Fake For Real

Released by the Lewis Recordings, a UK label, in 2002 – the Brits may have been the only ones willing to take risks with such a record – Primitive Plus is the enriched version of Primitive, an EP which generated an underground buzz by 1999. Edan, its author, belonged then to an emerging kind of indie rappers: the hip-hop handymen. Indeed, this graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music took everything in charge: he provided the raps, the beats, the scratches, the cover art… And as usual in such circumstances, the output looked like a demo recorded in a scullery.

It's been a while since Serengeti joined the indie rap scene. Since Dirty Flamingo, in 2003, he's been particularly prolific, releasing up to 4 albums in one single year, in 2006, including the conceptual Dennehy. For a long time, though, the Chicago rapper, whose real name is David Cohn, has played a cameo role. But he persevered, and finally made his way, moving to Anticon with his second record with Polyphonic, Terradactyl (2009), creating the S / S / S trio with Son Lux and Sufjan Stevans, and releasing, in 2011, his most accessible album.

Though all Living Legends records have not always been flawless, the solo career of Eligh was, for a long time, nothing less than exemplary. Starting in the second half of the 1990's with good albums like As They Pass and Gas Dream, it reached its apex in the 2000's with some gems, first Poltergeist, and then the much original Enigma. After this peak, however, the rapper and beatmaker didn't provide anything substantial for us to enjoy. The reason, as we would learn in 2010 with the Grey Crow album, was due to a serious drug addiction.

With such an alias, this one laid clearly his cards on the table. Arthur Arellanes III's music, indeed, was both bizarre and arty. Once a spoken word artist belonging to the California's underground hip-hop scene – the guy played sets with Blackalicious - Bizzart explored further the nerdy, crossover, intimate and experimental kind of rap launched by Anticon around the year 2000. He did even better, proposing one of the most accomplished products of the genre.

Released in 2004 by two KutMasta Kurt protégés – his name was in the title, but he took not part to the record – this album had not been well received by the critics. They reproached almost everything to Dopestyle 1231. They said that it was not funky or melodic enough, that the duo was some Johnny-come-lately, delivering ten years too late its science-fiction inspired underground rap. What some despised in this record, though, was precisely what made it delectable.