Hip Hop June Selection

The Atlanta legendary rapper and ½ of Run The Jewels, Killer Mike returns with a new solo album (setting aside for a moment the road taken with RTJ partner El-P) in which he decides to give voice to the different souls of the Georgia (US) capital, passing also in review the different musical influences that flow in the city, from the more gospel, introspective and politically engaged one, to the braggadocio street raps and the typical melodies of the local trap scene. In fact he also managed to bring together on his album artists as Future, Andre 3000, Young Thug , 2Chainz, 6Lack and many more. Killer Mike makes “MICHAEL” a manifesto of his incredible career and a dedication to his hometown, in which he talks about his life, the different facets and the problems of the streets of Atlanta and America. In our opinion this is one of the most complete and dense albums released in recent years. 

We’ve already been fans for some time of this series of tapes composed by the two Los Angeles rappers, T.F. (South Central) and 2Eleven (Inglewood), entitled Skanless Levels, now at its 4th episode. Although they are allegedly affiliated with the two notoriously antagonistic local gang sets, their chemistry on the mic and their rapping, reminiscent of the 90s West Coast gangsta rap, tell us a much less fictionalized realized but articulated and complex Los Angeles, compared to the stereotyped and outdated narrative that usually comes to us about the L.A. streets. In addition, the city’s environments, themes and rap tradition mingle with the underground scene sounds that crosses the United States from coast to coast, as evidenced by appearances by Jay Worthy from Compton, New York underground legend Roc Marciano or the new Griselda Records spearhead, Rome Streetz. This demonstrates that fortunately the Hip-Hop scene is now a much more dynamic environment, open to contamination and less schematic than in the past. The only things that matter and demarcate the levels are the quality of the Rap, of the sound and the authenticity of the message, things that we regularly find in the volumes of Skanless Levels and in the 2eleven and T.F rhymes.

In the Hip-Hop scene The Alchemist is notoriously synonymous and a brand of a superior class. The Dom Pérignon, Hermes, the Audemar Piguet of musical production, but what makes this producer even more special is the constant desire to experiment, learn, deepen and also having the courage to collaborate with quite unknown artists of the underground scene, giving them the opportunity to shine and exalt themselves over the luxurious sound textures that he weaves. Whenever the Alchemist of L.A. releases a new project we fly high and buy it with our eyes closed.

We always like to include some real underground projects in our monthly selection pages and share with you the pleasure of digging into the wonderful world of the US Rap scene. One of the projects that has certainly attracted our attention the most, perhaps even a little surprisingly, in June is the one packaged by the Niagara Falls rapper, Jamal Gasol (you can recover the interview we did with him here) and the one from Chicago, Vic Spencer. This Great Lakes area connection gave us a project, with also an ironic concept, that can be easily listened to, thanks to the productions, mostly jazz and soul influenced, and the complementary flow of the two rappers, which also perfectly matches the soundtrack of this album, The Right Way For Dummies.

The lyrical talent of Palermo rapper Johnny Marsiglia has always been considered among the purest around in Italy. Often, in fact, the depth and analytical ability of the human soul that are capable of giving strength to an artist’s pen, elevating him above the average, can also become a cause of insecurity that could turn into a sort of writer’s block and inconstancy in terms of musical production, preventing the blossoming of the full artistic potential. Johnny Marsiglia has waited to release Gara 7 to encompass all the paranoia, the ups and downs, the doubts, the uncertainties and weaknesses, but also the moments of excessive self-confidence, joy, determination, ruthlessness experienced by the rapper in the last years of absence from the music scene. dissecting them in an intense and profound album. On the other hand, as the rapper himself tells us, life is like a clutch NBA Game 7, where sometimes you go under, sometimes you are over, the important thing is to fight to the last seconds, remaining faithful to your game beliefs.

The young lyrical talent of the Milanese underground rap Armani Doc (read his interview) puts himself to the test in a new short project entirely produced entirely by Garelli, leaving what he had by now cleverly built as his own comfort zone within the projects labeled MxRxGxA, where in recent years he has emerged as one of the most Milan underground promising lyricists. In fact, the different beats sewn on him by Garelli have the merit of refreshing the sound of his rap, but at the same time confirming the qualities that made him known in his niche. The arrogant and precise bars closed with the usual Armani’s arrogant style are combined with the summer-flavored beats, packaged by Garelli.