Click track artwork to D/L.
Hi Life Soundsystem’s tribute to SoCal rap circa 1995. Sticky bass that bounces combined with Hi Life’s New Wave dance aesthetic makes for a track something different than what we’re accustomed to. The good folks at Members Only assure 206UP.COM that Langston Hugh Hefner…Love, Weed & Other Vices, the next project from B-Flat, Khingz and Crispy, will be worth waiting for.
Click album cover for D/L link.
State Of The Artist dropped their new FREE EP today, Altered State. It’s a seven-track collection of anthemic electro-infused hip-hop. The title of the EP is appropriate as the album represents a shift in sound, away from the easy-going party rap of their debut LP, SeaCal, toward a moodier synth-heavy club aesthetic.
With all in-house production by group member Parker Joe, Altered State mostly rejects hip-hop’s traditional norms, so from that standpoint it doesn’t please the way SeaCal did. You can’t knock a group for growing, however, and there is plenty new to appreciate on AS.
SOTA will be heading out on tour with Mad Rad. Check the flyer below for your town:
Click album cover for D/L link.
Here we go rap fans! Thadwick Tristen Trevor III and Swan Coltrane present Adventures in a Helluvastate, a full-length collaborative endeavor between members of the Cloud Nice and Members Only cliques that feels as natural to the dome as caffeine buzzes and misty Puget Sound air.
From the group’s press release:
Seattle emcees Thadwick Tristen Trevor III (bka Young TH of State of the Artist) and Swan Coltrane (bka Tay Sean of Helladope) release Adventures in a Helluvastate, a starkly simplistic approach to hip-hop – two emcees rapping over beats – that comes off as oddly organic, stemming from spur-of-the-moment recording sessions in the Cloud Nice basement.
The duo isn’t apprehensive about their word choice or song structure. The thoughts flow freely from each artist’s brain to the booth with little filtration. Swan casually croons the chorus on “Star Stuff”: We tryna reach the stars so let us grow/ Not so much the body as the soul/ Don’t even think about it we just go…
The beats pulsate and morph, experimental and ever-changing, lent from a host of producers worldwide, only a few borrowed from in-house producers Tay Sean, Mikey Nice, and Seven Davis, Jr.
Click image for D/L link.
New drop from State Of The Artist: “I Think I Love You.” It’s available for the price of four clicks above and below. This electro-hip/pop banger grabs you like the over-eager girl on the dance floor. The SOTA boys spit PG-13 come-ons suitable for the bedroom or the club. The best part, though, is Janae Jones’ flirtatious contemplations. She sounds like the sexiest conflicted android since Rachael in Blade Runner.
Hi-Life Soundsystem just dropped their FREE full-length. I’ll be back with more on this later (stealing time at work to blog — that’s a no-no!). Get it by clicking on the album cover above or with the adorable little Bandcamp widget below.
2-0-6 keep “Bounce”-ing…
Click image for D/L link
Party purveyors Hi-Life Soundsystem and State Of The Artist (SOTA) knock you over the head with “Bounce,” a certified club track that requires you to fete. Ladies shake your stuff. Gentlemen return the favor in kind. Simple.
(Hi-Life album coming in February.)
Hi-Life Sound System is Khingz and B-Flat, another bad creation from local purveyors of hip-hop, Members Only. By “bad” I mean “good.” And by “Hi-Life” I mean “party rocking.” Peep the two videos below from last Monday’s edition of Jet Set and mark your calendars for mid-October when Hi-Life is scheduled to drop a freebie.
(Both clips by DJ Swervewon.)
Plan your Saturday evening around this outstanding lineup, and enter to win a pair of tickets from 206UP.COM and the good folks at Columbia City Theater! It’s easy: just send your boy (that’s me) an email with “Tanya Morgan Giveaway” in the subject line to 206upblog@gmail.com, or hit me up on Twitter with the same. I’ll throw your name in a hat and pick a winner at random no later than Friday (8/27) at 5 pm PST. Now, peep the flyer and read what I have to say about Tanya Morgan!
Tanya Morgan is a rap group. And, atypical name aside, they might just sound like the closest thing hip-hop has nowadays to A Tribe Called Quest. You might cry “Blasphemy!” and you’d probably be right, but it doesn’t change the fact that TM’s stellar 2009 LP, Brooklynati, captures the spirit of Quest in their heyday.
Judge for yourself this Saturday (8/28) at Columbia City Theater. Joining TM will be local crews Def Dee and Language Arts (originators of what 206UP.COM still thinks is the best Seattle hip-hop album of 2010, Gravity), and City Hall (a South Sound crew composed of EvergreenOne, Todd Sykes and DJ Slimrock). The whole party-rocking affair will be hosted by Prometheus Brown and feature a DJ set by Town stalwart Larry Mizell, Jr. Enter to win tickets on 206UP.COM or go cop ’em, here, then thank the loyal folks at Member’s Only for putting on what might be the best night of your life.
Here’s the video for “So Damn Down,” off Brooklynati:
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