INDIE HIP-HOP - 150 albums A few years after we published it, and to celebrate the release in 2014 of our new book dedicated to the history of indie hip-hop, it was time to deliver an updated version of the selection we published first in 2009, […]
SIXTOO - Almost A Dot On The Map The Psyche Years - 1996-2002 An ex member of Hip Club Groove - his blaze by then was C.L.S.C.A.R.R. - a pioneering group in Nova Scotia's hip-hop scene, and also Buck 65's partner in crime in the Sebutones duo, Sixtoo […]
GUCCI MANE - Mr. Zone 6 I don't know about you, but as far as I am concerned, I am done. I lost track. I can't follow anymore. Too many mixtapes. And with the most recent ones, those from 2013 and 2014, too many fillers. The gems are still there, but you need lots of energy and dedication to find them. When you are a fan of Gucci Mane, you're left with two alternatives: waiting for others, the most committed, to do the job, and separate the wheat from the chaff; or go back to basics, for example that one, Mr. Zone 6, he released in 2010 – not to be confused with The Return Mr. Zone 6, his album from the same year – one of the most recent, among Guwop's classics.
DESSA - A Badly Broken Code A poetess come to rap, after practicing slam; the author of a book as well, Spiral Bound, in 2009; and a music teacher. Dessa Darling is all of these. She is a dream come true, for those who like hip-hop when it is respectable, and consider that ignorant and gangsta raps are incarnations of the devil. The only woman in the Doomtree collective, though, shouldn't be despised by the others, the clever ones, those who know that moral prejudices should have no say when talking about music. Margret Wander, indeed, could be your grandmother's best friend. But she knows how to make great albums, primarily her very first, A Badly Broken Code.
AWOL ONE & FACTOR - Only Death can Kill You Undoubtedly, Awolrus has been one of the key players in the West Coast Underground. He's been some kind of star, in the small indie rap world. It is hard, though, to identify a masterpiece in his discography. Would that be Souldoubt, due to its bangers? Or Slanguage, his and Daddy Kev's escapade in free jazz? Or Number 3 on the Phone, due to the fantastic "Carnage Asada"? Difficult to say, each record being equally brilliant and frustrating… Or maybe, we should all prefer this quiet, short and discreet Only Death Can Kill You, he released with Factor.
CYNE - Time Being Usually, this kind of rap is boring. Nothing duller, indeed, than a collection of conscious rappers, declaiming some political sermons on sluggish beats. In Miami, though, with the Botanica del Jibaro collective, this formula worked, maybe because its members, all close to the active local electronica scene, didn't invest all in their lyrics: they also made some great music; they were real composers.
