The Thraxxhouse movement, collective — whatever you want to call it — continues to sprout limbs all up and down the West Coast. Mackned (formerly of another active local crew, the Moor Gang) is a key player, and here he is again with a dark, creeping and turnt effort, Critical Trap: Evil Ned Edition.
Shelton Harris and Tyler Dopps are preparing to release their debut album Lights, and “If I Fall” is the latest one-off from the MC/producer duo. Sam Lachow hops on to offer some insight into the creative process and the pitfalls of risking it all for the art you believe in. This is polished, well-crafted pop-rap and for that reason my cautiously optimistic ass remains, well, cautiously optimistic about what Shelton and Tyler might bring to the proverbial rap table. As the Seattle hip-hop super-continent continues to separate itself from one conglomerate mass into different subsets, acts like SH and TD seem poised to lead the charge for a younger, contemporary fan base whose listening tendencies trend toward the more accessible side of things.
Night lights, city streets. A (brief) new clip from producer Def Dee. Somehow this dude’s shit gets looser and tighter at the same time. Does that make sense? More importantly, does it sound scatological? Check out his recent Deja Vu compilation album.
In fine dining lingo we would call this a “duo of Underworld Dust Funk records.” Or, “Underworld Dust Funk two ways.” This is not fine dining though, this is chilled, hyperbaric, quasi-occult chamber rap from the forward-thinking UDF collective. God and man collide in scriptural hip-hop verse on Nephilim (officially a solo album by God Roza) and God’s Work (branded a joint UDF EP). Pay homage, fuckers.
Seattle rap underground wunderkind Graves33 follows up his Smoke Filled Rooms instrumental effort with a brand new album of nocturnal, headphone rap space: Fated Empire features a who’s who of like-minded rappers parsing somber thoughts over Graves’ un-sanctimonious compositions. Check it out before the fog lifts.
Seattle hip-hop chosen son Gabriel Teodros celebrated the release of his new full-length album, Evidence Of Things Not Seen, last night at the Columbia City Theater. The show also featured Draze, Xperience, DJ/producer EarDr.Umz, and one very special (and very famous) guest — hit the jump to find out who. Photographer Rafael Ochoa attended on behalf of 206UP.
I’ve sung the praises before of the Do The Math Podcast, created by Town hip-hop head Deven Morgan, but thought it deserved another shout-out here in preface of Deven’s AMA appearance on the Hip-Hop Heads Northwest Reddit page coming up this Sunday, November 9. Make sure to check in over there and ask the man some thought-provoking questions. And in case you missed it, 206UP did our own AMA back on October 26. Below is the most recent episode of Do The Math, featuring Samson S of Tribal Productions. Get learned, family.
A pep talk disguised as a club track. Perry Porter strives to “Do Better” over upbeat production by Konrad OldMoney and STINT.
Tacoma’s Bruce Leroy falls easily in line with the best hardest-working, effortlessly-sounding MCs making music. Think names like Elzhi and Phonte nationally, or Yirim Seck, Havi Blaze and John Crown locally. Bruce’s new EP 10′ is a swift but satisfying follow-up to his 2012 full-length Leroy. For the majority of his new work the currently-buzzing rapper strings together struggle bars and low-key braggadocio into a perfect rhythmic mesh. It’s an easy boom-bap groove for the first two-thirds of the record, until “You Heard Of Us” hits and Bruce Leroy performs a lyrical miracle.
Theoretics with their latest One A Month drop, “Paper Mache” featuring The Bad Tenants. We’re a little late on this — it arrived as a Halloween eve loosie — but the playful, Scooby Doo-scarehouse vibe is still applicable as we enter the darker (and colder) first week of November.
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