Fort Knox Five’s recently released video for the single “Shift” features a premiere member of New York music aristocracy, Afrika Bambaataa. The “Godfather of Hip Hop” and founder of The Universal Zulu Nation joined forces with the Washington, DC based group and vocalist Mustafa Akbar to record the single “Shift” during President Obama’s inaugural ceremonies in 2009. The song was originally found on Fort Knox Recording’s compilation CD, The New Gold Standard 2, but received a remix (available on iTunes) and an eye-shifting video to give it a new life.
The end result of months of filming and editing, directors Stu MacKay-Smith and DJ Ball used a combination of live action and animation with the help of sports cinematographer Christian Begin. The video soon became an international affair with dance crews Now or Never and Hybrid Movement Parkour from Vancouver adding their magic. Go-go dancers Foxy Moron, Jina Anika, and Nessa V. contributed the right amount of girly power without the R rating.
Fort Knox Five has been an outstanding group in the world arena of funk and break beats for years. They established their label Fort Knox Recordings in 2003 to produce genre-defying music without limitations.
“Shift” has received positive notices from more than 100 music blogs and websites, including Urb Magazine and Spinner. As of this writing, the video has generated more than 11,000 hits on YouTube. It’s worth a visit, to view the legacy of Hip Hop and electronic music in high definition action.
Watch the video, “Shift”, by Fort Knox Five featuring Afrika Bambaataa and Mustafa Akbar on YouTube and Vimeo.
Other links:
Fort Knox Five on Facebook
Fort Knox Five on Myspace
Fort Knox Five on Twitter
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