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May 19, 2017 9:07 AM   Subscribe

Isaiah Xavier Howard is a young rapper/musician who makes incredible and unique music videos with just an iPhone. You've never seen anything like it. It quickly garnered the attention of filmmakers and creators Matthew Cherry, Nick Childs, and was RT'd by the director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. From Jordan Peele: "Isaiah, let's talk." posted by AFABulous (16 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yeah, seems like he's in high school (in Japan, maybe study abroad?)
posted by AFABulous at 9:22 AM on May 19, 2017


Pretty sick technique. Feels like a long form vine a bit.
posted by durandal at 9:26 AM on May 19, 2017 [4 favorites]


in Japan, maybe study abroad?

US Air Base
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 9:35 AM on May 19, 2017


Are those all his tracks, too? Or am I just really un-hip?
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:42 AM on May 19, 2017


Super impressive and a bit exhausting although the exhaustion may be from my thinking about how much work he had to put in to every running second.
posted by bz at 9:47 AM on May 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


No, those are covers. I am an old so I only know this because of the replies to the viral tweet. Apparently the lyrics are misogynist crap, so I focused on the video editing.
posted by AFABulous at 9:48 AM on May 19, 2017


pretty sure they're existing songs (which he'll sometimes lip sync but a lot of the time not even really)
posted by atoxyl at 9:58 AM on May 19, 2017


Yeah, he's using Musically, which is an app where you perform to covers of songs or other audio content. My 12 year old daughter is on it constantly, and it's turned into yet another way of messaging between friends.
posted by schoolgirl report at 9:59 AM on May 19, 2017 [3 favorites]


Apparently the lyrics are misogynist crap

Indeed. I watched two before thinking "Fuck this guy."
posted by dobbs at 10:19 AM on May 19, 2017 [3 favorites]


Watching with the sound off, these are awesome. Way to go, this kid.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:22 AM on May 19, 2017


military high school kid in japan with tons of sick cuts and visuals... I think I saw that movie...
posted by rebent at 10:34 AM on May 19, 2017


Cool, although once you see one, you're set.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 11:12 AM on May 19, 2017


Great illustration of the fact that vertical video makes perfect sense for some applications.
posted by howfar at 12:34 PM on May 19, 2017


I got turned on to musical.ly a year ago by my 12-year-old niece and I've been wondering when the first muser would get recognized outside the platform for mastery of its limited but weirdly liberating cinematographic tools.

This Chinese app has locked in a whole global demographic – mention musical.ly to any tween anywhere and be prepared for wide eyes and "how do you know about musical.ly?!" – who are inventing and teaching each other a form of one-handed mimelike choreography and a repertoire of front-facing camera effects.

And yes, the music snippets they film themselves syncing along to are mostly hip-hop, mostly crap, and often mildly violent or misogynistic. They pick them from a menu of marketers' selections, or copy their favorite musers' picks – and they do dozens of them – so the lyrical content isn't that significant.
posted by nicwolff at 3:26 PM on May 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


Apparently the lyrics are misogynist crap

Indeed. I watched two before thinking "Fuck this guy."


Take that teenage kid! The rest of us can stand by all of our tastes, opinions and interests from high school!
I'll go first, in the 80s I thought that yeah, maybe putting a businessman in charge would be better than politicians. I guess that I was rebelling against my lefty socialist parents.


Yeah, he's using Musically, which is an app where you perform to covers of songs or other audio content. My 12 year old daughter is on it constantly, and it's turned into yet another way of messaging between friends.
posted by schoolgirl report


I recently learned about Musically during brunch by watching a bunch of these with a 12 year old for the better part of an hour/15 minutes. She and her friends send these to each other constantly. While they were having a lot of fun, none of them was doing this kind of extensive editing. It's pretty clear that Isaiah is putting a ton of work into these.

p.s. eponysterical
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:27 PM on May 19, 2017 [7 favorites]


I've enjoyed the creativity from family members sending around mini musical videos using Musically.

But, I'm on the eye rolling side of "but he's so talented, so industrious, so young, look how he makes the camera spin!" that I should ignore that silly ol' misogyny. "I ain't never gonna get back with her, unless me sucks me like Dracula"? He really *couldn't* have thought of some other couplet? That one just *needed* to be said? Seriously, you'd think that the only words that rhyme are the ones that are targeted to degrade females.

He's old enough to know better. Thinking of high school, if my mom had seen my brother (who was in high school) even try those lyrics about seven family members would have come down on him. My mom would have ripped that phone from his hand so fast he wouldn't have needed the app for the 360 spin.

It's not like people would be celebrating him if he used an app to take dizzying images while hurling insults in a lyrical groove at old people on the street. So a hard pass to young men pushing young women down just to boost themselves up.

And before anyone starts with kids just being kids bit, I think that's a cop out. Every little girl and boy needs to understand that there's something insidious about being asked to dance to your own degradation, just because the beat is tight and the optics killer. So no, no pass for Isaiah. Someone needs to help him do better by teaching him the concept of microaggressions, rather than celebrate that. Better to be accurate: nice editing, offensive lyrics; do better.
posted by anitanita at 9:03 PM on May 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


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