hop pie that they may not have been aware of.

When Chanes first reached out, he was pushing his song “Earthquake”, which was scheduled for a January 22 release on Def Jam. “Earthquake” had been circulating on the leak circuit for a minute, and also had a well produced video to go along with it. We like “Earthquake”, and can see that some real creative effort was exerted for the video. The music, chorus and flow is mildly reminiscent of a 90s vibe, but not necessarily in a dated way.

Now, the irony of promoting a song titled “Earthquake” in recent times was not lost on us, so it is worth noting that Chanes has been donating proceeds from the sale of his single to Haiti relief efforts, stating in a recent press release, “I will be donating a percentage of the proceeds to help those in Haiti because I want to do my part to aid during these difficult times. I was blessed to be in this position and I believe I must pay it forward.”

Aside from Earthquake, there are several other tracks from Chanes that are worth checking out. The slightly bizarre “Chanesaw”, freestyles over Amerie’s “Why R U” and Dream’s “Rocking That Thing” (both with videos to match), and the gospel-fueled “Church” are all listenable efforts. While we do hear some verbal slippage from time to time, timing-wise, we also hear a bit of vocal charisma. With the right tracks, a standout joint is probably close at hand.

Get a taste of Chanes at his Myspace page or website. We’ll “B” on the lookout for more from Lee Chanes.