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Showing posts from September, 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