Anti-Citizens ft. Apathy, Ras Kass – Effortlessly

June 25, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment


Anti-Citizens ft. Apathy, Ras Kass “Effortlessly“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sometimes, I feel like such a jackass. I’ve been sleeping on this for a couple months and had to be reminded of it by goddamn SD Reader (I know, my hip-hop card needs to be revoked instantly).

Not much to say here. Mr. Ridley kills it with the saxophone loop and his drums are dirty as shit. Ras Kass kills everyone on the mic, but what’re you gonna do, it’s Ras Kass. Razzy: “God emcee, Dollars need to start trusting in me.” Damn.

And sorry, technical difficulties are preventing the streaming player from working. Deal with it.

UPDATE: Ridley comes through with the mastered version. And it works in the streaming player!!!

Filed under New Music Tagged with , , ,

Editorial: You’re the rapper, I’m the critic

June 24, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments

Quan Vu, writing a post for SDRaps.com

I’m a couple months late but I’d like to take this time out to introduce myself: Hi. My name is Quan Vu. And I am a critic.

And if you’re a rapper or artist, you probably hate my guts. After all, everyone’s a critic. Assholes are like opinions–everybody has one. What the hell gives me the right? Who the fuck do I think I am? Why does my opinion matter more than anyone else’s? Why does it matter at all? Read more of this post

Filed under Editorials Tagged with ,

Bad Karma – M.O.M. (Mind Over Money)

June 23, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

Bad Karma “M.O.M. (Mind Over Money)“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Blame One hates the majority of these little kid rappers (and I quote: “I get cheddar and let bed-wetters know that I’m better, Blame One”) but there’s something to be said for dudes like Bad Karma who are really chill, really comfortable with themselves and their identities. Karma’s from Southeast San Diego. And he’s a rapper. You might be able to imagine the pressure he’s probably faced with to act like a gangster or a baller or to just mean-mug real tough all the time. Hell, most of rap in general is just about mean-mugging and acting real hard and shit. The fact that Karma can bypass all of that is a positive statement in itself.

And that’s what he does on “Mind Over Money.” This song is aimed at anyone faking like they got cash. But even “aim” is the wrong word because he doesn’t intend to take shots. He brushes off these lames with oddball punchlines like “If you can make it rain all hard, good for you/ I never play God, play my part as Player 2″ before proceeding to holler at a girl and smoke some weed. What’s key is that he doesn’t get caught up in proving he’s better than these fake dudes. He stays above the pettiness by paying them no mind and doing his own thing in this real cool, calm way.

The relaxed, soulful production is probably courtesy of Kriis Money or Mike George, Karma’s in-house production team. This beat is par for the course for either of them but still satisfying.

Filed under New Music Tagged with ,

San Diego Entertainer, Jelly Radio Holding Local Hip Hop Contest

June 22, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

San Diego Entertainer Magazine, with the assistance of Jelly Radio, is holding a contest of sorts between 13 local hip-hop acts. You can go to the San Diego Entertainer site, download a .zip file of 13 songs, and then vote on your favorite song. They don’t state at all when voting ends and the winner doesn’t get any actual prize. But each of the acts will get some sort of shine on Jelly Radio and the winner will likely get a feature article in San Diego Entertainer.

But 13 songs is a lot to get through. Especially when 10 of them range from mediocre to godawful terrible. I’ll save you the trouble and let you know that there are only three songs worth mentioning:

Black Resume “Animals“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I’ve heard Black Resume’s “Animals” before and it still sounds great, with the emcees’ clever wordplay, catchy beat, and overall great concept. Black Resume gets the official SDRaps.com endorsement in this contest.

Reggie Push “W.E.S.T.C.O.A.S.T.“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Reggie Push gets points for uniqueness on “W.E.S.T.C.O.A.S.T.” which is 95% hook and 100% chants delivered in this spastically crazy, Joker-esque shout. The stripped-down beat kinda goes too.

Killa Kali Entertainment “Kash“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I am so down with this beat, which sounds like an ice cave and crescendos into sounding like a cascade of falling icicles inside said ice cave. I just wish at least one of the rappers could’ve been good enough to not get lost in the beauty of it.

Filed under New Music, News Tagged with , ,

Video: Johaz & Exile (Dag Savage), i.e. How To Rock A Live Show

June 21, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments

Chaddy P came through with the live footage from the Freestyle Fellowship-Dag Savage (Johaz & Exile) show at UCSD back in April (by the way, if someone knows the contact for the organizers of that show, send me a message). It was a pretty crazy night between the fire alarms going off, the subsequent evacuations, and the near-cancellation of the show. Not mention the local rapper giving away free debut CDs, the awkward white kids in the front who knew all the words, and Mike Gao swearing like UCSD’s 95% Asian population had as many Freestyle Fellowship fans as they do Dumbfoundead fans and telling everyone they should come hella early and me coming hella early to an empty ballroom as Exile was soundchecking and him telling me to get the hell out before I ran into Mike Gao and guilt-tripped Gao into letting me stay because I’d been waiting for 2 hours on his word. And then of course, there were the performances.

Let me tell you: Johaz rocks live. Read more of this post

Filed under Event Reviews, Videos Tagged with , , ,

Mixtape: Pedalay The Boss goes from rapper to artist on ‘Art: The Inspiration’

June 16, 2010 by Quan Vu 13 Comments

DOWNLOAD: Pedalay The Boss – Art: The Inspiration
Pedalay The Boss “Scary Movie”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Pedalay The Boss “Uh Huh“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Pedalay The Boss dropped his new mixtape, Art: The Inspiration, just the other day and you should check it out. I’ve been following Pedalay for some months now and I’d been kinda paranoid that he might fall into this hole of spitting nothing but braggadocio/battle raps about like stomping through cities and sucking your blood while stealing your chick. There’s still a lot of that on this mixtape (which is a good thing, don’t get my wrong). But Pedalay’s also stretching his boundaries a little bit.

“Scary Movie” is still that sort of battle rhyme with chainsaws, zombies, horizontal raindrops, and weed. But the loose “movie” conceit makes Pedalay hone in closer to more minute detail till he’s ripping this battle rhyme in a vivid, story-like way. “Uh Huh” starts out as a standard battle rhyme too. But in the second verse, Pedalay suddenly opens up a little about his past upbringing and his current family life and shows us what he’s doing it all for. Both songs are a good look, providing a bit of diversity while still sounding natural. Pedalay is transforming from a guy that can rap good into an artist.

A couple last notes:

  1. “Hip Hop Heads” featuring Jimmy Powers also shows Pedalay’s diversity but their hook kinda sucks and Jimmy will get no love pending the outcome of this year’s NBA Finals (yes, fuck objectivity).
  2. Attention all other rappers in San Diego: Pedalay has access to better beats than you. You need to hit up Infinity Gauntlet and Skatterbrain (whose alter-ego/rapping alias is Skatterbrain [maybe?]) for some production.

Filed under Mixtape Reviews Tagged with , , ,

Mixtape: Easy Money Gang puts the South in Southern California

June 16, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments


DOWNLOAD: Easy Money Gang – Money Is The Motive
Easy Money Gang “More For Me“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Easy Money Gang “Ezay“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Easy Money Gang consists of rappers 2T’s and Grown Tone and Dirty Money, who is either their manager, their producer, or both. Either way, it’s really hard to imagine that any of them actually come from San Diego. I don’t mean that as a diss at all and I’m not trying to call them out in any way. It’s just that so much of this mixtape is drenched in the South. From the swampy, gutbucket, UGK-esque production to chopped & screwed hooks to mention of d-boys and woodgrain wheels–as Pimp C once proclaimed, this ain’t hip-hop, these are country rap tunes. For further proof, just take a look at the mixtape cover above and tell me that isn’t an homage to the UGK logo. Hell, Dirty Money is even the title of an UGK album.

Whoever handled the production, it is consistently good. It starts from a down-home blues base and expands out in a million different directions, into clubs and space and weirdo talkbox usage. What I like is that throughout the mixtape, there’s this sense of experimentation, of throwing everything including the kitchen sink against the wall and keeping whatever sticks.

Rapper 2T’s and Grown Tone don’t come across as the most skilled rappers but their goofy charm works in the spirit of the mixtape. What surprised me was their definition of “easy money,” which isn’t the hustler braggadocio like you’d expect. Rather, “easy money” means doing whatever you enjoy doing to get money. It could be anything from rapping to flipping burgers. As long as you’re cool with yourself, that’s easy money. It’s a message of acceptance and individuality that’s actually pretty refreshing. Overall, it’s fun, welcome, engaging listen that you shouldn’t pass up.

Filed under Mixtape Reviews Tagged with , ,

Mr. Milky – My Life’s Been Crazy x Blame It On My Momma and Daddy

June 14, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment


Mr. Milky “My Life’s Been Crazy“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mr. Milky “Blame It On My Momma and Daddy“
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

While I’m not a fan of either of these beats, Mr. Milky can spit. Behind the fire-starting, whistle-blowing, pretty annoying production of “Blame It On My Momma and Daddy,” Milky comes with snaps, like how he’s gonna eat emcees like a bowl of chili beans. Milky proves to be a solid spitter from a purely technical standpoint on this song.

“My Life’s Been Crazy” shows his range a little, his testimony to his struggles and how he grew up and matured from them, learned to take responsibility. Near the end of the second verse, he raps “Splurged a little/ always on the verge a little,” which so succinctly captures the life of anyone in the midst of chasing their dreams that I’m just stunned. “Always on the verge a little.” It’s the perfect combination of six words to describe the struggling artist.

Filed under New Music Tagged with

Video: The Seed ft. Blame One – Never Lost Control

June 10, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments

I wasn’t sure if I should throw this up because the only SD thing about this, Blame One, gets outshined by both the other emcees, especially Kahlee, who kills it on the third verse. Beatdown raps are completely welcome at this site, with all due respect to Jimmy Powers.

Filed under Videos Tagged with , ,

Video: Easy Money Gang – Chronic Costing Me

June 10, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

This is some smooth ass shit, almost like on some Pimp C country rap tunes shit or something. I don’t think screwed-up hooks are used enough in songs about drugs.

Filed under Videos Tagged with , , ,

← Older posts