206UP PREMIER: “SuperSonic Keyboard” – Neema (feat. Grynch & Prometheus Brown)

Neema - The Cigar Room

“Highly anticipated” is a hyperbolic phrase that gets thrown around too often, much like “hottest rapper in the game” and “New England Patriots dynasty.”

The Cigar Room, Neema’s (ahem) highly anticipated album with producer Keyboard Kid, has simmered somewhere on a hard drive for a long enough stretch of time that the street’s anticipation for the conspicuously missing album has come in, out and back in fashion like a pair of acid washed jeans. So the phrase is still apropos, especially on the proverbial eve of the record actually hitting pavement via an appropriately provincial debut at The Jet Bar & Grill in Mill Creek tonight (which also serves as the kick-off of a regional mini-tour). The online release via iTunes is set to happen in a week.

Score one for the slow rap movement*.

We’re especially happy over here at 206UP because Mr. 10K himself has graciously allowed us to premier the latest single from The Cigar Room: “SuperSonic Keyboard” which features guest shots from fellow Seattle rap populists Grynch and Prometheus Brown. This track finds the three posted up in the backroom, preferred carnal delights being enjoyed by the respective rappers: a surprise striptease for Neema, open flask for Pro Brown, and bitch-slaps for subpar MCs trading in his style for the King of Ballard. It’s all adorned with additional vocals by Latin Rose and J Landis, and Keyboard Kid’s reclined production, which vaguely references the best R&B stylings of the mid-’90s. Smoke one, as they say.

UPDATE (11:21 AM PST): Catch Neema answering questions on the Hip-Hop Heads Northwest Reddit board #AMA today at 4 PM PST.

“SuperSonic Keyboard” – Neema (feat. Grynch & Prometheus Brown; prod. by Keyboard Kid):

Neema - The Cigar Room Tour

*I may or may not have just coined this phrase. Shout-out to the slow food movement for the inspiration.

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206UP FIVE YEAR (2009-14) – “Dispatch From the Summer Music Journal of Hollis” by Hollis Wong-Wear

FIVE clear206UP continues its run of special features in celebration of the blog’s five-year anniversary.

Today, we’re super pumped to be handing the keys to the blog over to the uber-creative Hollis Wong-Wear. Hers is the third entry in 206UP’s series of guest posts written by different members of the Seattle hip-hop community.

I met Hollis for the first time back in 2010 at Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, where she performed, along with fellow MC/singer MADlines, as one half of the duo Canary Sing. Since then, Hollis’ various musical projects have led her back to NY a grip of times, most notably with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis during their three night Madison Square Garden run last winter, and for a handful of shows with her own band, The Flavr Blue. Hollis wrote this essay in early July, on the eve of the electro-pop trio’s third and fourth shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Like many people — myself included — she has an intensely romantic relationship with New York. I’m always struck by how easily the ethos of the relatively low-key Seattle music community vibes with the perpetual turnt-up-ness of Gotham. Blue Scholars, THEESatisfaction, Shabazz Palaces, The Flavr Blue, and, of course, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have all experienced success here, which is a testament to the Town’s hustle and universality of its music. NYC can be a shark to those brave enough to swim in its entertainment waters, but none of those Seattle cats have ever gotten eaten.

Read more from Hollis below the jump.

206UP 5 Year Anniversary 206UP Exclusive 206UP Exclusives Features Guest Posts

206UP FIVE YEAR (2009-14): “Five Seattle Producers Pushing it Forward” by Spekulation

FIVE clear

206UP continues its run of special features in celebration of the blog’s five-year anniversary.

Today’s post is the second in a series of guest contributions from different members of the Seattle hip-hop community. Yesterday, Ricky Pharoe provided insight into what it meant to be a rapper drifting in that nebulous realm of up-and-coming yet down-and-out in the Seattle scene circa 2007.

Today, producer/MC Spekulation lists his top five favorite Town hip-hop producers. 206UP thinks you should pay special attention to what he has to say because of his own particular pedigree as an artist: a well-tuned ear and attention to the intricacies of musical composition as opposed to rudimentary pad pushing on a drum machine. The five artists Spek lists embody the very definition of the term “producer” because they stretch beyond the simple beatmaker maxim.

Hit the jump to read more.

206UP 5 Year Anniversary 206UP Exclusive 206UP Exclusives Features Guest Posts

206UP FIVE YEAR (2009-14): “Monday Nights at the Chop” by Ricky Pharoe

FIVE clear

206UP continues its run of special features in celebration of the blog’s five-year anniversary.

Today’s post is fairly significant because it marks the very first time the site has welcomed a piece by a guest contributor. Better still, the author of this post is one Ricky Pharoe, the MC from left-of-center groups Art Vandelay and Ricky and Mark.

You could call this piece a sort of coming-of-age Seattle hip-hop tale, blessed with the sort of acerbic wit and droll humor that colors the majority of Ricky’s lyrical bars.

We’re really happy to have him and think you should all read this — especially you down-and-out rappers who are considering ending it all by enrolling in community college.

Ricky’s life lesson begins after the jump.

206UP 5 Year Anniversary 206UP Exclusive 206UP Exclusives Features Guest Posts

28HUNDRED PRESENTS: Jake Crocker


206UP and Jae Changehave collaborated to form 28Hundred, a new media company dedicated to producing original video content and in-depth, personality-driven interviews with some of your favorite artists. Stay tuned here for the latest 28Hundred productions.


In 28Hundred’s latest exclusive interview, we sat down with producer Jake Crocker in New York City to discuss the Seattle native’s earliest days hustling beats on the internet, to getting linked with Raz Simone and his Black Umbrella team. Peep game above. Also check out Jake’s most recent project, the American Dreams EP featuring rapper Ronnie, Dylan below.

 

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206UP EXCLUSIVE PREMIER: “The Bizness” – Kublakai

Fresh for your viewing pleasure — and purely exclusive here on 206UP — is the premier of Kublakai’s new music video for his track, “The Bizness”, directed by Eric Burritt.

Sometimes the rap game reminds me of the…garage sale game? The fleecing of artists at all levels of the “industry” is based on the same damn principles. Kubi goes in against it with characteristic levity over a Bean One slapper.

Go grab Kubi’s Kubi Zoo for this song and other rap excursions by one of Seattle’s underground favorites.

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206UP EXCLUSIVE (PREVIEW): “The Bizness” Music Video – Kublakai

Kublakai - The Bizness

The rapper Kublakai — long time friend of the blog and perpetual move-maker in the Six (and beyond) — has found himself rejuvenated with March’s Kubi Zoo, a collection of previously released tracks and a handful of new ones. New energy means new videos and 206UP will happily feature the exclusive premier of his latest clip for “The Bizness” this Tuesday. Stay tuned, fam.

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28HUNDRED PRESENTS: Luck-One


206UP and Jae Change have collaborated to form 28Hundred, a new media company dedicated to producing original video content and in-depth, personality-driven interviews with your favorite artists. We’re happy to introduce our latest effort today featuring Portland’s Luck-One. Please enjoy and share around if you’re diggin’ it.

206UP Exclusive 28Hundred Interviews

VIDEO INTERVIEW: The Flavr Blue – 11.15.13 at Mercury Lounge, New York City


In partnership with Jae Change (whom you would recognize as Know Choice), 206UP.COM dips its pinkie toe into the wild waters of video interviews. Seattle’s The Flavr Blue sat down with us in the green room at NYC’s Mercury Lounge mere minutes before wheels up on stage. Thanks to them for the time!

You’ll see that I don’t appear in the video. That was by design. Jae and I are still developing my on-camera persona, which will likely end up being some combination of David Letterman, Nardwuar and Psy. It would’ve been wrong to subject Lace, Parker and Hollis to that kind of cult-of-personality just before performing.

206UP Exclusive Interviews