Media Genius.

Many in the music media see as him as awkward, dresses funny, and as altogether pretty nerdy, but the select few that have listened to this musical genius have been in shock to see him as one of the most influential young hip hop artists in the business today.  His pink clothes and a fascination with the video game Sonic has turned many hardcore hip-hop fans away without a listen.  With his latest mixtape, “Well Isn’t that Awkward” dropping on most sites today, Charles Hamilton aka Sonic the Hedgehog has embraced what is known as weird in the hip-hop world and made it his own.  The creative Hamilton describes himself as this class video game character in terms of being surrounded by sound and in an underground music sense of it all. 

http://www.datpiff.com/Charles_Hamilton_Well_Isnt_This_Awkward.m34089.html

            The reason that Charles Hamilton is so important to the media studies part of it all is the way his is able to manipulate the samples he uses on his very different songs.  I came across this hip hop youngster when one of my closest friends sent me one of his songs through a YouTube video and I was just amazed at the overall talent, both lyrically and in terms of his inventive side within his sample.  This song known as “Windows Media Player” shows a new side of the music business, as he was able to make the beat for this song by just blending together the noises this media program makes.  By doing so, Charles Hamilton has been able to go full circle by using the system that would play this individual track and using it to actually create the song’s instrumental.   This idea is shocking and had me confused as well as extremely impressed the first time I listened.  His lyrics carry on the same way throughout this track, talking about other computer media reference in his rhymes and it smoothly carries this theme of media studies and manipulation.

            Many in the hip hop business, who have been able to get past his awkward outside image, see that this young emcee could truly be the future for the hip hop game.  Being true to his image he has twisted the path in this genre of music and become popular and relevant in an evolving time for both rap and hip hop.  It seems to be a nice breath of fresh air for this type of media and away from all the crime and degrading talk that is seen by other artists in this and other hardcore genres.