New to The TrackMeet? Here’s what it is: every Friday I pull three tracks submitted to 206UP.COM by lesser-known, Town-affiliated artists and let the readers vote for which one they think is the freshest. It’s that easy. Just CLICK, LISTEN and VOTE. The voting runs for one week. If you’re an artist who wants to submit a track, hit me up with the mp3 and a press photo at: 206upblog@gmail.com.
Congratulations to last week’s winner, WUF TIX (who is Type and Pen Pointz) and their track, “I Be Me.” Click here to download the track.
#LateWidit. Of all the Valentine’s Day drops, this was my favorite. A video for Grieves and Budo’s “Pack It Up,” in which neither Grieves nor Budo actually appear. (Or do they?) (Directed by Mr. Man Of Many Talents, Griff J.)
Kublakai (who you might also recognize as 33.3% of every local college student’s favorite Town crew, The Let Go) dropped this clip a few days ago. Looks like the homie is making a belated push to get his massively under-appreciated 2009 EP, Lights For The Dark Nights back out into Seattle’s collective conscious. In case you missed it before, click on the album cover below for the D/L link.
Honesty is the best policy when dealing with break-ups. At least that’s what it appears Dyme Def believes on this track, about a week late for Valentine’s Day. Production by Brainstorm.
(Here’s hoping those diamond earrings can be returned.)
After a week of listening to far too much Odd Future than is healthy for one human’s conscience to bear, it was incredibly mollifying on the dome to come across this gem, the 10.4 Rog and The Good Sin collaboration, Late.
Renton’s 10.4 Rog has built a steady rep for creating a diverse array of soundscapes that are influenced in equal parts by J. Dilla’s complex boom-bap and the electronic wanderings of Radiohead. The result of Rog’s genre amalgam trips are progressive, visceral renderings of hip-hop that feel more instinctual than intentionally crafted. Very few producers possess this aptitude which, in the end, isn’t about how nice someone is with Fruity Loops. Folks like 10.4 Rog and oc Notes do this sh-t based on hunches and less on the basis of study.
If Rog’s nine tracks on Late are the result of a naturally occurring head-in-the-hip-hop-clouds faculty, then emcee The Good Sin’s rich baritone is the anchor that keeps the songs tethered to the ground. There’s a brilliant dualism at work here: while the stark contrast in tone between Rog’s atmospheric instrumentals and Sin’s heavy voice is readily apparent, the two also work in perfect unison when Sin occasionally lets his mind and words wander inside the producer’s compositions.
For the most part, Sin is a cat still trying to find his voice, at least contextually. Dude can rap on most anything as his past drops and mixtape (Ready or Not) have shown, but listeners still don’t really know who he is. Late reveals the emcee to be a true poet who is equally comfortable exploring spoken-word’s ambiguous nebula (the album’s opening and closing, “Wake Up” and “Endpiece”) as he is rapping on concrete subjects like getting money and getting over (“Pages & Wages”). The Stranger’s Charles Mudede recently compared Sin’s rap ethos to that of Geo of Blue Scholars because of their similar working-class bearings. The comparison is appropriate in that vein, but Sin also possess a certain poetic now-ness to his style; a lyrical method that blends the esoteric and the concrete. It’s exciting to find that type of complexity in The Good Sin, who was previously most notable for his strong delivery.
Hip-hop is not typically something I listen to when laying in bed trying to go to sleep. While it’s by far my preferred musical genre, most of it is too immediate and glaring to be relaxing. Late is something much different, however. The album can be explored with a full ear attuned to the beats and rhymes, or it can be put on in the background and allowed to seep in little by little. It’s one of those rare pieces of music where my mind didn’t have to make the conscious decision to LIKE or DISLIKE. It just knew from the moment it filtered through.
Late is available for FREE download. Click on the album cover above or the Bandcamp link below.
This week’s edition features three artists with a bit more of a rep than past contestants. If you’re one who pays close attention to Seattle’s hip-hop movement, you’ll probably recognize them. Now get to listening and voting…
LANE 1: “I Be Me” – WUF TIX (Myspace pages here and here)
R&B is a genre that is criminally underrepresented when compared to The Town’s other musical excursions. Not to say that its few agents aren’t worthy of praise (Choklate, JusMoni and Isabella Du Graf, here’s looking at you), but for a city that’s shown an incredible wealth of untapped talent in hip-hop, it’s curious that the R&B set has stayed relatively dormant.
Allusions to Happy 2 Year were made in late December when Mario dropped the album’s first single, “Speed Of Light” in the 206UP.COM Inbox. A cursory listen left a minimal impression on me, though the perfect harmonizing between Mario and Malice (partners in music and life) immediately stood out. Admittedly, I’m guilty of not giving this track its proper shine, because repeated listenings have revealed it to be so much more than the brief Inbox interlude I first took it for. There are complex layers of rhythm and vocal pacing here, and a perceptible level of care and intention in the song’s creation that can only be evidence of an ethereal bond shared by the two artists responsible.
Further, when you consider “Speed Of Light” in context with the rest of the EP, an even greater understanding of the album’s import is revealed. H2Y is not only a reciprocation of love between Mario and Malice, it’s a love letter to a few decades’ worth of R&B/soul artists. From the late 80’s/early 90’s R&B vibe of “DateNight” to the new school “world music” (I hate that term but I’m using it here for lack of a better one) inflections of “Happiness” (which features a rapping [!!!] Choklate), to the highly danceable post-Prince funk of “Living Life” (where a few brief guest bars are delivered by Geo of Blue Scholars, who sounds curiously comfortable amidst the tracks’ radio-readiness).
Ironically, though, the best moments on H2Y are when Malice and Mario are left to their own solo departures: the adequately titled, “Malice” and “Mario.” “Speed Of Light” wasn’t a prime example of what either singer could accomplish vocally, but their self-titled individual tracks solve that mystery. “Malice” charms with the confidence of a songbird who’s been flying like this for years, just waiting for strange ears to attend. Producer 10.4 Rog builds the perfect track for her with his airy Dilla-esque vista. “Mario,” on the other hand, only gives the listener a brief glimpse into what informs the duo’s masculine half. Images of Donny Hathaway, Smokey Robinson and Maxwell are conjured (how’s that for fair company?) in a track that lasts less than ninety seconds. Here’s hoping Mario indulges his expert falsetto again later (and more fully) over the same Roy Ayers instrumental.
Like the best-thrown anniversary parties, the occasion for love’s celebration between two people can be enjoyed not only by the lovers themselves, but by those that the couple allow into their midst. With Happy 2 Year, Malice and Mario Sweet have thrown a musical anniversary party and we (the listeners) are the honored beneficiaries. And as it is with the refined brands of champagne and decadent cake at such affairs, we are left exclaiming, “More please!”
Download a FREE copy of Happy 2 Yearhere, for a limited time only. Below is the music video for “Speed Of Light.”
Logics (aka Young Ghangas) dropped his Problematic EP a few days ago. Click here or the album cover above for the FREE download. I still contend that “Focused” is one of the best locally-released tracks of young 2011 (and that Logics and Geo should do an EP together — material that lets Pro Brown tap into his inner ‘hood identity, an incarnation that we all know exists but hasn’t yet shown itself, at least not fully).
Here are the visual for “Stars & Beyond” (featuring Eighty4 Fly and Brainstorm), one of the tracks off Problematic:
Remember those low-budget Death Row videos that were all over MTV before the label blew? Yeah, this is slightly reminiscent of those: lots of talent and severely limited production value.
No matter. When Logics spits “I represent Asians/Never used it as a crutch,” all is forgiven by this blogger. (I’m Korean — what you ain’t know?) It’s also pretty quaint how they use the Museum Of Flight as the clip’s backdrop. And curious that there isn’t a single neighborhood dimepiece in sight. Women are allowed in the US Air Force too, you know…
This one hits all the right sentimental notes for you eighties and nineties babies out there. BeanOne builds something like a chopped-up Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis track, circa 1989 — I do believe I hear a “Rhythm Nation” sample in there!
“Time Flies” is a moment of reflection for Dyme Def on how far they’ve come since “the Alpha” inception in ’06 (otherwise known as the Sportn’ Life demo disc). This is kick-back-with-your-feet-up-and-a-cold-brew-in-hand music. Indulge in what you got today because tomorrow ain’t never promised.
(And if you’ve missed any of the crew’s bi-weekly Pay Day drops, get all of those here.)
BadAssYellowBoyz = BAYB = Jarv Dee + Nacho Picasso + P Steez = Another bad creation from the Cloud Nice clique. BAYB’s Ziploc Hip-Hop is available for FREE download today.
ZLHP slaps your eardrums in a fashion unlike anything else currently doing in The Town — believe it. It’s profane, jocular and a notable sonic departure from what we’re used to hearing from the Cloud Nice space camp. Jarv Dee got jokes and disses, and Nacho Picasso sounds like Redman’s ankle biting cousin. Get it above and below.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 