Connecting the NY Hip-Hop Dots: Cam’ron, Smoke DZA, Harry Fraud, Kirk Knight & Joey Badass

Three recent New York hip-hop releases, three degrees of hip-hop separation!

By
Birthplace Magazine
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Cam'ron, SZA, Kirk Knight, Joey Badass, Harry Fraud

Here’s a new thing we’re doing that we think is cool. Don’t copy us. 🙂

CAM’RON & THE KNOCKS – “New York City”

Harlem vet Cam’ron doesn’t appear too often in the music scene these days, but when he does, it’s usually something unexpectedly noteworty: a Reebok “Purple Haze” sneaker collaboration, giving away a carload of old sneakers… In this case, he’s delivering something of a spoken word ode to the great City of New York, over a creatively shot and edited montage of “SHOWTIME!” styled NYC subway dancers, the acrobatic athletes of NY’s underground (literally) dance scene. The video for “New York City” — all shot on an iPhone by the way — appears on the otherwise-much-more-upbeat, recently released album 55, from multi-dance-genre duo The Knocks.

Cam’ron -> Smoke DZA
CONNECTION: HARLEM

Also hailing from Harlem USA, underground journeyman Smoke DZA drops the visuals for “100K,” produced by Harry Fraud. The synthy, sweeping, spacey track serves as an ode to the He Has Risen spitter’s international tour life and the monetary fruits of that labor. Unexpected Cameo of the Day award goes to Virgil, a wrestling superstar from the days of the WWF.

From Billboard: “The song is more of a motivational anthem than your run-of-the-mill ‘get money’ anthem for me,” [Smoke DZA] tells Billboard over email. “I’ve traveled and performed all over the world the last few years, and I’ve touched all types of currency, so when I say, ‘I need 100K USD, I need 100K Euro,’ I’m setting the bar for myself to expect nothing less than that.”

Smoke DZA -> Kirk Knight / Joey Badass
CONNECTION: A DAY IN THE LIFE & HARRY FRAUD

While a day in Smoke DZA’s life consists of collecting 100k worth of international currency, a day in the life of Kirk Knight and Joey Badass was a bit more gritty in the Slick Jackson-directed video for the Guy Blelloch-produced “5 Minutes.”

Oh, another “day in the life” connection? Harry Fraud produced “Day in the Life” for Joey Badass back in 2013. The song appeared on Peter Rosenberg’s New York Renaissance mixtape, which also featured Smoke DZA.

Now that’s connecting the dots, New York hip hop style.