Rap & Hip-Hop from the 619 to 760
A good lineup in its own right. But the Reader’s Gonjasufi article this week said Sufi’s record release party for MU.ZZ.LE is the same night. Does that mean he’s making a surprise appearance? Anyone have the scoop?
I realize it’s way past Christmas and this is now very late. I was trying to wait until the calamity over the last Brother Nature post blew over so I could listen with a less tainted ear. But that doesn’t look like it’s happening soon so I’ll just post this up now.
The irony is that I like this EP. Often, post-Native Tongues music gets too mired in technical prowess when much of the classic Tongues shit owes a lot to humor, charm, and a sense of looseness (Prince Paul FTW!). Those are points that this EP hits. This is a fun listen. It opens with mention of “mistletoe on her camel-toe” before going into “I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Clause” in which Real J. insinuates his mom might be a ho bag for possibly sleeping with Santa Clause … and then Bam appears in the role of Santa to confirm Real’s fears. On “All I Want For Christmas,” the duo invokes the Alvin and the Chipmunks classic by spitting in not-quite-chipmunk-soul-but-still-squeaky-high-pitched voices. And on “Gameboy & Bike,” they sing poorly to a strumming guitar about beating up Santa Clause on some Riley Freeman shit. All of this is rapped over soothing, “holiday” music, the juxtaposition of which adds to the humor. Read more of this post
UPDATE: I guess I’m still not being clear enough. I said this in the comments section but I figure I’d bring it up to the top of the post for the sake of clarity:
Like I said, I’m only trying to lay my own biases out on the table. This isn’t to diss them. Actually, it’s the opposite. I’m warning you that my previous dismissal of them really WAS unfair. Their music forced me to ask myself, Do I not like this because it’s bad or because of some other personal biases? And I’ve now recognized it was the latter.
Reader William_will brought up a good point in the comments section of the previous post on Real J. Wallace’s new EP. I had tried to respond in the comments section but my response turned into a long-winded essay that was too big for a comment so I’ve reproduced it here. Also, shout out to reader Tomham for the Blues vs. Jazz comment in that same post. That’s on some next level spit.
William_will says:
I’ve seen you review thiss guy a few times & your reviews have made me pass on his projects, after listeing to this and giving Real J Wallace a chance I come to find he is witty honest and a breath of fresh air. I find it odd that your site seems to love “ganster” rap and all its vulgarity and mislead truths but you talk down honest & crative music such as this project. I’m interested to see what you will say about this Godspeed JahBless project I just downloaded from the other cat from Brother Nature. I understand difference in taste but damn Quan Vu you really do have some sort of unspoken hate for these guys.
“Hate” is pretty strong but here are my biases, the best I can figure. There are a lot of factors at work here and I’ll try my best to address them.
In regards to gangster rap, yeah, I mean, I’d be lying if it were as straightforward as there just being a lot of good gangster rap. My “love” for gangster rap is at least partially a political statement. Gangster rap is dying and most people are saying “Good riddance” to the vulgarity, violence, immorality, etc. But I got this strong fear that the death of gangster rap also equates to a silencing of the voiceless people that gangster rap is supposed to speak for. I’m a fan of Kanye but the celebreality rap that he popularized just worries me more that hip-hop is getting less and less connected with actual people. There are for sure plenty of issues with gangster rap. But there’s still this general idea that they’re at the bottom of society and their they’re trying to come up, which is something I can get behind.
About Brother Nature, I’ve met them but I don’t really know them personally. They didn’t like steal my girlfriend or get me fired or anything. At one point, they did correctly call me out for not really being in the scene, going to shows, etc. and I’ve tried to be better about that since then. This isn’t a personal vendetta, but I’d understand if you took it that way.
Anyways, yeah, I’m biased against them for a few reasons and I might have stated them before. Read more of this post
I reviewed Real J. Wallace’s mixtape over at SoundDiego. He says it’s the length of the 94 highway and I tested it like an asshole. I think dude owes me gas money. I ended up driving into terrifying hick territory where I was almost certain someone was gonna shoot my Oriental face off.
Anyway, a snippet below and the full review here:
The music is, of course, soulful and funky. There’s a reason these breaks were sampled in the first place, and that’s because they were great songs to begin with. Real J’s rhymes feature a familiar mix of technical prowess, spirituality, black-culture references (notably, “the big piece of chicken” from a Chris Rock bit), everyman resolve and crass sexuality, just in case you thought he was getting too serious (to wit, there’s a song with several puns on different terms for oral sex). It’s lyrically satisfying, though there’s a jarring disconnect between his soft-spoken voice and his occasional vulgarity. Clearly, one of those has to go, and hopefully, it’s not the vulgarity.
I’m trying to figure out what accent would pronounce “one love” as “quan lub” (Pilipino?). But clearly, this had to be an auto-post.
Real J. Wallace from Brother Nature is gonna release The Jah Father of Soul Cal tape this Friday (or to be more exact, RÆL JΔ¥ is gonna release The JΔhFather of So(u)l Cal tape this Friday [as you can see, his HTML character game is type fierce]). According to Real J. on Facebook:
The Jahfather of Soul Cal is ment [sic] to be listened to on the MLK Highway (94 West) So I intend to make the tape the length of the MLK Highway aka the FREEway. The Jahfather of Soul is a modern day dream, with a soulful scheme. Unmixed Masterpiece.
I’m hoping he means this is an actual cassette tape and that the magnetic tape will actually stretch the length of 94 West. But never mind the long-shot chance of a tape fetishist’s wet dream coming true. I think I’m becoming endeared to Brother Nature’s penchant for lofty concepts (some thanks goes to the Tribe Called Quest documentary–pretty sure “lofty” even comes from a Q-Tip quote [Warning: I'm selling you something in that link]). At some point, backpack shit became seen as corny and then I think just having lofty concepts–aspiring for something … more, I guess–became just as corny. And I’m guilty of falling into that thinking too. But it’s such a cynical thing to lower the stakes on art like that and it may be a symptom of an increasingly cynical society. Anyways, I’m getting too far off topic.
The point is, Real J/Brother Nature are less afraid to raise the stakes. While I don’t necessarily think they always execute their concepts extremely successfully, I do give them more respect now for trying to express big, grandiose visions. Y’know, instead of just being one of those plain ol’ rappity-rap rappers that I love.
And oh yeah, cool video. I think they’re just rhyming over the bare-bones sample from Nas “One Love”? Surreal spill.
I reviewed J. Blow’s Summer EP over at SoundDiego. Unfortunately, I forgot to include the outgoing link to actually be able to listen to the music. I’ve remedied that above with the Bandcamp player (btw, I <3 Bandcamp). "CA Knights" is that shit.
Summer is officially over on the calendar, but in San Diego, summer doesn’t really end for awhile. As I type this, the sun is beaming outside, bouncing off the leaves of the bushes and slipping through the blinds of my window. J. Blow, producer and DJ from the Fam Royal crew, released the Summer EP at the end of the summer, seemingly to capture the feeling of summer and prolong it through sound waves for just a little while longer.
To accomplish his goal, J. Blow has enlisted the help of Fam Royal’s extended, uh, family of artists, including Broken Dreams, Brother Nature, Piff Herrera and Parker Edison (of Parker & the Numberman). The production J. Blow provides them with is pretty much what you’d expect from a project paying tribute to summer. Soul samples abound, wrapped in a blanket of beautiful strings and keys, creating a warm haze to canvas summertime nostalgia.
What surprises me is the strong showing from the two members of Brother Nature — Real J. Wallace and Bam Circa 86 — who both perform solo songs on Summer. “Summer Days” finds Real J. at a crossroads. He’s arrived at that coming-of-age moment and he knows it, so he looks back fondly on the youthful summer memories before saying goodbye to them for good.
The far-and-away standout track is the climactic closer “CA Knights,” by Bam Circa 86. It’s a sort of victory lap for Bam. Who knows what he’s celebrating, but that doesn’t matter because the way he celebrates is just gorgeous. J. Blow’s instrumental reminds me of some of the more transcendent, downright spirit-awakening moments from Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? A sampled songstress reaches for the heavens with her ooh’s, and Bam reaches along with her, increasing his intensity and working out this rhythm between himself and the sample. He’s never sounded this good. This is an excellent cap on a solid EP.
UPDATE II: Congrats to the two winners, Yomi and Ryan! They correctly responded with Kendrick Lamar’s previous rap name, K. Dot. Thanks to everyone who participated. Hope I still see you at the show!
UPDATE: Confirmation email has been sent out. The winners have 48 hours to claim their prizes. Otherwise, they forfeit their prize to the next contestant/s in line. Also, Black Rez replied in the comments that all the artists on the two flyers above are performing that night.
My bad for being so MIA. I’ve been suffering from a mild bout of depression which has driven me to binge on The Wire on DVD (four seasons in two weeks) uncontrollably. Though I just checked the site stats and I’m so, so grateful that people are still coming here to check up on the site periodically. It means something to me.
But before I start getting all Namond up in here, let’s get to the business at hand. Kendrick Lamar is performing at UCSD next Friday. I couldn’t tell you anything really intelligent about Kendrick right now but he is dope, one of the few rappers from the Internet that everyone likes that my Ph.D-ass actually likes too. I’ve seen two different flyers with conflicting info about the other acts on the bill (can someone clear this up?). At the least, you can count on Black Resume, Stevie Crooks, and Chuuwee (who I’ve heard good things about). Hopefully the rest of the lineup is more Piff, Brother Nature, and Ta’East and less The Dudez and Rob Grimes (Ph.D in full effect).
Here’s the deal: I have two pairs of tickets to give away. The first two people to email me Kendrick Lamar’s earlier rap moniker before going by “Kendrick Lamar” win the tickets. Mail your answers to music@sdraps.com. After replying to the confirmation email, you’ll be put on the guestlist with a +1. Anyone who can’t do a thorough Google search can buy tickets to the show at Eventbrite here.
As an aside, I should give props to Black Resume. It seems like a rare thing what they’re doing, being able to successfully throw their own shows and basically turn whatever venue they focus on (first The Epicentre, now Porter’s Pub) into a legit spot for hip-hop. And they’re bringing some dope acts like Kendrick, Devin The Dude, and Currensy. AND they still make good music themselves. So much kudos out to them for basically taking control of their careers and then helping develop a local scene in the process.
Brother Nature raps over KMD and gives life advice from Nike (seriously, don’t support Nike–also because they caused this crap to exist [haterade on a hundred thousand trillion]).
Anyway, weak Nike tirade aside, this is pretty cool. Also, they get points for rapping over KMD and then also for forcing me to listen to KMD for the first time. I think it’s time to move onto their own original production though. I get that they’re new artists and rocking over other people’s beats is necessary when you’re coming up because maybe you don’t have access to beats or you have to prove yourself to a producer before you get access to beats. But it can’t be a good move for most artists, new or old. I appreciate that Brother Nature doesn’t just spit over the hottest beats of the moment like “Otis” or something. Choosing KMD is unique and reflects their personality more for sure. But then it naturally begs comparison to KMD or whatever other classic that whatever other artist is rocking over, which is a hard battle to win (though there are exceptions to the rule). Plus, I mean, they know this girl now who knows half of the rap world. There’s gotta be a producer that she can hook them up with that will be the missing piece to the Brother Nature puzzle.
To sum up: 1. Don’t support Nikes; 2. Do support Brother Nature, who is playing in Carlsbad on Thursday; 3. Don’t rock over other people’s instrumentals unless you’re new or you’re gonna be amazing. Brother Nature, find your DJ Subroc (except, y’know, someone not dead).
Sorry I’ve been away. Really, I’m just getting kinda burnt out, which will happen when you’re trying to curate a website daily while also trying to write for publications that, y’know, actually pay you and then also maintain a day-job that, again, actually pays you.
Anyway, I went to a show last week with Parker & The Numberman, Brother Nature, Broken Dreams, and Daygo Produce at the Casbah. I wrote a little ditty about it at SoundDiego. One other thing I was thinking that I didn’t include in the article was that I wondered if, with a small scene, they could’ve just done this in someone’s basement like total DIY style instead of having to pay to rent The Casbah (if they had to pay for The Casbah). I went to this hardcore punk show a couple weeks ago that was seriously just in a tool shed in some random dude’s backyard and it was pretty crazy.
Anyway, here’s what I wrote. You can follow the link here:
It’s been said that San Diego doesn’t have a hip-hop scene. While the San Diego hip-hop scene is small, to be sure, but it exists. While most normal people might not invest as many cool points into being apart of “the scene” as nerdy rap bloggers might, there’s something to be said for attending a show with a tangible sense of community and support. You know, as opposed to your typical show where everyone keeps to themselves as they wait — impatiently and annoyed — for the headliner to come onstage.
Thankfully, the former was the case at the Casbah on Tuesday night. With Parker and the Numberman anchoring a bill consisting of Broken Dreams, Brother Nature and Daygo Produce — without any sort of headlining name, really — the show carried an idealistic, “strictly for the love” vibe that was hard to write off, even for the most cynical cynic in me. In front of a small crowd consisting of other artists, various friends and supporters, what could any of these artists hope to gain from this show besides the rushing sensation that comes with the chance to perform and the camaraderie that develops from performing in front of your peers?
It was kinda inspiring.
The performances themselves were pretty solid. Brother Nature opened the night with a plea to stop the violence — a response to recent shootings that had occurred in southeastern San Diego–before jumping into a set of lighthearted, soulful hip-hop. Broken Dreams and Daygo Produce followed suit with similarly soulful music, though the audience’s interest seemed to wane during Daygo Produce’s performance.
Parker and the Numberman capped off the night on a high note. The thing about Parker and the Numberman is that they possess this loose, improvisational quality about them in their music and their performances. They seem to take more chances, willing to spit on anything from more traditional boom-bap to indie rock-influenced, lo-fi synths to evendubstep. Really, the duo sounded ready to rhyme on any beat that DJ Collagey would play for them, whether they were prepared for it or not. Of course, it helps that they have the technical acumen to be able to adapt to a wide range of styles. And it was just icing on the cake when Parker swung the mic stand around, taking aim at us as if with a rifle full of rhyme bullets. It was a diverse, fun set that characterized a relaxed atmosphere.
I’ve also added links to the SD Artist Rollcall for Brother Nature, Broken Dreams, and many other artists. I hesitate to add Daygo Produce pretty much on the basis that they still rock the Myspace and the Daygo Produce Myspace has some shitty audio player (probably in the comments section) that automatically plays when you load the page. I couldn’t find it for the life of me to stop it so I could actually hear Daygo Produce’s music so sending anyone there sounds like a bad look.
Another cipher that I siphoned from RiseA07.com, this time featuring Brother Nature, Piff Herrera, Makeshift, and Ta’East. Most of this is filler but Piff has some interesting remarks about the San Diego hip-hop scene starting at about the 4:00 mark which are hard to really dispute. Then there’s a cipher at the end but you should just fast forward to around the 10:00 mark to hear Piff son all other emcees (though Makeshift holds his own immediately after Piff).
What do you make of Piff’s analysis of the SD hip-hop scene or lack thereof?
