August 2K11 in Hip Hop Terms

The Lowdown, 8/31/11

Couple of very notable releases in the rap world this month... I haven't had a chance to peep Flash Bang Grenada's full length or Knives & Gasoline's album yet, but they'll likely be in next month's write-up if they live up to my lofty expectations.

1) Candy's .22 "A Girl And Her Gun" (Grimm Image)

At long last, the new full length collabo between Existereo and Barfly sees the light of day. Granted, a lot of the songs on here are fairly old, dating back to the duo's tour CD "On the Roadkill Again," but it's great to hear these tracks professionally mixed and packaged, plus their new songs deliver as well. For those of you not familiar with Stereo13 and Barfloco's twisted brand of hip hop, these two stylistic madmen make what might be described as "Drunken Americana Rap." Their niche market is clearly the drugstore cowboy and chip-toothed gypsy woman crowd, but there's plenty that you picky underground hip hop heads will appreciate on this album as well. Existereo is one of the more underrated MCs out of LA's massive scene in my book, with more than a few stolen posse cuts under his belt and the Shapeshifters at his side. He's one of those rappers who you expect to only be good in a group setting, but who impresses in a major way every time he drops a full length project, both stylistically and lyrically. Barfly is a member of the ever-prolific Oldominion collective out of Seattle, and stands out as perhaps the least conventional rapper in that legendary clique of strange rap talents. He kicks his verses as if he's perpetually drunk, and makes it sound impressive while dropping some seriously clever lyrics veiled under a mask of inebriation. Listen and you're likely to find more interesting quotables from this guy in a song than some MCs will give you in an entire album. One great part about Candy's .22 is that it doesn't sound like your average Existereo or Barfly album. Instead, these guys have taken an interesting direction with their collaborative music, embracing the strange country-ish aspects of their lyrics and styles and developing a very original sound in the process. With producers like Deeskee, Smoke, Coley Cole and Foundation backing them up, you know the music side of things is going to be solid. Hats off to the homies Self Advocate and Rob Rush for their impressive beat contributions here as well. But enough of my banter, listen to the song "Berkowitz" below and decide for yourself:




2) Prof "King Gampo" (Stophouse)

This one sort of came out of left-field and impressed the shit out of me. I've noticed Prof through his touring ethic and affiliations, as he's been listed on flyers next to the likes of Atmosphere, Mac Lethal, or more recently Grieves. His last free album, "Recession Music" with St. Paul Slim, was fairly good but not really enough to make me actively want to check for new music from the guy. Well, after listening to "King Gampo," I think it's safe to label me a fan. Everything from the rapping, to the hooks, to the production, to the cover's homage to "Gummo" is quality. Prof's music is very fun to listen to, as he's clearly having a great time making it without sacrificing a bit of style. His bouncy party hooks and comedic lyrics may seem a bit immature on the surface, but there's definitely a strong stylistic edge to his music, as he's constantly manipulating his voice and switching cadences in the most impressive of ways. He can also get serious with the lyrics and concepts when he feels like it, as tracks like "Myself" and "Karma" demonstrate. I will without question be checking out this dude's live show the next time he passes through my neck of the woods, as judging by the songs on here I'm sure that his set is off da meatrack. I paid 10 bones for a physical copy of the album on CD and was very satisfied with my purchase, but for those who are trying to go the cheaper route, Prof is offering the whole shebang for free on the Stophouse Bandcamp Page Download it there, or stream it in it's entirety below and see what you think:

Sims "Wildlife EP"

Expanding the Backpack, 8/31/11

New legally free EP from Sims & Lazerbeak, spread by the grace of the almighty Doomtree newsletter. Their "Bad Time Zoo" album still ranks amongst the best releases of 2011 so far, and while this EP isn't quite living up to that standard of quality, it is more excellent tunes from these talented gents. A few of these songs have been released previously, whether as giveaway MP3s for the "Bad Time Zoo" preorder or as songs promoting the album, but that's not to knock the level of quality here. For the level remains high, as it often does with Doomtree-related releases. The whole EP is damn good, but a special spot in my heart belongs to the song "Jordan 5's," which is just Lazerbeak at his most banging. I still remember when I heard that song playing in the background of some Doomtree interview video, and had to rewind the segment several times just to process how ill it sounded. Glad it's been made available to the public! Tracklisting and stream below. You can download Sims' "Wildlife EP" for free at the Sims Bandcamp Page.

1. The Lighthouse
2. Mad Night
3. Here I Stand
4. The Line
5. Jordan 5's

Stacking Really Hot Chips

The Latest Greatest, 8/28/11

Neila loves the kids. The latest project from the ever-amazing Laura Yang, who somehow managed to bust out an ill banner for this blog in-between designing websites and recording hot 16 bar verses, is a brand new illustrated children's book. "Yeti Goes to Elementary... Too Many Hot Chips" is a cautionary tale that deals with the major issue of hot chips, and features breakdancing dinosaurs, yetis in UFOs, and plenty of skateboards. Two of the characters from the story, Wayol Shark and Berd-E, are comparing backpacks in the illustration that crowns this blog. Looking forward to reading this and sharing it with plenty of people who like to smile. If you'd like to check it out for yourself, and maybe even order some blinged out yeti gear to go with it, you can do so at the I Love Yeti website that compliments the book. Just try not to eat too many hot chips when you get there.

The Year Was 8076

The Latest Greatest, 8/28/11

Saw this album cover next to the words "free download" up on Illogic's blog and practically lost my jaw in excitement, but turns out that the free download in question is a single track from the album as opposed to the album itself. Grrrr... Still, it's great to see material surface from Illogic's long-abandoned party album, which was supposed to drop on Rhymesayers back in 2005 but never saw the light of day due to the artists themselves deciding not to put it out. I remember chatting with Columbus OH producer Amos Famous about this project at a Danger Zone show in Berkeley, and he claimed it was Illogic's best work ever but that I'd never get to hear it since he'd decided to scrap it. The one or two sparks that surfaced from Illogic and Walter Rocktight's collaborative effort, like the "Time is Coming" song off Illogic's "Write to Death Vol. 2," kept me hoping that it would one day be released... but the years passed and hopes of hearing it gradually faded. Well, it looks like Illogic's finally decided to put this beast out, and as a free download no less. I'll definitely highlight it in the "Expanding the Backpack" section of this blog once the album becomes available in its entirety, but until then, here's that free track I was talking about:

A Fool and His Money Are Slickly Parted

The Latest Greatest, 8/23/11


New album from City Slick entitled "The Money and His Fool," dropping September 20th independently via Green Llama. City Slick is an underrated group consisting of Decay on vocals and Fluent on production, with both players repping the Green Llama crew out of Chicago. While Uncut Raw's album "First Toke" and Dibia$e's recent work have drawn the most attention to the Llama's, City Slick's first album "Antique Black" was one of the most solid offerings to date from the crew and highly slept-on. Decay is also known for his work with the Molemen, though he sounds more at home over the gritty lo-fi production that Fluent has to offer. Alas, as far as I know, this one seems to be only dropping digitally... hopefully someone will prove me wrong! Tracklisting and sample song below:

1. And So It Went...
2. Back On It
3. Amillione
4. Relief From Warplanes (feat. Selfish)
5. Bouncing Checks (Interlude 1)
6. Miss Me
7. The Hustle
8. Too High (feat. Astonish)
9. Llama Lasers (feat. Maintenance Crew)
10. Into the Stark Reality
11. B.M.M.M. (Interlude 2)
12. The Believer
13. Hostage
14. None Slicker
15. They Won't Get Me (feat. Tone Liv)
16. The Ends Justify The Means (feat. Scheme)
17. A High Note

Seeing Doomdoubles

The Latest Greatest, 8/21/11

I refrained from spreading this news earlier due to the top secret nature of the extra-exclusive Doomtree newsletter, but since it's now been spread publically on their site and elsewhere I feel that it's fair game to share it here belatedly. Dessa's new(ish) full length "Castor, the Twin" is dropping October 4th 2011 on Doomtree Records. This new but not-quite-so-new body of work is largely composed of live band reinterpretations of Dessa's older songs and guest spots, with only one song "The Beekeeper" representing entirely new material. Kind of a bummer since I'd love to hear more new Dessa verses, but apparently this "Beekeeper" song is the single of another more official upcoming full-length of brand new stuff, so only a matter of time. Plus, it seems that I smell a new Doomtree group full length on the near horizon in November 2011? This one and the new Sims EP "Wildlife" (street date?) should tide me over till then. Tracklisting and sample reinterpretation below:

1. 551
2. Kites
3. Mineshaft
4. The Chaconne
5. Into The Spin
6. Dixon's Girl
7. The Crow
8. Alibi
9. Palace
10. Mineshaft 2
11. The Beekeeper

Sole & the Skyrider Band with Dosh at Bottom of the Hill, SF

View From the Front Row, 8/15/11

A few nights ago, I caught Sole & the Skyrider Band's tour stop at the Bottom of the Hill in SF. This was my first time seeing Sole as a headlining act and also my first time seeing him perform with the Skyrider Band, though I was a big fan of his music back in the early heyday of Anticon when "Bottle of Humans" and "Selling Live Water" dropped. I haven't been a fan of all of Sole's output since then, but his new 2011 album "Hello Cruel World" is one of his strongest recordings to date, so I was very curious to see some of the new material played live. Bottom of the Hill is also kind of a sureshot venue when it comes to having a good time; 90% of the shows I've been to there have been outstanding so their batting average is rather good. The crowd for this show was medium-sized. A fairly decent turn-out, but not nearly as packed as it was for say Dessa or American Steel. Some cool folks in attendance though, including some enthusiastic fans who knew Sole's new shit like the back of their hand.

Dosh started the evening off with a mellow set of interesting layered beats, which he crafted through some clever uses of looping and instrumentation. He knocked out his percussion on a drum kit and on the sides of his keyboard, and then sampled those into loops which he layered over the various keyboard riffs and sample sounds he concocted. Watching him was definitely seeing a musician at work, and reminded me of one of my friends' bands The Why Because in the way that he built the tracks off of improvisational looping. Can definitely see how he's gained a following and has so many CDs under his belt, though the extra spacey and quiet nature of some of his beats felt like they might have fit an art space better than a music venue. His more upbeat bouncy keyboard numbers were the ones that worked best at Bottom of the Hill, and got people cheering at random intervals and bobbing their heads. Nice opening act overall. The crowd was tiny when he began, but built itself to a decent size over the course of his performance.

Sole & the Skyrider Band were the only other act in the evening's line-up. They put on a good set of mostly songs from the new album, which were exactly what I came to hear them play. There's something about Sole's style on stage that brings to mind an embittered spoken word poet, and at times it almost felt like he was reading his well-written verses over the Skyrider Band's complex live compositions. It wasn't quite as hype a performance as I'd hoped for, but it was interesting to witness the chemistry between Sole and the band's live drumming and instrumentation. They played "Possimism" and "D.I.Y," both of which I was itching to hear live, but the track that ended up being the most impressive on stage was one of the most challenging numbers on the album, "Home Ain't Shit." Sole's swagged out gangster-ish cadence on this song worked wonders live, and combined with the Skyrider Band's extra loud and busy beat made for one of the clear highlights of the set. Sole also kicked "I Think I'm Noam Chomsky" acapella, which got a lot of people in the crowd smiling. There were a number of major Sole fans in attendance who were chanting along to all of his lyrics, and I chanted quite a few of them myself from my spot in the front. The Skyrider Band were pretty impressive as well, intertwining vocoder effects and violin playing with some excellent live drumming. Good set all around.

The performances from Sole & the Skyrider Band and Dosh were both pretty on point, but there were two minor grievances I had with this show, one of them easy to pin down and the other a little more abstract. My first straightforward grievance is that the show ended at around 11:30 PM and was 12 dollars for only two acts, which felt a little steep to me given the speed at which it ended. When I was driving home, I felt a little like I hadn't entirely gotten my money's worth at the show... maybe they could get some other dope local rap act to open before Dosh next time. My other more abstract grievance with the show is that something about the sets and the way they were performed felt a little methodical to me. I'm not sure if it's just because I've been spoiled by seeing so many amazing LA rap acts improvise their sets live and take them in unexpected directions, but something about both Sole and Dosh's performances felt a little too planned out. Not even sure how that's really a complaint since having a well-planned set can often be a good thing, but there was something that felt a little static about it to me at times. Still a good show though. I don't know if I'd tell my friends to go run out and see Sole's new live set or if I'd even pay 12 dollars to see him as a headliner again, but I certainly don't regret going and rocking out to it.

That's my mixed review, E. Lit out. Oh wait, here's some cool concert footage I took of Sole & the Skyrider Band playing "D.I.Y" for the heads:

Meetings of the Batty Minds

The Latest Greatest, 8/14/11

On September 13th, Galapagos4 will be unleashing Qwazaar & Batsauce's full-length juggernaut "Bat Meets Blaine" to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting masses. If the collaborative "Style Be the King" EP that these two put out this year is any indication of how ill this album will be, then I think we may have a potential top 10 of the year candidate on our hands. It's been a long time since Qwazaar last blessed us with a full length album of his signature voice and sick lyrics, and Batsauce seems to be one hell of a talented producer. Seems like they're drawing some of the old Galapagos4 talent out of the wood-works for this one as well, as I spot Offwhyte and Denizen Kane's names on the guest feature tip. Would somebody mind leaking that "Never Weaker" track for me already? September should be a quality month for hip hop. Tracklisting and a few sample song snippets below:

1. A Choice
2. I Know
3.What Love
4. Chop Em Down
5. Eye To The Sky
6. Never Weaker (featuring Onry Ozzborn, Offwhyte & DJ Bizkid)
7. Surrealism (featuring Lady Daisey)
8. Power
9. If It Seems Wrong
10. I’m Gone
11. A Feeling (featuring KP of The Pacifics & Denizen Kane)
12. The Dream
13. Til It’s Done
14. Thanks

Qwazaar & Batsauce 'Bat Meets Blaine' Album Snip by qwazaar

Road Warriors (Dr. Oop & Nucleus of the Blacklove R88ers) "Alive And... Well??"

Expanding the Backpack, 8/13/11

Some brand new tasty music for your ear drums courtesy of Dr. Oop and the Blacklove Crew! Folks who've chatted with me about hip hop know how huge a fan I was of Droop's criminally underrated masterpiece from last year "The Grateful Dread," so it's awesome to hear some new music from his end. It's also great to see that the talented Ear Dr.Umz is still handling the production side of things, as he seems to always find just the type of raw mellow beats that fit Dr. Oop's laid back style of MCing. One thing that I've grown to love about Droop Capone and the Blacklove Crew's music is how real and honest it is, with the rappers staying 100% true to themselves through their lyrics, concepts, and musical vibes. "Alive And... Well??" continues that tradition with a concept album about touring through Canada, with every song and interlude revolving around different aspects of touring and performing live. This results in some really great verses and tunes, including the drinking advisory "Canadian Brewery" and the unspoken groupie laws of "Love Lesson." The album even features a freestyled song about hitch-hiking recorded on the side of the road when they were hitch-hiking through Canada, sounds of cars passing by and all... doesn't get much realer than that. Not sure how long this one's gonna be available for free, but for now you can stream it in its entirety below and download it for free at Dr. Oop's Bandcamp Page.

Luckyiam "I Love Haters"

Expanding the Backpack, 8/13/11

New free album from Luckyiam of Living Legends, produced entirely by Kruse and featuring Aceyalone, Slug, Pep Love, and Imani of the Pharcyde. Luckyiam's always been a little underrated as far as the Legends go, and Kruse is a pretty talented Cali producer who has a couple of dope solo projects to his name and has produced music for Himself. This album's provided by the clothing company LRG, and is certainly worth the free price of admission, which is apparently only lasting till the end of August. Looking forward to seeing what Lucky's upcoming solo project "Time 2 Get Lucky" yields, I hear he's gonna be rocking over some Mike Gao and Exile beats which is always a good thing. Tracklist, streaming songs and free download link below:

I Love Haters by luckylegends

Download the album Here.

David Ramos, Tommy V, Gel Roc, Maleko, Raj & Crescent Banks at the Old Princeton Landing

View From the Front Row, 8/7/11

A couple nights ago, Half Moon Bay was graced by the presence of a few notable indie rap types, including Ceschi's brother David Ramos and several key players of the LA2theBay movement. I was invited to the event by Gel Roc's friend Kris who runs Abalano Records, and managed to get off work a bit early to roll out to Half Moon Bay and check out the rap-related festivities. To make things more interesting, my fam happened to be visiting from Maryland at the time and they were hip enough to actually tag along with me to check out some quality underground hip hops by the Bay.

This was my first time visiting Old Princeton Landing (not to mention my first visit to Half Moon Bay in God-knows-how-long) and it was a very fun venue to hang out in. Felt kind of like a fisherman's wharf pub, but with a singles bar atmosphere to it. There were lots of very cute girls busting out some serious dance moves, and a pretty decently sized crowd to boot. The event was hosted and put together by Maleko, a Bay area rapper who's been putting it down for years with a lot of the LA2theBay cats and who has a wealth of quality recordings under his belt. He introduced the acts well and made sure that things ran smoothly from set to set, plus occasionally joined in the rapping when the occasion called for a guest verse.

The first act to take the stage was an indie rock band from San Francisco by the name of Crescent Banks, who I hadn't heard of but who put on a cool set of sweet keyboard melodies and guitar riffs over sampled drum breaks. The group's vocals fit the alternative rock mold pretty snugly, but not in a bad way as their wailing hooks often complimented the music well. David Ramos and Tommy V both improvised a bit on drums over the course of Crescent Banks' set, which was done subtly and never really felt out of place. Nice opening set. These guys were also mad appreciative of me grooving out in the front row, and hooked me up with a bit of free gear and music afterwards... bonus!

Crescent Banks was followed up by a quick set of stand-up comedy by a guy whose name I think was A.J the Smooth, but to be honest I was too busy chatting with David Ramos and Gel Roc and didn't catch his act. Stand-up's never really been my thing anyway, but hopefully I'll be able to give him a shot next time. Gel Roc was the next rapper type to take the stage, and he lived up to expectations with a really sick set that showcased his precise flows and honest lyricism. His latest CD "Beautiful Tragedy" is one of the best West coast hip hop albums of 2011 so far, and he performed a bunch of songs from it as well as a couple of numbers from his excellent older album "Laws & Flaws" and even some of his E Times Two stuff. His set had a very strong momentum to it despite the occasional lag in beats starting up, and he held it down acapella just as well as he did spitting over production, with smooth transitions between the two keeping the energy and passion of the performance high. Some highlights included "Never Knew Me," "Autodidactic" and an old school "How to MC" song that brought out Maleko for a verse. He also got the flyest dancing girl to get up on stage for a number to give her the proper respect. Even my non hip hop savvy fam was impressed by Gel's clear enunciation and introspective lyrics. Great set by a great MC.

David Ramos and Tommy V were up next as the evening's headliners, and they kicked an interesting collaborative set that had the two of them taking turns performing solo numbers. I'd seen David and Tommy live before on seperate occasions, both backing Ceschi as part of his live band, but was never privy to their solo sets until now. David Ramos strayed away from most of his alt rock drumming antics and stuck to primarily rap numbers, busting out some songs from his new album "That Down There" as well as some verses from posse tracks he's appeared on like "End of Skies" and "Hangman." Some of his mock crunk-rap Knuck Feast songs were covered as well, and sounded as delightfully offensive as ever. While I'd heard some of David Ramos' solo material when he performed with Ceschi as Anonymous Inc, I'd only heard Tommy V as a backing musician, and he impressed me quite a bit with his solo numbers. I've appreciated Tommy V's musical output over the years, but didn't really realize just how clever and comedic a rapper he was till seeing him live at this show. He performed a number of humorous stand-out songs with a happy circus vibe to them, and barreled around the stage until he was calm enough to break out his guitar and strum his way through an hilarious song about getting beat up by a bully and taking it in stride. There were a few technical hiccups in David Ramos and Tommy V's set involving complicated beats and forgotten verses, but it was nothing a little freestyle and a change-up or two couldn't remedy. An entertaining show from these two for sure.

Maleko and Raj got up after David and Tommy were done to kick an extra-quick set that only amounted to two songs, but still showed off their mic skills well. I felt a little bad for Raj because he had to get up at 5:30 AM the next morning to go to work and stayed at the show extra late just so he could perform ever so briefly to a dwindled crowd. Still, it was a good few songs, with both MCs delivering some fun styles with their verses. I hear Maleko is making this a monthly event, so I'm sure there'll be more opportunities to see sets from these two... expect more reviews of Half Moon Bay hip hop events on this blog in the future. Fun night!

Snippet of Gel Roc performing "Autodidactic" live below:

Gajah "Man the Ship EP"

Expanding the Backpack, 8/3/11

Hot off the release of Acid Reign's "Diversity" album is this new free 4-song EP by Gajah, who continues the Reign's tradition of flipping challenging electro beats into full-fledged songs with impressive lyrics and cadences. This EP also represents the first release on Acid Reign's new record label Acid Lab Recordings, which we'll hopefully be hearing plenty more from in the future. This EP is a nice little collection of songs, particularly 'Sponge" which features the additional vocal stylings of one Open Mike Eagle. Worth checking out, download it at the Acid Lab Recordings bandcamp page or stream it in full below.

A Belated July 2K11 in Hip Hop Terms

Hey, better late than never! A few outstanding releases last month, though one might technically be from the tail-end of June... who cares, it's all good music to me!

1) Sole & the Skyrider Band "Hello Cruel World" (Fake Four Inc.)

Sole's new album with the Skyrider Band is easily the best album I've heard from him in 7 years, and risks dethroning Noah23's album from the top Fake Four album spot in 2011. As someone who was a pretty huge Sole fan in the heyday of Anticon, it's a real pleasure to hear him making such a strong comeback with this body of work. Rather than playing it safe with his traditional barrage-of-vocabulary style, Sole has adapted to 2011's modern rap environment with a far more simple and confident flow that highlights his excellent lyrics and jaded views of the world. Indie rap fans who have dubbed Sole's lyrics as "too esoteric" in the past had ought to give the crystal clear verses of "Hello Cruel World" a listen. On the very first song, Sole even admits that "at age 20 knowing everything it was my style/ I was older then, I'm younger than that now." Statements like that take guts, and this album's got guts for days. The Skyrider Band's outstanding electronic backdrops compliment Sole's cadence better than ever before, veering from excellent club banger style numbers like "Possimism" (a personal favorite) to masterful melancholy affairs like "We Will Not Be Moved" (another personal favorite). This album also features more collaborative features than any past Sole album, boasting the likes of Sage Francis, Ceschi, Mestizo, Xiu Xiu, Pictureplane and more. Tracks like "Home Ain't Shit" and "Immortality" sound like some pretty gangster West coast hip hop sheeeit, and I mean that in a good way. Check out the amazing video for the latter track below, featuring the glorious art of UK artist Lando from Decadence Comics. And yes, I did just write a "Hello Cruel World" review without a single mention of the Based God.




2) Open Mike Eagle "Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes" (Hellfyre Club)

Not sure if this one was technically released in June or July, but either way it's August now and this album's one of the finest hip hop releases of 2011 thus far. I was a fan of Mike Eagle's previous solo album "Unapologetic Art Rap," and his work with Thirsty Fish and Nacrobats (throwback!) has been quality as well, but his music and style have never sounded quite as mature as they do on "Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes." It's the sound of an artist pinning down his own original style and voice and expanding upon it, with more risk-taking and memorable verses than ever before. It's interesting that this album and Sole's album were released around the same time, as they both showcase very confident styles of MCing with an emphasis on clever lyricism. Open Mike Eagle litters his verses with interesting pop cultural references, and comes up with some very original ideas for songs as well. "NH2" deals with the mainstream media's emotionless depiction of black people, "Exiled From the Getalong Gang" tells the tale of a kid breaking the code of a nerdy clubhouse in order to score with girls, and the album's title track deals with how rappers are gonna grow old and die. Even more interesting is the way that Mike Eagle harmonizes over songs, with tracks like "The Processional" and "Bright Green Light" practically sung in a poppy soulful manner while still sounding original as hell. Some great production provided by E. Super, Loden, Willie Green, and Oldominion's Taco Neck amongst others. Between this album and Open Mike Eagle's outpouring of excellent guest verses on other West coast hip hop projects (check out his insane verse on Flash Bang Grenada's "In a Perfect World" if you haven't done so already), it's clear that he's going to be a serious player in the LA underground circuit. As it stands, "Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes" is the strongest Swim Team affiliated album to date. Check out the video for "Bright Green Light" below: