For more stuff like this peep - http://www.mixcloud.com/djnatural/

Peace good people. As promised, we bring to you another gem from the TC vaults. Live on WHPK, May 31st, 2000, Qwazaar and Qwel are heard here doing what they were doing just about every week at that time on DJ Natural & Kid Knish's Wednesday Night Rap Show. 

Typical Cats had just coalesced, and the members were spending all their time chilling together in Hyde Park, smoking their brains out, and working on the songs that would eventually make up their first LP. 

A few days before this show was recorded, DJ Natural gave Qwa the beat for "It Won't Stop" for him to write to. Little did Nat know, the verse that Qwa would spit live on air the following Wednesday night was destined to be pared with it. Even though he defied just about every mandate in the prevailing rulebook for rapper self-presentation, Qwel was definitely the "it" dude back then. Everybody was either quoting his punchlines, praying that they'd never face him in a battle, or just standing next to him, hoping dopeness would rub off on them. 

Thankfully, what could have been just a passing moment turned out not to be. As always, a super big shout out to DJ-Algoriddim for digitizing Natural's tapes and for being dope ass reggae DJ... enjoy

Typical Cats - WHPK Classics - May 31, 2000; Qwa & Qwel

Style Wars Theory

No Man Island

Mopes merch collection at SFRstore:
https://store.strangefamousrecords.com/collections/introducing-mopes
"Facts Machine" video: https://youtu.be/Arqw4Bqu6go
Bandcamp: https://mopessfr.bandcamp.com/album/mopes
Streaming: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/mopes1/mopes

Introducing… MOPES! 

Back again for the first time, the artist formerly known as PROLYPHIC is marching forward with a new name, a new perspective, and a new EP that formally announces his presence with authority. It’s not just a name change - it’s a game change. 

The producer/emcee (and the first signee to Strange Famous Records) has spent his past 20 years as Prolyphic crafting a collection of classic indie material under a name chosen with all the enthusiasm and hubris of an aspiring teenage rap addict. While his work ethic never wavered, the finished product trickled out at a pace that mocked his moniker - it was the polar opposite of prolific, with new sounds escaping the lab every half a decade or so. He dropped formidable platters with underground hip hop production legends Reanimator (The Ugly Truth) and Buddy Peace (Working Man) before spearheading SFR’s digital imprint SFdigi with his self-produced LP DNGRFLD in 2016.

“I was 17 when I first started to get recognition under the name Prolyphic,” the freshly-minted Mopes explains. “I was a kid. I was making music to find out who I was. I'm now 40, an adult man, a father who has a career, knows who he is and is now comfortable in his own skin. I went through so much shit between the ages of 17 and 40 that I couldn't make music under the same pseudonym again. I'm just not that same person anymore. Prolyphic is out, Mopes is in.”

The self-titled debut EP from MOPES contains four slabs of granulated granite, rhythms and rhymes broken down and built back up again, resulting in formations carved by the hands of a master craftsman. Every line, note, and drum beat screams no-fucking-around.

The first single and video, “Facts Machine,” manifests a new-era version of the classic Prolyphic style: masterfully manipulated soul samples and neck-knocking drums drizzled with dense and thoughtful lyrics, delivered with an unflappable flow in the cadence of a vested veteran. 

The posse cut “Party McFly” features SFR label overlord Sage Francis leading the charge, with a fresh crop of StrangeFam in tow: emcees BlackLiq (Virginia) and Jesse The Tree (Rhode Island) make their splashdown in Strange Famous waters with an impact that creates a wave sure to be felt for years to come. 

“I’m excited, I'm having fun and there's a lot to look forward to,” says Mopes. “Ya boy is putting that work in and being very prolific.”

The eponymous debut EP is available now to stream or purchase on all digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon. Limited edition package deals including T-Shirts and 7-Inch Lathe Cut Records are exclusive to StrangeFamous.com, and include the full digital EP + Instrumentals (only available at SFRstore)!

Mopes

"Facts Machine" - MOPES (formerly known as Prolyphic)

Easy Cause It Is

Orphanage Freestyle Part I Live (ft Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Eyedea, Slug, Illogic, DJ Abilities)

BLOCKHEAD and ARMAND HAMMER have back-to-back album release parties happening this week, it only makes sense that we drop this "Dry Ice" remix!!

ARMAND HAMMER "Dry Ice" [Blockhead remix]

Beautiful Prison

Nikki Jean - Beautiful Prison (Know Me Like That)

The Day Before Halloween

DoubleTown

Shelter In Place

Shelter In Place (feat. Blacastan)

In the final years of the last millenium, two native New Yorkers added a page to Chicago's hip hop history with the advent of the WHPK Wednesday Night Rap Show. Although short-lived and never formally christened, the Show had heads from Roosevelt to the Hundreds stuck on 88.5 FM midweek. In the show's aftermath, from the ashes of countless vinyl crates and echoes of chaotic show-closing freestyle sessions, Typical Cats was born. 

Featuring MCs Qwazaar, Qwel and Denizen Kane, producer/dj Natural and media assassin Kid Knish, Typical dropped a self-titled full-length on Galapagos4 Records and began a relentless campaign to restore a fallen hip hop world to its former promise and glory. The talent assembled was unmistakable, the sound created was formidable. Firmly planted in tradition, unorthodox in invention and possessed of a strength only earned in the furnace of experience, their Sound is the Future that hip hop's Past would have had if its Present weren't held hostage by the uninspired and unrepentant. A flurry of solo projects later, Chicago's prodigal sons return. Hip hoppers rejoice. Suckers duck and cover. Typical Cats come to conquer. Battle champs, hotline legends, poetry circuit kings. 

Tuck Your Pride In 'Cause All Lyrics Connect At The Soul. And it's on and it's on and it's on. 

QWAZAAR - A native of Chicago's gritty Low End, Qwazaar strikes from hip hop's essence. Whether the subject matter is inner city or interplanetary, the flow remains untouchable - a percussive yet fluid attack that evokes South Side rain and helicopter blades in a single breath. The content is heavy- "After the dust settles, witness the blood puddles..." Lights out, kids. The Q-W-A is here. 

QWEL - You first seen his name dangling a quarter mile up on a suspension bridge from your scratch-bombed window on the Orange line. You first heard that distinctive melodic/abrasive storm of syllables on old Nacro and Scam Artist tapes with inserts printed at the Kinko's. Now the heat's been perfected-and this nasty North Side revelation music rebel is out to wake the sleepers. From Ted Turner's devil ass to the so-called competition-everyone and their mama gets dealt with when the kid laces up his boots. 

DENIZEN KANE - From the rum and coke rumble of Chicago's North Side flow spots to the celluloid veneer of Def Poetry Jam's main stage, Denizen Kane rips the party with a poet's heart and an outsider's eye. Journalistic, impressionistic, real-life and drastic, young Kane's late night Red Line revelations turn into heathen hymns on tape, capturing the moody face of the metropolis in color. How long can a lost one roam until he finds his way home? Listen to your city fall apart through the muddy mouth of an immigrant.