Dreads list

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

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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

Taken from the forthcoming release Strange Journey Volume Three. Produced by Kno. Photography by Sol Exposure.

In The City f. Zumbi Of Zion I

Taken from the forthcoming release Strange Journey Volume Three. Produced by Thomax. Photography by Sol Exposure.

Dying Breed

Mestizo feat. Doseone: "Turning Tables"

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Tracklist:
01. String Theory
02. Theory of Everything
03. Currents
04. Intergalactix (ft. uMaNg)
05. All Beautiful
06. Art of Rap (ft. Halfcut)
07. Used to Be (ft. Tek-nition, Self the Bluest Eye)
08. Rhythm of the Planet (ft. Tek-nition, D-Rev)
09. Reminisce
10. Lucid Dreams (ft. Tek-nition)
11. The 11th Dimension
[*]. Realities

A cosmic event so minuscule and rapid that it is unsure as to whether it even occurred at all. This was the precursor to the formation of String Theory. A group and its self titled album comprised of Epidemic's Hex One and Swedish beat maker Boom Bappin' Zombie Darney. Only outside the realms of a structured paradigm can such a happening even begin to be analyzed. So too only under these conditions can it be formed. With concepts ranging from the abstract to the concrete, this anomaly in space time, this rift in the conscious fabric of reality, this naked singularity attempts to answer the basic human question: who are we really? The ambiguity of the universe's many laws is what drives this question, as every soul on this plane is searching for their own personal theory of everything. We ride it's intergalactic currents, weaving between supposed realities and lucid dreams, only to reminisce on how beautiful it all used to be. A graceful marriage between multilayered resonance and the seemingly forgotten art of rap. The inception of this body of work blurs the notion of identifying it as an album, as it is
simply a juncture made possible by infinitely specific circumstances, without which, String Theory would never have existed at all.

If we are a simulation, then in the ways that matter to us... we are real enough.




08 - Rhythm of the Planet (feat. Tek-nition & D-Rev)

Will is Chillin':
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Recorded, Mixed, Mastered by Drew Mantia at Stank Face Records
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Will is Chillin' - Nothin' (prod. Glassic)

Written and Performed by Red Pill
Produced by Ill Poetic
Photo by Ron Jude

Mello Music Group rapper Red Pill is releasing the second single off of his upcoming album Instinctive Drowning. The song, Gin & Tonic, is a spiritual sequel to his 2015 song Rum & Coke, but with a disenchanted tone and a discouraged outlook. Maybe Red Pill is a hip-hop curmudgeon, but the new album demonstrates his ability to make himself vulnerable, wear his heartbreak on his plaid sleeve. 
The new album is entirely produced by Ill Poetic, swinging the production towards creative abstractions while preserving the intimacy and honesty of Red Pill's previous works. Instinctive Drowning will be here 8/26

Written by Red Pill (C.Orrick, Red Pill ASCAP). Produced by Ill Poetic (T. Gmeiner, ReDefinition Publishing ASCAP) for SoundRzn Graphic & Sound-Design. Trombone by Evan Oberla (Evan Oberla Music, BMI). Guitar by Alex Schrock (ASCAP). Additional Vocals by The Ingrid Rachel Project (Idonis, ASCAP)

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Red Pill - Gin & Tonic (prod. Ill Poetic)

Ringo Remix by Has-Lo.

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Atmosphere - Ringo (Has-Lo Remix)

Skrewtape - 94 Ecto Cooler (Produced By Mr Green)

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The Palmer Squares - Pandora's Box

first leak off KILLER MIKE's "R.A.P. MUSIC (REBELLIOUS AFRICAN PEOPLES MUSIC) full length L.P.  unmixed snippet.  

KILLER MIKE "UNTITLED" SNIPPET (PRODUCED BY EL-P)

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.

The Bitter Cold

Typical Cats

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