Sol might be the most amiable battle-rapper in Seattle. He’ll cut your wack-ass up with a laser-precise flow and then call you “Dear Friend” when you’re lying on the floor. That’s cold, fam. Click on the cover below to download the FREE EP, Dear Friends, Vol II.
Click above for the D/L link.
In prep for his Dear Friends EP Vol II (coming this Friday, 5/21), here’s the second drop from the homie Sol, featuring three Northwest All-Pros: Grynch, Prometheus Brown and Thig Natural.
Click above for the D/L link.
Jack the Ripper laces Sol with a nice little pop ditty for the bitties. Sol loves the ladies.
Click above for the D/L link.
Click photo above to download at Seattle Show Gal
Ever wonder what it would sound like if you dropped three Seattle emcees in a European nightclub, cued-up a techno-infused pop/dance track, and let them spit bars over it? Producer Jack the Ripper’s new single, “Don’t Look Back,” helps answer that question.
(The Asymmetry of Life is available for FREE download. Click here or above for the link.)
The Six’s first great summer riding soundtrack dropped last Friday with hardly a peep or tweet heard in local hip-hop’s otherwise boisterous online stomping ground. Cali-natives Soos and Preach, known together as Bent Twig, released a surprisingly capable and confident full-length debut album called The Asymmetry of Life that has thus far gone virtually undetected by the local blogs (save for yours truly and its compatriots at Seattle Show Gal). The conspicuous presence of Town players Ill Pill, Scenik, Grynch, Sol, and Geologic on the album, adds a further (and surprising) validity to this under-the-radar release.
The Asymmetry is a fifteen-track collection of laid-back, breezy, hip-hop, with funk/disco/pop sensibilities. Bent Twig (whose members grew up together on a street of the same name in Camarillo, CA) value the positive mental attitude derived from such feel-good music, which is a perfect accompaniment to backyard barbecues and cook-outs at Alki Beach. As the weather begins to transition, their debut album is just in time for such events.
Bent Twig’s rhyme topics are lighthearted and relatively narrow in scope. The party life is celebrated in an inoffensive way (“Good Music”); pursuing love and shorties is described with a PG-13 rating (“Cinderella Girl”); and motivational pep talks and commemoration of loved ones are included, too (“Can’t Go On” and “Like You”). Preach and Soos deliver their lyrics via casual conversational flow or in half-sung emcee stylings. It may all sound like cotton candy rap and, for the most part, it is. But Preach and Soos are so unrelenting in their positivity, all their good-guy talk comes across as genuine and endearing, not annoying or preachy.
Sonically, everything here is danceable and easy to listen to. Disco and funk inflections are prevalent throughout, but unlike many recent local releases with similar influences, futuristic bleeps and blips and other musical nods toward the extra-terrestrial are noticeably absent. It’s a welcome respite. Bent Twig has found a comfort within its style, fully knowing what its sound is and embracing it with satisfying results.
Currently, Preach and Soos are both attending college (the former at the University of Washington, the latter at Arizona State) which makes it all the more impressive they’ve found time to produce and release an album of such quality. On May 27, the official album release party will pop off at High Dive. The noise around Bent Twig might be relatively quiet now, but more folks are likely to get hip to this duo as word gets out, and deservedly so — they’re a worthy new addition to the Town movement.
For those of us far-removed from Haiti, be it because of simply geographic location or because we have no personal relationships with Haitian folks or others who were in the country when the earthquake struck, we face a very different challenge at this time: the temptation to turn our backs on the crisis.
As the immediateness of the tragedy fades, and we turn on our computers and televisions every day, there is the temptation to pull away from the images. Through the dulling filter of news media and Twitter feeds we can allow the pain and suffering to become as real, or as make-believe, as we want. From the comfort of our living rooms we can choose to not pay attention. It’s uncomfortable to watch, and so easy to turn away.
It’s unnerving when disasters like this happen and those of us in a position of being unaffected are allowed that luxury. Everyone is guilty of simply ignoring humanitarian crises in communities far-removed from our own. We all do it every day — and not just with Haiti.
This is especially not the time to succumb to the temptation of turning away. Those of us fortunate enough to have not been personally affected by the earthquake (which probably constitutes the majority of this country’s citizens) have a different kind of personal responsibility during this crisis. The responsibilities of paying attention, supporting those who are affected, and then helping in some way, any way, possible. To do otherwise would be to fail ourselves and our fellow man.
Read the stories in the paper, look at the pictures, watch the videos online. Spend time recognizing how delicate and precious life is by acknowledging the recent event on a daily basis, and then pray for the strength and resiliency of those who experienced the earthquake, survived it, and are left to pick up the pieces.
Comfort our brothers, Sol and Khingz, and all of the other Haitian folks in the Seattle hip-hip community by supporting them and their families and then making a tangible difference through responsible contributions to the relief effort. Hopefully you’ve already done that. If not, start by attending this benefit show on February 4th at Neumos.
(For more about Sol’s involvement, read this article from The Daily UW.)
UPDATE (1.28.10, 9:45 pm): A clip of Sol and Khingz in the studio recording a song dedicated to the recent events in their home country.
(Note: This review also appears on national hip-hop blog abovegroundmagazine.com.)
Sol’s debut album, The Ride, blazed onto the scene in February of this year and was met with a very welcome reception. The young rapper’s beyond-his-years confidence on the mic and particular brand of intellectualized battle-rap was a welcome addition to Seattle’s hip-hop landscape. The LP was aptly titled too, as it made a perfect riding companion whether creeping along Alki Beach or whipping northbound on I-5.
Now, Sol has decided to jump on the Free Download Bandwagon with the release of his Dear Friends, EP (get it here), a brief, six-shot to the dome dose of new material that succeeds in the same way The Ride did, with straight-forward, driving beats paired with Sol’s razor-sharp flow that can be as cold and technically proficient as Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning.
Dear Friends doesn’t fully represent a true musical progression, as the acoustics remain mostly in the same vein as The Ride. It’s all good, though, because the formula is a pleasing one. “Hyyy” finds Sol musing about his nascent success as a rapper over a hazy, chronic-induced interlude. “Millions” (featuring Scribes and Philharmonic) seems like it was made for the radio with a melodic, understated hook and repetitive piano lick that sounds a little like what KUBE was playing in 1997 (that may sound like a bad thing, but here it works just fine). The best track is “Cash Rules!”, Sol’s blatant but still dubious ode to the almighty dollar. The track has a thumping, sparse beat and tense string arrangement; it’s by no means groundbreaking, but still goes hard in the most satisfying of ways.
At this point in Sol’s career, the shorter EP format works to his advantage. The beats on The Ride were dope in a familiar but not-quite-fantastic sort of way which, after 16 tracks, ultimately led to a slight tediousness that never totally crossed the line into boring repetition. A six-song EP doesn’t allow the content to become diluted and Dear Friends stays fresh because of its length. The complaints over Sol’s music at this stage seem petty when considering the huge amount of talent and potential he still possesses. Dude is only 20 years old, and his voice is still emerging. Everything from Sol thus far suggests even better and brighter things are on the horizon.
…download his new sh*t, Dear Friends, EP, for free! (Click here or on the photo below for the link to Sol’s homepage.)
The new 6-track EP is a great look for Sol. The rapper confirms he has an excellent ear for beats and displays true signs of progression in his craft. I’ll be back later with my thoughts on Dear Friends, friends.
(Photo by Ryan Lewis via Sol's Myspace Page)
Fret not, Pac Nor’westerners, for the sun hasn’t quite made its inevitable departure from our fair city yet. The Mariano Rivera of rhyme, Sol, will be keeping the heat on this fall with his Dear Friends EP, scheduled to drop for FREE download on 10.14.09. Follow Sol’s goings-on via Twitter here. And his new homepage here.
In the meantime, below is the album art with track listing for Dear Friends and the first leak, “Cash Rules!” available for free download here. (The SPARSE BEAT + TENSE STRING ARRANGEMENT = 206-FIRE of the highest order!)
UPDATE (10.12.09, 7:57 pm): Download the second leak, “No Sleep” (featuring Grynch), here at 2dopeboyz.
I just finished watching Almost Famous for the second time. The first time was in 2000, the year the film came out and I enjoyed it then but never got around to seeing it again until about three hours ago. Of course, the flick has nothing to do with hip-hop music, but it does have broad appeal across genres because it speaks to the music fan in all of us. We’re a lot like the movie’s main character, William Miller. We seek to understand the histories, personalities, and motivations of those artists that we follow.
(An aside: It’s why, as fans, we read and write blogs, and obsessively re-fresh Twitter feeds. It’s why I like to listen critically to an album and then write something on how it made me feel and what my impression of the artist is based on what I hear. Contrary to what some readers or local artists might think, I’m not out to hate just for the sake of hating. Or disparage because it makes me feel good personally and will increase readership — though that is a convenient by-product of being honest. But anyway, I digress…)
In Almost Famous, the idiom “It’s all happening!” becomes the catchphrase throughout the movie, its motto. It’s a simple slogan meant to embody the singular emotional exuberance felt by the film’s characters as they take part in their respective musical experiences (and life experiences in general). “It’s All Happening!” is reserved for those who haven’t yet achieved fame, but may just be on the cusp. Or for those musicians experiencing for the first time that being widely appreciated for their art is a true possibility. It’s a feeling that I imagine a lot of local artists are going through right this moment as Seattle’s hip-hop movement continues to expand like Shawn Kemp’s waistline.
So, by way of a virtual 206-UPPERY! dap, here are a couple artists for whom “It’s All Happening!” They’re a group and solo act that I haven’t mentioned yet on the blog, but that I have a lot of love for.
Shout out to SOTA (State Of The Artist), a three-man crew that is getting a fair amount of burn in The Town these days, though I hear they’ve recently relocated (temporarily, I think) to SoCal. Download their free mixtape Shapeshifters on their blog (linked above). This crew is one of those rare breeds in rap, a group equally balanced with both individual talent and great chemistry as a collective.
Another virtual dap to the rhyme animal Sol. Purchase his debut album The Ride on iTunes right now. Technically, Sol’s a virtuoso. He’s the rap equivalent of Mariano Rivera, proficient and consistent, and always on point lyrically. He’s a rapper that you’d confidently hand the ball to in the ninth inning or trust taking the last shot in OT because, like a clutch performer, he never fails to make the competition look silly. Once the majority stops sleepin’, best believe Sol will get his due shine in Seattle.
That’s it for now! More for your head later…
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