I can't believe that it's taken me this long to get around to posting about this legendary Cali collective. The LA/Bay Area-based Living Legends are composed of some of the most well respected underground west coast emcees (including Grouch and Murs) and have been making classic music together for nearly two decades.
This song, my favorite off 2001's Almost Famous, is one of the group's best and contains one of the Sad Clown's better verses. It's a gorgeous track that, in four brief minutes, touch upon all the important steps in a person's life. Enjoy.
EDIT: Added a couple Sam Lachow (and Raz) songs down bottom to get to know him better. The first is a sorta-kinda love song from his EP 5 Good Reasons with Raz Simone, the second is the opening track from his Avenue Music EP.
In light of Macklemore's runaway success, let me introduce some Seattle spitters that haven't ever been featured on this site. Internet, meet Sam Lachow, Gift uh Gab, Nacho Picasso, Jarv Dee, La, Raz Simone, and Grynch.
These rappers aren't total unknowns (we've featured Grynch on this site more than once), but this showcase is a great way to get acquainted with their various styles. Each of the emcees is quite different, keeping the song really fresh. It also doesn't hurt that each emcee only gets a quick 16 before handing off the mic. This is a video that needs to be watched more than once.
Sam Lachow and Kromagnon construct a sparse beat, perfect for each verse to have full reign of. Most posse cuts have a repetitive beat that doesn't grow over the course of the song, but this song takes a more subtle route. Instead of leaving the boom-bap of Sam's verse for all the other's to do their thing on, the producers make slight shifts after each verse, complementing the style of each emcee. Sam Lachow's goofy, laid-back flow sets the tone, Gift uh Gab gets a shaker effect and a breakdown, Nacho Picasso takes the beat into outer space...I could go on, but words pale in comparison to the aural experience.
Just like any good posse cut, there's the accompanying debate about who really killed it. I'll withhold my opinion, but let us know down bottom.
"Coyotes (feat. Ariana DeBoo)"
"Got Soul (feat. Ariana DeBoo)"*
*I swear Ariana DeBoo isn't on all of his tracks, although her voice is beautiful.
It's funny how my most productive nights blogwise happen to coincide with the nights I actually have to do homework. I'm not saying that there's a causal relationship caused by me wanting to procrastinating. I'm just saying there's a correlation. Anyway, this Left Coast freshness comes courtesy of LA-via-Seattle artist GMK, who is currently working on an as-yet-untitled mixtape. Definitely check back in for more material from this up and coming artist.
On another note, I'm definitely feeling the picture inside of Seattle Public Library's main hub.
Considering that finals are looming and I'd rather post this than write my African Civ paper, it's time for a brief history lesson:
It's rare to hear of a rapper taking his stage name from the pages of history. For every Makaveli, there are hundreds if not thousands of 50 Cents or Games, names that really mean nothing to themselves or anyone else. It's even rarer to hear an emcee with a historical moniker spit with skill that can appeal to a wide audience. Enter Los Angeles emcee/producer Sunni Ali Ber, the product of first-generation Nigerian immigrants and younger brother of Cobe Obeah, who has chosen to honor his roots by taking on the moniker Sunni Ber Ali, the first great king of the Songhai Empire, a dynasty that ruled much of West Africa from the time of Mali's decline in the early 14th century until the late 17th century.
This song from the LA emcee is dedicated to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, which is causing me all sorts of hell at the moment. It comes off, Ketchup, one of the best mixtapes of last year.
There are many regions that have generated numerous hip hop greats, but only two, New York and Southern California (namely Los Angeles) can boast that they are Meccas of the genre. While NYC has produced legends Biggie, Jay, Nas, Mobb Deep, Black Star, and countless others, LA boasts an equally impressive list with the likes of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, N.W.A., Snoop, and 2Pac (via The Bay) to name a few.
Inverse is yet another group to follow in the steps of their SoCal forefathers. Emcees Toby and Tunji come from diverse backgrounds. Toby is a white jewish boy from LA, while Tunji was raised by Nigerian parents in the Bay Area. Despite their different upbringings, Inverse have been making dope music since '01 and have collaborated with the legends KRS-ONE, Big Daddy Kane, Pete Rock, CunninLynguists, Brother Ali, and Little Brother (Tunji also drops a verse with Geologic of Blue Scholars on Seattle emcee Grynch's classic "Smoke And Mirrors"...check out Grynch's FreEP Chemistryhere...).
I have to admit, I've been sleeping on this group more than I'd like to own up to, but I've been a big fan of this SoCal duo ever since first hearing their January 2dopeboyz-featured So True EP[Update: the linked page is no longer available, so you can find the FreEP embedded below].
I've always been a huge fan of EPs. It is nearly impossible for an artist to make a classic LP as putting together a 14 or 15 track album without filler is a difficult task even for the most talented artists. With shorter albums such as Nas' classic debut Illmatic or EPs like the Blue Scholars' The Long March, artists have less room to put in a bad track or two and the results are often albums that you can listen to front-to-back all day long.
This is definitely the case with this six-track EP as every track borders on greatness. The songs I'd like to single out on the EP are "Rise & Shine" and the Deacon of CunninLynguists assisted-title track "So True." "Rise & Shine" has become one of my favorite hip hop tracks of all time. Everything is simply perfect, the soulful sample, the verses, the production-everything lines up for this track to make it undeniably powerful and beautiful. The same goes for the title track.
At the end of the day, Inverse is one of my three favorite up and coming groups (the others being Dyme Def and Fresh Espresso) and if you like what you hear on So True and see on the equally dope video of "So Far," I highly recommend copping their 2008 release So Far (The Collection). Definitely make note of the name in the upcoming years.
