Appearances can be deceptive. Take Dragon’s Dogma, for instance. On the surface, it seems like an ill-informed attempt at a Western RPG designed in the East. Look a little deeper, however, and you’ll find that it brings some well-disguised originality and highlights the failings of our most recent, beloved RPG experiences. It’s fair to say that Dragon’s Dogma is a game made from, often opposing, and dramatically different design mentalities. From Japan, it brings strong combat, precise controls and tight structure. From the West, it brings epic scale, ham-fisted olde English and more Tolkienesque fantasy tropes than I care to remember. It is a game built on familiar foundations; all castles, titular beasts and sorcerers. Naturally, all the standard fantasy RPG elements are firmly in place; questing is open and broad in its nature, dungeons are there to be pillaged and explored. The names and faces may have changed, but you’ve definitely been here before.

Despite the gravitas that posturing dreamers like myself may attach to it, Dragon’s Dogma is a game and not a statement. It is a developer attempting to give its audience what they seem to want and, for the most part, it succeeds. First and foremost, it succeeds by addressing one of the largest problems plaguing most contemporary RPGs. I love Skyrim, I truly do, but its combat, and that of most of its peers, is 90% garbage. Capcom brings its long and illustrious history of pulverizing and decapitating to the table and tackles this issue head-on. Combat is all at once, deep varied and accessible. Simple combos and signature moves are all at your disposal and brighten the screen with typical Capcom flourish and physicality. It’s not exactly Devil May Cry, but you’ll certainly get a faint whiff of Dante’ with some of the more agile character classes.

Depending on your chosen class, of which there are several, you can employ a mix of skills and strengths. Agile hunters, stalwart knights, battle mages: the list goes on. Remember: you’ve been here before. However, Dragon’s Dogma excels by making it so that you should never be punished for your choice of hero. It’s happened to me time and time again: where I’ve felt punished for not picking a diverse enough character, setting myself up for a fall with particular enemy types. With its pawn system, Dragon’s Dogma offers you a team of companions, allowing you to select appropriate roles for supporting you and filling the gaps in your own hero’s personal skillset.

Pawns form a substantial part of the game as both an online and offline experience. Pawns can be traded online, hired out to build their own experience and recruited from all over the world. Not only does this show Capcom’s understanding of a positive shift in RPG standards post-Demon’s Souls, but it also allows for a more involving and tailored experience. The beauty of this system can be seen when you are able to hire a top-tier pawn to assist you with a particularly challenging area that would normally be above your ability. As the player, you are in a unique position where you can chose to plough your accumulated experience points into either the development of your own character, or for hiring out some high-level cronies to do the dirty work for you. It’s a genuinely refreshing change.

Dragon’s Dogma also boasts a pleasingly robust sense of physicality, and through this it brings a surprisingly unique quality to contemporary RPGs. No matter how grand the experience or the breadth of the world that has been so lovingly built, many RPGs fall down in that they fail to offer truly personalized experiences. Whilst most offer the choice of a variety of character classes and an option of moral dilemmas, few really deliver personalization through the way that individual missions and scenarios play out. What Dragon’s Dogma offers is dynamic, frantic battles and a system open enough to bestow upon you the ability to tell some truly heroic battle stories. Take the time my party and I encountered a giant in the depths of a murky dungeon.

My noble hero, Misty, grappled the beast, clambering up its back, thrusting his blade into its ugly, misshapen head. The beast seemed not to falter as it attempted to swat Misty as if he were little more than an annoyance. Then, as luck would have it, the beast lost its footing, Misty capitalised and used the beast’s weight to his advantage. The mighty foe stumbled over the edge, plummeting towards certain doom. Noble Misty rode the impending corpse all the way to the bottom of the well and used it to break his fall. The beast was dead and Misty was a true hero. It’s this sense of weight and physicality that makes every battle an absolute joy. Goblins and Harpies are dispatched quickly in the game’s earlier stages, but they are all just appetizers for the game’s main course.

Boss battles and larger enemy encounters display Capcom’s sense of the epic: a skill sharpened on their experience with both Monster Hunter and Lost Planet. Larger foes can be climbed upon and watching your character swing from a Griffon’s frantically bustling feathers as it takes flight is a sight to behold. Taking down such an enemy mid-air, or clambering atop a Cyclops to stab at its eye is undeniably satisfying. This gives Dragon’s Dogma a valuable sense of involvement and allows you to attempt just about any battle without having to resort to a war of attrition with bows, arrows and a tonne of health potions.

Whilst it may lack the sheen and presentation values of its contemporaries, Dragon’s Dogma retains a unique personality whilst reminding us of the importance of solid gameplay foundations. It certainly doesn’t cut corners on its scale and length either. From its undeniably camp J-Rock theme tune, to its blend of different design philosophies, Dragon’s Dogma is a distinctly varied experience. I like to imagine it as the older guy lifting weights at the gym. Sure, he may not be as tanned and as well-sculpted as his younger peers, but you know that his insulation layer obscures genuine strength and that you would really never want to fuck with him. If he speaks anything like the inhabitants of Dragon’s Dogma though, I will seriously consider trying.

Burzum - Umskiptar (2012) [Byelobog] // Grade: D

Blah blah blah, Varg did that. Blah blah blah, Varg said this. Who gives a fuck? Ok, sure Varg has said and done some batshit crazy things in his past but this review is about his work, not the musician. Save your hate for my critique of his music, not the man himself.

Since being released back into the free world, Varg has dropped three Burzum albums on the hungry masses. Belus, Fallen and now his 2012 album, Umskiptar. The lyrics for this album, unsurprisingly, are from a Norse poem entitled “Völuspá”.

Based on various pagan translations, Umskiptar means “Metamorphoses” and the album is a self-described return to the roots of Burzum’s early work. 66 stanzas make up its entirety and even though the lyrics aren’t in English, you can decipher their beauty through the elegant atmosphere Varg has created.

Everything about Umskiptar plays like Fallen and nothing like Belus. Whereas the latter was an obvious by-product of isolationism, Fallen began to show Varg’s return to civilization. The themes present, the power in the music and the overall feel of this release is a large improvement in Varg’s modern work but damn, it takes a bit for you to warm up to it.

There are very few tracks that I’d consider as epic as say, “Jesus’ Tod” or even his more modern music. It’s not until the fourth track, “Hit Helga Tré” or “The Sacred Tree” that I’m moved at all. There’s something familiar about the tremelo picking and the ghastly overlaid vocals. Varg’s raspy and vapid tone is eerie but there’s something very honest about the sound.

“Æra (Honour)” and “Heiðr (Esteem)” are where the album begins to fall apart. Not in any unlistenable way, just in the self-described “wholeness”. As a foreigner to the Norse tongue, it’s difficult to understand the transformation that Varg is purveying. “Valgaldr (Song of the Fallen)” continues this descent and by the time you’re in the last few cuts, it’s almost entirely spoken word with minimal instrumentation to get you through the introspective ramblings.

So where does that leave us? Probably one of the best black metal artists of all time just comes across as bored or unenthused. Still, there are those who will argue that Varg can do whatever he wants and it’ll be better than 90% of other bands. Personally, I’m not buying it. Other than the nostalgic feeling I get picking up on a few cues in his music, Umskiptar just isn’t doing it for me, especially when compared to Fallen.

Here’s a video for “Dark Pleasures”, the debut from Brooklyn based duo DUST. They describe their music as a mixture between Italo Disco and Acid House, and at first I was like “huh I wonder what that would sound lik-” which is about the point where the track kicked in and I was like “oh okay, wow this is totally great.” Here’s to fun and unexpected combos. Here’s to grape Big League Chew and David’s Barbecue Sunflower Seeds.

DUST is the work of John Barclay and Michael Sherburn. Barclay you may know from the Brooklyn party scene as the original proprietor of the ever present 285 Kent warehouse space. DUST has clearly synthesized his many years of making music as well as countless hours manning raves and parties and general debauchery. The song is even better over the fucked up fantasy of a video by Luke Wyatt. Looking forward to more from DUST soon.

Though the newest dose just dropped, starting back in the beginning of 2011 the writer of VGJunk started a series of posts devoted to imagining an alternate world where licensed game don’t suck. Actually there are a couple of licensed games that are good. Goldeneye. T2: Judgment Day. Chronicles of Riddick (actually much better than the movie in a weird twist). Blade Runner. But for the most part you get dung like E.T. for Atari or that Superman game on N64 (I have to assume the developers of that were purely trolling).

But what if all the cool movies a game studio wouldn’t touch with a ten-pixel pole somehow poofed into existence? Well, then we’d have something like the awesomeness you see above you. People have been making fake game screens for a while now, and as independent game development/modding gets easier and easier, I sometimes wonder when some of these might actually get made. I vote for Videodrome first pleez. Check out a bunch more here, here, and here.

• City Of God Poplin Shirt ($80.00)
• Bear Mop T-Shirt ($32.00)
• Guillotine Twill Cut-Off Shorts ($92.00)
• Head Hunter Snapback ($30.00)

Recently, while racking my brain for the outfit that would make up the first Steady Peddlin’ of our Summer 12 collection, I decided that I wouldn’t leave the office until I had the perfect one. Stealing myself away in a pile of toys – because we have those here, f’realz – I waited until everyone else had left for the night and then wandered into the warehouse. Traipsing through the piled high boxes of oven fresh wares, I was overcome with the possibilites before me, the sheer majesty of the outfit combinations, rivaling that of the Sonic drink options. What I really wanted, however, was the City of God Poplin Shirt. Trouble was, the box containing it was way, way high.

I’m a pretty short guy (4′ 9” on a good day) so even on the stepladder it was just out of my grasp. Stretching out with a repurposed broom handle (I was a creative writing major, not an engineer) I thought I could reach it. I was almost there but then CRASH!! Disaster struck. I was firmly lodged beneath what must have been several tons of boxes, a Grey Gardens level of Jenga inspired catastrophe. Summer 2012 spilled out in droves around me. I was trapped in the dark, lonely warehouse without food, water, or the internet. The suddenly imminent possibility of death overcame me. When a feasible end point for your life appears in front of you, the perception of time becomes suddenly and radically different. In the unpredictable forwardness of our daily existence each second invariably becomes a smaller division of the larger whole, each subsequent passage statistically less significant, which allows you to deal with its unceasing procession.

However, trapped underneath those boxes, each passing moment was of equal importance, one more click towards a bitter end. The only thing that kept me going was the beauty of the clothing surrounding me. The Guillotine Twill Cut-Off Shorts, perfect for biking around the city in the Summer with their useful D-ring. The Bear Mop T-shirt in a azure blue, matching with the splashy accent on the Head Hunter Snapback and reminding me of the sky I may never see again. And, of course, the precious City of God Poplin Shirt, the object of my desires and potential Turin Shroud. If it had to end like that, at least it would end with me looking awesome. I slept. Thankfully, when the rest of my coworkers arrived less than 15 hours later, I realized the situation might have been a little bit less dire than I predicted. I did have some really bad pins & needles though, so, y’know. I gleefully called my parents to tell them the whole story, and my mom got scared and she said “you’re moving with your Auntie & Uncle in Bel-Air!”

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
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Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

Judging from its matter-of-fact plot synopsis – “A drama focused on five months in the life of pedophile who keeps a 10-year-old boy locked in his basement.” – first-time director/writer Markus Schleinzer‘s drama Michael isn’t going to appeal to a wide audience. It’s certainly the darkest character study I’ve seen in recent memory and also the most well crafted. Schleinzer, a disciple of Michael Haneke (Funny Games),  presents the character of Michael without passing any judgement, which makes it all the more unsettling.

Michael is a grumpy middle-class insurance salesman who from 9-5 works in his cubicle, begrudgingly goes out for drinks with his co-workers, and even goes on ski trips with them. But in general he’s testy and tends to keep to himself. When he returns home in the evenings, he shares some quality time with Wolfgang, a young boy who Michael keeps locked in the basement. They share awkward dinners together. They watch TV before bed. Michael even takes Wolfgang for a nice afternoon at the petting zoo. That wasn’t meant to be a euphemism – he seriously takes him to a petting zoo.

And, you know, Michael is a pedophile with a kidnapped boy in his basement, so…he does things to Wolfgang. Schleinzer wisely only shows us what we need to see, which is still highly disturbing but never graphic. These moments make up a very small fraction of the film and are cleverly implied by Michael washing up afterwards and marking off the date in his day-planner. We’re always with Michael, played with maximum creepiness by Michael Fuith, as he works, shops, and cleans his home. After a while, his routine feels normal – too normal. And that’s where the brilliance of the film lies. This evil man is a slave to routine like a lot of us and it’s really disconcerting to watch.

Michael’s world starts to spiral due to uncontrollable events and the secret of his boy-toy is threatened when a co-worker takes interest in Michael. On top of this intrusion, Wolfgang is getting lonely during the day and wants a brother (he already has a TV, what else does a little boy need?!). But even through these complications, the film’s bleak tone is never compromised by a police investigation or a pounding chase between Michael and an escaped Wolfgang. The end is sure to spark heated conversation between viewers.

Michael is a brilliant debut film that puts us at the dinner table with pure evil. The final 10 minutes are absolutely agonizing – I was squirming in my seat from the unbearable suspense (and from hanging out with a pedophile for so long). It’s surprisingly hilarious in places as well, as it satires the parent-child relationship. The horrible sexual abuse is kept off-screen while the real horror of the disgustingly aberrant routine of Michael and Wolfgang’s home life is front and center.

I highly recommend catching Michael on Netflix Watch Instantly before it’s gone. I also recommend watching it with someone else – a grandparent maybe – because you’re going to want to talk about the end.

Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music (2012) [Williams Street] // Grade: A+

This record was a long time in the making. Long before Killer Mike and El-P were connected via Williams Street (is it funny that cartoon network would have such an impact on hip hop that they’d become the impetus for this record?) there was a palpable void in the United States where hip hop had once held court. A music that had once been a potent outlet for dissent, had slowly become one mainly used to showcase wealth. But, the shift in hip hop wasn’t arbitrary. The creation of CDOs, and financial institutions’ subsequent efforts to exploit citizens through a combination of CDOs and unrealistic mortgages created a bubble of false wealth from the early 2000s through to 2008 or so.

Through CDOs financial institutions were able to manufacture false capital, and because they were abused to such an extreme extent the whole of the nation was affected by the flow of this false capital. It moved through the music industry with a particularly acute affect. If you look at rap music from 2000 through to 2008 you will no doubt find a growing legion of rappers defined by grotesque opulence, and grossly disproportionate amounts of money when compared those who came before them. This is the direct result of banks selling mortgages to citizens who could not afford them, then selling the risk on those loans to other banks at an exaggerated rate, squarely fucking the system out both ends.

The affect on hip hop was dramatic as the whole genre shifted to gradually become a giant advertisement for luxury brands, and the soundtrack for a lifestyle borne of the indulgences of false wealth. And when economic collapse ended the flow of this capital, and it all came crashing down it became painfully evident that we had gone quite some time without potent voices of dissent. Artists who in other times would have been a voice against the path our country took, were bought out with that very same false wealth that was destroying the nation. But, through all of that Killer Mike steadily built a reputation as someone who is dissenting—a real rapper who is a voice for, and in his community. During a time of struggle, Mike is offering the soundtrack to survival.

It’s almost odd that Mike’s career has run in tandem with this wave of economic fluctuation, but at the same time fitting. And so, when we need him most Mike has risen to the occasion and taken his art one step further. That’s not to say that previous efforts have been sub-par, but here we find Mike in the midst of music that is frankly indispensable. We needed this record as a nation. These are unsure times, and Mike is a very very certain voice. He is about survival, and that’s what this record is about. When we spoke earlier this year he stressed the title: “Rebellious African People’s Music”. He related the importance of many musical traditions (funk, gospel, spirituals, jazz, et cetera) to the survival of peoples of African descent. And while the obvious connection is the African part, I’m more interested in focusing on the surviving part.

Mike is a survivor for sure. You don’t last for 12 years as a rapper who never had a #1 single if you’re not a survivor. So who better than Killer Mike, who is clearly learned in survival, to guide us through the times when we have to accept that we must take our survival into our own hands? He’s a great example of that for sure. The country is burning, and Mike is one of a few people willing to talk about it, and looking to move people to prepare for how to survive after the burning embers of a decade of fiduciary pillaging and looting have cooled. And that is only the existential parts of the music. If you’ll remember from the Killer Mike and El-P interviews we published on the Bloglin earlier this year I talked to both Mike and El-P about the significance of this record in the history of rap music.

There was a time, a long time, when a record like this was not only impossible, but opposed. As the inner workings of the record industry were telling El-P that hip hop was dead, they were being financed by an institution that simply doesn’t exist any longer. And with the fall of that institution a great deal of artifice, and posturing has been removed from hip hop music. And, in this more candid state the meeting of El-P and Killer Mike comes together and rings truer than I could have ever imagined. It’s been a while since I listened to an El-P record, but just as he was there to define the beginning of a community running counter to the workings of a vapid institution, he is here again to define the ending of the same institution which ran counter to his earlier records as part of Company Flow, and later as Def Jux.

Yes, this is the meeting of two great minds, but it’s also the meeting of two distinct eras. There is so much more than just El-P making beats, and Killer Mike rapping. They essentially serve as avatars for two very distinct populations within this nation that have become increasingly indistinguishable over the course of the proliferation of the internet. There was a time when the overlap of El-P and Killer Mike’s audiences was slim to none. But not only that, the mentality behind the division was vehemently reinforced by the whole value system of hip hop. “Only this is real, and anything else that sounds like this, but isn’t this, isn’t real.” But we’ve seen hip hop turn from an incredibly reductive and emaciating means of defining itself, to this current renaissance in which all styles flourish welcomely and equally. This record is a clear indication that we are in the midst of the internet age. Without a doubt from the involvement of Williams Street, to the unlikely combination of artists, to the nature of the content, this is rap for today. Like, right now right now today. Amazing.

I do not want the Action Bronson/Riff Raff collaborative album to happen. I NEED it to happen. Preferably yesterday. After the stellar “Bird On A Wire“, which featured a Harry Fraud beat which is one of the best of the year thus far, the duo, plus Dana Coppafeel, dropped another track, “Hot Shots Part Deux” yesterday. Now it’s already got an excellent video to boot. It’s one of those animated lyric videos but not shitty and played the fuck out, because it’s got Action blowing a pile of digital coke and Riff Raff becoming Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior faster than you can say “rice”.

Speaking of Riff Raff, his already next-level hair game has somehow moved onto another level: a pin straight center part mixed with with a crewcut/Ceaser in the very front. It’s actually sort of reminiscent to that look JR Smith was sporting right when he joined the Knicks. Maybe Riff Raff can date Rihanna now too. Get the hottest girl in the game wearing his Icee chain.

Last year my friend Spencer told me about an album he loved called Digital Lows by a rapper from Memphis named Cities Aviv. And I remember thinking “Cities Aviv is a rapper?” The name “Cities Aviv” was in my mind because I had seen his album on Pitchfork. The cover art and the name “Cities Aviv” made me think it was pretty far from rap. I just completely judged its genre by the cover.

Luckily, I took Spencer’s advice and gave Digital Lows a listen it really amazed me. Cities a.k.a Gavin Mays has a unique voice and sound and the album addresses all kinds of ideas from the very positive stuff to the very negative with a lot of skill and creativity. I talked with Cities Aviv via phone about his upcoming album, The Illuminati, Kickin People through walls, “Surfing,” and more…

***

Nick Vogt: You were doing punk and hardcore before you started rapping, right? How did you make that transition from doing different music into rapping and into the “hip hop world?”

Cities Aviv: I feel like it was a pretty easy transition just because with punk and harcore you can be just as like “seemingly talentless” as you can be in rap [laughs] so, as opposed to yelling over crunchy guitars I’m now yelling over crunchy beats.

Is any of your pre-rap music online? No one ever links to it when they write about you. They just say you used to be in punk bands. So, I’m curious…Maybe it’s “secret?”

CA: It’s ultra secret. Ultra rare…no, I feel like it’s not talked about on purpose because it sucks [laughs]. Everyone fucks around with music in their younger years and shit. I just feel like it’s one of those things that hasn’t really influenced what I’ve done much except gear me to play. It hasn’t influenced my music much except for the performance aspect.

Yeah that makes sense. When you were in bands did you play instruments and do vocals? Or was it just vocals?

CA: No, I just did vocals. I tried to stay away from any instruments. I’m really bad at them.

But, you make beats, right? I mean computer music is pretty different than playing instruments, but it’s not so different…

CA: I make beats here and there. I try not to consider myself a producer much. I think I’m very novice at it. I just pick random sounds and try to mash them to how I’d wanna hear it sound. It is very computer based. I have some gear, but not much. I try to keep it very minimal.

How much production did you do for Digital Lows?

CA: I didn’t produce much. I didn’t even do it under my name. I put them on there under a different name. That way if people thought it sucked they wouldn’t think I suck. They’d just think “this producer I don’t even know really sucks!” [Laughs] But, yeah I did a few beats on Digital Lows. I think I’m gonna produce more for my new stuff, though. A lot of people have been sending me beats, but I feel like that’s just their interpretation of what Cities Aviv is. Which, nine times out of ten, is wrong [Laughs].

You’ve had like two singles since Digital Lows, right? “Flex Yr Gold” and “Normal Immortal.” Are those both your beats?

CA: Yeah I did the beats for those two. For those tracks I already had the idea for how I wanted them to sound… It’s so fucking hard to describe a “produced beat” [laughs] but, yeah I’m glad I put “Normal Immortal” out. I initially wasn’t gonna put it out, but then I threw it on the internet. I laughed when I saw people saying “This is like Death Grips noise rap” which is just hilarious to me.

I think the Pitchfork write-up for “Normal Immortal” described your vocals as “Blown Out” which is a pretty good description. It’s hard to make out anything you say on that and on “Flex Yr Gold,” too. What was your intention behind doing such “Blown Out” vocals?

CA: When we recorded “Flex Yr Gold” I recorded with a KOAS pad into a Karaoke machine that we put a mic up to. I wanted to do it that way because it’s not just about me rapping over a beat. It’s about the whole body of work. A lot of times I like to throw the vocals in there amongst the other shit that’s going on. You have to listen harder to hear them. A lot of people are saying “I don’t like the vocals. I think that sounds bad.” Those are the people don’t want listening to my music. It just kinda weeds out what I like are “lazy listeners,” people who I feel are just tryna jump onto “wave rap” or whatever’s popular now. It’s kinda the “art of diversion” [laughs]

I think that Digital Lows does have some similarities to “wave rap,” and what a lot of people are doing now, but it’s unique for sure. That’s why I like it. I think the album kind of has an old soul, dude. I feel like it’s very connected to what I might call “Traditional Hip Hop.”

CA: Yeah, everything about that album was gearing around nostalgia, but also moving forward. But, when I was writing it I didn’t intend for anyone to hear it how it was heard. I didn’t think it would leave Memphis or leave a very small circle of people on the Internet. A lot of people have latched onto it. But, I’m over Digital Lows. I can’t bear to even listen to it. But, I think that “nostalgic feel” is why people have liked it and can connect to it.

Something else I really like about Digital Lows is your lyrics. I think your lyrics also really set you apart from other rappers in this generation I think. Your lyrics are very insightful and thoughtful at a time when a lot of rappers aren’t going for that. I don’t wanna use the word “Lyrical” to describe your stuff, but—

CA: Yeah, I hate the word “lyrical.” I feel like people think “Oh, that’s a good word! That’s five syllables!” [Laughs] I feel like the lyrics on Digital Lows are pretty amateur. I think I’ve grown as a writer. But, at the same time, when I made the album I wanted it to have it’s own sound. I wanted it to be “sloppy” in a way. There’s this new wave where everyone’s going toward the “Trap” direction. Everyone wants to be a “Southern Rapper” even though their from different parts of the world. I don’t wanna be one of these rappers vomiting out a mixtape every week that sounds the same as everything else. I wanted to be different than those guys [laughs]

And that’s funny because you’re actually from The South. Not only that, but you’re from Memphis. I love Spaceghost, so I don’t mean to knock him by saying this, but most of his sound is bringing back the classic Memphis rap…Three Six to be specific. Memphis as a “hip hop city” is almost bigger now that it ever was.

CA: It’s everywhere now. I like to call it “Memphis Fetish Rap.” A lot of people are all about Memphis, but they’ve never been here in their lives. I wonder how long it’s gonna go before people are over it? To be honest the old Memphis rap shit is amazing. And it’s very influential. There isn’t other music that sounds like that. Memphis is a very dark place. It’s like this weird, alternate dimension that people kind of forgot about. But, now, everyone’s remembered Memphis exists for some reason.

That being said, you have a lot of things that…well, that almost fabricate the Memphis sound. A lot of the time it’s contrived when people throw out “Yeah I’m so into the occult shit! I’m so into the Memphis shit!” I’m like “Get the fuck outta here.” I’m not even gonna front like I’m carrying a torch for Memphis or anything. I personally don’t care. But, at the same time, it’s cool people appreciate Memphis. I just want people to appreciate it for the right reasons. It’s not cool when people say “oh, this is a new wave thing I’m gonna jump on it.” And they have no idea about Memphis rap at all.

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Denzel Aquarius’killa Curry is no stranger to the Bloglin or to his underground/raiderklan fans, yet it’s his style and throwback mentality that him and his fellow Miami brothers have that is still very refreshing to me and keeps me coming back for more.

This one is definitely another RaiderKlan lo-fi banger for us to enjoy and will 100% be played many times in the lab while we take break from recording . This mixtape has a different tone and feel to it as compared to his past two mixtapes and it shows he is exploring different styles with these songs and is also progressing mentally as a young man at the same time.

You can really tell he’s been putting in time on listening to 90′s hiphop heros such as 2Pac, Big L, and Outkast and yet there is still always that Three 6/Bone Thugs influence there in his ryhmes as well that he can’t hide from and we all enjoy. Not to take away from his originality at all because he is a perfect example of the vision that the whole raiderklan is trying to show everybody.

That is that even though Miami is pretty and funtimes on the outside, some poeple are living a very different lifestyle in a way different world from that highclass world, which we now know as the Blackland. Here is a look at the first video for this tape made by Miami’s own Kevin Pouya which gives it a proper lo-fi feel .

Download Denzel Curry’s Strictly 4 My Raiderz (Click here)