George Watsky, the spoken- word- poet- gone- rapper hailing from San Francisco, has taken some long strides onto the hip hop scene since the arrival of his first studio album in 2007 titled “Invisible Inc.” Various mix-tape songs and YouTube videos with Watsky having fun tackling many of the issues of our current society brought him enough notoriety to be invited to perform at the East and West Coast annual hip hop showcase Rock the Bells. His songs remind us to love, live and have fun doing both. His emphasis on enjoying life to the fullest is motivational, and his political ideas and views of society mirror the opinions of his generation, causing quite the following of fans.
This August, Watsky brought us “All You Can Do”, an almost autobiographical album chronicling some of the occurring events in George’s past years since the release of ‘Cardboard Castles”. In the song “Ink Don’t Bleed”, George references an accident that happened in Europe involving a fan getting injured due to some hasty decision making on his part. Watsky jumped from stage, only to fall on a fan, breaking her arm, and he seemed very regretful of the situation. He reminds us that every action we make, we have be held accountable for.
Another highlight of “All You Can Do” is the first single released, “Woah, Woah, Whoa”, which displays Watsky’s keen skills as a lyricist. Watsky described this track as “verbal flexing”. In the closing of the album Watsky gives us some of his spoken- word- poetry accompanied by the great Stephen Stills; this song give us a glimpse of a moment shared that can never be changed. A moment so pure, a moment where everything was perfect that we can always go back to for reassurance.
For fans of Watsky, my suggestion would be to run out and grab this album if you haven’t already, and for newcomers, I suggest pulling up a chair and getting to know George Watsky by listening to his past records. He’s an open book. You can also catch him on tour this year. His originality has not faded and I believe it will not. His conscious contribution to hip hop is refreshing and positive.
http://www.youtube.com/user/gwatsky
https://www.facebook.com/gwatsky
(Written by guest contributor, Andrew Minssen.)
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