@apartofhim's Top 20 of 2014 - #5 Michael Christmas "Is This Art?"

via apartofhim.blogspot.com

I don't know if I've ever been struck by so much genius in one music video. When @WillDKent showed me the video for "Michael Cera," my mind broke. The cinematography is brilliant, the shots, editing, sound, as a music video, it's perfect. Then breaking down the lyrics I saw not only was it lyrically sound but were so well crafted blending whit and humor, that when I found out Christmas was on 19 years old... WTF?! Yes, I was hooked. This is without a doubt the hip-hop album of the year!

Martín Caballero of the Boston Globe wrote this:

Answering the titular question posed by Roxbury rapper Michael Christmas’s debut album is more difficult than it may seem upon first listen. On the surface, it’s a Seth Rogen movie in rap album form; Christmas plays the role of hilarious, endearing slob with such natural humor and charm, you tend to overlook the surplus of masturbation jokes. He outshines Rome Fortune on the blunt cruise anthem “Duck Duck Goose,” drops rewind-worthy lines on “Overweight Drake,” and displays an easy comic chemistry with Alex Wiley on “Step Brothers,” even if they’re just trying to top each other’s gross-out gags. But repeat listens reveal that he’s more than just a slacker comedian. There’s something very self-aware in the way he deftly mixes metaphors in the first verse on “Michael Cera,” or the way he effortlessly tosses out a line like, “I almost paid the rent, but this new hat, you know I had to get it/ standing with my white Sonata, need Xzibit” on “Y’all Trippin’.” As relentlessly entertaining as Christmas is here, “Is This Art?” sounds like just the early glimpses of one of the most original and promising young talents in the city. That, and it’s really funny.