Today’s entry into the “Brooklyn anthem” category (in fact, it’s tagged that way on YouTube) comes from Farohawk, a Bushwick-based MC, producer and songwriter who, according to his bio, “credits the emerging neighborhood as a major source of creative inspiration for his current sound.”
A press release at Farohawk’s self-run record label, World Owned, describes the debut single, which kicks off with vocals by Bushwick-based Mariami, as a “hip hop anthem that celebrates creative living in Bushwick.” The track is “100% Bushwick,” the press release insists. “Its scrappy landscape, new developments and explosive emerging arts scene all provide a snapshot of life from inside the artsy community.”
With claims like this, comparisons to “Brooklyn Girls” are inevitable. Compare Catie Shaw’s lyric “Jay-Z bumps in her headphones / drinks on top of the Brownstones” to Farohawk’s “You know how we get down / it’s all a show / so beautiful / headphones provide the sound.” There’s even a shoutout to riding carbon bikes (“we’re riding on our bikes / never stopping at the lights”) that leads to something that sounds kinda like Shaw’s infamous line about walking in and ruling the world: “We don’t own cars / so we don’t guzzle gas / but when the traffic jams watch how we glide past.”
(Farohawk’s other single, “Rolling,” is actually a full four-minute ode to bike riding.)
But not everything is street art and beautiful bartenders in Farohawk’s Bushwick: he also makes references to stop and frisk (“I stay around because I got love for my local spots / I heart my city but had trouble with some local cops”) and gentrification (“Don’t call me fucking hipster because I like beer and whiskey shots / new faces moving in the hood, it seems that it will never stop / everybody’s reppin her, the whole world is watching / but when it comes to Brooklyn I’m truly missing Bushwick.”).
This probably isn’t quite the anthem Bushwick is looking for, but that’s all good — somehow we doubt this’ll be the last musical tribute to “B’wick.”