« Slaps Of The Week (1/29/12 - 2/4/12) »

This week Occupy Oakland made national headlines again, and a ton of dope music came out. We all know that nobody cares who wins between the Giants and The Patriots (I wish they could both lose), so spend some time this Sunday playing some ill music that you may have missed out on. 

A1 - Circulate (Produced by WooStaar and ATG)

 For my taste A1’s, The Book Of Adam, was easily one the best projects to come out of the Bay in 2011. The combination of his technical skills as an MC, with his ability to present an honest and genuine message that’s easy to follow, intelligent, and still not corny is what sets him apart. Not to the mention that the wisdom he exhibits at such a young age reminds me a lot of Blu when he was recording Below The Heavens. His latest video, “Circulate”, not only showcases just that, but like a lot of the music from The Book of Adam, it’s almost a manifesto on his views of the world and where he humbly sees himself in it. In short, it’s life music. We premiered the WooStaar directed video on Monday, and it’s well worth the watch. 

Download - A-1 The Book Of Adam 

Del The Funky Homosapien - West Coast Avengers 

Last week I talked about Too $hort and E-40’s impressive staying power, but the Hieroglyphics crew is another iconic Bay Area group who have managed to stay fan favorites and consistently release high quality music since the early 90’s. Just in the past few months there have been a grip of videos from various members, Casual dropped a few projects, Tajai dropped an album of rarities last week, and on Sunday, Del The Funky Homosapien released West Coast Avengers, the first mixtape from a 3 tape series, for free. For all of the Hiero fans out there, if you haven’t already copped the project, you will be happy to know that Del sounds more motivated than he has in years. The mixtape contains no features, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a chorus on the whole thing. He literally just gasses for the entirety of every track. He also produced the whole project using strictly P-Funk samples. 

Download - Del The Funky Homosapien - West Coast Avengers 

Rafael Casal - Mean Ones

 

Rafael Casal isn’t the type of rapper that’s dropping a new album/mixtape/video/unmixed mp3 every other day. And when he does release something, upon first listen it immediately becomes clear why it’s taken so long: he puts a lot of time and effort into his craft. His subject matter is personal and meaningful, his bars and metaphors are creative, his flow is pretty close to impeccable, and his songs are actually songs. On Friday, the 2011 Bay Area Freshmen dropped, Mean Ones, which happens to be his last solo project since 2010’s, Monster. It features Daveed Diggs and Mariel, as well as production by Chukwudi Hodge, DJ PLAYUHH, Jay Fab, Wildman and Rafael Casal himself. The album is hella dope, and shows a lot of artistic growth and refinement from Rafael. Not to mention that it’s also free.

Download - Rafael Casal - Mean Ones 

Roach Gigz - Wasabi (Produced by C-Loz)

While fans in The Bay have been hyped on Roach Gigz for a few years now, it’s good to see that he’s finally breaking out of the Bay Area bubble. It started with interest from blogs like the Fader, then seemingly out of nowhere he was on MTV spending a lot of his interview time repping The Bay and Mac Dre, he just finished up headlining his own 10 stop Can I Rap west coast tour, and now the video for his latest single “Wasabi” is debuting on the front page of sites with major influence like XXL.com. “Wasabi” is the lead single to his debut album Bugged Out, and is a classic Roach party track. With his rapping and C-Loz’s sampling of the “Thizzle Dance”, it takes me back to the early 2000‘s and reminds me of how fun The Hyphy Movement could be at times. The video, which highlights a ton of San Francisco, was shot by Aris Jerome and features cameos from a bunch of Bay Area MC’s. 

Download - Roach Gigz - Wasabi

Mistah F.A.B. - London Freestyle

At the risk of coming off like a grumpy hip-hop purist, I’m going to say that I have a serious problem with the modern definition of freestyle. Just because a rapper isn’t reading his/her rhymes off a piece of paper or cellphone does NOT mean it’s a freestyle. Even if it was composed entirely in the MC’s head, it does NOT necessarily mean that it was a freestyle. The only way an MC is truly freestyling is if it is 100% unplanned improvisation. Luckily there are still rappers like Mistah F.A.B. who have kept this part of the art form alive and well. It’s also a great thing that he’s still freestyling at this point in his career, when most of his established peers have giving up the practice for a myriad of reasons. This video, taken by The Hip Hop Chronicle, is a good example of why Mistah F.A.B. is internationally known to be one of greatest freestylers there is. It takes him about half the video to fully get into his groove, but not only does he seamlessly incorporate everything around him into his rhymes, he flips a ridiculous number of rhyme patterns, spits about the Bay a lot, and even takes the time out to freestyle a specific message about the state of music at the beginning. Freestyles like these, and the ones he spits at practically every single show he does, are why he stays one of the most talked about MC’s to come out of The Bay.