Young Mass reveals another song from Dr. Dre’s ‘Detox’

Young Mass “Misery” (Detox reference track)
Mixtape: Young Mass – Uggly

Again, apologies for more than a week-long hiatus (though I haven’t been completely dormant).

However, for the wait, I bring what may be a much sought-after find. Here’s what looks to be another reference track for Dr. Dre’s Detox. You might remember last year when T.I., Killer Mike, and Ludacris all seemed to give up on Detox ever dropping and then leaked their own reference tracks they had submitted to Dr. Dre. Well, here’s another one to add to the collection. Maybe eventually, we can just collect all these reference tracks and build out our own rough version of Detox.

Young Mass is a rapper out of San Diego and former member of Digital Underground. “Misery” comes from Mass’s recently released Uggly mixtape, which upon first listen, is full of pretty solid lyrically lyrical rap with West Coast, Dre-inspired beats (the beats that are original anyway, as there is some beat-jacking going on). “Misery” definitely seems to fit right into Dre’s mold with its lush, clean orchestration contrasted by the dark, almost-militaristic drums. A good backdrop on which to instruct hating rappers to kneel like peasants.

LaDainian Tomlinson – LT Slide Electric Glide

For archival purposes. And yet, this is still only about half as hilarious as this very real commercial. #EndorsementFail

Mr. Brady (of Deep Rooted) – Leftovers vol. 2

Mixtape: Mr. Brady – Leftovers vol. 2
Highlights: “Consciousness” ft. Sha Dula & Asia, “Focused” ft. Hardware

I know it feels like this has become almost exclusively a San Diego rap blog but don’t worry. It just happens to be a great month for SD rap. Blame One released Leaks and Gemz last week, Mitchy Slick plans to drop The Yellow Tape at the end of the month, and today, producer-emcee Mr. Brady of Deep Rooted throws Leftovers vol. 2 out to the Internest.

Mr. Brady follows in the tradition of Jaylib-era J Dilla, creating lo-fi boom bap beats with retarded amounts of bass best enjoyed with your medical marijuana card. A lot of emcees join the fray (Blame One, Moka Only, Sene, Abstract Rude), but they mostly do their best not to get in the way. I wouldn’t say the music is real progressive, but it’s a helluva Dilla impression and some of these beats made me react in the same way I do when I hear Jaylib or certain tracks off of Ruff Draft. If only more producers abused bass, the world would be better. Tracklist (and alternate cover?) after the jump:

Best of 2009: San Diego Rap Albums

One more list. I will keep pretending that San Diego has a scene until the day that we have a scene. Also posted at Examiner, but who cares?

1. Blame One – Days Chasing Days
Let’s recap: Days Chasing Days was simultaneously Blame One’s return from retirement after his last album, his label debut to the greater rap world, and then eventually his swan song before going back into retirement (…… before coming back out of retirement just a few months later). As ambivalent as Blame is towards the actual business of music, the music itself is very focused. It’s grown man rap, whether he’s discussing metaphysics and hieroglyphics, reminiscing on his childhood, or just bitch-slapping young, wack, and/or disrespectful emcees. Production from post-Dilla torchbearers like Exile, Oh No, and Black Milk offer stable, boom-bap support for Blame to rip.
Listen: Blame One “Supreme Beings”

Blame One – Leaks and Gemz

Mixtape: Blame One – Leaks and Gemz

I am obligated by my city to post this up or else give up privileges to carne asada fries forever. Backpack raps for life, son. Initial thoughts:

Sounds solid on second listen.

“Dream Sequence Revenge” is the clear standout. I actually give Exile a slight edge on the mic, surprisingly. If for nothing else than for rapping about fat ho’s.

Sojourn kills on “The Cypher.”

“Mr. Science” and “Dr. Jeck” are also great. Maybe more of his song titles should start with Mr., Dr., Sir, Count, Sensei, etc.

The cover is Photoshopped from his Grown Man Rap days. I don’t know why that matters.

After the jump, tracklisting and links to two songs, in case you want to try a couple before committing to the full mixtape.

‘On a scale of one to ten, you a skeleton’ – Orko

Random songs from San Diego rap legend, Orko The Sycotik Alien/Orko Eloheim/Orko Eloheem, that I grabbed off of Youtube. Orko comes from the mid- to late-90′s generation of Project Blowedians, forming a group called Global Phlowtations with other Blowedians before going solo (he was also in an SD group called Masters of the Universe earlier). I’m glad that even after being a super-scientifical, “Fuck the mainstream” backpack rapper went out of style (or I guess you could say, it got co-opted, but that’s another argument), Orko still kept doing his thing and maybe even responded by getting even crazier and shouting his anti-establishment battle raps even harder. His intense shout-rap style probably had some influence on the newfound rapping intensity of another SD legend, Black Mikey*. For most of this decade, Orko’s been delving further and further into drum-n-bass experiments, which I don’t like because it drowns out his voice (on top of there being less rapping in the first place). But here are some of his more rappity-rap tracks, much of it from the 90s. Shouts to BeRLiNGSTAR. More after the jump.

*Actually, it looks like Orko’s having a really huge influence on Black Mikey these days. Rumor has it that Mikey’s doing a whole album produced by Orko’s BFF, Mr. Ridley of the Anti-Citizens.

Yo! SD Raps: new songs from Jayo Felony, Black Mikey, Ecay Uno, & more

Still scouring my city for rapps. Got some good ones from Jayo Felony, my new favorite local rapper, Black Mikey, and producer-rapper Ecay Uno. I threw it up at Examiner, for some reason that I don’t know. Check it out:

According to the world’s most accurate encyclopedia, Jayo Felony released his new album, Don’t Get MeatBalled, this year. Ummmm, or not. “Blocc Party” apparently comes from that and finds Jayo snapping in full tongue-twisting, lyrical form. I, for one, have never thought to tell a girl that all the inches I lack in height I make up for in d**k size. Jayo Felony brings hope to short people all over San Diego. The beat is a solid banger, sampling hydraulics in a way that’s not obnoxious, which I would’ve thought impossible.

Black Mikey – Blackula

Well, the Examiner gig is kind of a bust but it has encouraged me to really dig into my city for some good rap music. It’s like my responsibility considering how terribly rockist and terribly terrible the current local rap coverage is (to give you an idea of how bad the situation is, this chick won the award for “Best Hip Hop Artist in SD” this year).

Black Mikey is apparently an OG San Diego rapper, dating all the way back to 1993, according to one of his songs (though you know how rappers like to lie about how long they’ve been in the game). He’s been locked up for the last 8 years but got out this year and released Blackula. So far, it’s some pretty good gangster rap. I appreciate that he’s trying to convince us that he’s mad psychotic instead of just acting straight-up hard like other notable gangster rappers from my city, Jayo Felony and Mitchy Slick (or, y’know, Nick Cannon). His voice is perfect now at this age, sounding really gruff, full of wear and tear and damage. And the way he uses it is like a subdued shout, or like his voice is worn from so much shouting and yet he still keeps shouting. There’s urgency in his delivery like he’s been trying to spit his way to freedom for the past 8 years.

The above video is from earlier this decade (maybe filmed inside the prison even) before he loses his voice and starts sounding tight. But if you go to his Reverb Nation page, you can get a better sample of his current stuff including much of Blackula.