Rap & Hip-Hop from the 619 to 760
Blame One had a dope interview on Conspiracy Radio UK the other day and the archived audio is now up. It’s a very insightful interview in which Blame speaks on the direction of his new album, Endurance, and addresses his penchant for premature retirement, among other topics. Even just part 2 of the broadcast is more than 2 hours long but the Blame One interview starts at right around the 1-hour mark. You can stream or download the interview here.
My feature article on Black Mikey was published in this week’s SD CityBeat. Which is a relief because it was a fairly grueling process appeasing the CityBeat editors and Black Mikey himself without losing too much of my journalistic integrity (just a little, but not too much).
Here’s a healthy grab below, which explains the main point I wanted to get across with the article. I’m just hoping Black Mikey can follow through and blow up pretty major like I believe he’s capable of doing. Click here to read the rest of the article:
Up until now, Ern, Dre and Ridley have never worked together—likely a byproduct of San Diego’s insular hip-hop scene in which artists tend to compete more than collaborate. But now they’ve come together to work with Black Mikey.
In the year since being released from prison—he served seven years for assault—Black Mikey has focused on making a comeback. Last year, he released a full-length, Blackula, and a companion mixtape, Smash, Blackula, Smash. He followed that up with a second mixtape, Smash or Get Smashed On, and he’s set to release Killafornia Infection, an album he worked on with Mr. Ridley.
In the process, he’s trying to unite two spheres of the local rap scene: the more hardcore gangster-rap coming out of Southeast San Diego and the so-called “backpack” rap scene, which looks beyond gangster-rap stereotypes to advance hiphop as an art form. He says that the only way San Diego’s rap scene will grow is if all sides work together.
Remember when Jay-Z first announced The Black Album? His idea was to have 10 tracks from 10 different producers, something like his fantasy record he had always wanted to make. Well, Blame One’s Endurance has 14 tracks with 13 producers. Is this more cause to believe Blame will indeed retire? Or is this more cause to believe he’ll come crawling back out of retirement shortly after retiring?
Bonus points for releasing vinyl on Polish Pub Records, hah. Tracklisting and production credits after the jump. Read more of this post
The SD CityBeat just published my feature story on hip-hop at the San Diego Music Awards. After I came out firing on the SDMA’s, Peter Holslin, the Music Editor at CityBeat, offered me this assignment. I tried to cram as much information as I could fit into 700ish words. It ends on a positive note, meaning there are signs that the San Diego Music Foundation is reaching out to the local hip-hop community.
Read a grab below then check out the full story here:
Year after year, the San Diego Music Awards leave hip-hop heads asking: Why aren’t all the real San Diego rappers on the awards ballot?
This year is no different. Where are heroes like Black Mikey or Orko Eloheim, two of the most well-respected and well-seasoned rap veterans in San Diego? They both released albums within the past year—Blackula and Forbidden Physics, respectively—and neither of them have been nominated for “Best Hip Hop” or “Best Hip Hop Album.”
And where is Mitchy Slick, the biggest rapper from San Diego, who performs the world over representing his Southeast San Diego roots in every line he spits? He released his latest album, the solid Yellow Tape, earlier this year. But he isn’t on this year’s SDMA ballot, either.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
