Fake For Real – page 10

KNUCK FEAST - Knuck Feast

Being both singers and rappers, and able to play several kinds of instruments, the Ramos brothers can record anything that suits them. All over their careers, Ceschi and David experimented all genres of music, one could possibly think about: post-Project Blowed indie rap, of course, but also folk, Beatles-like pop, crossover hip-hop with Toca, some indie rock with Anonymous Inc., and even a bit of crunk, with the parodic and much entertaining Knuck Feast project, they released by 2007.

ATMOSPHERE - Overcast!

Let's be honest. Even if it is the very basis of the Twin Cities rap scene, and a founding record for independent hip-hop - arguably on par with Funcrusher Plus - the first album from Atmosphere was far from perfect. Its CD version had fillers. Some of its tracks were a bit torpid and laborious. Apart from a few bolder ones, Ant's beats were most of the time absolutely trite. As for Spawn's raps and raspy voice, their main interest was to offer a fitting contrast to those of the other MC.

FUTURE & DJ ESCO - 56 Nights

In 2014, while Future and his clique were sojourning in the Emirates, on their way to a prestige weekend taking place by the time of Abu Dhabi's grand prix, DJ Esco was arrested in the Dubai airport with a few grams of […]

HOMEBOY SANDMAN - First of a Living Breed

Angel Del Villar II, a.k.a. Homeboy Sandman, is originally from New-York, and more precisely the Queens. He studied law, but he preferred to start a career in rap music, where he was noticed for his verbal dexterity, while performing at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café. His self-released Actual Factual Pterodactyl (2008) and The Good Sun (2010) have been praised by the critics, which earned him a contract with Stones Throw, the West Coast indie rap institution. There, he released two EPs, and then a much more publicized record, First of a Living Breed.

THE SHAPE SHIFTERS - Know Future

Here is, for sure, one of the most bizarre and original records ever released in the hip-hop genre. Just think about it: this looks exactly like a very long two-hour posse cut, where a very big bunch of rappers, all […]

LIL WAYNE - Sorry 4 the Wait

People got bored, after all the craze around the Dedication and Da Drought series. Or, possibly, they were convinced that Lil Wayne was now on a downward slope. Or maybe it was no longer surprising, in the 2010's, to […]

SAGE FRANCIS - Sick of Waiting Tables…

In 2002, Sage Francis stopped being the underground's best kept secret, due to the release of his first album, Personal Journals. Thanks to some great tracks and beats – maybe, also, because of his rock music […]

YOUNG JEEZY - The Real Is Back 2

Jeezy's most glorious days took place in 2005. That very year, he released his (classic) mixtape Trap or Die, a record from his band, Boyz n da Hood, and his (classic, again) solo album, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation […]

DONMONIQUE - Thirst Trap

The hype followed its usual way, with DonMonique. It began with a defining song, "Pilates", which was already a few months old, when its video – featuring a few other rising stars, like some guys from Awful […]

PENNY - The Clockforth Movement

Thanks to psychedelic rapper Noah23, Plague Language had become, by the early 2000's, one of the most representative labels of the artsy side of Canada's hip-hop scene. Thanks to the indie rap community, it had become a bit more visible to people from abroad. Also, as a matter fo fact, the label's managers had not limited themselves to their home country. One of their members at least, Penny Dahl, was not coming from the cold surroundings of Toronto, but from San Francisco.

HAIL MARY MALLON - Bestiary

For someone so closely related to a bygone era – the late 90's, the years of backpacker rap – Aesop Rock is aging rather well. At least, he is not giving up. Now part of the Rhymesyaers crew, he released in 2012 one of his finest albums, the self-produced Skelethon. And the year after, he launched The Uncluded, a duo with the Moldy Peaches's Kimya Dawson, somehow the counterpart of Aes for folk rock, its intellectual and bohemian side. Also, in 2014, he launched again a project he had initiated a few years earlier, Hail Mary Mallon, a trio with DJ Big Wiz, and another unsung hero of New-York's indie rap scene: Rob Sonic, of Sonic Sum.

TOMMY GENESIS - World Vision

Today, in Atlanta, Awful Records is making its best to push the limits of rap music. They are the next step, or the arrival point, of a long journey to the bizarre, the experimental and the hallucinated, many artists […]

ILOVEMAKONNEN - I Love Makonnen

People who lived the early days of hip-hop music, in the late 70's and early 80's, hadn't realized immediately that this was a brand new kind of music. To them, the new sounds they heard sounded more like a declination […]

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