Austin MC Mirage is continuing #TheAmeliorationCollection with the subtly powerful and moving Till The End. Over some very solid and smooth production by Trill Gates, Mirage waxes poetically about the importance of longevity in the hip-hop culture, and his efforts to express that through his career and his art. Bonus trivia: he hit me up on the edit for this one.
-chief
In the wake of Return Prophets, San Marcos hip hop crew Heroes was at a crossroads. Members of the band were moving on to new cities, and the remaining members were facing a time in our country where only fools remained silent about what was going on. Rather than try and make a salvaged version of Heroes, emcees OMNiii and Dusty Grin decided to take the double LP approach, and the genius My Laptop Weighs A Ton / Indingenius was born. OMNiii spits fever pitch rhymes on hectically wonderful beats to illustrate the madness of our times, while Dusty Grin took the urban griot approach of a mercenary watching the madness from the fringe. A beautiful accomplishment from one half of an incredibly dynamic crew.
-chief
Evan Moran is definitely a cool and interesting cat. I met him through some of my mutual KTSW and Grid Squid friends, and we instantly realized that we were coming from very similar sources of inspiration in regards to both hip hop influence and musical influences in general. Not long after that initial meeting, Evan started populating his Bandcamp page with albums. They’re all definitely worth checking out, but one of my personal faves was The Misadventures of Mattress Mac. A collection of older poetry instrumentals interspersed with new material, this beats only project will take you on a mini-musical journey of sorts. Definitely digging the way Evan gets down on the production.. pretty sure you will too.
-chief
Indelible Inc., the combination of Muggzy Flowz bars and Dr. Bobby Banner, MPC‘s beats, is no doubt a sure shot winning team. Throw in AMX alumn and …&more… wordsmith No1mportant for guest bars, and you’ve got the mellow banger Openwide. Throw in some DVZN Media video expertise, and you’ve got one hell of a music video. Props to Promise Psuedo, Kilmatik and more for making guest appearances the way rappers used to appear in one another’s videos back in the day. This is all wonderful.
-chief
For Aaron Behrens of Ghostland Observatory, the ride that was the EDM movement was becoming a bit much. The songs were still coming, but the mood was changing. After some soul searching (and some musician searching), enter Jonas Wilson of Lomita and The White White Lights. Both amazingly talented in their own right, it’s a given that The Midnight Stroll is already making compelling music right out of the gate. Keep an eye on this band.. there are certainly good things to come.
-chief
Not too long ago, The Discovery Channel visited the Unicycle Football League with a special set of cameras to capture the entire spectrum of athletes and fans. Yours truly was on DJ duty that day, so if you swirl things around, you’ll see me chilling and spinning tunes for my favorite local sport. This is truly a one of a kind experience, these 360 videos.
-chief
San Antonio-based electronic collective Sub.Culture hosts a grand lineup, including a couple of my homeboys like BRTHR WLF and Tangence, and super-dope San Antonio legend Ernest Gonzalez. This is their 2016 compilation… it’s super dope, and it’s name your own price, so there’s really no excuse to not have this in your system immediately.
-chief
Anyone who knows Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice knows that the visual element is equally important to the sound in my eyes. There has always been this obsession with pirate signals and overriding broadcasts, seeing as I grew up in an age where everything wasn’t digital. Add that with a heavy dose of being slightly obsessive about mind-control, and you’ve got the ingredients for Iron Maiden Voyage, the latest in my attempt to make the visual content match the rate of audio output. Enjoy this bad boy, because I definitely feel like it’s a benchmark moment in my audio-visual history.
-chief
KB the Boo Bonic and The Moon Guys are becoming quite the compelling team on the music video front. KB carries herself like the champ she is in all of their videos, and The Moon Guys put together videos that make her look like the star she’s destined to be. U Ain’t Know falls right in line with the upward trajectory of the rest of the work. Beautiful aerial shots, wonderful performance spaces and a nice mellow tone make this another winner in their catalog.
-chief
And it’s another bomb track from Cory Kendrix. Hustle Man, Tommy Brown and Catch Lungs all get down on this super chill Scott Pace track that’s just spacey enough to let each of these cats have some room to do their thing. Definitely gonna get some system time in the ride.
-chief
Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice 