Khingz has been crazy-prolific this year. From his masterpiece, From Slaveships to Spaceships, to The Living Yard project, to the welcome surprise that was Cold Hearted in Cloud City, the man known as Khalil is apparently no stranger to inspiration. Here he talks about the making of his next album, The Filth:
Tag: seattle hip-hop
VIDEO: “Big or Small” (Fresh Espresso)
Fresh Espresso’s first music video ever! A worthy effort. Nice job, fellas!
A few observations:
1. I miss being able to buy wine at 7-Eleven.
2. For a song that’s about women of all shapes and sizes, this video is curiously devoid of women of all shapes and sizes.
3. A night at the club would be more interesting if things actually moved in slow-motion.
4. Nice chest hair, Rik.
REVIEW: Graymaker (Grayskul)
(Note: This review also appears on national hip-hop blog abovegroundmagazine.com.)
Grayskul are the Northwest’s proudest bastions of hip-hop non-conformity. Unlike many other left-of-center groups that constantly remind listeners of their otherworldly origins, Grayskul’s genesis is rooted more firmly in earth’s terra firma. They’re too human to be aliens, too lively to be zombies. Think of them as creatures more highly-evolved than their fellow rap brethren. Emcees JFK and Onry Ozzborn have mic cords for tendons and kick-drum rhythms for heartbeats. It’s as if they crawled from hip-hop’s primordial ooze in a slightly more advanced state than other humans. A freaky genetic mutation of the hip-hop gene have allowed them to represent a true artistic advancement in the genre.
The last two Grayskul albums (Deadlivers and Bloody Radio) were so consistently excellent it’s hard to put their newest release, Graymaker, into proper context. Listened to end-to-end, the three albums blend together into an extended experience rather than separate distinct collections. Deadlivers remains their most fully-realized conceptual achievement, a sprawling descent into hip-hop madness and the dawning of the emcees’ dark superhero antics. On Bloody Radio, the group returns to daylight, a little less abstraction on their minds and on a mission to rid hip-hop’s landscape of its perceived wackness. And now, on Graymaker, the duo flashes signs of even more normalcy (though I use the term loosely), with what amounts to probably their most consistent and well-rounded album to date.
All of the production on this go-round is handled by Maker (hence the album’s title), a Chicago-based producer whose dark, moody soundscapes immediately reflect the cold, stony winter weather and Gothic architecture of his native Chi. Not surprisingly, the music matches Grayskul’s rhyme aesthetic perfectly. It’s a match made in hip-hop heaven (or hell, as the case may be). “Mars Voltage” takes a crazy horn lick and makes sense of it amidst an ominous bassline and live-sounding drums. “Bread And Wine” hypnotizes with hazy, layered vocals, lackadaisical guitar plucks, and a soul-sample turned eerie. “Bloodwork” is an addictive head-nodder, but in an atypical RZA-esque fashion. The most interesting track is “Machine,” which sounds like the organized ambient noise from an assembly-line plant. It churns and spits and goes in different directions, but never loses focus, much like the entire album. Maker’s production is perfectly anomalous, never veering into total weirdness, yet never boring.
Best of all, Maker lets JFK and Onry do them. One of Grayskul’s defining characteristics has always been the two rappers’ drastically contrasted styles — a This Is So Crazy It Just Might Work-type experiment in hip-hop chemistry. JFK’s controlled rants make him seem perpetually on the verge of a vocal meltdown, whereas Onry’s delivery is so understated that when he says some crazy sh*t, the listener begins to nod and understand that the rapper just might be so crazy. The standard Grayskul fare is here on Graymaker: vocal abstractions spit at rapid-fire pace so as to sound like the blustery ravings of lunatics (“Crazy Talk”), and sh*t talk elevated to such an extraordinarily advanced degree that other rappers might as well not even try to respond (“In the Know”).
The secret of JFK and Onry is that they are experts at narrating the horrors of this world with a poets’ trenchant. What sounds like free-associative wordplay, might actually be social commentary. What sounds like outright dismissal of religion and positive acknowledgment of the occult, might actually be a suggestion to find commonality in our ideas about who God is. The challenge for us listeners is to transcend our tendency to indulge our ADHD (which a lot of hip-hop encourages) to the point where we can recognize Grayskul’s sly wit. When that happens, you can see those sneaking rays of optimism that shine through the group’s pessimistic cloud. Listen closely and you might understand that the joke is on all of us. Souls so dark couldn’t possibly be responsible for hip-hop with this much life.
Ladies Love Hank Moody
I don’t know who “Hank Moody” is the name of David Duchovny’s character on the show Californication. And if ‘dem boys from S.O.T.A. (State Of The Artist) continually find this kind of inspiration in the character, then they should start linking up with him on the regular. (I know, I know, “Hank Moody” is probably some sort of fictional character or composite manifestation of the groups’ alter egos. Whatever.)
Download S.O.T.A.’s The Hank Moody EP, here. Inspired by their recent time spent in California, this brief three-track collection feels like a warm Cali sunset and pulls inspiration from early to mid 90’s Golden State underground.
Thanks for THEE
A Thanksgiving present from THEESatisfaction and producer OC Notes. Download their new track, “Icing” for free here:
Drunk on PPR
Get the homie Peoples’ new release, The Purple Ribbon EP, for FREE here:
Peoples = Please Empower Our People Lest Everyone Suffer. Peoples and PBR: they go great together at shows.
More of That Dirty Glamour…
…courtesy of local Mad-man, P Smoov. Download his free Face Scrunchers mixtape here. It’s 39 minutes of aural hip-hop/dance candy for that ass.
(P.S. Yo, Smoov, can we be Twitter friends again? Pleeeeze?? I’m sorry for what I said about you and Rik being out-of-control philandering rock stars! Can we squash it like Q and Bishop??)
Coffee and Hip-Hop…
…are two of my favorite things. Caffe Vita knows whassup with both. Check out their charitable GIVE project here. It’s a downloadable music compilation (with both mp3’s and videos) featuring over 30 local artists. It includes a bunch of hip-hop: D. Black, Common Market, Fatal Lucciauno, Champagne Champagne, and Fresh Espresso, among others.
All proceeds go to the non-profit, Arts Corps and four local food banks.
VIDEO: Behind The Scenes of Macklemore’s “The Town” Video
The release of Macklemore’s, “The Town” music video is being built-up into a major event. There’s no doubt director Zia Mohajerjasbi will deliver.
Speaking of Zia, he won the 2009 Stranger Genius Award in Film.
UPDATE (11.24.09, 9:56 am): And here’s Part 2 of the behind-the-scenes…
New York is Where I Reside But Seattle is My Home
Full disclosure: I live in New York City.
Some of you had probably already gleaned that from previous blog posts (like the one with a fuzzy camera phone photo of Jay-Z, taken near a subway stop that I frequently use), and some of you know from our interactions on Twitter or email. The fact that I live approximately 2,600 miles away from the 206 puts me at a major disadvantage when it comes to getting a proper and accurate feel for all of this recent Town movement. I miss all of the shows. I never get to interact with any of the artists in person. I have a hard time copping the latest releases — sometimes I practically have to beg rappers to send me their new sh*t. (Which reminds me: I owe a huge THANK YOU to all of those folks who’ve provided me with music. You will never know how much I appreciate it. And by the way, keep it coming please!)
On the other hand, living in NY does give me an interesting perspective when it comes to how Seattle’s hip-hop community compares to other cities. For example, not surprisingly the hip-hop scene in New York is incredibly vast and wide. You can’t even begin to absorb all of it, especially if your desire is to actually feel it. (Okay, I’m speaking for myself. I’m a true fan of the music, but I’m like most normal folks, my nine-to-five is not associated with hip-hop and the time I spend listening to music is in constant competition with the time I want to spend reading a book, or going to the movies, or a museum, or doing one of the millions of things there are to do in this city.) A hip-hop head in New York really has to pick and choose what specific artists and styles to pay attention to. It’s intimidating and, to be honest, I’ve mostly ignored it. I’m too busy with Seattle sh*t. There’s enough going on in our humble little town to satisfy the most carnivorous of listeners. Plus it keeps me connected to the city where my heart truly lies.
The irony of all this is that when I’m out visiting family and friends in the Northwest — as I was last week — those are the moments when I’m paying the least amount of attention to hip-hop. Time is so scarce during those short visits. Aside from having it on constant rotation on my iPod (as is the case no matter where my feet touch the ground), I didn’t have time to catch any shows and, as you probably noticed, didn’t write even a single post during the seven days I was in town. It’s kinda messed up, really. And so, I think the universe was trying to tell me something when it just so happened that, on Tuesday, I ended up on the same airporter shuttle bus from the Anacortes ferry terminal to Seatac, with none other than the homie Vitamin D who, like me, was also heading back to The Six after a weekend in the San Juan Islands. (Vita: I shoulda hollered at you, dude! Next time, I promise!) Now this may sound particularly corny, but it meant a lot to me for two reasons: (1) Vita is one of the true OGs of Seattle hip-hop. He’s been a trendsetter, a waymaker, and any other appropriately hyperbolic adjective one can find to describe his influence on rap and r&b in the 206. He deserves the props and anyone who knows anything about Town music would agree. Which is why (2) I found it particularly dope that he had been spending time in the San Juans, the place where I grew up, came of age, and, through interesting twists of musical fate, came to love hip-hop music. (See, I told you I was gonna get corny! Whatever, I could give a f*ck what you think, ha!)
Running into Vita in a seemingly totally random place like that brought me back around to what I think is the greatest thing about the current movement in Seattle. It’s so small. Tight-knit. Intimate, even. A real community. I’ve said before that Seattle is a great place to be a rapper these days because it’s one of the least-marginalized hip-hop communities in the country. From the constant collaborations, diversity of acts at the shows, to the online Twitter chatter (it’s like a virtual fraternity house). I’m sure that beef exists (Geo: “In a town not big enough for egos to breathe…Twisted, crab-in-a-barrel existence…”), but for the most part, it seems to be all L.O.V.E.
New York is the birthplace and eternal capital city of hip-hop. Have you ever paid attention to the little monologue Spaceman gives on the joint with J. Pinder (“SXSW/CMJ”) where he talks about how overwhelming it was to be an up-and-coming rapper from the 206, standing in the famous club, SOB’s, during CMJ? That’s how culturally ingrained hip-hop is in New York. It’s one of the city’s many touchstones. An institution. A feeling, even. There’s no other city where you can go see The Roots perform every f*cking Tuesday night! Or go to a random free screening of an independently-produced hip-hop documentary at Columbia University and end up standing at a urinal next to Talib Kweli (that sh*t happened to me!). I saw motherf*cking Jay-Z shooting a clip for “Empire State of Mind,” guerrilla-style, on my way to the subway! Through pure chance, I even ended up working at a non-profit organization that helped landmark 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the South Bronx as “The Birthplace of Hip-Hop” (see here and here). Hip-hop is the musical heartbeat of daily life in NY, and from a cultural standpoint, it will never be matched. But Seattle, man. DAMN. Our movement is young. Fresh. As optimistic as a box of baby rabbits. We still don’t know how high these artists will fly. Keep doin’ your thing. I’m looking forward to the day I come back and get to participate on an even deeper level.
A SEATTLE HIP-HOP BLOG 