Azeem

For years, we've been following the career of local wordsmith Azeem with interest--and occasional awe. Dude has been killing it for a while with his spoken word-influenced rap style, not to mention his collaborations with DJ Zeph, Wide Hive collective Variable Unit, and his one man theater piece, "Rude Boy."  At this point, Azeem's got to be among the top conscious hip-hop lyricists in the entire Bay Area, if not the entire country.

With the recent release of Azeem's new video, "Latin Revenge," there is no longer any reason to sleep on this talented emcee. Directed by Ben Stokes, the video was created with thousands of still shots and later animated with editing program After Effects. Set in SF's Mission District, the plot goes a little something like this: "Azeem gains popularity as he peruses the streets. Meanwhile a host of local neighborhood characters take notice. The police are enablers and cheerleaders. While physically growing in size, Azeem starts becoming a menace." Along the way, there are also talking tiki heads, cops with beatboxes (even a breakdancing Heather Fong!), mural-painting graffiti-ists, and a homage to "King Kong." Sounds cool, but seeing is believing, right?