Rahzel - Make The Music 2000

2000

Rahzel - Make The Music 2000 (2000) Era: Late-90s/Y2K Hip-Hop Transition (1999–2000) - East Coast underground hip-hop meets millennium-era MTV promotional culture; beatboxing artistry commercialized via MCA Records. High curatorial value as one of the only commercially distributed music videos foregrounding solo human beatboxing as the primary performance spectacle in the MTV era. Serves as a documentary record of Rahzel at peak visibility within the mainstream hip-hop landscape, and as a visual companion to a critically acknowledged if commercially underperforming album that The Source called 'a refreshing alternative to conventional rap albums.' Essential for any archive covering beatboxing history, The Roots extended family, or MCA Records' late-period hip-hop roster. Context: Released in support of Rahzel's debut solo album on MCA Records (August 1999), this music video captures a pivotal moment when beatboxing, long an underground 'fifth element' of hip-hop culture, was being repositioned for mainstream commercial audiences. Rahzel, known as 'the Godfather of Noyze,' had risen to prominence as a member of The Roots and brought an Afrocentric, live-instrumentation sensibility to the promotional campaign. The video's warm, high-saturation palette and rapid-cut energy reflect the Y2K-era tension between artistic authenticity and the MTV promotional machine, while the track's Marley Marl production and T.J. Swan feature consciously pay homage to hip-hop's old-school beatbox lineage through Biz Markie. Director notes: The video accompanies the title track and lead single from Rahzel's 1999 MCA Records debut album 'Make the Music 2000', produced by Marley Marl and featuring T.J. Swan. The track samples Biz Markie's 'Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz' (feat. T.J. Swan), 'Impeach the President' by The Honey Drippers, and 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya' by Ol' Dirty Bastard. No production crew, director, or cinematographer credits for the music video have been documented in any verified public source.