Introducing .. 857!

Hip-hop music offers a balance between diversity and strong lyrical influences. True fans of the genre find contemporary hip-hop to be misinforming and misleading, but with artists like the Long Island/New York based collaboration known as 857, we’re proud to showcase for you a wide range of innovative lyricists. With influences by The Black Eyed Peas, A Tribe Called Quest, and Lauryn Hill, it is easy to find that the music of 857 is promising, yet energetic. 857’s music offers diverse songs that emanate self-awareness, role playing, storytelling, and personal reflections, which can be exemplified in their video for “Media Hype.”

The innovative mentality of hip-hop revolves around ideas that sometimes make general stereotypes that are misleading. However, 857 presents a variety of musical genres, such as rock, R&B, techno, spoken word, and pop, to create music that promotes the evolution of hip-hop music as a whole. The originality, creativity, and diversity that they introduce to the music scene can be heard through dark and subtle piano sounds, along with haunting and influential lyrics. The spoken word elements capture what the majority of the industry neglects—hip-hop as a positive contribution to specific cultures all around the world. 857 has performed at many different venues throughout NYC and the surrounding areas, such as Downtime, Pianos, and Southpaw. They’ve also made live television appearances and were featured in newspapers and various magazines including Inside Connection, Newsday, and Daily News. Their music serves as a catalyst for what should be emerging from the inside of contemporary hip-hop music, such as depictions of violence and overemphasis on wealth. Many of these issues are neglected, but it is with the powerful lyrics of 857’s “Media Hype” that music listeners everywhere can finally appreciate the value of words.

“Media Hype” is a song that presents all that 857 values in life and music. The song captures the audience with dark piano melodies and the lyrics pull you in to ideas that encourage realities of the media. Members give the music scene a piece of their mind as a constant dark piano plays an eerie melody in the background. The artists create a mood that is neither negative nor positive, but they take a stand in middle ground. The song offers peace through fluidity of style and lyrics that make us wonder how the media has fooled us in various ways. However, the truth of the matter stands behind 857’s words revolving the scary reality of what the media has become. As artists, they present themselves with meaning and set forth a strong approach toward the most important aspect of hip-hop music—the truth.