What up, doc? Hiphoppers of all backgrounds are not gonna wanna miss the Asian Hip-Hop Summit Tour at Nectar on August 29, presented by the good folks at Asiatic Empire and Beaconskillz. The Summit features L.A. reps Dumbfoundead, Lyraflip, Chosen One, Youthinasia, DJ Dstrukt, plus local yokels Sonny Bonoho, Orbitron, Know Choice, DJ Rise, Daichi Diez, and the mastery of DJ Soul One—and it's all hosted by Rob Nice and DJ B-Girl. Represent.
You surely remember I was bigging up that brilliant Gigantics LP Die Already last week—and not just because I rap on it either... Christ—well, if you missed that CD release party (craackin') than catch the "afterparty" on August 30 at High Dive, featuring Onry Ozzborn and the Gigantics, Nite Owls, the razor-sharp hands of Vancouver's DJ MazeLive—and a guy you really should know about, Sandpeople's own MC/producer Sapient. Sape released an LP called Letterhead a couple of months ago that was supersneaky brilliant; before I even noticed, I was banging it on the regular, rhyming along at parts and humming to the beats. With an articulate, skinny-cap intricate flow and a voice kinda reminiscent of another bugged white boy named Cage, Sapient has a real gift for imagery that most MCs (let alone, MCs who also make beats as freaking banging as his) don't even realize they're missing out on. Peep this, from "The Screen": I wish Phuket was filled with celebrities in 2004/The tsunami crowdin' resort towns with their corpses/Those aren't jellyfish, they're breast implants found on the shore. Insightfully exploring everything from the TV junkie's numbed-out shame cycle ("The Screen"), internet addiction (the genius "Stay Connected"), and creativity- (and perhaps drug-) induced insomnia (my favorite cut, the languid "Rest of My Life"), along with some well-deserved bravado, Letterhead is one of the best Northwest hiphop releases that you never heard this year. My suggestion to you is that you come to this show and remedy that situation, because as Sapester himself modestly posits on "Killinit"—he's killing it.
At Chop Suey on August 31, don't miss Suntonio Bandanaz—headlining a bill with DeRoxs, Keyes, Seatown veterano Silver Shadow D, and Dividenz. You don't know Suntonio? Sure ya do—many of us know him as none other than local stalwart Asun. In 2007, Sun put out Who Is Suntonio Bandanaz?, an album which should have gotten the award for "Best Album to Never See an Official Release." Sun, print 'em up! It definitely deserves to be in wide circulation. In the meantime, if you run into the homey on the street, cop that and the B for Bandanaz mixtape. On both, you'll see that Bandanaz forgoes the beyond-double-time fast rapping cats know him for, to demonstrate a wealth of wit, flow, and game that you might've missed if you were "listening too slow," as E-40 might say. 
