Rap & Hip-Hop from the 619 to 760
Gangsta Gold Macnificent “I’ll Never Save Her“
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This is the best rapping I’ve heard from Nif Nasty aka the Dank City Boy. He’s snapping on this track: “Shorty want a thug, but shorty really need a job/ So she can move into her own crib and move out of Mom’s.” It’s hella greasy and I don’t give a fuck.
Posted in New Songs.
– September 2, 2010
Brother Nature “Grama’s Cooking“
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Brother Nature is a duo consisting of emcees Real J. Wallace and Bam Circa ‘86, though with the amount of work they put in with producer Rob Viktum, they might as well be a trio. Brother Nature is releasing a project with Rob Viktum, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and this is the first single. Viktum’s beat sounds a lot like some trademark 9th Wonder production, real traditionalist boom-bap with a soul loop on top. Neither emcee is anywhere near Phonte or Big Pooh of Little Brother, but they hold their own decently, with a slight edge to whoever’s on the first verse. Though I gotta admit, it’s a little weird for rappers younger than me to be nostalgic. ::shrugs::
Listening to their mixtape now, I’ll let you know if it’s any good.
Posted in New Songs.
– September 2, 2010
I’ve been sitting on this video for awhile for no good reason. Tez can spit, his flow and his voice reminding me of Lupe Fiasco except his content isn’t as corny. “My Environment” is a chill track in which Tez relays random but essential details of his daily life. Dave Moss provides the dope minimalist beat. Also, I think I see someone from Easy Money Gang with a Money Is The Motive shirt. And also, Smigg Dirtee, who I really need to pay more attention to.
Posted in Videos.
– September 2, 2010
Gaslamp Killer ft. Gonjasufi “When I’m In Awe“
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Speaking of Gonjasufi, here’s a new track featuring him with Gaslamp Killer. “When I’m In Awe” comes from GLK’s upcoming EP, Death Gate. The song picks up where the duo left off on A Sufi And A Killer, with these sorta Voodoo-inducing vocals coupled with lo-fi, “post-Dilla” glitch-hop/eastern psychedelics. Or I guess to put it more simply, some weirdo singing on top of Madlib-ish beats.
Fun fact (I think?) about Gaslamp Killer: He named himself GLK because he hates all the douchebags that roam around the Gaslamp District. I couldn’t blame him.
Posted in New Songs.
– September 1, 2010
I’m about six months late but I just peeped a great interview with (former?) Masters of the Universe member, Gonjasufi, over at the Passion of the Weiss blog. Gonjasufi drops some San Diego hip-hop history in the midst of speaking on his album, A Sufi and A Killer, which was released earlier this year with the aid of another San Diego alum (though you wouldn’t know it), The Gaslamp Killer. Check out a few nuggets below and read the rest here:
What was the scene like in San Diego. I imagine you must’ve stood out considering it can be a pretty conservative crew-cut type city, especially in the Gaslamp District.
It didn’t become like that until 2000. This was in the early 90s and during that era, the Gaslamp was the spot to be, it was where all the underground acts were coming through. Tres cho (sic?) C-4 Villains … it was actually an artistic spot with all sorts of thrift shops and shit. It wasn’t until around ‘99 and 2000 when shit changed. They started reconstructing it, put the ballpark up, and the crew-cut crowd moved in.…
Other than Jayo Felony and Mitchy Slick, San Diego hip-hop never got much love outside of the city. Did you feel that was the case?
For sure. There was a lot of dope shit. Mitchy Slick, NMS with Orko Eloheim and Big Jus from Company Flow was big and Masters of the Universe. But those were the main cats, Jayo, Mitchy, and and the NMS project, that’s Masters of the Universe right there. Those were the cats: Jayo, Mitchy, and Ol’ Gold and Big June. But everyone in the Masters of the Universe is brutal. We get more love in France and elsewhere overseas then we get in America.Is it just a matter of Los Angeles being so close that it overshadows everything in Diego?
LA is two hours away and casts a big shadow, but there was a crossover. The Project Blowed shit was brutal and all The Freestyle Fellowship dudes came down to Diego all the time, but it seemed like it was always about the Bay to LA and back. No one understood Diego. Abstract Rude would come down all the time to hang out with us and show up at the Underground Improv. His cousin stayed out here during the early 90s and that’s how I met him. But it was just like the LA scene was so strong that they deserved it. But at the same time, I think my exposure right now will bring Diego the attention it deserves.
Posted in News.
– September 1, 2010
Blame One “Stick Up“
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Dope song from Blame One’s forthcoming album, Endurance, due out in November. Beat provided by Tranzformer. Blame reminisces on the golden age of hip-hop like on some “I Used To Love H.E.R.” shit. Lines like “Time travellers riding on a vinyl train” put the signature Blame metaphysical spin on it.
I hear from close sources that Endurance will be Blame One’s last album. But Blame also said that about his last two albums, so who knows? Chances are he’ll retire for a couple hours before getting peer pressured back into the rap game from one of his rap friends (obviously, Blame never learned how to say “NO” to peer pressure/drugs/candy from strangers/hip-hop/etc.). Not to mention he’s still sitting on a collaboration project between himself and DJ Babu. Cheers to Blame, Blame’s persistently pushy friends, and Blame’s microphone fiending.
Quick site announcement: Gonna be chilling from the blog for a few days to write an article. I’ll come back over the weekend.
Posted in New Songs.
– August 25, 2010
Black Resume has burst onto the scene and in a matter of months, they’ve already garnered enough attention to secure two nominations for San Diego Music Awards in both “Best Hip Hop” and “Best Hip Hop Album” categories. In part 1 of this interview, group members Guilla and Young T speak on their beginnings in hip-hop, Black Power and bow-ties, and getting props from random dudes at McDonald’s for their music. Their mixtape-album, Bar-Barian Music, is available free download here.
SDRaps.com: How did you guys all meet at first?
Guilla: Black Resume is me, [Young] T, T’s younger brother [Tipper], and one of my younger homies [LC]. We all kinda went to the same schools. Me and him [Young T], we’re in the same grade. I’ve been going to school with him since … forever, it seems like. Back in the day, I used to do music and he used to do music. We had some songs together but we weren’t together. We both rapped in different camps. That went on for a few years. I dropped a few projects. He dropped a few projects. We had moved to Arizona together. Then I ended up moving back. He ended up coming back like a year or two later. When I came back, I kinda slowed down my music. I was too busy doing a lot of other shit.
Then when he came back, we just started vibing and started going to the studio. We had a bunch of tracks together. So instead of everybody trying to do their own shit, everybody should just come together and push one thing. Strength in numbers. He had his brother who’s been rapping. And his brother is just like crazy. We were like, “We gotta put his brother on.” Our other homie, Chris, he could spit like a motherfucker. I had been rapping with Chris but he had his own shit too.
But we just formed Black Resume and we’ve been pushing it. We just formed almost a year ago. We started working on tracks like the summer of last year and we put it out like the end of the year. We’ve just been pushing ever since. We all know each other from years back. But then we just put it all together. Continued…
Posted in Features, Interviews.
– August 24, 2010
This week’s San Diego Reader has an excellent cover story on the DJ scene in San Diego. A sort of triple profile on DJ Felt1 and DJ Pacman of the Sharpshooters and DJ’s Tu and Slim of Silly Entertainment, the story goes into the history of DJing and how these DJs have seen the San Diego club scene change over the years. It’s sort of a sad story, considering that technology is democratizing DJing to the point where DJ’s are getting more obsolete (in related news: Fat Beats is shutting down its doors). Check out a grab below:
Pacman is 32, a year younger than Felt1. But they both learned their craft long before the advent of mp3s and Scratch Live software, which came into use around 2005. These days, a DJ could conceivably work without a set of headphones to help him match the beat before making it live. He could, if he was lazy enough, content himself with simply matching the beat patterns streaming across his laptop screen. (Actually, if he was lazy enough, he could make his mix at home and hit “play” in the club, but that’s the kind of thing that will get you booted if you get caught.) Thanks to the computer, you can just pick a couple of tunes with similar beats per minute, line up your runs of bass and snare, and let ’em rip.
For someone who trained on vinyl, it can rankle. “I mean, it’s sort of like you’re playing Guitar Hero on Playstation,” laments Pacman. “You’re not a guitarist just because you can play Guitar Hero; you’re kidding me. That’s kind of how we see it. Because of technology, you have a million DJs in one city now. Microwave instant DJs, you know? But I’m not saying that it’s bad or good. Just that they won’t appreciate the level of skill as much as we did — or do.”
Posted in News.
– August 21, 2010
