Seattle hip-hop says goodbye to one if its very best this Saturday at Chop Suey. Watch D.Black deliver a personal statement on his official outro below and click here to read SSG Music‘s excellent feature article on Black and his now former label, Sportn’ Life Records.
John Crown is the best emcee from Tacoma you’ve never heard of. He’s an everyman rapper with a down-to-earth style that’s easy to respect and ride for. JC reminds me a little of the Philly Freezer minus the grating voice and with an added dash of Red Wing Boot ruggedness. His upcoming project is called Coffee and Beats — watch for it. Get his late 2010 offering, Before I Wake You Up EP for FREE, here.
Press Play to hear “Ridin’ Clean” by John Crown feat. Element. Click here to get it for free.
Click image to D/L.
New sh-t from Logics (aka Young Ghangas). I love rap tracks where the grime overpowers the melody. “Zoom” has that beautiful dirt. Get it above. Listen below.
Click Play to hear “Zoom” by Logics.
Vast Aire, the MC with one of the illest slow flows in the game, is back with a new LP, Can Ox 2010: A Street Odyssey, set to drop May 31. When acclimating non-hiphop heads to the genre’s intimidating breadth, Cannibal Ox’s 2001 masterpiece, The Cold Vein, is required listening. Behind the strength of El-P’s frigid industrial production and the left-of-center vocal interplay between Vast Aire and fellow group member Vordul Mega, Vein was the definitive (ahem) Definitive Jux album, embodying everything that was unique about the now-defunct label’s streetwise mentality.
Metal Chocolates is: OC Notes X Rik Rude. They’ll be invading your headspace in due time. Get to know them above and here. That is all. For now.
Via the good folk at KNOCKSTEADY (make sure to check their quality hustle, here). Surfing the Land of Twit yesterday, I was happy to come upon a live UStream broadcast, hosted by Dumbfoundead, and featuring Blue Scholars. The crew performed a few new tracks off their upcoming Cinemetropolis and answered some questions from the viewing audience. The clip above is just a bit of that show.
(For more SEA love from KNOCKSTEADY, peep Grieves and Budo’s recent appearance, here.)
Remember The Incredible Journey? I loved that movie. Slug must like it, too.
I only got hip to Dice within the last couple of months when she was featured on “For The Love,” a Valentine’s Day drop from Sol. She is, without a doubt, one of the most multi-talented artists Seattle’s hip-hop/R&B scene has right now.
“Things I Couldn’t Say” finds her rhyming and singing in such an emotive way she nearly becomes transparent. This video takes its cue from the PostSecret art project and features many of The Town’s hip-hop movers and shakers. Everything is done beautifully here, except for some of the placards — if only they’d written in thicker Sharpie.
Click image for D/L link.
Dropped FREE via 2DopeBoyz. Seven tracks from your favorite Bad Brotha of Dyme Def. Do-it-all producer, emcee and proud rap beef instigator, Brainstorm, smacks you upside the head with his first solo foray. Here’s my favorite (because I like the Old School joints):
“Fly Away” – Brainstorm
The rest of the EP slaps, thumps and grinds along in equally satisfying fashions. Dude really took his time releasing this but the quality in curation of beats and rhymes shows. The Celestine Prophecy is smoking gun proof that Brain can exist independent of Dyme Def…not that we want him to, just sayin’.
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