Freeway and Jake One serve it up.
Larry Mizell Jr
Posted inMusic
Western Family
Wisdom from the Doggfather
A Snoop Dogg interview that does not feature “izzle.”
Posted inMusic
You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry
The Many Sides of David Banner
The world needs David Banner.
Posted inMusic
Blue Magic
Of Scholarly Interest
I can recall eating a particularly delicious lumpia once, sometime in 2003, in a long-gone spot in downtown Seattle called the Vesper Lounge—at the original CD release for the self-released, self-titled album from Seattle crew Blue Scholars. The beer was cold, the lumpia hot, and the stage was nonexistent; rather, it was a cleared-out space […]
Posted inMusic
Everyone Must Go
El-P Kills Live, Dead
Not long ago a good friend of mine (and fellow emcee) texted me from the much-beloved hiphop festival Scribble Jam: “Underground rap is boring as shit, why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were friends, man.” Yeah, it’s true, watching—or even listening to—90 percent of so-called underground hiphop is absolutely paint-dry compelling, almost as […]
Posted inMusic
God Made Dirtbombs
… Dirtbombs Don’t Hurt
Mick Collins, you my nigga. For real, I owe you a Guinness, or three, for the glorious squall you and the Dirtbombs have brought to this black boy’s life. My brother Samson, a fellow funk/soul aficionado, put me up on your Beyond-Thunderdome 2001 covers LP Ultraglide in Black; he passed it to me admitting that […]
Posted inMusic
High Wattage
Ohmega Watts’ Bright Funk
Brooklyn-bred, Portland-approved, Ohmega Watts is simply one of the finest practitioners of that easy, organic b-boy thump that bold boho brothers like Toronto’s K-OS specialize in. It’s the same style the Black Eyed Peas trafficked in (before popadelic Fergification launched them to previously undreamt heights of irrelevance), a seriously soulful strain first germinated by Tribe […]
Posted inMusic
Don’t Touch That Dial
Grayskul’s Grim Frequency
Sometime in 2004, I was enjoying a drink at some random hiphop show; who headlined I don’t remember. The important thing is that it was the first time Oldominion emcees Onry Ozzborn and JFK, with bassist Rob Castro, performed as Grayskul. From the minute the lights went down and the two dug into the grim […]
Posted inMusic
Gutterfly TNT!
Lifesavas’ Baadasssss Song
Fuck Kurt Russell. That real grindhouse shit is Portland’s own, specifically the brand-spank sophomore album from the Lifesavas, Gutterfly. Packing an 8-track swagger straight out of a Sig Shore Production, Bumpy Johnson (Vursatyl), Sleepy Floyd (Jumbo the Garbageman), and Jimmy Slimwater (DJ Rev. Shines) are three young hustlers roaming the streets of fictional Razorblade City, hungry […]
Posted inMusic
Project English
Boom, Bap, Original Rap
IN WHAT WAS a huge move for the former Seattle-based (and current Portland residents) Boom Bap Project, their LP Reprogram was released earlier this year on indie-hop monolith Rhymesayers Entertainment, home of Atmosphere, Brother Ali, and the inimitable MF Doom. The disc rocked a simple menu of incisive bars, hard beats, and blistering cuts; straight-up […]