this is a story about west coast underground hip hop. it entails an amazing journey and a happy ending (pause) for all involved... the rose that grew from concrete here is the new track called "tick tock"... it features producertrenttaylor on the beat and fashawn and icecoldbishop on the rhymes... crispy akiyama on the engineering... this song is crazy... tap in and then press rewind...
Read moreScarub "Savvy Traveler"
savvy traveler might be the best song you never heard of. scarub’s flow over the od beat is wild. omid’s beat in itself is wild but scarub gets lost in the beat and comes out the other side dusting himself off. this is real hip hop.
Read moreSEAFOOD SAM "COWBOY LEATHER" (FEAT. PINK SIIFU)
Y’all still sleeping on Seafood Sam? The Long Beach, CA emcee just dropped his new project and it’s super dope. If you’re not hip to the west coast underground rapper, I got you covered. Peep the article and catch a little west coast wave this morning.
Read moreSCARFACE "ON MY BLOCK"
It’s pretty cool seeing Scarface get some shine right now with the Tiny Desk performance. Most of us haven’t listened to some Face in a minute so it’s time to get out those old Geto Boys cassettes and Scarface CD’s and press play. Scarface is one of the goats… Just think though… What if he wasn’t from Houston and popped off in Compton when The Chronic dropped? What if he was on Death Row?
Read moreUGK “WOOD WHEEL”
Ever have those lyrics that you’ll never get out of your head for as long as you live? Well, Pimp C’s opening lines from UGK’s banger of a track “Wood Wheel” are ones that will never slip my mind. This is an appreciation for UGK, Pimp C, and Bun B and the classic track they made in 2001 called “Wood Wheel”. The beat is a slumper and the verses work so well with each other. And in some Texas draped up and dripped out steez and you got an absolute banger on your hands.
Read moreVINCE STAPLES "THOUGHT ABOUT YOU"
Vince Staples
This is a story about how I first heard Vince Staples in the early 2010’s. From there I discovered who Larry Fisherman was. For those unaware, Larry Fisherman was one of Mac Miller’s aliases where he lived as a beatmaker meshing samples and live instrumentation into his work. Vince and Larry had collaborated on a mixtape called Stolen Youth in 2013 which was a project that I feel doesn’t get enough shine. Especially the track “Thought About You” which to me is a song is a forever classic.
Read moreHIT-BOY X THE ALCHEMIST “SLIPPING INTO DARKNESS”
In 2023, new music drops one week and the next week it’s forgotten. But the track Hit-Boy and The Alchemist dropped is something that needs to be on replay in all of your speakers. They’re 2 of the dopest producers out but don’t get it twisted, both got bars and have something to say. Their single “Slipping Into Darkness” is a 10/10 track for me. You feeling it??
Read moreFRESHMAN WOES - THANK YOU RAP GODS
At my core I’m a west coast underground hip hop head because that was the movement that inspired me to be who I am today. I always envisioned myself somehow being involved in the hip hop scene in some capacity and this blog and my Spotify playlists have been my angle. While Hiero, Living Legends, Freestyle Fellowship, Solesides, Pharcyde, PUTS, Planet Asia, The Lootpack and so many other independent Cali legends are who I vibed to most, I haven’t stopped looking for new emcees out the west. I’m never one to sleep on somebody with bars or a producer who can knock out some nice boom bap beats. In the mid-2000’s a new west was forming including the TDE camp, Pac Div, U-N-I, Diz Gibran, and a rapper by the name of Blu.
Read moreOUTKAST "13TH FLOOR / GROWING OLD"
While I love Tribe, Wu, Gang Starr, and NWA, in my humble opinion, OutKast is the greatest rap group of all time. I was in junior high school when their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik came out and it was the video for “Player’s Ball” which was my introduction. I watched it on channel 41 on BET on a sunny weekday afternoon after school. My parents worked at this time so I got to watch Rap City all by lonesome. That meant I was listening to it as loud as I wanted and without looking over my shoulder for my parents who were not feeling my rap love at all.
Read more