“Brain Champagne” is the second chemical reaction derived from the most talented elements in Helladope and State Of The Artist. Swan Coltrane and Thadwick Tristen Trevor III (alternately known as Tay Sean and Young TH) have concocted a hazy club joint that borrows the tightly-wound kicks from Illmatic‘s “The Genesis” to great get-buck effect. This track right here bumps for two solid minutes and then leaves your blunted ass grasping for more. Adventures in a Helluvastate is the re-up, dropping soon.
Ghostly electronic wails. Low end that rattles trunks as violently as any bass track, ever. An mbira interlude that carries more emotional weight than most rappers’ entire albums. A taunting Palaceer Lazaro repeating the question, “Who do you think you are?” — less an inquiry, and more a condemnation of the nebula of wackness that exists throughout hip-hop’s far-reaching universe.
Shabazz Palaces defies explanation. You don’t interpret its music. You exist in it. Black Up coming May 31, 2011.
The TrackMeet is on hiatus this week. Congratulations to last week’s winner, KRUE and his song “Judge Me.” The competition will be back as soon as I figure out how to stop spammers, cheaters, snakes, and haters from f-cking up the system.
Okay, so, funny story: one of the songs in last week’s edition of The TrackMeet featured a local R&B singer named Stefano Langone. Turns out, Langone is a current contestant in another music competition that you might be familiar with: a little thing called American Idol. The track, “Summer, Winter, Spring, Fall,” by the emcee P. Smith, was the runaway winner of The TrackMeet (like, it wasn’t even close). Apparently a few folks (fellow contestants included) weren’t very happy about what they perceived as an advantage. Make that, huuuuge advantage.
Whatever. I didn’t know. I don’t watch American Idol. So f-ck off it’s not my fault. (J/K [kinda]). Admittedly it does suck that the disparity in voting may have had something to do with Langone’s guest-shot on the track, rather than the pure emcee skills of P. Smith, which is how The TrackMeet is supposed to go down. But what’s done is done. Let’s just move on, shall we? (As an aside: I hear Mr. Langone posted the link to last week’s TrackMeet somewhere, so much thanks to him for doing that. And if you want more “P. Smith featuring Stefano Langone,” here is the link to the emcee’s Bandcamp page. Langone is all over it, so enjoy.)
Now to this week: I can safely say there are no current American Idol contestants who perform on any of the three tracks below. With that, I trust you will all act accordingly. (Voting lasts for one week as always. Tell a friend, dummy.)
#LatePass. I overlooked this drop admittedly because it appeared to be yet another Jay-Z mash-up. But after some light email prodding by Spekulation (the homie responsible) and after reading a couple other local writers’ opinions (which I hold in high esteem), I finally listened last night.
Can’t say much that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just relay the same: Spek’s production value and attention to detail are on point, right down to the album’s intro that samples Hov joking with the crowd on his Unplugged album. And now the local jazz musicians responsible for the sonic backdrop, The Jason Parker Quartet, have a nice hip-hop feather in their cap.
If you’re on the fence about downloading this, I’ll make the decision easy for you: do it.
Hometown rap hero Grynch dropped his new EP, Timeless, today. And, as the title suggests, dude rhymes about many things in hip-hop that are indeed timeless. Those things include:
a) Shaking off haters (“So Long”)
b) The party life (“All I Wanna Do” featuring Sol)
c) Shorties (“Out of Sight, on My Mind”)
and of course the age-old favorite, d) Hustling to get respect and one’s due shine in the rap game (“Randy The Ram”).
Something tells me the sounds on Digital Wildlife, the upcoming project by The Physics, will come as an unexpected surprise to fans of the crew acclimated to the previous Golden Era heritage rap of Future Talk and High Society. The stutter-step, electro-soul/rock bounce of “Fix You” is slightly reminiscent of TV On The Radio’s perfectly well-honed dissonance. Featuring playful vocals by Thig Nat, or Monk Wordsmith, or both (it’s hard to tell) and Kelsey Bulkin (of Made In Heights), this track is unexpectedly addictive. The laws of The Physics have changed, Seattle.
Gabriel Teodros (real name, no gimmicks) and DJ Ian Head bless us with this freebie, The Lentil Soup EP, which is in part an appetizer for GT’s next full-length, Colored People’s Time Machine (dropping sometime in the next 299 days).
GT’s pastiche of lyrical content is a result of his ongoing continental navigations. Some local cats see fit to remain stationary, and for that their music suffers. Gabriel’s lens is wider than most SEA folk and consequently so is his lyrical scope. Hip-hop is international now, dunny. If you ain’t movin’ you ain’t winnin’.
One more week, one more TrackMeet winner: congratulations to Props with his track “Born To Get It.” The Indianapolis native who is relatively new to the 2-0-6 scene ran away with the voting. Props’ team wouldn’t release the track for download on 206UP.COM but there is plenty of free music on his official website, here.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 