Incredible Delivery...Flow with Integrity..Salute

A Soiree for Skeptics

3.Always [prod. Miek Sneak]

14 Un Fuc Witable

Liberte

Brillons ensemble

An Ode celebrating the Birth, Essence and Golden era of Hip Hop in true Boom Bap fashion.  

Dying Breed (Produced by Mozaic)

Taken from Tenacity & D.R.U.G.S. Beats album "Discussions" dropping 02/23/18

Discussions

The Hate System

The Hate System (featuring Deejay Element)

This is the 3rd and final installment of the Magnificent.
Hope you enjoy.

Stronger Than Me feat. Rhymefest & Dayne Jordan

No one confronts the abyss better than Chris Orrick. The Michigan ex-factory worker formerly known as Red Pill has spent the last half-decade documenting industrial decay, familial pain, and struggles with addiction better than almost anyone inhabiting this poisoned soil. It’s somewhere between Charles Bukowski and Michael Moore, or maybe Atmosphere if he couldn’t ignore the arsenic in the air. 

As Orrick tells it, “Portraits,” his latest album for Mello Music Group is a return to form. 

“I tried to strip everything down to what I think I'm best at: simple, concise portraits of who I am,” Orrick says. “Whether that be finding myself through self-portraits, portraits of everyday workers, portraits of the current political moment or portraits of myself told through the eyes of people I encounter daily.” 

From the corroded arteries of the blue-collar heartland, Orrick emerges as one of the most incisive and savage critics of Trump’s America. If the American dream is dead, he unflinchingly lays the blame on avaricious corporations, crude demagogues, and structural racism. There’s nothing polemical about it: just warm-hearted, sad-eyed, gin-flooded depictions of a life where there are few right answers but a litany of wrong ones. 

The Michigan native is an acerbic poet, but too unpretentious and sarcastic to ever call himself that. In his love letter to his long-time girlfriend (“Lazy Buddies”), Orrick fantasizes about the pair decamping to a town an hour outside of Paris, where they can blissfully split a bottle of cheap wine. Then he mocks himself for being a little corny. But that’s part of its charm—through his ruthless honesty, we can see ourselves as we actually are—prone to idle delusions, indolence, and self-obsessed. 

“Portraits can often be overlooked, but there are so many details in the face that tell innumerable stories about what the person portrayed might have been feeling or going through,” Orrick continues. “I'm trying to find those details, within myself and within America today." 

On “Anywhere Instead,” he grouses about how most days he doesn’t want to leave his bed until noon, staring at his phone, wishing for imminent death. It’s a nothing matters, gallows humor that anoints him a laureate of existential dread. He captures the terror of the void, the ambiguity of not knowing where or when your next direct deposit will hit. He’s wise enough to understand how little he understands, allergic to cheap irony or forced symbolism. As he points out on stories, “not every story has a meaning, not every moment has a reason, sometimes you just let the music play and tell you what to say.” 

It’s obvious how loudly the music speaks to Orrick, who is rarely short of opinions or serrated observation. The somber piano-based melancholy and rugged drums of “Portraits” thump via a gifted arsenal of producers including Nolan the Ninja, L’Orange, Exile, Apollo Brown, and Onra. Only two guest rappers appear, Fashawn and Orrick’s partner in Ugly Heroes, Verbal Kent. Orrick carries the rest of the weight and you sense the Atlas burden he shoulders. 

But for the all the poignant complaints, there’s a soulful profundity at the core of the album. It goes further than stress over bills, nicotine and liquor compulsions, and a search for deeper revelation. If you can hear a song like “Mom” without slightly crumbling, you might be iron-born. It’s a eulogy for Orrick’s late mother, dead at 45 without seeing her children grow up, without the opportunity to take pride in her son’s ability to realize his dream—however flawed it can occasionally seem. It’s here where you sense the power of these Portraits. They capture the pain that too many of us feel, that manifests itself in so many distinct ways. For a little while, we understand the raw f&cked up complexity of what it means to be a human being in a lunatic world. The portrait is personal, but it’s all of us too. 
credits

Portraits Mp3

Lazy Buddies

Chris Orrick -  Lazy Buddies (prod. Apollo Brown)

District formed with the intent of creating music that both drew from mid-'90s East Coast hip-hop à la De La Soul, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and Gang Starr music that showcased the often overlooked Washington, DC rap scene. Comprised of two MCs, X.O. and yU, and producer/MC Oddisee (who has also released a handful of solo albums and produced tracks for Jazzy Jeff, among others, and is part of the Low Budget Crew with Kev Brown, Kenn Starr, and Cy Young), the group first introduced themselves to the hip-hop community by releasing a series of singles in the late '00s. In April, 2009 Diamond District put out the clean version of their debut full-length, In the Ruff, for free music blogs, and garnered enough press and attention from it that they were able to approach hip-hop label Mello Music Group with evidence of their fan base and why they should be signed. It worked, and the label released the unedited version of In the Ruff in October, 2009 with plans for a follow-up, titled March on Washington, to appear the next year.

Diamond District - In The Ruff - 05 I Mean Business

One Foot In The Grave (Feat. Bernz)
Produced By Miami Beat Wave
Featuring Bernz
Guitar Played By Chip Williams

One Foot In The Grave (Feat. Bernz)

Madman

Fighting Fish
Produced By Stro The 89th Key
Guitar Played By Plex Luthor

Fighting Fish

The Naysayers Lounge

Groundwork

Forecast

Eyes Of The City ft. Blame One , Cashus King , Donel Smokes , & G Rocka prod. By Stro Elliot

Kooley High - City Life , Produced By Quintessence James

Kooley High - City Life

Born in London to a British mother & father from South Africa. Raised in South Florida. Battle Champion. Vocalist for ¡MAYDAY!. Signed to Strange Music. Sponsored by Monster Energy. Jack Daniels infused!


Fighting Fish

Wrekonize

Recent comments

N.O.V.A SUPREME

Darkly's Dead

Related tracks