Here we go rap fans! Thadwick Tristen Trevor III and Swan Coltrane present Adventures in a Helluvastate, a full-length collaborative endeavor between members of the Cloud Nice and Members Only cliques that feels as natural to the dome as caffeine buzzes and misty Puget Sound air.
From the group’s press release:
Seattle emcees Thadwick Tristen Trevor III (bka Young TH of State of the Artist) and Swan Coltrane (bka Tay Sean of Helladope) release Adventures in a Helluvastate, a starkly simplistic approach to hip-hop – two emcees rapping over beats – that comes off as oddly organic, stemming from spur-of-the-moment recording sessions in the Cloud Nice basement.
The duo isn’t apprehensive about their word choice or song structure. The thoughts flow freely from each artist’s brain to the booth with little filtration. Swan casually croons the chorus on “Star Stuff”: We tryna reach the stars so let us grow/ Not so much the body as the soul/ Don’t even think about it we just go…
The beats pulsate and morph, experimental and ever-changing, lent from a host of producers worldwide, only a few borrowed from in-house producers Tay Sean, Mikey Nice, and Seven Davis, Jr.
Click album cover to continue reading at SSG Music.
Dear Lasers: Who are you and what have you done with the real Lupe Fiasco?
Many listeners unfamiliar with the major label drama that has swirled around the Chicago emcee (like the eponymous winds the city is nicknamed for) may pose this exact missive to the man born Wasalu Muhammed Jaco. And it would be a fair question. Fans who have devotedly tracked the ascent of Lupe Fiasco from his early success as a small (but well-connected) fish in a big pond to the quasi-underground rap savior who would single-handedly save commercial rap from itself will find themselves puzzled as they listen to Lasers.
“Brain Champagne” is the second chemical reaction derived from the most talented elements in Helladope and State Of The Artist. Swan Coltrane and Thadwick Tristen Trevor III (alternately known as Tay Sean and Young TH) have concocted a hazy club joint that borrows the tightly-wound kicks from Illmatic‘s “The Genesis” to great get-buck effect. This track right here bumps for two solid minutes and then leaves your blunted ass grasping for more. Adventures in a Helluvastate is the re-up, dropping soon.
Ghostly electronic wails. Low end that rattles trunks as violently as any bass track, ever. An mbira interlude that carries more emotional weight than most rappers’ entire albums. A taunting Palaceer Lazaro repeating the question, “Who do you think you are?” — less an inquiry, and more a condemnation of the nebula of wackness that exists throughout hip-hop’s far-reaching universe.
Shabazz Palaces defies explanation. You don’t interpret its music. You exist in it. Black Up coming May 31, 2011.
The TrackMeet is on hiatus this week. Congratulations to last week’s winner, KRUE and his song “Judge Me.” The competition will be back as soon as I figure out how to stop spammers, cheaters, snakes, and haters from f-cking up the system.
One holiday season in the late 80’s (I forget the exact year, let’s just call it ’87), my parents informed my brother and I we would be getting our first video game system ever, for Christmas. And if that weren’t cause for enough excitement, they were giving us the choice of which one we would receive! At the time, we had exactly the same number of choices kids do now days: three. Back then it was between the Sega Master System, Atari 7800 and, of course, the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
In retrospect, if video game consoles in the late 80’s were hip-hop groups of today, the Sega would have been the Wu-Tang Clan (the new jack on the block with a fresh style and massive amount of potential), the 7800 would have been Run DMC (the nostalgic gold standard of the time), and the NES would have been A Tribe Called Quest (the one that everyone played and suspected might be superior).
If you’re a regular reader of 206UP.COM, then you know which system my ten year old self was lobbying for. The Nintendo…duh. My younger brother of three years, however, was making a strong case for the Atari 7800. He wanted it because we were already more familiar with the games, which were cheaper and available in greater volume (at the time) than both the Sega and the NES. My main point of contention with the 7800 was that the graphics were inferior to the other two consoles. I also just had this feeling that the Nintendo would ultimately be the one to endure over time.
In the end, I relented, and my brother’s wish won out. On the bright side the resultant effect of the Atari’s cheaper games were happier parents, the unified party which would be responsible for the purchase of the software. It was a strategic move that paid dividends later in the form of accumulation of a sh-t ton of cartridges; enough, in fact, to necessitate their own designated backpack for transport.
All this to say, I was one of the few kids who never owned the original Nintendo Entertainment System when it was still in its formative natal stages. I’m old enough to have seen the birth of the NES and experienced enough early usage to know that when Super Mario Bros. wasn’t loading correctly, the obvious solution was to remove the cartridge from the machine and blow hard and fast into the effected area. But I was never the kid who got the pleasure of experiencing NES games first-hand like Mega Man, the eponymous half-boy, half-robot action hero the above Dyme Def track is named for.
My brother should be commended for his expert old-school sensibilities. Instincts like his serve lovers of video games and hip-hop music well. But I should also be recognized for having the foresight and critical acumen to recognize greatness before it was bequeathed. Watching and moving those over-sized pixels around the TV screen in 1987 was kind of like hearing The Low End Theory for the first time four years later: I wasn’t entirely sure what I was witnessing, but it felt like something I would never forget.
2011 has been a great year so far for hip-hop videos. Here’s another excellent one from the underground’s favorite, Pharoahe Monch. I’ll have more commentary via SSG Music, coming soon.
Read my commentary on Pharoahe Monch’s new video, “Clap (One Day)” at SSG Music:
The impending release of Pharoahe Monch’s third full-length solo album, W.A.R. (We Are Renegades), is cause for great excitement in hip-hop’s subterranean recesses. Show me a rap head who says he or she doesn’t feel Pharoahe’s unique style and I’ll show you a hip-hop tourist carrying a fake passport. The emcee’s extremely limited run of solo work over the last twelve years has crafted a reputation for him as a sort of reclusive hip-hop vintner, whose product is served in limited-edition releases only and in few locations.
Okay, so, funny story: one of the songs in last week’s edition of The TrackMeet featured a local R&B singer named Stefano Langone. Turns out, Langone is a current contestant in another music competition that you might be familiar with: a little thing called American Idol. The track, “Summer, Winter, Spring, Fall,” by the emcee P. Smith, was the runaway winner of The TrackMeet (like, it wasn’t even close). Apparently a few folks (fellow contestants included) weren’t very happy about what they perceived as an advantage. Make that, huuuuge advantage.
Whatever. I didn’t know. I don’t watch American Idol. So f-ck off it’s not my fault. (J/K [kinda]). Admittedly it does suck that the disparity in voting may have had something to do with Langone’s guest-shot on the track, rather than the pure emcee skills of P. Smith, which is how The TrackMeet is supposed to go down. But what’s done is done. Let’s just move on, shall we? (As an aside: I hear Mr. Langone posted the link to last week’s TrackMeet somewhere, so much thanks to him for doing that. And if you want more “P. Smith featuring Stefano Langone,” here is the link to the emcee’s Bandcamp page. Langone is all over it, so enjoy.)
Now to this week: I can safely say there are no current American Idol contestants who perform on any of the three tracks below. With that, I trust you will all act accordingly. (Voting lasts for one week as always. Tell a friend, dummy.)
#LatePass. I overlooked this drop admittedly because it appeared to be yet another Jay-Z mash-up. But after some light email prodding by Spekulation (the homie responsible) and after reading a couple other local writers’ opinions (which I hold in high esteem), I finally listened last night.
Can’t say much that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just relay the same: Spek’s production value and attention to detail are on point, right down to the album’s intro that samples Hov joking with the crowd on his Unplugged album. And now the local jazz musicians responsible for the sonic backdrop, The Jason Parker Quartet, have a nice hip-hop feather in their cap.
If you’re on the fence about downloading this, I’ll make the decision easy for you: do it.
#NorthwestHipHop. From Luck-One’s upcoming album, True Theory, dropping March 22.
Gen.Erik + Braille + Luck-One = Jew + Christian + Muslim. Nice concept, great execution. For the common link that holds the three monotheistic faiths together, I recommend this basic reading.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 