MaLLy debuted a new track entitled “Future’s Classic” today featuring Tigre of 925ve. This cut was also featured on Okayplayer and Prefix Mag so big ups to MaLLy for getting some shine that is well deserved. If you live in Minnesota be sure to catch MaLLy alongside Big Quarters , Kill The Vultures and Atmosphere on the Welcome To Minnesota Tour.
“Future’s Classic”
-Eamon
In the past week (and some change) Stalley dropped 4 songs in preparation for his mixtape “Savage Journey To The American Dream” so I thought I’d compile them into one post. Once upon a time I was sleeping on the Sunni Muslim, Massillon, Ohio raised, self proclaimed “Larry Bird of Rap.” I did this even though he killed it on one of my favorite songs and was endorsed by the artist formerly known as Mos Def and Ski Beatz early on.
It even took me a second to listen to his last album Lincoln Way Nights but once I did it became one of my favorite projects of the year. So take a second and peep the “intelligent trunk music” of the former Michigan Wolverine hooper and newest draft pick to the Rozay empire.
“City of 30,000 Wolves feat. DJ Khaled” (prod. DJ Toomp)
You might’ve heard this beat here (Don’t know if anyone can touch Royce’s version) or here.
“Gentlemen’s Quarterly”
“Cash And My Cutty”
“Harsh Ave.”
-Eamon
“The visuals span dreamlike states, bicycle near-accidents, and a mother’s disapproval of her daughter’s threads (argued in Amharic).” -OkayAfrica
Cop the album, Black Up.
-Jake
A few months ago, I posted Minneapolis producer/rapper Mike The Martyr’s (Big Wiz, AG, Sadat X) beat tape Lake Street Bar, for our listening (or your rapping) pleasure, Mr. Martyr just released the second installment of the beat tape series, released via Check The Blog. Hopefully somebody (dope) gets to spittin on these and in a few days I’ll have another song to post, enjoy.
-Eamon
If you’ve been following the TC scene lately, I hope you’ve heard one of the best young talents in the cities, Bobby Richardson/Raps aka Sir Robert Raps. I recently got to chill with Bobby in his basement/lab, hear some bangers and chop it up with the young lad about life and music, enjoy.
-Eamon
-What’s your name, age and where are you from?
“My name is Bobby Richardson, I’m 19 years old from St. Paul Minnesota.”
-When did you start rapping and when did you start getting “serious” about it?
“I started rapping around 13-14 garage band on the g5 macbook setup fucking around with the homie, I think that’s how a lot of people got their start. We did a lot of southern influenced rap at first.
At first I went to Cretin Derham Hall, my dad went there so I went there but I really didn’t want to go there. I was new to school and barely knew anybody and I volunteered to write the class cheer for the pep fest, I spent a week teaching the whole class how to do the class chant. I wyled the fuck out in front of the whole school, everybody loved it, everbody knew me as the pep fest rapper kid. I looked at that as an opportunity, started making more songs and started trying to get more serious.
My friend Justin Wulf told me if I wanted to learn I should check out the Hope Community Center classes with Big Quarters, I had just seen them with Heiruspecs and thought they were dope as shit. I commuted on the bus to Minneapolis two days a week and that’s where I met Taylor and Julian [of Audio Perm], I learned a lot there, it took me a while to learn and a lot of practice to know how to make a dope beat and a dope song.”
- Talk about your latest project “Gimme Daps,” what’s the story behind it, is it your first project?
“It’s not really my first , I’d like to think of it as my first , I did drop an Ep two years ago, printed 75 copies and passed them around. I went through a phase where I wouldn’t make any songs until I made that song Riff Raff, after that song I decided that I should do a whole project, there wasn’t a theme in mind I just started making songs.
My sister’s friends Alana and Leah used to always say “bobby raps gimme daps!” I thought it was dope so I decided to use it as my title for the project, I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback and the dope part is it isn’t even me going 100, its just me making songs.
At this point I’m about to start traveling and doing some shows in other cities and states places and I’m thinking im going to print some hard copies and try to move them to more people in other cities and states.”
- Being from St. Paul, how did you link up with Audio Perm and their other frequent collaborators? How do you feel about the St. Paul/ Minneapolis connection?
“I met Audio Perm at the Hope community center, I was an annoying kid who would bug them all the time and they weren’t really messing with me at first. Eventually we just chilled so much we started making music together. The name Audio Perm came about from Yakub, he made a beat called Audio Perm and Taylor wanted to use the name.
As far as the St. Paul Minneapolis connection goes, there’s a whole lot of hostility towards me because I’ m from St. Paul. Minneapolis people sometimes tend to have an arrogance like “that’s cool but it’s not as cool as Minneapolis,” it’s close-minded to me. For how diverse and unified Minneapolis is, I feel a lot of close mindedness. I can’t speak for everyone but theres a whole lot of wack shit in both St Paul and Minneapolis.
I do my songs onstage with all these Minneapolis kids and the crowd doesn’t even know I’m from St. Paul, and that’s how it should be. A lot of people from Minneapolis just don’t know anything about St Paul, it’s a weird ass city, but theres no need to belittle it, you should embrace it as your neighbor, theres a lot of dope shit over here.”
“Lady Luck” feat. Big Dylan & Freez (prod. Javier Santiago)
-Some of the first songs I heard you on were in the Permed Out Wednesdays series, can you speak on your role in the series?
“Permed out Wednesdays wasn’t really shit at the time, we were just chilling at Dylan’s house and decided to record a song and put it out this week and keep putting one out every week. We would pick an Audio Perm beat and record our verses, a lot of it was just fucking around smoking, getting food and stuff.
I kind of fell off from the permed out Wednesdays because I was way younger than everyone I couldn’t be staying out on school nights recording songs until 1 in the morning or later. I give full credit to Dylan, it was Dylan’s idea and I’d love to start it up again. It turned into a show [Permed Out Wednesdays at the Triple Rock & Italiani's] but we’re running out of songs, we need some new shit.”
“Mantequilla” (Meta, Big Dylan, Bobby Raps, Yakub, prod. Julian Fairbanks)
- You won “Next Up” at last year’s TC Hip Hop Awards, has that opened any doors for you or given you any new opportunities?
“At the time it helped to get my name out to the vets, the veterans in the city. Aside from that it’s not really shit it’s a trophy, I have it on my mantle. It was humbling but at the same time it gave me a lot of confidence, I didn’t even go to the show my homie just called me and told me you won that shit. Not many opportunities have come from it but it’s just given me a lot of confidence and idea of where I’m at.”
- I think a lot of people know you as a rapper, but don’t know you also make beats as well, recently winning a Istandard, a local beat battle. Speak on your production, what’s your set up, when did you start producing and whom have you worked with?
“Started producing around the same time as I was rapping. I’ve always worked with Mac computers, I had been hanging out with Medium Zach at Hope Community a lot, and was also really influenced by people like Kanye and Timbaland. They were always using Mpc’s and ASR-10′s, I saw an ad for the EPS 16+, which is basically an ASR-10 but a few years older, I got that for 100 dollars.
When I got that I learned how to chop samples by ear instead of on a screen and that upped my game both in sampling and live instrumentation. Right now my producing game is much more on point than my rapping pretty much because I make a beat everyday but make a song about every 3 or 4 weeks. If you can produce your own beat, rap your own lyrics, master your own song, theres no middle man, it’s all you, the benefits are so much more vast than taking beats off the internet.
I’m really excited for producing, I was in Red Bull Big Tune and I got rocked, but that experience allowed me to meet and network with a lot of dope producers like Nicademus, G Mo and Big Cats!, and then at the Istandard this year it was the same dudes, and I won. If you’re a producer and a rapper it makes you that much more versatile because the whole production of the song starts to mean more to you. It helps get your ear better for music, J Dilla was a great rapper, but he’s the best producer of all time. I started singing before all this shit, I knew about pitch and inflection and cadence and that all reflects on the production of my music.
So far in the city I’ve made beats for Toki Wright, I.B.E and Yakub. I’ve given out so many beats and people say their gonna rap on them but their not made yet so I don’t want to give away any names.”
I.B.E feat. MaLLy & K.Raydio “The Pad” (prod. Bobby Raps)
- How would you describe your music? Who are your main influences both as an emcee and beatmaker?
“Just some hip hop, lyrical flow, dudes be flowing but don’t really say shit, I say shit when I flow, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. It’s new school hip hop that reflect a lot of old school hip hop, Mobb Deep, Big L, T.I was the first cd I ever got. I’m inspired today a lot by the whole Black Hippy camp, Freddie Gibbs. At first I was very very influenced by Big Quarters.
Production wise I’m really influenced by Dilla, Just Blaze, Kanye all the same as everyone man, Swiff D is the man. I always forget whose in my top 5 because it comes to me at the moment. I really fuck with 50 cent, Black Star, I really love Hi-Tek beats. Overall I’m just influenced by dope music.”
“Throwback Flow” (prod. Bobby Raps)
- I saw you do a little piano and R & B set during the Permed Out Showcase intermission, and you do a bit of singing on Gimme Daps. Would you ever make just an singing project or do you want to keep it as an accompaniment to your flows?
“I definitely do want to make a project like that I’m really influenced by a lot of r & b and folk and rock, I went through a middle school phase of Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, shit like that. I definitely have some shit in the works right now, I have a project coming with Lydia Haulgend who was on Gimme Daps. It’ll be mainly singing but Hip Hop oriented.”
“Won’t Even Know” feat. Lydia Haulgend
- In December you and the A Perm crew rocked two sold out shows, one at Mictlan’s Doomtree blowout night and the Showcase at Honey. How does it feel to rock a sold out crowd and start getting some recognition for your music?
-”It’s like what more could you ask for, people I don’t know coming up to me saying I got it. I question myself sometimes if I got it, if I really should do this and when people come up and tell you that you got it its like fuck yeah. There’s no better feeling than walking off stage and having somebody tell you fucking killed it man and their not lying cause you can see them sweating from jumping around in the crowd.”
“Gettin Throwed” (prod. Bobby Raps)
- The Twin Cities Hip Hop scene is popping off right now and it’s really easy for people to get overlooked, who do you think are the most slept on emcees/producers in the cities?
“Meta is the illest rapper in this state I’ll say that confidently, a lot of people know that but I don’t think he has exposure like that. Freez, Greg Grease, Mike The Martyr, Meta and I are my top 5 in the city and I want us to do a project together. As far as producers, G Mo and PC, I would say Rahki but he’s getting it right now, I think I already know everybody but maybe Nicademus also.”
- What’s next for Bobby Raps? Raps, Beats, Features, Projects, Shows?
“All of the above, I’m going on a little 2-3 state tour with Tribe And Big Cats! In April. I can’t pinpoint a project I’m just always working on music so that will eventually turn into something.”
Sunday afternoons are made for sunshine and trumpets but sometimes in Minnesota, you get neither of those. Today, we atleast had the sunshine so I decided to replace trumpets with D’Angelo and found it to be a compensating replacement. There are two types of people, (1) those who love D’Angelo and wish he would have asked them to prom and (2) those who are wondering why his name is all of a sudden popping up all over the internet. Below, I will use this week’s Soul Food Sunday to try and bridge the gap a bit and explain to you why you should know who D’Angelo is.
Debut album, Brown Sugar, dropped in 1995. “Lady”, the hit single on the record, topped out at #10 on the billboard charts. This platinum record was a big part of the neo-soul movement of the 90′s, which included artists like Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, etc.
Lady
After Brown Sugar, D’ took some time off and chose to only record in collaboartive efforts on other people’s albums. Check this duet between Lauryn and D’Angelo, called “Nothing Matters” off the album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Raphael Saadiq – Be Here (feat. D’Angelo)
Lead single off of the long awaited sophomore album, Voodoo (released in 2000), featuring Method Man and Redman.
Following the release of Voodoo in 2000, D’Angelo embarked on “The Voodoo Tour.” with a group called The Soultronics (presumed to have been assembled by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots). Their shows would feature area-sized stages filled with various dancers and instrument players, making it was one of the most attended shows of the year.
Since 2001, D’Angelo has seemingly fallen off the face of the earth. Besides a few various collaborations on select tracks, he has put out no projects. His next album, thought to be called “James River”, was pushed back again and again, including multiple setbacks (unsolicited leaks, brief stint of incarceration).
Finally, in 2012, D’Angelo has almost finished the album and has started a 12-date tour called “The D-Tour”. Here he is on one of the first shows of that tour, performing live in Stockholm (please excuse the poor sound quality):
Hopefully you enjoyed that mini history lesson on D’Angelo. Keep your eyes out for the album and have a blessed Sunday. peace
-Jake
Check out the newest video “NigHtmare on Figg St.” (prod. ASAP Ty) from Black Hippy member ScHoolboy Q off his freshly released album “Habits and Contradictions.” Then if you stay in the Twin Cities be sure to go to the Varsity Theater Feb 18th to check out Audio Perm and Tribe and Big Cats! opening for ScHoolboy.
-Eamon
This track popped up across my twitter feed this AM, a cut featuring the white bearded prophet from the North App, Brother Ali. The track that he is hopping on belongs to Quadir Lateef and also features Amir Sulaiman. Usually when a bigger artist hops on a song with a more unknown, you would call that a “co-sign”, and it has helped launch many slept-on careers. In this case, it definitely did that for me. After listening to the featuring, I visited Lateef’s website (listed on his facebook page) where I found some of his other tracks. I found his militant style to be comparable to that of I Self Devine, one of Minneapolis’ finest. Check the video below to see what I am talking about and enjoy the track below.
-Jake
Where did the Get Cryphy team go? I heard they dropped a new mix in honor of their four year anniversary show but I’ve looked all over Minneapolis and can’t find them anywhere. Oh wait now I remember, they’re kickin’ it at RED ROCKS, performing with Atmosphere, Grieves, Budo, and MaLLy. Well cot dayum, looks like Minneapolis is spreadin’ its love all over this damn country! That is exciting for them and even more exciting for us. With all that excitement, start shakin’ yo’ ass to this mix because its crunk as a mutha luva. Check the track list here.
Oh ya, one last thing –> “This should be played at high volumes, preferably in residential areas.”
-Jake
One of the cooler things about operating a music blog is that you get submissions (at bescenempls@gmail.com) from “up and coming” groups and artists and sometimes their really dope.
Case in point, J. Nolan, a 22 year old Atlanta emcee originally from New Haven, Connecticut and Reese Jones, an 18 year old producer from Virginia Beach. The duo have come together for “The Archetype EP,” 5 songs of crispy heartfelt boom bap that’s definitely worth peeping, my favorite track so far is “Excel.”
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