Coming in under the radar a few weeks ago we had a new (short) album from some of the jazziest and coolest folks in the west coast underground scene, Private School! Composed of some of the pioneering hip hop voices that brought you the Record Players (alongside Joe Dub himself, the original SF indie rapper) this crew was relatively famous for composing and performing dreamlike, dusty sample based raps that toed the fine line between stoney and boring with poise and skill, somehow making somnolent into the finest praise for an art form that is well known for telling us to "bring the noise".
Ian, Jundax (aka Jun Dax, aka Quiet) and Dagoldenray are three emcees who share a style and a vision. Private Schools sound has been dope for decades now, and has managed to keep the same style surprisingly fresh through various incarnations, solo outings and side collabs (I Ran Y, INK etc.). Beginning in 2001 with Orientation, I can say I've always been a pretty big fan. Especially of Ian's production, which has more recently found a great home alongside vocals by Nonce OG Sach(illpages).
That said, how do they sound now? Well, true to form not much has changed about these folks between 2001 and 2020. And why not? There's something truly timeless about jazz, and it will always to me be a particularly evocative and interesting source of samples for the type of rap that hits like an opium dream.
Consisting of raps from all of the original members, some instrumental material and some interludish type songs Duchamp EP is a tiny slice of the sound we may already know well. With just 5 tracks and only a few that really qualify to me as polished songs, if it wasn't also free I might be slightly less enthused about it, but as it is there's no reason any fan of rap or even music in general wouldn't find this a nice break from the current political and medical climate of today's world.
As is always my only complaint about Private School, sometimes the lack of variation in tone, cadence and overall sound can get slightly tiresome (as in, it puts me to sleep a bit) and that's certainly still worth mentioning with Duchamp. However to be fair I went to a jazz show once and actually did fall asleep, so maybe I just don't have the proper attention span. That said, I enjoyed it and I enjoyed this as well. Clearly professional grade jazz sleepy rap. Enjoy!
Get the long awaited new EP from Private School, Duchamp EP, right here!
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