My Philosophy

To hate or to congratulate, that is the question, I guess—but
whatever your take, Blue Scholars’ OOF! EP is killing it on the iTunes charts and in real life. Good luck
getting your hands on one of the 808 physical copies made, but hit
Caffe Vita if you’re feeling lucky, punk. To me, OOF! is the
most comfortable and loose I’ve ever heard either Geo or
Sabzi, brimming with personality and warmth.

Their comrade RA Scion has a new project cooking right now
with always-on-grizzly local producer MTK (you hear “Bang Bang,”
the Havoc and Lloyd Banks cut he just did?), together
known as Victor Shade. Who? “Victor Shade is to the
Vision (the android Avenger, to all my non–Marvel Comics geeks)
what Peter Parker is to Spider-Man,” RA explains. “My wife’s brother, a
dedicated hiphop and comic enthusiast, attributed to various friends
and family a superhero identity; mine was the Vision. Never really put
much thought into it until his passing, and what I discovered later
really affected me—this album, like much of [Common
Market‘s] Tobacco Road, is inspired by him.”

While most listeners are used to RA Scion rapping over
Sabzi‘s instrumentals, RA tells me, “(MTK and) I have talked
about working together for years—he’s a talented beat maker, and
I love his style. His Slavic work ethic is like the icing on the
Cupcake Royale.” Chuuch. Speaking of, those spiritual and personal
themes RA is well known for in his previous work are also quite present
in the Shade. RA explains: “The inherent duality in the comic world
parallels that of the spiritual world, whereby the superhero represents
the infallible manifestation and the alter ego is beautifully human.
The effort to reconcile two vastly different identities… this is the
underlying theme of the project, and of course it has real-life
applications.” But you, and I, want to know—what does it sound
like? Here’s your chance: Victor Shade are rocking the High Dive on
Friday, September 4, with Grynch, Born Anchors, and the
Redwood Plan for Ear Candy’s birthday bash (‘sup, Travis!).

Kublakai sent me his new EP, Lights for the Dark
Nights, all produced by his boy Slouch. Yes, another free
local rap EP—a format I quite like. I realize a lot of y’all
started buying CDs when Drag-On had a career and that those $18
rap albums tended toward extended, 70-minute bowel movements, but I
personally love the brevity and cohesiveness of the EP, as it really
encourages a fine-tuned suite of music. Plus, who wants to hear most
rappers for that long anyway? That said, Lights is
easily Koob’s best work, best songs, best flow,
period—even if he said that I would “shit all over it” on the
blackout braggadocio of “Insanity Reigns” (I guess I’ll know I made it
when I can make a whole mixtape of local rap songs that name-check me).
There’s just as much musical growth documented here as there is
personal growth, by turns meditative, rowdy, and emo-as-fuck, but
always dead honest in a way that most awkward-with-self full-disclosure
rappers can’t manage. So go to www.kublakai.com and get it.