« 2010 Bay Area Freshmen 10 Recap: SU! »

With the ANNOUNCEMENT of the 2011 Bay Area Freshman 10 coming this FRIDAY, I thought now would be an appropriate time to look back at our 2010 Freshman and acknowledge the grind that they put in since being included in the inaugural list. So for the next 2 days we’ll look at the final MC's and highlight their careers up to this point, as well as what they have done since becoming a Bay Area Freshman. Every artist’s career plan and philosophy is unique, but no matter who you are, taking advantage of legitimate buzz can never be wrong. Because in this fickle, over saturated world that we like to call hip-hop, the second you stop releasing content and doing shows, unfortunately seems to be the second many forget that you ever existed. So let’s see how the first Freshman class performed since they were named some of The Bay’s top prospects.

SU!:

For years music fans have debated over the pros and cons of their favorite artists staying underground or making a push for the mainstream. In the case of hip-hop, the “underground” term is extremely inclusive and incorporates practically every sub genre of rap, while the biggest complaint of mainstream music over the past decade has been that it’s scope is much too limited. This results in a select group of MC’s dominating the major media outlet’s airwaves, with very minimal space for new blood. Yet if there is a member of 2010’s Freshman class whose music seems most ready for the embrace of the radio and television networks, it would most likely be SU!. 

Listening to SU!’s music is a fun experience largely because he has strong lyrical ability, and up to this point he’s stayed away from writing about negative subject matter. Instead he’s focused his attention on rapping about the sweeter things in life: partying, getting money, and stealing your girlfriend for the night. It also stands out because for better or for worse (completely up to personal opinion), he is one of the few remaining artists that has decided to continue to use autotune on a regular basis. Finally, arguably the most impressive thing about SU! is that in addition to rapping, he produces the vast majority of his own music. His production style combines heavy synth usage, the occasional sample, and trademark drums that seem to thunder on practically every track. All of which combines to create a final product that one could easily imagining getting burn on a mainstream level. 

The past 12 months were really productive for the leader of the HBK Gang. He released the T-  and 3.2.1 mixtapes which featured a mixture of industry beats and original production. Then in early July, after being named in the Bay Area Freshman 10, came SU! The Right Thing, which was a free album full of original music produced entirely SU! himself. Add this to the fact that he has closely aligned himself with The New Bay movement, has been in demand for his production talent, earned himself features on Willie Joe’s Focus, Big Rich’s Built To Last, Laroo’s The Night Continues, and Mike Dash-E’s Dash With Me, and was included on the Bay Area remixes of “Toot It and Boot It” with The Jacka and Messy Marv, as well as “Blue and Yellow” with Mistah F.A.B. and Willie Joe, and it becomes clear that SU! has been putting in work.

According to the MC/Producer’s twitter page, his upcoming mixtape Young California drops May 5th. After that I’m not sure what projects are in the future for SU!, but I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of 2011 he had a major radio single under his list of accomplishments. 

______________________________________________________________________________________

Free Projects:

(I know there are more, but these are what I could find. If you have links to the others, put them in the comments):

SU! The Right Thing (2010), T- (2010), 3.2.1 (2010), I Am SU! 3 (?)

Videos:

Look At Me Now Freestyle:

Salty ft. SU! and LoveRance - SHMOP