2K12's Most Slept On Hip Hop Gems

The Lowdown, 3/18/13

Well, 2012 is far behind us, and I swear that this will be my last post about hip hop from that year.  Instead of offering up one of those pointless top ten album lists, I figured that I'd highlight my picks for most criminally slept on gems of 2K12.  Some real great albums on this list, please give them a listen if you haven't already: 

   1)   Edison “Delayed Reaction Elements” (self-released) 

Edison’s latest album is a masterful display of beat-making skill that stands out as the best instrumental hip hop album of last year, as well as one of the top ten releases of 2012 period.  This album has been in the works for a minute, with many of the songs playing a major role in Edison’s amazing live beat show over the course of the last few years.  Edison is known as a master at rocking the Monome, a sophisticated piece of blinky button-based electronic equipment that’s used by some of the more brilliant IDM musicians out there.   While Daedelus will often use the Monome as a means of crafting new mixes at his live shows, Edison’s live set involves a different sort of improvisation.  He digs into his own Monome compositions and plays them live in an exciting and unpredictable fashion, harking back to familiar tunes but never playing them quite the same way twice.  “Delayed Reaction Elements” is everything that one could have hoped for from an Edison album after seeing his live show, with plenty of very detailed and intricate beat compositions that relay a lot of emotion while keeping folks’ heads nodding.  Too many stand-out songs to cover in a short review blurb, but some favorites include the chunky guitar based brilliance of “Bare Feet on Lego Bricks,” the creeping chords of “The Poetry of Public Transportation,” and the extra funky bassline kick of “There Is No Hand Too Left, No Cubicle Too Deadly.”  The whole album has a really interesting choppy rock sample vibe that gets one wondering whether Edison could have been a stadium rocker in another life, but the tone and sounds are diverse enough to keep you guessing from song to song.  This album was originally going to be released by Fieldwerk Recordings, a Chicago label at the forefront of the instrumental hip hop scene, but monetary issues ended up preventing it from happening and the album ended up getting released independently on Bandcamp with little to no publicity.  Anyone who’s had the chance to see Edison play in the Bay Area or open for Aesop Rock and Dark Time Sunshine on their last tour will know how much of a crime it would be to sleep on this one.  The album is available for sale via Edison’s Bandcamp Page and is worth every penny of the price.  Please invest in it so the man can press this thing up properly!  You can stream the album in full below if you’d care to test its quality:  

2)      Avatar “This Machine Has Gone Wrong…” (Dumptruck) 

Avatar has been putting some extra hard into the LA underground scene for some time now, and this fourth solo release of his is his strongest material to date.  “This Machine Has Gone Wrong…” is the darkest and grittiest Avatar album thus far, and the feel of the album works perfectly with his production aesthetic and style of rapping.  Av is often thought of as a Shapeshifters and Ex Vandalz affiliate, with many tracks produced for members of the Shifters and a dope album with Bleek under the group name Speak Easy.  My first impression when listening to this new album was that the sound harkened back to some of the older and iller Shapeshifters recordings, with tracks like "Passage" and "Invasion" really capturing the oddball futuristic styling generally associated with that crew.  But to paint this album as some sort of Shifters knock-off would be doing it a great disservice, as Avatar really delivers an original sound here that taps into his punk rock roots and dwells upon the wickedness of the world.   Avatar's verses are smart and wordy enough to measure up to your favorite nerd rapper, but there's a gruffness to his voice and a rugged quality to his words that reflects his rough upbringing and Inglewood home.  Tracks like "Shatterproof" find Avatar relentlessly barreling through his verses while numbers like "Cold Piece of Work" and "How Could You?" convey a more reflective and personal mood.  The beats that Av delivers throughout the album are exceptional and far better than the beats on any of his previous collabs, with a very sinister and raw sound that's easily distinguishable amongst the wealth of LA talent.  The stand-out jam "Propellers" is a great example of the quality of the production on here, pitting Avatar's catchy sung hook and chaotic verses over a noisy and immaculately layered track of marimbas and evil basslines.  The album's got lots of stand-outs, and features the likes of Awol One, 2Mex, Dumbfoundead, Xololanxinxo, K-the-I??? and Megabusive amongst others (hats off to Smile Oak for destroying his verse on "Passage").  Another album that got insanely slept on due to only being released on Bandcamp with zero promotion... I doubt the awful cover art helped in selling it either! Stream it below, and don't forget to drop some dollars on it over at Avatar's Bandcamp Page if you enjoy it. 


 

3)   Adeem & DJ MF Shalem "Made in New Hampshire" (self-released)

A completely unexpected new album from Adeem and Shalem, and a damn funky one at that!  I'll freely admit that I thought Adeem & DJ MF Shalem's first album as a duo "Transitions" was a complete mess and a total let-down, particularly in light of the far superior Glue material that was surfacing from Adeem at the time.  "Transitions" had a few classy songs like "Good Company" that stood out to me, but overall it felt like an album that had been worked on for too long and that had gone through too many transitions (ahem) before its completion.  "Made in New Hampshire," on the other hand, features such an effortless chemistry between Adeem and Shalem that one gets the sense that it could have been hammered out in a week's time.  Though if it really was crafted in that short a period, then the sheer amount of polish and cohesiveness would be worth singing praises over.  Both Adeem and Shalem are at their funkiest and most upbeat here, abandoning some of their more conceptual endeavors (see: Adeem's "Volume in the Ground") in a determined effort to bring some good old-fashioned happy hip hop tunes to the masses.  They might not be breaking any bricks with the approach, but the formula works extremely well.  Adeem's voice has a very confident and soulful quality to it now that goes well with the music at hand, and he kicks plenty of dope flows and hooks without skipping a beat.  DJ MF Shalem continues to build upon the excellent funk production he laid down for Grip Grand's "Rewinder" album, now incorporating lots of live instrumentation that conveys a truly charming old school hip hop feel.  Lots of groovy basslines and funky guitar licks to get your ass in gear too.  Definitely an ill album...  My understanding is that there was a limited rough version of this album pressed up on CD, but that they're already all gone and that Bandcamp's the only way to go.  So stream the album below, and check out Adeem and Shalem's page if you want to make a purchase: 



4)   Bi-Polar Bear "When Ledge is Home" (Modern Shark) 

This was one of the most mysterious slept-on hip hop albums of 2012 in my book.  I know very little about these guys, other than that they go by Ug Orwell and August, they live in Brooklyn, and they make some fine lo-fi rap musics.  Their recent connection to the NY-based Modern Shark label turned me on to their music, and I'm glad that I was since this new album of theirs is full of catchy melodic rapping and some very creative production.  Like many projects put out by Modern Shark, the album has a very likeable home-made feel to it that never detracts from the quality of the music at hand.  Stand-out songs include "The Days" with its warm keyboards and super catchy hook, "Fuck Her Pt. 2" which samples some kind of strange Japanese pop ballad, and "Ledge" which features production from Blue Sky Black Death and raps from Baje One of Junk Science (every bit as good as it sounds on paper).  The album has a good-natured goofiness to it in its choice of film samples and hooks, and you get the sense that these two have got a lot of heart in what they do.  Strong song-writing and production make "When Ledge Is Home" worth checking for in my book.  The album also gets extra props for being the only album on this list that's actually available for ordering on CD, and with hand-painted packaging no less!  Stream it for yourself below and then go order one over at the Modern Shark Store if you dig. 

November 2K12 in Hip Hop Terms

The Lowdown, 2/28/13

Well, despite already being knee deep in music from 2013, we're still stuck on 2012 over here at My Backpack is Bigger Than Yours.  Belated review central!  Make sure you check these joints if you haven't already:

1) Sole "A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing" (Black Canyon)

This new album from Sole picks up where “Hello Cruel World” left off, showcasing Sole’s modern slow flow over a variety of excellent beats from producers such as Ecid, Factor, Man Mantis, Busdriver, Alias, Skyrider and many more.  I went in expecting to hear a nice companion piece to “Hello Cruel World,” but was surprised to find that “A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing” is actually a superior album that continues to improve upon Sole’s rejuvenated style over some seriously ill production.  If “Hello Cruel World” was the sound of Sole testing the waters with his new lyric heavy approach, then “A Ruthless Criticism” finds Sole completely in his comfort zone as he flexes his rugged voice with a confidence rarely heard in rappers of his ilk.  There is a very select set of MCs who can be political on record without sounding like they’re trying to pander to some trendy hip hop demographic, and Sole belongs high on that list with his biting wit and self-deprecating humor.  “Denver Nights” covers the police brutality of Occupy Denver while “Last Earth” is a sung ode to the devastation of the Planet, but sharp political comments are littered throughout the album and never sound forced.  Sole’s jaded outlook on hip hop is also a pleasure to listen to, as he dispels the notion of hip hop as a movement on “Young Sole” and gives advice to a younger generation of MCs on “Letter to a Young Rapper,” noting that “most white rappers sound like they’ve never been punched in the face.”  The range of the production on the album really helps drive across Sole’s style, with traditional choppy beats like the outstanding “Never Work” balancing out the equally great electronic productions like “Animal.”  This and “Hello Cruel World” are two of the strongest Sole projects in years, and with a Vol. 2 for “A Ruthless Criticism” entitled “No Wising Up & No Settling Down” on the horizon, it seems that Sole’s back in full form and showing no signs of slowing down.  Listen to the song "The Untouchables" featuring greencarpetedstairs on the hook below: 

2) Myka 9 & Factor "Sovereign Soul" (Fake Four Inc)

Myka 9 & Factor’s latest collaboration is a very dense and cerebral body of work that will probably require a couple of listens before it clicks, but once it does there’s quite a lot to dig into here.  Myka’s vocals are meant to be studied, as he possesses a broader range of styles than most rappers and tends to indulge in lots of risks on his albums.  From the impressive chopping skills on “Mind Heights” and “Sexy to the Beat” to the old school baritone cadences on songs like “Heaven Up,” Myka 9 is clearly in a class of his own when it comes to rap vocals, and tends to be heralded as one of the greatest technical rappers of all time for his feats of stylistic prowess.  It’s not always easy to wrap your head around what he’s trying to accomplish, but it’s a welcome challenge that's often worth studying on repeat.  Backing up Myka in the beat department is the talented Saskatoon producer Factor, who delivers a very psychedelic soundscape with live instrumentation similar to his recent instrumental "Factor & the Chandeliers" EP.  The sound is a lot more nuanced and detailed that the straightforward dopeness of Factor's beats on Myka 9's previous "1969" album, and while it's not as instantly likeable it somehow feels like there's more going on in the compositions here.  Lots of interesting collaborations with like-minded creative MCs on this project as well, including the monstrous "5 Mikes" posse cut featuring Open Mike Eagle, Mykill Myers, Mic King and a ridiculous verse from Myk Mansun.  Listen to the collab with Astronautalis and Ceschi, "Bask In These Rays," below:

3) Corina Corina "The Eargasm" (self-released)

This album almost snuck under my radar, but I had the good fortune of running into Corina in one of her visits to my record shop and she was kind enough to hand me a copy to listen to.  More often than not, when people hand me music this way I end up listening to it once or twice and then leaving it to gather dust, but occasionally an album proves to have real replay value and ends up being a discovery of sorts.  “The Eargasm” is one of those albums.  A very personal, polished and well-composed piece of work that merits more than just a couple of plays and continues to get bumps from me in 2013.  When I started listening to “The Eargasm” for the first time, I will admit that Corina’s R&B singing voice did not immediately click with me, but I never felt the need to skip a song and by the end of the record she’d definitely convinced me of her talents.  She carries her voice well over a variety of very modern hip hop beats provided by Willie Green, Steel-Tipped Dove, Has-Lo and others, and the album flows exceptionally well from front to back at a nice pace.  Corina really knows how to express herself over these tracks, and I love how the music is a very direct reflection of her as a person.  The album has songs about trying to the pay the rent in New York, quitting day jobs, loving the notion of loving others, and persevering through past relationships.  She heeds by the mantra "baby, don't sell yourself short" and truly does not sell herself short over the course of the record, delivering a very complete portrait of herself as a person.  The excellent production and mastering job from Willie Green breaths a lot of life into the songs, and in the end we're left with the strongest hip hop R&B project since Mankwe's album from August.  Here's hoping that 2013 continues to offer up offbeat hip hop-influenced R&B projects like this one...  I hear that Lady Daisy & Batsauce have a new one in the works, so we shouldn't be waiting too long!  Check out the music video for Corina Corina's song "The Familiar" below:  

October 2K12 in Hip Hop Terms

The Lowdown, 1/4/13

More notable albums from the final months of 2012:

1) P.O.S "We Don't Even Live Here" (Rhymesayers) 

I must say, as much as I love Doomtree and P.O.S' music and everything that it stands for, I was worried that this album wouldn't deliver.  The Doomtree group album "No Kings" that preceded "We Don't Even Live Here" was an undeniably solid piece of work, but somehow I don't find myself revisiting it as much as some of Doomtree's other efforts.  Not really knocking the album, I do enjoy it, but I guess it's not my personal favorite sound of theirs.  More worrisome was the free album that Mike Mictlan dropped earlier this year, "SNAXXX," which I actually disliked to the point of not bothering to share it on this blog.  Those and Doomtree's super busy tour schedule both made me second-guess whether P.O.S would deliver on this joint, and boy do I feel foolish for even having a shadow of a doubt.  Not only does P.O.S deliver another outstanding earthshaker of an album, but he actually takes the electro beat styles that Mike Mictlan and Doomtree were working with and improves upon them tenfold.  Granted, the first two-thirds of the album play out like some traditional dark P.O.S shit, with Lazerbeak and Cecil Otter providing most of the ill instrumentation and P.O.S dropping his gruff verses and punk-influenced indie rock hooks.  Then, starting with the dance riot single "Get Down," the album takes a sharp turn into heavy electro club territory without skipping a beat.  Both sides of the album offer up some killer songs, with favorites including the bouncy Astronautalis collab "Wanted/Wasted," the dark mission statement "Lock-Picks, Knives, Bricks and Bats," and the aforementioned dance single "Get Down."  P.O.S also deserves major props for his lyrics, which are penned with a political punk aggression that avoids the cliches so often associated with political rap music.  On "All of Me," he barrels his way through Occupy protestors, spitting "I ain't invited to your protest/ they say I'm out of my damned mind/ Rather break glass then stand holding a 'Peace' sign."  Meanwhile, the song "Fuck Your Stuff" is an enormous anti-materialist anthem, with a live as hell hook and lyrics that include "how to make bombs with shit you find in your kitchen."  Raps laced with attitude, amazing beats, and excellent guest spots scattered throughout.  Another truly exceptional album from P.O.S.  Check out the crazy video for the equally crazy song "Get Down" below:



2) Blueprint "Deleted Scenes" (Weightless)

Speaking of albums that exceeded expectations, this new one from Printmatic succeeded in doing so in a major way.  This album was billed as a collection of songs that didn't make it onto Blueprint's last release "Adventures in Counter-Culture," and the title "Deleted Scenes" would lead one to believe that it's some random collection of B-sides, but that couldn't be further from the truth.   This really is a brand new full length Blueprint album, carefully crafted and unified in theme and focus, with excellent mastering and plenty of stand-out songs.  The album could be considered a continuation or companion piece for "Adventures in Counter-Culture," with songs cultivated and reworked from the sessions used to record that project, but the songs are so damn great that it really feels like a worthy follow-up to an album that was years in the making.  "Deleted Scenes" finds Blueprint once again flexing his creativity over his own unique electronic-influenced production, splitting his focus between straight-forward relatable rap verses and electronic indie pop.  Both are delivered under Blueprint's trademark voice and flow, and never is there a point where a song doesn't feel like it belongs on the album.  In fact, one of the most impressive things about this collection of songs is just how cohesively it plays out as an album, with a more distinctive sound and style than many hip hop long-players that dropped this year.  Dismissing this project as something that was quickly scrapped together would be a big mistake, so I hope that indie rap heads and especially fans of "Adventures in Counter-Culture" won't sleep on this one.  No music videos for this one alas, but you can listen to the song "Never Grow Old" below:



3) Robust "Fillin' in the Potholes" (Galapagos4)

This one didn't really grab me as hard as P.O.S or Blueprint's albums, but it definitely grew on me with repeated listens.  I think I might be one of those dudes that Robust is referring to on his song "Northern Soul" when he spits "dropped 'Potholes' but my fans don't think I'm hot no more."  Robust's first album "Potholes in My Molecules" really impressed me and was one of my favorites of that year, but since then I've felt like he's been on a gradual decline with his recordings.  I had high expectations for "Fillin in the Potholes" since it's the first time in a while that Robust has been paired with an all-star cast of Chicago producers (Meaty Ogre, Maker, PNS, Void Pedal, etc.), plus the album is billed as somewhat of a return to form for Ro and is graced by Albane's always dope artwork.  The beats are terrific throughout and it's definitely the strongest recorded stuff from Robust in a long while, but there's still something about his flow and voice that makes his verses not stand out to me as much anymore. Still, he does more or less hold this thing down, and there are some bright moments with his rhyming like the affirmative statements of "What's Your World" or the simple run-down of "Soloist."  Some raw soulful Chicago rap shit, check out the video for the Void Pedal produced song "High Road" below: