"I'm really out here, my nigga... like really out here..."

"Here" being, at least for me at this moment, Milwaukee. I'm on tour with Shabazz Palaces all of April, and best believe I already miss the town and my favorite Milwaukee native (my lady). Besides the author and SP, there's yet another Seattle-reared genius (I say that with a smirk, in my case) in the van—that being my man Tay Sean, the Helladope, ahem, Cloud Nice founder. Cloud Nice has a hellafied project (that I already effused about a while ago in these pages) as Kingdom Crumbs, and you can stream and download the first and second singles ("Pick Both Sides of My Brain" and "For the Birds") from the self-titled album right now at www.cloudnice.com. Is it a conflict of interest because I just sat in a van for six hours with Tay? Like I care. I just gotta tell you about the shit that I feel.

I mean, I like all sorts of shit, just like you. Internet-age "Oldies" Odd Future are at Showbox Sodo on Wednesday, April 11, my guys Champagne Champagne return to Neumos on Thursday, April 12, after their second (or so?) savage-looking European campaign, Zeta Barber does his All City Jumpoff release party at the Lo-Fi on Friday, April 13, and Dom Kennedy is at the Showbox OG on Saturday the 14th.

Man, I like people who put on for the shit they believe instead of bitching about the shit they don't. That's what I dig about the MO of producer BoomBox Massacre. He likes that gutter shit, reps the 253, and does his damnedest to showcase all of that via his collaborations over the last few years, including EPs with BlockRepp's DoughKain and Handlebar Raw, and even spoken word MC Josh Rizeberg. His latest, BoomMan & Mobbin, features his second go-round with the pugilistic block lyricism of Awall, aka 2Piece. All you lads can get a taste via the video for "Flawless," which also features verses from Duranged Pitt and Duce 1, of High Point's Boss Fam Officials mossie. BoomBox's next slated Marvel Team-Up is as the duo Kompound Frakture with the uncooked/uncorked Oldominion spitter Anaxagorous; their Hostile Takeover EP is coming in these next, hopefully summer, months.

Also out now for free download is Speedy the Artist's new EP, Mind Decor. Speedy, as gruff a chopper as something Jesse James would build, has for some time been promising something different and "Untraditional." That very track (yes, "Untraditional"), all undulating percussion and chants, is as literally literal as it is lyrically lyrical, as Speedy browbeats you about how he's being, so you get it in no uncertain terms. I appreciate his speech not following formulas, but in general, instead of talking about how different your approach is, it's better to just take a different approach; as a brother once told me: "If you talk about it, it's [just] a show..." The EP has a feature from the aforementioned Sea Monsta Duranged Pitt, who gets it kraken on "Scuba Dive." You can find it all at www.speedytheartist.bandcamp.com. I hope this column finds you well. However, for the next couple weeks, as Masta Ace and the Inc. (the REAL Inc.) once said, you can't find me.