Straight out of shock treatment, Strangeland’s favorite bipolar genius is back with his next album Kickin’ & Screamin’ dropping May 15.

So what can we expect in this chapter of Kaliko’s insanity? Well, for starters, it’s a full house packed with guests such as Tech N9ne, Wrekonize & Bernz of ¡MAYDAY!, Chamillionaire, Twista, T-Pain, Ritz, and Psychopathic Records alumni, Twiztid all spitting lyrics at 300 miles per hour with Kaliko. As if you aren’t sold on those guests with Kali alone, Krizz has released THREE music videos to accompany the new album. Now, think about that, most artists will release a music video, almost always the first single off the album, to get fans excited, then MAYBE do another if the album does well enough to justify a second single. Residents of Strangeland get THREE videos off the bat! DWAMN!

Herein lies a beautiful strategy on Kaliko’s part – three of the four videos are only PARTIAL. “Dixie Cup”, “Mayday” and “Kill Shit” only showcase Kaliko’s verses, cutting off before Twiztid and Twista’s verses on both, respectfully, while “Abu Dhabi” blows past the sample phase and lets us indulge in the full course – with Tech, Krizz, Kutt, and Makzilla tearing it up at an auto show. So with three samples and an entrée, you KNOW you want more, and more you will get on May 15. Patience Technicians…

Music videos have been around since the mid-1700s. I kid, but they have been around (prominently) since the 1980s with the birth of MTV. Before YouTube, the only way to catch a glimpse of your favorite artists was to pray to the music gods that one of their videos would come on MTV sometime during the day AND you had a tape in the VCR ready to go – I know I am not the only person who did that. Other than the music video, musicians were usually a mystery – one had to absorb all the lyrics and read the insert, – hopefully they did something cool and it wasn’t just credits -multiple times to get an intimate feel for said band.

As time progressed, the music video evolved, no more was it just footage of a band playing, but a device for telling a story. Look at Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” – that was directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) AND had Vincent Fuckin’ Price in it AND dancing zombies! It was with that video that a new door was opened and the creative and artistic music video was born. No longer were music video’s solely about the artist, but rather about the story, with some bands not even in their videos at all – look at (almost) any TOOL or Gorillaz or Dethklok music video.

As mentioned earlier, most albums are accompanied by a music video for their single, and depending on the success of the album, or the size of the band, more videos off that album will surface after time. Now, there are exceptions, such as when System of a Down front man Serj Tankian contracted EVERY song off his solo album to different music video directors, but usually the one single+ method is standard across all genres of music.

With the advent of the internet and more importantly, YouTube, fans can see 100+ videos of ANY band whenever they want – assuming YouTube aren’t being content Nazis. It’s not just about quantity, but also preciseness – if you want to watch Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko drunkenly sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the tour bus it’s there man – it’s a beautiful time we live in.

So, back to Krizz and his strategy – the fact that we are all linked via Facebook or Twitter makes things hella easy for (free) promotion. The second Krizz posted each of the three videos for Kickin’ & Screamin’ they were mass-shared and talked about by thousands of Strangers and Technicians, and do you want to know the beauty of it all? Those videos were for YOU, the fans. So take it all in, loop them, share them, talk about them – it’s all part of the ‘Krizz Kaliko Effect’ of awesome promotion and content.

Kali Baby!

Be sure to pick up Krizz Kaliko’s Kickin’ & Screamin’ dropping on May 15 – and if you pre-order it HERE, you get it SIGNED and an awesome Kickin’ & Screamin’ T-shirt, and make sure you catch the Hostile Takeover when it rolls into your town to see Tech and Krizz Kaliko in person!

– Written By Strange Music Blog Contributor Jason Ours
Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonIsStrange