As a wee lad, our boy Grynch dreamed of someday pushing a ’67 Pontiac GTO along the streets of his native Ballard. Unfortunately the fates were cruel and his dream never came to fruition. We all know how the rapper’s future vehicular escapades turned out. The rest, as they say, is (206) history.
Check this remix of “My Volvo” by Sabzi. The sh-t hops so giddily out of your speakers you’ll think your iTunes raided your stash of happy pills last night. A song about a damn Volvo shouldn’t sound any different.
Great looking video for “I Just Wanna Beat,” my least-favorite track off the otherwise stellar High Society EP. Director Jon Augustavo is staying busy in the Town.
Brandon Roy is my favorite current NBA player. Cali and Cavalli are not my favorite rappers. Too bad B-Roy’s first cameo in a local hip-hop video wasn’t better spent.
Plan your Saturday evening around this outstanding lineup, and enter to win a pair of tickets from 206UP.COM and the good folks at Columbia City Theater! It’s easy: just send your boy (that’s me) an email with “Tanya Morgan Giveaway” in the subject line to 206upblog@gmail.com, or hit me up on Twitter with the same. I’ll throw your name in a hat and pick a winner at random no later than Friday (8/27) at 5 pm PST. Now, peep the flyer and read what I have to say about Tanya Morgan!
Tanya Morgan is a rap group. And, atypical name aside, they might just sound like the closest thing hip-hop has nowadays to A Tribe Called Quest. You might cry “Blasphemy!” and you’d probably be right, but it doesn’t change the fact that TM’s stellar 2009 LP, Brooklynati, captures the spirit of Quest in their heyday.
Viper Creek Club give “Got Ya Numb” the electro once-over. VCC’s Mat Wisner matches frenetic synth with Wizdom and Grynch’s frenetic vocals, but the best part is the emo keyboard element that slides in and builds during the chorus. Hip-hop, meet club music.
What retirement? D. Black is back (this time with B. Brown) with The Blackest Brown EP, dropping Tuesday, 8/31. As it was on Ali’yah, positivity is the rule of the day on these three advanced tracks, but don’t expect anything soft. True, the beats are soulful, but they still knock hard. And Black’s ringing demand for a positive uprising in his community is more vigorous than ever. Hip-hop in Seattle needs D. Black — let’s hope he delays that early retirement.
Tacoma emcee Rockwell Powers likes to switch up his collaborative partners on each of his projects. From the straight-forward confident boom-bap of the Kids in the Back LP (with producer Ill Pill), to live party-rocking instrumentation with funk band 10th and Commerce, to the electronic/hip-hop hybrid experimentation of the Pocket Full of Stones EP (with Viper Creek Club), Rockwell is establishing himself as an artist of many tastes.
For his latest project, the Kings & Comics EP, DJ Phinisey is assigned production duties. K&C is Rockwell’s most traditional hip-hop album since Kids, and yet another feather in the cap for the burgeoning 2-5-3 scene. Hit the album cover below for the FREE download link.
The Blue EP is a promising 5-track freebie from 4-2-5 rapper Akrish (“Real name, no gimmicks,” as Obie Trice says). All songs are produced by Brainstorm with guest bars courtesy Spaceman, Grynch, Chev, and Tunji, among others.
The highlight here is “Let’s Talk” a certified Grade-A Banger of a posse cut that Ak, Space and Brain rip into like starved lions. (Is that a Queen sample I hear?) Click below and get hip before everyone else does.
Rockwell Powers’ new track, “I Wonder” confirms the following: a) Dude is the best emcee currently putting it down for the South Sound (word to Fice), b) Tunji is one bad motherf*cker on the mic. Click here to download “I Wonder,” from Rockwell and DJ Phinisey’s Kings and Comics EP, dropping this Friday (8/20). Album art and tracklist below.
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