4 Great Artists

Blue Scholars

Well I stated in my most recent post that Mr. J Medeiros' album was the best thing I've heard this year & it'd be pretty damn hard to top that.....Well to be frank The Blue scholars have done just that, everything about the latest release Bayani is brilliant....You only know me through my posts, but "they" do say you can gage alot from a mans music so if you like the stuff I review & upload then head over to the MySpace (link provided) or Amazon & buy this album, its definately not being topped this year.

The tracks provided are 2 tracks from The Long March EP (2005) & the recent prodigee Bayani (2007)

Blue Scholars - Loyalty
Blue Scholars - Morning Of America
Blue Scholars - Sagaba (Remix)
Blue Scholars - Talk Story

In homage to hip-hop's empirical formula - one DJ & one MC, and duos such as Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Gangstarr and Blackalicious, the Blue Scholars embody the chemistry that made these groups so consistent not only on wax, but live on stage as well. What results is the blend of poetic, raw vocal delivery with melodic boom-bap and turntablism, painted with politics and preservation. Residing where the hustle and the struggle coincide, Blue Scholars craft the soundtrack for everyday folks with everyday problems seeking everyday release.
After dropping one full-length album (Blue Scholars LP, 2005) and an EP (The Long March, 2005) the Blue Scholars have emerged as the latest in a long line of torchbearers for Seattle and greater Pacific Northwest hip-hop scene. The duo formed in early 2002 after ciphers and sessions in a makeshift attic-bedroom-studio in Seattle's University District, where emcee Geologic and DJ/producer Sabzi came from vastly different musical approaches to collide. One a distinguished battle emcee and poet, the other a former punk/ska drummer and jazz-trained pianist, the duo's backgrounds laid the foundation for a versatile combination of beats and rhymes at once political and personal.

Since 2002, the duo has become renowned live show veterans, rocking nearly 200 shows with the likes of De La Soul, Immortal Technique, The Coup, Zion I, One Be Lo, Soul Position, Slick Rick and Spearhead. The mass appeal of their live show has brought them to many diverse venues - from labor organizing conferences and youth-run community center shows to playing the main stage at Sasquatch! (2006) and Bumbershoot (2006).

In June 2006, Blue Scholars joined forces with Common Market (emcee RA Scion and DJ Sabzi) and emcee Gabriel Teodros (of Abyssinian Creole) to launch MASS LINE MEDIA, a new artist-run independent record label.


Sabzi


The media has called him a mystery man. He makes you scratch your head and ask yourself all types of questions. How did he flip that sample to make that melody? Is it true that he makes all his beats with computer software? Is it true that he only started really making beats around 2000? Is he Chicano? Hapa? Mestizo? Palestinian? (He's Persian, folks). Did he go to my high school (somewhere in the North End)? Does he have a girlfriend? Is he some sort of communist like that damn rapper in his group (he's Baha'i, draw your own conclusions)? Where did he learn to dance like that?

While the public at large goes mad pondering these questions, Saba is sitting somewhere in basement on Beacon Hill, crafting some thickly layered melodic mood music. His homecooked vibe is naaaasty - like spring rolls without the sauce, like chelo kabob without sumac, or really old doogh - as he draws influences from a wide spectrum of music, with Pete Rock, DJ Premier and Madlib on one end, and Aphex Twin and NOFX on the other. And yea, Middle Eastern and Indian music, too.

He's currently mediating the contradiction between joblessness and holding an B.A. in economics through random hustles, DJ gigs, temp jobs testing video games, and mandatory frugality. As a result, the group has the benefit of a DJ who can count the change in your purse - really fast.

Geologic – Prometheus Brown

Geologic came on the scene simultaneously through the battle circuit and as a spoken word poet. Drawing from both experiences, his rhymes seek to build and destroy at once, a balance of imagery and wordplay with a sharpened analysis and an unapologetically critical world view.

The second son of Filipino working-class immigrants, Geo moved frequently up and down the West Coast and to Hawaii, coming of age in Bremerton and soon making his way to Seattle. Years of building in the progressive arts community with isangmahal arts kollective led to community organizing in the youth and student sector with Anakbayan.

Emcees who have influenced him, in no particular order: Nas (poetic), Rakim (delivery, voice), Ras Kass (organic intellectualism), 2Pac (complexity, duality), E-40 (slang, swagger), Boots (politics), Aceyalone (conceptuality), KRS-One (authority), Chuck D (articulation), Common (introspection), Paris (fearlesness), Pharaohe Monch (wordplay).

He works in Seattle's Chinatown, a block away from the hotel that Ray Charles played his first gig at, and across the street from where Bruce Lee worked and lived.

Blue Scholars on Discogs

Official Blue Scholars Site

Blue Scholars MySpace




or Cultivating Your New Experience is an underground hip hop group. Avoiding the material trappings of mainstream hip-hop as well as the lyrically self-congratulatory social consciousness of much of today's underground, the two MCs and two producers of CYNE are everything hip-hop should be: lyrical commentary that opens minds and moves bodies. Hailing from West Africa and the cultural melting pot that is Florida, CYNE has spent the past four years working to make sense of the world through the introspective interplay of emcees Akin and Cise Star. Akin attacks the mic with a conversational flow that runs with a sense of impassioned urgency, while Cise Star's delivery rolls over the listeners with an uncanny self-assured smoothness. Together, they reach back to the self-reflective days of hip-hop's past, they engage themselves and the world in discussion of matters social and personal import. Beneath the lyrical venom of Akin and Cise Star is the dynamic, layered genius of Speck and Enoch. Combining elements of rock, trip-hop, jazz, and countless other influences, they create atmospheric landscapes of simple complexity that push the creative capabilities of hip-hop, reminiscent of Five Deez and Japanese hip hop producer Nujabes, the latter of which Cise Star and Akin have also worked with.

I'm not a huge fan of CYNE, I love the emcees but find that half the songs are amognst genius & the other well....aren't, that for me comes down to the production. But the decent tracks really are something to admire: 4 tracks from The Collection, Time Bieng & Evolution Fight

Cyne - First Person
Cyne - Octagon
Cyne - Paradise
Cyne - Tragic

Official CYNE site

CYNE MySpace

CYNE on Discogs



Gagle

I've been familiar with Gagle for quite a while now, as the Far-East continues to press on with the epitome of Jazzy Hip-Hop & Gagle certainly keep that reputation in tight Tact. I've taken 4 tracks from the recent Big-Bang Theory (2 originals & 2 Instrumentals, as I've a vast knowledge of Japanese Lingua)



* DJ MITSU THE BEATS ([mitsu] the [bitsu] and autonym: Kawamura optical interest) older brother
* MC HUNGER (hanger and autonym: Kawamura optical child) younger brother
* DJ Mu-R (Mullerian, autonym: Koichi Miura)

solo album which release is done consists of three people of DJ Mu-R which HUNGER and the scratch which have DJ MITSU THE BEATS and original [hurou] whose appraisal is high is made to hear even in the foreign country. As for MC HUNGER and DJ MITSU THE BEATS actual sibling.

[jiyaji] of DJ MITSU THE BEATS which was shown even with the solo album the unique scramble, production and HUNGER probably is the reason of popularity. As a feature of the rhythm of the lap, [shinkopeshiyon] and three connected signsThere is frequent use, those [jiyaji] have become with one of the reasons which engender atmosphere.

Recent [jiyaji] the track/truck has become popular, but as for MITSU THE BEATS the time when to the last it has taken root in HIP HOP, because to ruin [jiyaji] which is converted one line is worked out, the core there is support from the HIP HOP listener.

DABO and M-flo, the hungry ghost ranger, rhyme 踏 combination union, you compete with Sound Market Crew whose, local end is the same there is the connection of the many artist.

Discography

album(s)

• BUST THE FACTS (2001/5/31)
• 3 MEN ON WAX (2002/8/9)
• Superego (2004/8/25) mini- album
• GAGLE RETROSPECTIVE-Mixed by DJ Mu-R- (2004/8/26)
• BIG BANG THEORY (2005/11/23)
• BIG BANG THEORY SHUFFLE (2007/2/21)

With Others

• "Tate & Markie" joy 唄” (2004/3/10)

　　2. Life Is Show (feat.GAGLE)

• JAFROSAX “JAFROSAX” (2004/3/24)

　　6. Truth empty impression ~feat. GAGLE

DJ MITSU THE BEATS solo work

• NEW AWAKENING (2003 August 14th)
• RE-NEW AWAKENING Part.1 (2004 September 10th)
• RE-NEW AWAKENING Part.2 (2004 September 10th)
• Excellence: Selected Works (2006 June 16th)
• 25 Rose (2006 August 9th)
• Stones Throw Ten Years Mixed By Mitsu The Beats (2006 October 21st)
• Bbe Sessions (2006 November 4th)

In addition DJ MITSU THE BEATS has gone Remix of the other artist and offer etc of tune

www.gagle.jp

Gagle - Rap Mystery Circle
Gagle - Shikabane O Koete (Unplugged) (ft. Cro-Magnon)
Gagle - Shikabane Wo Koete (Instrumental)
Gagle - Sokokugo Zenya (Instrumental)

Granite State



Not 100% sure where or how I stumbled across these two, but nevertheless a more than impressive album, More often than not I found myself restarting near enough every track due to the-ever- impressive production & flow.

New Hampshire isnt synonymous with hip-hop music, but when Bugout and Doug York say they want to change that, its clear theyre serious. Together, the two lifelong friends make up the Exeter based hip-hop group Granite State. Be sure you dont get it twisted though, this isnt a pipe dream from some hack kids in the sticks....

A lifetime in the making, Granite States debut album is more than the groups first release, its their Breaking Point. Coming from two different backgrounds, Doug York and Bugout express two different points of view, yet the same frustrations. No gun talk, jewelry, or tales of heists, The Breaking Point is the average blue collar fans life put to music. It is the struggle that everyone can relate to, no matter where youre from. Whether its getting personal on, "Said and Done", settling the score on "My Sweet Revenge", or getting the party going with, "What Up B?!", the album represents an America rarely portrayed at all in todays mainstream Hip Hop.

Backed by strong production from DC the MIDI Alien (Cormega, 7L & Esoteric, Termanolgy) and Statik Selektah (AZ, KRS-ONE, Royce the 59, OC) Granite States album is destined to put Northern New England on the Hip Hop map.

Granite State has had numerous songs on various mixtapes throughout the world and theyve received spins from DJ Premier (NYC), DJ Geespin (WJMN Boston), Sirius Shade 45 and Groove FM (Australia). The follow up single "Gone With The Wind" has been on Sirius satellite radio's Hip Hop Nation top five hit list.

The group has rocked dozens of shows across the Northeast, including headlining the bill at numerous sold out venues in New Hampshire, the groups home state. Granite State has shared the stage with Method Man, Krumbsnatcha, Royce 5' 9", Devin The Dude, Black Sheep, 7L & Esoteric, C-Rayz Walz, Louis Logic and Akrobatik.

Granite State - Darker Than Blue
Granite State - Gone With The Wind
Granite State - Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
Granite State - Said & Done

Granite State MySpace

Granite State CD Bay




Blue Scholars, Cyne, Gagle & Granite State

remember to check the webpages (links provided)