Sleepy D is having a Turfin N Jerkin Contest! Submit your video today!

But the other day via softmoney via perfectionisperfected I grabbed this Sleepy D’s song Blap. Young L fucking laced this shit, the beat slaps so fucking hard, I’m a fan and I think it really shows just how much more developed Turf/Based music is than it’s bastard baby brother, Jerk music, which still is dominated by a more playful innocence. The bay’s version spawned out of the crazyness of hyphy, but became more stripped down to barebones aggressive slappers.

It’s a style that I prefer, not just because I live in SF but I like that harder shit period. That and stylistically speaking bay area rappers have a more developed delivery style than their Jerk counterparts. The LA kids making this kind of music still haven’t found super unique styles and the ones with the most unique voices are stuck in LA’s post blowed scene running around in battle rap graveyards or fucking with glitchhop burner scenes.  Of course I’m making big generalizations but there is a division of where those who came up under blowed/cve scene and the kids who became jerk rappers.

You look at the younger rappers from the bay who came up under the more recent influence of work from people like 40, keak, turf, fab, ect you can hear the influences in their voices and their rapping benefited from it. But for kids in LA the ones with the most talented influences stayed on the underground tip or pursued battles be it scribble jam ciphers or grindtime circle jerks. Technically jerk kids are largely the most basic of rappers, that’s part of the appeal, young over the top sound, but I feel like it will take some time for that scene to develop as far as the rapping goes. I mean shit I don’t know how many times someone told me they hated jerk shit because those dudes can’t rap. Or that it was some bizarro world of rap where the women were better than the dudes. But I think a part of that is because of those divisions in scenes.

Not that the bay doesn’t have it’s own divisions or shitty rappers but these are my random thoughts based on observations of two very similar scenes/styles. I think jerk shit came directly from the bay area’s sound, I can’t say I’m a 100 percent  on it but the story/rumor is that jerking developed when bay area kids went down to LA for college and brought the sound with them. LA kids just jumped on it and turned it into their own. I don’t know how much of this is true but it makes sense to me considering how heavy the bay shit was with high school kids when groups like the pack, go dave and others came out, naturally some of that had to filter down south.

If you think I’m wrong as shit about this tell me, I’m curious as to what the real story behind jerk shit is compared to the bay.

While that was going on I was around the corner watching this

oh and I also saw this

Found these over at Trill Connection, I’m so stoked this footage still exists. As bad as the quality is it’s amazing to see this shit. When UGK came out I was 12?, by 94 I’d left Texas so I never got the chance to see these dudes back then, it’s awesome to see this footage. UGK and Rapalot tapes got traded all over Stephen F Austin middle school.

This is a small bit of the Bun B noisemakers interview that my wife filmed at SXSW.

and people think hiphop is degrading to women

I was suppose to post this up last week but lagged so fuck it, it goes up today. Today was the release for B.Dolan’s record, Fallen House Sunken City. The record is produced entirely by Alias, who to be honest I haven’t really listened to sinced to 2003 when he was making xfiles music. The opening track Leaving NY really exposes the many facets of what makes B.Dolen great. Cynical standoffish asshole lyrics laced with touches of symbolism from a man whose ages more than he should in the winter. Alias comes through with these beats, drums crashing all over the place for the more aggressive joints and more droned out beats for the sad old man raps. The album has a healthy dose of distortion and reverb in the lyrics which if you ask me is a way better fucking trend that tired ass autotune. If every rap song had loud ass megaphone vocals I would be a lot happier.

What I like about B.Dolan in general is definitely the cynicism but also there is never that overwhelming preachy underground hiphop bullshit that makes so many of these fucking shit ass rapping about rap records so goddamn boring. He’s got a fire in his belly that comes through in his raps and his poetry, it’s goddamn refreshing to hear coming from a scene that is drowning in a sea of mediocre adolescent beliefs.

If you like being a pessimist you’ll love this record.

The entire album is streaming on myspace

Free Downloads at http://www.strangefamousrecords.com/fallenhouse

I don’t check for Anticon stuff as much as I did a decade ago but I will always check anything that Jel and Dose do, they were always my favorite artists on the label. I don’t give a shit what you think about anticon, their fans whatever the fuck prejudices you have against these dudes. These days I feel out of place at their shows and I’m sure their fans don’t like me all that much when I’m yelling gucci gucci during speeches about how bad commercial rap is and telling a dude with a turntable on his shirt that he’s a fucking nerd. But regardless Themselves has always been on point as fuck and if you can’t recognize or even appreciate that you’re fucking retarded.

I never got around to posting about the Free Houdini mixtape when it dropped but lately I’ve been revisiting it a lot with Rappin 4 Money getting a majority of play. I was also reminded about it when I sawnoz’s 09 list mention it. It really is a great track that just brings some of that enegry of greenthink tapes but less dusty and more grown up which makes sense, it’s been over ten years since those days. There are still crunchy bits in there that make it fun and a return to the early days which is my favorite style for Themselves.

I don’t usually fuck with Aesop Rock all that much, but Float got a lot of play from me. That shit was beastmode but around bazooka tooth I wasn’t all that interested anymore. One thing though when dude teams up with Dose it’s great for awesome raps (DRAWBRIDGE MOTHERFUCKER!). Dose’s gritty moments of delivery and that beat brings it all together.

Their latest record, Crowns Down, needs to be peeped also. Jel’s rapping has gotten a lot better, from the goofy days of Treshachest or whatever the fuck his fake name was. They bring the scary raps on the opening track, yeah still a little goofy but it’s still dope, can never go wrong with static in your raps. Megaphones and microphones is always a win.  Anyways peep game because I still believe in what these dudes are creating regardless of whether or not the internet still thinks they are cool.

Didn’t realize David was gonna get that post up so soon but anyways you should listen to this track, I think it’s the best joint on the J-Stalin album. The beat slaps, I think that stutter during the chorus really makes the song. Doesn’t help to have Short on there doing what he does best (Fuck i wish I could hear the songs he did with Pimp C). FAB even has a nice verse, he’s been a little lackluster for me lately but I’m fucking with him on this.

http://www.divshare.com/download/10177252-c86

At the moment this bulldozing massacre of awesome is running my life. For some retarded reason I’d never gotten Coffin’s last album until recently but fuck I’ve had Altars in Gore on repeat almost all December. The bike ride to work is a lot faster these days. I just love the overwhelming grind of doom that just beats you down over and over. This shit is fucking relentless, not overly complicated just nonstop pain that never lets up and grinds away at your life, it’s so fucking brilliant.

I can’t wait to drop this on Wednesday night, I don’t care what anyone else thinks of this shit. I just want to hear it as loud as possible all the goddamn time. This shit is like a fucking bulldozer on your goddamn face and I love it.