New Music: Alph Tha Alien - Black Tax

Alpha MC is one of the most overlooked west coasters and rappers in general imo. His nonchalant quirkiness and creative rhyme schemes make him one of the best examples of the last real wave of Blowedians. Over the past handful of years, however, he's been relatively quiet. He released a lowkey album with Pigeon John in 2014, did a name change to Alph Boss and dropped an instrumental EP a couple years ago, and now, finally in 2020, changed the name again to Alph Tha Alien and dropped the long awaited, "Black Tax."

The album, which was rolled out via a number of loosey singles over the past months, sort of sounds like Alph finding his way back into the scene. The guy can still absolutely rap no questions asked. Stylistically, however, it seems like he's trying to fit his way into various forms of established contemporary LA sounds. I can hear Kendrick vibes, Open Mike Eagle (who is featured on the project) vibes, Blueface vibes. He pulls off most of the styles and sounds well, but it's at the cost of his own more original lighthearted style that many older fans have grown accustomed to. A lot of the songs feel like they could use more fleshing out beat-wise and conceptually as well.

If you're an Alpha MC (or Swim Team/Project Blowed) fan, this is absolutely worth checking out, just based on the fact that we get to hear Alph rap again. Hopefully Alpha both stays around for a while this go around and finds some time to find his more original voice again.

Stream "Black Tax" HERE. 

A Dying Breed - In Memory of Tomorrow (2003)

After my long winded but really enjoyable to write review on Wednesday, I'm going to let the music speak a bit more for itself on this one. Especially because, once again, I don't know where I got this, why I got this, or who these guys really are. Maybe those CDBaby gnomes put it on my computer late one night? They're unemployed these days..

Anyway, meet A Dying Breed, and their album In Memory of Tomorrow. They shout out Sea Serpents and Rime Fytahs on their liner notes, so I can guess they're SoCal, and they have a similar raw but lyrical sound and delivery. Cool cover art too. The group consists of Haiku IQ3 (that's IQ cubed), Trife, Sick1, Quest1 and Exodus. This is their one and only album and the only mention I found of it online was a few songs streaming on YouTube from a fan like us, so bet it's rare.

Cool little album, DIY as f*ck. Ya'll should like it.

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New Music: Goro 3:16 (Ersatz Splynter & Oscar Goldman w/ Casey Chisholm) - Goro 3:16 EP

Some of you may be familiar with a magical month of the year known to English speakers as December. It's pretty great for a lot of reasons, secular and otherwise, but it's particularly great because it's the four weeks of the year that Fake Four releases an album every Friday in a celebration of indie music known as Freecember. On those days we get music both from established members of the collective but also, in my opinion often even more notable, by folks we might never have known about otherwise.

This is relevant for today because two artists I personally learned about from their contributions to Freecember, Ersatz Splynter and Oscar Goldman (check those albums out here and here, oh and also here, and if you don't have them yet don't worry, we still love you and the rest of us will wait patiently while you catch up... by the way, forget the free EP version of Prevoid, the full length is the way to go. Only 4 more left so don't sleep.) where was I, damn parentheses, yeah, these two are putting out an EP as the duo Goro 3:16, and UGF got the chance to give it a listen and review it for you so you can be properly stoked for it. Coming out May 1st, there's a lot to love about this album and it couldn't have been born at a better time, rest assured that there's something to look forward to in this time of uncertainty.

Hailing from the arid yet fertile dead center of California, both these emcees were well established local acts before their collaboration was born. Ersatz has a number of albums under his belt, including work with his crew Roach Collection and a production career as well as a well earned reputation for rapping his ass off. His speed and delivery are impressive, but do not overshadow a sense of humor and willingness to crash through genre boundaries and enjoy himself infectiously while doing it. Oscar Goldman has put out a number of albums with producers such as Just a Koncept and Casey Chisholm, and it's evident that his small stature hides a metric ton of heart and a rare willingness to delve deep and express himself. Prevoid in particular really endeared me to his work, Casey Chisholm's melancholy production helped to craft moments of absolute beauty and not only could I truly identify, I found myself really rooting for Oscar to become more well known and realize his dreams. All that goes to show I have a fondness for these two that predates Goro 3:16. While that could have influenced how I felt about this pocket sized EP, I really think it's impossible not to at least enjoy what these two are offering us.

Goro 3:16 consist of four tracks produced by Casey Chisholm, who proves once again that, like the coincidentally named German producer Oskar Ohlson (he produced a number of David Ramos' best songs) who's style is in some ways comparable, there is absolutely no instrument or genre that cannot be used to create great hip hop. From the harmonica driven self titled opener to the true piano chords of "Home", his production remains fresh and interesting. Casey's work really sets the tone of the EP, an ever present balance between joy and sadness, childhood and adulthood, hope and despair. I believe we'll be hearing a lot more from him in the coming years, as his music has the emotional depth of a great indie film score. It speaks for itself in many ways and would bolster the folk rap styles of a number of well known acts. Hint hint...

From a lyrical standpoint there is really no way in which Oscar and Splynter fail to deliver as a duo. Ertsatz's (Ersatz'?) high energy rapid fire raps still manage to seamlessly give way to Oscar's laid back and intelligent poetry, all the while crafting catchy and relatable songs. From the politics laced state of the album "Goro 3:16" to the two tracks in between that detail the life of the touring indie rapper, to the ending "Pair of Dice" that really just sums up the things in life that make them happy, this little album is a slice of life from the duo, and the enjoyment they find in creating music is evident with every moment.

I will say the tracks "Van Gogh" and "Home" are especially bittersweet within the context of this pandemic. The message is that touring is a struggle but they love doing it and are willing to suffer through what they have to in order to continue. It's heartbreaking that all of that has been put on hold. Hopefully soon enough they'll be gassing up the van and ready to gogh, but for now I did get to catch both of them during the Fake Fourantine festival and while there were some fairly major audio issues during Ersatz's set, and my washing machine chose those hours to completely crap out which prevented me from seeing more than bits and pieces of the rest, it was certainly better than nothing.

Here's the part in my reviews where I usually complain about the length of albums, as basically if I don't like something I don't review it, so I have to find some way to be constructively critical and that's often a good one. However in this case I really don't feel like it's a problem. Like another great short offering from this year, TXTMS, there's something perfect about the length of this album. In it's brevity there's beauty, and if any one of the tracks lacked heart or depth it would suffer for it, but as it is it's like a really nice dream, finite and meant to be appreciated for it. I do have to say I hope these guys continue to work together. Oscar mentioned an album with production by Splynter coming out later this year, but I really would love to hear what a full length Goro 3:16 would sound like. And finally let's all keep our fingers crossed that there'll be a stage with their name on it in the near future.

So even I'm getting tired of hearing from me, we do have access to the first video for "Van Gogh", and it's a great indication of what you've got to look forward to. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading, really excited for this one and for the future of both of these guys!

Get Goro 3:16 here on May 1st, and for now if you haven't already, go ahead and check out Oscar's own Bandcamp here. There's a couple truly great things to be found on it.

Rasx - 5 Flowers (Prod. by Factor Chandelier) (2012)

It's still Factor week up here, and today we're hooking you up with the 2012 EP from Rasx, produced by Factor, "5 Flowers!"

I don't know much about Rasx at all other than the fact that he's Canadian and the fact that he's a very good rapper. On "5 Flowers," Factor hooks Rasx up with 5 incredible instrumentals (not a dud in the group) and Rasx makes great songs out of all five of them. The guy has a very unique voice (think a mini Cam the Wiz?,) has great song concepts, solid rhymes, and, most impressive, very strong hooks. The Factor production obviously elevates the project to a new level, but, even on his own, Rasx is dope.

Rasx had this up on his Bandcamp at one point, but it has since disappeared and, to my knowledge, has not been made available elsewhere. Peep it below.

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New Music: Factor Chandelier - First Storm Review

It's little surprise that Factor is my favorite producer and Hip Hop artist in general. Over on my Instagram, I've been posting and doing mini-reviews of some of my favorite Factor physical media in preparation for this new solo album, "First Storm." A track by track review is obviously required, so here we go! [Feel free to listen and follow along, the album is currently streaming HERE.] 

1. Four Fifteen: I've described this album as "fireworky" and, if that's the case, this intro is the spark. The track is jittery, colorful, and a great little build up to what is to come. 

2. New View: I love that the project opens with two instrumental tracks. Factor is the clear star of the show here, and his instrumentals should be put on front display. The melody and progressive drums here are great. This entire album reminds me of a night out in the nostalgia city, and this one definitely conveys that feeling of pulling up.

3. Die Tonight Feat. Nomad: Last time we heard Nomad, of Cavemen Speak, collab with Factor, he was taking on the role of a snake oil mage promising resurrection on 2013's track "Alive Tomorrow." This time, he returns singing from the position of a man who refuses to let time get the best of him in the appropriately titled "Die Tonight." Factor's version of a slow yet triumphant ballad fits Nomad perfectly here. One of my favorite tracks on the project - video coming soon too! 

4. Better Way Feat. Ceschi: Factor has played such a large role in the recent Ceschi explosion, so it's only right that the two continue their partnership here. Lyrically, the track feels like a proper addition to the themes explored in "Sad, Fat Luck" and "Sans Soleil," with Ceschi reminiscing on the trials of life and the rap game, while also pondering an alternative path. Does anyone else catch a bit of melodic call back to "Old Graves"? Musically, the lush and full track definitely fits best here, however, as opposed to one of Ceschi's projects. Another favorite off the album for sure. 

5. Lord Taketh Feat. Mestizo: Mestizo!! Mestizo's most recent collabo album with Controller 7, "Couch," is basically Mestizo just rapping his ass off for 10 songs. On "Lord Taketh," we get the more atmospheric Mestizo, whose vocals really blend in nicely with Factor's airy, riffy instrumental. The content of reflecting on loss while just trying to get by of course fits in with the song's predecessors very well. 

6. Underground Feat. Cadence Weapon: The tempo speeds up a bit for this one. The subject matter is underground lifestyle but the track is paired with one of the most infectious earwormy melodies on the album and one of the catchiest hooks thanks to Cadence. Very solid addition. 

7. ZaapZ: I noted my "night out in the nostalgia city" metaphor earlier. The album feels like driving down a bright light city mainstreet and catching colorful glimpses of the past via the people you see. This headbobber instrumental feels like a slow drive intermission on the journey. 

8. Black NASA Feat. Onry Ozzborn: From here, the tracks (specifically the vocal ones,) get a bit grimier - and what better way to do that than with Onry Ozz! With an eerily relevant opener line, "Tell everyone to stay indoors for the time being," Onry delivers an ominous track relating to the various traps and pitfalls in life. The keys that Factor puts behind him are awesome, giving off a back alley type of feel. 

9. Long Game Feat. Dope KNife: This one might be the only slight misstep on the album imo. Dope KNife, a great rapper, crafts some good verses in tribute to lost friends, but the minimalistic drums sort of take me out of both the song and album in general. The hook also leaves a bit to be desired. Not a bad track by any means, but likely the one I'm most likely to skip over as time goes on. 

10. Lawnchair Feat. Taylor Jade: Going back to my metaphor, this slower instrumental, with some great background vocalizing from Taylor Jade, feels like an intersection U-turn to me, which itself serves as some metaphor of the reflective theme of the project. The horns near the end are top notch as well. 

11. Hurricane Ex Feat. Kay The Aquanaut: Another contender for best song on the album. Factor's synths on this are strong and mesmerizing, and really tell a story on their own. Kay's additions are equally impressive, giving us a harsh "tribute" to an ex, which may be an actual ex-partner and/or a placeholder for something greater (e.g. the scene.) This also has the strongest hook on the album. 

12. First Storm Feat. Myka 9: We first got to hear this title track as part of last year's "Years" compilation, which collected all three albums from Myka 9 and Factor in addition to loosie tracks they worked on together. At first, I wasn't a huge fan of the song, but re-visiting it here within this context makes me enjoy it much more. As the last vocal track on the album, we're given the juxtaposition of a forbidding, slightly jittery, instrumental and Myka's calm attention-demanding voice. The song follows the attempt to maintain sanity amidst the storm. As a wrap-up to the album, this works very well. 

13. Ocean Steps: A quiet melodic instrumental, and easily my favorite instrumental track off the album. The song feels like a sunrise after a long night (or storm.) If anything, I just wish we got a slightly extended version. Vintage Factor. 

14. Verbeke '91: The official closer is a 30 second track comprised mainly of some vocal recording or sample. I'm not sure the history or meaning behind this one, but I'm intrigued to find out.


Overall, "First Storm" is another strong entry into the Factor catalogue. If I had to compare it to a past work, it'd be 2008's "Chandelier." Lyrically, this album is a bit darker, but musically, "First Storm" shares, and builds upon, the explosive colorful sounds of "Chandelier." Stream, download, and buy merch (vinyl, cds, cassettes, shirts, hats) from the album HERE! 

Extra Kool - Heartburn Vol. 3 (2011)

With the newest release from Denver art rap genius Time just a few weeks old, I've had Dirty Lab on my mind. I decided to share something not from Time, as his entire catalogue is for sale on Bandcamp and he is an insanely cool dude so I really want everyone to support him as much as possible, but from his label mate and friend Extra Kool. This gem right here is one that was available as a free download from the Dirty Lab website a few years back, although I believe the version they'd posted had a relatively low bitrate (128 or 192). This one is variable m4a files, got it direct from Extra Kool who is also insanely cool and it sounds great. It's also in my opinion the best Extra Kool "album" you can't find anywhere anymore.

Any fan of Extra Kool already knows; his Bandcamp starts the Heartburn series with Vol. 4, leaving many to wonder where the preceding three are. Well, look no further. I also have Vol. 2 (although my m4a version of that is missing half the tracks and the one I found on their website is only 128 kbps, so I figured this was a better post) but I am still looking for Vol. 1, if anyone has it I would LOVE to hear it. I'd also love to hear anything he's put out older than Mouth Full of Stitches as his newer album Eight is only his 7th official solo album (if you count the five track The Drakoola EP). There are one or two more somewhere out there, definitely rare fossils waiting to be unearthed...

But I digress, shelter in place makes a person talkative. Heartburn Vol. 3 finds Extra Kool crafting his newer style of rapping, leaving behind the stream of consciousness, poetic lyricism (as exemplified by his 2004 Optik Fusion Embrace album with Satyre (nope not that one) for a more precision, tongue twisting style flow. Sounds a bit more like he's writing to specific beats versus fitting a poem to a beat he received after the fact. It makes his newer work a bit more listenable, although I do love everything he's put out. Always chock full of heart, personality and dope concepts with great production; Extra Kool's been dope and this mixtape is a perfect introduction to the rapper and a must have for any of his longtime fans.

Enjoy!

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Featured Label: Empty Space Collective

Well, this week I wanted to do something a bit different than my traditional album reviews, and focus on a grassroots label I've recently discovered and fallen in love with. Empty Space Collective is a Swedish noise / drone / rap indie enterprise run by Joel Siméus (formerly of Milled Pavement) and 82 (fka åttatvå which, coincidentally, is Swedish for the number of years it would take me to pronounce that, and even more fka Plunge Attempt). You may be familiar with both of these musicians, Joel produced a large body of work for Decorative Stamp, one of my favorite hip hop labels to date and also released a few albums for Milled Pavement, another favorite (Country Pink for example is great, and features raps from Plunge Attempt and THMS who you may also be familiar with through his New Cocoon release entitled, ahem.. Glömda Egenskaper. Anyways...) before striking it out on his own. His solo work, most of which is available free, can be found here.

My first exposure to the music of Empty Space was an impulse buy of the MP (getting tired of typing these labels so I'm going with acronyms) self titled release Extendead Plunge Attempt. It had an exceptional list of guest features including members of Escape Artists, Ira Lee, Evak (of Work or his album with Edison) and the aforementioned THMS as Mr. T. DJ Extend's somber guitar laced production made for a fantastic canvas upon which Plunge Attempt painted his depressing and unconventional stream of consciousness raps. After thoroughly enjoying that album, I never heard much from Plunge again until I stumbled upon ESC's Bandcamp and started downloading left and right.

Working with Joel as the distortion and screech laced Amputee and Marcello Martins as the more melodic and somber Melancholic Tendencies, Plunge has been extremely busy but speaking to a fairly limited audience as far as I can tell. I feel like for the weirdos like myself who are looking for something a bit different this label is absolutely worth a look. From IHAA's Damien to San Diego's Tenshun; there's even some production from Pete Sasqwax (remember Ten Gallon Hat / Float Yer Kegs?) and Maki, ESC has a huge collection of both Swedish and English raps and production ranging from brutal to beautiful.


Treat yourself to something strange today, and support a label that's entirely funded by hard work and love of music here.

StyleXpansion - Gestalten (2003)

This one is for the German homie Denis, since I can't post that Blank per our rules at the moment (check Discogs, there's a lot of copies for sale, that's where I got it).

For today we have StyleXpansion's Gestalten. I mostly picked this one because it's fairly obscure, it's pretty cool, and it's got some English raps as well as German so for those who don't speak it or don't like foreign language rap have something to enjoy, and the English speaking rapper is in my opinion very dope as are the others so even if you were hoping for something else, maybe this will surprise you.

I actually like the 21st century German rap scene a lot. Groups like Saarpreme (2005's Zeitvertreib is hella sick), Conexión Musical (with a few different languages at play and live musicianship there's a lot of reasons to like these dudes) and Materpfahl have a unique style with lush production and melodic raps, not to mention the solo acts like Misanthrop, Audio88, Soda, epilog, Sinok (the Prison Kit 10" from 2018 has absolutely phenomenal production from this guy), Trip, Nimrod, Blank and so on. If I like it enough I look for translations, but often I find I enjoy it just as much without, simply hearing the human voice flowing over dope and beautiful sounds with style and grace.

So back to StyleXpansion. Speaking of Materpfahl, this group is basically their forefather; It's got a number of names you German folks and fans of the weirder American rap may recognize, including Loki, S.L.A.P., Eraze the Borders, DJ Q-Brick and Capital-S, the English speaker who I think has a sound somewhere between Nolto and Myka 9 although not all that similar to either. Maybe a bit more Nolto. Either way he's got a great singing voice and a double time rapid fire delivery. Also his newer work with DJ Q-Brick as Moodbombs is pretty tight and can be bought direct from him here.

Check out this unreleased song from them and see what's up:

StyleXpansion is from almost 20 years back, and it sounds it. This is not the best thing these artists have ever done, but it's interesting and hard to find. Definitely worth a listen at least.

So with that enjoy Gestalten!

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NO. F***ING. WAY!

Whoa. That's all there is to say about the crazy isht that just came out about two of the most famous rappers ever to live and die. Or did they?...

The truth has finally been revealed, as it seems that both Biggie and Pac decided to put aside their differences, fake their deaths, and re-imagine themselves as masked metal gods in the well known band Slipknot.

And we all would have remained unaware of their secret lives, if not for the fantastic work of investigative journalist Harry McManatee. He managed to "slip" into the bands green room disguised as another dude in a mask, and plant a camera where his suspicions about the dead rappers was sure to be proven correct.

As you can see from the candid nature of the shot, the band was completely unaware that there was a hidden camera on the scene and when two of their members unmasked, shocks were had. Since this now world famous picture began circulating the interworld, both ex-rappers now rockers have come out with their secret. I managed to get an email statement from both of them (there's cursing so hide ya kids) which is crazy because Ira Lee doesn't even return my emails, but we can suspend disbelief for a bit.

Biggie: Yeah, it was just that the rap thing was gettin' old, you know what I'm sayin'? It's cool and all to write poetry about the inner city struggle, hustlin' and mackin' bad b*tches, but I guess deep down I really wanana just scream about all the 'ho's in high school who wouldn't go to homecoming with a big guy like me. And now when I ain't watchin' Beastars on Netflix with my homeboy Ryan (Tupac makes pac-corn and sometimes he hangs at the spot also), I'm writing poetry about unpleasant feelin's and downtuning my guitar to drop G. That's G for gangsta G, fo' real. I still like rap, I mean Slipknot's got a real a$s DJ so it's basically rap, but unless it's got a guy banging on a washing machine while dressed up as a gimp I don't really dig that sh*t no mo'.

Tupac: Who woulda thought that it was gonna be songs like "People = Sh*t" that brought the East and the West back together? A lot of people don't know that I can be an angry dude, I know I hide it well, but the 'Knot really allowed me to express myself. You thought that gun cockin' and poppin' off on my Bone Thugs collab was hard, you gotta see me jerk my clown mask's nose on stage, like angry jerkin' yo know what I'm sayin'? And white people straight up hurt each other to my sh*t at shows! It's called a mash pit, f*ckin' white people you so crazy. Oh sh*t and speakin' of, lemme tell ya'll, the groupies Slipknot is workin' with are CRAZY yo. No more rap shows for this gangsta.

And there you have it. If the picture above isn't enough for you, Harry actually managed to discover the secret and started his investigation because of a "mask malfunction" in the music video for "Hate". Watch carefully below, at 4 minutes and 10 seconds we see a very clear shot of both rappers without their awesome metal faces:

DID YOU SEE THAT? No? Watch it again. What about now? Damn you're not very observant. Keep at it a while.

The big question on everyone's minds is what are Pac and Big gonna do now? There's murmurs of a reality show, a few new solo albums and even a supergroup with Big Pun of Mudvayne.

Things are weird this year for sure, but there's tons of good(?) metal music out, even though Slipknot is rap because they have a DJ.




UPDATE: Biggie and Tupac were pronounced dead of Covid-19 related dying on 4/01/2020.

UPDATE 2: April Fools! I had you there for a bit huh? No? I did, don't lie.