Today's post has us going back up North with Thoughtbug's 2003 album, "A Few Suggestions."
Thoughtbug is a Canadian rapper and one fourth of Creature Box (alongside Savilion, Toad1, and Shazbot.) He was associated with Legendary Entertainment and Hand'Solo Records but "A Few Suggestions," his second solo album, came via Savilion's (short lived?) label, Green Walls Music.
Thoughtbug's raps are very early/mid 2000s Canadian underground in both content and delivery (think digestible lyrical miracle.) The production, handled in total by Savilion I believe, is dark jazzy boom bap, which fits well for the time and sound of the project.
I have no idea what Thoughtbug is up to today as he didn't really release anything after this. If anyone has any info, drop it below! (Props to FTD for the scene rip.)
New one from Giovanni Marks (Subtitle) out fresh today! Peep some familiar faces including Imani, Thavius Beck, and Koreatown Oddity. Check it out below and stay crev!
I got a sneaking suspicion there are a lot of folks out there looking for this one. If you wander over to this albums page on Discogs, which I'll go ahead and make really easy for you, you'll see a review from a dude who's secondhand albums form a massive bulk of my collection and probably one of the biggest indie rap heads on the planet. Basically he loves this album.
Matt Gamin emerged from the same scene, around the same time as well known rap acts Third Sight, Dave Dub, Tape Mastah Steph etc. Late 1990's San Jose hip hop has a very unique style. Laid back hardcore rhymes and dark production but with an emphasis on intelligence and experimentation. There is a lot to love about SJ rap, and this giant offering from one of it's founders showcases all of that in one singular package.
Okay guys, so you know how sometimes you're bored and you get the urge to surf Bandcamp, basically hoping to find the next Aesop Rock or Ceschi so you can gloat about it with your friends when all of a sudden the scene starts talking about them non-stop? No? You're a better person than me, but we knew that already. Anyway, I did that a few months back and came across this dude Introvert, producing music out of the great state of Florida.
I gotta be honest, I was intrigued by the artwork and the write-up they had at the time, but I honestly wasn't expecting to be especially wowed from the jump. There's a huge amount of emo rap out there, usually working with names like Introvert that sort of blend together. Not bad necessarily, but in a lot of ways I feel like I outgrew them when I left the first half of my 20's behind. I love emotionally honest and real hip hop, but it has to ring true and it cannot be forced. There's too much of that around these days, many artists are keenly aware of the teenage demographic desperate for validation of their growing pains (no hate, this was me all over a few decades ago).
Anyway, this guy is good y'all, he's the real deal. His production is very dope, which definitely elevates the quality but really his poetry is great and what I think makes him most notable. He's honest and open and willing to explore his issues with the listener, although up until this point he has said, and I can see it as well, that much of the details are obscured in metaphor. I need to relisten to his older work a bit more but I do remember finding his turns of phrase interesting and original at least. As for his stage credentials, he's opened for a variety of acts who are well known these days; Jonathan Brown, Sadistik, Raphael Vigilantics etc. but AFAIK he is not well known at all.
Not So Seasonal Depression is his first release under the new name Idle Friend. The story goes that this EP is meant to express his emotional experiences and trauma in a more direct fashion (as opposed to the more metaphorical rhymes he displays on his first two albums), a suggestion made by his therapist. He definitely succeeds there. I devoured this EP while walking Sunday morning, and I have to say it hits hard. Anyone who's struggled heavily with issues surrounding self medication, self abuse, self doubt, self hatred, self esteem, self awareness etc. should see themselves in these words, and hopefully be heartened at the clear message that there is a way through.
I truly loved this EP. The production (handled in bulk by LowKeyBeats except for the exceptional "Consent" which is SPAN PHLY's work) is pretty damn good, but what really makes this a worthwhile listen is Idle Friend's fearless lyricism and willingness to discuss issues that still to this day make most people uncomfortable. One of his favorite tracks on the album (rapidly becoming mine as well with repeated listens) is "Despite Everything" which delivers one of the best hooks I've heard about mental illness in a while:
"Despite everything, and all the pain you've been through, you don't just deserve to live, you deserve to want to."
"Consent" is a track I'm still picking apart but I believe it deals with when we are either compromised against our will, or we compromise ourselves to please someone else. This is a hugely messy and delicate issue to write about, and the song does so with tact and grace. It's just one example of how well Idle Friend handles the deep stuff. I feel like if I can convince you to check this out, both of those tracks deliver the best of what he has to offer and will most likely hook you enough to convince you to at least stream the rest.
This is honest work, clearly a labor of love and a harbinger of great things from an artist really growing into their role as a poet. I can honestly say this album was meaningful to me as someone who's had their share of issues, and I hope that many of you will feel the same. It was great to listen to, great to write about and it'll be great to see how well I believe it's going to be received.
Give it a listen here! And consider supporting someone who could help a lot of people, and also happens to be a great songwriter.
Here's a quick download since Trylemma's busy this week. He already shared some 3NP! bangers so I'll give myself a break on the descriptions. Difficult to locate fossil. Smoke of Oldominion. Northwest hip hop. OD's Christian roots (still good for non-Christians like myself)
Late today, but if you haven't already yet, check out Safari Al's new EP, "I Will Guide You Out."
Safari Al is best known for being Rap Ferreira's (fka milo) longtime collaborator and Ruby Yacht member. Recently, Al has left the Yacht (no hard feelings involved) to focus on his new sound, which involves a lot of dope soft singing. Check it out below!
Surprise! I'm giving away this rar(ish) release from Staplemouth, who's work I've described in detail on my last post. Un-Everything Except Three is a rough compilation style mix of collabs and random tracks, all of different quality and clearly spanning years that was put together by him and apparently given away on Bandcamp. This album contains great features from artists like Demune, Ceschi, BrokenKlutch, Nocturne, Riff Raff, Noah23, Wormhole etc. And the almighty Omega Cix. who's closing verse on "Trilateral Damage" is probably the weirdest, craziest thing I've ever heard in my life.
This is a serious treasure of hip hop music, and in my opinion in many ways surpasses his only real solo release Ruler of Desperate Measures (although "Hanging Gardens 2012" is such a stunning piece of work...). We are overdue a solo album from Staplemouth worthy of his name (The Ogre Ephemeris with Ovate from Tree Dusk Muir is pretty damn good though) and Estuary with Th' Mole coming very soon is sure to be that very thing.
Agonizing over what to write for my turn on UGF this week I went back over the huge amount of really dope material we've been the lucky recipients of already this year (we as in all of us, not just UGF specifically) and I came upon this email from early January that in a haze of work stress, relationship worries and health problems (no not Covid) I had completely forgotten about. Jonah Mociun aka Th' Mole of Weird Rap was kind enough to offer up an advance listening copy of this one and I've gotta say a full length Staplemouth album of this caliber is exactly what I need right now to deal with all of the above.
For those of you who may only be dimly familiar with Staplemouth, his rap career stretches back decades to ...Of Proliteariots, one of my personal favorite groups of that era and some of the earliest members of the Plague Language Fam. Since then he's been a member of New Cocoon, Tree Dusk Muir, Cane Corso Records and now Pen Thief Records. Basically everything this guy had an influence on was at least at some point pure gold. Not only does he have the most impressive rapid fire lyrical chops I've ever heard (or seen, I love showing folks who claim his recordings are impossible and must've been digitally sped up a video of him rhyming with fellow Kansasians [Kansians? Damn...] The Blos, his voice is powerful and in some ways really beautiful ("Hanging Gardens 2012", Q.E. M.F. D.) and his lyricism is labyrinthine, requiring hours of patient listening to tease out.
I am much less familiar with Th' Mole I have to admit. I love the work he's done on production, and his zany appearance and on stage antics make him one of a kind in no uncertain terms. I have often been interesting in hearing more from him (I pretty much enjoyed his album with Demune and a lot of that was his beat making) but I find his literal mountain of material seriously intimidating and I have no idea where to even begin. I will say I know enough about him to be really excited by the prospect of these two weird rap vets collaborating for the first time.
I did have a chance to listen to Rift all the way through. Initially, and I believe many of you will probably agree, I was disappointed to find out we were getting this schizoid rework of the original songs before the full length project (schizoid as in split). Side A of this tape is Staplemouth's lyrics, Side B is Th' Moles beats although both sides have had modifications made to make them more listenable as seperate entities. I was truly excited to hear this in finished form, but it seems it may be months before we get that opportunity.
BUT. To those of you who feel the way I did, I highly recommend if you're a fan of either of these artists to give this album a listen. You can already hear Staplemouth's contribution on the Weird Rap Bandcamp and it is some of the heaviest, most incredible songwriting he's ever done. As usual he devotes much of his breath to rapid fire meditations on eschatology and other darker spiritual topics, and as usual his gorgeous singing voice finds itself lent to melancholy rhymes, but without the benefit of beats (just some sonic tinkering, sound effects etc.) his words become more stark somehow, easier to understand, and easier to truly empathize with. I feel, maybe I'm wrong, but that much of these lyrics are at their core articulations of a worried father watching what I think we all probably worry is the beginning of the end of the world. And there is probably no one better than Staplemouth to drop such serious topics in a way that keeps the songs both thought provoking and dope AF.
Also, the part that you won't hear until the day of it's release, the production is something else. It was a cool experience to go back and forth and hear what will be the sonic backdrop for these musings and find out how unexpected they actual are in many ways. Th' Mole is a very talented musician, and these beats are intricate, head noddingly dope and progressive to the point that they sound more Danny Carey than Scott La Rock. Heavily layered drums and tripped out, spacy synths make these songs a drum circle on Pluto, and I gotta say I CANNOT wait to hear this album in it's finished form. It promises to be one of the best rap albums of the year.
And real quick, since I have access to the press photos, let's meet the players.
Now, if you find yourself as excited about this as I am, here's a little audio / visual project they put together for the album as well.
Now, I'm not going to say everyone will like Rift. This is not for the casual fans of hip hop. If you think the best indie rap out there is on RSE you're going to want to skip this (no judgement, just don't want to waste anyone's time). Maybe wait for the final offering when these songs finally meet and achieve their true form. But if you're in the mood for something different, something that truly demonstrates the skill of two consummate professionals, and is definitely worth the extra work to pick out the hidden treasures it offers...
