South Seattleite turned Queens resident Aaron Cohen dropped this video, “Still Around” (featuring Hefna Gwap), a few weeks ago. Shot at the now-defunct Five Points in Long Island City, Queens, here we have your classic NYC crew-mobbing around an ice cream truck video paradigm. This from Cohen’s Potential Fans mixtape released late last year.
Vitamin D’s presence is our present… For this birthday. Or something. Bornday 2 is the latest LP from the venerable Town producer, DJ and MC. Essential soulful slaps, and other alliterative phrases apply to this standout collection. (See, also: the first volume of Born Day.)
It’s dope to see former 206UP TrackMeet winners continuing to create. Randy Robbins has an epic beard and nice message in his new song and video, “Somebody Else”.
Tacoma’s Sic Ill is a got-damn national treasure. The only thing I regret about posting this video is that I didn’t do it sooner. I’m so happy I peeped game before my wedding though (watch for the official mixtape coming this May!) because my fiancée and I are in dire need of a first-dance song.
Really, doe… I’m only about 68% kidding. With “Labyrinth Zone Act 1” (even the title of the song is fantastic: it shares the name of a level from the original Sonic the Hedgehog), Sic Ill found the stickiest chorus of all in his latest glitch-hop&B masterpiece. Props to the Northwest’s biggest internet sensation this side of Macklemore. You’re out of this world indeed!
Maddy Clifford, aka MADlines, aka one half of indispensable Seattle duo Canary Sing, seems to have found her lane with last Fall’s reggae-infused, party-while-remaining-conscious EP, Love Child. “The Weapon”, a track from that Bean One produced six-tracker, has a fresh video attached to it now directed by the Bay Area’s DJ Agana. Watch and learn a lesson.
And, while we’re at it, from the throwback files is the Canary Sing clip below: “Freak Show”, featuring a before-she-was-famous Hollis Wong-Wear. Just kidding, Hollis was always a star.
Araless grabbed our attention last summer when he won our not-quite-monthly song competition, The TrackMeet. He followed that up in December with the boom-bap revivalist gem “Attention”. And now that we’ve given you the brief history of this still under-the-radar MC, he’s back yet again with “Cloudcatchers”, a plodding, sorta gloomy, sorta captivating knowledge drop. This one features New York rapper Mike Larry Draw and was produced by Tacoma’s Smear One (because “Jake” and “Bean” were already taken). Watch for Symbiosis coming soon from Araless.
De La Soul
Smell the DA.I.S.Y.
Self-released; 2014
Score (Potholes In My Blog scale): 4 / 5
De La Soul prepare for a big 2014 with the first of three planned releases: Smell the DA.I.S.Y., a free mixtape available via BitTorrent, is a reworking of classic De La raps over previously unreleased J Dilla instrumentals. It’s both charming for fans of the legendary rap crew and reverent to the late, great producer and his family. Read what else I had to say about it, here.
Mr10K himself and based world auteur Keyboard Kid appear together in the first half of this video to promo their upcoming The Cigar Room collab. Then, everything turns purple for “The Weatherman”, an older joint by the reigning crown prince of Seattle double-time. AK Romero got behind the lens for both of these.
Yukmob member and thrower of lyrical darts Romaro Franceswa gives the beat all it can handle on his latest single, “The Devil Is A Lie (Talk My Shit)”. Not much to do other than geek out to this one.
Donte Peace’s self-produced “Juice” is all tense piano keys and dimly-lit tenement building nostalgia. Who out there knew Steel survived that bullet all along?
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