Fake For Real

With indie rap, it was not always easy to know where such or such artist, or such or such record, was really coming from. The musical influences were multiple, and sometimes, one's artistic impulses would preclude the necessity to represent a region, a style, or a posture. Let's consider the first...

According to his press kit, Existereo was influenced by the likes of Hank Williams III, Black Sabbath and Gram Parsons, in addition to some rappers. This sounded just ridiculous, these people covering genres as diverse as country, metal or hip-hop. And though, it was credible, to whoever was...

The Micranots were based in Atlanta, but their music had no connection with the usual kinds of raps in the Dirty South. Nothing surprising with this : by 2000, the duo had recently relocated. It had been funded, actually, in California. And the MC, I Self Devine, had lived in Minneapolis, where he...

Coming from Aurora, not too far from Chicago, Marco Jacobo explored a similar style as Galapagos4's beatmakers. His first album, actually, was similar to Meaty Ogre's Leo Vs. Pisces. In both cases, it was some well crafted work based on samples, alternating rapped songs with instrumental tracks....