TrackMeet back again. For the uninitiated: this semi-regular feature is a song competition in which three up-and-coming Seattle-area artists are pitted against each for ULTIMATE RAP SUPREMACY! Or something.
Voting is left to you, the readers, to decide who has the freshest track. Polls stay open for exactly one week and each winning song (see past editions here) will be featured on an upcoming mixtape from 206UP.COM. If you’re an artist interested in submitting a song for competition, get at me with the mp3 and a press photo at 206upblog@gmail.com.
Three new artists, three new tracks. You know what it is.
Having never been an MC myself — unless rapping along enthusiastically to Wu-Tang’s “Triumph” alone in the car counts — it can be difficult for me to determine the real from the fake. I’m talking here about all the wannabe rappers responsible for the endless stream of one-offs and (seemingly) impressive 15-plus track albums that show up in the 206UP.COM Inbox for “my listening pleasure.” That’s partially why The TrackMeet feature was started: to put some of the onus on YOU, dear Reader, to figure it out for me.
Illaphant was one such rapper. The Laotian-American MC submitted a joint for one edition of The TrackMeet, along with a six-track preview of the full-length mixtape featured in this post, Sticky Rice and Mangos. After finally getting a chance to hear the finished product, it’s a safe bet to say dude can legitimately spit. His everyday tales of being broke, living in the SEA and excursions with the opposite sex are pretty standard fare as far as subject matter goes, but the most important thing here is that I stayed entertained. SR&M‘s soulful boom-bap and Illaphant’s engaging spirit on the mic are a promising combination. The impassioned closing track, “The Zs Come Later” (which, by definition, is more spoken word than hip-hop) reveals an artist with much bigger things on his mind than what dominates Sticky Rice and Mangos. Here’s hoping more of that gets explored on the MC’s next project.
You may have noticed The TrackMeet feature is back on a not-so-regular basis. There are many reasons for this. A recent drought of submissions for one; laziness for another. In any case, people seem to really like the feature so here’s to consistency! Three new tracks from three relatively new artists are below for you to judge. Knock yourselves out!
A few of the competitors at tomorrow night’s Red Bull Emsee battle have been featured on 206UP.COM’s The TrackMeet. Displaying skills on a single track is a far cry from being able to represent live. Go watch these budding MC’s try to eat each others’ lunch tomorrow night at The Crocodile.
Back by popular demand, 206UP.COM’s The TrackMeet returns after a month-long respite. Three fresh artists, three new tracks, seven days to cast a vote. You know what it is. Go tell a friend.
The TrackMeet is back after a brief interlude and some consulting of blog nerds on how to further prevent repeat voters from gumming up the system. And, while it’s become clear you can never completely eliminate that from happening, I hope the steps I take from here on will at least decrease that wackness.
So here goes. Another week and three new contestants. Let the voting commence!
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.)
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.
