Happy Wednesday to all of you from UGF! This week we're bringing your attention (if it's not already there) to Aesop Rock & TOBACCO's first release as Malibu Ken, out now on Bandcamp and all other major retailers.
I've been a fan of Aesop Rock since 2004 when I first heard Float. I was a teenager and the intellectual complexity and quirky weirdness of Aesop Rock appealed to my search for novelty, and (I will admit it) my slightly inflated view of my own intelligence. Deconstructing his long winded and complex narratives was an entirely new listening experience for me, and I loved it.
That said, watching a new generation find and learn to love the man has been a bit of a bemusing experience for me. While I'm thrilled that he's getting the respect, attention and money that he deserves, when I hit one of his shows I'd like to see people paying attention and absorbing what he says, rather than talking loudly or acting a drunken fool. I will admit that maybe his move to the 'mainstream' has triggered the possessiveness that exists in every fan of indie music like me, and I’m driven to clown on bandwagon jumpers. I dunno if anyone reading this agrees with me, or if I come across as 'old'. By the way I don't really like cloud rap either, sorry...
All that said, the album Malibu Ken has everything a fan of Aesop Rock is looking for. Intelligent zaniness that conveys a message, usually one far removed from conventional rap topics. The offbeat and unconventional production trips him up in a few places (Sword Box) but it's subtle, and doesn't cause any issues with enjoyment of the record. I think working with a musician who primarily produces soundscapes unaccompanied by raps might be to blame, the beat is not always right for a vocalist.
Speaking of, I will say that as far as the production I wasn't really a fan. I saw TOBACCO in his Black Moth Super Rainbow incarnation opening for Aesop after the release of None Shall Pass, and neither me nor my friends were really into it. They were a bit too weird and not particularly easy to listen to, and finding out that they (he?) were releasing albums on Anticon didn't really come as a surprise.
The production is entirely played on synthesizers. It's clearly not sample based, which is something I tend to like. In it's entirety it doesn't utilize the variety of instruments and sounds that, say, Impossible Kid did so well. I would say the music sounds a bit like what you hear as background in those videos that new jobs make you watch that teach you to keep your hands to yourself. The retroness of it does seem to go with the cartoonish and gross cover (reminds me of Garbage Pail kids, therefor 80's). Musicianship is great, it's just not what I like personally.
I'm glad he made this album. It's a worthy addition to his highly respectable body of work. Everyone I know who likes Aesop likes this album, and it does seem that he enjoyed himself making it and didn't hold back. I'm sure most of you have already at least listened to it, but check it out if not. Honestly I'd love to get some of your thoughts, I know that this album is getting a lot of acclaim and attention. Anyone interested hit us up below!
Today's entry comes in two parts - (1) the music itself and (2) a little attempt to figure out exactly who was behind the music.
As for the music itself, today's upload is 4/29's 1992 single "I Got My Mind Made Up." 4/29 is best known for being Busdriver's high school group. The trio was put together and produced by Busdriver's uncle, Kurt Farquhar (a pretty successful television composer whose most recent work includes the score for CW's "Black Lightning,") and was meant to be a response to the LA Riots (hence the group name) and the tensions that existed at the time between Blacks and Koreans. This single, which was released on cassette and vinyl (Dimxsk ripped the cassette version,) is the only thing, to the best of my knowledge, that the group ever officially released.
The single's A-Side is a very on the nose conscious track that calls for a complete halt to Black/Korean violence in hopes of global unity! The production, which re-does The Beatles for the hook, is very 90's clanky. The rappers, who were 9th graders at the time, combine De La Soul-lite and Public Enemy-lite approaches to song writing with Das EFX approaches to rapping. There's lots to warrant an eye-roll here, such as the point in the song where one of the rappers notes that one should refrain from burning down Asian businesses because....it causes pollution? I mean yeah, I suppose setting fire to a downtown business, on racial grounds, isn't ideal for the atmosphere, but surely there are more apparent reasons for why you shouldn't do such a thing, right? Maybe 4/29 was just really ahead of its time insofar as caring for the environment goes. Despite the cheese, when you consider that these were 3 upperclass L.A. kids in 1992 (pre-Innercity Griots!) rapping for the first time - the song isn't horrible. There are some nice flows involved and you can even catch a multi every now and then!
And if the audio isn't enough for you, a video to the single was also shot and is currently available on YouTube! [Directed by Busdriver's father, writer of Krush Groove, Ralph Farquhar.] Peep it and witness the glory of the early 90's - baggy clothes, bad green screen, rapping in a classroom, rapping in front of police sirens, and, of course, choreographed dancing. Seeing a young Busdriver is worth the view on its own!
The B-Side, "Git In Motion," is an attempt at both a more party oriented track and a more lyrical braggadocio flexing track. Strangely enough though, the A-Side is much more danceable and provides a much better display of the kids' writing and rapping abilities. The single also includes the instrumental to "I Got My Mind Made Up" and a "Club Mix" (lol) of "Git In Motion." As entertaining as this little release is in 2019, I can't say I'm too surprised that 4/29 had a short lifespan.
For those who just want to hear the damn music, feel free to hit up the bottom of the page in a sec for the cassette rip! For those seeking yet a bit more background info on the group, feel free to read on (though also feel free to be disappointed.) Either way, take this opportunity to watch the music video for "I Got My Mind Made Up."
Note that, aside from Busdriver, I haven't mentioned any of the 4/29 members by name. This is due to the fact that the physical cassette, despite listing Kurt Farquhar's name multiple times, says nothing of the group members specifically. A simple Google search won't turn up anything either. I, for one, however, wasn't content on a simple Google search, so I decided to dig a bit deeper...
Here's what we know for sure: Busdriver was in 4/29. Busdriver has also stated that 4/29 consisted of himself and two kids from his high school, and has further said here and here that one of those kids was Korean and that the other two, himself included, were black. None of this is contradicted by the "I Got My Mind Made Up" music video or the single's cassette/vinyl cover. I can't find any place, however, where Busdriver mentions the other two members by name.
Luckily, on "Git In Motion," the track's hypeman shouts out the MCs' names. Unfortunately, neither I nor Dimxsk could really make said names out clearly. To the best of my knowledge, the Asian kid (I say Asian instead of Korean - more on that in a sec) went by something like "Say Fusion," Busdriver went by something like "Roll," and the other Black kid went by something like "Nonsense."
So perhaps this is all to be publicly known about 4/29. It was Busdriver and his two high school buddies whose rap names can only be found by listening to the B-Side of their only release. Nope. A bit of digging led me to something pretty strange. According to an old Angelfire (yes, Angelfire) profile page, Roscoe Umali was part of the group! For those not familiar, Roscoe Umali is a Cali rapper who used to be associated with the rap crew Drunken Tiger and whose solo rap career includes collaborations with Akon, Black Eyed Peas, Strong Arm Steady, E-40, Talib Kweli, Raekwon, and others. This is strange not just because Roscoe Umali may have been in a group with Busdriver but also because Roscoe has been very vocal about being Filipino (as opposed to Korean.) He also does not really look like the kid in the "I Got My Mind Made Up" music video at all.
There's various explanations for this Roscoe Umali piece of info. One is that whoever made the Angelfire page, or Roscoe Umali himself, just lied about the "factoid." That'd be a very strange and obscure thing to lie about though (and the Angelfire page actually looks legit) - so I sort of rule that out. Another possibility is that Roscoe Umali is actually part Korean and is the kid who Busdriver references multiple times. I can't find anything, however, that suggests that Roscoe Umali is any part Korean, which is even more significant when you consider that he was affiliated with Drunken Tiger - a Korean group. Also, as noted, even considering the decades of growth, Roscoe doesn't really look like the kid in the music video. Another possibility is that Roscoe was in the group either before or after the single was released. All accounts of 4/29, however, tell of just 3 members. Also, based on the short lifespan of 4/29, it's hard to imagine lineup changes! Even so, this is still one of the most realistic explanations.
We then also have some crazier, conspiracy theory worthy, explanations. One is that Roscoe is indeed the Asian kid in the music video but was labeled as a Korean in order to better fit the group's narrative. Another is that Roscoe wrote, and maybe even recorded, the verses on the 4/29 songs, but was replaced by a Korean in the music video in order to better fit the narrative. The only problem with these explanations is, of course, we have no evidence at all to back them up hehe!
Yet another theory I had was that Roscoe was the hypeman, who went by "Havoc," on "Git In Motion." This would explain how he was "in the group" without being one of the three MCs and if you listen to the track, it sounds like the hypeman describes something as "Sumo" at one point - and Roscoe Umali once ran "Sumo Records"! Dimxsk was quick to remind me, however, that the back of the cassette lists the name of the hypeman - "Henry Lee Haraway aka Havoc" (we get the name of the hypeman but not the names of the actual members of the group!?!) There's no evidence of Roscoe Umali ever going by "Henry Lee Haraway" (or "Havoc") and it would have been weird for him, as a kid, to get a name credit when the other kids didn't. Another dead end.
As such, we may never know the "true identities" of the non-Busdriver members of 4/29 or understand how Roscoe Umali fits into all of this. Now obviously I might be able to get some easy answers by just tweeting Kurt Farquhar, Busdriver, or Roscoe and asking them directly. But where's the fun in that? Also, I doubt that Kurt Farquhar remembers such things and Busdriver doesn't seem too keen on responding to fans post his sexual assault allegations. As for Roscoe Umali, the man doesn't seem to be on Twitter or social media at all. This is likely due to the fact that the man is currently serving 18+ years in prison for fraud! Wow. Maybe he was lying after all.
While we may not know a lot about 4/29, we do gotta give them props. According to Busdriver, it was one of his fellow 4/29 members who first brought him to the Good Life Cafe, which of course set him down the Project Blowed path, which, in turn, helped create the left-field rapper we know today. Without further ado, 4/29's "I Got My Mind Made Up":
This week's new music comes from Eekwol, a Canadian legend at this point, and T-Rhyme, another Canadian rapper who I'm not too familiar with, and their new album "F.W.B.W." It should be noted from the jump that I took a large risk listening to this one as the intro track made it very clear that this project is to be heard only by women (one of whom I am not) and that men (one of whom I am) need not tune in. With that said, I'm glad I took the risk because "F.W.B.W." is a pretty solid project.
The first half of the album creates a very cool mesh between retro synths and rhymes about the daily struggles that women face and women's general gut reactions to such situations. The second half is more boom bappy (with some nice strings and flutes in the mix) with the rhymes focusing more on philosophical reactions to the problems the rappers identify. Eekwol and T-Rhyme have pretty good chemistry together, though Eekwol is clearly the star of the first half, while T-Rhyme shines much brighter near the end (her solo track is easily my fav. off the project.) My biggest complaint is that there are times where various other social problems are brought up (racism against Natives, attacks on tradition, mental disorder misclassification) yet the rappers never do much to connect those issues to the main sexism theme of the project. There's also a couple times where the rappers bring up a sexism issue and then brush off (seemingly with a laugh) what they view as the sexist man's perspective, yet in doing so, it sometimes seems like they also brush off the original issue, thus making the sexist look innocently dumb as opposed to potentially dangerous. Good collection of songs though, Eekwol continues to impress and I'll definitely be checking for more T-Rhyme in the future.
Stream the new album on Spotify and/or purchase it digitally (no word on whether physical copies will be made) on iTunes.
Also, big shout out to the OG Ludz03 (RIP to his great blog.) He hooked Dimxsk up with something off his wantlist and sent some extra goodies along with it.
Today's another Friday at Underground Fossils which means we're sharing a rarity with y'all, and it doesn't get much more obscure than this. In honor of the recent release of Kay the Aquanaut & Maki's psychedelic rap album Earth Station 7, we decided to share with you guys this particular example of Kay's roots as a rapper.
Day Dreamin' is his 1999 album under the name Kayaquatic, and to be honest I haven't even heard all of it yet. We had prepared a post of an album allegedly by Kay the Aquanaut called Day Dreamin', but at the 11th hour Trylemma got in touch with Chaps looking for the official cover art. Chaps informed us that the rip floating around is an unofficial version with a fan made cover (see below). It's incomplete, this is the original version, ripped for us by Chaps himself late last evening. Shouts out to the man, he's awesome.
Anyway, this album was produced by DJ Ring Worm, aka DevoTea, put out on WermWhole productions (which probably isn't a label at all) and is a must have for fans of Side Road, Fake Four, Factor, Chaps, good hip-hop in general. Enjoy!
Note: The artwork featured above is the unofficial cover, made by whoever compiled the version floating around the net. It's actually pretty cool so I figured why not post it. If you made it I'm guessing you did your best to recreate the album off Limewire or whatever, so now you have the full version.
"Where you're going there are no bodies, just energy."
It's that time again. The stars and moon have aligned according to secret, ancient prophesies and Kay the Aquanaut has emerged from his hideout on the snowy Canadian plains to bring you another Maki produced joint. It's Wednesday again at UGF and this is Dimxsk, experiencing the new album and giving you his thoughts.
From the first track Earth Station 7 washes over the listener, with interesting sonic landscapes and thought provoking psychedelia. Kay's topics are familiar to his fans and yet stranger than ever, ranging from celestial love songs to treatises on shamanism/theology, and of course to the use of
and reverence for psychedelics. Maki has moved away a bit from his mostly guitar and piano driven live instrumentation (see his work with soso and Nobs) to a more trap influenced sound, liberally using reverbed pads and strings to float the lyrics home.
Where Kay's previous work with Maki had a very folky feel, this album is much more spacey and electronic. I did enjoy the sound of the previous albums for their effortless uniqueness and subtle instrumentation, but this is no doubt a solid album. It is not just a remake of the duo's previous efforts which, in a world where formulas are valued, is a huge plus. Kay & Maki will never be afraid to offer the listener something new.
Get the digital album from the man himself here, as a pay what you want download. Kay's dope like that.
For an EP version plus instrumentals of some of the albums highlights check out Audio Recon's lathe cut release of the album here. Also, Hello.L.A. put out more limited edition cassettes, so no excuses for sleeping on this one!
Before today's upload - a bit about how we are going to choose what we post. Our main "rule" is that a project will only get uploaded if it is currently unavailable for sale digitally and currently unavailable for sale, to the general public, in a physical format from the artist or a major first-hand distributor. I put "to the general public" because sometimes an artist will have a couple spare physical copies in his basement that he'll sell you if you email him personally - we don't view these cases as a hindrance to uploading. And of course, if an artist let's us know that they don't want their stuff posted - we will take any and all relevant links down.
As for rips - we will be posting lots of types of them. Dimxsk handles most of our personal rips and he is currently working on improving the sound quality of the vinyl rips that we'll be posting in the future. We will also be posting some older harder to find scene rips from yesteryear. We might also occasionally post rips from blogs that no longer exist or no longer upload (e.g. the great Ghetto Tyylit.) Finally, we will sometimes post random online rips that we've collected over the years. In any case, we will always give, to the best of our knowledge, the proper ripper/group credit for whatever rip we post.
Also, really quick - huge thanks to foob for already sending us some of the stuff on Dimxsk's wantlist! Also huge thanks to Jibs from This Is For The Hustlers and Pseu from T I L. I N F I N I T Y for giving us a shoutout. Both of those guys are obviously legends in our little scene so it means a lot.
Whew! So with all that out of the way - today's upload is 2012's "Demons & Angels" from DJ Roach and Awol One, going by the names The Beat Cave and Handshake Tony, respectively. This was a pretty lowkey release that, as far as I know, never got any sort of digital release. I also only saw physical copies available via Kunaki for a couple of months. Very little general promo as well. It's a shame because it's a great project (nothing super lo-fi) with lots of great features (Abstract Rude, Ariano, Gel Roc, Doc Lewd, Massive...) It sounds like something most casual Shapeshifter/Awol One fans would love. The Walrus does have a propensity for putting out jewels that disappear quickly though. Enjoy! [Ripped by Dimxsk.]
So in addition to posting older gems every Friday, we'll be briefly highlighting newer music (projects that dropped within the past week or so) every Wednesday. First up is Dirtbag Dan's and Reverse Live's, as Death Dealers Anonymous, new EP - "Death Dealers Anonymous Vol. 1."
The EP is four tracks deep of darker head bobbing beats, all produced by Sloombeats, and, on the lyrical side of things, stories of reckless drug slanging with a death wish. Dirtbag has always had one of my favorite flows and Reverse Live never fails to bring that M.O.P.-esque energy with a west coast twist. And if the audio wasn't enough, the duo dropped a full visual project that encompasses the entire EP (peep the "Audition" tribute!) It's also "Vol. 1" so hopefully we get the next installment soon.
Check out the EP and the Music Video asap and come back on Friday for our next upload!
Welcome! This is Week 1, and a most auspicious beginning for Underground Fossils. Trylemma has had an amazing year sourcing rarities, and I've used my USB tape deck to produce some rips for you of a few of the rarest examples. We also decided to include a rip of Brzowski's first solo project New England Gothic which, for fans of the Maine indie rap / doom metal artist should be a pretty dope listening experience. There's a lot more to come, and we're totally stoked to be here. Happy New Year!
Epic: Touch of Grey
To
start the blog off with a bang, we present, coming straight outta
Saskatoon, DJ Epic's (now known as Epic) "Touch of Grey" mixtape. This
tape, which is indeed a mix-tape in the truest sense, was released circa
1997 when Epic was the head of the BeatComber crew (which included
Chaps, Soso, Knowskills, Innate, Deluxe, M. Phasis, and Fall Guy.) Epic
estimates that he sold about 30 of these bad boys hand to hand back in
the day. I'm not entirely sure what the "#5" that is visible on my copy
(see scans) means. It may be the fifth "Touch of Grey" cassette that
Epic dubbed or it may be Epic's fifth mixtape overall or it may be
something completely different. We get some classic tracks included here
from the likes of Outkast, Buck 65, and Kool Keith, along with some
quiet jewels like the M. Phasis freestyle. Enjoy!
Note: Side B does cut
off a bit early. Goddamn cassettes!
Subtitle: how2beat_thebeat01.872
Next, we have a Subtitle cassette from Highground: how2beat_thebeat01.872. Probably comes between 01 and 02 in that series, but we honestly know next to nothing about this work, and trying to read Mr. Marks' handwriting didn't really lead to any revelations about it. We know that it contains tracks from 02, and some new ones as well though. Trylemma conjured it up, I ripped it, and we are confident that this is the first time ever it's been offered online in digital format! Be aware, it's very lo-fi, and it has a bit of whine that comes in around track 7 and persists for the rest of the album. My copy of Written By... Megabusive ft. Smash Adams has the exact same sound but none of my other cassettes do, which makes me think it's an artifact of the tapes Highground used. It's only noticeable during silent intervals between songs so hopefully no one finds it intolerable.
Note: I labeled the tracks as they were on the insert, but I strongly suspect that the song Key 23A is the one where he says "Key 23A" a whole bunch, and not the one before it where he doesn't say it at all. This suggests the rest of the songs may be titled incorrectly also. The artwork also only lists 12 songs, but there are quite a few more. Finally, the artwork came cut off, the above scan is how it looked.
Brzowski: New England Gothic
Finally, we have New England Gothic by Brzowski. I managed to get a used copy of this from a guy on Discogs and I'm very glad I did, it's a must have for Milled Pavement fans. Released in 2002, predating the Raygunomics EP by a few years, this album shows Brzowski gaining confidence in himself as a rapper and writer and developing his unique sound of spoken word inspired poetic rap. It's not his best work but it's brutally honest, emotional, and especially (and so importantly) DIY as fuck. If you like Brzowski's weird goth rap music and don't have this, now you do. Enjoy!
So that's it for our first post! We wanted to line up our debut with the New Year, but our official post day is Friday. Be sure to tune in next week before you head out for TGIF drinks, we've got something real dope planned. No spoilers. Finally, do us a favor and spread the word! This isn't even close to the end of the exclusive rips we've got on hand and more fossils are unearthed all the time.
