Digging Into The SDMAs: Black Resume – Bar-Barian Music

July 29, 2010 by Quan Vu 6 Comments

DOWNLOAD: Black Resume – Bar-barian Music [updated: 8/12/2010]
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.
Black Resume “It’s A Shame“
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.

Let’s kick off our exploration of the San Diego Music Award nominees with the music we already know and work our way from there.

Black Resume is a group of four emcees (Guillotine,Young T, LC, and Tipper) who only just formed very recently, though of course they had each been developing individually for years prior to this. They put out this very good and very free mixtape-album, Bar-Barian Music, back in April when they were first featured. Young T has since grown on me and I now rank him right up there with Guillotine in terms of rapping ability. They both drop clever snaps against wack emcees, fake rappers, haters, and the like. They weave in and out the beats with good timing and rhythm. At times, they’ll bend words to make words that shouldn’t rhyme together, um, rhyme together (e.g. Guillotine on “I Smell Haters”: “Pull you and your whole card/ You move in slow motion, we moving in fast for-ward”). And they have the confidence on the mic to make it work, which is more scarce than you may think.

Probably the one thing that puts them over the top is Guillotine. Read more of this post

Filed under Features Tagged with ,

Son of Ran – Death March

July 26, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

These days, Son of Ran is content making one-off PSA jingles for revolutionary-but-fly clothing. I’ll take it.

The Veterano jacket by PNOY Apparel is in honor of the 250,000 Filipino American veterans who fought side by side their American counterparts without compensation or recognition.

Today, the Stimulus Plan hands out $15K to U.S. Citizens and $9K to non-citizens for their duty. A small reward for a life’s worth.

Proceeds of The Veterano will be donated to JFAV (Justice for Filipino American Veterans).

ONLY 300 made and will be available this Wednesday July 28, 2010 @ pnoyapparel.com

Filed under Videos Tagged with

Digging Into The SDMA’s: Nominations and Intro

July 26, 2010 by Quan Vu 30 Comments


The 2010 San Diego Music Awards Nominees have just been announced. And as usual, there are some … odd inclusions, to say the least. Here’s a rundown of the nominations for “Best Hip Hop Album” and also “Best Hip Hop:”

UPDATE: The list below will also serve as a hub for our exploration of the SDMAs. As we listen to each artist/album, we’ll add the link here for easy access. Click on the links as they appear to learn more about that particular artist/album.

Best Hip Hop Album
Black Resume – Bar-Barian Music
Bully Blinders – City of Dirt
Higher Minds – 2012 The Burning City
Jimmy Powers – Califoreigner
Lil Uno – The Diagnosis
Outta Control – Daily Dose
Touch of Cas – The Real
Vokab Kompany – The New Kong

Best Hip Hop
12 Gauge Shotie
Addiquit
Black Resume
Deep Rooted
Jimmy Powers
Lil Uno
MC Flow
Vokab Company

At this point, it’s hard to take the SDMA’s very seriously. Read more of this post

Filed under Features Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anti Citizens Interview on FM94.9 Tonight

July 25, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

Just a quick heads-up that Anti Citizens will be on FM94.9 Radio tonight, at some point between 8:30pm and 10pm. They’ll probably be talking about their new The Awakening EP and playing some tunes. And yes, I am fully aware of how odd it might seem that FM94.9 would be showcasing Anti Citizens.

You can tune in online here later tonight.

Filed under News Tagged with

The Armada – Punch You In The Face Rap

July 25, 2010 by Quan Vu 14 Comments


The Armada “Punch You In The Face Rap“
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.

The Armada consists of a slew of rappers from Chula Vista including Banish, Aims One, and James Heated. A dude named Johnny Teflon also appears on this track and DJ Rybe provides the beat but I’m not sure if either of them are officially apart of The Armada.

The Armada is a group with Chula Vista’s James Heated as well as Johnny Teflon, JBL, and DJ Rybe. “Punch You In The Face Rap” also features two other Chula Vista rappers, Banish and Aims One.

I hesitated at first to post too many beatdown raps because I wanted to feature more progressive music on the site. But then some dumb-fucks started fucking with my high and I wanted to smash their goddamn teeth in. That’s when beatdown raps made a lot more sense. I actually hope this becomes a series which could include songs such as “Rape You In The Ass Rap,” “Lynch You On A Tree Rap,” “Make You My Slave Rap,” “Law & Order: SVU Your Kid Rap,” “Hiroshima Your Block Rap,” “Lay Down My Railroad Rap,” and the list goes on and on. Or maybe I should just go listen to Ill Bill or something.

Thanks to DJ Rybe for providing clarification in the comments, which is very much welcome.

Filed under New Music Tagged with , , ,

Jimmy Powers – Have It Arranged [prod. Mr. Ridley]

July 23, 2010 by Quan Vu 3 Comments


Jimmy Powers “Have It Arranged” [prod. Mr. Ridley]
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’m kinda okay with this blog turning into a 2012 Dynasty fanboy meeting grounds. Jimmy Powers needs to tell people not to fuck with him more often, though I take offense to the Snuggie shot (maybe he’d prefer a Thuggie). Ridley stays winning.

Filed under New Music Tagged with ,

Video: Mitchy Slick ft. every Blood ever – Won’t Stop Being A Blood

July 22, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

The song that sums up The Yellow Tape in so many ways. Just structurally speaking, it’s pretty typical of any other song on that compilation: a very short Mitchy Slick verse, a great Mitchy Slick hook, and then a ton of rappers that mostly don’t stand out from each other (with a few exceptions). But then this is the whole point of The Yellow Tape. It’s about family, a show of solidarity with one another.

I once took this blues history class. Towards the end, like in all Black music studies classes, they start trying to make a shaky connection between blues (or whatever genre the class focused on) and hip-hop. Sometimes now though, I hear something like this song and I want to go back and tell my professor that he should use this as a better example. While there aren’t any twanging blues guitars or any shit like that in this song, it has the spirit of the blues in it. Mitchy’s outlook on life–an outlook that acknowledges pain and wants to change but feels like it can’t–is very similar to how many of the blues singers felt. Like Mitchy, they knew that they wanted to change but felt that they were too stuck in their ways to do so. After all, they’re having a hard enough time just trying to survive. That’s why Mitchy won’t quit his gang.

Filed under Videos Tagged with , ,

Writerz Block presents Style-A-Thon 2010

July 22, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

No, this commercial was not paid for (I know, how much of a sucker am I, right? Hah). I’m gonna try to hit this up after Comic-Con on Saturday. I’m not big on graf shit but it’s not too often that we have all-ages hip-hop events in San Diego. I’m kinda curious to see if they’ll still come out for Four Elements-type events or if they’ve all gone over to the dark side that is skinny pants and jerking. Hell, that’d be crazy if these jerking kids were writing too. Crossing my fingers.

Peace to @KUTFATHER.

Filed under Events Tagged with

Anti Citizens ft. Black Mikey, Orko Eloheim, Johaz – Underground Jugganautz

July 22, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment


Anti Citizens ft. Black Mikey, Orko Eloheim, Johaz “Underground Jugganautz”
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 couldn’t sleep tonight if I didn’t share the official version of Anti Citizen’s “Underground Jugganautz,” which we could previously only hear through Youtube. Orko rules over us all.

This song as well as “Effortlessly,” which was posted a few weeks ago, comes from Anti Citizens’ recently released The Awakening EP. You can cop at Access Hip-Hop. On first listen, the EP is pretty dope. Mr. Ridley has really outdone himself on the production side, even serving a couple curveballs that kept me on my toes. A more lengthy review is pending.

Filed under New Music Tagged with , , , ,

Throwback Raps: Video: Blame One & Deja Voo (Mystery’s Extinction) circa 1995

July 20, 2010 by Quan Vu 1 Comment

Blame One may have just released his first official video, but this may be his first video ever. Blame performs as one half of Mystery’s Extinction with his homie, Deja Voo. Beat comes courtesy of Oh No. The song was recorded way back in 1994, video shot in 1995. And no, Blame does not remember the title of the song (yeah, he’s really getting old =P).

Filed under Throwback Raps, Videos Tagged with , ,

← Older posts