Graves33 and Diogenes — practiced executors of subterranean rap, par excellence — engineered a slamming six-track entry right underneath your feet. Life On Other Planets is worthy of all the invariable head-nods given by approving headphone critics the 2-0-6 over. It matches this gray overcast more than that global warming shit we had back in July.
Ronnie Dylan’s new track “Suite Life” documents the hustle-hard philosophy of a young rapper on the come-up over a spacious, radio-ready beat. Producer Jake Crocker adds a dramatic vocal touch.
La emerges from an extended musical absence to drop The Golden Gun EP, produced entirely by Pacific Northwest native, turned Tokyo-based label head Marcus D. The lean, polished, sample-based production suits La’s visceral street-oriented boasts and trademark strings of ill metaphors. “Killin’ n-ggas with shit I wrote in oh-ten,” is probably the most apt declaration La makes here, as his writing often feels like it could outlast any rapper in the Town. Golden Gun is only five songs long and begs for a sequel.
Raz Simone has been on a creative tear for the last two weeks, matching the frenetic pace in output he set earlier this year. “Plottin,” is his third music video to drop this month and the tenth overall with Black Umbrella cinematography maven Jacob Hill. The new video is dark in a Wes Craven (R.I.P.) type of way, and seems to suggests Raz fighting off a horde of unwelcome soul-suckers.
Dynamic and currently thriving in the Seattle hip-hop scene, One Above Below None dropped this four-song EP treat in advance of their Bumbershoot debut this Saturday, 9/5/15, at 1:45 PM on the Rhapsody Stage. The four man crew stands out from many of their Town peers in that they’ve prioritized their live stage presentation, folding expert live instrumentation into their tight, engaging performances. OABN can be counted among the new wave of Seattle acts poised to define the city’s current rap movement.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis make their grand re-entrance to the scene with “Downtown,” a viral-friendly, absurdist’s fantasy shot in and around downtown Spokane, WA. Yes, those are living hip-hop legends Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, and Grandmaster Caz rapping back-up. And yes, that’s Ken Griffey, Jr. recreating his famed 1989 Upper Deck rookie card portrait. It doesn’t all make sense, but then neither does Mack and RL’s insane trajectory in pop music. You’d be at least partially dead inside if you didn’t smile at this one.
Cold and calculated, Raz Simone reveals a new album project called Trap Spirituals with a new track, “Massa Sir.” Heads are rolling and people are talking. I have a feeling he likes it that way.
Ladies love him, men want to be him — or, at the very least, are jealous of him. We’re talking of course about Ryan Caraveo, he of the perfectly coiffed pop-rap persona and a new(ish) EP, Happy Now. In a Town not big enough for egos to breathe, is there enough love to go around? Ryan’s on a mission to get his. We see you, bro.
Easier than finding eight rings in a haystack, Raz Simone emerges from his months-long social media silence to let loose some thinly veiled fury against one — shit, maybe even two* — of Seattle’s favorite rap sons.
Yes, that’s Sol’s beaming grill — the target of Raz’s barbs — right there at the beginning of Simone’s new clip, “Charged Up.” Did you happen to catch the Zilla’s “Same Problems”-referencing diss in his new track “Ain’t Gon’ Stop” on your first listen? (Uh yeah, like, we totally did too…) You certainly caught Sol executing the hack of all social media hacks (or were they??) earlier in the week, swapping out Raz’s snarling smirk with a ridiculous shot of himself in the shower, Mutombo finger-wag in effect, all like, “Gotcha Raz!“Curiously the image remains on Raz’s Facebook page, which means either the internet giant is dragging its feet on relinquishing control back to Simone’s camp, or there’s something troll-y going on.
So is this real life? In the rapidly advancing age of media manipulation, that’s barely a question worth posing anymore. The battering ram of public discourse can unceremoniously take one fiction and hammer it into something slightly resembling fact. Is this just one massive Seattle rap troll hiding out in Fremont? Maybe. Are there better, more constructive conversations to be had? That’s a certainty. But maybe the platinum lining in this charade is a renewed conversation about the Tale of Two Rap Seattles, originally articulated by Raz in his “Same Problems” video, the very words to which Sol seems to have responded in “Ain’t Gon’ Stop.”
Rap politics, when enumerated tactfully, are often a microcosm of the body politic. And that right there is called “artistic value.” Personally? I’m waiting for one of these cats to declare a run for City Council. Then we really gon’ see.
*That could only be one man’s Volvo Raz is talking about, right?
Sure to put a smile on everyone’s face and make the film nerds wild out, Sol’s new video for “Ain’t Gon’ Stop” is one take — literally — of a lovely day spent with good music and good friends. Directed by Noah Porter.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 