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Showing posts from 2010

Q & A with Avatar Young Blaze

With his latest video Avatar Young Blaze takes some time away from the streets and relaxes off that fine Cali Kush before taking some aggression out on the bloggers who just don't seem to buy dude's stories. You should. I first started hearing about him sometime last year, maybe once prior to that but he has been out here in Seattle making a name for himself in two circles. The streets will never let Avatar's name be smeared. In rap circles he is starting to capture more attention and with just cause. I hit up his manager about doing an interview, discovered that he no longer calls Seattle home, but was invited to converse via email. If you thought this was just your average 21 year old knuckle head you are only kidding yourself. TML: Who is Avatar? Where were you born, when? Avatar Young Blaze: Avatar is the embodiment of a concept, being music, destined since birth. I was born in 1989 in Tallin, Estonia although my mother is full Russian & father is full Ukrainian. TM

Tunes from the Whip: Bob James "One"

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One night while playing “Nautilus” on my radio show at KSUB a listener hit me up asking if it was some new DJ Shadow. Bob James was way ahead of his time! The much sampled and at times unfindable record in any diggin spot has lost much of it’s luster since it’s hey day being pilfered by a laundry list of classic 90s boom bap producers. It is simply titled One and it bangs. Opening with an epic, spooky jam the music here is ready for the big screen. Sounding like the perfect sequence for an amazing car chase that is choreographed perfectly, Bob James conducts an array of players to create the ultimate in explosive feelings. Bombast doesn’t even begin to capture the horns here. HUGE . Track two sounds like it might have been right at home at my co-workers country concert this weekend. No vocals are present but it’s certainly bluesy. I’m not mad at it actually. Listening to it while riding the bus (more on that in a bit) made me appriciate the slow moving beauty placed in the strings. B

August Heatrocks

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Download the August Heatrocks here! Emotion in a verse is a powerful tool. It can make a weak verse sound dope. But if you are actually spitting, and displaying some real passion about those words - game over. Don Trip kicks off the August Heatrocks with “Letter 2 My Son." Sounds like his son's mom is putting him through some bullshit and he couldn’t handle it anymore. The dude just wants to be their for his child. Big K.R.I.T. has stormed the rap world in 2010 dropping K.R.I.T. Wuz Here early on and not letting up, connecting with Def Jam, Curren$y and that camp things just seem to be falling into place for the Mississippi representer. He has been at it for awhile though and their is a lot of fresh work to dig through if you so desire. I’ve done my hardest to find as much as I can and start that process. Here is one jam I found that displays a little more hunger than on much of what I’ve heard as of late. I had a random song for a long time that I loved by a guy named Rozew

An update...

Some of you may have come to The Musik Lounge looking for an interview with Lace Cadence. It has been pulled down. I'm in the process of meeting with other people involved in the Seattle Hip Hop community at the same time as him and hope to provide more insight into another time in the town when the rap was just as cracking. I apologize to my readers and promise not to make this a trend.

Tunes from the Whip: Brother Ali "Shadows on the Sun"

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I pulled out Brother Ali’s debut Shadows on the Sun for this weeks edition of tunes from the whip. Bringing all my CDs up from my moms house has me tripping at what I could listen to. I could proly do one of these every other day and still find something new or that I forgot about. But this is about Brother Ali. The man who spits hot fire all over brilliant Ant tracks. After Jet Set last week, the day I’d thrown this into the deck, I ended up giving Vitamin D a ride to the studio. On the drive he heard “Star Quality,” asked what it was and smiled. He then revealed to me that he had worked on the project for them out in the Mini Apple. I love the learning the back stories. Listening to the album the rest of the week was great. It constantly brought smiles to my face and got me ready to go into work feeling good, feeling great. Ali is an amazing emcee. When all is said and done he pretty much has to be in the top 10 greatest list. As he says he “weaves a web of words so intricate the En

Tunes from the Whip: Acid Reign "Time & Change"

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For quite some time I've wanted to do a weekly feature reviewing a random CD. I went into Easy Street and copped 10 dollar albums and was ready to go. Life got in the way and I've been off the internet for quite some time. Nothing new round these parts. In my recent move I brought my CD collection to Seattle. This means that box of 10 discs is competeing with some piles of shit. I don't know what ya'll are gonna get hit with. Kicking it off this week is the last album from Acid Reign out of LA. Coming out in 2008 on Alpha Pup didn't quite mean what it means today. Not that Alpha Pup has upped their rep that much but Daddy Kev is a resident of The Low End Theory and viewed as the surrogate father of the sprawling beat scene that's been on a steady rise for several years now. Acid Reign is two emcees Beond and Gajah, they have been rapping together since they were teenagers and have made the rounds with the project blowed cats coming up through the LA underground

July Heatrocks

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Just as August comes to an end I'm getting the July Heatrocks up. Shame on me. The good news is I'm typing this from internet in my own place! No more couch surfing for me. I've been on the move a lot in the last month but I kept new tunes in the deck and found several yall need to hear. Download the July Heatrocks here! Judah made this beat tape inspired by Amber Rose, he then teamed up with Dub MD and had emcee's submit verses over them. Don't know who did any of them, this one called "Closure" caught my ear. Dudes flow so smooth, his voice compliments the beat perfectly. The Dusty Fingers comps have been collecting digital dust in my iTunes since I was in college. I've heard cuts from them here and there, but recently I've listened to more off them than any other time my life. Like the UBB series they are full of samples, some you will instantly recognize and some far more esoteric. Bola Sete's cut "Bettina" is smooth, happy and pe

Heatrocks of June

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Half way through 2010. I'm another year older. Time is flying and life is exciting. Apologies for the lack of updates around these parts, the sun coming out and my own lack of direction have been on my mind lately. I'm ready to make a move and find a home, it's been a long run since coming back to Seattle in October of last year. But let's dispense with the personal stuff, that ain't why you come to The Musik Lounge! Download June Heatrocks here. Kicking off this month's edition of the Heatrocks is "Think 4 Yourself" by La Finne Equipe & Mattic. I know nothing. The name is eloquent. The song is fun. Truth couldn't be realer. Get down with it. I need to go back into my Ani DiFranco archieves and see if this really is her voice they flipped for the sample in the hook. One of the last records I rocked at my old job in the Bistro on Seattle University's campus was Long Distance from Onra. As I remember it, it's great. "Wonderland"

The May Heatrocks

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These Heatrock compilations never seem to make it up to the blog in a timely manner? The two jobs are over and summer is about here. I took a brief hiatus this weekend from the antics of Seattle life to come home and visit with my mom. Always feels good to return to the place of my beginings but I'm ready to get back and keep things moving. Shouts out to all my Jet Set fam, rock tonight for me! Download the May Heatrocks here . May saw the release of the Jeezy tape Trap or Die 2, picking up from the last tape and as is usual with mixtapes things stay just a little harder than you would hear on a full length issued by a label. The Clipse and Jeezy are three of the only emcees who own the coke raps today. This song doesn't really pull on their mutual trade but they deliver a high energy banger for you to rock out with none the less! Detroit is a cold hard place. People say the grey skies round Seattle keep our youth depressed more than anywhere else. Maybe so, but depression has

Nas & Damien Marley "Distant Relatives"

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Artists, rappers especially, like to talk about collaborations and this in turn makes us fans excited to hear the music from those sessions. Often they don't ever come to fruition. When Nas & Damien Marley started talking about doing an album together I greeted it with great suspicion. Yeah right. But in did happen. Distant Relatives is in stores now and Nasir Jones is touring with Damien Marley. Last night the show stopped in Seattle. I haven't listened to Nneka yet but with all the good things I've heard and the bit of the set I did catch last night I think her album is about to be searched out. She seemed to mix a lot of different styles into her set, demonstating quite a powerful and unique voice. I'm curious what the music sounds like on her album, as she was backed by a few live instruments but not a full band. Once she was done the show got boring with no DJ rocking tunes between sets. I found myself outside ignoring the sold out crowd and trying to catch a

Wiz Khalifa "Kush & Orange Juice" (2009)

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It's finally time. Kush & Orange Juice . It's been out here, cats are listening to it. Wiz performed practically the entire tape this past weekend. The show left a bad taste in my mouth, but that isn't anything new when it comes to acts I dig on. The crowd was eating it up and the venue was packed out. Can't be mad at all of that. Still curious about what all the hype is for? Download this tape and spark something up, the picture will get clearer the hazier the room is. If I've come to one conclusion in my time reviewing all his projects it's that while he probably can get deep, it's not in his repetroie at the moment. This also coincides with my feeling that Wiz is an artist to watch. I see a vision behind what he is doing and am incredibly excited to see where he takes it. He has a lot of potential and as he grows I think his music will too. We aren't their yet though. He is still a 22 year old kid having fun, enjoying life and the perks of his car

Wiz Khalifa "Deal Or No Deal" (2009)

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After independently releasing his debut album at 19 and moving ten thousand units Wiz must of thought his path was written. Signed to Warner Bros., Rolling Stone write up's and a chart climbing single were all in his grasp - he didn't let it make him slow down. Instead he kept hustling, pushing forward and gaining fans the old fashioned way: touring. Consistently dropping quality music for free probably hasn't hurt either. 2009 was busy for Wiz and this had to have been what it was all going towards. In late November he released his sophomore album Deal Or No Deal , suprisingly to little fanfare it seemed. My initial disappointment in it was largly to the fact that many of the songs here are pulled from his old mixtapes. Having just finished working my way through his entire discography this was still noticable, however today I'm feeling more forgiving and it is nice to hear the tracks without tags, rewinds or some other typical mixtape nonsense. The music found here i

Wiz Khalifa "Burn After Rolling" (2009)

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I had some false impressions of Burn After Rolling that had me hating on a tape that is actually quite good, certainly a worthy follow up to the excellent Flight School he had dropped several months prior to this. In '09 he also released his record with Currensy and his full length dropped a few weeks after B.A.R. - it serves as a great representation of Wiz and certainly was a great marketing tool for Deal or No Deal . All this work and he doesn't even begin to sound tired. Here he rocks over a lot of jacked beats. "Say U Will" brought it out of people last year and Wiz was one of many who dropped some deeply introspective lines over Kanye's masterpiece. He rocks over "Mafia Music" and "Best I Ever Had" as well - I certainly could be missing some others, I'm not sure of the origin of many of these tunes. Regardless of where they came from, Wiz owns them all. He is simultaneously at his funniest and most serious throughout the tape. Wh

Re-Post: Curren$y & Wiz Khalifa "How Fly" (2009)

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I already spoke on this joint back towards the end of last summer after marinating on it for far to long. It was a great time and if you haven't listened to these two together you need too. Read my review here and get watch out for that Burn After Rolling review coming later today.

April Heatrocks: The Lost and Late Edition

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My favorite feature of iTunes has to be the play count and top 25 most played lists. I love being able to see what is getting the most plays from me. With my computer crashing and the subsequent reloads I found myself loosing the valuable information that makes up my play count and helps determine what you all are blessed in these here posts I like to call the heatrocks. A few of the songs from last month were so ingrained in my ears i couldn't forget them, others just jumped out as I scrolled. Just 11 bangers this time around due to technical difficulty but you'll enjoy them! J Rocc, Daedelus, Ras G & Nobody all participated in a little project with Dublab outta LA entitled Secondhand Sureshots and it is one of the dopest documentaries about diggin I've ever seen. They all went out with 5 bucks and picked up 5 records from thrift shops in LA. Took them home and made tunes out of them, dublab pressed em on to dubplates (and subsequent full 12" vinyl) and had each

Wiz Khalifa "Flight School" (2009)

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It's only proper to have something rolled up when listening to Flight School , front to back the best project Wiz Khalifa has dropped in his career. Kush and Orange Juice is hot, I'll get to it, but this is his shining moment in my ears. Having listened to Star Power finally it makes perfect sense as a follow up, capitolizing on every dope aspect of that tape and simeltaneously dismissing all the weak ideas that were probably dead before he really tried them. What you get is an awesome project I've already declared as one of the best - I can always give my thoughts on a tremendous record though. The production here is awesome. He grabs a few beats, Santogold's "Starstruck" and a Pharcyde classic which he nimbly rides perfectly. His flow is on full demonstration here and he never disappoints. It's an awesome listening experience as he selects such a diverse array of backdrops to rip it's just fun to hear him always execute with ease. He doesn't

Wiz Khalifa "Star Power" (2008)

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In between Prince of the City Vol. 2 and Star Power Khalifa's weed consumption had to have gone up. The references are far more on par with what we have come to expect and the sound is that spacely party and chill vibe he has used his in house team of beatmakers to mold into their thing. Here we still see moments of that block talking young kid whose first project welcomed you to Pistolvania. Most of these projects have utilized a quick intro and it remains the same here which just means the music starts that much sooner. Kicks off proper with a Johnny Juilano feature "I'm a Star" that is a filled with an awesome hook taylor made for clubs. Wiz spends the time telling you just how star lived his life is. Truth or fiction, it doesn't really matter he owns the image and paints it to be pretty fun. Of course it can't all be fun and parties. The guests keep coming through which add another element to this tapes walking of a line between where Wiz came from and w

Wiz Khalifa "Prince of the City Vol. 2" (2007)

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Upon first listening to Prince of the City Vol. 2 I was scratching my head. It wasn't that it sounded terrible but it didn't really seem like the Wiz I had been listening to. Perhaps this contributed to why I was delayed in running it yesterday like the plan has been. Sometimes delays happen and Mothers Day was no joke in the resturant biz! Cash money in my pocket makes things all better though. So what's good with this second mixtape of '07 from the Khalifa man? It's head and shoulders above Prince of the City Vol. 1 for a multitude reasons. He is finally coming into his own. Don't get me wrong, the projects before this one were definetly instrumental in his sound, but here on Vol. 2 you will hear what it is you know Wiz for. The tape starts quick with a vocal clip from the movie The Wiz before the celebratory anthem "Got Damn Love It" about how much he loves life. It's up beat and fun as are many of the beats to be found on this disc, done by

TML Radio 5.1.10 w/ Grynch

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Last week Grynch came through to the radio show and chopped it up with us about an assortment of topics. We played some cuts as well so download this return podcast with vigor and stay tuned for the next one, it will be coming as I'm in the studio as I post this. Download TML Radio w/ Grynch .

Wiz Khalifa "Grow Season" (2007)

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For how hard I've been riding for Wiz, I'm suprised by myself having not delved deeper into his back catolog sooner. Shouts out to my Oregonian brother Sunn E.D. for hipping a kid! We've made it to 2007 and Wiz third project, Grow Season . At this point he was signed to Warner Bros. and the major label hands are all over this project. You have a big name DJ (Green Lantern) and industry beats rocked over (Common's "Go", Snoop's "Vato" to name a couple) along with annoying drops and rewinds. No matter how you feel about these things this tape is still worth some listens and is far superior to his first offering, Prince of the City Vol. 1 , yet leaves something to be desired after Show & Prove . The weed references have been upped here, telling clubs flat out he doesn't care about the rules he will smoke when he wants on the anthem "Lifted." "Talk To Me" has a great auto tuned hook and it's probably a jacked commercia