First off, congrats to the Saturday Knights, who just hit
number one on the CMJ hiphop charts.
In the words of Barfly, “Nobody Can Start Us Now”!
I see that on Saturday, August 9, out in the wilds of Kenmore (Saint
Edwards State Park to be exact), is the Third Annual Hip-Nic featuring Laura “Piece” Kelly, Amos Miller, Gabriel
Teodros, DJ B-Girl, Macklemore, and Canary
Sing. That’s a lot of local talent to be found in the wide-open
spaces, check www.myspace.com/hipnic for more
details.
Speaking of, I just ran into my man Gabriel Teodros, who’s
all over the map these days finding inspiration from D.C. to Toronto to
Vancouver, BC. He hit me off with Andromeda: The Chronicles of
Blackopia Volume 1 by Kafa Beanz, a collective of
Ethiopian-American hiphop artists that includes Teodros,
Burntface, BSheba, Wayna, and AP. Yo…
this shit is dope! I’m particularly impressed with Burntface’s ill,
commanding flow (just hear him skate on the Afrobeat of “iRock”), but
there’s definitely no slouches here; there’s some gorgeous soulful
vocals from Wayna, and BSheba gots way more swag than most females on
the mic—I expect to hear more from her. AP brings a street-born
wisdom and Gabe himself sounds more inspired and his delivery more
refined than I’ve yet heard—whatever he’s been up to since he
peaced out of here is clearly working. Much love, homey! This is a very
strong debut from the Blackopia collective-
consciousness, street
and revolutionary. Get you some of this at www.blackopia
.com, for
real.
While we’re talking diaspora (look it up), local producer
extraordinaire (and winner of the last PUSH Beat Battle) Budo put me up onto a crew he’s working with to great effect:
A.R.M, comprising Krukid (from Uganda) and
M.anifest (from Ghana). East-West unity baby, what you know
about that! Both MCs are great, with a lot of personality, and sound
like superheroes on Budo’s soulful production. Watch out for these
dudes at www.myspace.com/arm4arm.
Friday, August 8, at Nectar you can catch up with Budo’s homey and
yours, Macklemore. He’s headlining a bill with a few of our
b-boy neighbors from down Portland way: Lightheaded’s Braille,
Da’rel Junior, and Theory Hazit—who you may have
caught catching wreck with Common Market during the Block Party. Top
that off with DJ sets from Ohmega Watts and there ya go.
That same night, the chiefer’s (second) best friend, Devin the
Dude, is coming to Neumo’s, along with Portland’s own backbone,
King Cool Nutz, as well as Neema, J Mar,
D.Black, and the Parker Brothaz. J Mar’s output so far is
nothing but promising and I look forward to his upcoming Be a G
About It, representing lovely for that Du4Self. D.Black’s
upcoming Rejuvenation is, from the sample I got to hear, going
to be fuuucking sick—and if you’re up on these here 206
internets, you know the Life just leaked like nine heatery unreleased
tracks from Black himself to whet appetites. If you ain’t know, get
your blogs up! 