Fake For Real

Quite often, when a mixtape starts buzzing, like Shy Glizzy's Law 2 in 2013, it means that another one had paved the way beforehand. Actually, what put the young Washington D.C. rapper on the map, in addition to his beef with Fat Trel, was the first instalment of the Law series one year earlier, in 2012, and the even stronger Fxck Rap, he released in December the same year, on his 20th birthday.

NOLTO AND FACTOR - Red All Over

In the 2000's, Saskatoon's Factor produced tens of albums. This was his merit, but also his flaw. Sometimes, the Canadian beatmaker seemed to prefer quantity over quality. He built lots of new loops and new beats, but he didn't necessarily take the time to fine-tune them as much as the talented rappers he was working with deserved it. Red All Over, though, one of the four albums he released in 2005, was different. On many tracks, Factor was transfigured. This time, he did much better than delivering beats per pound to his collaborator.

DALEK - Absence

Some doubts had remained, after listening to From Filthy Tongue of Gods & Griots (2002), Dälek's previous album. It had been a bit too uneven, and it relied too much on easy tricks like noises, walls of sound and crescendos, to make an impact. Despite some true gems, for example "Spiritual Healing" and "Classical Homicide", it didn't get all the benefits from the very personal kind of dystopic rap invented by the Newark duo. Two years later, though, the next album, Absence, would confirm for good that Dälek was a great hip-hop group.

PARK-LIKE SETTING - School Day 2, Garbage Day 4

That was some concept album. For their first joint record, indeed, Mcenroe, John Smith and DJ Hunnicut opted for a school metaphor, giving to each of this long album's songs the name of a specific lesson, like "Philosophy", "Social Studies", "Geography", "Français", "Physics" or others. They complied with this principle all along the record, and never were off-topic, except maybe with the bonus track, where they admitting dedicating some time to "Extracurricular Activities".

CUNNINLYNGUISTS - Will Rap For Food

By the year 2000, the indie backpacker hip-hop style has spread over pretty much all places in the United States, except maybe in the South. The most popular form of rap music, there, is its total opposite: it is […]

MOVES & BIRDAPRES - Alleged Legends

Alleged Legends was released in the heyday of Peanuts & Corn: in the middle of those years, 1999 to 2003, when the modest label from Winnipeg, Manitoba, was releasing gem after gem. For once, though, label owner Mcenroe didn't produce the album. The main protagonists were even not part of Break Bread, the collective in the heart of the label. They came from others parts of Canada.

C.V.E. - Not Like Those

For years, C.V.E. hasn't kept its promise. The Californian rap virtuosos were in the very heart of the Project Blowed and the Afterlife crews, they were more blessed with talents than any other rapper, but they only delivered flawed CD-Rs, poorly crafted records, full of rotten beats. For two decades, this group may have been the greatest waste of hip-hop's history. In the meantime, at the other end of the US, the Milled Pavement label, a sort of East Coast cousin for Anticon, was delivering some records full of ideas, concepts and good will, but rarely convincing.

DIE YOUNG & DEESKEE - Ravish

Before he released this album in 2004, Die Young had not necessarily been the most remarkable of the Shape Shifters. The guy was regularly shouting his head off like an exalted rock star, but he lacked the charisma of peers like Awol One or Existero, or the uniqueness of Circus. And on his side, despite his position in the very center of the West Coast Underground, thanks to his LA2theBay website, Deeskee had not always been the boldest and the most adventurist beatmaker.

DESSA - A Badly Broken Code

Dessa is a poet come to rap through the practice of slam. She authored a book, Spiral Bound, and she also teaches music. In a nutshell, she is exactly what to expect, if you want to promote a respectable kind of hip-hop […]

AESOP ROCK - Appleseed

1999 is, somehow, the apex of the indie rap era. Many gems are recorded, that year. The more we dig, the more of these we find, released by small labels, or self-released. Appleseed is one of these. With its eight tracks […]

AWOL ONE & DADDY KEV - Number 3 on the Phone

By the early 2000's, because of his incredible and inebriated voice, his subtlety, his sense of humor and his vulnerability, because of his style made partly of classic hip-hop, partly of Project Blowed-influenced innovations, we predicted a triumph to Awol One. But it didn't happen. The most charismatic Shape Shifter never capitalized on the buzz around Souldoubt, in 2001. He remained an unsung hero, and he never released the masterpiece we expected. On the opposite, his records would become less and less noticeable, with the exception of the very convicting Only Death can Kill he released in 2007 with Factor, the Canadian beatmaker.

2MEX - B-Boys in Occupied Mexico

B-Boys in Occupied Mexico was 2Mex's first true album, a promising beginning, a record which should have boosted the rapper's career. An excellent MC and performer, the guy had the potential of a star, everyone should have expected an opus magnus from him. Such a masterpiece, though, was never delivered. And now, many years later, B-Boys in Occupied Mexico is still 2Mex's best album.

MR. LEN - Interview

SNOW THA PRODUCT - Unorthodox

CHIEF KEEF - Back From The Dead

CESCHI - Interview

SHY GLIZZY - Fxck Rap