Artist Spotlight: Father

Remember the show The Powerpuff Girls? How about Samurai Jack? These shows, along with a few others once aired on Cartoon Network, as they were the last shows to before Toonami. Toonami was Cartoon Network’s late night anime segment that aired anime like Naruto and Bleach. After Toonami would be Adult Swim – Cartoon Network’s late, late night segment. Adult Swim aired adult shows like Robot Chicken and Family Guy. Imagine when I found out that aside from airing shows, Adult Swim is also a record label, Williams Street Records.

Williams Street Records, hosts many artists, mostly of the Hip-Hop/Rap genre. One of their artists, Father, is gaining recognition for his flat, mono-tone flows paired with bass heavy, boom-claps beats. In his song, WE HAD A DEAL from his recent album Awful Swim, he uses the same distortion production previously heard on tracks like Don’t look at me by deceased rapper xxxTentacionxxx. With this new wave of Hip-Hop/Rap artists, it is important to talk about the cultural shifts happening. As this genre becomes more non-conforming, artists are expressing themselves in a variety of ways not as one would expect when it comes to this genre. An example would be the creation of new sub-genres such as emo-rap, even funk-rap. These new form of expressions are also changing the way people perceive Hip-Hop/Rap, in general.

Often, this genre is often seen as a rebellion against the system, but in actuality, this subculture is very conservative. Looking back Hip-Hop/Rap from the early to mid 2000’s were actually misogynistic. New artists like Father refuses to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors, with songs like Who’s gonna get fucked first? and Young Hot Ebony,  both being sex positive anthems. Aside from the music, he has built an online presence like many of his fellow artists, such as Lil Uzi, Thundercat, and Zac Fox. creating and sharing memes via twitter.

Father’s album, Awful Swim, is free to listen on Williams Street Records’ website and check him out today, Nov. 14th at the House of Blues.