Federal Way rapper Romaro Franceswa and the indomitable producer BeanOne dropped a gem of an LP, track-by-track, over the course of November. Balance concluded its roll-out yesterday and can be streamed in its entirety below.
City Arts magazine liked the record so much they named it their Album of the Month for December, and yours truly wrote the review. Click here for the inside look or pick up a print copy of City Arts for free at locations throughout Seattle.
“All Eye No,” a track from Fearce Vill and BeanOne‘s excellent Let It Be, is a glorious wall of sound. The accompanying video goes for the jugular with a barrage of images exhibiting various forms of social unrest. The rap equivalent of just trying to keep your head above water.
Romaro Franceswa is one of the illest young MCs around Town. Hailing from just south of Seattle and representing BeanOne’s Yukmob label, his new Live From The Soufside is a document of the rapper’s life and times in Federal Way; think a sort of good kid m.A.A.d city for “that town you have to drive through to get to Tacoma.” Preview the moody, bumping EP below and check out his video for “The Big Payback,” which was released back in April and appears on Romaro’s debut LP, Black King.
Yuk Mob’s Fearce Vill with a passing tribute to the folks he’s lost to the other side. Bean One hooked the beat up, and Jonathan Parrot got behind the lens.
Fresh for your viewing pleasure — and purely exclusive here on 206UP — is the premier of Kublakai’s new music video for his track, “The Bizness”, directed by Eric Burritt.
Sometimes the rap game reminds me of the…garage sale game? The fleecing of artists at all levels of the “industry” is based on the same damn principles. Kubi goes in against it with characteristic levity over a Bean One slapper.
Go grab Kubi’s Kubi Zoo for this song and other rap excursions by one of Seattle’s underground favorites.
Maddy Clifford, aka MADlines, aka one half of indispensable Seattle duo Canary Sing, seems to have found her lane with last Fall’s reggae-infused, party-while-remaining-conscious EP, Love Child. “The Weapon”, a track from that Bean One produced six-tracker, has a fresh video attached to it now directed by the Bay Area’s DJ Agana. Watch and learn a lesson.
And, while we’re at it, from the throwback files is the Canary Sing clip below: “Freak Show”, featuring a before-she-was-famous Hollis Wong-Wear. Just kidding, Hollis was always a star.
Barkada is the answer to the question: “Can Prometheus Brown and Bambu just make an album of slick-ass fuckin’ raps over slappin’ beats?” The title track makes it so. Produced by 206 fixture Bean One and directed by Harry Clean of Detooz Films.
Dyme Def’s Fearce Vill and his Yuk The World partner, BeanOne, made this love song to mothers. Yvette Glover is both the track’s namesake and Fearce’s real-life madre, and accountability and food for the body and soul is what this strong single mother brings to her table. You can find the song, and others, on Fearce and Bean’s latest full-length, Let It Be. Grab it on iTunes here.
(h/t to Larry Mizell via The Stranger.)
Finally got a chance to listen to Love Child, the MADlines x BeanOne collab. Hip hop meets reggae stylings to bombastic and highly danceable effect. I don’t recall Mad ever sounding this confident or dexterous on the mic, even in the golden years of Canary Sing, the other half of whom lends guest vocals on “I-R-I-E”. Love Child will warm up your winter.
Ah, Manny Pacquiao… To carry the weight of an entire embattled nation upon your shoulders is a burden I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. On the new track, “Manny”, The Bar (who is Prometheus Brown + Bambu) lament last year’s KO at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez, but are now likely celebrating last night’s victory over Brandon Rios. (I smell a follow-up track.) The Bar’s Barkada is out soon.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 