Welcome BITCHES to the world of Stuffy Booth and their eternal war on fat chicks; a new (hilarious) collaboration project from the outer boroughs. Now if you have an ear for slick club-style hip-hop then you're probably already familiar with Thick One and Sauce Man; they say on any given weekend night if you listen real quietly you can hear the two rowdy pranksters blowing up some retarded party on this island. Sauce Man's flow has always been tranquil yet nonchalant, with a layer of hilarity laid over all of his verses just to let the listener know that though his rhyming abilities may run deep, comedy comes before depth with this persona. To the characters of Cheesy McGreasy and Looseleaf Wallace (whoever they are) it's obvious that nothing is ever held back when your on tracks such as these, as they immediately meld right in with witty wordplay yet retarded hilarity on par with the past songs of Sauce Man and the Thick One. To be honest I thoroughly enjoyed this shit; cause it's basically a NY-version of 2 Live Crew, and what the fuck is there to hate about that?! So If you got ass you better start shaking it, and if you got cash you better start throwing it; cause the Stuffy Booth is here to stay XD
Whether your a up and coming DJ pouring through soundcloud undefined regions late at night for that next digestible banger, or some punk-ass kid who really wants to freak out the 80 year-old man sitting next to you on a long bus ride, I have just one question for you; have you heard of crumpcore? The hardcore devotee Skifcha has released his latest beat-tape; a slew of heavy slammers sent out into the airwaves to satisfy all the modern-talking junkies and spontaneous shufflers out there, and personally I'm pretty hype as well, especially when I heard this one track in particular. Now, while a vast majority of these beats might seem a bit off-the-wall; chugging along with a nice melody before descending into complete and utter bass-fueled nonsense, this track seemed completely well-rounded. It set's the stage of your classic club-banger with heavy layered kicks ringing in the new wave of crazed out partying over an entire crowd of drunken masses ready yet again to pump and grind their way passed 3am. But I'm not gonna delve to much into it; you can hear for yourself. If you like it definitely make sure you follow Skifcha on his soundcloud and check out the rest of his most recent tracks! :P
When it comes to kids from Staten Island; musical taste is often a much ridiculed topic. I'll admit when I first moved to the island I was kinda confused by the sheer amount of cheesy punk persuasion backed with this odd love for all things Wu-Tang related... Shit did not make sense to me.... Like at all... But it was only after a few years of living in new brighton and loitering in random parking lots that things started to make sense to me, about the weird clashes of shitty music taste we all share and how they collide to make a singular identity. Because sometimes that's what I find myself believing this generation is; the aftermath of a pop-culture wasteland. That's also what I believe is so promising about the scene in general; that artists have literally mounds of crap and generations of shitty radio to warp and construe into something relevant. A sinister and creepy electronic underbelly to the dead genre warzone we've had floating over the radio above us for the past, what... two decades? This all leads to why I'm pretty hype to feature this month's mix by newcomer Dubyero; the kid's style so far is the epitome of mainstream house being filtered down into the underground and the sick changes that morph along with that descension. Quite simply, it's the pure joy of listening to light poppy tunes transform into electro-step monsters; and this is a classic joy among underground electronic fans, so I feel it's only appropriate to add this sort of overlay to a month that's probably gonna be filled with some really weird tracks to on this blog :)
AWWWW SNAP SON XD Yup, that's right kids, Temple is fuckin' back with the trillness; and the stoners all over the island are climbing to rooftops with blunt wraps and ghetto blasters in tow as we speak. For this preview of the mysterious Volume II has seemingly creeped up out of nowhere; much like talk of this upcoming release itself it began as nothing but a whisper slowly and slowly rising it until it is finally over taken by a liquid flow that takes us on the path of this slice of trip-hop; as if we can take this wavey-ass three-minute peek into the hookah-smoking caterpiller's mind. (and yup, that was an Alice reference) So yeah, you might just wanna hit play now lol But if you wanna stick around and hear me ramble on, I'd love to delve into the line-up change the Temple has chosen for this preview; upstart producer/lyricist M2 has made his first appearance onto the scene of Shaolin bass music, and quite honestly it's a pretty damn extrodinary debut. For by this point we have a pretty good idea of what a JTTG track sounds like (check his beat-tape for a full lesson) and most of us have a pretty good idea what The SHRNK and he sound like together on a track; tight heavy bass-work, with subtle under-pads of different shapes and sizes, but overall a very distinct sound. But the thing is while this track definitively falls under the overarching banner of T.S.T. as far as genre and tone, the execution and production decisions are pretty inherently different. So, is this a good thing for Temple fans? Well, yeah probably, especially as some of the WAAU producers have begun to explore new more creative styles, they've developed vast stylistic differences, and this in turn will make (or should make) the collaborations within the group more distinct from each other. Who is on which track will begin to make a huge impact on how the track will turn out and sound, which is pretty cool news if your a fan of variation in this scene as we go forward. Because, what, is everyone supposed to sound the fucking same? My vote is for "fuck naw" and I think it's truly tracks like these that are convincing most kids in this scene to agree on that.
While it's pretty clear to most people who have an ear to the world
of shaolin lyricists that everything and everyone associated with The Charity is in a dominating position to overtake the scene; it's slightly
less clear which one of them is particularly leading the pack. Cause,
in all honesty, with this scene being so young (and most of our artists
so young as well) who can you really rank that far over anyone else? On
the one hand, when closely examined, most fans can tell that they all
draw from each other and come from a common approach, as they seem to
have similar structures and themes on most of their tracks;
it all seems very "north shore" with a sense of street wisdom and
real-world problems overtaking extravagant vocabulary or vocal prowess.
Yet on the complete flip-side, one begins to realize that they all rap
with staunchly different attitudes towards life, and it's these subtle
style variations in who they are as lyricists surrounded by the overarching
style of Charity Music that makes them such an exciting group. When
it comes to BINO in particular; I've recently found myself drawing
comparisons to 90's rappers like Raekwon or Scarface; you can almost
actually feel the fucking weight of this environment of ours hanging
over his words. It's not just about his rhymes or his flow, but more-so
the attitude in which he presents himself, dropping small bombs of
wisdom casually as if perhaps he doesn't feel like anyone will fully
understand him anyway... but, of course, I could be totally wrong lol But
with all of this topped off by a sweetly padded Voduz track (a page he
has clearly taken out of Zaytoven's book) delivered with a quiet
precision that accentuates BINO's message; the overall product is a
sweet, if not slightly straight-forward track that plays well to his
style and was a pretty damn nice addition to dat ol' weekly playlist :P
So with his debut beat-tape having been out for a week or so now; I feel JTTG's new tracks have begun to sink into the scene a little; I also feel like now is an appropriate time to put out a review on the piece. See, we never really wanted this blog to be just another "press release" for artists, which is why we tend to not post the majority of tracks sent to us until we feel the scene has shown a degree of inherit interest in them. But now that all is said and done I feel it's a good moment to let you guys know that I think this mixtape is fucking ill, so imma muse a little. See, not many mixtapes follow a storyline; while we hear of over-played groups putting out "concept-albums" all the time we rarely see much of this underground; most mixtapes, good or bad, tend to be a random assembly of ideas and concepts, but The Next Hokage takes a different approach. For while some people might grimace at a Naruto-themed anything, once you get into it you pretty much....yeah, get into it. This kid has refined his ability of pulling listeners into his tracks which then in turn draw listeners into his mixtape as a whole; you start off saying "okay, imma listen to the first track" and then all of sudden your halfway through the whole tape and completely immersed without realizing it. And while it would be really easy to compare JTTG's release with his Temple partner The SHRNK's recent beat-tape, I don't thing that would do this tape justice. It's become pretty clear to their fans that their solo work is vastly different from each other, which on the one hand is really cool to hear, but on the other hand is a real challenge when it comes to their next Temple release; because everyone will have clear examples of the two producers' styles and some will be quick to scrutinize who each track seems to be leaning towards. Personally, I'm hoping cohesion will be the name of the game. And on a side note; how fucking cool is it to give a world such as Masashi Kishimoto's a hip-hop soundtrack to go along with it? All of a sudden the story turns into Samurai Champloo and we have ninja's fighting to spaced-out trap music. Is it taking a dangerous risk? Sure. It's an idea that could've fallen flat on it's face if not executed properly, but it IS executed properly, and would you really rather listen to some generic DatPiff shit instead?
Okay, so this remix from Haywood starts out as a total nostalgia trip for older ravers; I mean come on, Corona? That shit's back from when Jungle music was like, fucking NEW, like WAY back; when you could be coming home from some warehouse party on the dilapidated 90's subway system at four in the morning, flip on your pocket radio (cause everyone had those, right?) and hear Dee-Lite crooning in your ears to go back out and party more. But then suddenly the track takes a dangerous turn; as the slick well produced style of the current culture come pounding forward with pure satanic 808 power and start slapping against the ground. Yet throughout this solid remix of an old classic, we get the feeling that indeed the old truths still hold there weight; as any DJ could drop this at any party today and every girl would start swaying with familiarity to this classic track (even though most of these chicks were probably like, five years old when Corona was out). But maybe I'm reading too much into it. Either way this is a solid track, that every DJ in this scene should probably add to his arsenal, for it's not often you get that solid mix of past and present, and it's a choice tool to use at the appropriate moment in a good set. It also makes us wonder if this producer will bring that ear for the past into his projects when he (undoubtedly) begins to venture into original solo tracks, but I guess we can only hope, right? And while it's currently not available by legal means, perhaps enough appreciation from the scene on Haywood's soundcloud and that 'download' button will magically appear somehow ;)
