Tyrone, the working class hero, dropped this single back in November. Shout-out to him for linking me to it in the New Year, though. “Work Boots” forgoes the space oddities, triple beam dreams, and hyperbolic monetary chamber rap of contemporary hip hop, for the always grueling, rarely rewarding rhythm of hard labor. The best thing about this joint is how Tyrone bridges the seemingly unrelated divide between all manners of hustle.
The Super Bowl story that’s not really a story: Marshawn Lynch and his (now trademarked) understated press conference appearances. Somewhere in here lives a thought piece on Marshawn’s brilliant upending of our country’s expectations of how Black athletes should present themselves to the public — the counterpoint to Richard Sherman’s outspoken cries of excellence. Why in God’s name aren’t we wringing our hands over this?!
Town rapper and producer Spekulation gives us the soundtrack for our rumination: “Bout That Action (Beast Mode Remix)” subverts our complex reactions to Marshawn’s curious behavior by employing a singular telling statement made by the man himself. The simple repetition of his sampled words, “Bout that action, boss”, are matched by the equally rudimentary drum pattern of the song, thereby distilling Lynch’s message to its fundamental constituent elements: He is, simply, ’bout that action, boss. And we should be, too. God bless everyone. And God bless the United States of Super Bowl America.
Update, 1.30.14, 4:45pm PST:
And the inevitable remix to the remix: “This Ain’t A Seahawks Anthem”, featuring Prometheus Brown rapping from what sounds like a busy sports bar lobby or the non-business end of his cell phone.
The rap internet’s been buzzing the last few days about Raz Simone’s don’t-call-it-a-signing creative partnership with Lyhor Cohen’s new label, 300. That’s pretty big news for a Town rapper who’s seemingly been on the cusp of stardom for a couple of years now. Here’s hoping Raz continues to be the vital counterpoint to Seattle’s current national — and international — hip hop envoy, you-know-who.
Raz’s team recently made his latest single, “Don’t Shine”, available for free download. Click here for that. And click play below if you missed the accompanying video which dropped a couple weeks back.
In case you missed the video for Mo’ Money’s striver’s anthem “Off The Block” from a couple weeks back, here it is again for your viewing pleasure. The track appears on the rapper’s new Everybody Needs A Lil Mo’ Money, available for free at DatPiff.
Mo’ Money is part of the LakeHouse Entertainment collective, a ragtag bunch of MCs, producers and skaters who ran a delightfully low-budget shop out of a lake-front home that has since gone the way of the mortgage foreclosed. Shout-out to RoofDogg who has generously kept 206UP in the loop about LakeHouse Ent’s whereabouts and who ensures the New Year will bring a grip of new music and videos from the crew.
The New Year will find the release of Dave B’s The Doughnuts EP, the follow-up to one of 206UP’s favorite rookie albums from last year, The Coffee EP. We like coffee and doughnuts. Dave is playing his cards right.
“Cigarettes” was produced by Kuddie Fresh of Tha Bizness and draws parallels between beautiful vices.
On Laws of Attraction Thaddeus David verges away from his heavy, trap-influenced sound to something a little gentler. Rapid high hats still abound, but behind a more supple backdrop. SAT Beats pushed all the buttons on this one.
Astro King Phoenix is a striving young rapper from the Town whose Prequel To The Glory can be a fairly engaging listen. Sci-fi philosophy and indirect pillow talk filter through producer Ike Watson’s polished, modern sounds. In fact, often it’s Watson who leaves the biggest impression: “Lost” and “Poison Ivy” have nicely-executed sample flips and Astro’s flow becomes secondary to the hazy, R&B-tinged beats.
Bryce Bowden (no relation to Bruce Bowen) is part of the Eastside’s Honor Roll collective — Kung Foo Grip, Matic, et al — and BZA The Damaga is his third album. Bryce stands out for his refined, comfortable flow. He’s the type of rapper with an infectious, natural ease on the mic but he can also hit the gas when the beat calls for it.
BZA features a nice array of boom-bap, from the revivalist knock of “Thursday” to the R&B-tinged “Summertime” (featuring guest shots from Sol and Dice). Catch Bowden “high at the farmer’s market” or reluctantly taking a ride in a stolen set of wheels (“No Other Options”). Wherever you find him, 206UP is happy to report BZA The Damaga is the first top-notch entry in Seattle rap in 2014.
Listening to Bolo Nef’s new Sol Invictus reminded me of taking one of those long, solo road trips. When the fatigue of navigating an endless stretch of highway in the dark gives way to your brain wandering off to those shadowy, Cimmerian mind states. When you find yourself contemplating the implications of, say, absolute nothingness, and all that stares back at you from the road is the yawning, silent void.
Bolo’s team of creative minions, Underworld Dust Funk (or UDF), specializes in this type of isolationist theory. Theirs is the chant of the alienated and nihilistic; the ethos of the creatures that live and move in the shadows — literally and figuratively — of Seattle’s sunnier hip hop side.
Bolo took me to task on Twitter the other day for reaching snap judgements of his UDF counterpart Caz Greez’s album Misfit. I called that record “cloud trap, promethazine slumber rap”. Fair enough, Bolo. Misfit is definitely more than that. I would contend, however, that Sol Invictus does a superior job of conveying UDF’s prime philosophies. Maybe that’s due to Bolo’s turnt down lyrical style — Caz’s three appearances lend a welcome dose of animation to SI.
Yes, Bolo documents Percocet and pill popping here also, but it scans heavily as self-medication rather than recreational use. Sol Invictus slumbers, half-sober, amid the sounds of a mother’s cries, muted sirens and the waning ping of a heart monitor. While some other ma’fuckas do it to death on world tours, UDF has enough issues just avoiding death around the next corner. It’s probably time to wake up to Bolo’s un-merry crew of illicit prescription revelers. The problem is, sometimes waking up is the scariest part.
Tacoma’s The Breaklites with a new album, I ♥ America. There’s been a growing buzz around this crew of party-focused South Sound rappers and it’s all deserved.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 