Delinquent Monastery - Brain Frees Creative

 

Today's post is from Bay Area trio Delinquent Monastery and their 2004 release "Brain Frees Creative." 

Delinquent Monastery, aka DelMon Crew, consisted (consists?) of Oakland rappers Lush One, Plex Rock, and Ajaxx. They had deep connects to both the hyphy scene and the Living Legends-esque backpack scene, in addition to the wider underground overall. They, particularly Lush One, rose to prominence with the rise of battle rap and Grind Time (which recently made a return.) Lush still makes music on his own and with various collectives and is still close friends with Plex and Ajaxx, but I'm not sure if the trio has any plans to make music together in the future. 

I know next to nothing about "Brain Frees Creative." It looks like a potential sampler or mixtape, but I can't seem to find much info on it. The music itself is dope though!

Brain Frees Creative

Notes:

- Hopefully some of you were able to check out Claud Six's (of Jellyfish Brigade) and Jayrad's "Lake Lovers" and Noah23's "Twenty Threezus" that dropped last week.

- This week we got a double dose of Sandpeople drops with Wool See's "Invisibility Cloak" and $imple's "Jail Bars" albums. 

- Also peep LXVNDR's and Tachichi's "Found Money," "Luke Sick's "Tacked Out In The Gamma Light," and Sully's "Dance Music For Wallflowers" projects that dropped today! 

Gestalt Collective - Scrimmage 1 (2009)

 

 

Some rare Canadian hip hop tunes on this one, thanks to Trylemma for the hook. Not sure where it comes from but Ira Lee, Moka O and Royal-T make appearances.

Enjoy, and I'm out!

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Super Happy Wax Records - The North West Compilation One (2006)

 

This week's late post comes from one of my favorite piles of things to collect - northwest compilations. And this one, from 2006, has a pretty fitting title: "The North West Compilation One" from Super Happy Wax Records.

Super Happy Wax was a Portland label/store from the mid-late 2000's that seemed to have really got going once Northwest Order started slowing down. They put out some records from Smoke, Nite Owls (Mr. Hill and Barfly from Oldominion,) and Clockwerk (Iame/Goldini Bagwell from The Sandpeople.) I perhaps remember them most for their online store and message board from back in the day where you could cop some now NW gems and interact with other NW Hip Hop junkies. 

"The North West Compilation One" was a label sampler that Super Happy Wax would give away with online orders (I think you could buy it separately for like a buck.) The act list includes Cool Nutz, Grayskul, DJ Wicked, Abadawn, Santotzin, Cancer Rising, Mo-B, OnlyOne, Soul Plasma, and many more. Unfortunately, future installments of the compilation series never came to be. Thanks to the legendary FTD scene group for the rip! 

The North West Compilation One

NOTES:

- Check out the new Gumshoe Strut EP that dropped today, "NT2D," HERE. MC Homeless, Nolto, and Chaps make appearances. 

- Some deep Project Blowed heads may be familiar with Naj Ahead (formerly N/A of Tha Lepht.) Guy has been dropping some really good instrumental and remix projects in the last handful of years on his Bandcamp and last week he dropped "Random Rap Remixes Vol 2" HERE. Check it. 

- And speaking of the Blowed, Abstract Rude just dropped his latest installment in his "Trax" series with "Making Indie Traxx: Dusty Pointy Fingers" HERE. He usually ends up printing CDs of these down the road for those who want to wait for the physical. 

- Also don't sleep on Bloomcycle's and Old Grape God's "I Turn the Room to a Lava Lamp," Riddlore's and Debmaster's "Unreleased Tracks," Nickel Hawkeye's "Becoming Unbroken," and El Gran E Record's (who is putting out a new Epic record this year) "Sampler (2020-2023)" which all dropped earlier this month. 

Kublakai - The Change (2006)

 

 

I can't believe we've never posted this one before but it looks like we haven't. The Change is Kublakai, a NW cat who in my opinion distinguished himself with a fairly solid songwriting ability and singing chops on his work the The Let Go rapping over some familiar beats. At least one is VERY familiar.

Enjoy!

 

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Pigsty - Wondering If Theo Got Bad Grades... (2008)

 

This is another one of those gems that I don't know much about - Pigsty's 2008 release "Wondering If Theo Got Bad Grades..."

Pigsty is a Canadian rapper from Vancouver. He gained recognition for being a pretty prolific KOTD battle rapper about a decade ago. He never really reached the top tiers, but he did become involved with Avocado's Ruin Your Day brand, though I haven't really heard from him recently in any capacity.

"Wondering If Theo Got Bad Grades" is a 2008 album/mixtape and is the only release I have from Pigsty. I have no recollection where I got it from and I have no idea what the roll out for this was. It definitely has a late 2000s underground West Coast vibe to it which is fun. Some cheap but bouncy beats with some short verses that rarely outstay their welcome. 

DL below and let me know if you have any information about the project (or Pigsty currently in general!) 

Wondering If Theo Got Bad Grades...

NOTES:

Be sure to check out Factor Chandelier's new album that dropped today, "Moving Like A Planet."

Not sure if you've been following RAP Ferreira (fka milo) recently, but the man has dropped two projects in the last couple of weeks. One, "Lilac Diesel," is a tape that Ferreira recorded in the back of his record store. The other, "KEF 33," is an early version of Ferreira's "Purple Moonlight Projects." What's unique about these releases is that they're only available via Ferreira's site and are supposedly never hitting streaming. The vinyl pre-orders for both are sold out and what's also unique is that Ferreira has set a limited amount of digital copies (1000) available (though it's obviously not too hard to track them down elsewhere if you try.) "Lilac Diesel" sold out digitally and "KEF 33" is getting close, so if you want to support, head Ferreira's way HERE.

On a Ruby Yacht related note, Pink Navel and Kenny Segal recently announced an upcoming collabo album entitled "How To Capture Playful." The release date and tracklist has yet to be revealed, but check for it soon. Segal is coming off some big hype after his most recent Billy Woods, so hopefully this can continue the train. 

The guy Open Mike Eagle is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his album, "Rappers Will Die Of Natural Causes," with a vinyl re-release of the project complete with new artwork and two bonus tracks. This is a bit strange since the album came out in 2011 - so we're a little late on the anniversary haha. Signed copies sold out on OME's Bandcamp, but I believe normal copies of the re-release are available in most online stores today. (Dessa is also re-releasing her "Parts of Speech" on vinyl for the album's more timely 10th anniversary.) 

After a comeback in the new decade, label favorite Ooohh! That's Heavy is finally on Bandcamp and apparently operating more as an entity of its own (apart from Audio Recon, despite the two still being partners.) Today they dropped a vinyl release of Glenn Porter's 2008 album "Blessed By A Young Death." Check it out HERE. 

This week, $imple (aka THNDTHF) of The Sandpeople decided to throw up a fully unreleased album from McJameson (fka Clockwerk - Iame and Goldini Bagwell of The Sandpeople.) A McJameson album was teased a lot back in the day, but things never came to fruition and I didn't even know that the project was essentially done. Thank you to $imple for bringing this to light. Cop the new album "Barrel Aged" HERE. 

Finally, one week from today we're getting a new album from none other than SmokeM2D6 from Oldominion. This is Smoke's first solo album in over 16 years and not only did he produce it but he's back to rapping on it as well! For those NW junkies, you'll appreciate the guestlist which includes Iame, Claud Six, JFK, Bishop I, and others! Cop a vinyl of the project via K-Recs HERE.