A film about Northwest hip-hop from

NEWCOMER

This 82-minute feature film is an intimate introduction to Seattle’s vibrant hip-hop underground. It was assembled from hundreds of tiny performance clips—shot for Instagram—into a single, continuous concert mosaic, and stars 93 of the top hip-hop artists from The Town.

Here’s how KEXP describes it in their review: “NEWCOMER stretches the idea of the concert film to an artistic extreme: Sub-minute snippets artfully arranged to resemble a field recording of Seattle’s rap scene, the pieces fractured and pieced back together in a truly engrossing way. The narrative flows through venues like Barboza, Cha Cha Lounge, Vermillion, Lo-Fi, the Showbox, the Crocodile, and dozens more. It’s Khris P pouring Rainier into a Solo cup while he raps; bodies packed into regional landmark ETC Tacoma; SassyBlack improvising a song urging concertgoers to buy her merch; the delightfully awkward dance moves of white people in KEXP’s Gathering Space; Chong the Nomad beatboxing and playing harmonica simultaneously; Bruce Leroy bullying a beat next to the clothing racks at All-Star Vintage; Specswizard rhyming about his first time performing in front of a crowd while standing before The Dark Crystal playing on a projection screen. The film is about the moments we experience—as lovers of live performance—just as much as the performances themselves.”

NEWCOMER was directed by Gary Campbell and was an official selection at the 2020 New York Hip-Hop Film Festival and the 2020 Golden Sneakers International Hip-Hop Film Festival in Hamburg, Germany. Throughout November 2020, the film screened for four weeks on the Northwest Film Forum theatrical screening site in honor of Hip-Hop History Month.

You can watch the full movie below.

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Renaissance Bitch

Da Qween—a self-described reefer-smoking, black, queer, non-binary, hard femme—delivers bars upon bars that will bury your favorite rapper. Look no further than “When Worst Comes To Worst,” the second track on Renaissance Bitch. It’s three-and-a-half minutes of unrelenting, baller verses with nary a breath. (Except for two brief moments during which the tune—and your attention—are held in stasis.) Seattle Met describes the record as “coming in hot.” Renaissance is an expansive, ambitious, and theatrical listen that’s easily one of my favorites of the year.

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

BabeSpace

Toward the end of the first track, “Welcome,” featured artist Anjaliqua warns, “You think they’re ready for this? They better get ready, and fast.” So begins the bold BabeSpace mixtape from Da Qween, the most fun 9-track romp you’ll experience all year. Seattle’s queer hip-hop scene is home to some of the absolute best music currently emerging from our city. But this record ain’t featured here as an exceptional black queer classic: BabeSpace is easily one of the top hip-hop gems of 2017. Back in the spring, I saw first saw Da Qween take the stage at Substation and lead us through a breathtaking performance in an immaculate white suit. I was subsequently captivated, and since have been enthusiastically singing Da Qween’s praises to everyone I know while waiting for this record to be released. Few long-players give so much pleasure from start to end, from entrancing R&B tracks worthy of Sade record (“BabeSpace”) to the demolishing pounding of rapid-fire spit verses on “H.O.M.O. (Hang Out Make Out).” The key change in “White Nightmare” always gives me chills. Da Qween explores themes both personal and familiar: From trying to find and establish your identity, to the small mundane social media moments of “double-tapping my ‘gram.” I’m reminded of a 20-year old single Vitamin D & The Note (from the Born Day EP) called “Who That??” which would slot in surprisingly well on this record. This perhaps goes to demonstrate how perfectly BabeSpace fits in the long Seattle hip-hop canon. Seek this one out, even though you probably ain’t ready for this.

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