p>Before I get into things, I wanna say RIP to Nate, a Mass Line street teamer who recently passed from bacterial meningitis. I never knew him, but he was nonetheless one of ours. Condolences to his family and friends.
If you, like myself, are the guy that picks up this here fish wrapper hot off the press on Wednesday afternoon, then it’s still not too late for me to put you onto the “Swagger Fest” going down at Chop Suey on Wednesday, May 2. The one and only D.Black is headlining this super-saucy showcase of some of the best of Seatown’s rugged-neva-smooth shit; the town’s favorite young scrappers Dyme Def (Space Music available now), Stretch and Eclipse, aka Federal Way’s hard-grinding Parker Brothaz, Sportn’ Life’s up and comers Fatal Lucciauno and J.Pinder, with no less a personage on the wheels than the illustrious Vitamin D. You need this in your life—get your swag right or get left!
On Monday, May 7, at Chop Suey, catch Grynch and Speedy Gonzales doing their thing. You all know Grynch, or should—he’s been getting it on for a sec—but also check for the dude Speedy; you may recall he put out a promising album last year called Hang Loose that pulled off the rare trick of being diverse in sound without being scattershot.
Now, ya just know I hate to big up my own shows (yeah, right), but allow me to shed my false modesty for a hot sec…. Being at High Dive on Friday, May 4, will yield you equal parts Cancer Rising, Grayskul (Facefeeder just gets better with time, and Bloody Radio is due on Rhymesayers on September 11!), Silas Blak—he of the almighty Silent Lambs Project—and my man DJ Marc Sense. Blak and 4BC Music recently hit us in the head with his newest solo LP, entitled Silas Sentinel. I ain’t heard it yet, but if it’s anything like his ill-ass 1986 EP from last year, it’s crucial like conflict—”Lyric Hotel” is still one of my favorite 206 tracks like, ever. Fremont, you’ve been warned: Hiphop is in the building.
While I’ve always been a fan of Dilated Peoples, having bought each of their albums like a good citizen, I honestly was never a big fan of MC/producer Evidence‘s style all that much. Weird, right? So I wasn’t expecting to like Ev’s solo jawn “The Weatherman”… and if you couldn’t guess from that setup, I ended up liking it quite a bit. ABB Records has another notch in its belt with this record—shit kinda bangs. Besides Ev’s own production, he enlisted such top-drawer West Coast talent as the Alchemist, Jake One, DJ Khalil, and the Dilated Junkies to anchor his measured cadence. Rhyme-wise, “Mr. Slow Flow” demonstrates a bit more personality than on the DP releases, and has stepped his all-important swagger quotient up noticeably. I can’t help but love “Born in L.A.” like a mufucka—and not least because it features Sick Jacken of the very underrated Psycho Realm.
Fuck Stunna Shades, mang—it’s still all about the Locs. 