In all seriousness, Butcher Bear dropped a classic in 2015 with This Is How The Game Gets You Played. I would be saying that even if I wasn’t on the album, simply due to the remainder of the supporting cast this album has. (1) Out For Living (0) finds Butch on the breaks and 7LayerOscillator dropping his trademark symbolic knowledge. ManOfTheDown and Night Visuals stepped in on the visual assist, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a trippy journey. Enjoy!
-chief
Posted in Audio-Visuals, General Information, ShuffleCast, Spotlight, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Underground Me Now
Tagged (1) out for living (0), (singled out for living infinite), 7layeroscillator, butcher bear, chief, man of the downtrodden, night visuals, the doomsday device, this is how the game gets you played
Ben Al recently dropped the dope double album Man’s Rejection God’s Protection, a deeply personal audio journey. 100 Times is a good example of what you’re getting from the project.. honesty, assurance and promises of good things. The video is effective in its direct approach.. visual gospel to back up the knowledge being dropped. Dig it and dig it good.
-chief
In the name of making a brand out of Weird City Fest, the genius minds behind Austin Mic Exchange have decided to hit the road with a handful of their favorite acts. There will be several stops made around the state of Texas, with the goal being bolstering each city’s local hip-hop and creative scene while promoting Weird City as an entity to be celebrated yearly. DJ Burnzy took a number of tunes from the artists on the tour, added some of his expert turntablism, and the result is Weird Star State Tour – The Soundtrack. Don’t sleep on this, or the stop this tour makes in your town.
-chief
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
Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice 