[superemptyblog]

My Weekend With Local Rappers And Hip-Hop Photographers, And How The Moogfest Gentrificaton Narrative Is Too Often A Lazy Cliché

It is not an exaggeration to say this was one of my favorite weekends ever.

On Thursday night, after seeing Blood Orange play an 80-foot-wide outdoor stage that didn’t exist three days earlier, I saw Ryan Hemsworth finish his groovy, head-nodding set at the Armory with Chance The Rapper’s “No Problem,” to which everyone predictably lost their mind. On Friday night, just two blocks away from my house, I stood behind the ebullient afro of Reggie Watts as we both took in a mesmerizing GZA set inside MotorCo. Hours earlier, I had watched Professor Toon and Well$ play probably two of the best shows I’ve seen from them, to a crowd that was more energized and engaged from start to finish than anything I’m used to seeing at local shows. Saturday night, I took pictures from press row as GZA played his second consecutive night, this time on the outdoor stage. Once again, I had to pinch myself that this 2,000-person gathering was all happening in a parking lot through which I often walk my dog.

As I sipped on the lone remaining PBR tall boy from my fridge this morning (read: 3 p.m.) recounting these and other events of the weekend, it occurred to me that as amazing as many of the events were, I was equally grateful to the festival for simply giving me an opportunity to hang out with a lot of people I don’t get to see enough of, in this case rappers, producers, clothiers, bloggers and photographers, many of whom I’d met while running my clothing brand and store, Thrill City, in Chapel Hill between 2011 and 2015. It’s something that I immediately agreed with when I saw DJ Forge sum it up in a single tweet:

Honestly, the best part about Moogfest has been hanging out with my friends that I don't get to see as often as I should

— FORGE (@djforge)

May 20, 2016

I think I know Forge well enough to safely assume that a good number of the friends he was referring to are not white. Most of the friends who made my weekend awesome are not white. And yet that didn’t stop members of local media and a parade of snarky tweeters (like a termite or cockroach infestation, Durham surely has legions more below the surface that we haven’t seen yet) from dishing out tired “outside investment/gentrification/NIMBY” tropes in the run up to the festival last week, with the idea that Moogfest is part of a downtown expansion that pushes common people out of the way to make room for a plutocratic playground enjoyed by white, male, venture capitalists.

It’s not a narrative in Durham that I completely disagree with, or one that we shouldn’t talk about. But as it relates to Moogfest in particular, my experience this weekend tells a very different story. You may not think of Moogfest as particularly hip-hop, and it is obviously a far cry from a black festival, but I can say this without equivocation: of the artists, creatives, managers, photographers and more in the NC hip-hop community that I’ve connected with over the past few years, I’ve never seen so many of them in such a small radius, over one weekend.

So who is destroying our local culture, again?

Most of the friends I spent the past weekend with are very young (less than 24 years old, some as young as 18), they are largely non-white, and they are very, very far from the average attendee annual income of $100,000+ that Moogfest boasts about to its potential sponsors and partners. They are not invading Durham from all corners of the world to transform our local culture against our will — they’re from around our area and around our state, more likely from the Triad than Tribeca.

And I’m not talking about just one or two examples. It got to a point this weekend when I stopped even having to wonder if various friends from the hip-hop scene would be wandering the streets of Durham — by part-way through Friday night, I could safely assume they were.

King Phill, founder of style and culture blog Cool&WellDressed, and someone I rarely get to see, was in town from Greensboro shooting for Infinite Magazine, as was Charlotte’s Dave Has Wingz, another writer, clothing designer and photographer who I hadn’t hung out with in more than a year. Tommy Coyote, a 19-year-old well-known in the hip-hop circles for his popular Instagram account (10k followers and counting, bolstered by his recent months as a tour photographer for Derek Luh) was visiting from Apex, working as one of Moogfest’s lead photographers. He and 18-year-old photographer Basile Shingu both spent multiple nights in Moogfest’s American Tobacco basement doc studio, grinding out work for the festival, and it was awesome to see how much fun they were having. Of course my longtime friends and collaborators Justin Laidlaw and Gabe Get$ of RUNAWAY were out and about, their brand new shop getting Official Moogfest Merch Store treatment just a couple months removed from opening day. I ran into or spent time with Father MIKE, Crystal Taylor, and Chelsey Bentley — all of them active and engaged members of the local hip-hop community.

Oh right, and the artists themselves.

Greensboro-based JK The Reaper was in town to perform as part of Denzel Curry’s Friday Night MotorCo set, which followed near-flawless performances from Durham’s Professor Toon and Chapel Hill’s Well$. Toon and Well$ would perform again on Saturday night with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn (aka MADE OF OAK) on the festival main stage, something that should have made any North Carolina music fan happy. Durham’s Kid Infamous and Danny Blaze were in the crowd for GZA’s indoor show, Charlotte’s Will Wildfire played an unofficial backyard party, Defacto Thezpian spent time dishing out albums and politicking with Well$ backstage, producer Cocique popped up throughout the weekend with his perfectly groomed manbun, Trandle showed off his hoverboard skills behind The Pinhook, Toon’s DJ Shahzad went nuts next to me during the aforementioned Ryan Hemsworth set, Bull City emcee The Real Laww was everywhere, Raleigh rapper and producer Brassious Monk caught Lunice from a couple rows in front of me, and rapper Austin Royale (formerly A-10) rolled around with JK and Denzel Curry.

Every time I turned around I was bumping into someone I hadn’t seen in weeks, if not months, or was meeting through a mutual friend for the first time. And rarely did the person I was bumping into match the archetypal Moogfest attendee I’ve been programmed to dread: white, wealthy, uninvested in Durham or Triangle culture. As I stood on the back side of Ninth Street Bakery on Saturday watching a group of young people all hanging out because of Moogfest — Tommy taking pictures of Shahzad and Gabe as they stood against a brick wall, Well$ crouching between them with skateboard in hand, all of them mean-mugging for the lens — it hit me how bizarre and out-of-touch our local cultural commentary has become. If railing against the socio-cultural implications of Moogfest is now the standard position of Durham’s counter-culture, it’s truly surreal to consider what is, by definition, now the Establishment: Moogfest-affiliated skaters, rappers, and clothing lines that feature designs like a skeleton lying in a coffin with two women.

These opinions do not come without some important disclaimers, chief among them that Moogfest provided my ticket, as well as many of my meals, over the weekend, as well as full access that made it easy to jump between green rooms, rooftop viewing areas and press pits, as part of a documentary I'm working on with Moogfest and RUNAWAY. This undoubtedly colors the way I look back at the weekend as a whole.

Due to my proximity to all the venues, I saw more of the festival than I have of any other festival in my life, so when I say “I saw more members of the hip-hop community at Moogfest than I’ve ever seen anywhere,” although it is a true statement from me, it should not be taken to mean there isn’t a similar camaraderie at, say, Hopscotch. I’ve just never been able to spend a full weekend there.

Lastly, I realize that the couple dozen people I described here are but one small window into the thousands of attendees who descended upon Durham this weekend, and likely do not speak to a larger trend. Therefore, this essay is not meant to present an omniscient, all-encompassing rejection of the Moogfest/gentrification storyline, but rather provide a glimpse into how, at least within one small community, that premise fell spectacularly flat.

I’ve grown incredibly tired of the cliché — often propagated by progressive white people with largely white social circles who enjoy the social benefits of a semi-gentrified city (LGBTQ-friendly businesses, responsibly sourced food, microbreweries galore) — that Moogfest, and any other fun and exciting thing for that matter, is a harbinger of a corporate takeover tearing at the fabric of our little multi-cultural utopia. To hear some of these people opine about Moogfest, it’s as if NewsCorp has just broken ground on a new headquarters in the old Durham Bulls outfield.

We should question, we should challenge, we should critique. But before spouting opinions from 25,000 feet up, we must also engage on the ground level. Ask some of the people I spent the weekend with, and you’ll likely find that, like me, they had an amazing time. To hear their answer, though, you’d have to take a break from speaking on their behalf.

[superemptyblog]

Thoughts of Raleigh: Talking to the duo behind Sincerely, Tab (Pt. I)

After a years-long hiatus, North Carolina rap collective Kooley High emerged from the shadows in 2015 to hit us with Heights, a diverse EP of tracks that showed the group’s range to be wider than ever, from the cocksure antics of “Suave,” to possibly Kooley’s most heartfelt work yet, “Carry On.”

Less than a year later, we now have Sincerely, Tab, the long-awaited collaboration album from Kooley rapper Tab-One and producer Sinopsis. I talked to the album’s creators separately about what went into the album, why now, and what comes next. (Part II with Sinopsis coming soon.)

SE: This is a project that has been in the works for a long time, like at least a couple years, right? When did it actually begin to take shape, and what were the main things that drew it out?

Tab: I was in BK around 2011. I don’t know if I ended up with beats from Sinopsis that maybe he had given us for David Thompson, or if I had just asked him to send me some. I just remember, like, “M.O.B.” for example. I remember having that in my headphones and writing to it in the subway, had to be around 2011. And then when me and Sinop started talking about a project, I knew I wanted to call it Sincerely, Tab. I just liked how it played off both of our names.

If you go back even further when we were in H2O at NC State, me and Sinop had always talked about doing a project together. For whatever reason it just never happened. So we finally started, and he was sending me some beats and stuff while I was in BK. We had planned on putting it out around like 2013. There’s an image back then from Kooley High on Twitter that actually says “Sincerely, Tab coming 2013” (laughs). I think it got put on hold because Kooley stuff took precedent. Anything that came with the group we wanted to push more, just because it’s more mutually beneficial for everyone, and for the most part still is. I think in the long run it was better that we waited. If we put out in 2013 I don’t think it would be nearly as good as it turned out to be.

How long were you in Brooklyn?

I think I moved there in June of 2010, and then I think I moved back to Raleigh in like, September of 2011.

Did you go there to pursue a music career?

Yeah, Kooley had moved up there to pursue music. That’s how we got our connection with Fat Beats, did some shows, met some people, but I was doing a long-distance thing with my (now) wife, and that was hard. And just being up there in general was kinda hard. More power to the people who wanna stay up there, but I came to the point where I was like I don’t really see the point in being up here, barely paying bills and buying food, when I could go home to North Carolina and be with my friends and family.

What were you doing by day? On “Thoughts of BK,” you talk about a “PA gig” and “cleaning up weed from a shoot with Khalifa.”

I was a production assistant for part of the time, that was probably the best job I had up there. I had a little walkie talkie, and mostly what I’d do was pick up a van at like 4 in the morning in Manhattan, then pick up the stylist from whatever hotel they’re staying at and drive them out to wherever we’re doing the shoot. We did shoots for Hilfiger, some actresses, but yeah one of the shoots was for Wiz Khalifa. I had to go get this ridiculous rider of sour cream and cheddar Ruffles and crazy shit he wanted, a bunch of white t-shirts. But at the end of the day they left weed crumbs all over the table and I had to clean it up, so I scooped it up and took it home. And later that night Kooley High enjoyed the fruits of my labor.

So much of the album feels even more reminiscent of 90’s albums like Like Water For Chocolate than much of the Kooley catalog, which skews more towards a party vibe. To what degree did you and Sinop have a conscious conversation about making something more subdued and introspective?

I think it’s just the nature of me when I’m left to my own devices — I tend to be more introspective. It’s been my style, always has been. With Kooley, Charlie is so talented with coming up with ideas and hooks for songs, I mean honestly a lot of times his mind kinda steers the direction of certain projects, and I hop on board and help out, and occasionally, I might come up with a hook. I feel like hooks personally were never my strong suit, I just like writing. I’ve always tried to work on it, and as long as I’ve been doing this, I feel like I’m just now getting comfortable with that. Charlie’s just fucking amazing how good he is with that shit. I think the next Kooley album you’ll probably see a difference. We’re all maturing and getting older as we write. I think even if you listen to The Tabloids, my old shit, that’s where I come from, introspective. It wasn’t anything thought-through.

I love the changeup on “Back On Up,” particularly the second half. How did that come together?

He (Sinopsis) played it for me, and when it just changed halfway through I was like “Hell yeah — that’s the type of shit I want this to do.” Sinop is a funny guy. He’ll add something on his own and I’ll ask, “Where did that come from? Who the hell played that?” On that bassline I find out it was this dude (George) Pettus that he met at Brightlady (9th Wonder’s studio). Or on “M.O.B.,” I guess (King) Mez was over at Sinop’s one day, and he played it for him and Mez just put a verse on it.

“M.O.B.” both sonically and lyrically is one of the strongest total songs on the project, I think. That beat is crazy. And Mez recorded his verse without you knowing?

Sinop had played me that beat obviously a long time ago. I liked it at the time, and even now, even in an album, that beat stands out. Sinop is always getting better and better in my opinion, and is always making new beats. I love when I hear him play something unexpected from him, and I think that was one of those beats that was like, “Oh shit! Didn’t know you had that in the stash”! So yeah I gravitated towards it, I feel like he had played it for Act Proof or someone in JAMLA and no one had picked it up, and when I heard it I was like, “I want that.”

Even Mez jumping on it, all I know is he was there at some point when I wasn’t there and laid it down.

Did you talk to Mez about it before you dropped the album?

I was kinda worried with where he is right now, so I didn’t say anything, because I would rather ask for forgiveness than for permission. He hasn’t said anything so I assume he’s cool with it.

Mez is the type of artist inclined to usually not like his old stuff, for sure.

A lot of people are like that. A lot of artists are perfectionists. I don’t see myself as that type of artist. I feel like I know in my head if something is wack, and I won’t put it out if it’s wack. I’m not a perfectionist by any means — I’m down to put shit out and see if people like it.

Through the success of Kooley, you and Sinopsis are in a minority of hip-hop artists in the Triangle with any sort of connection to a physical distributor like Fat Beats in New York, which you mention on “Thoughts of BK.” Is there more to that story? You said: “Hit up Fat Beats, see if they want to run our tracks like some athletes/They were down, but them bed bugs creepin’, call my lady, tell her that I’ll be home by the weekend.”

So it’s kinda like summing up my whole experience in Brooklyn in three short verses, you know? So it’s not all linear, maybe, but it’s talking about how we made David Thompson when we were up there, so we met with Fat Beats. They loved it, they had already re-distributed Eastern Standard Time on CD, and they agreed to put out David Thompson, just digitally. They were down, they did EST, David Thompson, and now Heights, so we still have relationship.

The bed bugs was a true story too. The 2-bedroom we had four dudes in ended up having bed bugs so we were packing all our clothes into garbage bags, taking them down to the laundromat, waiting for them to try, put them back in the garbage bag, duct tape them. Last couple weeks I was there I was sleeping on an air mattress with no blankets and a towel for a pillow.

So that situation was the catalyst for leaving?

It was the final straw definitely. I wanted to be home with my girlfriend, back in North Carolina and with my family. New York was cool and I think I could have stayed up there but I didn’t see the point for me personally. I love it down here. I don’t see why we can’t do what we do from NC and travel elsewhere.

Speaking of family, “Sugar” sounds so much to me like the classic MURS style of love song that I feel like he has a million of, Common too, and they all sound great. Are those at all an inspiration for the song, by chance?

It’s funny you mention Common because yeah, Mos Def, even Black Thought on like “You Got Me,” from Things Fall Apart, stuff like that I always loved. I like hip-hop love songs that aren’t like, I don’t know… don’t come off cheesy, just feel honest. And pure. So I wanted to do something like that. And I wanted to do a love song that was more uptempo, and not like a cliché downtempo kinda vibe. Something different.

Is the 9th Wonder-executive produced Kooley High album ever going to come out? There’s definitely an interesting dynamic going on when you’re partially relying on him, and ostensibly his most time-consuming project right now is the solo career of someone who used to be in your group, and now isn’t, in Rapsody.

I don’t think there’s anything weird. I think if there’s anything that has put delays on it, it’s us. The relationship is cool, everything with us and Rap is very cool and I’m not saying that just to say that. We all still talk to Rap regularly. I think it just got to the point where it was like… we saw that coming. It’s almost like a sigh of relief, because everyone was thinking it: “You should be doing your own thing with 9th. You deserve to do it, you worked your ass off.”

I mean we all started off as friends and we all want to stay that way. If you can’t be happy for your friends’ success what does that say about you? That’s fucking awesome. We’re all super supportive of Rap, and actually the album was her idea. She hit us up and was like would you want 9th to executive produce the album?

I imagine the executive production by 9th is helpful both from the standpoint of the music and the marketing — is that something you discussed as a group?

His involvement has definitely helped us piece together a really good album, and getting input from somebody who’s been doing this for so long and worked on so many classic albums. Obviously since his name is attached to it, it’ll get us in some lanes that we’ve never been in, which would be a huge plus, but you can’t expect anything. I guess if I’m being honest I would hope so, but I’m not going to expect it by any means.

[superemptyblog]

Not Watching UNC Tonight? You Should Be At “Night Of The Youth”

In North Carolina, there’s getting bad luck with your booking date, and then there’s having a show that starts at almost exactly the moment UNC tips off a Final Four basketball game. Besides accidentally booking a bar called The Monkey Barrel in Colorado that you thought was in Greenville, it doesn’t get more unlucky than that.

Such is the fate of Raleigh rapper Ace Henderson and his “Night Of The Youth” event at Kings Barcade Saturday night, where he’ll celebrate a rising tide of Triangle area creativity with some of its most exciting characters and his closest friends: ZenSoFly and Brassius Monk of the recently launched Youthful Records, as well as fellow emcee NANCE. The group will be forced to do it in the shadow of daunting competition, however. The eyeballs of the UNC basketball faithful, cheering on their team in a national semifinal matchup against Syracuse, will be glued to television screens between 8:49 and 10:49 PM.

That being said, “Night Of The Youth” isn’t going down without a fight.

For starters, #NOTY has Ace at the helm. Henderson seems to be the defacto media darling of the Triangle of late, rounding out features in INDY Week and the Raleigh News & Observer with a visit last week to talk about his career, love and the North Carolina music scene with Mir.I.Am at K97.5 (who continues to make good on her intent to fuse The Triangle’s Only Station For Hip-Hop and R&B with more local flavor):

Youthful Records may not be getting the same level of press that Henny has recently, but it feels like the movement is just a step away and most definitely has next. Driven by engineer, DJ, rapper and jack-of-all-trades ZenSoFly, Youthful officially debuted as a label earlier this year and has already performed shows around NC and as far as Atlanta.

Much of the label’s activity centers around a downtown Raleigh recording studio, aptly titled “The Studi0,” which Zen runs. Brassius Monk, another member of the Youthful crew, has been dropping occasional singles for months in anticipation of the EP he just released called Brass Expansion.

NANCE rounds out the night’s performers, and likely brings with him one of the most invested and supportive fan bases in the local scene. He also takes the event full circle, as NANCE was one of the people Ace heard rapping in school back when he was 14 or 15 years old. During his K97.5 interview, Henderson said: “I was in high school, I was listening to NANCE’s stuff, and I was like, ‘Man this dude, he’s gonna make it one day’... and then one day he heard my stuff and was like ‘Yo, come to Wake Forest, let’s make some music!’”

Last but not least, this is a Raleigh show after all, and that likely means a heavily Wolfpack-leaning crowd. And as any college basketball fan can tell you, they don’t usually have basketball games to watch in April. 

The Night of the Youth will rage on.

[superemptyblog]

Seeing Double: Well$ And His New Video(s) For “130″

The other day I was reading sports/music writer and Twitter mini-celebrity Shea Serrano’s fantastic book, The Rap Year Book, when I came upon his pick for the most important rap song of 1996: “California Love,” by Tupac, featuring Dr. Dre. In the chapter, Serrano makes reference to a post-apocalyptic music video for the song inspired by the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, shot in the desert amidst a backdrop of motorcycles, spiked leather jackets and the famed Thunderdome. 

This didn’t jive with my recollection at all. Wasn’t the “California Love” video the one where Dre and Pac hit the Compton Swap Meet to buy some fresh new clothes (with apparently baby Kendrick Lamar looking on in the crowd), then throw a huge house party featuring the likes of E-40, Jodeci and Deion Sanders? Well, yes and no. There is a video for “California Love” in which such a party takes place. But there’s also an earlier version, directed by Hype Williams and based in the year 2095, borne out of the Mad Max concept. The two videos were apparently shot 18 days apart in November of 1995, and they were both better than most music videos today. Well, maybe not the house party one, but hip-hop history is better with hyperbole.

Double videos aren’t unheard of in hip-hop, but they are rare enough that it’s worth attention when they happen. Sure, it would have been good enough had Charlotte emcee and Immaculate Taste flagbearer Well$ dropped a crisp video for any one of the recent singles he’s released over the past few months, but what he ended up doing was much better. If you only clicked on one of the stories that popped up this week about a “130″ video from Well$, you might not have caught that he dropped two different videos for the same song.

Enlisting the services of Summit Collective, who have previously worked with the likes of King Mez and Rapsody, Well$ put together a one-take video that debuted Tuesday on Mass Appeal. The simple video hardly broke new thematic ground, but it didn’t get mired in complication or abstraction either — it allowed Well$’ charisma to be the focus of our attention for two and a half minutes, with flawless camerawork that made us forget we were watching a video in the first place. After being posted to the Facebook page of major hip-hop channel (which I had admittedly never heard of before) Team BackPack, the video already has upwards of 8,000 views in just a few days.

That wasn’t the end of things, however, as Immaculate Taste took to the internet with a brand new video for “130” the very next day, debuting this time on Complex-owned music site Pigeons & Planes. It’s on this version that Summit really flexes the cinematic muscle it’s shown in previous work like King Mez videos “Morris” and “Can’t Let Go,” where lighting, coloring and camerawork combine for an immersive, surreal final product. This more complex version was also the intended video from the start, apparently. Immaculate Taste manager Mike Tambashe said the one-take just came out so well they decided to release it as a standalone first.

With the same song as their backing, and even using footage from the same shoot, the two videos create two entirely different viewing experiences. No, this wasn’t quite shooting one video in the desert with Chris Tucker and some leather eye patches one day and another at a bumpin’ house party in Hollywood roughly two weeks later. But in an age when it’s hard enough for artists to scrape together the funding for just one highly produced music video (this isn’t 1995 at Dre’s crib, after all), it’s a treat for us to get two.

Well$ plays international music and technology festival Moogfest May 19-22 in Durham. Specific set times have not been posted. Stream and download “130″ below: 

[superemptyblog]

The Triangle Roundup, February 23rd (Volume 3 + Catch-up)

Womp womp. It was inevitable — the Triangle Roundup wasn’t going to run like a well-oiled machine forever. For two glorious weeks, we were cranking out quality content like this was the goddam New York Times, but eventually the friction of everyday life caught back up, and here we are. Volume 3, the third installment in about six weeks. Shit.

Over the past couple weeks we’ve seen live performances in the Triangle by Ace Henderson, Professor Toon, Kooley High, Tab-One, SkyBlew, NANCE, and Drique London, as well as another Yo! NC Raps showcase hosted by The Pinhook (which has miraculously emerged out from under $80,000 of debt). And we would have had a couple more acts getting shine if Bryson Tiller or Kid Cudi’s shows at The Ritz had featured local openers, but hey, you can’t win ‘em all. 

Durham-to-L.A. transplant G Yamazawa released a stellar debut EP that earned a 3.5/5 star review from the INDY’s Eric Tullis, and yesterday Raleigh’s NANCE released his own EP, Everything I Need, a decent offering that I reviewed for INDY Week as well. But there was a ton of other stuff that dropped too, so let’s get right into it:

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King Mez (Raleigh, NC) - “Changed”

There’s no question that for hip-hop fans in North Carolina, all eyes are on King Mez. By this point, everyone has heard the story of his unlikely ride from Raleigh to the recording studios of Dr. Dre’s Aftermath — what no one has heard much of is music. Last summer Mez re-surfaced to the public for the first time in nearly 12 months, appearing on the debut episode of “The Pharmacy” on Apple Music’s Beats 1 station with a vicious freestyle that showed he hadn’t lost an ounce of his trademark wit and substance. It also proved that this wild story, that an underground North Carolina rapper/producer was actually in the studio working with Dr. Dre on his first album in 16 years, was in fact not made up. Even for those who knew what Mez had been up to in L.A., the Beats 1 freestyle finally made everything real.  

Eight months later, we’ve heard little more than that, beyond his select appearances on Dr. Dre’s Compton album. We’ve featured a couple songs on here that Mez produced, but nothing yet had been dropped as an official release. That changed (get it?) last week, when Mez unveiled a loosie that he says didn’t make the cut for his upcoming project, called “Changed.” On the song, he reflects on the way relationships have inevitably been altered as his life has taken him to another coast and another environment entirely. And as one might expect from an artist who’s spent more than a year now under the wing of Andre Young — the production here is unquestionably polished and sharp. 

PS: This song is worth listening to for the beat changeup at 2:40 alone.

Oak City Slums (Raleigh, NC) - “hello 3″ ft. Drozy, Gappa, Trandle, Alife

I got the chance to see a set by Oak City Slums for the first time a couple weeks ago at the debut of Raundhaus at The Shed in Durham’s Golden Belt warehouses. I say this without any embellishment: I was completely blown away. I had been told that Slums was an OG in the scene, but I obviously underestimated the gravity of what that meant. Over the course of what had to be at least 45 minutes to an hour, Slums live performed (not just throwing on tracks) beat after beat that had me checking my surroundings: was I in a nightclub in London? An underground music den in Tokyo? No, definitely still in Durham. But Slums’ incredible set was enough to make me wonder a few times.

To my pleasant surprise, many of the entrancing riffs I heard at Raundhaus turned out to be featured on his recent Soundcloud project releases, hi and hello. 

Some of his soundscapes are more challenging to the average music listener than others, but on “hello 3″, the group track featuring many of the collaborators who also performed at Raundhaus (Drozy, Gappa, Trandle, etc.), he kicks back with a pulsating, quirky moonshot that most any hip-hop fan can nod his head and zone out to, with enough funky tweaks to keep things interesting. Please, for the love of God, let’s start hearing more rappers spitting over Oak City Slums beats in 2016. 

BLCK CNVS (Raleigh, NC) - “BLK OUT”

Daaaaaammnn, Daniel! Seriously, this debut track from Raleigh trio The Black Canvas, which came out three weeks ago (that’s how far behind we are), is a can’t-miss among recent NC releases. If you haven’t already heard it — though its 1,500+ listens on Soundcloud shows that many already have — fix that immediately.

As you may have guessed from a group called The Black Canvas releasing a song called Black Out, the content here is unapologetically, um, black. With a dark, harrowing instrumental that sounds almost as heavy as the subject matter the group seeks out to tackle here, The Black Canvas succeeds in making the case that this is a group worth watching in 2016. 

Not only does the group deserve attention, but so do its individual members: P.A.T. Junior, The Deeep End, and SONYAE, who give some of their best performances to date on this song. Every verse on the song is packed with meaning and power, but I have to give a special shout to SONYAE for that final one — the energy just feels next-level. I love the audio excerpts slipped in between each verse, which all contribute to the song’s larger message.

There’s more music on the way from all of these artists, so keep an eye out. If any of them have make local show announcements any time soon, I’ll be sure to post that on the Super Empty twitter.

WNDRKND x Mercurial (Carrboro, NC) - “The Great Repression”

Carrboro rapper WNDRKND seems to be uniquely at home the denser and more mood-saturated a song is, so it’s no surprise to see him featured on this track from producer Mercurial, which sounds like a stumbling, drug-addled trip through the back woods of North Carolina. I say this with no understanding of what a drug-induced wander through the trees would actually feel like, but I think it would be like this... especially if I started the journey with as many unanswered questions about society on my mind as WNDRKND seems to perpetually have on his. 

After finding just enough space in the beat to squeeze in his biting, politically charged bars, WNDRKND makes way for a satisfying changeup from Mercurial, the two ultimately trading back and forth once more before the song’s near-eight minutes are up. Thankfully for such a long track, “The Great Repression” has its fair share of ebbs and flows, so even if you have it on in the background, it won’t sound like the same 3-minute song is stuck on repeat. And don’t worry if you’re not paying attention — based on the lyrics, WNDRKND is paying enough attention for the both of you.

Alex Aff (Durham, NC) - “Understand” (Video)

Alex Aff made a splash with his solid Forever project last year, and among his stronger offerings was the track, “Understand,” which got the visual treatment a few weeks ago. An all black-and-white video, we walk with Aff through his surroundings in the Bull City, and it’s nice enough to watch and take in for a few minutes.

That being said, Aff has generally been a leader of the field among his rising Triangle peers when it comes to visuals, and this one feels like a bit of a step back. Even though Understand is an engaging, fun song to listen to, it could have used a complementary video that was a bit more conceptually dense than simply walking around Durham and playing hoops. 

Like Kyle McCarty’s new “Lincoln Continental” video, “Understand” doesn’t fall flat on its face, but it also never takes enough chances to be put in a position to. Instead, it hovers in a safe, low-risk zone that is also notoriously low-reward. There’s nothing glaringly wrong with it, but there’s also nothing that makes Aff’s case as a unique, can’t-miss talent. For someone who writes lyrics as ambitious as his, and is trying to make a name from a small city in North Carolina, there’s no reason to waste any opportunity to stand out.

[superemptyblog]

Debut: Ace Henderson goes exploring in hopes of “Finding Forever”

Please, whatever you do, don’t call music videos just peripheral accessories to music. And don’t call Ace Henderson an “alternative” rapper who likes to be “weird” or "out there” as some kind of attention-seeking experiment.

Those are my takeaways after watching Ace’s stellar new video for “Finding Forever,” off his AYYO! album from last year. The piece plays like a short film, and breathes new life into a song that didn’t immediately resonate with me upon the album’s release, and now could well be one of my favorites.

Ace knows as well as anyone that words can only do so much — but feelings, emotion, moments, those things last forever. So it doesn’t matter how many times he tells us that “this is about more than music” for him, or that he doesn’t care about being featured on this site or in that publication. We’ve heard all that from performers before. “Yeah, I don’t really read reviews about myself” is the artist/celebrity equivalent of a politician saying, “It’s not about me, it’s about the people.” Right. 

But when you really care, it shines through the bullshit. Ace continues to put the ample time, thought, effort and vision into his work to let it do just that, and “Finding Forever” is proof positive. The choice of locations, the styling, the characters he interacts with throughout the video, everything feels intentional and purposeful, even if not every single moment is immediately compelling on its own.

A huge salute is due to my friend Carter McCall for helping to achieve Ace’s vision by shooting the fuck out of this — the camera moves are seamless, and his compositions, reduced to the most simple elements, are packed with feeling. This video could work as a photo story if it wanted to.

The ‘Esse Quam Videri’ t-shirt on Ace’s back — ‘To be, rather than to seem’ — fits nice and snug here, like the Medium that I assume it is. When Ace talks about venturing out on his own in pursuit of things bigger and more profound than music business and bullshit blog posts, it’s not lip service. He’s constantly proving that he really means it, and this is just another piece of the puzzle. 

Listen to Analog Youth: Yesterday Is Over below:

[superemptyblog]

The Triangle Roundup, January 22nd (Volume 2)

It’s the second week of Triangle Roundup, and all we know is that we still don’t know a lot. Will this be a regular thing? Will I forget about it after next week? Only time will tell, but we’re already at #2 right now which already makes this better than 90% of New Year’s resolutions. 

Let’s get to the music. 

Crosby - “My God [prod. Lentra]”

Like I said last week, the goal is to eventually be so on top of shit that we’re not covering weeks- or months-old material on the weekly Triangle Roundup. That being said, I don’t think I’ve fully completed a daily to-do list since 2010, so that should tell you how often I reach my goals, and also why we’re covering Crosby’s 2015 track “My God” right now in 2016.

What shadows did Crosby emerge from? Has anyone ever met him? Does this dude really live in “Chapel Hill // Harnett County” as his Soundcloud account says? Because if so, the young MC has the makings of one of the Triangle’s best new artists. With a throaty, razor-sharp delivery reminiscent of fellow Chapel Hill rapper Well$, Crosby’s thumping “My God” track sounds like something that could go on a Pro Era mixtape tomorrow and not suffer by comparison.

But don’t let the references to other artists fool you — Crosby very much has his own unique brand of moody musings and tongue-twisting wordplay:

Doin’ this for five years, finally gettin’ that recognition, Through ruthless repetition, and truthful exhibition/ A brutal disposition I keep, when I’m on the mission, To reap what the cards is given, just creep ‘cuz the God is risen/ My God... Who steppin’ to that kid on some rappin’ shit?  Now to hold the title like I’m Hackenschmidt...

“My God” is just a taste from Crosby’s upcoming album, The Crosby Show, releasing on February 2nd. I shouldn’t have to tell you to keep your eyes and ears open for that one. Meanwhile I’ll just be out in the woods of Harnett County looking for him.

Angelo Mota ft. Well$ - “Over Here”

So, Angelo Mota doesn’t live in the Triangle. He lives in New Jersey. But Well$ lives in the Triangle, and he plays a big part in this larger-than-life track from the two, so it’s slipping into the Triangle Roundup. I know neither of them probably even dreamed this day would come, but it has. Congratulations, fellas.

Mota (who produced Well$’ most recent release, “130″) kicks off the song with a sequence of machine gun-alliterated bars way too close to patent Mick Jenkins for comfort, but over the course of the verse he settles into his own. Well$ and Mota make a good duo on the track, but when the NC native has a chance to make his mark on the song’s second verse, he doesn’t miss, undoubtedly stealing the show:

I’ve been grindin’ for two years... like who invited you here? Mister, make sure that you take care of my crew there/ Oh yeah! Treat every last one of them like me, But ain’t no one like me — or should I say like us?/ Smile so devilish but swag so righteous, Bitch we goooood, like yo mama cookin/ Bitch we goooood, like we on 85, smokin’ 93, pushing 95...

Try this at home: Listen to this one back-to-back with Crosby’s “My God,” and you’ll suddenly find yourself cruising through an abandoned city at night in a muscle car with a fresh black paint job. 

Ace Henderson - “Finding Forever” (Video Teaser)

Fresh off earning the distinction of having his debut album Analog Youth: Yesterday Is Over named one of the Triangle’s Top 15 Albums of 2015 by INDY Week, Ace Henderson is already up and running in ‘16 with his first music video of the new year on the way. 

Directed by Carter McCall, the video is marked by its simple, uncluttered scenery that quietly and powerfully complements the track. Watch the trailer below, and check back for the main thing very soon. 

Kyle McCarty - “Lincoln Continental”

Woooooooooooooooo!! It’s been a while since I’ve kicked back and enjoyed a track as much as I’ve enjoyed listening to Kyle McCarty’s “Lincoln Continental” on repeat over the past couple days (with the exception of “No More Parties In L.A.,” which I believe I’ve now listened to a completely acceptable 106 times). 

Note: Technically this is not really part of the Triangle, as McCarty is from Greensboro, but we'll let it slide this time.

If I’m basic for loving this song, I’m not going to apologize for it. Look: McCarty isn’t the first rapper to spit about a car, and he won’t be the last. I don’t have the Audiomack stats in front of me but I would assume there are approximately 34,827 rap songs about cars on the site at this very instant. Actually make that 34,828 — I just came up with a few bars about my old Toyota Sienna from high school.

Hip-hop is a beautiful genre and culture in part because of the constant state of evolution and re-invention that fuels it, and that means ingenuity is a constant part of the equation — if not nearly all of it sometimes — in dictating what is “good” or “bad” new music. In short, you don’t get the same props for doing today what someone did yesterday. And by that metric, "Lincoln Continental” may be little more than a passing billboard to some listeners, considering McCarty isn’t exactly breaking new ground here with his ode to his wheels.

But rappers — especially local unsigned, independent rappers — could use the occasional reminder that there’s nothing wrong with finding a hypnotic beat, writing a chorus that settles deep in the listener’s mind, and riding the instrumental with verses that make sense and stay tight to the rhythm. On those fronts, “Lincoln Continental” passes with flying colors. Time to hit Audiomack and see what some of these other car-rappers got in store.

PGMW - “Counts” (Prod. PGMW)

After that last paragraph I might sound like a totally anti-experimentation snob and the most curmudgeonly fart of a hip-hop blogger you’ve ever read. That last part is true. But to the anti-experimentation part, I’ll just say this: press the play button above this paragraph and get ready.

WNDRKND and PGMW are two weird dudes, and I mean this in the best way, and if they sent me some run-of-the-mill hippity-hop-you-don’t-stop bars I would be disappointed to say the least.

Well, I have nothing to be disappointed about — because this song is certifiably crazy as fuck. 

Not just the PGMW beat, with its over-saturated bass that rattles the brain into submission before a flickering hi-hat and kick drum take things next level, but also the bars from WNDRKND, which find just the right balance of claustrophobic intensity and space to breathe.

Plus, you gotta love the lyric: “Everybody know my shit go WHAM!/ White girls say, ‘That shit the jammmmm’” Great to see both of these dudes back on the scene — more music coming soon from WNDRKND. 

Triangle Roundup Vol. 2 is a wrap! 

SHOW ALERT: Everyone should have tonight at MotorCo marked off. Professor Toon is performing songs from his new album Take Notes, Tab-One, Ace Henny and Sylvan Esso’s Made Of Oak are all opening. All of your friends will be there, and probably some of your enemies too. Hit them with snowballs on the way in. 

[superemptyblog]

The Triangle Roundup, January 13th (Volume 1)

It’s a new year at Super Empty, and that should come with new resolutions, new approaches and a fresh start. To that end, I’ve decided I’m not going to be posting single song quick write-ups (i.e. posts of less than a few hundred words) anymore on this site.

There are plenty of sites great for that purpose, and if you’ve managed to make it all the way here, you probably know a few of them already. Alas, the backbone of this site is but a humble Tumblr theme, so it’s simply unrealistic to try to do everything under the sun with it. 

Now, if you’re thinking laying this entire decision at the feet of Tumblr’s technical shortcomings is both spineless and a gigantic cop-out of an excuse, you’re probably right. So here’s some other reasons for me to not try to post a little blurb about every half-decent North Carolina rap song that comes out: 1) I hate doing it, as it is a completely non-gratifying experience and does not force me or readers to grow at all.

2) Lazy/quick music writing often promotes and encourages lazy/quick music, which probably encourages lazy/quick music listeners and next thing you know everything is quick and lazy and all that was once good and just and meaningful in the world is GONE. It just takes one local hip-hop blog, and it won’t be this one. 

3) I have a full-time job that is not this, so setting up Super Empty as a site that lives and dies by being the Breaking News Authority of hip-hop music in North Carolina is a recipe for disaster. Also, whether or not there is much demand for a North Carolina hip-hop Breaking News Authority is a very fair question to be asking yourself right now, and if you’re thinking the answer is no, that’s probably correct.

Taking all this into consideration, I’m starting the Triangle Roundup as a weekly or biweekly column to briefly mention songs from the past week or two that deserved mention, but that I simply didn’t have 500+ words to attach to. It’s the beginning of 2016, so it’s time to experiment. Still, you’re never going to see a two or three sentence writeup on Super Empty again. #NewYearNewMe

So, let’s get to the music. I had a particularly bad month in December in terms of posting, so there’s a few things going into this week’s roundup that were released weeks ago. Theoretically, each Triangle Roundup should only really feature stuff from the past week. Room for improvement!

K-Hill ft. Rapper Big Pooh - “The Prodigal”

It’s been insinuated by more than one up-and-coming North Carolina emcee that the state lacks a signature sound and that a path hasn’t been paved for this generation of rappers from the Old North State. Without having to delve into a full-fledged argument about the insane wrongheadedness of that statement, it doesn’t take a hip-hop historian to recognize that K-Hill (founder of the Triangle’s Power Of The Tongue showcase series) and Rapper Big Pooh (Little Brother co-founder, mentor/adviser of artist careers from King Mez to Lute) have more than done their time in creating and supporting the culture. Dre Rubio’s production on “The Prodigal” is vintage North Carolina, and bold, razor-sharp lyricism from Pooh and K-Hill puts the icing on the cake of a song that feels like it could have been made 10 years ago, and still knocks.

K-Hill’s upcoming LP, G.R.O.W.N. is on the way.

The Art of Bishop - “Carolina Panther” (Prod. King Mez)

King Mez, relatively quiet since his appearances on Dr. Dre’s Compton last summer, has excited a lot of people with the announcement that new music will be released this month. Whenever it does come, though, it technically won’t be his first contribution to music in 2016 — not if you include his production on new track “Carolina Panther” for long-time friend The Art Of Bishop. (And not if you call the day it was released, New Year’s Eve, technically part of this year. C’mon work with me people.)

Providing a regal soundscape reminiscent of Khrysis’ work for Mez's own King’s Khrysis EP years ago, Mez lays down a textured, hypnotizing loop for Bishop, but the track isn’t without its issues.

While the very low vocals in the opening are likely intentional, it sounds more like a mistake than anything — particularly as the song continues and the vocals don’t exactly get cleared up quickly, remaining muddled behind the Mez beat. The mix gets clearer as the song goes on, and thank goodness, because Bishop has some shit to say, let me tell you. For a guy who has literally no other music on Soundcloud or his website, this isn’t exactly amateur work:

“Fred Sanford, hand on my heart as I call out her name, Mother Africa, I cry for your touch as my Uncle laughs at ya/ He livin’ lavish, with hand-picked diamonds from adolescence, Unhealthy from organ-trafficking activists/ That’s really ‘bout that action, Carolina Panther catch me rappin’, But don’t get it confused, cuz I make it happen...” Looking forward to more from Bishop, who certainly has my attention for 2016, and hopefully yours too.

Trapbo Chad ft. C. Shreve - “Message In A Bottle” (Prod. FutureBeats)

I’m new to Greensboro’s Trapbo Chad, and it’s immediately apparent that his vocals are an acquired taste, specifically one that I have yet to acquire. That doesn’t mean he can’t rap though, and his bookend verses on either side of guest C. Shreve The Professor’s do exactly what they need to for "Message In A Bottle,” a breezy joint about the distinction between life’s wants and needs. 

Also, from the beat to the lyrics and even Trapbo’s voice and the positive message of the song, I couldn’t help but feel a major SkyBlew vibe on this one. Am I just imagining things?

Also also, the kid who produced this beat, FutureBeats, IS 14?!? Call me Donald Trump, because I want to see that birth certificate.

Vinnie-Dangerous - “I’m Fine”

Vinnie sent this one in a couple weeks ago and I’m so grateful he did, because while to most this is the definition of a “freestyle” — not intended for any project, not attached to any kind of promotional scheme — it’s hardly a throwaway. "I’m Fine” is exactly what Vinnie sets out for it to be, in the sense that it truly feels like a personal State of the Union straight from the soul. Relationships, family issues, rap aspirations and wardrobe self-consciousness are all topics of conversation that Vinnie sprinkles over the piano-heavy instrumental from Tyler Vanderstaay, resulting in one of the most poignant, personal songs I’ve heard in a minute.

Nap Wright - “di•chot•o•my” (Instrumental LP)

I don’t want to say I’m sure about this because I’m not physically in Raleigh to check, but I’m starting to think Napoleon Wright II may actually be an evil overlord running an internment camp of creatives in the Oak City and releasing all of the collective material under his name. At least, I’m running out of other ways to explain the prolific nature of a local artist who has recently been on even more of a tear than usual, releasing this latest LP just weeks after dropping an EP for his new jazz/soul/hip-hop duo, GIVENTAKE, all while supposedly holding a full-time job. Right. And let me guess, the tooth fairy is doing all his mixing and engineering? 

I plan to write something much longer about the album when I get around to it, but in the meantime, just know that it’s very good, and you can (and should) download it for free right now. 

Tab-One - “For 2016″ (prod. Nap Wright)

Have you downloaded that Nap Wright album yet? Listened to it yet? No? Don’t worry, you’re already weeks behind Tab-One, who pretty much wrote and recorded a verse to “Scat flip” from di•chot•o•my the day after the album dropped, seemingly surprising even Napoleon himself. These are the words I needed heading into the new year:

“I’m starting 2016 with a couple 16s, That’ll make you lean like cough syrup and codeine/ Coughin’ up a current that’s currently so clean, Certainly so free, they certainly know me”

So, when do we get more Tab-One? Is Sincerely, Tab — the collaboration album with Sinopsis — ever going to be released? Is a Kooley High album dropping this year? Am I going to let Tab enjoy his first weeks of fatherhood or just pester him with stupid questions?? (Congratulations, Tab!)

Alex Aff - “The Regency”

It’s become a tired cliché for me to say Alex Aff takes a step forward with each release, but he really does. 2015 was a banner year for the Durham up-and-comer, who firmly staked his claim to the Triangle hip-hop scene with a strong series of videos directed by Jordan Kornegay and a 17-track debut called Forever (which you can download here). There is still plenty of room lyrically and sonically for Aff to push himself, but he’s almost always a smooth listen and “The Regency” is no different. The song, like its complementary artwork, feels like the perfect accompaniment to the pitter-patter of a rainy winter day.

G Yamazawa - “Real Friend (Kanye West Freestyle)” 

With the release of Kanye West’s “Real Friends” last week and the hint of a second installment of G.O.O.D. Fridays leading up to the Swish release date (still not believing this is the name of the album until I see it in the store), Yeezy fans previously laying low after the release of “FACTS” now flooded the streets in full force. In all reality, the song — featuring background vocals from Ty Currency $ymbol — was decent, maybe even pretty good. But like Oasis-dreaming wanderers baking under the Saharan sun, even a glimmer of Old Kanye was as good as the real thing to the parched masses. Kanye was back. It was almost as if Kim never happened. So of course, it was only a matter of time before smaller acts recorded their own vocals over the instrumental and absolutely ruined it for everyone.

Well, not in this case. 

As feverishly as many praised Kanye for the song last week, I still didn’t feel like it packed the intensity of wordplay and imagination that he had when Consequence was writing for him back in the day. On his version of the track, called “Real Friend,” G Yamazawa gives the lyricism I was looking for and much more, breathing a sigh of relief as he gets a year of struggles off his chest:

“My nephew turning 2, my pop approaching 70, They both needed me more, it’s a shame they seeing less of me/ Man I hate to say this, I ain’t really communicative, Only in front of strangers when hidin’ behind a cadence/ I got to know my weakness on a first-name basis, By the time I felt strengthened, she found a replacement.”

G is about to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help with the funding for his debut EP, “The Yamazawa EP,” which we’ll definitely be posting about, so keep a look out for that.

Alright! That’s one Triangle Roundup in the books. Check back in a week (or 15) to see the next one get posted.

[superemptyblog]

G Yamazawa’s “Dining Room" Video Is Another Step In His Impressive Hip-Hop Ascent

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A few years ago, in a poem about the phenomenon of Jeremy Lin and Lin’s full-scale assault on the collective psyche of America, and the bleak reality that not even in the warm glow of a nationally captivating storyline can an Asian person expect to evade the same broad, demeaning stereotypes that have followed them for all of United States eternity, G Yamazawa said something that doesn’t explicitly have to do with Jeremy Lin, but it sort of does have something to do with G Yamazawa. Specifically, it relates to G and his relationship to hip-hop music in the Triangle. It also references illicit drug use, so if you’re younger than 14 years old please ask a parent for permission before continuing to read this. (Why 14 years old is an acceptable age to be reading about drug use and 13 is not, I really can’t say. But it’s definitely the rule.)

Ok all you 14-and-uppers, the line goes something like this:

“I’m a celebrity the president, mayor and the governor knows/ I’m like cocaine: this whole time, I was right under your nose.”

In the framework of the poem, I believe this line has to do with the fact that Jeremy Lin, before his glamorous days in the media spotlight as “Asian Man Suddenly Dribbles Ball,” was already quite good at the sport of basketball, and in fact was one of the best high school players in the state of California, which is a big state with many high school basketball players. In the framework of Triangle hip-hop though, or at the very least Durham hip-hop, however, this same line could very easily be about Yamazawa himself, a world-renowned spoken word poet who recently has emerged as one of the most polished rap acts to come out of our area. It turns out a great emcee has been in front of us all along — he’s just been doing poetry.

After stints living in Washington, D.C., Hawai’i, and now Los Angeles, G hasn’t exactly been under our noses in the geographic (or cocaine) sense, but he still was from Durham, and in conversations that searched for and debated Triangle area hip-hop prowess — Who are the artists in the upper echelon locally? Who’s next up? — G’s name was never kicked around. (*Editor’s Note: Meanwhile he was probably hanging out with Michelle Kwan at the White House or something, so don’t shed too many tears for the guy.) 

Flash forward to less than a year ago, and Yamazawa, who literally has no footprint in Durham as a rapper at this point, is at the Pinhook throwing an absolutely raucous concert. People who don’t know the words to his songs are loving it, and by this I mean everyone is loving it, because no one knows the words to his songs — he’s only recently put out his first mixtape. He’s not known as a rapper, he hasn’t lived in this city in years, and yet here he is throwing one of the best hip-hop shows I’ve been to. That’s why I don’t hesitate to call him, just one mixtape in, one of the best rappers from Durham. 

Over the Thanksgiving holiday (and pretty much all subsequent holidays), I neglected to write about the latest music video G had released, called “Dining Room,” directed by my super-talented friend and master collaborator Saleem Reshamwala, aka KidEthnic. The video and song cover Yamazawa’s childhood growing up in his parents’ Japanese restaurant, and I feel confident calling this one of the BIGGEST Japanese restaurant-based hip-hop videos to be shot in Durham this year, and maybe ever. And when you consider that Saleem lived in Japan for years, speaks Japanese and is married to a Japanese woman, you realize that this collaboration was really written in the stars.

In other words, it was just sitting there, waiting to happen, untapped. Right under our noses. Just like Jeremy Lin. Or, cocaine.

Note: G Yamazawa’s debut hip-hop album releases early this year.

[superemptyblog]

December 7th, 2015 Was Owned By North Carolina

Yesterday seemed like a pretty normal day. I went to work, walked my dog, called my girlfriend… you know, the usual. I heard some things about Grammy nominations but barely batted an eye — Grammys… isn’t that that award show that gave The Heist Best Rap Album over good kid, mAAd city? Yeah, I think I’ve got other stuff to do.

But as I sat down to do some things in the evening, I started to dig through what had happened. Rapsody. King Mez. Then J Cole dropped multiple new tracks and the Revenge of the Dreamers II album, and announced the signing of Lute, the amazing Charlotte artist behind the 2012 album West1996 that I had literally just penned a tribute to, calling it one of the state’s best, most enigmatic releases ever. So yeah, turned out to not be such a normal day after all.

First came the Grammy nominations. Raleigh rappers King Mez and Rapsody were both involved in arguably the year’s two biggest rap albums, albeit to drastically different degrees, belonging to Compton artists Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar.

While former Kooley High member Rap Diddy lent just a single verse to the highly lauded To Pimp A Butterfly album, it was among the most celebrated verses on the entire record and elevated her into another strata of national and global visibility. The album received an eye-popping 11 nominations from the Academy, including Best Rap Album and Album Of The Year.

Mez, a friend whose catalogue I wrote pretty extensively about upon the release of Dr. Dre’s Compton, was involved to a significantly different degree in the epic comeback album from Dr. Dre — the Raleigh-to-LA rapper has writing credits on 12 of the album’s 16 tracks and appeared on many of the songs, officially featured on three. The Doctor’s first album in 16 years, which coincided with the release of the celebrated N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” is nominated for Best Rap Album.

When the night fell, things got even better. Dreamville released the new Revenge Of The Dreamers II project ahead of schedule (review coming, eventually), featuring a new J Cole song titled “Folgers Crystals,” as well as the news that it had signed Lute, the label’s first ever NC artist outside of Cole himself. This all comes on the heels of the trailer for J Cole’s upcoming HBO Documentary: Forest Hills Drive Homecoming on January 9th, which just looks absurd.

It was all great news, it was all quality, it was all North Carolina.

Just an hour or two after the Dreamville album dropped, Wiz Khalifa took a moment to get his own shine on Twitter, dropping the artwork to a new mixtape, Cabin Fever 3. But this was a night for the Dreamers, and it was a night for North Carolina hip-hop in general. Sorry Cameron, y’all can have the other 364 — yesterday was owned by NC.

Editor’s Note: Today is a special day in North Carolina, too. Or maybe this is just the new norm!? Newly-relocated Moogfest is releasing the lineup for its debut festival in Durham (featuring a number of North Carolina MCs), which we’ll have a post about soon.

[superemptyblog]

An NC Hip-Hop Gem Forgotten, Then Remembered: A Letter 2 West1996

[Editor’s Note: I worked on this piece over the course of the past couple months, taking my sweet time on an article I thought had no pressing deadline and no immediate purpose. The artist it focused on had seemingly faded into the ether, but rather than speculate about his career, it was an attempt to lift up and pay homage to a project that continued to shine for me among the best of what has come from our state, even three years since its release. Last night it was announced that that artist, Lute, had been signed by J Cole, and a sequel to the album below is slated for a 2016 release. Because it’s interesting to consider how quickly things can change, I haven’t updated any of my comments in the article about Lute or his career to reflect the huge news from last night. It’s all there the way I initially wrote it and planned to put it out, save for the conclusion. Hope you enjoy.]

The year is 2012, and the setting is a sizzling hot summer in New York City. A precocious 17-year-old from Brooklyn named Joey Bada$$ has just released 1999, a rich, organic (read: rough-around-the-edges) mixtape that will soon have music writers and critics nationwide tripping over themselves to crown Joey the heir apparent to the New York hip-hop crown. No rapper in recent memory had so effectively brought his own idiosyncratic and modern flair to sounds so deeply entrenched in the past, no album had so purposefully paired 90’s nostalgia with geographic pride…

... No album except West1996 that is, the forgotten gem of a project released by Charlotte, NC rapper Lute in February of 2012, months before Badmon’s 1999 ever hit the internet.

Borrowing from and built upon much of the same boom-bap foundation that 1999 does, West1996 painted a vivid picture of home in Charlotte even as it sourced much of its sound from golden era producers far beyond the confines of the state. It was brash, it was unforgiving, it was flat-out dope, and people took notice from all over. In no uncertain terms, West1996 was and still is one of the best hip-hop albums to come out of North Carolina.

But while 1999 has grown with time to become the revered debut mixtape of one of hip-hop’s most powerful young voices, West1996 has faded, its creator and lead character still unknown on the national landscape, and its place among North Carolina’s discography of great hip-hop releases largely unrecognized. What happened? Like most things, probably an indecipherable string of could’ve beens and maybes, but I don’t know the whole story. What I do know is that for how good it was compared to a lot of the shit people celebrate these days, we don’t talk about it nearly enough.

                                                             ----

Yeah we ain’t the same, but our goals ain’t no different, I’m slow tippin’, Like what’s the mission? To overrule the coalition/ Like what’s that rap shit you talkin’ n----,  what you spittin? What’s that rap shit you talkin’, n---- ? Take a listen…

These are some of the first words we hear from Lute on West1996, and in just a few lines, they speak to the purpose and ambition of the entire project that will follow. In particular: “What you spittin?,” a question that really any rap hopeful should be able to answer before speaking into the microphone. Do you really have something to say? For a rapper without a huge fan base, the answer can be easily sabotaged by insecurities and doubts, and when he dropped West1996, Lute’s audience was small.

It didn’t stay that way for very long.

Roughly a month after its release, the mixtape was already up on Complex, which had never written about Lute before. Without any previous national reach or exposure as an artist, that’s usually pretty tough to do, but Lute had an X-factor: Pete mothafuckin’ Rock, who tweeted out “omg best album ever” with a link to the album’s Bandcamp page. I don’t know a lot, but I think when Pete Rock says “best album ever” about a project, that’s about when bloggers start writing.

omg best album ever: http://t.co/vI1RFm1d wow!!!

— PETEROCK.COM (@PeteRock)

March 27, 2012

A couple months later I was at the King’s Barcade release show for King Mez’s My Everlasting Zeal album, and as fate would have it, the name in everyone’s mouth was Lute, this new exciting kid from Charlotte, who was opening the show. From the internet blogosphere to the real world of shows and word-of-mouth, Lute was rising fast.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the upstart, whose newfound exposure also attracted a slew of golden-era message board grumps, angry about the album’s Illmatic-inspired aesthetic and jacked beats.

Thankfully, the music spoke for itself. To anyone who delights in emcees who flip rhyme schemes and constantly experiment with wordplay, Lute’s rhymes jumped off the page and out of the speakers immediately:

Ridin’ through the city, whole clique wit me, Holla if ya hear me, no thanks to the radio/ Glidin’ down 85, yup in an ‘84, uh, Doin’ 75, swangin’ on 24s/ Sippin’ on 45’s, baby, I’m good to go, Stay strapped wit a .45, in case they don’t really know/ Just let the beat drop, spittin’ heat rock ‘til the tape pop, Let ya head nod ‘til the tape stop, let the hate start…

- “80 Proof”

From a logistical standpoint, West1996 was hardly a reinvention of the wheel. In many ways it was actually the most quintessentially hip-hop project possible: the work of a rapper who gathered some beats he liked, wrote rhymes to them, and recorded. It almost sounds too easy, like a behavior deserving of derision rather than praise. The thing is, most rappers can’t jump from J Dilla to The Pharcyde without losing their identity somewhere along the way on the melodic journey from Detroit to Cali. Lute could.

From Pete Rock to Common and back again, the Charlotte native bounced between instrumentals without so much as skipping a beat or even sounding uncomfortable, keeping his flows tight and his focus sharp.

Don’t know exactly where we headin’, we just gotta go, And it’s that Carolina struggle, but we never fold/ Yo this that Carolina struggle story never told, This that Carolina hustle never runnin’ low/ Where is that Carolina love that we never show? Well, this one’s for us, Carolina folk/ It goes ‘North Carolina, gone and raise up, keep ya shirts on!’

- “Carolina Folks”

He was effortlessly cool, uncompromisingly honest and totally at home on the mic — it felt undoubtedly like we were watching the next star in North Carolina be born before our eyes. And just like that, he disappeared, as quickly as he had come.

                                                         -----

Lately it’s been hard to find much from Lute, as much as I may try, though he did just make an acting appearance in the new Rapper Big Pooh x Nottz video for “300Z.” His Bandcamp page still only features West1996, as does his Twitter bio, both of them almost a time capsule into a period when the rapper really was, if for the briefest of moments, on top of the world.

Make no doubt about it — mixtape, album, project, whatever you want to call it, West1996 is some of the best music we’ve ever been blessed with from an NC rapper. Detractors will say it’s just a mixtape of a dude rapping over other dudes’ beats, but the sum of Lute’s parts on West1996 are so much greater than some raps over classic instrumentals. In 2012, Lute created something cohesive, grounded, and powerful, something uniquely rooted to his hometown and home state in a way that few rappers before or after have matched.

Yes, including Joey Bada$$.

Update: Lute has now been signed to J Cole’s Dreamville record label, the first North Carolinian signee on Dreamville. His sequel album 1996 Pt. II is slated for 2016 release, and a song from the album, “Still Slummin,” debuted last night on the Revenge Of The Dreamers II mixtape. Listen here.

[superemptyblog]

A Rap Video Without Words: How Made Of Oak’s “Side Rides” Video Came To Be

Made of Oak, the artistic solo project of Nick Sanborn (aka the production half of Sylvan Esso), is predominantly an instrumental endeavor, music intended to convey meaning through sounds rather than serve as the complement to words. So it was a pleasant surprise when he dropped the visually arresting collaboration video with Triangle rappers Toon and Well$ for the song “Side Rides,” an amazing piece in which both rappers perform, but neither is heard from. 

The video instantly struck me as the kind of project our area needs more of: unique, unconventional, but grounded by a very focused sense of what looks good. Without the resources or budget of a high-profile set (which, let’s be honest, most NC artists will not have in their near future), the team behind “Side Rides” produced something that could stand next to anything else released in 2015 and not suffer by comparison (OK — maybe “Alright”). This should be a measuring stick for creatives and artists in NC who want to make professional level work that can debut on a platform like SPIN, as “Side Rides” did three weeks ago. 

In the quest to produce something special, Sanborn assembled something of an all-star team of Chapel Hill/Durham creative talent. In total, the “Side Rides” video is the work of Sanborn, directorial/art direction duo Endless Endless (Adam Heathcott & Sara Padgett Heathcott), props/tech/styling wizards Dear Hearts (Stella and Donna), and rappers Well$ (Leroy Shingu) and Professor Toon (Kurrell Rice). I talked to Made Of Oak, Endless Endless, Dear Hearts and Well$ about what made the video special. 

(Editor’s Note: The following responses have been combined from separate interviews.)

Super Empty: When did you get the idea to have a rapper or rappers in the video for this song, was it a realization that came independently from making the music? Or was it a natural outgrowth of creating the song?

Made Of Oak: It was an idea that slowly took shape after we started putting together the aesthetics for the EP. That central theme of a rap video for an instrumental track starring unheard rappers was initially just a winking allusion to the way most people think of instrumental music, but the more I thought about it's additional, far more interesting implications the more I couldn't let it go.

SE: At what points did everyone (Well$, Toon, Dear Hearts, Endless Endless) get brought in on this, and why? 

Made Of Oak: I had been thinking about the video for a month or so, and once we found out it could actually happen we got Adam and Sara (Endless Endless) in the conversation right away.

Endless Endless: We had recently worked with Sylvan Esso on their “H.S.K.T” single’s artwork and video and our relationship with Nick goes back to his days playing with Megafaun and Collections of Colonies of Bees that our label Hometapes had released records for. We’d started working with Nick on the layout and other visuals for Made of Oak Penumbra.

Made Of Oak: Professor Toon is a friend (I'm also a fan of both his production and rapping), and I knew he would kill it, so he was an obvious call for me. Then Well$ (who I had met once or twice, but didn't really know personally beyond that) asked me to play a show with him at Kings, and we just hit it off. His show that night was so inspiring, and I started thinking that he and Toon might work really well together. 

Donna and Stella from Dear Hearts were another obvious call, they're immensely talented and also close friends... They're able to set a tone at a shoot that gives everyone around them the freedom to relax and have fun.

Dear Hearts: We started talking to Nick about the general styling direction for the video a couple of weeks or so before the shoot date. Depending on the project and why we're needed, the timeline for when we're brought in varies. For videos, we generally get a few days to a few weeks to pull looks together. The concept had been fairly nailed down already and with videos, we don't creatively contribute to the treatment ideas. We are brought in to help hone in on the styling to visually manifest what's in the director's/artist's heads.

SE: The chemistry between Well$ and Toon is great throughout, especially considering they had never performed with each other in this kind of duo format before. Did you see that familiarity improving as shooting was going on or was it just a natural fit from the start?

Made Of Oak: It started as you'd imagine: they're both so good but had never performed before, and we just threw them into this crazy scenario, and it was good but stiff. Then as we all (myself included) loosened up and got the rhythm of the shoot they just came alive, bouncing off one another and improvising. I mean, how much do they look like a duo that's been playing together for years in that video?

Well$: Honestly shit like that is all based on vibes — it's always a good time when I link up with Toon, so this time was no different. We just happened to be getting videotaped while doing it. 

Endless Endless: Well$ and Toon are natural performers and hugely talented... They were both really excited about the project and dove in head first to really selling their verses on camera. Having actually heard their verses on set, we’re hoping this is the first of many chances for them to collaborate and keep that electricity flowing.

Made Of Oak: The idea of the vocal remix came out of the shoot days, it's something we weren't even going to do before that. Then they both showed up with heat, and we all found ourselves singing their verses afterwards, and I knew we had to get it done.

SE: Aside from featuring silent performers, the other big decision that was made was to go black and white rather than color. What did you guys like about draining it of color?

Endless Endless: The choice to keep things monochromatic was actually made way back during the initial design work on the Made of Oak record. Musically, what Nick does is so fascinating and nuanced that we wanted listeners to find the color buried deep down in the edits. From the moment we started creating the video language, we wanted to keep things in the same visual space. The Instagram teaser videos, the tour posters, the merch, and the previously released “Pinebender" video all follow the same color approach. It’s rare you get an opportunity to touch so many different parts of an artist’s output, and have the trust of the artist to wrangle it all and keep it consistent. In general, we like black & white because it draws a strong focus to your subject matter.

Well$: The black and white definitely added a level of intensity that the video needed. I feel like the black and white fit the fact that the vocals were muted, forcing you to focus on our movements and that's what had to keep you interested, but Sara and Adam made a great call there. 

Made Of Oak: The cover art, Kristof Wickman's From a mathematics ability perspective we were never meant for each other, was a part of the Penumbra world from the beginning, and I wanted to extend it's tone to all other aspects of the artwork... I don't want to get too into, like, my feelings, man, but the title Penumbra is taken from the physics term describing the part of a shadow that isn't entirely light or dark: the transitional area between the two polar states. Light, dark, and shadow were natural themes to draw on in both the video and all the rest of the artwork.

SE: It may go unnoticed by most, but the styling of all the artists is really well done, and every look complements the others. How does that work on set between Dear Hearts and the artists?

Well$: It was a collaborative effort, they were awesome. If I had an idea I'd throw it out there and they would add onto it or give a better idea and vice versa. I was actually surprised, I was worried going into the situation not ever having being on a set with a stylist before.

Dear Hearts: The main thing that we always try to do unless directed otherwise, is keep the clothes feeling like something the artists would wear on their own anyway. This was especially true for this video. We wanted Toon to look like Toon. We wanted Well$ to look like Well$. They both have such a great, distinct style of their own and we didn't want to alter that... With Nick, styling him over the last year has been really fun. He's been experimenting a lot and is pretty open to our thoughts. Because of how he was presented in this video (more as an intermittent, sometimes ghostly presence in the background versus the entire visual focus), we wanted his silhouette to be really unique and interesting when he was on camera. 

Endless Endless: First off, yes, Dear Hearts are the best. We’ve been friends for years and have worked with them on number of projects since we’ve been in Durham. As for the overall aesthetics, we grew up watching Hype Williams’ videos and they were a constant source of inspiration and reference when we dove into the planning for “Side Rides.” We wanted things to visually mimic what people are used to seeing in a hip hop video — and that means constant wardrobe shifts. We kept things monochromatic as much as possible to help them pop against the solid backgrounds in a couple of scenes. 

Made Of Oak: Donna and Stella are great at finding the sweet spot where everyone's individual style merges with the overall theme of the project. So I'd say most of the ideas were half & half, with them doing all the actual work. I had been medium-obsessed with the idea of a hooded sweatshirt with a veil for a while, and they executed that perfectly. Other times they'd just help something amazing happen - like Toon's look in the basement shots, wearing that fur vest. That vest was something they brought without knowing where it would go, and then when he gravitated towards it they latched on to that and really took it somewhere.

SE: Without any words, we’re left to our own devices to take what meanings we will from the song, and the video. You were quoted on SPIN as saying, “it ended up saying so much.” Forgetting the fact that a remix with words is on the way, what do you think song (and video) says?

Made Of Oak: Like I said earlier, what started as a somewhat snotty joke of an idea just kept revealing more and more layers of inter-related meaning, almost completely replacing the initial spark. Then Adam, Sara, Professor Toon and Well$ each came in and the thing started stretching out in new, exciting directions I couldn't have foreseen. As it did, we worked to emphasize them. I see a number of overt and more subtle implications but don't want to talk about them at too much length, since (in general, with all art) I think that robs the audience of the necessary epiphany of finding their own relationships and drawing their own conclusions. In broad terms, though, I wanted it to play with the inherent cognitive dissonance associated with seeing someone speak without being able to hear them, since so many emotions and messages are associated with that image to me when it's so obviously intentional. 

Well$: I can't really answer that, I'm still piecing that together myself. I think that’s why I like it so much. It says so much to me. I compare this video to the forefather Future's wise words: " Dress it up and make it real for me." It's like our subconscious knows exactly what that means, but when asked to explain it you really can't do it. It's crazy, it's a blank canvas that you can take any way your mind wants it to go — due to the lack of vocals it leaves a void in the track that the listener’s imagination is, by default, going to want to fill.

Endless Endless: At the end of the day, it’s really up to each person to find their own meaning in the things they make and consume. We’re positive that every person involved on this project has a different take on it. Art can and should ask questions. Art can and should make you feel all kinds of things. There’s an immediate mindfuck that happens when Well$ drops into his verse. In an age of instant access to all things, putting a viewer in a state where they can’t have what they want is exciting. There is no question that the imagery of two African American men performing in silence is intense. That secondary feeling you have — after you realize your YouTube player isn’t broken — is the feeling we’d like for you to hover inside of…with your thoughts and the music you can (and can’t) hear.

Made Of Oak: Also, it just looks fucking dope. 

-------------------------------

As the final stop of his 10-day, cross-country tour celebrating the release of Penumbra, Made of Oak will hit the stage at The Pinhook in Durham, N.C. tonight. Tushka opens. 

[superemptyblog]

Christian James - John Lennon (Freestyle)

Christian James takes inspiration from John Lennon and the rest of his Beatles bandmates over a thumping trap instrumental. Listen below: 

[superemptyblog]

Asheville’s C.Shreve Gets Motivational With “Greatness On My Mind”

There aren’t many things more beautiful than the mountains of North Carolina in fall, so it’s no surprise that Free The Optimus member C. Shreve chose them as the backdrop for his new release “Greatness On My Mind.”

The Professor spits a quick verse in between shots of downtown Asheville in the new video, which he says is the first single for his upcoming Twenty Sixteens album (which is a pretty dope title). 

Shreve has long been active in the underground scene in NC, gaining recognition as a frequent presence at the N.C. State cypher and as a talented battler/freestyler. Excited to see him continue to turn those talents into substantive releases we can all enjoy again and again. 

[superemptyblog]

Live For Indy Week: Big Sean Blows Out N.C.C.U. Homecoming Party at DPAC

NOTE: This piece was originally published on Indy Week’s music blog on Monday, November 2nd. View the Indy Week story here. 

In the middle of her opening set on Saturday night as part of N.C. Central’s Ultimate Homecoming Weekend, Rapsody delivered a strong message to the crowd that was still filling the space: “Any woman can do anything as well, or better, than a man can… all this talk about a ‘female MC,’ a ‘FemmeCee’? I’m a mothafuckin’ beast!” And with the side-stage video boards at Durham Performing Arts Center playing synced-up music videos, a live band performing behind her and the legendary 9th Wonder handling the boards, the Raleigh-by-way-of-Snow Hill, N.C. artist made good on the claim. Rapsody takes her live show seriously, from her familiarity with the band down to the thoughtfully prepared transitions between songs, like a crowd-stirring rendition of Lauryn Hill’s verse on “Ready Or Not” as an intro to her own “Believe Me,” which borrows its title and chorus from the Fugees classic. Even after Rapsody had left the stage, 9th turned to the band to lead them in the breakdown from Stevie Wonder’s “Living For The City.” Then the stage finally cleared, making way for the big mistake of NCCU’s Homecoming selection committee: Rich Homie Quan. You know you’re listening to an artist known almost exclusively for radio features when the DJ has to yell “QUAN VERSE! QUAN VERSE!” on multiple songs to signal that the performer’s part of the song is actually arriving. Not that his verses particularly stood out, anyway: Quan picked and chose which words from songs he felt like reciting and, in many cases, which parts of words he felt like saying. DJ bomb-dropping sounds and shouts of “Turn Up!” were as prominent as the Atlanta rapper/singer himself. After a forgettable 45 or so minutes on stage (it felt like hours), he closed out his set with a sequence of chart-topping radio hits that had the Homecoming crowd singing every word—“Lifestyle,” “Type Of Way” and “Flex,” all while regaling us with his uncomfortable, air-humping “Flex” dance. The irony of seeing an event with a man named Rich Homie Quan at a venue like DPAC has many layers, but perhaps none is more thick than the contrast between listening to shouts from the DJs on stage—“Pull ya mothafuckin’ phones out! Pull ya mothafuckin’ Snapchats out!!"—and looking over between sets to see the venue’s polite video board PSAs: “Listen closely … it’s a concert, not a photoshoot,” and, “Please … save your texting for after the show.” It’s as if DPAC doesn’t usually host acts with lyrics like “I came to bang you, girl.” Whether bolstered by the low bar Rich Homie Quan had set or not, Big Sean’s entrance felt electric. It was certainly no Yeezus tour, but for a college show, this was a massive production: a huge platform above the live band, giant video boards that flashed from solid colors to moving human faces to the ominous storm clouds and lightning bolts that have become synonymous with the branding around Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise. Backed with explosive live drums and keys that brought new life to his studio tracks, Big Sean jumped around his entire catalog. Still, the same spectre of “radio hits” hung over the Sean performance as it had Rich Homie Quan’s. Of the five or six songs that completely brought down the house, four did not even belong to the G.O.O.D. music representer: “Mercy” “Clique,” “I Don’t Like” (all by Kanye West) and Drake's “All Me.” Even the biggest outright Big Sean song of the night—”Dance (A$$),” from his 2011 debut album, Finally Famous—owes much of its popularity to a Nicki Minaj remix. It felt somewhat strange to see an artist with as many popular songs as Big Sean be most warmly received for appearances on mega-tracks made for the radio. But maybe that’s just where hip-hop stands right now. Regardless, Big Sean's cinematic live set and the soulful energy of Rapsody was more than enough to make it a memorable night at DPAC, even if some of us would like to forget everything in between. 

[superemptyblog]

Eternal? Not Quite, But Alex Aff Delivers Good Vibes on “Forever”

Favorite Songs: Won’t Take Long, Understand, The Game, Dreams, Salute Me Least Favorite Songs: Studio 222, Workin’ That, Money It’s a common refrain in the world of hip-hop (and especially local hip-hop) that it takes a posse to make any significant moves as an artist. Any rapper who made it did so with a team, and by recent standards that usually means a stable of other MCs who subsequently rose with the tide, from Kendrick (TDE) to A$AP Rocky (A$AP Mob) to Joey Bada$$ (Pro Era). But if you’ve watched the ascendancy of a young dude named Alex Aff from Durham over the past year, you’ve been reminded that for every rule, there are always exceptions.

I’ve never met someone who Alex introduced me to as “my producer,” or “my engineer.” I’ve never seen him keeping much of a crew around him. To be honest, I rarely see him out with anyone besides fellow Bull City rappers Kid Infamous and Danny Blaze, who both contribute guest verses on Forever. And yet local few acts, no matter the size of their circles, could claim as productive a year as Aff, who’s gone from relative unknown to a staple on set lists around the Triangle in what feels like no time. It’s all very fitting from the same guy who raps on his new album’s second track, “Understand Me”: “We in a world full of motherfuckin’ robots, so I think with my own mind/You ain’t got my back so I’m lookin’ out for my own spine”.

Despite his dedication to production (he’s credited on 16 of Forever’s 17 songs), Alex has always been one more likely to rattle you with a line than a beat. His foundation is his ease and familiarity on the mic, something that was clear when I first heard him, even before his lines contained much in the way of substance. Aff still isn’t packing the kind of Talib Kweli-level politically engaged verses into his songs that hip-hop heads might expect from a rapper of his boom-bap inclinations, but that’s hardly a reason to be wary. If history is any indication, he’ll continue to grow and push his subject matter with each release. For now, though, Forever stands as a solid, cohesive project that puts to rest any doubts that about Aff’s place in the culture.

For some reason, Alex Aff just knows how to make car tracks. If you’re trying to find time to listen to new music and want to throw Forever in the mix (you should), play it in the car. On the way to work, on the way to the grocery store, whatever. Alex continues to improve in many departments, but right now his biggest strength seems to be songs you just want to ride to. You’ll know it when you feel it, like on his determined call for respect, “Salute Me:”

In fact, the fairly consistent production from Aff that allows for the ride-friendly feel across most songs may consolidate the album’s sound to a point that becomes criticism for some. Whether the length of the album (17 songs), the nearly one-man production credits, the lack of songs that fall outside the realm of “traditional hip-hop” beats, or likely a combination of all three, Forever is simply not going to hold the average listener in rapt attention from start to finish. From the perspective of giving fans a fun project to bump to, however, it more than rises to the challenge.

“Salute Me” and “Made For This” have both been known to NC hip-hop listeners since they dropped a while ago as videos and continue to be among Aff’s best material. “Dreams” is another fun song to vibe to, with lyrics to match:

“Every single place I go, even though n****s Evel, As Knievel this a preview of what I do with the needle, when I scribble/ N****s ain’t really carin’ (Karen) like they Civil, Stay away from them lames, they be fuckin’ up my mental”

“Won’t Take Long” serves as a hypnotic, freestyle-esque track that helps break up an otherwise fairly bloated tracklist, with a skillfully flipped sample that calls to mind something off of Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter II.

On “Infamous,” the hard-hitting track appropriately featuring fellow Durhamite Kid Infamous, Aff gets into some of his best bars on the album:

“Spend my days to roam what this life is/ I’m a fuckin’ virus, I don’t need your guidance/ North Durham n**** all I ever heard was sirens, with the ambulance N****s in my hood dyin’, they don’t stand a chance/ Feel like I’m one of the few n****s to chew n****s/ Feel like I’m one of the new n****s to move n****s souls…”

It’s not that Alex Aff doesn’t demand respect often — in fact, he does it on nearly every song, at one point or another. But on “Infamous” he sounds more comfortable and in control than ever before. Confidence shouldn’t be confused with arrogance, and Aff’s commandeering tone on “Infamous” obviously isn’t a matter of egotism judging from Forever’s feature list: where Aff could have chosen to see his Durham and Chapel Hill hip-hop compatriots as competition, he’s enlisted them for backup — including Danny Blaze, SkyBlew, Kid Infamous and Mballa.

I have to say, on an album with lots and lots of rapping, Danny Blaze’s verse on “The Game” stands out as a definite highlight. That doesn’t diminish Aff’s parts on the same song, which include a second-verse cadence changeup that got me really excited and gave a glimpse into the versatility he could have in his rhymes as he keeps moving forward.

There’s a few songs on Forever that simply miss the mark, whether by virtue of subject matter or poor production. The prostitution story detailed in “Money” is a welcome excursion from the fun-but-occasionally-excessive BFBS (Bars For Bars Sake) that Aff sometimes indulges in, but the general “damsel in distress” concept seems like a tired trope in the world of rap, and by extension, a cop-out. It also isn’t narrated with the kind of delicacy that the subject matter demands, something that Kendrick Lamar handled brilliantly on the amazing Section.80 track “Keisha’s Song.” Here’s how Lamar describes the prostitute protagonist in his song:

“And Lord knows she’s beautiful/ Lord knows the usual’s leavin’ her body sore/ She takes the little change she makes to fix her nail cuticles/ Lipstick is suitable to make you fiend for more.”

And here’s how Aff describes the prostitute in his song:

“She look her son right in the eyes and say she love him, And she gone be there whenever she need him, She get paid to see men, suck and swallow semen.”

The lyrics to “Money” seem obtuse by comparison, and that’s not including the chorus, which is mostly about opening legs and sucking dick. Now before anyone flips out, I’m not saying Section.80 is the yardstick by which rappers in Durham, North Carolina, should be measured, just that a higher degree of care should be taken on a song with that subject matter.

“Workin’ That” suffers a similar fate, but the culprit is production more than lyrics. The chorus seems to be infused with all that was wrong with the sound from “All Gold Everything,” almost like a chopped and screwed version of the original Trinidad James track. I appreciate the attempt to step outside the boom-bap, sample-heavy box that many of Aff’s best tracks can be placed in, but the result just doesn’t seem as compelling as most of the other songs on the album.

Has young Aff truly delivered a milestone of hip-hop music in the vein of timeless records like Illmatic or Ready To Die? Realistically not, but immortality shouldn’t be the metric by which any debut full-length album is declared a success or failure in the first place. Ambition may be Aff’s greatest asset going forward, and if the Forever project is any indication, he’s not running short on supply. Combine that with a penchant for clever wordplay and an ever-improving ear, and he’s no longer a Durham upstart. He’s officially at the forefront of the scene.

[superemptyblog]

Made Of Oak Pairs Well$ and Toon on “Side Rides”

When Sylvan Esso’s self-titled debut LP was released last year, it quickly became probably the biggest thing to come out of North Carolina in recent memory. Before all your friends had even gotten hip, they were already doing Tiny Desk Concerts and Rooftop Sessions and playing the Late-night circuit, just off the strength of one album.

Now, the success of Sylvan Esso is creating positive ripples even into the NC hip-hop community as producer Nick Sanborn gets set to release the first album of his hip-hop/electronic project, Made Of Oak. The album, Penumbra, releases on Partisan Records Nov. 6th. 

Two main beneficiaries of the venture are rappers Well$ and Professor Toon, who Sanborn calls upon for “Side Rides” — even though the song has no words. The two rappers play off each others’ energy and contribute to a powerful video that elicits goosebumps without uttering a single verse.

The video debuted this Wednesday on SPIN magazine’s website and has since been viewed more than 3,000 times. Also on the way is a remix of the track, on which we’ll finally get to hear what Well$ and Toon really have to say. That’s one problem with this video being so cool: those verses better be good.