Black Resume – Hey Girl x Excuse Me x Money Is The Motive

April 26, 2011 by Quan Vu 3 Comments


Black Resume “Hey Girl (My House)” [prod. Guillotine]
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Black Resume “Excuse Me”
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Black Resume “Money Is The Motive“
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Black Resume has a blog now and they’ve been dropping some songs on it for the last week or so. “Hey Girl” looks to be the first single from their new album, or at least it probably should be, if the crowd reaction to it at their shows is to be believed. Guilla continues to grow as a producer, pumping out a club-ready, funky West Coast banger with an instrumental break/keyboard solo near the end and then this mind ray-like freakout even after that (and is it just me or do I hear taiko drums in this beat?). Rapping-wise, both LC and Young T seem to have gotten better in their deliveries, especially LC. On Bar-barian Music, I felt like LC (and Young T, to a lesser extent) had this problem where sometimes he’d sound like he was trying to fit too many syllables into a bar, causing him to go off-beat for a second and deflating otherwise sharp punchlines. He sounds much more confident and natural on both “Hey Girl” and “Money Is The Motive” and his verses sound better than ever.

“Excuse Me” reminds me of how, when I first listened to Bar-Barian Music, the first song on there was called “It’s A Shame” and I immediately thought of Devin The Dude’s Just Tryin’ Ta Live album. Which I kinda remember turning out not to have any significance at all. But now that “Excuse Me” sounds like a Devin song, I am vindicated, hah! Anyways, the Devin parallel is that it’s one of those songs where just because it’s about alcohol and/or weed, people think it’s a happy song. But it runs deeper than that. Young T gets drunk at a club, talks faded nonsense to hobos on the streets, and ends up snapping at a girl at his pad. Guilla doesn’t fare too much better, worried about getting pulled over by the police, knowing that he’d be too drunk to be able to avoid jail for the night. It’s real because, in reality, getting piss drunk or faded until you lose control is always a little sad and possibly dangerous. The fact that Black Rez can address this darker side of partying rounds them out as artists.

“Money Is The Motive” has good rapping but I’m mostly mentioning it because I first heard the beat on Easy Money Gang’s Twittertape. Considering Easy Money has another mixtape called Money Is The Motive, I think this is a nod to Easy Money. More importantly, I think this means Easy Money is producing for other rappers, which I think is their forte.

Black Resume is opening for Currensy at Epicentre in Mira Mesa this Thursday night. Their show’s pretty live, one of the few local acts I’ve seen (like I’ve seen that many, hah) that I’d recommend. And I could’ve sworn they actually have a following that goes to their shows, which I really haven’t seen much of. Anyway, hit them up on Facebook for more info.

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Best SD Rap, 2010

December 29, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments


I wrote a blog post about my Top 5 SD Rap Albums of 2010 for the SD CityBeat blog (I also included a Top 5 Non-SD list). To complement that list, here’s a list of my next 5 SD Rap Albums and also a list of the Best SD Rap Songs of the year. I didn’t stress over the order too hard. For the Songs list, I limited it to one song per artist, although if the artist is featured on another artist’s song, that doesn’t count against them. And no, I don’t have the time or energy to write blurbs about each of them (I’ve already written about most of them anyway). Yes, I would love to hear you tell me how full of shit I am recommend me some good music that I missed.

Best SD Rap Albums

  1. Blame One – Endurance
  2. Treali Duce – A Man’s Heart
  3. Orko Eloheim – Forbidden Physics
  4. Anti Citizens – The Awakening EP
  5. MacPhly – Cheers
  6. Piff PCH Herrera – Vintage Verses: Paradigm Shift
  7. Easy Money Gang – Money Is The Motive
  8. Black Resume – Bar-Barian Music
  9. Jimmy Powers – Califoreigner
  10. Mitchy Slick Presents Tha Wrongkind – Yellow Tape

Best SD Rap Songs

In My Queue To Check Out

  • Ecay Uno – Mad At The World
  • Circle Empire – Before & After
  • Mr. Brady – Labor of Love
  • Thai Mex – Brand New Starts

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Black Resume, Devin The Dude at 4th & B 10/16/2010

October 6, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments

I’m very excited to finally get to see Black Resume perform live. And even if you’re not a Black Resume fan, Devin The Dude is basically the best thing to ever happen to hip-hop (personally, he’s in my Top 5 Hip-Hop Artists Ever). Devin puts on a great show with The Coughee Brothers, especially in smaller venues like 4th & B (he wasn’t so great at The Smokeout Festival last year). Check it out, it’s worth the price of admission.*

*And I mean it this time, as opposed to the last couple open mics I recommended when nothing happened at all.

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Interview: Black Resume, pt. 2

September 7, 2010 by Quan Vu 2 Comments

About 9 years later, I decide to post the second half of our talk with Black Resume. In this part, Guilla and Young T of Black Resume speak on their mixed feelings about their San Diego Music Award nominations. They also give us a glimpse into hustling in Mira Mesa. If you missed part 1, read it here.

SDRaps.com: Black Resume has been nominated at the SDMA’s for both “Best Hip Hop” and “Best Hip Hop Album.” There’s been a lot of controversy over the years within the hip-hop community. How do you feel about your nomination this year?
Guilla: I’ve been keeping up with the SDMA’s for the past 4-5 years and everytime it comes up, I’m one of those people myself: “This is some bullshit. They should be nominating better acts.” It was a shock to me when we got the nomination. Because I don’t know anybody that connected with the San Diego Music Awards. I didn’t submit the music for it. I have no idea how it’s run. But they sent us over the email [notifying us of our nomination] and I was like, “Damn, that’s what’s up.” That’s a good look on us. I don’t really see too many other artists out here doing the same, as far as grinding goes, like we are. But I feel like some of the artists on there shouldn’t be nominated. There are a lot of artists that should’ve been. But it’s the fucking San Diego Music Awards–what can you do? Read more of this post

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Interview: Black Resume, pt. 1

August 24, 2010 by Quan Vu 4 Comments

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. Read more of this post

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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“
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Black Resume “It’s A Shame“
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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

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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

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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“
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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.“
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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“
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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.

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Mixtape: Black Resume off to strong start on ‘Barbarian Music’

April 11, 2010 by Quan Vu 8 Comments

DOWNLOAD: Black Resume – Bar-barian Music [updated: 8/12/2010]
Black Resume “Animals“
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Black Resume “It’s A Shame“
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Black Resume is a group of four emcees that very recently formed like Voltron and put out this mixtape-album. Although the group is newly formed, each of the members have been developing for years on their own and it shows. Bar-barian Music is a solid mixtape-album. The lead single, “Animals,” reminds me of GZA’s “Animal Planet,” which goes to show the group’s dedication to classical lyricism. Bar-barian Music is filled with funny, clever snaps, mostly against wack emcees, fake emcees, and haters. Guillotine stands out, consistently dropping winners like “on the real, y’all niggaz fucking up/ talking about you busting flows, man you couldn’t bust a nut.” Guillotine also handles the bulk of production duties, which leans towards a Dr. Dre-style. The beats are hit-n-miss but the rhymes carry the mixtape through. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

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