I use the cut ‘n paste shortcuts on Key Nyata’s posts more than any other Town artist. “Thx Gvrdxxn” by RVIDXR KLVN member Nyata. Naked women and V’s residing where A’s should live; these young cats make it disorienting for an old head like me. Watch for Key’s Shadowed Diamond.
Insert coffee to begin.
VIDEO: “On Deck” – Produktive (feat. Mack E & Diggles)
L.A.C.O.S.A. collective does rappity-rap. From Produktive’s upcoming White Noise due this summer.
NEW MUSIC: “Black Velvet” – Avatar Darko & Nacho Picasso (prod. by Raised Byy Wolves)
Soul mates in calamity, Avatar Darko and Nacho Picasso are preparing to release a collaborative album called Vampsterdam. This seems like a natural pair-up given the rappers’ proclivity toward the dark side. “Black Velvet” is the first single and that’s Raised Byy Wolves wearing the black hoodie in the background. Click here to read 206UP’s recent interview with Av.
REVIEW: Twelve Reasons to Die – Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge
Ghostface Killah & Adrian Younge
Twelve Reasons to Die
Soul Temple Records / RED Disribution; 2013
Score (Beats Per Minute scale): 79 / 100
Gangster and horror movie pulp explodes all over your face on Twelve Reasons to Die, the new album from Ghostface Killah and producer Adrian Younge. Click here to read my review over at Beats Per Minute.
VIDEO: “Can’t Hold Us” – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Ray Dalton)
So this just dropped. Pretty epic from the minds of Ryan Lewis, Jason Koenig and Jon Augustavo (credited as co-directors, though Ryan cites the importance of other parties’ influence in the video write-up). Also Macklemore wrote some raps for it. I hear these guys are pretty popular these days.
[Update: 4.17.13, 2pm PST]
A few more stream of conscious thoughts I had while watching this video:
- “Magical brown people” all over the place. John Coffey, Bagger Vance, et al.
- Macklemore stunting wildly on a “pirate ship” / “Can’t Hold Us”‘s re-appropriation of soul music. Hmm… (Editor’s note: This thought credited to my friend; name withheld.)
- The Space Needle as Mack’s metaphorical penis.
- This some bullshit, fam.
And…
- I know hella white dudes who “planted their flag” on the tops of really tall shit — whether that means proposing to their girlfriends, or just summit-ing a damn mountain because it’s really big. (And yeah, this is a masculine thing not unique to the color of one’s skin, but still…)
- I don’t think there was menace behind any of the stuff in this video, but that doesn’t change the fact that this kind of imagery is pervasive. (And often damaging.)
- Yeah, I’m grinding axes. Deal with it.
NEW MUSIC: After The Starting Gun – Griff J
Click album cover to purchase at Bandcamp.
Master of multimedia Griff J recently dropped a solo LP called After The Starting Gun. It’s 13 tracks of synth-heavy electro that moves in catchy hip-pop waves. The production credits are impressive (Budo, Brainstorm, P Smoov, Captain Midnite) and Griff’s half-sung, half-rapped lyrics are obviously intensely personal. That said, there’s a emo-heavy vibe that brings the whole thing down for me. Griff’s past work reveals a dude capable of having a fucking crazy good time and that doesn’t really show up here. Maybe on the next album.
THE SIX: Featuring Avatar Darko
Photo courtesy the artist’s website.
[THE SIX is a regular interview feature on 206UP.COM with a simple format: One local hip-hop artist and six questions. For past editions click here.]
Avatar Darko (formerly Avatar Young Blaze) has the baby-faced looks of a boy band member and maybe in a different life he could have been. But the Estonia-born, Central District-bred rapper prefers the trap life in this current incarnation, and his relentless brand of “emo grunge trap” has earned him a worldwide underground following. This blog was slow to come around to Av, initially labeling him a pretender, but his cinematic rhymes about street life and around-Town co-signs turned us into believers. We attempted to catch up with Av in his element.
I think a lot of your fans have a certain idea about what a day in the life of Avatar Darko might be like. For example: I imagine you tapping out answers to this set of questions on your iPad, cruising at 35,000 feet, off to somewhere exotic for business and pleasure, like Dubai or Beijing. Set the record straight and tell us about your day so far, or about a typical day-in-the-life of Avatar Darko.
Well right now as I type this on my iPhone with a shattered screen, I’m sitting on a bench outside of the hub at UCSB [University of California Santa Barbara] overlooking this dope little island and water. The homie Araab [Muzik] randomly texted me at six in the morning like, “Yo I land in a couple hours, I gotta show in Santa Barbara.” Duke and him scooped me in a Challenger and told me to drive, so I red-lined that bitch the whole way out here. I love Dodges. I use to have a Charger when I was 17, I mashed that bitch. Anyways, I just ate some bomb-ass wings and tomorrow afternoon I gotta flight to Seattle — oh shit I got court in the morning before that. Anyways, when I’m not doing random cool shit like this I’m in the studio working on projects. Sometimes I can be really emo too, then I just drink lean and listen to Max B to feel better. Yerp.
It took me a while to come around to enjoying your music. Have you found that that’s a typical response by some listeners?
Yeah a lot of people seem to say the same thing. I think I go over a lot of people’s heads.
“Authenticity” is a word that gets thrown around a lot by folks who write about you. Given how the internet can be used as a handy veil of anonymity, how important is authenticity in hip-hop these days?
When you’re authentic, everything comes from the heart; you don’t have to try too hard. In this day and age, a lot of music lacks authenticity and genuine emotion. I’m trying to capture that [and] convey it on a worldwide level. I will soon.
You’ve not once asked people to pay for your music. Why is that your preferred business model thus far in your career?
I got some precious projects on iTunes but lately I’ve just been releasing music to accumulate my buzz. I’m thinking about putting this upcoming EP on iTunes though. We’ll see.
What book(s) are you currently reading?
Art Of War. I need to get back on my book game. My pops use to read a lot of books, I’ve been slackin’ on my book game lately.
Any upcoming projects you’d like to tease for the 206UP.COM readers?
Gonna release an EP entirely produced by Megaman and a mixtape with Nacho this spring/summer.
REVIEW: Wolf – Tyler, The Creator
Tyler, The Creator
Wolf
Odd Future / Sony; 2013
Score (Potholes In My Blog scale): 3.5 / 5.0
Click here to read my review of Tyler, The Creator’s new album, Wolf.
VIDEO: “RAH (Ratchet As Hell)” – Avatar Darko (feat. Nacho Picasso; dir. by White Buffalo)
In which Av and Nacho get attacked by the smoke monster. From Av’s Soviet Goonion 2.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 