At some point local rappers’ music video cameos won’t be cameos anymore because everyone will have cameo’ed in everyone else’s videos. Follow me?
Anyway, the task at hand for an emcee on the local come-up like Ripynt, is to get his voice heard. He does just that in a fresh way in his new video, “To The Top.” Play the game that’s sweeping the Puget Sound, “Find Your Favorite SEA Rapper” in this clip!
Maybe it’s all in my head, but when local emcees go ex-pat from The Six and I hear them again later after so doing, their voices sound much bigger than our humble hamlet. Like our area code can’t contain ’em anymore. Such is the case for J. Pinder, whose transition to the ATL has left the SEA feeling a little colder this winter.
Check the new video, “Upside Down,” directed by Jon Augustavo.
Micah B is a young man with a grown-ass flow. His rhymes are all over the place (dude can’t seem to stay focused on one topic for more than a few bars) but with a voice far more mature than his age (18 years) and a co-sign by another local whiz kid, producer Marcus D, Zom-B! is an entertaining — and promising — listen. Hit the album cover below for the download link and peep the track below for a sample.
Click image for D/L link
Click to listen to “My Mind” by Micah B (prod. Marcus D)
Delightfully low-budget and mostly pleasing, Katie Kate’s video for “Constellation” annoyed me the first time I watched it. Upon repeated viewings, however, I’ve become amused and charmed. You might know Katie from her scene-stealing guest shot on State Of The Artist’s “Jealous.” (Come to think of it, all of the guest shots on SOTA’s album were scene-stealing. Hmm…) Listen to that track here:
And peep the “Constellation” video here:
You know those LiveLinks advertisements that come on television at around three am on channel 13? Yeah, this video kinda reminds me of those. Good thing Neema’s killer double-time flow saves the track from being a complete waste of time. “4 AM Phone Calls” isn’t nearly the best track off his otherwise solid LP, The Essence, but someone must’ve thought it would make the best video.
(What am I doing up at three in the morning watching LiveLinks ads on channel 13, you ask? Why, waiting for my four am phone call, of course!)
I still contend Eighty4 Fly is a mediocre lyricist. An off-brand version of Drake for the 2-0-6 Clear Channel rap heads. Still, I really dig his cut “Hip-Hop Shit,” where the rugged production makes him at least sound more interesting. Not that he cares, but if Eighty kept it grimier, 206UP.COM might become a believer.
(Jon Jon behind the lens, yet again.)
Mainstream x Gangsta. It rarely works better than Avatar’s “Wishing On A Dream.” Two questions, though: 1) Why did director Jon Augustavo choose to shoot in b&w with the beautiful California coast (not to mention the lovely Isabella) as a backdrop? 2) Think that Porsche was a rental or does Avatar just got it like that?
Mad Rad has evolved into Seattle’s most disruptive force in live music. Ask anyone who has worked security at the six Capitol Hill clubs from which the crew was temporarily banned in January of last year–or local multimedia authority Chase Jarvis, whose dinner spread the foursome nearly ruined during its performance turn at his Songs for Eating and Drinking event. At some point in the last two years, every major music venue in the city has been knocked on its ear as a result of Mad Rad’s antics, welcomed or not. The group has evolved into the easiest band to love or hate, depending on your tolerance level for the asinine. On its way to becoming King of Disruption, Mad Rad has also burgeoned a local following that borders on the rabid and created some of the most dynamic pop music Seattle has ever seen.
Rockwell Powers and Mat Wisner (moonlighting hip-hop producer extraordinaire) combine forces for “Riot,” a glistening head-nodder. Rockwell’s blue-collar flow and Wisner’s hard-but-lush board-work are the perfect way to close out another big year in Northwest hip-hop.
Click image for D/L link
Cabin fever strikes Blue Scholars again. The recent inclement weather in The Deuce Dot had Geo and Zia feeling restless and creative. The recent unseasonably warm weather in The Empire City had Sabzi dancing on rooftops and playing with a pineapple (?). The result: a Pro Brown freeverse over a loping Sabzi track that sounds like a OOF! throwaway. (Also, the DJ raps — well, sorta — for the first time.)
Peep the clip below and download the track, here.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 