In honor of Tropical Storm Andrea, SCSM 19 is the dark cloud wavering sensation SOUNDCLOUDSOUNDMOUND.  That overhanging, threatening, piercing music that makes you respond to how the music feels.  We’ve heard one like this before (I forget which SCSM, off top, though), but these sounds range from reticent nostalgia, to sharply combative, to footslogs from synth waves.  This isn’t “Stay on your toes the world’s out to get you” music.  This is “Rain over your mood” music.

The music that successfully captures an audience these days centers around divorcing sounds from the instruments//sources that create them.  No one is beating on hi-hats and snares that fast.  No one.  Trap and its derivatives hassle those instruments to create a sensation in their listeners.  Take any EDM.  The sounds utilized can come anywhere from sampled sounds (à-la Hot Sugar, in terms of sound-sourcing) that are manipulated, to sped instruments, to stretched ones, to you name it.  This practice, of obscuring instruments, makes it harder to create “bands” so to speak, but it makes it easier for artists to tap into the emotive components to sounds.  We get attached to sounds and experiences because they make us feel something unique and clear, even if we can’t always box the experience into a ready-made mold.

Music doesn’t try to affect us through sound in an indirect way.  We fell into a groove, moved around, and the experience emerged as we listened.  Now, we hear the way our emotions sound.  We hear our responses coming from the speaker, so as listeners, our job shifted into a music more passive role.  Every overdrawn bass pumps in our chests, and depending on how the surrounding sounds behave, we feel something.  We don’t hear anything.  And while I hear our roles becoming more passive in the sense that we don’t create the experience of music on our own anymore, we are brought into the creation process that the artist went through.  We feel how they felt as they made their music, and we’re connected to them on a human level.

And that’s why we continually hear that our generation is drawn to noise.  Because our generation’s musicians dare to expose the dissonance and sentimentality of their art.  Jimmy Hendrix caused such a ruckus not because he played a burning guitar with his teeth surfing mile-high LSD waves on your mother’s back.  No.  He pushed his instruments.  He pushed the shit out of the capabilities of a guitar.  He broke down the sounds his listeners were used to hearing into riffs that lifted them away from his strings, and into their own vibrations (no hippie).

Whether these songs use recognizable instruments or not, they focus on the force of sound, sound relationships, and vocal fixtures to present guttural responses to music.  Get pushed around.

STREAM :

Tonight at Lit I, Nick Gazin, am DJing with the likes of Chippy Nonstop, Nasty Nigel and DJ Thoth from World’s Fair and Greg “Mishka” Rivera!

It starts at 10pm and goes until 4, There’ll be twerking, jerking, you name it. Come and party with the best.

Just vibe on this Action Bronson track, and look at the GIF of Slash rocking the guitar solo. Feel that grandiosity son. Know that Bronsolino is just off camera in the church, using this verse as a rather unorthodoxed response to the traditional “speak now, or forever hold your peace” part of a wedding. Dude talking about catching brain from Serena Williams, and stuffing drugs in the ass of a German Sheppard. Totally blowing the matriomonial vibe and scarring grandma for the rest of her short life. Groom real mad he invited Action, but happy to finally know what fucked up Wolfie.

“November Rain” is produced by Party Supplies, channeling the spirit of Axl Rose and Slash to extremely luxurious effect. Need a video for this posthaste, featuring Bronson holding a single white rose and the bear blowing in the wind. We need some very majestic imagery to accompany this beautiful vulgarity.

“November Rain” is off of the XXL Freshmen Mixtape, available here.

Recent Fools Gold signee GrandeMarshall has dropped his sophomore project Mugga Man, the follow up to last year’s 800. His first tape was heavily slept on, and the 19-year old has come back with something to prove. Straight out of Philly, the young rapper doesn’t fit into the lineage of cats like Meek Mill, perhaps jiving more with Wiz Khalifa back when he was good. He seems content to use his own group of producers, often self-producing, and the collaborators are largely unknown Philly rappers, with a surprise appearance by Remy Banks being the only exception. Grande is able to consolidate a disparate group of producers into a single project, while also switching between a laid-back, smoked-out flow, flipping a Slim Thug line on ‘Girls (With Rhythm)’, and jumping into a more aggressive flow on the jazzy ‘Full Court Press’.

At 21 tracks, the tape plays long, and doesn’t fully hit its stride until the middle. But once we’re in GrandeMarshall’s zone, it’s hard to resist his chill (for lack of a better word) voice over soulful samples as in ‘Head to Feet’. I don’t know if there’s anything quite as honest and emotional on this tape as 800′s ‘Dearly Beloved’, but it’s good music to sit back and smoke to. Because if you’re a 19-year old just signed to Fool’s Gold, it’s okay to have a little fun. It might be too early to judge, but I’m inclined to believe Fool’s Gold’s picked another winner.

Today brings us two new tracks from Greedhead, both premiering with accompanying visuals.  It seems only fitting to talk about the two together; as the artists Kool A.D., Kassa Overall, and Lakutis are frequent collaborators and occupy the same weird/nerd/abstract/art-rap milieu.  I could add many more slash marks there, but it wouldn’t really help to reduce their art to previous subgenres, it’s simultaneously all of these things and none.

“Pleasance (WDGAF)” is the first track off the Kool/Kassa collab due out at the end of this month, and it’s a further exploration of the ‘future primitive’ concept that Kool A.D. has used in previous tracks.  The video, directed by ESNAF, features him and Kassa in full military gear, rounds of shells draped across torsos, gats in waistbands, but doing minimum wage work.  Similarly, he’s keeping chickens in his tiny New York apartment, and hiding out in abandoned buildings rebel-style while eating mass produced burgers.  It’s a cacophony of contradictions, meant to represent the dissociation we have in modern urban society from a greener, more naturalistic way of living common until recent history, and still common in other parts of the world.  To prevent oneself from being crushed by an expressive and exploitative capitalist system, one must act like a guerilla, not give a fuck (as the track says) about any of the bullshit, and just continue making art as a means of fighting back.

Lakutis’s video comes from Shomi Patwary, the director responsible for the dark and gritty New New York video vibe that’s been popular in the last year and a half.  Sure enough, he brings the same level of consistency to “Too Ill For the Law” a blue-tinted vision of Lakutis in dilapidated apartment (presumably hiding from the law), which contrasts nicely with the orange fire throughout the video.  I’m usually not down with burning money in videos, but given the fact that it’s about being above the law, I’ll give it a pass.  The track is solid, the chorus being an obvious reference to Biggie’s “Kick in the Door”.  Lakutis continues his talent for speaking absolute nonsense, but pulling it off with an absurd swagger and a series of obscure references that keep me interested in anything he puts out.  File these two tracks together, under innovative artists that paint a much different picture of New York than their A$AP Mob or Pro Era contemporaries.

New York City!  You show us love, we give back, for we are benevolent rulers of the underworld.  This Thursday, we got a show with some of our favorite people: Pictureplane, Teengirl Fantasy, Lil Internet, and Jan Woo.  I recently saw Lil Internet spin a sick set with classics like “Throw Some D’s”, “What Happened to That Boy”, and “Rough Riders Anthem”.  If that doesn’t entice your hip-hop loving heart, I don’t know what will.  Pictureplane is no stranger to the blog, and has been pumping out classics like Antwon’s ‘Living Every Dream’ beat over the past year.  For the satanically low price of free.99, you can’t go wrong.

The festivities start at 10 ‘til late as hell at Westway, in the West Village.  The show is co-sponsored by our friends at Bored of Directors and Pabst, and in addition to the music will feature visuals by Serena T-Pu$$.  Hope to see you all there getting turnt, repping team Death Adders.

Mishka and Bored of Directors Present
April 18th, 10PM
Westway, 75 Clarkson St
New York, NY

Of all the local scenes to make a resurgence in the digital age (Chicago drill, cloudy Bay area), the one with the most cohesion is, defying all expectation, Huntsville. Two or three years ago the now-defunct G-Side made their appearance, and since then artists like Jackie Chain have proven that it’s more than just a one-band phenomenon. That unity can be traced to the Block Beattaz, producers that have defined the ‘Huntsville sound’ and assembled all this new talent under the umbrella of Slow Motion Soundz.

Perhaps the next local rapper to get a major label’s attention will be Dizzy D, who’s been putting out music since around 2006. Late last year he released his fourth LP over bandcamp, the distinctively titled Moonshine & Kool-Aid. He’s enlisted plenty of other fixtures, not only of Huntsville’s rap scene (Supa and Joeybagadonuts of Sortahuman, Yung Tatt), but also California artists gaining recognition like Shady Blaze and Himself the Majestic. This ability to reach out across local boundaries is both admirable and characteristic of the milieu Dizzy’s mixtapes fall into, occupied by the likes of Deniro Farrar and the aforementioned artists.

There’s not too much to say about Dizzy’s raps, they’re largely clean, well-flowed, concerning money and drugs. But Dizzy D’s native wit comes through on weird but awesome songs like ‘Come Home Wit Me’, which sees him rattling off every cheesy pickup line in existence. The goofiness continues on the next track ‘Candy Rain’, where Dizzy raps about dreaming of sour diesel. Clearly, the tape doesn’t take itself too seriously, as can be seen by the album cover, inspired by Pen-N-Pixel’s campy over-the-topness. Dizzy D also produces most of the album, which always greatly increases my respect for the artist and helps the tape flow better. Aside from him, we get the expected Block Beattaz, as well as one track by Shawn Kemp/Lil Ugly Mane. The beats are spaced out and spooky, somehow fitting for a weird little enclave of the south. Strangely, the tape’s title track comes last, and Dizzy becomes the most openly confessional. Moonshine & Kool-Aid is solid, unpretentious music, the kind that’s been integral to Huntsville’s newfound success.

Heirophant is a hardcore from Italy. They make blackened, crusty hardcore, with some d-beat influences. Using words like “blackened” and “crusty” is really en vogue these days, to describe hardcore bands. It’s really en vogue to describe fucking salmon at fancy Italian restaurants with nice tableloths and those lil brushes to sweep up your crumbs. But, that’s not really relevant to this band, save for the fact that dudes are from Italy. That sentence might be lowkey racist.

“Son Of The Tongue’s Poison” is appropriately grimm, these dudes sound like they’re eternally filthy, which is a terrible characteristic for lovers ad friends, but a great characteristic for crusty, blackened, hardcore bands. I have no clue what the fuck “Son Of The Tongue’s Poison” is supposed to mean as a sentence, crew, or label. But, I’m fucking with it; musically.

Heirophant’s debut album Great Mother: Holy Monster is out on Bridge 9 Records. It sounds like hell, but I imagine that’s pretty much what they were going for.

The year is 1998 and Houston’s underground rap scene is at its apex. DJ Screw and the S.U.C. are in full force, UGK has just released “Ridin’ Dirty”, and more established acts like the Geto Boys provide an anchor. It was out of this scene that Super Tight-producer DJ DMD unleashed “25 Lighters”, introducing the iconic hook “25 lighters on my dresser/yessir”. It was DMD’s breakout hit, featuring S.U.C. members Lil’ Keke and Fat Pat, former titans of the scene. Pat was shot to death in between the video recording and the time the track was actually released, which adds a whole macabre layer, like his hard-as-fuck verse is speaking to us from beyond the grave. In case you didn’t know, the whole thing is about crack dealing anyway; dealers would pop the fluid out of lighters and put the rocks in, less conspicuous than handing off a vial. DJ Screw eventually gave the joint his signature chop/screw treatment for one of his mixtapes, giving the scene even more national exposure.

15 years later, you’ve probably never heard of that track, and the national scene has largely forgotten the names of random S.U.C. members. The whole thing would just go down as another strange moment in southern rap ephemera if it wasn’t for the sudden revival that “25 Lighters” seems to have had amongst artists as disparate as they are talented.

In 2010, Houston up-and-comer Fat Tony made a song out of the “Luv It Mayne” sample at the very beginning of the track, an obvious homage to those that came before him, which was then remixed with Das Racist. Somehow, that seemed to send a signal out in the collective unconscious, creating a zeitgeist that drew everyone’s attention to this very specific era, and this specific track. What we get, after nearly 15 years of this track existing in relative obscurity, are three drastically different reinterpretations. On “Backseat Freestyle”, we hear a roaring Kendrick Lamarr invoke DJ DMD’s hook. Big K.R.I.T., as well, enlists heavyweights MJG & 8Ball, and the ever-lovable 2Chainz to make “Money on the Floor“. The chopped-up hook sings “Money on the floor/Lighters on the dresser”, while MJG absolutely kills, directly quoting DMD’s hook, with 2Chainz closing out the track with a verse structured around that line.

The most unlikely cover comes from grandpa-blues rockers Z.Z. Top, who in 2012 released their first album in 9 years, covering none other than DMD’s hit. The band had shared studio space with many members of the S.U.C. in the 90’s, where they first heard the track. Guitarist Billy Gibbons says he “became fixated with this ‘hypnotic chronicle of the toil of a ghetto hustler, and I was determined to use it as the basis for something ZZ Top could record.” And record they did, as their Rick Rubin-produced ‘I Gotsta Get Paid’ features a ripping, bluesy guitar riff over snippets of DMD’s original hook. Even in Screw’s wildest codeine dreams, I don’t think he could’ve predicted this.

There’s one more twist, if you can believe it. After that 15 year stretch, DMD saw it fit to record an updated version of the track himself. Only this time, surprise! He’s found Jesus! The name of the song? “25 Bibles”. I cannot make this shit up. The narrative of the video reflects this transformation, as 41-year old DMD walks in on his family watching his old video, and sees fit to school them on the nature of real, heartfelt, God-fearing hip-hop. The video looks like it was recorded at a local public park, and features fellow Christian rapper Bizzle, who also has a song with No Malice. As far as what sparked so much interest in a niche Houston song from the late 90s, I have no fucking clue. In the end, I guess DMD’s prayers have been answered, and, in a weird way, the track got the popularity it deserved.

“Sensitive thugs need hugs”. Jay-Z said that shit forever years ago, and it’s as relevant today as it was then. Rap is full of dudes puffing out their chests and acting hard as hell, but all of ‘em break character from time to time to speak on emotion. Feelings. The sads.

Tonight at Pianos in NYC, Sensitive Thugs and Too Churned take over the decks to present a night of sensitive rap jams for the streets. Songs about broken hearts, hot girls, weed, dead homies, dogs, grandmas and anything else you can conceivably talk about without being thought a pussy. Lots of Drake will be played. Lots. I don’t think he should technically qualify, because he’s technically not a thug, but then again “Shot For Me” goes hard in a velvet bullet proof jacket way.

Pianos
Thursday, March 28th, 2013 12AM
Sensitive Thugs x Too Thurned
Ernie Banks
Moneyworth
Pariguayo Banacrisp
Young Flamingo
158 Ludlow St
New York, NY