2008 In Review: Old Music I Heard

List season continues, for better or for worse (no Pharcyde).

One of the better things that blogging has done for me is that it’s motivated me to go school myself on older music. I got into hip-hop, like REALLY into hip-hop, not a hell of a long time ago (shouts to my sister’s boyfriend, who used to slang bootleg rap CDs on the side and remains freestyle champion of Woodcrest Clairemont) and ever since, I’ve been playing catch up so I could stop fronting like I know everything and well, actually know everything. It’s an arduous journey, wrought with furious Megaupload waiting, intense message board skimming, gut-wrenching removal notices, and long hours in the blistering lukewarm of my bedroom. But what can I say? I’m a soldier.

Here’s some great, older-than-’08 hip-hop that I discovered for the first time this year that I think I’ll carry with me in 2009. It’s very South- and Bay-centric, which is a testament to how vibrant those regions are musically but is also an indication of unhealthy levels of CBrap worship. My apologies for flooding your playlist even more than it probably already is around this season, if you frequent any of the other umpteen blogs that are putting together year-end lists. Again, in no particular order, except by memory. Because trying to impose order on life is meaningless I’m lazy. Kris Kross’ll make you ……

We Not Keepin’ It Real …

... cuz we droppin' science fiction

What I like about Quannum is that while they come from the “rappers all suck now”, battle-rap school of rhyming that gave rise to the underground boom in the late ’90s, they always brought more than that to the table. They went beyond battling and showed you how to rap about anything from like vanquishing spider queens to giving an F.U. to telemarketers. Even though their battle raps were almost always the highlights on their albums, the dork-rap¹ experimentation brought some welcome relief to the mix, allowing them to avoid the pitfalls of straight hardcore, punch-you-in-the-face battle rap albums not produced by the god-on-the-beats known as The RZA (e.g. anything by Sean Price/Duck Down Records). On this latest release, Quannum emcees Gift of Gab (from Blackalicious) and Lateef the Truth Speaker (from Blackalicious’ jock) team up with Headnodic, bassist and producer for Crown City Rockers, to form The Mighty Underdogs. Together, they take this dork-rap element and run with it.