The Coming

The Coming is the debut album by American rapper Busta Rhymes, released on March 26, 1996 by Elektra Records. Recording sessions for The Coming began in late 1994, and concluded in early 1995 at various recording studios. The Coming features rapping from Def Squad members Redman and Keith Murray as well as a guest appearance from Q-Tip and singing from Zhané and different future Flipmode Squad members. One notable song on the album is "Keep It Movin" which features Busta's former group Leaders of the New School, and it would mark the last time they would ever make a song together. It has production from many famed producers and production teams such as DJ Scratch, Easy Mo Bee and The Ummah.

The Coming was a critical and commercial success for Busta Rhymes. It reached #6 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1996 and has since received a platinum certification from RIAA. Allmusic gave at a near perfect 4.5 out of 5 star rating. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic says that "Busta Rhymes has never had such an impressive showcase for his rhymes as he does on The Coming". It boasts the hit single "Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check" which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1996. It was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance and Steve Huey of Allmusic says that the song "catapulted Busta Rhymes into solo superstardom". It also ended up sporting another hit single, "It's a Party" featuring Zhané. The Coming has sold 793,000 copies by June 2009. The Coming, along with When Disaster Strikes... and E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front, is seen as a classic rap album.

The Creators

The Creators is a non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin published in 1992 and is the second volume in what has become known as the Knowledge Trilogy. It was preceded by The Discoverers and succeeded by The Seekers.

Contents

The Creators, subtitled A History of Heroes of the Imagination, is the story of mankind's creativity. It highlights great works of art, music and literature but it is more than a recitation or list. It is a book of ideas and the people behind those ideas. It encompasses architecture, music, literature, painting, sculpture, the performing arts, theater, religious expression and philosophy. It can be viewed as a companion to The Discoverers which chronicled the history of invention, exploration and technology. The Creators traces the creative process from pre-history Egypt to modern times and like The Discoverers, follows both a topical and chronological structure. Boorstin writes in "A Personal Note to the Reader", "After The Discoverers... "I was more than ever convinced that the pursuit of knowledge is only one path to human fulfillment. This companion book, also a view from the literate West, is a saga of Heroes of the Imagination. While The Discoverers told of the conquest of illusions - the illusion of knowledge - this will be a story of vision (and illusions) newly created..." If The Discoverers is the story of the inventive human mind then The Creators is the story of the searching soul. The work is in twelve major parts that have been grouped into four books.

The Creators (film)

The Creators: South Africa Through the Eyes of Its Artists is a 2012 South African documentary film produced and directed by Laura Gamse which interweaves the lives of diverse South African artists including Faith47, Cashril+, Warongx, Emile Jansen of Black Noise, Markus Wormstorm and Spoek Mathambo of Sweat.X, Blaq Pearl, and Mthetho Mapoyi.

Synopsis

The story begins in the mind of Cashril Plus, a twelve-year-old animator and son of graffiti artist Faith47. Through Cashril's eyes, we see his mother paint the streets and forgotten townships haloing Cape Town. Weaving through the lives of Faith47, Warongx (afro-blues), Emile Jansen (hip hop), Sweat.X (glam rap), Blaq Pearl (spoken word) and Mthetho (opera), the film culminates in an intertwined story. Born into separate areas of a formerly-segregated South Africa, the artists recraft history—and the impacts of apartheid—in their own artistic languages. The lens reveals the impulse behind the artists’ social consciousness, the individuals’ eccentricities, and each creator’s unique form of expression. Diving into the current of subversive art which fuels South Africa’s many clashing and merging cultures, The Creators brings into focus the invisible connections among strangers' disparate lives—and the creative expression used to traverse the divide. The result is an intimate, refreshing, and deeply revealing portrait of those remolding the legacy of apartheid.