On the Mic: Luke Sick, Controlled By Gamma Light

Aw yeah, it's about that time of year again, and Luke Sick is back with a new solo album on Megakut Records.  It's called Tacked Out In the Gamma Light, and produced entirely by the homey QM.  I have to confess, even after listening closely to the album, which uses the phrase in the opening track, I'm not exactly sure what he means by the gamma light.  Stage lights maybe?  Or he does have a line that goes, "convulse, turn into the Hulk."  I mean, I feel like it's an Ultramagnetic MCs reference.  "Technic twelve hundreds are combined to rotate swiftly left to right.  On the mix: Red Alert, controlled by gamma light" is famously from "Bait."  But I'm not sure what Kool Keith meant by it either.  Maybe nobody really does, and maybe that's all part of the charm.

Outside of a few mysterious phrases like this, Tacked Out is an otherwise utterly uncomplicated album.  Ten short vocal tracks and a final instrumental, all solo songs except for one quick guest verse by QM, which immediately recalls the energy of their past On Tilt tapes.  Otherwise, Luke's basically just going off on loose topics of MCing, smoking and kicking it with the crew to create attitude and atmosphere: "arrived at the spot with a crispy-ass twenty, '89 mentality, got 'em pinchin' like a penny.  But hand me the overweight fluffy for a good custy, Buddhahead Buckethead with the bud leaf.  Before I spark it, 'cause the market's hella dangerous, gotta smell check and make sure it ain't angel dust. Suckaz can't hang wit us, lames is just ridin' on the tails of the coat, 'bout to get kicked in the throat."  Hell, the song titles alone tell you all you'll need to know: "The Beer Is Cold," "Blunts Upon a Time," "The Mess Is Yours (The Rest Is Ours)."

And the production shares the same mentality: simple yet deceptively effective, short loops over tight beats using samples you won't recognize.  Two tracks feature live bass played by someone named Joe Nobriga, which does give them a little more of an organic feel when you really pay attention, but you wouldn't know it was live instrumentation if it wasn't in the liner notes.  If it wasn't clear, that's a compliment.  It's all tightly calculated to keep you nodding along to Luke's words, although there are a couple extra-catchy tracks at the end of the album that'll steal your attention.  "Bust Y'all" has some extra heavy bass and a fun mash-up of Big Daddy Kane and Joeski Love quotes for the hook.  "Troopin' Thru the Venue" features a wild, religious-sounding vocal sample looped through the whole song.  And "All the Hustlers" is an especially smooth way to close out the show.

Tacked Out is available on cassette only, limited to 100 copies, and comes as a cool looking orange tape with a full-color fold-out J-card.  It's already sold out on Megakut's bandcamp page, but as of this writing, there are still a few available on QM's.

Now if you're reading this thinking, gee, just one album?  Hasn't Luke come out with like, four or five albums every other time you've posted about him in the last couple years?  Oh yeah.  Since we last checked in, he's also released a new album with Bad Shane (their second after Rogue Titan) called Woofer Crust on cassette, limited to 100 copies, as well as a new vinyl EP (limited to 250 copies) called P.O.A., due out later this month.  There's also an all new, second LP with Wolfagram called Garshas available from Iron Lung, 350 on traditional black and 150 on lime green vinyl.  And there's a new CCCRRCCSSLLRRKKRRSSS album, which is a largely instrumental project Luke is part of, but does also feature some vocals by him, on limited edition CD (apparently only 25 copies), plus a shorter EP version on cassette, limited to just 20 copies.  So don't worry; he's not showing any signs of slowing down.  I do wish some of these limited editions weren't quite so limited, though.

Rogue Player Remixed

So we're just two weeks into the new year - or more importantly, three months since my my last post about Luke Sick - and dude's already released two more brand new albums?  And a vinyl single?  We've already wasted too much time - let's get into it!

We can start out with Rival Dealer by Creep Player, a.k.a. Luke and producer AC, with DJ Raw B on the cuts for one track near the end.  This is the first album by this particular pairing, but not their first project together.  AC is also known as AC415n, or even better known as Alex 75 of San Francisco Street Music, a major underground crew that've been releasing dope tapes since the 90s.  You might remember he released a vinyl single with Luke in 2000 called, wait for it... "Street Player" (I wrote about it here).  Actually, it was the "Indian Summer Remix" (Indian Summer being the title of AC's 2017 solo instrumental album), as the original version was from Luke & Raw B's album, Born Illness (I vlogged about that one here).  I described the difference between AC's remix and Raw B's original, how it, "slows and calms it down, giving it that kind of vibe for when you're splayed out on the couch and don't wanna get up."  And after the brief, higher energy intro, that's pretty much the vibe of the whole Creep Player album.

By the way, no version of "Creep Player" appears on Creep Player, this is 100% all brand new material ("chapter two in the saga of the creep player" as they declare on one of the tracks).  But it's an old vibe, that very much reaches back to sounds of G-funk, with deep piano notes, filtered handclaps, slow electro sounds and hard beats.  I mean, there's a song on here called "Pager Blowin Up."  How much you dig this album depends entirely on how interested you are in being transported to the late night left coast mid-90s.  It might've seemed a little backpacker-ish to put a lot of turntables on your gangsta tapes in those days, which is why I guess they don't utilize Raw B too much on here, but his slick handiwork of a choice vocal sample from The Click's "Out My Body" on "Strikin On the Freeway" only had me aching for more.  He definitely enhances the music without detracting from the spirit.

Next up is Rogue Titan, an album by Luke and producer Bad Shane.  I initially thought I wasn't familiar with Bad Shane except for seeing that he released another album just a couple weeks before this one with DJ Eons One called 41st and El Camino.  Eons One and another DJ named Ando do the cuts here.  But it turns out "Bad Shane" is an alias for Kegs One, the Bay area producer who's been making a ton of music with all those Highground artists like Megabusive and Spex.  He had a bunch of his own tapes, too, and he used to do those mixes with P-Minus.  I don't know if he ever actually produced a track with Luke before, like maybe on one of those FTA albums or something; but they've been in the same circles for a long time, so this pairing makes a lot of sense.

The album starts out with an intro cutting up Saafir's "Watch How Daddy Ball" over some super slow horns.  Unfortunately they don't credit which DJ is one which songs.  This album doesn't reach back to those old G-funk elements again, but it's definitely another mood piece.  Dark, slow, menacing.  "Yeah, peace to the hardrocks, death to the never-doers. A broken smoker and my folks were the bad influence. We don't have to like you. Me and my crew is mutants. Them greedy cops just jealous 'cause our spots was boomin'. We're youngsters, like to stay high and act inhuman."  Several of these tracks are instrumentals, but it's never too long before Luke comes back to the mic to lead us further down his black alleyway.  Songs like "Park With a Payphone" read like a confessional street crime novel, and even the straight flexing song "The Mic Menace From Mayfield" keeps landing on lines like, "die paying bills, fuck it."

Finally, the vinyl single is something you don't see often: a flex-disc.  It's by On Tilt, the pairing of Luke and QM that I've covered here quite often, "Beers With My Friends (Remix)."  "Beers With My Friends," if you don't recall, was on their last tape, The Fifth Album.  On my first listen, I was thinking gee, this doesn't sound all that different from the album version at all.  In fact, it's exactly the same beat by producer Banknotes.  But when I reached the end of the song, I caught on.  The original was a three-verse drinking song featuring TopR closing out the show.  On this version, he's replaced by QM's fellow Rec-League veteran Richie Cunning.  So two thirds of the song are exactly the same, but it's got a new finale.  Not that there was anything wrong with TopR's bars; they were full of the playful kind of punchlines perfectly suited for a mini-posse cut.  But Richie's verse is really smooth and syllabically dexterous, definitely a fun alternative to the original.  Plus it's the only way to own any version of this song on vinyl.

As of this writing, the Creep Player cassette and "Beers With My Friends" 7" flexi are both still available from Megakut.  "Beers" is just $3(!), so you should definitely jump on that while you still can.  The Rogue Titan cassette sold out on Megakut in a nanosecond, because they only got 15 copies in the first place.  It's primarily being sold through Throwdown Records, which up to now has just been a store (in Bellmont, CA) that sells old rap tapes and stuff.  But Kegs One actually owns it, so I guess that makes Throwdown the official label/ distributor now, too.  Maybe it's be the start of a whole, dope venture.

Brougham and Yole Boys Are Back

So, would you believe I'm not even through my Legacy of the Hoop Week thing, it's only been a month since my annual recap of all the Luke Sick projects he's released since my last video, and... dude's already released two more full-length albums?!  Well, alright, let's hit it.

First is a follow-up album I never would've imagined coming in a hundred years.  Brougham was a seemingly short-lived collaboration between Luke and 3rd Eye Blind (a 90s rock band even I've heard of)'s Jason Slater.  They started with a song for the Can't Hardly Wait soundtrack in 1998, which was sort of the peak of that Limp Bizkit/ Bloodhound Gang rap/ rock hybrid period, and Elektra wound up signing them for a full album with a couple of singles.  At the time, I remember thinking they were just another one of those MTV tween-bait groups that happened to get super lucky in tapping the credibility and talents of Sacred Hoop's own, and even up until this year, their album is one of the Luke projects I've been least likely to revisit.  But having just gone back to it now to discuss the new album, I have to say it holds up surprisingly well.  They had a music video full of guitars, motor cycles and porn stars, but unsurprisingly they didn't crossover to mainstream popstar success, and Elektra ended the experiment in 2000.

And in 2020, Jason sadly passed away from liver failure.

But apparently, as Luke told HipOnline in a 2008 interview, he and Jason grew up together and were lifelong friends.  So now Megakut Records has released a second Brougham album, Bateh Bros.  If you're worried you've failed to keep up with California slang because you don't even know what a bateh brother is, don't beat yourself up.  Bateh Bros. was a family-owned Cupertino liquor store that closed in 2020; that's not a cute 'shopped photo on their cover.  I believe we're paying tribute to two losses here, and more so the representative passing of their era on a larger scale.  As Slater said in that same interview, even their first album was "pretty literal.  It’s about how no one ever looks at the underside of Palo Alto.  Either you’re rich or you’re broke.”  You'll hear "the PA" on this tape a gazillion times, and they're not talking about Pennsylvania.

Bateh Bros. is a full length album at ten tracks, though one is essentially a skit, albeit a powerfully ironic one: a snippet of an interview with Slater lamenting the notion of people issuing his unreleased music after he dies.  And it really isn't a "rap rock" album.  Only one song, "Hemet," sounds like that, with electric guitars grinding behind Luke and Jay (I'm assuming that's him doing the hook) spitting about how they've "got a bad girl to keep me right."  Honestly, a lot of their 2000 album really didn't fall into that style either, though their "Murked Out" single certainly sold that image.  "Doin' It With the Ham" (as in Brough-Ham) is a play on the classic Eric B & Rakim record, using essentially the same instrumental, even cutting up one of its most famous lines for the hook.  "Unfadeable" even features a fun throwback to "Rappin' Blow"-style background voices.  "Motel Room" rocks a slow, dark reggae groove until it flips it up mid-song with a Too $hort vocal sample and slides into the infamous "A Thing Named Kim" bassline as he declares he's "all alone, holdin' a grenade with the pin pulled out... plottin' on yo' bitch ass!"  "Everybody Keed" closes things out with the kind of subversively mellow production that would occasionally pop on classic Sacred Hoop albums.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, The Yole Boys are back!  The Yole Boys, if you'll recall, are a more loosely defined group.  Luke, producer Fatees "and friends" might be the best way to put it.  Their first instrumental tape was the debut release of Megakut Records, but their 2011 album was the prize.  That's also been their last release until now, eleven years later, as they've returned with a new full-length entitled Saran Twister Bump Tape.

This time, they helpfully list out the personnel on the back cover: Luke Sick, Brandon B, Eddie K, QM, Wayne & Wonda (are they putting us on with a Muppet Show reference?), D-Styles & DJ Hypnotize.  And of course "Slaps by Fatees."  And it feels somewhat like a hybrid between the two previous Yole releases.  It's definitely got that old school Miami-style programmed drums and handclaps feel to the production, and a lot of it is instrumental, although there are definitely vocal tracks as well.  "7 Bellos" is a play on As Nasty As They Wanna Be's "My 7  Bizzos."  "Supernova Bassdrop" is like an 80's club DJ remake of "Jam On It" with nothing but adlibs and scratches over the track, until finally two and a half minutes in, Brandon B jumps on the mic for a verse.  There's a sparse feel to the album, almost feeling unfinished.  "Cru Jones" is a catchy Luke Sick track that just suddenly ends on a broken loop.  "Owe Mega" starts out as a hype vocal track for the first minute, but then just winds up letting the beat ride for the next two and a half.

So yeah, the album could probably stand to be trimmed.  It often lets loops cycle on their own for pretty long, which can be a bit of a patience and endurance test to get all the way through.  I find it hard not to just skip through to the highlights.  But that was the style of the music they're paying homage to, too.  I can remember copping my first Boyz Wit da Bass tape, or any of the Dynamix II albums, and thinking: it just goes on like this?  You know, sometimes Magic Mike and the Royal Posse were going nuts cutting, scratching and passing the mic down the line, and sometimes they were taking a break and letting the speaker shaking bass rumbling speak for itself.  For better or worse, this album captures that, too.

But it's sixteen tracks long, with no skits or interludes, so if you feel at all short-shrifted by any of the more barren tracks, like "Nettie Pot" or "Beat On the Drum," don't worry, there's still plenty more music around every corner, with big samples and your favorite Gurp City MCs.  There's even some 80's freestyle singing on "Maybe In My Dreams" and funky vocoder effects on "The Reep."  Casual listeners might prefer a cut-down EP to this hour-long LP, but hey, kids today know how to program a playlist.

Because, yeah, despite having Tape in the title, Saran Twister Bump is on CD.  Bateh Bros. is limited to 100 red cassettes and as of this writing is still available from Megakut's bandcamp.  The Yole Boys is more elusive so far, but will probably pop up for sale online soon.

The Living Legacy of Sacred Hoop

(Updating you guys on this saga has become a sort of tradition here at Werner's. But there's something extra special at the end of this year's video. Youtube version is here.)

On Tilt, The 5th Album

Besides the insane amount of other projects Luke Sick manages to keep releasing all the time*, On Tilt - his partnership with QM of The Rec League - has managed to put out an album a year for the past five years.  And here it is for 2021, the fifth album, fittingly titled The 5th Album, which is also a reference to a fifth of alcohol, because of course it is.  But if that sounds dismissive or nonchalant in any way, then you guys haven't figured out how impressed I am with these guys' talents yet.

The 5th Album sets itself apart right away.  Entirely produced by San Francisco MC/ producer Bank Notes, a.k.a. Wordsmiff, this entire album has a single, distinct tone.  No upbeat song followed by a posse cut, followed by a moody and depressing track... this is all going for a smooth, laid back west coast chill vibe.  Like classic 2nd II None, but a little more mellow.  They even attempt singing on the hook of "The Remedy," but they make it work with their fierce dedication to the ambiance.  That can be a bit of a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, if that's what you're after, this is the perfect tape to put you in that mood and keep you there.  On the other hand, if you're looking for more bounce or something aggressive, it can put you right off.  In other words, unlike the previous albums, you have to be ready to meet it half way.  But if it happens to be up your alley, or it just catches you at the right time of day, it could be your favorite yet.

I'm a bit split on whether it's my favorite yet... but maybe.  I'm absolutely enjoying it and fully appreciate what they're going for, with each listen better than the last.  It's the most consistent, and yeah it's low-key, but it's not exactly chopped and screwed music, which I admit I don't really have the patience for.  "Drank Season" is the ideal opener to signal where we're headed, "drunk ass youngins in the bars with an open nose, keep bumpin' broke blow thinkin' that they're Romeos.  Every night drankin', flossin' in a Beamer.  Suckers to the side, I'm comin' through with the motherfuckin' Seagrams, and player QM rollin' with a cold 12.  Ain't nobody drankin' if the fade ain't flowin' well.  Sellin' solo K cups, two for five, but snobs actin' like they're way too good for the Coors Light.  If you don't like it, you can hit the sto' and come back; and while you're there get the Rossi and the blunt wraps.  People gettin' pushed in the pool with their clothes on.  Pour a shot and kill it, now you're really in the drank zone.  We see the sun and we get drunk, no other reason.  It's summertime, but On Tilt call it drank season.  In one hand, the other hand holdin' dank (true!).  It ain't a thing, I ain't goin' in to work today.  I see the sun, and we get drunk, no other reason.  It's summertime, but On Tilt call it drank season."  Luke and QM have the perfect personalities to capture this elusive attitude, and the album's chock full of cool out, creative samples to match.

"Beer With My Friends" is super funky but still slow and easy, featuring the album's only guest MC, Gurp City regular TOPR, who's a little gruffer, which acts as the song's perfect seasoning.  "Just Think" is a slick corruption of The Roots' "Proceed."  The 5th's sole weakness is that the low energy can get a little sleepy by the time you're halfway through, even when songs like "Life On Tilt" or "Relax" would still be a highlight on any other tape.  Fortunately, DJ Traps drops by for a really tight (though still fitting with the overall mood) DJ cut to shake you up in the final third.  And it ends with a really strong closer, "We All Gotta Go," featuring one of QM's best verses and a choice Nas/ AZ vocal sample.

This is another limited edition, joint venture pro-dubbed cassette between Megakut and I had An Accident Records, but it's a bit challenging to figure out just how limited.  Megakut lists it as limited to 60, I had An Accident lists 90, and QM's personal bandcamp presents a second pressing of 30.  Does that mean there were originally 60, then a second run of 30, for a total of 90?  Or Megakut was allotted 60 and IHaA got 90 for a total of 150, followed by 30 more, bringing us to 180?  Is there a fourth listing somewhere else I haven't found with another number?  Who knows, but however you cut it, these are very small numbers.  So if you're interested, you'd better act fast.  As of this writing, all three listings were down to their last 2-4 copies.  So don't fuck around.  If you miss this one, you'll wind up regretting it.


*Recent months have also yielded the latest Grand Invincible LP and a collaborative instrumental double album, Snake Mountain Crew, with two accompanying vinyl singles.

The Many Returns Of the Liquor Store Laureate

(Wow. It was only like a year ago when I made a video about the insane amount of projects Luke Sick had released.  Multiple albums collaborating with multiple producers... Well, here he goes again!  Youtube version is here.  Also, apologizes for repeatedly calling Wolfagram "Wolf Pack.")

Please Do Not Disturb Werner... He Already Is!

Last year, I made a video trying to cover all of the recent Luke Sick albums... there's been a bunch since; I haven't even been able to get my hands on all of them, and I'm pretty damned dogged.  You see, they press so few copies (in this case: 50), they sometimes sell out now in a matter hours, and before you even learn they exist, you've missed out on them for good.  It's like a maddening attempt to shake us loose, a high speed chase where they cut across traffic and race down blind alleys to leave their fans in the dust.

But I am dogged. You may remember a brief moment in that video where I mentioned a rare, limited cassette of a fourth Disturbers album called Infidel Producer.  I flashed a small photo of the cover I grabbed online and figured I'd have to leave it at that.  But I never actually let go of the bumper, and well, I finally found a copy.  Turns out there's a vinyl single, too.

Here's the story.  This isn't a new Disturbers album, except in the sense that it wasn't released until last year.  But according to the liner notes, it was recorded in the "early 2000s."  And this time the line-up's a little different.  It's still Luke Sick as the front-man of course.  But this time Curator only produced one song out of the twenty-one tracks included here.  This time the music man is Son Tiff, who produced a lot of Hoop Legg.  He also produced a little of Negusa Negast and Go Hogwild under the name Tiff Cox.

So I think the first question that pops up with any Disturbers album is what it's like?  Is it more rock than Hip-Hop?  Is it a junk drawer collection of demo scraps?  Well, my first impression is that this has a more polished feel than previous Disturbers projects.  Maybe credit for that should go to master Bay producer Deeskee, who freshly mastered all this music.  Nineteen is a lot of songs for a single album, and as you can guess, you've got some short ones and strictly instrumental stuff mixed in, though no skits.  Tiff plays a lot of guitar and stuff on here, but it does have a smoother than previous Disturbers albums.  And yeah, as a strict head, this is satisfyingly Hip-Hop, with lots of tight breaks, some classic samples and Luke is killing it on the mic.

But there is still a raw, first draft quality to the album.  "Money To Burn" has a funky beat, but it feels like they're just playing around laying different vocal samples (particularly a Stetsasonic line they keep repeating) and bits over the track rather than turning it into a proper song.  The opening song sounds dope once Luke finally raps on it, but he just has one short verse at the end of a four minute track.  The last song, "Pre-Party (Swamp Boogie Remix)" is credited to Jason Slater of 3rd Eye Blind, and more pertinently, Brougham.  But Swamp Boogie is a producer who's been credited on Negusa Negast and even Retired.  So, has SB always been an alias of Jason Slater?  That's a fun bit of trivia to discover if it's true.  Anyway, the remix isn't very far removed from the original; it just feels like the same beat remastered with more bass and reverb.  Throwing two very similar versions of the same song definitely contributes to Infidel Producer's "and the kitchen sink" attitude.

But apart from two country-ish songs that feel tacked on at the end, I'd say this is the most accessibly Hip-Hop and easily listenable Disturbers album of them all.  Whatever ideas Luke is trying to communicate on "Daydreamin'," if any, are utterly mystifying, but it sure sounds fresh.  There's a ton of fun throwback and homages to the old school inextricably mixed with Luke's defiantly grimy, Bay area bar-stool aesthetic.

And then we come to the single, a 7" lathe cut limited initially to just 26 copies.  Then there was a second pressing, which I think was another 26?  I'm not even sure which pressing I have.  Like I said, it's like they're trying to sneak everything past us.

Anyway, the two songs here aren't actually produced by Son Tiff, but by AC415N a.k.a. Alex 75 of the legendary San Francisco Street Music.  And I don't think these two songs are from the same early 2000s recording sessions.  The first song is "Creep Player (Indian Summer Remix)," and "Creep Player," if you'll recall, is from Luke's 2019 album with DJ Raw B.  This remix slows and calms it down, giving it that kind of vibe for when you're splayed out on the couch and don't wanna get up.  I thought he gave it new lyrics at first, because the feeling is so different, but when you go back and compare, no it's the same content, just totally transformed.  And the B-side, "Cold Clutch," is some ultra-smooth west coast player shit.  The "Creep Player" remix is cool, but this song really steals the show.

Both of these tracks are also mastered by Deeskee, but otherwise I'd say this is more of just a new Luke Sick single than anything Disturbers specific.  But maybe Son Tiff had a hand in the instrumentation?  Definitely nab a copy if you can find one.  Who knows, maybe they'll do a third pressing, or they'll quickly throw up a few extra copies on one of their many bandcamps.  You just have to watch 'em like a hawk.

Two S-Brothers With S-Checks

Remember not too long ago, I made a video about the overwhelming number of projects Luke Sick had released with other other artists over the last half a year or so?  Well, another producer replied to me on Twitter that it wasn't over yet, because he was currently mixing an album he'd recorded with Luke, too.  Well, guess what?  This... ain't that.  This is yet another new group/ project/ release by Luke that's just dropped!  That other one, I assume, is still pending.  It's a little crazy, and I know it's easy to stop paying attention and let some pass you by.  But some day we're going to look back on this moment in history when Luke was so prolific and blessed us with all this great but obscure music that's gonna be super hard to find when the current crop of bandcamps and soundclouds go the way of emusic, mp3.com and IUMA.

So this time apparently, we're going by the name of the S-Brothers.  Luke has linked back up with producer Doug Surreal, who worked with before in The Motel Crew.  I assume the S-Brothers name just comes from the pairing of Sick & Surreal.  But anyway, this is a much more traditional Hip-Hop project than Motel Crew, with a distinct old school throwback vibe.  If you were a fan of Rime Force Most Illin and The Yole Boys, this should be right up your alley.

Back II the Scene Of the Blunts is more of a maxi-single than an album, essentially composed of three songs.  It's then filled out with Instrumentals, Bonus Beats, a Luke-A-Pella and a "Jeep Beats Construction Set," which is essentially a succession of brief sounds and samples like you used to find on those DJ tools LPs.  But it all plays like a medley of classic 80s Hip-Hop vibes, with breaks and vocal samples weaving between EPMD, Lord Finesse, Public Enemy, Chubb Rock, Biz Markie and more.  Especially "Throw Hex," which is like a "Jackin' For Beats" pastiche of Hip-Hop's most powerful loops.  But unlike with Rimeforce, Luke doesn't really attempt an old school delivery, but just lets his natural style meld with the instrumental to form something new and powerful.

This is a limited (to 100 copies) green (green) cassette release, though of course the music's perpetually available digitally from their bandcamp.  But the tape, from Needle To the Groove Records, has some sweet underground west coast style artwork, and comes with a convenient download card.  And it also came with a sticker and label patch if you ordered their even more limited collector's edition.  But I'm tellin' ya, even if you're getting a little tired of me covering this dude and aren't feeling terribly interested in any of this stuff, at least check out "Throw Hex" and see if it doesn't get you amped for more.

And the good news, then, is that with all his current and pending projects, there's plenty more.

Season Of the Sickness

(This one took a while!  One Sick man has released more dope music in a single season than many do in a decade.  Youtube version is here.)

The Gurpy Dozen

So, there's a new album from the Gurp City crew.  If you follow this blog, you know who Gurp City are, because I've covered a whole ton of their releases already.  But just in case you don't, Gurp is the label/ collective of the Bay area family of artists including Luke Sick, Z-Man, Brandon B, QM, TopR, Eddie K, Eons One, Lightbulb, DJ Quest, Brycon...  it's always struck me as a somewhat loose knit affair, and it's not always clear who's actually a member, and who's just a frequent collaborator of some or all of them, or who's dropped out over the years... White Mic?  G-Pek?  DJ Marz?  It's pretty amorphous.

Anyway, it may be hard to believe considering how long these guys have been assembled under the banner, but apparently this is the debut album from the whole gang as a pack: Rap Camp, Vol. 1: The Flood.  Previous compilations like Fresh Out Gurp City didn't count?  I don't know; their press sheet calls this their debut.  And like all music these days, it seems to be primarily a digital release; but I'm happy to report that there are actual physical copies in existence.  You might have to contact them directly to cop a CD, or corner one of them at a show, because I can't find any place to order it.  But they exist!

And how is it?  Well, I'll be honest, it's overlong and I was a little disappointed with it at first.  It reminds me of the Shady Records Re-Up album, where it feels like a bunch of artists you're a fan of have gotten together with some you're less familiar with to pound out a lot of songs pretty quickly.  It starts out okay, with "Guess Who's Back," including some cool scratches on the hook, an enthusiastic posse cut vibe, all three MCs sound good riding the beat, and it's exciting when Luke clicks in at the end like a king.  One thing I have to say about this album right off the bat is that the biggest names are heavily featured.  You know, if you buy a D12 album, you don't want to find out Eminem's only on one song and you've wasted your money.  That's definitely not an issue here; Luke and Z-Man are all over this.  The only artist on here more than them is Eddie K (Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters), who's on every song but one... I wonder if this song started out as an Eddie K album?

Anyway, back to Re-Up, or Rap Camp.  The problem is we've got a lot of lyrically shallow verses over some pretty bland beats mostly by producers whose names I don't recognize as opposed to the more atmospheric or exciting work we've gotten used to on Gurp City projects.  Tracks like "Drop It" sound like old strip club rap songs the genre left behind years ago, and others like "Mad Scientist" just don't have the energy to lift off the ground.  A couple songs in, and the album starts to feel like a slog to get through.  I don't mean to overstate my criticisms - things here never actually get bad per wack (though "Drop It" probably gets the closest), they just never aim high enough to hook you when there's so much other music out there you could listen to instead.

But, but, BUT!  If you have the patience to stick with it, things pick up.  The best stuff is mostly in the second half of the album, and there are some real gems.  "Tribe & Brew" is a crazy duet between Eddie K and Luke Sick where they meld their Gurp styles with the instrumental and vocal stylings of A Tribe Called Quest.  Even diggers who would normally pass over these guy's best stuff should at least check this song out; they'd get a real kick out of it and it's genuinely real funky.  "Cups Up Off the Wall" is just a fun, old school throwback with a Kool & the Gang inspired chorus, and "Young Throats" has a smoothed out addictive track you're going to want to go back and replay immediately.  They have moments where they take the alcoholic theme to interesting places with lines like "high tolerance but I ain't proud of it," you can just feel these guys' talent pushing at the seams to burst out.

So, ultimately, I'd say if you're a serious fan of these guys, you'll want to get this album, too.  Again, like if you're a big Emzy fan, you'll want all his side projects and be happy finding all the points where he shines to appreciate.  But if you're looking for the masterpieces, this ain't The Slim Shady EP; don't start here.  Check out On Tilt or Yole Boys instead.  Either way, though, at least go to their bandcamp and check out that "Tribe & Brew" cut; I'll really be surprised if you guys don't like it.

Back On Tilt

(A new On Tilt album means the return of Vrse Murphy, with raps by Luke Sick and QM!  Youtube version is here.)

Luke Sick Strikes the Clutch and Tells the World To Ask the Dust

Here's a brand new release that took me by complete surprise.  Luke Sick is back with a brand new project called Strike the Clutch, a limited cassette-only single/ EP (four songs; it's right on the bubble).  Luke, of course, is the front man of Sacred Hoop and so many other groups and projects, all of which I've been covering over the years, because he's been putting out reliably dope Hip-Hop for 20 years, which is more than I can say for just about anybody.  Admittedly, I wince a little when he strays outside the genre, but even then it's always at least worth your time to check out.

So when Strike the Clutch first popped up on my Feedly, I wasn't even sure if it was another one of those punk/ rap crossovers or what.  All I knew was that this was Luke Sick in collaboration with some guy named Damien, co-released by Luke's label Megakut and some other label called I Had an Accident Records.  Never heard of 'em, but apparently they've been putting out cassette-only releases since 2006.  Scrolling through their catalog of almost 200 releases, I do recognize a handful of names, like Ceschi, K-the-I??? and Bleubird.  But Luke's the only one I'd feel safe taking the chance on.

And first of all, no, it's not punk or any other genre meshed with Hip-Hop, it's just the pure stuff.  Apparently this Damien guy is a producer from Spokane Washington, and he's not about to replace Vrse as my favorite Sick producer, but he makes some solid, moody tracks that Luke knows absolutely how to lay into.  Just reading the titles like "Fake Happy" and "Ripping Gut," you already know this tape is bloody with the same bleak attitude he cultivated on his earliest tapes.  It's like Bring Me the Head of Sexy Henrietta part 2; even the Fletch references are back.  Sonically, it's smoother, more laid back and atmospheric.  But older fans will probably get the most out of this, because lyrically, these bars laying into sucker MCs are a total throwback to his first 12" in '96:

"Maybe you get rabies spittin' that crazy, or lames who think they strange but they're lazy little babies, and crazy rats thinkin' they can rap and need to chill, while their chicks get pealed like a loose seal.  I get weeded, get drunk, now I'm rippin' good; you wonder why the shallow graves keep gettin' dug.  'Cause something's wrong when they test my worth, endin' up on the ground with their face in the dirt."

Strike the Clutch is limited to just 100 copies, which I personally think is too limited.  Like, you don't want even your biggest fans to be missing out on your projects, right?  I ordered this the same day it popped up on Megakut and it was already sold out before it even arrived at my house.  But I guess it's been working for these I Had an Accident guys for about twelve years now, so what do I know?  Anyway, as of this writing, a couple copies are still available on their bandcamp.  Hoopsters, don't miss out; it's a tight little tape.

The Disturbers' Negusa Negast Is Real, I Swear!

So, I got a little curious about The Disturbers the other day... they're definitely a group that merits curiosity, as we'll get into later.  But I was just doing a little googling for myself and found out that, apart from my humble, little Sacred Hoop page, there is no record of their third(?) album existing online.  Like, okay, it's not on discogs; that happens.  But there are none of the typical forum posts of people looking for a copy, expired Ebay auctions, or blogposts with dead Rapidshare links.  Just search for the phrases The Disturbers and Negusa Negast, and literally the only results that pop are my site and a broken Russian mp3 page for a different group called The Disturbers (some Canadian rock group or something).  It's enough to make you think my listing is some kind of mistake or that I just made the whole thing up.  So here we go with a big, revelatory post about it to today just to assure any doubters out there that this album actually exists, and to tell fans what it's like, since I'm guessing most never got to hear it.

The biggest question you might have about The Disturbers is just who the heck are they, exactly.  That's kind of why I was googling them in the first place.  Obviously Luke Sick, front man of Sacred Hoop, Brougham, Grand Invincible and a hundred other rap groups, is the main MC.  But who else is there?  Their first album, 1998's Anansi Spider, is often listed online as a Luke Sick solo tape, which it basically is.  It even reads, "this is a punk rock m.c.'s 4-trak[sic.] practice tape," and he's pretty much the only guy rapping on it.  By the way, my copy has a sticker on it labeling it as a "Limited Edition 'Pissed On J-Card' Issue;" I don't know if there are any alternate versions.  But my version doesn't give any production credits or anything.  Besides Luke Sick, I can't say for sure who else was involved with this album.

But their next two albums do have more detailed liner notes.  Or what I'm labeling their next two albums, anyway... it's a little debatable what counts.  See, also in 1998, Sacred Hoop put out a scrappier than usual album called Moe's Strange Hobby.  It's got Sacred Hoop's name on it, anyway, and Luke Sick does the rapping.  But when Atak re-released it on CD with some bonus tracks in 2004, it's clearly called a Disturbers album right on the cover.  So, is it a Hoop album or a Disturbers album?  Well, I think Miasmatic/ The Hoop were starting to use the Disturbers name as a sort of junk drawer collective for any project of theirs that they felt didn't quite live up to being a proper Hoop album, and wasn't necessarily entirely produced by Vrse Murphy.  After a certain point, even I'm not a big enough nerd to get hung up on the classifications.  But there is one other collaborator who seems to be a pretty key member of The Disturbers.

When I interviewed Luke Sick for Rebirth Mag, he referred to, "[m]y boys from the disturbers most namely Unbreakable Combz and Curator."  Well, Unbreakable Combz is an MC down with FTA (Full Time Artists), a Cali group who Sacred Hoop used to do a bunch of music with.  I know he has a song on Feed Them Art and appears on Pilot Rase's solo album.  But as far as I can tell, he just rapped on one posse cut called "War the Fuck Up" for The Disturbers, on their 2000 album Kefu Qan.  But Curator, he seems to be the guy.

Curator has an "all songs produced by, except where noted" credit on Kefu Qan, and yeah, he raps on "War the Fuck Up," too.  And Negusa Negast, the album that seems to have slipped off the face of the Earth?  He has some production credit on there, too, plus a lot of engineer credit, as well as a "music stolen from Curator" credit on one song.  And he raps on here, too.  I think, like Grand Invincible = Luke + Eons One, Dankslob = Luke + G-Pek, Grand Killa Con = Luke + Brycon, Rime Force Most Illin' = Luke + Rob Rush, and Get the Hater = Luke + The Dwarves, The Disturbers = Luke + Curator.  Again, Anansi Spider has no credits, but I'm speculating that Curator at least did a bunch of tracks on that tape.  If so, it all adds up pretty nicely.  If not, I guess we revert back to the "junk drawer" theory.  But even then, Curator has to be given a lot of credit for Kefu Qan and Negusa Negast.

Certainly, there's a strong "junk drawer" element to Negusa Negast (which means "king of kings," by the way).  This album lists 41 entries on the track-listing, and the actual CD has 43 tracks.  The extra two can be accounted for because tracks 1 and 2 are the same - the intro just plays twice in a row, and track #43 is just four seconds of silence.  Luke has always leaned into the scrappy "punk rock m.c." aesthetic on his Disturbers projects, and this is no exception.  It's a real crazy, disjointed mess.  Songs and skits often seem to get cut off early, which I'm guessing is an aesthetic choice.  They've got some good stuff on here, though nothing for the Greatest Hits collection, and some crap.  Fans will be rewarded for digging through all this stuff, but casual listeners will probably be ready to turn it off about half way through.

The first half of the album sounds like a scrappier Hoop album.  It doesn't have the polish of Vrse's stuff (although Vrse does contribute one song on to the proceedings, called "The Ruin Me Girl"), but there's some cool Luke material on here.  He edits himself into a Donnas song rather effectively, and has some solid, hard tracks like "Rimp Raps" and "I Don't Feel Better" that are up to par with the rest of his catalog.  And yes, this CD is 41/ 43 tracks long, but a lot of that consists of skits/ vocal samples to set the tone and are only a handful of seconds long.  So it's a long album, but not insanely long.

Actually, most of those skits are from the Adam Sandler film The Wedding Singer, which turns out to be a strong influence on this album.  Some of those vocal samples wind up becoming hooks on the songs and seem to have inspired at least some of the lyrics.  Luke even does a punk rock (that's right, he occasionally drifts out of pure Hip-Hop and experiments with singing and guitar rock on this album) cover of Sandler's famous "Somebody Kill Me Please" song from the movie.  And speaking of covers, he also covers a Nirvana song; although in that case it's all raps over a very traditional Space Travelers break-beat.  It's actually pretty cool.  But then there's something like "Dreamland," which the liner notes describe as, "Luke covers the Bunny Wailer classic - music stolen from The Upsetters."  I can't even listen to that one all the way through.

So I'm sticking to my Disturbers = Luke + Curator theory, but it's not all just the two of them.  Besides that Vrse song, there's several produced by somebody named Swamp Boogie, and one produced by Tiff Cox, who's co-produced a couple other Hoop songs.  DJ Marz and DJ Bobafett do some mixing, and Rase appears on one track.  Then, towards the end of the album, come three Curator solo songs, "made on his own time in his own personal hell."  Another song, called "Louder Than Death," contains the first verse of what would later become the Sacred Hoop cut "Larry Boy Burial;" and a rough, original version of "Car Crash," which Sacred Hoop eventually released as one of their very last songs in 2013, turns up on here as well.  Overall, there's more than enough really good content on here to make it worth tracking down for the fan who has everything, but new listeners won't have the patience to sift through it all.  I wouldn't even ask most people to consider it, but I'm glad it exists.  Which, I promise you, it does.

Yole Boys Number Zero

So, a couple years ago, I wrote about a killer album by Luke Sick's Gurp City Crew, collectively known as The Yole Boys.  Owe. Reep. Out. was a limited cassette-only album that came out in 2011.  But there was actually something before that album.  Not a previous album, or even a single or EP, but a sort of prelude tape.  Yolemagmix #1 and 2.  It's also, by the way, the very first release on the Megakut label, prominently labeled Megakut #1 on its spine.

Before anyone gets too excited or disappointed, let me just tell you know, this is an entirely instrumental tape.  So no crazy Gingerbread Man verses here, sorry folks.  But it's not just the instrumental version of Owe or anything.  The tape consists of two, roughly twelve and a half minute long megamixes, produced by the Boys' own Fatees, and furiously cut up by DJ Quest.  There are a few ad-libs, including a chant of "too gurp to get in," at the beginning of side 2, plus plenty of choice vocal samples to set the decadent mood; but this is strictly a DJ mix tape.  And it's a killer.

Expect anything between old school references to cocaine and Quest cutting up Biz Markie's "Pickin' Boogers" over a deep, throwback mix of what the Boys fittingly call "Bay-ami Bass."  Classic bass loops mixed with electro samples and a tougher, Philly edge; this tape has a hyper, higher energy than Owe, thanks in part to Quest's quick cuts, but also just in the beats they select.  Owe had a number of slower jams, but here, not so much.  There's one moment where I did feel they let a single beat ride unvaried a bit too long, but apart from that, it's all a great, little ride.

Still, this is an old and quite limited release with only 250 copies (mine has #144 lightly penciled inside the J-card) having been created six years ago... which is still considerably more than the Owe tape, which only saw a miserly 100 pressed (but, unless it's an error, it still seems to be available direct from Megakut!?).  And let's face it, that vocal album is definitely the one you want to track down if you have to choose.  But if you're a fan of these guys - and you should be - than it's worth keeping an eye out for both.  And as of this writing, there are still copies up on discogs, so it's not a hopeless scenario or anything.

Grand Killas From the Bay

(The march of new music continues on with a couple new releases by some of of the Bay Area's illest.  Youtube version is here.)

On Tilt! The Return of One of My All-Time Favorite Producers!

This is definitely one of the few albums I'm really excited about in 2016, and I didn't even see it coming!  You know, how you'll be waiting two to three years for your favorite guy to release that LP he announced, and you're constantly re-checking the calendar for that release date?  Will, this is the opposite of that, because I had no idea this was a thing until it became available to order.  On Tilt is the latest project from Luke Sick, the man who has a new group every month.  He's always great, so I'm already on board.  But what makes this one so much more special, is that it's a reunion with his original Sacred Hoop partner Vrse Murphy!  Yeah, every track is produced by Vrse, who's one of my all time favorite producers.  He's back, baby!

So, why is this an On Tilt album rather than an official Sacred Hoop album?  Well, look at the two dudes drawn on the cover.  That's not Luke and Vrse, that's Luke and a guy named QM, who's another Bay Area rapper, and this is just as much his album as the other guys'.  I'm not too familiar with his past work, but he's blipped on my radar for having a couple online songs with Luke and co., and he was one of the guys on the Mutual Daps album.  But he's actually got a deep history, as part of the Rec League family, then known as Cumulus, and his history of making records actually goes back like 15-20 years.  So we're not talking about some new kid getting carried on anybody's shoulders.

And the other reason this isn't quite a Sacred Hoop track is I suspect the deal here is that Luke & QM are rhyming over lost, unused Vrse beats from past years or something.  I say that for two reasons.  One, because while the liner notes do credit all production to Vrse, they credit "post production" to Richie Cunning (also of Rec League) and QM.  So that would make sense, right?  Vrse produced the tracks, then vaulted them, then QM & Richie produced the new recordings with Luke and QM rapping over them?  That's my guess, anyway.

And I also think that may be the case because I recognize one of these beats from seventeen years ago.  One of the first songs on this album, "Detox With More Liquor," features the same instrumental as one of my favorite Sacred Hoop songs (although admittedly, I have many favorite Sacred Hoop songs), "N.O.H."  That stands for "Not Our House," and it's about getting raucous at a house party with reckless regard because it's not your place.  It's one of their early collaborations with Z-Man, and it was on their cassette-only release Last Days Of the Hump Hut from 1999.  Almost every song on that tape wound up being included on the more widely released album Sleepover in 2001, but not "N.O.H.," because that wound up going to a compilation called Cue's Hip-Hop Shop instead.  So now it's kind of a rare Sacred Hoop song that's not on any of their albums.

And it still is.  Because "Detox With More Liquor" is using the same track, but it's an all-new song with all new lyrics and entertaining vocal samples for a hook.  And QM kicks fun, nihilistic freestyle rhymes like you can always expect from the Gurp City crew, but with a bit of a throwback 90s feel, "I'm unforgettable like scarin' a nun by airin' a gun.  Cum, I get busy like I got errands to run.  Vrse craft the beat like Dirk Dastardly; the flow make 'em say 'uhh, I'm Master P.  Um, actually, you must be fast asleep.  Ya feeling down, then load every last track from me.  Ya see Vrse he pleads the fifth and speaks with the beats, while me and Luke drops the speech that they loop to the beats.  That's word to me, Chuck and the Trav, gettin' drunk in the Aves like a couple of savs.  I don't fuck with the tabs, so that's more for you.  I detox with malt liquor, hit the store for brew."  I think I still prefer "N.O.H.," because you can't really top Z's energy on that song.  But two songs over a killer beat?  Yeah, I'll take that.

And to be clear, that's the only beat I recognize.  If anything else has been recycled, I think it's all unreleased material, so it's all brand new to my ears, which is just as good.  And it sounds great.  "Dank and Drank" has that classic Hoop feel, but really all the production is killer.  Some is dark and ominous, some is hard, and some is playful.  "Can't Go Home" has a sick human beatbox loop, and "Quest On Tilt" is a classic DJ cut, with DJ Quest cutting up over a chunky piano sample.  The whole thing ends with a tough posse cut featuring all the regulars: Lightbulb, Z-Man, Eddie K, Brandon B and TOPR.  It's a little album.  It's thirteen songs, but several of those are instrumental skits, and even some of the proper songs still clock in at just around two minutes.  So it's a breezy listen you're gonna want to repeat as soon as you hit the end.

As you can see in the pic above, this is an orange cassette release, limited to 200 copies, with full color artwork.  You can cop it cheap direct from the label, Megakut Records here.  And, of course, it's also available online via their bandcamp.  But obviously the tape's, like, a thousand times cooler.

Celebrate Today With a Sick New Album

Hey, it's Thanksgiving. So okay, what's to be thankful for? How about a hot new album that just dropped? It's the return of Grand Invincible, with their third full-length album (or fourth if you count their EP, Winter 365*), Menace Mode. They put out a single not too long ago... well, actually, it's been over a year. But anyway, the songs on there aren't on this album; those are exclusive tracks to that cassingle and everything on this tape is brand new, too. Yeah, this one's on tape, too. Although of course there's a digital-only version for all you herbs and bustas out there, too.  ;)

This is a tight album. It's full-length, twelve cuts, though one or two are short little instrumental joints. There's no guest MCs on here, just a pair of guest DJs - Eddie Def and DJ Sniper - to add some extra scratching. Of course Eons does plenty of his own cutting as well. So there's a lot of hip-hop purism on hand, strong breaks. But then you've got Luke Sick bringing his grisly, raw blue-collar side to the equation, giving it a dark, moody feel. With one or two little adjustments, this could work as the soundtrack to the first season of True Detective.

It starts out with an instrumental introduction called "Codenames Pt. II" ("Pt. I" was on Ask the Dust), but really takes off with "Jackson Pollock," taking its title from a grim reference in the Miami Vice movie (which they include at the end of the song just in case you've never seen it). Luke flips back and forth from traditional hip-hop bragging about his breaks to "scum storytella" mode, spitting bars like:

"I'm paranoid in the crib
Surveillance cams and a pile of coke
She hate me I bug her
But she's used to dudes tryin' to drug her
I smell a fake fuck then fool get checked quick
Then I snatch his bags out the Luxor
On the roof for the bird to swoop
They throw the rope ladder I grab the loot"

Another stand-out is "Yegg," the one they made their first video for. Two ill piano loops on top of each other, old school bas booms, and a phat scratched hook of "Come Clean" Jeru. "Dust Tour" has a killer horn sample that could make you buy the tape just for that. Really, the whole album is an impressive showcase of how to make an innovative, advanced album through very traditional and basic methods. Heads will love it.

So if you want it, you better move fast. Because it's another super limited tape from Megakut Records. The pricing is great ($10, and that's including the shipping), especially since this is a pretty high quality production. You know, sometimes these ultra-indie tapes are just labeled with a sharpie or something, but this is a good looking, printed black tape, flapped artwork, and it even comes with a very cool lyrics booklet, done in a punk 'zine style (a la Let's Side). And Luke Sick fans should also be keeping our eyes peeled for the next Grand Killa Con EP, which is coming out on vinyl soon from a label called Art of Rec. So, yeah, definitely some good stuff to be thankful for.


*Or fifth if you count Underbucket!  :P

Quick! One Last New Release for 2014!

(Happy New Year from my new roommates)

My first thought was: I'm not just going to add to the infinite pile of year end top ten lists with today's post. No way, not gonna do it. So what should I do? Pontificate about how much better/worse 2014 was than 2013? Summarize every post I made over the course of the year? Write a retrospective on "A Surf M.C. New Year?" [Note to self: that's actually a good one; save that idea for 2016!] No, what we need most right now is just a good, new release. And fortunately, one just arrived in the mail last week.

A new, limited (100 copies - mine is #67) cassette release from Megakut Records. It's a split/ double A-side release, two EPs roughly 15 minutes each. Dankslob on one side, and J-Eazy & Brycon on the other.

Who the hell is Dankslob? No, you're right not to recognize the name; but you should recognize the actual artists. Dankslob is Luke Sick's latest project. Pretty much every time he works with somebody new, he makes a new group name for it... Underbucket/ Grand Invincible, Brougham, Get the Hater, The Disturbers, Rime Force, Motel Crew, Yole Boys, Grand Killa Con... all these groups can be explained as "Luke Sick and ____." And this is the latest, and this time he's teamed up with G-Pek, the producer who made Z-Man's Don't Forget To Brag. Now that's a sweet match!

and it really works here. G-Pek really switches tones to work with Luke; he's got a real feel for tailoring his sound to match Luke's vibe. As dark and dank as their name and cover art imply, full of soundbites from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (plus a little Barfly.and a few assorted clips), and Luke sounding as worn and world weary as ever. So many rappers seemed to have peaked around their second or third albums, but Luke just keeps getting better as he gets older, aging into perfectly tragic Hemmingway-style raconteur:

"Pop shit,
And loogie spit on everyone.
We on the couch.
Tell the bitch to shut its fucking mouth.
We like to slouch,
Think about how it's turning out.
We take our time;
Greg Pek knew this shit had clout.
I wasn't caring
'Till the hash all runnin' out.
Now we out,
But my feet hurt; I got the gout.
Them Earls bounce;
Suckers front like they really down.
But they never was;
They just some pussy clowns.
I made enough to eat and sleep;
That's how I got down.
I ate ribs,
Tried to live at the titty bar.
Don't even trip,
Holmes, ounce in the jelly jar."

I was all set to be disappointed, then, when I flipped this tape over. I mean, that would be fine, since Dankslob was perfect and more than worth the purchase in and of itself. But I've never heard of J-Eazy, this was gonna be some new jack piggybacking on Luke Sick. I know Brycon, though. He's the other half of Grand Killa Con with Luke Sick, and that was a solid album. So gotta give it a fair shot, at least.

Well, it's pretty good, too! I prefer the A-side (here's hoping Dankslob isn't a one-off!), but Damaged Goods, as its titled, is a cool bonus B-side. It's got a whole different feel to it, at once scrappier and more indie, but also bouncier and more upbeat. Think of it this way: if Dankslob is vintage Wu-Tang; Damaged Goods is vintage Killarmy. And just like with those Wu spin-off groups, it certainly doesn't hurt that the original Wu always drops by for a profile-rising guest appearance. Yeah, Luke Sick drops in and adds a verse and hook fora song called "Shattered Up" near the end (there's no track-listing or anything with this tape; but both groups posted song titles on their bandcamps).

This tape is really, really good. I mean, these Gurp City cats are consistently good; but I would even put this above their average. And like all their tapes, they're so well priced ($8, which includes shipping), it's a wonder there's any still available after an hour. Obviously, most of you people are still sleeping; and you're only going to regret it once you eventually realize how much they've been killing it over the years. Cop it here or continue missing out into 2015.

Grand Invincible Sessions On Cassingle?

Okay, I know cassettes are coming back in to vogue as collectors' items. And for an old school guy with a huge cassette collection (and players to play 'em) amassed over a lifetime of youth spent in the 80s and 90s, that's pretty sweet. So we've had brand new cassette releases by everybody from Ghostface Killah to MF Doom to Omniscence. But has anybody in this modern era released a classic cassingle, in the cardboard slip sleeve style before? If it's not a first, it's certainly the first I've copped, and damn if there isn't an extra kick of nostalgia in sliding a brand new cassette out of its tight cardboard wrap. It's like I've just walked out of Record Town, amped about a rare, underground find they only had one copy of.

But a novel release isn't worth the crazy materials it's composed of if the music it holds doesn't move ya. Fortunately, in this case we've got two def cuts from the Grand Invincible sessions. According to the back cover, these tracks (which, to be clear, have never been released to the public before now) were recorded in 2011, though this blog by producer/DJ Eons suggests their roots reach back even further.

"Go Fast Boats" has Luke Sick spitting hard over a booming, "Broken Language"-like bassline. just slightly smoothed out by some extra instrumentation (is that a harp in there?) and a guest verse by Brandon B from Arizona's Supermarket (of Dump Koch fame). The only issue is that it's hard to get a handle on the song, lyrically. Did Luke just say, "the new fanny pack is the Blue Tooth?" What does that even mean? And Brandon B is taking random pop culture shots: "shit ain't funny; you're played out like Paula Poundstone." I don't know. Luke's flow sounds great over the track, though; so it's real dope as long as you don't pay real close attention and ask too many questions.

The B-side totally eclipses it anyway. The production's even better, with a funky, orchestral sample (more harp?) and a super funky "lyrics get dropped like napalm" vocal sample for a hook. Brandon B is credited on this song, too; but this time he's just doing supporting back-up vocals - lyrically, Luke is flying solo, and comes off tighter than on "Boats." It's really one of those rare songs where as soon as it's over you'll want to rewind it back and hear it again, repeatedly.

Like most proper cassingles back in the day, this features both songs on the A-side, and the two instrumentals on the flip. The cassette itself is made out of a cool, scrap metal gray plastic. A little labeling might've been cool, but as I said before, it does come in a cool, double-sided cassingle sleeve. And MegaKut is selling these for only $8, including shipping, so there's really nothing to complain about - that's about what you would've paid for a cassette single back in the 90s, and you'd've been hard pressed to find a release as cool as this.

MK says these are limited to a ridiculously tiny amount of 25 copies, but I suspect that's how many they have to allotted to sell online, not how many were actually made, because most of these are being handed out at Luke's shows. But still, that means if you're a Grand Invincible fan and don't live out in Cali, you'd better jump on this fast, unless you look forward to be coaxing this off some local fan on EBay. And if I can ever bring myself to stop rewinding and replaying it, it'll make me smile again just to stick it in my cassingle box right between Grand Daddy IU's "Don't Stress Me" and Grandmaster Melle Mel and Scorpio's "Mr. Big Stuff."  8)

Luke's Sick Friends

Today's post is about two albums; and I'm starting out with this brand new one: Mutual Daps. It just came out through the usual download, streaming/ bandcamp and ITunes kinda jazz. But there are also legit, physical copies which seem to be, short of catching these guys at a show, available exclusively through accesshiphop. Mutual Daps is the latest group project from the great Luke Sick, who's collaborating this time around with White Mic of Bored Stiff - who you might remember just did a collaborative album with Sick's regular cohort Z-Man - and TC Bonelocs, who handles most of the production.

I say most of the production, because several of the tracks are actually handled by a couple of Luke's other regular cohorts: DJ Eons One, who's in Underbucket/ Grand Invincible with Luke, and Brycon, the other half of Luke's Grand Killa Con group. And just about everybody else from the camp is on here for at least one appearance: Eddie K and Brandon B (who form Trunk Drank), Topr, the aforementioned Z-Man, Agentstrik9 (also of Bored Stiff), that Lightbulb guy from the Grand Killa Con album, and several more I don't recognize. DJ Quest also drops by to add some nice cuts on a couple of tracks. It's not even worth trying to keep track of who's in a group with who, really; and this particular album doesn't feel so much like a focused project by a defined trio so much as just a big ol' family album, where Luke and White's voices happen to feel the most prominent.

This is a good album with some nice production and a bunch of solid MCs flexing their raps. But its nobody's masterpiece. Fans of these guys will definitely be satisfied and happy as I was to get another album. Especially since it's pure hip-hop, unlike some past projects a la Motel Crew, Brougham, One Block Radius, etc where they experimented and crossed into other genres... This is the good, real hip-hop shit we want from these guys. And there are some choice samples and moments to be found here when you really delve in. But nobody's written their best songs here. If you were assembling a 'greatest hits' album of Luke or the whole Gurp/ Megakut/ whatever crew, there's no "wow" songs you'd pick from here. The best instrumental moments tend to line up with the least exciting verses. Like "Hard Sound" has a great track and some hype cuts by Quest, but then White Mic's just talking about "your ITunes sales." There's definitely some dope, solid songs on here ("Gimme Back My Slurpee," "That's War," "Hard Times"); but it doesn't feel like a ton of sweat and stress were poured into this. They probably recorded it pretty quick and casually, maybe threw in a few odds and ends from other projects that hadn't found a home yet, and called it an album.

It's an easy recommendation for those of us who are already fans of these guys. But if you're on the fence, I'd say pass it over in favor of some of Luke's stronger projects... like, oh say:
 

Owe. Reep. Out. by The Yole Boys. I'd seen this album on Megakut's site but always passed over it because I didn't really know who the the Yole Boys were or what this project was about. But I was finally put onto it and damn, if only I'd known! The Yole Boys is essentially just another Luke and the whole damn posse kind of album. It's hard to make out, but I'm pretty sure that's Luke on the left and holy shit! ...The illustrated Gingerbread Man character coming out the back seat.

The cover sets you up for what to expect, but you still won't see it coming. It's a throw back to those old rap tapes you used to have to play at low volume so your parents couldn't hear the filthy stuff we all secretly listened to. Imagine pre-"Me So Horny" 2 Live Crew (of course) blended with pre-Jive Schoolly D, but with even more inappropriate lyrical content. Filthy sex, coke and misogyny. Instrumentally, it's a crazy 80's blend, very much like Rime Force Most Illin' (which came after), but with a more specific aim at a certain seedy atmosphere. There's a great DJ track with the vibe of Arabian Prince's "Professor X," and one song has Luke updating Too $hort's "Freaky Tales" to be darker and trashier.  There may be a moment or two, like an entire verse patterned after Cool C's "I Gotta Habit." that might feel a little too homage-y as opposed to original; but over-all this project really works as intended.

And again, the whole gang seems to be here, although nobody is properly credited. Even the song titles are just cryptically titled by their initials: "STC," "FYB" etc. But in addition to Luke, you'll definitely recognize Z-Man (both in character as the Gingerbread Man and out), the Trunk Drank guys, and plenty more. Beats are by Fatees, who also produced for Rime Force, so you can imagine how capably he's recreated the incredible, low-fi pro sounds of the 80s. If your favorite UGK album is still Banned, then this is the tape for you.

And I mean tape literally, because this is a small, cassette-only release, limited to only 100 copies. Unlike Mutual Daps, this isn't brand new; it actually came out in 2011. But because it's been so under publicized and nobody really knew what the fuck it was, there are still cheap copies available (check out Megakut's store here, and see if you can still cop a Rime Force tape while you're at it). This is on some "Top Ten Year End List" level, except it came out in 2011 and I've already forgotten what was great in that year. But this would get a mention for sure.