Remember NYOil's "Y'all Should All Get Lynched," the YouTube video that mixed photos of 50 Cent, Three 6 Mafia, Ying Yang Twins and rap stars with images of black men and women being hanged? It was a searing indictment of the baselessness and decadence of mainstream rap culture. Despite releasing more YouTube videos and occasionally performing live in his native New York, however, nothing he's done has had the same impact as that video (which YouTube quickly banned).
So it will be interesting to see the response to NYOil's first full-length album. Set to arrive via his Petroleum Empire Media Group and Babygrande on July 8, Hood Treason is actually a re-release -- NYOil originally issued it in January 2007 himself -- but will undoubtledly get more attention this time around, thanks to continued post-"lynched" love from the bloggerati and controversial name-calling interviews on influential outlets like SOHH and Hot 97. It's not exactly a shift from Internet notoriety to traditional media infamy yet, at least until NYOil comes with the proper, big-budget blowout that cements his status as hip-hop's newest freedom fighter.
