This is probably one of the best songs i have heard ever.

As Chicago winds up another long, hot summer, plagued by violence and riddled with tragedy, Typical Cats lob in another time bomb, a Qwazaar solo slab entitled "Reflections from the Porch." Anchored by a Natural beat awash in harmonies, bittersweet guitar, and, as always, dust-covered knocking drums, "Reflections" is a two and a half minute masterwork, a miniature history, and a meditative moment from one of the premier MCs of his generation. Described by Hip Hop Renaissance man Kevin Beacham as "one of the best natural Rappers of this era," Qwa is in excellent form here, leaning back into the stories, sipping from a jarful of memory.

"I remember beating on the tables / no interest from the majors / high school talent shows / booed us off stages... / wardrobe busted up -- couldn't afford the labels / cheap-ass backpacks -- sneakers that'll match that." In 4 bars, Qwa time-travels us decades back, digging into pre-TC lore and further, inviting us to examine the soul topography of a quintessential survivor.

Reflections From The Porch

As summer approaches, Typical Cats return with another gem, a blistering slab of frosted lunacy entitled “Bitter Cold.”  One of a constellation of Qwel solo shots from TC’s latest (3, G4), “Bitter Cold” marries a sinister Natural beat that swings like a gypsy funeral with inspired verses from TC’s resident embedded journalist.  Qwel rasps like a man knocking at the lid of his coffin.  He examines the rampant nihilism of post-Keef Chicago while sparring pugilistic drums and a swirling zydeco sample. 

“It’s all love so they say / but it don’t cost and it don’t pay / somehow he lost his way up in this maze / and the world turned him cold…”  With another long hot summer looming over the city, TC aims for the antidote. 

The Bitter Cold

On My Square

For more stuff like this peep - http://www.mixcloud.com/djnatural/

Qwel killing it live on WHPK in 2000. The radio show featured freestyles and live performances by just about everyone in the Chicago scene at that time, but nobody was doing anything like this....

Live WHPK, May 2000; Qwel, Red Meat Acapella

How Are You Chosen

A gritty, poetic confrontation of power, legacy, and spiritual claim, "How Are You Chosen" merges East Coast rawness with funk-laced swagger. Over boom-bap drums and a hypnotic, soul-tinged groove, the lyrics question the myth of being "chosen" against the backdrop of Babylon’s fall and rise. It's both ancient and urgent, blending prophecy with pain, history with heat. The verses cut deep with imagery of exile and empire, while the chorus echoes like a challenge from the ruins: who gets to wear the crown, and at what cost?

How Are You The Chosen

Gift of Gab - Supreme Lyricism

Savannah, GA microphone monster DOPE KNIFE is set to drop his self-produced full-length SFdigi debut “NineteenEightyFour” (featuring Sage Francis, Ceschi, and more) on January 27, 2017! 
Get your MP3 download, CDs, + 7-inch Records exclusively at http://tinyurl.com/DopeKnifeSFR 

Perhaps it was the euphoria of the first time he heard a rhyme collide with a beat. It may have been the gruesome civil war that touched his young life, and that war’s impact his family. Likely, it was the fusion of the two experiences that inspired a young Kedrick Mack to develop and refine his sound into what is now the intense, distinctive art of emcee/producer Dope KNife.  

“NineteenEightyFour”, KNife’s Strange Famous Digital debut, effectively demonstrates his style in ferocious, focused bursts, fused to form a gritty boom-bap soundscape littered with dense wordplay. Within this world, the listener has the opportunity to come to learn who Dope KNife is, but only if they choose to: “I think of this album as a character portrait; it's like the movie Taxi Driver in rap form,” says Mack. “It’s one man’s experience with the world, laid out for society to see, but there’s no guarantee the world will understand it. You either vibe with the experience and accept that it has a reason for existing, or you just think its a collection of songs that you like or dislike individually. I’m fine with either.” 

The son of a US diplomat, Mack's childhood was spent hopping around the globe in the course of his father's work. Most of that travel was within the continent of Africa, including a residency in Liberia, his mother's home country. Liberia's civil war broke out, and while Mack and his immediate family were able to evacuate, his mother's extended family were not so fortunate, leaving them to live amongst the chaos of a decade-long conflict.  Mack would learn of his family’s tragedies and hardships through the tears on his mother’s face, an almost daily ritual that left him feeling isolated during his teen years. His discovery of music, and hip-hop in particular, gave him a way to reach out: he began to immerse himself in the culture, finding inspiration in artists as disparate as Rakim, Nine Inch Nails, and Ice-T. He began fronting a rap/rock band and spending time on the freestyle battle circuit.  ￼ 

Mack forged strong friendships through his foray into music, friendships which lead to the formation of a DIY record label that allowed him to release 2 full-length group LPs under the crew name Dope Sandwich.  

Remaining true to his collaborative roots, Mack invites a gang of indie emcees to contribute to “NineteenEightyFour”; rappers with whom he built a mutual respect over years of extensive touring appear on the posse cuts “#SQUADGOHARD” and “Tombstone”. KNife uses the solo album format to display his sharp wit and a knack for social commentary, and to explore heavier subject matter and experiment with his own music production. Moments of note include the first single, “Name Up”, and the introductory mission statement “Nothing To Lose”. Strange Famous label boss Sage Francis makes an appearance on “Cult Personality”, and indie rap troubadour Ceschi pops up on “Fear and Loathing”.  

The title “NineteenEightyFour” refers to both the year of Kedrick Mack’s birth, and to the year of an experience that helped to set him on his path - an event captured by artist Pat Jensen on the album cover. Mack explains: “When I was a baby, I fell into a water well in Sierra Leone. I have a scar on the back of my skull from it. How it happened became one of those stories that my mother would reveal to new acquaintances as they became friends. As a result, as an adult, for me, the story is like the last barrier of information I give a person as an affirmation of our relationship. If a person has known me long enough for me to tell them how I fell in a well as a baby, it's a sign I’m opening up to them. “NineteenEightyFour” is that last barrier for me as a musician.”

NineteenEightyFour

Buy CD/Vinyl

"NOTHING TO LOSE" - Dope KNife

First single and title track from Blueprint's upcoming album "Two-Headed Monster" due out May 22nd, 2018.  The album is produced entirely by Blueprint and features guest appearances from Slug, Aceyalone, Wordsworth, Mr. Lif, Supastition, and Has-Lo.  Reserve your signed copy at bit.ly/THMalbum

Blueprint "Two-Headed Monster"

"Look Out" produced by Paul White, from Chimera EP
http://stonesthrow.com/homeboysandman

Buy Here

Homeboy Sandman - Look Out

The Machine ft. Akie Bermiss

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.

Reflections From The Porch

Typical Cats

Recent comments

Dansa Ninja Dansa

Börns Buchstabenkopf

Related tracks