Food loving rapper Action Bronson has both been praised and criticised for his apparent lyrical likeliness to Wu-Tang rapper Ghostface Killah. Having stated many times in the past that Ghostface is his favourite rapper and a major influence, the fine line between being inspired by, and copying someone’s tone and flow, is apparently easy to cross. The comparison goes so far that Ghostface actually once mistook a Bronson verse for his own: “I thought he was me one day… I said when the fuck I did that verse?” he told VladTV.
Sure, they’re fans of one another – but nobody likes a copycat.
In a new video posted by Ghostface himself, it’s clear that the straw has well and truly broken the camel’s back. We believe it’s probably in retaliation to Bronson’s recent comments at ESPN – when an interviewer joked that when he first heard his latest album Mr Wonderful he thought that Ghostface had new material out, Bronson replied saying that “He’s not rapping like this any more.” Shots fired!
Saying that it’s been a long time coming, the rapper relentlessly slams Action Bronson for using his name and sounding like him.
The six minute video calls him out. “I gave you a grace period,” he says. “First of all, you fat fuck, who gives you the right to even mention my name?”
Here’s some other choice quotes:
“You could never fuck with my pen – my sword, my blade. I’m too nasty for you.”
“Your fans, those are my fans… I’m not making this a black and white thing, I’m making this a Ghost, Action Bronson thing.”
“Just keep my name out your fucking mouth – this fat funky-ass n***a’s a fraud.”
“Don’t let me hang you from a rope and gut you like a pig, and leave you out to dry.”
Watch the whole thing here. Let’s be honest – much as I love AB, Tony Starks has got a point.
Action Bronson has since taken to Twitter to apologise. I wonder if his future releases will have an actively different sound or style now?
Rapper Action Bronson may be struggling to make ends meet if recent tweets are anything to go by:
IF U WANNA BUY A 1 OF 1 VERSE FROM ME TO GIVE TO SOMEONE AS A GIFT U JUST LUCKED OUT. I AM NOW PROVIDING THAT HAHAHAHA. #Deadass #NextLevel
— MR. WONDERFUL (@ActionBronson) July 5, 2015
PERSONALIZED INSULTS AND BIRTHDAY GREETINGS ARE AVAILABLE WHILE THEY LAST AS WELL.
— MR. WONDERFUL (@ActionBronson) July 5, 2015
But the New York based artist is also known for his antics, so maybe he is just messing with us. Either way, the urge to get a customised message from the dissmaster is strong!
The comments come at a time when musicians are diversifying their income streams in various ways, including putting lyrics on Sprite cans, and might serve as a little bit of tongue in cheek commentary.
Questions of how much are flooding in, with offers to trade a verse for items such as Italian sausage and Baklava.
We all know Action loves his food from his jaunts on the Munchies web series Fuck, That’s Delicious, so this could get him over the line.
Considering that he’s been criticised both by those wanting him to be kicked off festival bills and his idol Ghostface Killah, we’re starting to get a little worried about Bronson…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFhHnjvenO0?list=PLnPDn1Lb79JGoFey4EPwAvxW4tbyzbz0p&w=560&h=315]
Boston record producer and lover of the letter ‘K’, Statik Selektah has worked with some big hip hop names in the past. He’s produced everyone from KRS-One, G-Unit, Freddie Gibbs and Talib Kweli amongst countless others.
Two of his more frequent collaborators of late are Action Bronson and Joey Bada$$. As Statik Selektah prepares to drop new album Lucky 7 in a month, he’s gifted us all with a new song Beautiful Life featuring the two New York City MCs.
Funky as all hell, the song samples heavily from Fate by Chaka Khan (which you may have heard more famously sampled in Stardust‘s Music Sounds Better With You). The piano and the horns over that pulsating disco bass makes the fire from Bronson and Bada$$ all the more better. Consider it a nifty summertime cut to warm up your winter with.
Lucky 7 is available for pre-order on iTunes now.
Words by Christine Sheridan
Action Bronson‘s forthcoming free performance at Canada’s North By North East festival has been cancelled. Due to perform on June 21, the New York rapper is the subject of a petition founded by Canadian woman Erica Shiner.
Shiner has taken to change.org to gather more than 42 000 signatures in support of the cancellation. The grounds for her petition was hate speech – specifically, offensive and controversial lyrics found in Bronson’s music.
She describes the rapper’s music as “glorifying gang-rape and murdering women”, referencing these lyrics in the track Consensual Rape:
“Then dig your shorty out cuz I geeked her up on molly
Have her eating dick, no need for seasoning
If seven dudes are in the room then she’s pleasing them
Like a trooper. Hit her in the pooper. Throw her in the shower
Then I take her out to Lupa I’m kinky, I’ll hit it even if it’s stinky
Put em in the shower, make the pussy brand new Ran through.
Give ’em money what I can’t do Stuff her lunchbox & burn her with the candle”
She also posts the video clip to the song Brunch, in which “the artist cooks a meal over a woman’s dead body, rolls her up in a carpet, throws her in his trunk, and proceeds to violently stab her when he discovers she’s still alive (trigger warning, obviously)”
At first, the festival showed their support for the rapper, real name Ariyan Arslani. They released a statement saying saying that every artist has “the right to express their views through music, but those views belong to them and them alone.”
Their view has now changed however, and the gig has been cancelled. NXNE representatives responded to the petition with a statement announcing, “as annual guests in this space we feel we must accede to the strong wishes of the community and honour their input.”
The festival has invited Bronson to play at a different (paid) venue, where individuals can decide whether or not they would pay to see him.
Bronson has reacted strongly to this petition through his twitter:
What do you think? Should he have been cancelled?
Ghostface Killah has declared his own confusion upon listening to Action Bronson for the first time. The comparison between the two has existed since Bronson dropped his debut album, Dr. Lecter in 2011. The Wu-Tang Clan heavyweight said in a video interview with Vlad-Tv recently, ‘I thought he was me one day… I said when the fuck I did that verse?‘ Ghostface goes on to say that Bronson had apologised to him for the similarity, calling him ‘a good dude, humble.’
It is easy to see the similarities in the pair’s frantic flow and tone of voice. Bronson himself has frequently had to deal with the comparison between the two, something Jonah Hill was loathe to mention in his recent interview with the rapper from Queens. Bronson has claimed in the past that he is happy to be mentioned in the same breath as ‘one of the best rappers alive‘ and is largely influenced by the Wu-Tang Clan.
It’s no surprise that Ghostface Killah is alright with the comparison. Action Bronson’s recent album Mr Wonderful (which we reviewed here) is easily one of the best, not to mention most unique hip hop albums of the year so far. Haven’t heard it yet? Buy it here, or stream it here. Mr Wonderful showcases serious diversity and era-spanning influences and samples including blues, funk and jazz. Similarly, Ghostface Killah’s most recent offering – his collaborative album with insanely talented jazz trio Badbadnotgood is a celebration of that blend between rap and jazz.
Watch the whole Ghostface Killah interview here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3jjOPYKwXQ]
And for good measure, here is a track the pair collaborated on for Wu-Tang’s compilation album, Legendary Weapons.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/163781832″]
We think it’s pretty easy to tell them apart, although you can see why the parallel has been made so often, especially considering how much of an influence he’s had on Bronson.
It isn’t every day that you get a chance to sit down and interview your favourite artist, but the dream was real for Action Bronson’s number one fan, who just so happens to be Jonah Hill. Interview magazine has released the latest issue starring celebrities interviewing one another, and we couldn’t be happier with the choices. Off the back of Bronson’s recent, brilliant album Mr Wonderful (read our review,) Jonah asks all the tough questions and proves himself to be Bronson’s biggest fanboy, gushing excitedly and asking all the right questions. Two of the people’s champion were on form right from the start, getting the interview off to a smooth start:
HILL: Bronsonmania, what’s going on?
BRONSON: Flawless from the neck up. Underneath that, I’m a little chunky.
How about how Jonah started listening to Bronson:
HILL: So, three or four years ago, my buddy Dave Appleton, who is up on all hip-hop stuff before anyone knows about it, hips me to Bronson. This was before Fuck, That’s Delicious. He showed me some kind of YouTube show of you cooking with this very hip-hop dialect and extreme knowledge of the culinary arts. [Bronson laughs] I was already in, and then he started playing your music, and I was … It was all I listened to for, like, three months straight. There’s a lot one can say about you to someone who has no knowledge of you: born in Queens; Albanian; former chef. And that’s how I pitch you to people who are stupid and don’t know who you are. But then I go, “You got to see him to believe him.” My work as a fan has been to just share the gospel with as many people as I could.
(Seriously, if you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and check out Fuck, That’s Delicious)
The interview deviates from what you would get with a regulation interview with Action Bronson, as the two guys really relate on an artistic level. So we (naturally) made a list of 5 of the most uplifting and inspiring moments between two of our favourite people:
1.
HILL: The movies I’ve done that have felt big to me, the ones where people have a lot of pressure behind them or are telling me, “This is how it has to be done …” while I’m doing it, I have that pit in my stomach knowing that it’s not going to be my most elevated stuff.
BRONSON: It’s the same shit for me. Exactly.
HILL: And so the lesson you take away is that when you’re feeling forced and you’re feeling this is for other people, then it’s not going to end up like those other projects.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/180393066″]
2.
HILL: I know I’ve had to go through experiences where I felt less in control or more pushed around by people, and then, as painful as any of those moments might have been, the shit that gets done after—out of the anger and lessons learned from those—ends up being the shit that you’re most proud of.
BRONSON: Absolutely. I ended up putting out fucking incredible work after that, man. With this new shit, man, it’s a fucking musical. I’m going to make a fucking Broadway play out of it, on Broadway, where Cats was, the Winter Garden Theatre; I’m taking over.
HILL: You should do your album release party at Katz’s.
BRONSON: [laughs] That would be fucking ridiculous.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/10616519″]
3.
HILL: You’re the Van Damme of Queens, man.
BRONSON: Yeah, the Van Damme, van Gogh of Queens. I’m a mix of Van Damme and van Gogh; that’s going in the next rhyme. Oh, man. There’s something wrong with me.
HILL: No! My point, my whole message that I wanted to express to you is that it’s so easy to be influenced by the people you adore and who made you do what you want to do, and then there’s that moment when you get to have the confidence to be your own artist. And I really see you heading there and it’s so inspiring to watch.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/184964202″]
4.
BRONSON: Man, that right there is a spiritual moment, I’m not going to lie. When I would drive around and have moments … You know a song is good when you drive over the bridge, and you’re looking at the city, and the shit sounds ill, like, “Oh, hell yeah, it’s like a video.” That’s how you know a song is good. And I had several moments with “Easy Rider.” The craziest part about “Easy Rider” is that we took a fucking song off YouTube, made a new song out of it, put it back on YouTube, then got millions of views. That’s a crazy thing.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/191682892″]
5.
BRONSON: I’ve been rapping since I’ve been on the internet. My first couple of songs are on there, with a video from when I was younger. So I’ve kind of grown up in front of people. They can trace back, and I think people are very excited about where I am now. And, honestly, the type of artist that I am now is exactly what you say: I’m growing into myself. I don’t really have outside influence from the game. I want to be totally different. I am totally different from everybody else already, so I just have to be myself. You can’t follow the pack in this type of game. People write roles for you, for actors and stuff like that, but if someone found out someone was writing my raps, it’d be like the fucking end of the world. I’m just starting to get in the groove of things. I haven’t totally hit my stride yet, so there’s a lot more to come. I can sit in the big living room right here on a nice fucking leather couch from Jennifer Convertibles, and just get to do what I got to do. [laughs]
If you still haven’t quite gotten your fix of Earl Sweatshirt and/or Action Bronson after the release of the latest studio albums from both (Earl’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside and Bronson’s Mr. Wonderful) this week or if you just enjoy good hip hop in general, you’ll be stoked to learn that the pair have released a separate collaborative track as well.
Warlord Leather is short and sharp but nonetheless a cracker. Earl’s deadpan delivery over minimalistic tribal percussion and some intermittent funk guitar provides the lob and, with the sound of a basketball scrimmage in the background, Bronsolino checks himself into the game and jams it home to finish.
It’s been a damn fine week for hip hop music and this pair are absolutely crushing it.
It is damn near impossible not to love Action Bronson. Even if you don’t love his off-kilter, food-referencing brand of East Coast hip-hop, the way he lives his life alone is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
This is a man who worked as a chef until (somehow) breaking his leg in the kitchen and deciding to become a rapper while he recovered. Action Bronson may be the most wonderfully indulgent person alive. He looks at the common man’s notion of ‘excess’ the way Godzilla observes a tiny Japanese village underfoot. This is a man who will eat your house, your family and everything you cherish if it strikes his fancy, he loves food so much that he has his own culinary web series entitled Fuck, That’s Delicious, because of course.
A man whose beard could successfully lobby to become the 51st State of the USA. A man who has probably inhaled more vaporised cannabis in the last week than I’ve breathed legitimate oxygen in my entire life. A man who once left the stage in the middle of a festival to urinate, not missing a single lyric on the mic the entire time. A man who is simply not in the business of giving fucks. Everything about him is beyond endearing, which is why it’s so satisfying to watch him continue to emerge as one of the creative forerunners in modern hip hop.
Today marks the Queens native’s major label debut with the release of Mr. Wonderful, his second studio album and his first new material since 2013’s BET award-nominated mixtape Blue Chips 2. Pleasingly, the influence of a major label hasn’t diluted or interfered with the offbeat Action Bronson sound and gleefully irreverent lyricism that won him so many fans on cuts like Strictly For My Jeeps.
There are even a few unexpected twists and turns along the way. Album opener and Mark Ronson-produced Brand New Car features a quirky loop of Billy Joel’s Zanzibar that’s a little bit sickly but is ultimately offset by a monstrous pair of verses from Bronson. City Boy Blues even has the big guy trying on some mournful blues vocals for size, although it’s far from his best. There’s a little bit of something different in places here, some of it unexpected and awkward, but thankfully Mr. Wonderful doesn’t deviate from the recipe too much.
The semi-autobiographical Actin’ Crazy is a particular highlight, icy keys layered under the lyrical contradiction of Bronson reassuring his mother that he’s still her little baby while simultaneously flowing about Adriatic Summers and eating oysters with hoes. The Alchemist-produced Terry is sublime and smoky, a piped-in bar crowd responding to each lyrical punchline Bronson drops almost giving the track a stand up comedy vibe.
Debut single Easy Rider features a 70s B-movie backtrack peppered with wailing guitars (‘Feelin’ like Slash in front of the chapel/Leaning back with the Les Paul’) and the sound of a motorcycle as Bronson ‘rides the Harley into the sunset’ on the hook. The rain-drenched A Light In The Addict is sobering and atmospheric as hell and a close second for track of the album, with the soulful singing this time left thankfully to Canadian crooner Black Atlass. The song is Bronson’s journey into the depths of success, lamenting ‘Fuck that I want the crown off anybody head/I wouldn’t care if everybody’s dead’.
The highlight though is Bronson lobbing the alley up for Chance The Rapper to oop on Baby Blue, a satisfyingly petty, jaunty piano-driven, thumb-in-nose ‘fuck you’ to ex-girlfriends the world over. Bronson reading the specials menu of ‘white snake with underwear sauce’ and claiming to have received fellatio in the front row of an Andrea Bocelli opera made me spit out my cup of tea, but it’s Chance’s deadpan list of minor inconveniences he hopes to befall his lost lover, including ‘I hope every soda you drink already shaken up’ and ‘I hope you never get off Fridays and you work at a Friday’s that’s always busy Fridays’ that steals the show.
While Kendrick might be contemporary hip hop’s prophet, flowing from a higher astral plane, Action Bronson is its Seth Rogen, accessible, no-frills and rapping right down here in the muck with the rest of us while we all root for him. He is absolutely living a life most everymen can only dream of and this only looks to be the foot of the mountain for him. He opens Actin’ Crazy with ‘Opportunity be knockin; let a motherfucker in’, but with a major label debut as bitingly funny, deliciously clever and honest as this one, Action Bronson isn’t so much waiting to be let in as he has Spartan-kicked the door down.
Mr. Wonderful is out now via Atlantic Records and Vice Records
These two have been in the news a lot lately, and for good reasons. Action Bronson‘s new album Mr Wonderful is out now, and available for free streaming on Spotify. Meanwhile, Chance The Rapper has made headlines for showing us his acting chops in the recent film ‘Mr Happy.’
The pair uneviled this single, Baby Blue, a few weeks ago and at the time I said it was one of the best rap tracks of the year so far. Also featuring production from Mark Ronson, this is one seriously incredible track, and now we’ve got a video clip to go along with it!
Like the rest of Bronson’s video clips, this is hilarious and really well-made. Reportedly paying tribute to Eddie Murphy’s classic film ‘Coming To America’, and featuring Bronson as an Albanian king, searching for a beautiful bride.
The clip was made as part of the 13-piece series created by the YouTube Music Awards, alongside videos for Cahoots, Charli XCX, Ed Sheeran & Rudimental, FKA twigs, Kygo ft. Parson James, Lindsey Stirling, Martin Garrix ft. Usher, MAX ft. Hoodie Allen, Migos, Megan Nicole, Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias, and Shamir.
This has been one seriously huge month for rap, and Action Bronson is the latest to join march Madness. His new album, Mr Wonderful, is now available for streaming or purchase.
I’ve listened to the album twice already this morning, and I absolutely love it. This is his major label debut, but it couldn’t sound further from a major label rap album. It flows so smoothly from bluesy vocals to sensual rap, from vicious train-of-thought lines filled with insults, hedonistic living and drugs, to intimate introspect, dealing with depression, dreams and dark desires. It’s so much more than a rap album – there’s a lot of singing, a wonderful amount of psychedelic guitars, bass solos, rhythms and flows lifted straight from the 1970s, and a lot more. There’s even a Billy Joel sample (which Bronson legally obtained after writing Joel a handwritten letter, in which he described him as “the best lyricist ever.”) There’s guest production from Mark Ronson, The Alchemist, Party Supplies and more, while Chance The Rapper, Big Body Bes and Chauncy Sherod are among the guest vocalists.
The album is out now through Atlantic/Vice and you can stream it on Spotify for free.
I highly, highly recommend that you do.