I’ve been listening to a lot more indie/underground music lately because of my dislike of pop-culture power anthems, and the RIAA in general. Since I’ve done that, I’ve been experiencing all sorts of new groups, styles, and a new respect for musicians.
I’ve been on a hip-hop kick for the past couple of years as I’m pretty much burnt out on the whole Techno/Trance thing which started for me in the mid-90′s. I do like to code to it from time to time, but other wise its not doing much for me anymore. I’ve listened to hip-hop for quite some time, but its just been in the past 2-3 years that I’ve grown to appreciate it. I’ve been respinning all of my older stuff and rediscovering it– such as The Roots, Goodie Mob, Mos Def, and also extending back to when I should of listened to more hip-hop by picking up some older discs by people such as the Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Star, and so on.
My first brush (other than online radio stations) with a hip-hop album which was fairly underground was Atmosphere – God Loves Ugly, that my friend Valentine hooked-me up with. At first I thought it was okay, nothing out of the ordinary, but it began to grow on me. Overall, I now think its probably one of the best hip-hop albums of 2002 that I’ve heard, if not the best. There are a few songs that I prefer to skip over, but its an album that I still end-up playing at least once a week. You should check it out.
On my musical quest to stop supporting the 8-headed spawn of satan known as RIAA, I discovered CD Baby. It was here that I started to discover that Minneapolis is a breeding ground underground hip-hop. You knew that Prince started there, right?
I’m pretty interested to listen to more albums from people who are in the Rhymesayers collective, but I also have all of the major albums of the Micranots and have even exchanged e-mails a few times with the lead lyricist, Prince Akiem. Atmosphere and others in the Rhymesayers crew (Mr. Dibbs, Micranots, DeeJayBird and special guest OddJobs) will be playing in Denver at the Fillmore on September 30th– that’s very exciting. I wonder how I can ask Akiem to get on the VIP list without sounding like a schmoe?
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