Put that money back in your pocket

New Jersey trash-hop rapper Tim Fite recently became disgusted at the consumer-driven co-opting of hip-hop and was inspired to write a few songs about it. Mix in a few anti-Bush songs and you have a whole album's worth of lyrically-genius protest hip-hop entitled Over the Counter Culture. But what to do after that? Market and sell it like a hypocrite? H-to-the-ells no! Fite has been giving it away for free, via download at his site, timfite.com.

Download: Tim Fite - Over the Counter Culture
(the entire album zip)

Says Fite of the record:

I intended to make a record where art attacked commerce and its constituents, openly and without hesitation. I intended to make a record with an accusatory finger pointed at the world (myself included), shouting, "GUILTY!!!!!!!!" Guilty: for spending too much time on money, and not enough time on madness. Guilty: for believing in advertising so much that we have become advertisements ourselves.Guilty: for not holding up the red card of accountability and demanding change through self awareness.

There are several examples of Fite's genius at work here, in particular is the humurous song "I've Been Shot," which slyly looks at the marketing of gangster rap (much the same way that the animated series The Boondocks did last year:)

Just shoot me a little bit... make me look good
Well, not every rapper does it, but every rapper should
It's a good career move, just wait you'll see
When everybody goes and gets shot like me

His first single/video is the anti-war song "Camoflage," which declares it's a "fashion statement from a fascist nation... looks good with anything, especially a capitalist colonial commemorative pinky ring" The video is a bit geek-distracting to the message... I imagine folks assume it's a joke rap, ala Jamie Kennedy, which is unfortunate.



tags: music, album review, tim fite, hip-hop, protest, free download, indie rock