DOWNLOAD: 206UP.COM Presents: Beats&Bars Vol. 4 The Blogger on Vacation Mixtape

Click album cover to download.

By the time you read this your loyal blogger will (hopefully) be reclining in a beach chair, sangria or other adult beverage in-hand, bumping this 2-0-6 mix on his Discma…er…iPod.

I know it’s sad, but your life will be so empty until May 10 or so when I return triumphantly from my traipse around Spain. Until then this meticulously curated and sequenced (not really) fourth volume of SEA rap goodness will tide you over. I now grant you permission to go ahead and read those other blogs while I’m gone, ‘cuz fuck it, I’m on vacation!

Salud, fammo!

(And if you missed past editions of 206UP.COM mixtapes, find ’em here, here, and here. Collect the whole damn set, nerds.)

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THE TRACKMEET: 3.16.12

CLICK :: LISTEN :: VOTE

Hopeful rappers from The Six are at it again in 2012: swamping the 206UP.COM inbox with requests to be put on. The TrackMeet is here again to meet your needs. Dream big and win one of ’em and find everlasting esteem in the form of the next TrackMeet Mixtape (download last year’s version for free, here). Lose and suffer eternal tedium in nine-to-five purgatory until you die. Your future depends on this moment. No pressure.

LANE 1: “In The Winter” – Ashtin Mott

LANE 2: “Hello World” – J-Key

LANE 3: “Gotta Have Love” – Jay Walker

206UP.COM Mixtapes Downloads The TrackMeet

DOWNLOAD: 206UP.COM Presents Beats&Bars Mixtape, Vol. III: The TrackMeet

Click album cover to D/L.

Here then, is the culmination of 15 weeks of 206UP.COM’s own version of Battle of the Bands, otherwise known as The TrackMeet. Initiated in mid-January of this year, the format was simple: Each week, three tracks from (relatively) unknown local hip-hop artists were pitted against each other in a Gladiatorial-style showdown for ULTIMATE RAP SUPREMACY. Actually, it’s just a series of week-long polls where readers get to vote on their favorite track, and the only award for winning artists is bragging rights on their Twitter and RSS feeds.

In any case, all of the entrants involved put in good work and we here at 206UP.COM hope the feature served as a showcase for everyone hustling musical product in The Town. As promised, here is the free compilation mixtape of all past winners. Download, share and if you like what you hear, seek out more. 2012 will see the beginning of a new round of TrackMeet competitions, so if you’re an artist looking to submit a new joint, hit me up at: 206upblog@gmail.com.

(And while we’re at it, if you missed previous 206UP.COM mixtape compilations, you can grab those here and here for FREE, dunny!)

206UP.COM Mixtapes Downloads The TrackMeet

DOWNLOAD: “BFA Say” – Brothers From Another (prod. by Sabzi)

Click track artwork for D/L link.

Brothers From Another are really bubbling right now. On their last project, Two Weeks Vacation, they held it down admirably with Town maestro Vitamin D (who, I think I read somewhere, is related to Goonstar) on “Midnight Special,” one of the best SEA tracks from 2010 (and heard on 206UP.COM’s Town Movement Mixtape available for the price of three clicks, here — tell a friend). On “BFA Say” they get an assist from another 206 stalwart, Sabzi. BFA’s next project, Quality of Living, drops on September 1.

206UP.COM Mixtapes Downloads

DOWNLOAD: 206UP.COM Presents BEATS&BARS Mixtape Vol II: TOWN MOVEMENT

Click album cover to D/L.

Three days ago, this blog turned two years old. I forgot its birthday. I am a bad parent.

What started on mostly a lark on July 5, 2009 has turned into a bonafide, pro-bono, part-time job. Thankfully it’s remained a labor of love. I don’t even entirely recall what motivated me to start this sh-t, but I don’t remember much thought being put into it. My personal blog was getting stale (still is, much to my mom’s chagrin) and the need for a creative outlet was heavy on my dome at the time.

In 2009, I still loved hip-hop. I was a Seattle transplant in a relatively new city (New York) whose rap scene felt colossal and the thought of trying to cover it with any amount of success was equally intimidating. Deciding to write an SEA-focused rap blog was probably my subconscious reaction to missing my homebase. It felt natural to start something I could immediately relate to. Thus began the natal stage of 206UP.COM.

From those first days of “borrowing” the majority of the blog’s content out of necessity (turns out it helps to have a bit of an online rep when it comes to getting on press emails — who knew?) to today, having the opportunity to recently interview Seattle rap standard-bearers Blue Scholars (that piece coming soon!) and having my so-called “expert” opinion on Northwest hip-hop solicited by Rev. Lennox Yearwood’s office, this blogging-about-rap sh-t is getting more fun, more interesting and, as the scene continues to boom, more time consuming. I still do it for free, however, because it’s purer that way. And I still do it because of my inherent love for the music. I guess the reasons for writing 206UP.COM haven’t changed at all, which probably means they were all really there in the first place even if I didn’t know it then.

So happy two year birthday to my blog. An idea that, as it turns out, existed well before its first post was ever written.

Now about this mixtape

Consider it a sort of birthday party favor for everyone who reads 206UP.COM (you are out there, aren’t you?). I’d been steadily trying to curate a representative sample of stuff I’ve been listening to over the past few months, a difficult task when one of the goals was limiting the length to no more than 20 songs. I started with over 60. The end result is 22. Close enough. By no means is this meant to be comprehensive — there are two or three glaring omissions and probably even more material that I wasn’t able to lend an ear to that should have been included — but I think it accurately shows the breadth of sound currently happening in The Town. Hope you enjoy it.

(This one is called Volume II because there exists a Volume I [from late ’09], that I never made available to readers. If you’re interested in that, here it is.)

206UP.COM Mixtapes Downloads Views From the Peanut Gallery