The Sacramento hip-hop duo DLRN (formerly known as “Delorean” — name change presumably due to the existence of the indie rock outfit of the same moniker) has released a new EP called The Bridge which can be had for free here. Similar in style and substance to the group’s debut release, No More Heroes, this new eight-track collection is heavier on soul and collaborative endeavors, including the song “Reset” featuring Seattle rap hero, Prometheus Brown (aka. Geo of Blue Scholars).
South Sound emcee Logics blesses the Northwest with a full-length mixtape. Nice to finally have this much material compiled in one place from this cat. Geo has been telling the public for a minute that the rapper also known as Young Ghangas is hungry. Hit the album covers below for the D/L link and see what’s on his menu.
Inspiration is as fleeting as a rainstorm in a desert. Sometimes, however, when we’re found in unwanted situations, ingenuity inevitably finds us.
A few months ago, an unfortunate detention by the powers-that-be grounded Gabriel Teodros in New York, when he was originally scheduled to spread his uplifting brand of hip-hop around the globe. The album Air 2 A Bird is the result of that internment.
From an undesirable predicament, GT and frequent collaborator Amos Miller (together re-borne as Crow Hill) found inspiration where most would only find insipidness. Read the entire story here. Air 2 A Bird is simultaneously the child of political vagary and perhaps evidence that order exists in the universe even though disorder seems the rule of the day. The lesson? Always listen to the turbulence made by the wings around us.
Click image for D/L link
A 2010 Seattle summer anthem from The Town’s favored sons, Blue Scholars. Windows down, volume up!
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Call this free compilation, Seattle Hip-Hop for Dummies. All you out of state heads who don’t know yet, download and get hip. Click on the album covers below or here for the D/L link.
(Courtesy Mario Sweet and Justo from The Physics crew.)
“We go front back and around the globe/Put your hands in the air if you’re ready to roll,” declare Breez and Goonstar, the two young bucks of don’t-call-em-kiddie-rap-outfit, Brothers From Another.
Around the globe, really? Let’s just shoot for “around the Puget Sound” first and see what happens, okay fellas? Still, BFA is a breath of fresh air; their style is of the throwback West Coast variety and they always sound like they’re smiling in their raps.
Justo makes the beat here. A throwaway track for him certainly, but it gets the job done for BFA. Click below for the download, fam.
Click image for D/L link.
Thus far, the best hip-hop album to fall from the Puget Sound’s gray skies in 2010 is Gravity by Def Dee and Language Arts (read 206UP.COM’s gushing Review here). Cue the album up on your headphones, close your eyes and feel yourself transported back to the early to mid-90’s when New York’s boom-bap was re-defined for an entire generation of hip-hop heads. On Gravity, Def and La have recreated that era’s sound with an affinity and attention to detail that could only come from two men weaned on Nas’ Illmatic-era cadence and the hardrock Brooklyn sensibilities of Boot Camp Clik.
The next installment in Def and La’s discography appears to be a project titled CR96X. The first single from that album is “Culture,” available now for a hundred pennies here. The crew’s Bandcamp space lists a CR96X release date of “January 13, 2011,” which, by this blogger’s estimate, is much too long an interval between albums. Here’s hoping Def and La do like Tribe and push it along.
Click image above to cop the track.
THEESatisfaction will stay relevant because they have actual things to say. Rap blowhards, they are not. Conscious truth-seekers, they are.
On this 4th of July holiday, click on the link below to cop the EP, and celebrate our nation’s “independence” in an appropriately subversive fashion. You’ll be the better for it.
Click image above for D/L link.
Party histrionics and elevated sh*t-talk may be their forte, but Dyme Def is (and has been) way more complex than that. Introspective cuts like “One Way Road” prove it. Click below to download the track, and then go check out the album it appears on: Producer Jack the Ripper’s compilation LP, Don’t Look Back.
Click on the photo for the D/L link
The second musical entry from the YUK team. Even Dyme Def’s side projects make most rappers seem wack by comparison.
Click above for the D/L link
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