I asked Trylemma what I should post and he said "some rare San Jose shit" to paraphrase. So here you go! A number of different versions of this exist with different B-sides. All are dope. Dave Dub really exemplifies why SJ puts out some of the most interesting hip hop in the Bay Area. Gritty, meaningful and experimental. Never boring, never easy, never expected. Enjoy Skywalking!
I think this one qualifies as a fossil. Classic PA hip hop all day, Luke Sick's humble origins in all it's glory. Includes an improv folk song. No shit.
Enjoy Hoopleg!
Oh yeah thanks Trylemma for the last minute cover last week. Hope I wasn't missed too much.
Dimxsk is busy this week, so just popping by to post this request: FTA's "New Master" tape from 1998. Enjoy!
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!
Here's another Household Nameless release from the aforementioned mother lode I was given access to last month. Simantic is one third of Scotch Tape Portraits, the interstate collective that gave us Babel Fishh and E9ine on the beats. Simantic is an extraordinary wordsmith with beatmaking talent as well. Writes songs addressing poverty, politics and mainstream culture with a sense of humor and humility. Great stuff!
Oh and check out here for some of his newer material under the moniker Toeach Therón!
And the Ruby Yacht keeps rockin on! This time with SB The Moor's "In Babylon!"
SB The Moor (aka Signor Benedick The Moor) is a Cali rapper who has ties to Deathbomb Arc (he was part of True Neutral Crew with Daveed Diggs) and is currently part of Ruby Yacht. "In Babylon!" is his newest project and it's a banger!
While Rap Ferreira messes around with the dusty samples and blues, and while Pink Navel messes with the glitchy sounds, SB The Moor tackles a variety of Cali bop sounds that fit his super animated style very well. Lyrically, things are a bit darker as SB addresses the current near dystopian state as society still fails to address ubiquitous racism.
Check it out below and cop a tape!
Today's post is a minor "long lost" project that I recently retrieved in the form of Alpha MC's "IDGAF2."
Alpha MC, currently known as Alph Tha Alien, is an LA rapper who is part of Project Blowed and the mighty Swim Team. He's always had a real laid back nonchalant comical delivery that I've always loved. "IDGAF2" is a mixtape that Alpha uploaded to his Soundcloud in 2015. It wasn't available to buy or DL and about a year later it was wiped :(
That sucked as the project was one of my favorites of 2015 (I always figured he'd make it available to buy, so I never worried about ripping it myself.) The mixtape was a follow-up to his "I Don't Give A Fuck" mixtape from 2012 (which is almost as dope as the sequel and which is still available to DL for free on Alph's Bandcamp.) On it, Alpha tackles some mainstream beats and gives a total clinic and flows and deliveries. It's not much in terms of "substance" (think a lot of braggadocio and rhymes about fucking) but if you like hearing dudes just rap over some dopeass beats (and no, I'm not talking about ya'll boringass NYC boom bap rappers lol)...this is a great modern example!
Anyhow, I've been bugging Alpha about getting the project for a while now and while he himself no longer had the tracks, one of his producers did and Alpha was nice enough to send me along the 10 tracks. Huge thanks to him! DL and enjoy below!
The old heads will remember west coaster Style Misia for his various classic collabos with Daysmen Empire, Scarub, and Constylations amongst others. Well, the man is still hard at work putting out solo projects and today's post comes from his new beat-tape, "Soul By The Pound"!
"Soul By The Pound" is a 15 track instrumental project, with no most tracks clocking in around the 2 minute or less mark. The project is soulful, jazzy, and sample-based. There's nothing super innovative, but nearly all the songs do their job and don't outstay their welcome.
Peep it HERE!
Here's something that lowkey dropped recently. West Coasters Avatar and DJ Obi recently teamed up to create the duo "Tooth & Claw." The self-titled debut album was set to drop on August 1st and it did...for about 3 hours. Then everything from the duo was seemingly pulled from online (the Bandcamp, the Soundcloud, the Instagram, and of course the album.) Luckily, it eventually found its way back online and can now be streamed and purchased...for now.
Like a lot of Avatar's work, "Tooth & Claw" is dark, brooding, and heavy paired up with some Blowedian influenced styles and bars. Obi does a really good job on the boards and tables as well. Gel Roc and Smile-Oak stop by for some verses too. Check it out below!
Today's post comes courtesy of the Cali underground with Family Ties' 2005 self titled album!
Family Ties was (is?) headed up by Imp (aka Imperator) who was a lesser known Project Blowed member. He enlisted his son, Creepy Fingers, and his nephew, Goldie, to create the group. As far as I know, this was the only official release that the group dropped.
The bouncy production is what you might expect from mid 2000's center-field underground LA rap, for better or worse, but the rapping is fun and should please fans from the greater scene. Peep below!
