Hasan Salaam f/Lord Jamar, Ameena Dove – Angel Dust [Video]

Bear with me, I feel like writing today.

There’s a reason why I post certain things. I am not an ordinary guy, and BirthplaceMag.com is not an ordinary blog. Since we are still somewhat new, and short on manpower, we can’t always put up every NY-area hip hop song that’s dropped, feature every artist we’d like to, or cover every event. But we’re doing pretty good for now, I think, and what we do give you, we generally give for a reason.

Such is the case with this video. The story is this.

When I started Birthplace a while ago, in it’s first incarnation, one of the very first names on my list-of-artists-to-check-into, was New Jersey’s Hasan Salaam. At the time, a writer who was based in Jersey was going to help out with covering some stories, and so we all tried to arrange an interview, but for whatever reasons, it fell through. Eventually, I had to fall back on the entire Birthplace Magazine project, until it’s rebirth, in November 2009, so the interview simply never happened.

Now, one of the other “very first things” on the list, was the End of the Weak weekly showcase/performance series, which is held every Sunday night at The Pyramid, on Avenue A. This event has been going on for almost 10 years, has branched off into international versions of itself, and has to be considered one of THE top NYC underground hip hop landmarks. It would be presumptuous of me to think I can cover NY-area hip hop, and not visit this event on regular basis. But so far, I hadn’t gone.

So last night, I (finally) did.

More on End of the Weak later, as I mentioned, they themselves deserve a full journalistic endeavor. But, to bring this all home, one of the performers there was none other than Hasan Salaam. “Oh, cool,” I said to myself, “I get to (also finally) see this cat perform.”

Well, he did perform. With the alluring Ameena Dove alongside him (who later got mad at me for not introducing myself while I was there, and she’s right, what was I thinking???), Salaam launched into a commanding performance of “Angel Dust,” a tale of a lost soul of a woman (played in the video by Miss Dove) careening through life on a fast track existence. The track, produced by Lord Jamar (of Brand Nubian fame) is hot, the performance strong, the message worthy and the video extremely well done (Noisemaker Media), so I felt it vital to pay overdue homage to this artist and this venue and present it immediately to my relatively small, but growing and wonderfully faithful-to-NY-area-hip-hop readership.

Welcome to her world. Hasan Salaam and Noisemaker Media present “Angel Dust,” a voyeuristic tale of survival. The fusion of Salaam’s lyrical prowess and Noisemaker’s edgy technical vision create a dark and mysterious world dominated by red hot passion and gripping pain. Noisemaker Media provides cinematic depth and unique perspective to the music video genre, separating themselves as a timeless brand captivating audiences worldwide.

Artist: Hasan Salaam | Title: Angel Dust featuring Lord Jamar [Brand Nubian] | Mark Carranceja [Director, Editor & Cinematographer] | Produced by Noisemaker Media & Hasan Salaam | Justin Denmark [Assistant Director] | Starring Ameena Dove, Hasan Salaam and Lord Jamar