Since January of 2009, slowed-and-throwed has been the syrupy steez of Seattle's All City Chop series of mixtapes, which feature exclusively local joints all brought to a Mrs. Butterworth's–thick crawl under the hand of bighearted hustler of cultcha Zechariah tha Barber. The latest installment, All City Chop 3.0, features homegrown funk both familiar and not-so-much, with Shabazz Palaces, Tyrone, Lisa Dank, Specs One, and much, much more, all pitched-the-fuck-down and diced-the-fuck-up, slap-chop style. Z also runs the Allcitychop.com blog, where he offers a wealth of free downloads and sells his own original gear, sporting such 2-0-centric inscriptions as "Town Legendz" and "Bump Local." All City Jump Off, the release party for 3.0, is going down at the Lo-Fi come Friday, January 28, with a very intimate gathering of town talent, namely Helladope, Black Stax, Meez, JameSupopo, Dougie, Knox Fam, KingDRO, Def Dee & LA, Lady Tasz, Saturday Morning Cartoon, Suntonio Bandanaz, Inkubiz, Delton Son, Larue, Tyrone, Luke Rain, Ditta Mac, Rik Rude & OC Notes plus DJs Zechariah tha Barber, Kuhnex, Nim Almighty, and Austin Lee. Goddamn! If you ain't rappin', you better get down there early just to make sure you can fit in there; cough syrup not recommended, simply 'cause it's not the most social of refreshments. A new volume, All City Chop 3.5, will also drop at this event.

That same evening, we got hiphop and punk rock in close quarters (my favorite) over at the Comet—as Sportn' Life presents a killer bill with the hard-body street knowledge of Fatal Lucciauno (who should have some new shit out pretty soon), the skin-flaying sounds of the Absolute Monarchs, sharp-spittin' sarlacc Ripynt (Star Wars jokes are hecka cool), and the all-black female quartet of funk-punks NighTraiN (I know it kinda sucks to qualify bands by what they look like, but I just gotta show some love, feel me?).

Mac Miller, the pride of Pittsburgh (besides the Steelers and his labelmate Wiz Khalifa), has already sold out his date at the Vera Project on Saturday, January 29 (also featuring Logics), though there may be some tickets at the door. Catch the cream of the NW street fashion world (such as my Officials Vintage fam—calling conflict of interest, party of one) at the Northwest Winter Fashion Expo going on at the Vera beforehand.

Speaking of Macs—this dude Mackle-more is going off right now. If you get the impression that a whole lot of folks are tripping over themselves to declare 2011 the Year of the Mack, it's only because that's exactly what it's looking like (particularly in that killer "Irish Celebration" video). Pro tip: One good way to kick off a national tour is definitely selling out the fucking Showbox at the Market three times in record time. Time to get on my scalper grind! And remember: Get your weight up, not your hate up. While a rising tide definitely don't guarantee it's gonna float your boat, your odds are a helluva lot worse sitting on the shore.