With names unfriendly to your preferred search engine, and a cold industrial sound bleak enough to make Chappie shit his robot drawers, producer Mvllah teams with fellow Tacoma goons Zaddy Rxffin, BishpBishp and Seaan Brooks for “Hop.” The latest from the upcoming Wett Peso LP.
Bruce Leroy’s 10 Feet was one of this blog’s favorite hip-hop records from the Northwest last year. Go get that now. The track “Nutrition” gets a set of appropriately chilled-out visuals courtesy director Lea Godoy. Tragedy Jones on the production tip.
206UP extends our reach into the South Sound region and into the realm of electro-power pop with Vicci Martinez’s latest track, “Unleashed.” This is the third release from the former The Voice contestant’s collaborative project with fellow Tacoma artists Enter-Exit-Stay. My recent listening habits have trended deep into radio-friendly territory and this track scratches that itch and then some.
Tacoma’s FanoBee talks some shit and generally behaves badly over this collection of self-produced tracks. We dig the processed, wind tunnel minimalism of the beats on Before the Haze but can do without the date rape reference on “Sun Valley.” Rappers should know that lowest common denominator-type shit is no way to earn fans. C’mon now.
Tacoma’s Bruce Leroy falls easily in line with the best hardest-working, effortlessly-sounding MCs making music. Think names like Elzhi and Phonte nationally, or Yirim Seck, Havi Blaze and John Crown locally. Bruce’s new EP 10′ is a swift but satisfying follow-up to his 2012 full-length Leroy. For the majority of his new work the currently-buzzing rapper strings together struggle bars and low-key braggadocio into a perfect rhythmic mesh. It’s an easy boom-bap groove for the first two-thirds of the record, until “You Heard Of Us” hits and Bruce Leroy performs a lyrical miracle.
Cally Reed, of Tactown’s Second Family, spits hard for dolo on “Off That,” the first leak from his upcoming No Mirrors.
Tacoma’s Rockwell Powers and DJ Phinisey make great music with a humanist spirit. Their Build is important hip-hop from the South Sound; the clip for “Alive” was directed by Peter Berkley of The Art Dept.
“Two Sides” is the first track from Rockwell Powers and DJ Phinisey’s Build record to get the video treatment, courtesy of Portland’s Yusuf Word. Behind-the-scenes staging and live performance footage of the duo’s albums release party last fall are interpolated nicely.
We here at 206UP do our best to also stay up on the rap happenings in the South Puget Sound. Tacoma’s Second Family have been one of the blog’s favorite crews for a minute from that region. “Everyday” is the first drop from the duo’s upcoming Grit City which is scheduled for a June release.
Tacoma’s Rockwell Powers and DJ Phinisey released a brief new track called “101”, an outtake from their most recent collaborative effort, Build. It’s a perfect companion piece to that record, Rockwell and Phin speaking truth to power in a hardcore fashion. Check out the duo’s live, in-studio performance of “Denial” and “101” on KEXP below.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 