Click image to D/L.
Tacoma MC Fice offers up one more Pac NW Summer anthem before the sun says, “Buh-bye.” Hard to imagine the grey settling in with this track bumping in the ride.
INTERVIEW: THEESatisfaction (New York, 8.25.11)
Photo courtesy The Stranger.
THEESatisfaction’s recent week-and-half long swing through New York City was hugely eventful. Group members Cat and Stas can thank both Mother Nature and their new label, Sub Pop Records, for that. They performed well-received shows at Bowery Ballroom, where they opened for labelmates the Handsome Furs, and were a featured act in the 14th Annual Black August Benefit Concert at S.O.B.’s the following week. And oh yeah, just for good measure they also survived the Virginia earthquake of August 23 and last weekend’s Hurricane Irene debacle.
DOWNLOAD: Sticky Rice and Mangos – Illaphant
Click album cover to D/L at Bandcamp.
Having never been an MC myself — unless rapping along enthusiastically to Wu-Tang’s “Triumph” alone in the car counts — it can be difficult for me to determine the real from the fake. I’m talking here about all the wannabe rappers responsible for the endless stream of one-offs and (seemingly) impressive 15-plus track albums that show up in the 206UP.COM Inbox for “my listening pleasure.” That’s partially why The TrackMeet feature was started: to put some of the onus on YOU, dear Reader, to figure it out for me.
Illaphant was one such rapper. The Laotian-American MC submitted a joint for one edition of The TrackMeet, along with a six-track preview of the full-length mixtape featured in this post, Sticky Rice and Mangos. After finally getting a chance to hear the finished product, it’s a safe bet to say dude can legitimately spit. His everyday tales of being broke, living in the SEA and excursions with the opposite sex are pretty standard fare as far as subject matter goes, but the most important thing here is that I stayed entertained. SR&M‘s soulful boom-bap and Illaphant’s engaging spirit on the mic are a promising combination. The impassioned closing track, “The Zs Come Later” (which, by definition, is more spoken word than hip-hop) reveals an artist with much bigger things on his mind than what dominates Sticky Rice and Mangos. Here’s hoping more of that gets explored on the MC’s next project.
VIDEO: “Stop & Go” – Lace Cadence
I actually enjoyed this. Mostly because of Jon Jon’s too-cool-for-school camera work, not Lace Cadence’s mediocre sing-rapping.
NEW MUSIC: “Super Cool” – Sonny Bonoho (feat. Playboy Tre & Rudi Deville)
Hurricane Irene came and went with nary a disruption in this blogger’s life. Well, if you don’t count being unable to leave the house for about 24 hours a disruption. In any case, New Yorkers persevered as usual.
Now back to regularly scheduled programming: new music from Sonny Bonoho featuring Playboy Tre and Rudi Deville. “Super Cool” (produced by Trox) is the most recent drop from Sonny’s next album, the Jermaine EP.
DOWNLOAD: Hip Hop Kitchen – Vitamin D
Click image for D/L link.
Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the entire Eastern Seaboard and my humble one-bedroom in Inwood, Manhattan is directly in its path. Mayor Bloomberg has evacuated old people and their cats from outlying coastal areas of Brooklyn and Queens and he has successfully f-cked every New York City resident for the remainder of the weekend by announcing a city-wide shutdown of all public transportation beginning tomorrow at noon. On the other hand…NO WORK ON MONDAY!
What will I be doing this weekend, other than stocking up on batteries, Dominican beer and canned soup? Bumping this new Vitamin D mix, Hip Hop Kitchen, available for free, here. Like the aforementioned provisions I’ll be hoarding this afternoon, anything Vita is pure essential.
(Via Matson on Music.)
DOWNLOAD: The Basics 2 – Kublakai
Click album cover to D/L at Bandcamp.
Kublakai raps hard, parties harder and beats himself up over mistakes he’s made in romantic relationships the hardest. That’s the kind of MC he was on 2009’s Lights for the Dark Nights and the M.O. holds on The Basics 2, his most recent full-length. Full of tribute to the underground rap lifestyle and just life in general, TB2 is satisfying boom-bap from a rapper with well-honed skills and a comfortable self-effacing honesty.
LISTEN: Robots and Daytons – The BreakLites
Click album cover to purchase at Bandcamp.
Hip-hop and disco have had a long-lasting and fruitful marriage. From the essential breakbeat in “Rapper’s Delight” to Puff Daddy co-opting Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” for Biggie’s “Mo Money Mo Problems,” both genres are fundamentally rooted in soul music, so the fusion of the two has always felt natural.
The BreakLites get it. On Robots and Daytons, the Tacoma trio of John McRae (producer and instrumentalist), Cruel (MC) and The Mayor (DJ) have created a nine-track blast of uptempo, highly danceable, disco/funk rap. It’s enjoyable because of the crew’s unapologetic mission of making pure party music, ensuring their Friday and Saturday nights have a soundtrack strictly designed for popping off. It’s legitimate hip-hop because Cruel’s mic skills are for real (at least on wax) and his freewheeling rhymes about beat writers, being broke and his affinity for gangsta rap, are charming and devoid of self-conscious pretension. Robots and Daytons was a late discovery for 206UP.COM this summer, which is a shame because that’s exactly the season it was made for.
NEW MUSIC: “The G.O.A.T.” – One Be Lo (prod. by Vitamin D)
“The G.O.A.T.” is the first drop from One Be Lo’s massively anticipated next album, L.A.B.O.R. (Language Arts Based On Reality). While I’ve always severely disliked the G.O.A.T. acronym (Because who can tell, really? It’s so subjective.), I do think One Be Lo is a Great MC and it’s cool having him as an honorary member of the SEA hip-hop scene. Greatest of all is the beat by Vitamin D. It knocks in the way vintage DJ Premier beats used to knock. As far as I’m concerned, this is how all hip-hop should sound.
DOWNLOAD: The Revelation EP – J. Bre
Click album cover to D/L.
The Revelation EP is J. Bre’s follow-up to 2010’s Street Signs. J’s straight-forward no-nonsense approach to rhyming was the best part of Signs, but also the MC’s greatest handicap when it came to finding relevance inside a genre populated by novelty lyricists and throwaway punchline flows. On Revelation the rapper finds comfortable middle ground, diversifying his cadence but not losing the authentic steez that separates him from the fakes. Notable guest appearances here include Carl Roe, Grynch, Luck-One, and Justis. Available for the price of three clicks above and below.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 