Towards the end of last month we posted “Say Disease” from Dirty Hank and Reason which was available for free streaming to all. Well the duo’s EP is officially out and you can now get the other 8-tracks for the same exact price. Which is free, if you have trouble keeping up. Grab it over at The Monty Brogan Bandcamp page, here. I would do it sooner rather than later only because, as quoted by Hank and Reason; “For now, it’s a free download. But the safe bet is to grab it quickly, because Congress can only pass so many unemployment-benefit extensions and Brooklyn Lager isn’t getting any cheaper.” As someone who got denied unemployment, I’d like to thank them for their hospitality. Here’s “Local Press” off The Monty Brogan EP.

Rap’s Hank Moody and Reason work well with each other. Hank’s intense, liquor filled flow feeds Reason’s laid back demeanor. Each track they’re both on has the perfect change of pace in that regard. Production on the album is handled mostly by Falside the Beatsmith with a couple of tracks done by Mad Plaid. By all means, download this 9-track EP and support independent, local hip-hop.

On New Year’s Eve I posted a video by San Diego’s Mr. Brady: “Let It Go” produced by Abjo. Their EP, Welcome To The City, is out today and available at Mr. Brady’s Bandcamp, here. Mr. Brady steps away from the boards and lets Abjo do all the production work on this 6-track EP, but he blesses the mic with his laid back flow we’ve all grown to look forward to each release. Long Beach’s own LMNO drops by on “Talkin’” where these two Cali-underground mainstays trade bars of knowledge. Here’s the lead track, “Live It Up,” which shows off Abjo’s range:

As a former San Diego resident, I’ve never felt more welcomed to a city. Welcome To The City proves that, so grab up a piece of what America’s Finest City has to offer from its hip-hop division.

Peace to Mr. Brady!

If you haven’t read up on my year-in-review post for 2011, you wouldn’t know that Aeon Grey’s Paper Cranes took the #1 spot as my most complete, favorite album of the year. He didn’t waste any time with that whole resolution nonsense because he seemingly never left the “lab.” Still Lifes Sabotage is Aeon’s latest work, and it’s available for purchase (name-your-price) on the Central Standard’s Bandcamp page. No matter what price you ultimately name, this 6-track EP will be worth it. Sabicas handled the production on Paper Cranes, this time around Aeon Grey links up with Bashir, who delivers up a perfect soundboard for Aeon’s hoodie-up-head-down-leave-me-alone delivery. Peep the opening track, “Hum Drum.”

The sample usage and the strings and then the seamless transition to the hook … makes a hip-hop nerd appreciate the work some artists still put into their art. Support these Iowa transplants and Central Standard by naming that price. Here’s that link again for you ADHD sufferers. And as always hit us up in the comment section for your take.

We’ve been steady bloggin’ for a few years now. We’ve trimmed the fat, updated the site here and there, but overall Chris and I are pretty happy with the what TECB has become. It’s humbling to see people visit our site everyday and read our daily diatribes on Twitter and Facebook.  People even stopped by on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That’s hip-hop for you, there are no holidays. Enough waxing poetic, one of my prouder moments as a pretend blogger was when Virginia-based beat maker, Black-Tokyo, dropped me a line and said he wanted to create an EP inspired by, and exclusively for, TECB. After a few frantic “I-told-you-so” themed calls to old college professors, high school teachers, ex-girlfriends, and people who blocked me on Facebook, I of course obliged. So as a thank you to our reader base, the artists we’ve worked with, friends, family,and fellow bloggers (yes, even the shitty ones, I’m looking at you HipHopDx) we’re proud to release The Echo Chamber EP for free download.

Take the time to download and listen. We really appreciate everyone who stops by to read or comment or troll, truly. And with the amount of work we put in, it’s nice to have our name on some music. Please download, share, re-post, re-tweet, re-listen and then listen again. And of course, a special shout out and thank you to Black-Tokyo. Peep his past work on TECB here, and his whole catalog on his Bandcamp page, here. It’s quite extensive.

If you’re a friend of mine on the Twitter, then you may have seen my tweet saying that I read and listened (podcast) to two top-10 lists recently and both had me download or purchase albums that I hadn’t heard yet. It was their glowing review of them that clicked and I thought to myself I should at least give these records a shot. Which is all artists usually ask of their music, formulate your own opinion despite what the pundits say. One of the 3 reasons why Chris and I run TECB is to put music we like out there for YOU to formulate your own opinion about it (the other 2 reasons? pulling mad chicks and making mad cakes.) If you disagree with either of us, take a hike, that’s fine, but as long as you gave something a try to make your own decision on it, then that was incredibly hip-hop of you, and we thank you. Chris and I, for the most part, have vastly different tastes when it comes down to obscure artists. Mainstream and well-known Indie artists we tend to agree with one another about 75% of the time. Enough of a parody that it makes this shit house of a blog worth our time to create. Now before I get off on a soap-boxian tangent, here are my top-12 (12?!) hip-hop albums of 2011. This is my first go-round in the list department and if you missed Chris’, he took an alphabetical approach to 2011, here. My list isn’t in chronological order either, a further tactic to separate TECB from the copy-&-pasters you herbs call blogs. Bong!

(#5) Fortilive – I vs I

Back on January 16th I posted “Jim Kelly,” the lead single from Fortilive’s I vs I album. Both the group and DJbooth.net (where you can still download this project) consider this album a mixtape, but by conventional standards it’s an album. They put together tracks they had made over the years into one nice package and it certainly plays as such. If you’re not familiar with Fortilive, it’s a trio of two emcees, Slow-Mo and Mushmouf, and producer extraordinaire !llmind. Slo and Mush hail from Hawai’i originally and linked up with !llmind a few years ago on the UGHH.com forums. Fast forward to 2011, and they have an album together. The record touches on political issues, but they do it in a manner that doesn’t come off preachy, but comes off in a way that says; “this is what we have to live with, we need to make a fucking change.” !llmind’s production has a mainstream, almost club banger sound to it, but when it’s laced behind the hunger of Slo and Mush, it gives their music the same effect that converting your VHS collection to DVD does. It gives their message a new life, even if it didn’t need a new life in the first place. There are plenty of tracks that could be inspired by the Occupy Movements even though it came out 7 months prior. I vs I is well worth your time.

(#2) Blueprint – Adventures in Counter-Culture

Blueprint is criminally slept on. Not to say he has no following, he does, it’s quite big. But it should be a huge following. It should be bigger than most. He’s no short of a musical genius, and I don’t throw that claim around lightly. He’s the rare talent that is equally as nice on the mic as he is on the MPC. Your Black Milks, J. Dillas, Madlibs, Oh Nos, Alchemists, Dr. Dres, and countless other dual purpose artists always have one strength greater than another. Print, to me, is above everyone I just mentioned because he’s so good at both. He’s created two concept albums that are entire samples of classic rock and funk albums, using Parliment Funkadelic and The Who as inspiration. His 1988 album is timeless and is one of those records I wish more people would talk about as being great. Same goes for Adventures in Counter-Culture. This was the only album in 2011, to me, that lived up to and surpassed it’s lofty expectations, put on by myself. Random Axe, Smif-N-Wessun, and Pharoahe Monch were touted as the second, third, and fourth coming of Christ before they were released and all, have there good parts but overall disappointed me. In waves. Monumental, by Smif-N-Wessun and Pete Rock, is almost un-listenable. In any event, Adventures in Counter-Culture has Blueprint singing on multiple hooks and has Auto-tune in a couple songs, which normally would send me running for the hills. But, back to my genius comment, he does it in a way where not only does it work for the song/album, it shows his range as an artist, his abilities as a musician, his open mindedness towards fads in music that have been beaten to the ground, and shows he’s not scared to bend his genre a little. Us TECBers have been following Print since the days of ScribbleJam and it’s nice to watch someone work so hard and produce music that’s so good. Incredibly good. An album that you don’t necessarily need to be in any particular mood for, it’ll work where ever, whenever. Adventures in Counter-Culture has some social agendas and political connotations, but is still 100% hip-hop. Grab this. Grab this now.

(#6) Chachi – In Dust Real Evolution

I’m never embarrassed when I tell people I co-own and operate a hip-hop blog. But hip-hop still has a stigma in some people’s minds that it’s nothing but crass, Uncle Luke booty shaking, bass crazy kicking smut. Clearly, if you dive into the hip-hop culture as deep as we have here at TECB, one can see the different layers and sub-genres we have to sift through. And it’s a good thing. I think these same laypersons would have a tough time believing there are rap albums that can resonate with a skinny, pale, white kid from an upper middle class home in the sticks, who had, and still has, both parents and opportunities a bundle. That’s where Chachi Carvahlo comes in. In Dust Real Evolution not only made my eyes water upon my first listen, but always makes me want to call my parents and say hi whenever any of the tracks come up on a shuffle mix. In Dust Real Evolution is a story told by Chach to his listeners about the last few memories he has of his pops, who passed away the previous year after a bout with cancer. Both a close uncle of mine and my own father had been diagnosed and subsequently surgically removed of cancer in 2011. So Chachi’s monologues after each track explaining what his father was like and the trials he was going through while getting chemo treatment are more than heart wrenching, they are truths that can hit home to most people in our modern world. I’ve had two very close friends lose their fathers in my short 27 years on this earth. And I have met two more people this past year who have recently lost their fathers or have come dangerously close to, and the pain is nothing anyone can console or say the right thing to help ease. The pain and anguish in Chachi’s voice in most of the songs in In Dust Real Evolution are all too familiar, but he comes out a stronger person after living through his fathers last days. “Never Say Never” and “Message Clear” are easily the best two tracks, but the album as whole plays perfectly top to bottom and it’s an amazing motivational tool for someone who is down and out. “Car Keys” is an eerily good track too, as it’s a story of someone who destroys themselves with booze and insists on driving home. Something Rhode Islanders do too much as a whole. I recommend it to anyone who likes music, likes hip-hop, has parents, or has a pulse. This is one of the best albums of 2011. Grab yours here.

(#11) Greneberg – Greneberg

Following up their 2010 release Gutter Water, the duo known as Gangrene enlisted Roc Marciano to do an EP entitled Greneberg. Greneberg starts off right where Gutter Water left off, and even though it’s just an EP, the 7-track album holds enough weight to be one of the best releases of 2011. Alchemist and Oh No don’t hit the mic as much as they did last year and leave most the word play to Roc. I slept on Roc for a while. He was the quintessential emcee’s emcee. He’s not too dissimilar from the Random Axe stalwarts, as he’s a gully, punchline wordsmith.  The production on Greneberg is what makes it so great. I’d love to see how both ALC and Oh No get together to make one beat. Whatever their formula is, each track is similar enough that the dark, ominous sound is present all the way through but different enough where you think it’s a Kanye West album. This EP is what Random Axe was supposed to be, really good production and really good rhymes. Where Random Axe faltered for me, Greneberg excelled. And if it’s true that Roc Marciano is, in fact, the 4th official member of Random Axe going forward, that alone has garnered my purchase whenever their follow-up is out. Not to mention if a full length Greneberg album ever drops. Goodness.

(#8) Vast Aire – OX 2010: a street odyssey

Vast Aire’s highly anticipated debut with Man Bites Dog Records had been pushed back more than. It was initially supposed to be released in 2010, hence the name, and didn’t make it to fruition until June of 2011. After an extremely corny intro, OX 2010: a street odyssey gets down to business with “Nomad,” and doesn’t quit until the album finishes out. I was talking about Vast just the other day, about how he’s an acquired taste. Supposedly, some of his fans don’t like anything he’s done since Cannibal Ox. I find that preposterous. I think some of his best work was on his album with Might Mi, The Best Damn Rap Show. And not to mention his work with Mighty Joseph on Empire State, which I hold in almost as high regard as The Cold Vein.  Does he need the back-up from another emcee to succeed? I don’t think so, but he isn’t shy about having guests on his albums and OX 2010 is no different. Vast employs Karniege, Cappadonna, Double A.B., Kenyata Black, Guilty Simpson, Raekwon, and Vordul Mega. The last two on a track together, “Thor’s Hammer,” which is as dope as it sounds. The production on the album as a whole is completely on point. Kount Fif is responsible for a few tracks and I dig what dude has to offer, this being the first of his work I’ve been able to hear. Here is the aforementioned Kount Fif’s work on “I Don’t Care” with Cappadonna. The track is dope, even though Cappuccino the Great kind of phones his verse in, the beat, the sample, and Vast more than save it. Vast makes albums that are fun to listen to, he’s got a knack of picking good production, makes references to comic books, video games, and Kung-Fu. I’m not seeing any negatives.

(#3) PremRock & Willie Green – PremRock & Willie Green

Willie Green is easily one of my most important finds of the last two years or so. He’s been making music much longer than that, but ever since Chris and I trimmed the fat on TECB and focused solely on hip-hop (we used to post about some nonsense) there hasn’t been a producer that I immediately found everything they did to be 100% right up my musical alley. PremRock strikes me as a guy who is just like any of us, admittedly most artists are just regular people, but Prem rhymes about real things in his real life and comes off as … well, real. This album is of the throw back mold, one emcee, one producer, making tracks together to pander to the real hip-hop fans. Guests were kept to a relative minimum, C-Rayz Walz and Soul Kahn appear on the same track, “It Had to Be Me,” and Has-Lo and Open Mike Eagle each are on a track. DJ Addikt comes in and makes some filthy scratches on a couple of tracks, but other than that, it’s Prem and Willie Green as a duo, making music as one. There is a vast range of tracks on this self titled album, “The Sound” gets deep about drug use and watching your youth disappear, “Move” is on some real deep shit, battling with the decisions of abortion and the effect on anyone involved,”Kill Your Idols,” which is a way of life PremRock recommends we all live by, which is do better than the people you look up to rather than just look up to them, and then there’s “Johnny Rotten,” a fast paced, anger infused banger aimed at the dick riders, haters, and all around wack human beings. “Johnny Rotten” has the crispiest beat on the whole album, and as PremRock says, it’s his Ma Dukes favorite track. I’m going to have to concur with Ma Premonition. Cop your own version at iTunes and tell them TECB sent ya.

(#4) IV the Polymath – New Vs Old

It took a few years before I would appreciate the craft of purely instrumental albums. Chris had been telling me about how nice certain cats were, and I agreed, but I thought I needed lyrical content to help stimulate my medulla oblongata. I feel like a dult that I never dived into albums of this hip-hop sub genre sooner, because I’m crazy late to a lot of real good albums. That didn’t happen in 2011 however, as I had the opportunity to download and purchase a few really dope projects. And far and away the best instrumental album and one of the best albums period of 2011, is IV the Polymath’s New Vs Old. I’ve talked at length about the kid’s production skills. He uses a plethora of live instrumentation with the right touch of samples. This 18-track album is the perfect meld of hip-hop meets jazz meets funk meets fuck you and your multi-genre comparisons.  Just take the title track for example :

A little Persian, a little jazzy, a little boom-bap, and 100% fresh and original. Grab yourself a copy post-haste, and bask in some tunes. Get it here.

(#9) Meta P – Edison’ Ink

Edison’s Ink surpassed my expectations and is easily one of the best albums to come out this past year. The entire project from lyrics, concepts, production, and even skits (“Yo Bro-hondo!”), is done better than albums put out by the supposed mainstream. After the two intro tracks the album get’s into it fast with a hunger filled track called “Don’t Come Round Here No More” that more-or-less sets the tone for the rest of the album. I said on Twitter not too long ago that Meta P has angry raps and I have angry tweets, and even though I said that with a hint of tongue-in-cheek, there certainly a level of truth. Meta has a chip on his shoulder, seemingly from seeing less talented cats making a name for themselves with mediocrity, that he harnessed into Edison’s Ink in a “fuck-you” fashion, but instead of coming out whiny and irritable, like my tweet game, it comes off as Meta P isn’t to be taken lightly. Run-on sentences aside, Edison’s Ink has everything from a concept song “Dead Man’s Party” that has the listener in a horror movie, “People Fall” where Meta talks about some deep-rooted shit that he grew up with and had to battle, “RI Reds” which we’ve promoted heavily here at TECB, a posse slash of epic proportions, and the title track which is quintessential Meta P where he flexes his story telling ability mixed with a warning label of lyrics, recommending to all he’s not stable. The production on the album is done by 8th (8th Wundah) and cuts throughout are done by Baltimore’s DJ Remedy. Grab your copy here. Now.

(#12) Juan Deuce & Falside – The Mechanics EP

It seemed like once a month we were hearing from some combination of Juan and Fal. Either tracks or videos, or in Falside’s case, beat tapes, and it wasn’t a bad thing as these two work well together and are seemingly in the lab 24/7. The highly anticipated Mechanics EP finally dropped, and even though it’s just 7-tracks deep, it’s easily an original sound that you’d be hard pressed to hear ever again. Juan’s style melds well with Falside’s esoteric production and this EP gives us a look into their minds while it primes us as listeners for their full length album. “Hey DJ” is a fun-loving track and “Guts” is one of the duo’s best work, but my favorite track is the title track, “Mechanics,” which shows off Juan’s depth as an emcee as he switches up his style a few times in the song and but also, and to me more importantly, shows off his fierce, heated side. Sprinkle in some M.O.P. samples and Jaysonic from Time Machine and you have “Forecast” another dope track that keeps Falside’s moniker as The Creative Capital Beatsmith alive. This project is still available for free and by all means scoop it up (here) before it’s too late.

(#10) Dead Hand – Contemplations of Aborting Damien

The duo of Carl Kavorkian and Rummage are known as Dead Hand. Their album Contemplations of Aborting Damien had an immediate impression on me upon my first listen. I had a quick review of it when it initially dropped where I said it wasn’t a rock-rap hybrid but there are plenty of guitar samples and a real heavy metal mentality but the overall sound is just, dark hip-hop that makes you want to turn the lights on and have “9-1″ already pressed on your phone with your fingering hovering over the second “1.” The 9-track album is available for free over at Carl Kavorkian’s Bandcamp page and is one of a few absolutely free albums that have made my list. And that has 100% no bearing on my rankings, but goes to show that good music is readily available for your listening pleasure. Hip-hop ain’t dead and fuck you if you think so.  The folks that keep saying that are sadistic and in denial and shouldn’t be listening to music anyway, they should be in a rubber room, tied up and fed lunch through a slot under their door.

(#7) DCK VNNGT – MRDR DTH KLL

DCK VNNGT is a late entry as they just dropped MRDR DTH KLL in December. My review of the album had described the duo’s sound as organized madness. I should have emphasized the organized part, as the album is put together perfectly and is along the same dark, stormy, lines as releases from Eyes and Teeth, Dead Hand and Aeon Grey from this year. DCK VNNGT is part of the progressive hip-hop label Uncommon Records out of New York, but they hail from the cold, wet, hipster infused Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon. Their 8-track EP is just a sampling into the minds of YunSloth and Bloodmoney and I’m impatiently waiting their full length follow-up which presumably will be on my 2012 list. ”Bombs not rations … yeah that just happened…” :

Another EP that made my list and another free project, make dope music regardless of price and much like ghost-baseball-players-in-middle-American-cornfields, they will come.

(#1) Aeon Grey/Sabicas – Paper Cranes

I need to first apologize to Aeon Grey, as I had an extreme late pass on this album, and I was never able to get to posting about it. It dropped this past summer and is easily one of the dopest releases of this past year. Aeon Grey, originally from the middle states that have right angles for borders (Iowa to be exact,)and Sabicas have the best description of an album I’ve ever read and after multiple listens it certainly is one of the most accurate descriptions as well:

Paper Cranes was conceived by Sabicas and Aeon Grey while sitting in a half empty apartment in July of 2010. The idea was to create an album somewhat spontaneously using beats crafted of just simple loops and drums, and stream of conscious lyrics. Sometimes letting the pieces fall randomly actually creates the most honest representation of intention. Nothing is forced, nothing is touched up and nothing is held back. Nothing just… Is.

The album is on the darker sounding sound, and I’m not sure if it was the life changes that I have been going through myself or not, but some of my favorite albums this year have an eerie, dark, Dexter’s dark passenger-esque feel to it. Listen to this track and try not to reflect on some deep shit. Go ahead, I’ll wait. . .

That’s “Cessation.” Not only does it have the truest hook I’ve heard in this past calendar year, but Aeon speaks on some things that I’ve thought and spoke on and does it in a way that doesn’t come off as “hippie bullshit liberal propaganda” as some fat bureaucratic folk might initially assume. There’s been word that Aeon is sitting on some Black Tokyo tracks which means he might be another repeat offender for next years list. Download this release as soon as possible, it’s part of the “name your price” price bracket so dig deep in your couch cushions and support the dude with as much as you can. If you’re still on the fence, there’s another track that I need you to hear, and not only is it the dustiest drum loop on the album, it has the dopest name “Echo Chamber” :

Seriously. Go grab this album. Right now.

It was a real good year for rap music. This top-12 wasn’t done by any scientific algorithm and any number of these albums could be flip-flopped for one another. I want to shout out some honorable mentions, Eyes & Teeth, his albums this year were extremely dope and an interesting change-up, the compilations from Maxx Reebo and Backwoodz Studioz were hard to leave off, MC Eleven’s mix-tape is dope, the two pop-up albums from Uncommon Records this year, Adam Warlock’s angry, The Mars Volta inspired Dark Weapons, Praverb The Wyse’s Professional Hobbyist should be had by everyone, IV the Polymath’s work with Nu1ce and Spill both easily could be added to this list, and not to mention Black-Tokyo who released more EPs this year then some cats produce their whole careers. He even went as far as asking for his fans/friends ideas on what they wanted to hear chopped up and sampled on his Good Clean Filth series. Dirt E. Dutch had a dope year, being part of three releases, Dr. Khil’s beat tape could make the most talent-less emcee sound dope and I cannot wait for his album with North Carolina emcee Mallz. LMNO, Random Axe, Pharoahe Monch, the aforementioned Mallz, Big K.R.I.T., Quelle Chris, Danny Brown, and Sacramento’s Noah all put out real dope music this year. If it’s any indication of where hip-hop, mainly indie and progressive hip-hop, is heading, we should have an equally as good, if not better 2012. We wish you health and happiness this year and we appreciate every reader, every re-tweeter, every commenter, every subscriber, and every believer. Omitting corny, rhyming-last lines will be on next year’s resolutions, I promise.

Hello and welcome to The Echo Chamber Blog.

Before I get into anything, I want to thank my good friend Smitty for the graphic you see above. I’ll be making that exact work into 4″ x 4″ stickers within the next few weeks. Please let me know if you’re interested in getting some so I can gauge how many I’ll need to buy.  (I’m also looking into t-shirts being made!)

Now concentrate, and learn the alphabet with me…

Aside from the people who thought I made a living off of TECB, a few albums I couldn’t find space for, and my sister Kiley graduating college, I have written about nearly everything of significance in 2011 in my post below.  We’ve experienced a lot of positive moments in 2011, and, if all goes well, this should get us started off on the right foot for 2012. I went about my year-end post a bit differently this time around because I wanted to try something new and a little offbeat. Let me know how you all feel about it.

“A” is for “ALEXIS”:

The Hill.  Federal Reserve Notes.  Polo.  Those are examples of what comes to mind when speaking on Pistol Pone, long-standing member of Fedd Hill, the Rhode Island-based group whose music has been pounding the streets of the smallest state for a decade-plus.  Although, after Pone’s busy year of video making, there will be yet another association to his name that will never be forgotten. In September, Pone dropped some visuals for “Alexis,” a song paying homage to the nine-year-old Alexis Marie Silva who lost her life twelve-months prior in an automobile accident.

“Alexis” is as much of a beautiful remembrance as it is a devastating reminder, and Alipone’s balancing of both the bitter and the sweet in his narrative brings results staggering enough to knock the hardest of hard-knocks out of their element.  I feel as if this was a pinnacle moment for Pone, in respect to his career as a recording artist as well as his evolving perspective on the fragility of day-to-day life.  ”Things like this will make you change what you believe,” he states.  So will this video.

“B” is for BLACK, BROWN, and BLUE:

BLACK: 

Brian Burton, better known to the listening public as Danger Mouse, might be too good of a producer.  His tunes are lacquered with enough polish that the excess could make the wood-paneled minivan pictured on the cover of El Camino, the latest from The Black Keys, look like next year’s model.  Yet it certainly isn’t a detriment to his music-making, as his deft hand has helped The Keys in creating their most accessible album to date.   Although the record lacks the degree of rawness heard on past Auerbach & Carney-produced efforts, El Camino is still Russell Jones-approved, and its haziness is capable of keeping any college-ass disco dorm shimmying into the early morning hours.

What I love most about The Black Keys is how level their albums are.  It’s rare that one track outshines another – all of them hold ground on the same plane, managing to consistently stay above the bar and fit perfectly within their grungy groove. Essentially, each song from the Akron, Ohio duo is a standout and at eleven cuts deep, El Camino is no exception.

BROWN:

This dude Danny Brown is an interesting character.  He’s off-topic, offensive, and off of his rocker, but somehow I’m still drawn to the awkward rhyme style of the snaggletoothed spit-slinger.  Two of this year’s best videos (one and two) came of Brown’s early ’11 release, XXX, which was followed by Black and Brown!, an exceptional collaborative EP with fellow Detroit native Black Milk, in the final quarter.

On “Wake Up,” his first appearance on the joint EP, Brown states how he’s “trying to make in a city where 90% fail,”  a statistic that I’d guess isn’t too far from the truth, as the Detroit community is home to soaring rates of poverty, crime, and unemployment.  That said, it’s great to see artists like these two traveling off of the over-beaten hip-hop path — Black does so by continuously expanding his sound as a producer, and Brown by kicking some of the most explicit, erratic, and entertaining lyrics to ever penetrate eardrums.  If Danny’s warming-up of the Motor City in 2011 is any sign of things to come from the drug-and-pussy-fueled rapper, other artists better buckle-the-hell-up or straight clear the lanes. Because homeboy is making some dangerously fast moves.

BLUE: 

It comes as no surprise how this year’s most ambitious effort from a hip-hop veteran was via Rhymesayers Entertainment.  Not only does the indie authority know how to build a well-rounded roster of unique and appealing talent, they’re also aware of how to maintain a winning record by releasing gem after gem.  Blueprint, one of the label’s most elite players, released the superb Adventures in Counter-Culture in early April of this year.  On the album, Print takes a slight departure from his boom-bap background, allowing synths and singing to play a large role in the project that flirts so heavily with different genres there may be a musical-mutt birthed sometime in January.

My best crack at classifying the sound would be a forward-thinking, hip-hop homage to 80′s new wave, but that’s a hell of a mouthful and merely my own interpretation. On “Go Hard or Go Home (Printnificence)” Print kicks a few lines to best describe the action taken on his most prestigious project to date: “Not the hot new trend that you think is fresh. I don’t care which path is the friendliest; Imma take the one that got no trace of human steps.” While Blueprint has surely expanded his audience by traveling a new and interesting avenue, he does so by bravely and successfully incorporating an “unfamiliar twist” into a genre that many people aren’t comfortable with the tampering of. The exact reason Adventures in Counter-Culture is such a standout.

“C” is for CHILI PEPPERS:

For the second weekend of September, I brought I’m With You, the latest Rick Rubin-produced Red Hot Chili Peppers record, for my trek to the fine town of North Conway, New Hampshire.  The Frusciante-less album is pretty great and I spun it quite a few times throughout my trip, but, ironically enough, the California rock outfit aren’t the chili peppers I’m here to write about.

On my second day in town I partook in a hot wing challenge.  Ten wings in five minutes.  No drinks, no napkins, and a waiver to be signed, relieving the restaurant from all responsibility in what may come of the consumer after the wings were eaten: including death.  As a seasoned heat freak I signed my life away, and about ten-minutes later a man wearing a gas mask brought me a basket of wings, caked in thick ghost pepper paste.  I decided to move forward with the challenge and made it through four wings before realizing the time constraints weren’t going to allow me to go much further.

My stomach started to ache within a few minutes after I had stopped eating.  The pain continued to accelerate until I eventually found myself sitting on a fallen tree, violently vomiting Pepto-Bismol and fiery chicken-chunks onto, what I later realized was, part of someones front yard.  Once I arrived back at where we were staying, I puked-up what was left in my stomach and roughed it through what seemed like an eternity of the worst pain I had literally ever experienced.

It took over four hours for me to become remotely functional.  I recovered surprisingly well over the next day-or-two, but come Monday morning my stomach was begging yet again.  Thankfully I was referred to a great gastrointestinal doctor who helped ease my mind from the horror I thought had awaited in my future.  After a CT scan, a couple of prescriptions, and a diagnosis (all in all, I fucked up my colon) from a doctor who quickly gained my trust and eased my worries, I’ve felt much better. Months later, my stomach is still a bit sensitive, but at least I’m no longer in agony.

Shout out to Rango.

“D” is for DIRTY DURDIE:

When speaking on local grounds, the duo of Dirty Ice and Durdie Furbie, collectively know as Dirty Durdie, were my best discovery in 2011. We became acquainted at the Now or Never record release party in April, and since then have gone on to build a relationship that I’m particularly fond of — I like their music and gladly write about it, while they enjoy my site and help in passing the word.

Ice and Gremm (Furbie) not only make music fly enough to have heads bouncing like a set of double-d titties, the two emcees are also amongst, if not standing above, the most active members of the RI hip-hop community.  Rock sets, perform at open mics, support fellow artists; these cats do it all, and do so with a pound-the-pavement, grassroots approach I wish more artists would adopt.  It’s a pleasure to have the Dirty Durdie presence around town, as their amalgamation of artistic creativity paired with their appreciation of and enthusiasm for hip-hop go unmatched by nearly anyone.

“E” is for EYEDEA:

On New Year’s Eve, WordPress sent me a report on our year of blogging. The most notable statistic was how Verbal and I were able to publish more posts in 2011 alone than we had in the previous two-and-a-half-years of TECB’s internet existence.  Top posts were listed and our most popular was one I had made in September about the canvas and prints of Rachel Sell that were made to help raise money for the dedication ceremony being held for Eyedea and the one-year anniversary of the talented musician’s passing. I’m proud of the post doing well and hope my plug of Sell’s fine artwork was able to earn an extra dollar-or-two for the event that toasted the fallen artist.

“F” is for FACEBOOK:

In March I joined FaceBook, caving in only after realizing the world’s top networking website would be beneficial to the readership of The Echo Chamber Blog.  There are quite a few artists that still contact me personally when they have new material (the preferred method), but in many instances FaceBook has taken my accessibility to music from local artists to the next level. Posts are more frequent and material has diversified, allowing me to gain a stronger and more steady following through my promotion of posts as well as correspondence between artists and all of my TECB peoples.

Needless to say, it was a good decision on my part. With any luck Google+ won’t soon take over the world and I can continue rely on FaceBook as a resourceful media outlet. Until that happens, join my brother-in-blogging and I on FaceBook and Twitter, and don’t forget to “Like” our website’s fan page. Our Miles Davis-level-of-coolness relies on you, folks, because pissing your pants just ain’t what it used to be.  Word to Veronica Vaughn.

“G” is for GRANDPA:

The two biggest male role models in my life both passed in March — my father in ’02 and my grandfather Frederick V. Whiteside just this year. For the last nine-years, March has been a bitter bitch of a month for me, although I’m trying my hardest this year — the tenth and first anniversary, respectively — to honor and celebrate their lives rather than perpetually dwell and mourn over their deaths. Easier said than done, but that’s my goal for 2012. Fortunately, they were both great people, making them easy to celebrate. Let me tell you a little bit about Freddy.

Fred was husband of sixty-nine-years to Millie LaTour, a hard-nosed yet loving, compassionate, and supportive woman who owned and ran her own hairdressing business for over three decades.  Together they had four children; his only daughter, and loyal TECB-reader, being my mother. (Hi, mom.) He was a family man through-and-through, and for such a straight-laced, church-going, and mild-mannered man, his sense of humor was nearly unmatched by anyone I’ve ever met. Fred’s jolliness and sharp wit made it easy for him to keep his peers smiling.  It’s something that came to him naturally, and it was always a pleasure to witness his genuineness.  My grandfather was also a sports fanatic. In my little league days, he would count my pitches for the games when I held-down the mound — not because he wanted to offer me any post-game critique, but simply because of his love for the game, which faded only with his vision over the last few years.

One other thing I’ll always remember about Freddy is how much he helped keep my spirits up after I graduated college. It was a tough time for me. I couldn’t find a job anywhere doing anything, and my personal life was in shambles for reasons he wasn’t even fully aware of. Grandpa would tell me how proud he was of me; that I’ve grown into a fine person, especially considering what I had been through with my father’s suicide. He told me how he prayed for me: to keep my head up; to preserve my well-being; to soon catch a break in the job market. And now here I am: persevering; doing alright for myself, mentally and physically; working a full-time grind. I can’t thank him enough for keeping me in his prayers and being there for me when I needed him most.

So if you’re cool with me, and you’re down with TECB, be grateful of this man right here. He played a large role in shaping me into the person I am today. Respect that.

“H” is for HANK:

Dirty Hank. The motherfucking microphone-molester. He’s one of the only artists in the world I can’t write about without flossing a foul-mouth, but I suppose that’s to be expected when you’re focusing on an emcee whose primary themes are blacking-out and bagging skanks.  Don’t let his subject matter deter you, though.  Hank’s lyrical chops, ignorant and offensive as they may be, are still strong enough to break an already broken hymen. 2011 saw the release of his Does This Look Normal? mixtape, an appearance from Dirty Ebenezer Scrooge, and the reintroduction of Hank’s interest in pornography.

In June, D.H. was my first official interview for The Echo Chamber Blog. The interview was successful hits-wise, and it helped in teaching me how little blogging platforms (in my case, WordPress) care about censorship. If talk of a hit-and-run and possible manslaughter, Craigslist solicitation, and links to PornHub weren’t enough to red-flag our site for spreading filthy and/or illegal content, I can only imagine what else Hank and I can get away with when it’s time for a follow-up.  Lastly, I’m proud to say that people finding TECB by searching “Molly Shannon fucked someone to death” is a daily happening.  Thanks, Hen-rock. This goes out to you.

“I” is for IN DUST REAL EVOLUTION:

Weighing in at only nine tracks, In Dust Real Evolution, the most recent offering from Chachi Carvalho, is still massive enough to tough it through a toe-to-toe bout with any competitor.  In the corner across the way staring down the Pawtucket resident is a juiced-up foe named heartbreak — an opponent hard to face no matter how rigorous and painstaking the training.  Big Chach, however, was able to connect with enough lyrical haymakers to stun his competition, allowing him to persevere beyond a mere twelve rounds, and hopefully champion in the long run of life.

The brief yet powerful collection of concept-driven songs, each concluding with a journal excerpt penned during his father’s final days of battling pancreatic cancer, is easily the most matured recordings to hail from the Carvalho catalog.  j.DePina and Vertygo support their long-time friend and collaborator with the help of their ever-fresh production, but witnessing Chachi’s artistic growth and hearing his choice of themes paired with the well-spoken, poetic journal entries are truly what make this album a triumph.

“J” is for JUAN DEUCE:

Sure, the “J” is silent, yet in 2011 Juan Deuce has been anything and everything but that, starting the year off with a successful mixtape, Shits and Giggles, and closing-out the calendar with an even more successful project with Falside, The Mechanics EP.  In between said efforts, Juan made one of the year’s most talked about videos, caught some serious wreck from indie rap legend and fellow Rhode Islander Sage Francis, and even generated a little buzz on MTV Hive.

Clearly Juan has established himself on record over the past twelve-months, and his live performance is something else not to be taken lightly. The charismatic and energetic emcee can control the mic and rock a crowd like not many other hip-hop artists are capable of doing. It’s an unfortunately rare attribute of live hip-hop performers, but Juan possesses the skill and gumption to keep an audience beyond pleased.  He’s certainly someone to watch out for in the year to come.

“K is for KAIMBR & KEV BROWN:

If you were wondering if I was going to declare an artist and/or album of the year, here’s it is: Kaimbr & Kev Brown’s The Alexander Green Project via Redefinition Records (one of my favorite independent hip-hop imprints and home to beat wizard Damu the Fudgemunk).  Without question, this is my favorite release of the year, and I have the homie DJ Mekalek to thank for putting me on to such a monster of a project, and, perhaps more importantly, this lion of a lyricist who goes by the name of Kaimbr.

Many have sampled The Reverend Al Green before, but only a select few have been as successful as Kev Brown, who constructs raw hip-hop productions as equally as pay homage to the legendary soul singer on each of the project’s fourteen tracks. Beat-making aside, Kev also hangs with Kaimbr on the microphone for a few of the album’s standout cuts.  While Kaimbr’s rhymes and Kev’s classically chopped-up samples are the highlights, the D.C.-based Low Budget family, a crew whose name bears absolutely no meaning to their recording’s exceedingly dope end-results, comes through for ten-plus visits, helping to make The Alexander Green Project hotter than bubbling grits thrown onto bare skin.

On “Hook,” the shining Peter Pan x Lost Boys x battle for enlightenment-themed track, Kaim states “we control the waves of the ocean.”  No doubt — TECB hopes to do the same for Rhode Island in the year ahead.

“L” is for “LEGENDARY WEAPONS”:

Do you see the above picture? That’s DJ Mekalek, former WRIU disc jock and long-standing member of Time Machine.  He’s spinning something called vinyl, an almost obsolete medium of music that’s rarely seen, heard, or even manufactured anymore thanks to advancements in technology and the billions of music listeners who no longer value the beauty of a tangible listening experience. The picture was taken at Mek’s November 8th performance at The Bridge where he displayed the turntable trickery and beat-making magic he’s known best for.

The Rhode Island wax master added a new bullet-point or three to his hip-hop resume in 2011 — the most glaring of which would be the chorus he put together for the title track on Legendary Weapons, the Wu-Tang compilation from this past summer.  More recently, Mekalek was able to throw some cuts on the well-received Andrew Unknown-produced Raekwon Dope on the Table EP.  Both are great accomplishments, being that cuts, scratches, and vocal samples aren’t regularly heard (at all) in this respect on the music of Wu-Tang Clan. (*BONG*)

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for future Time Machine material as well as some new, promising solo work Mek describes as a Killer Tape x Live and Learn hybrid of sorts, with a sound aiming to recreate the days of boom-bap, an era that nostalgic hip-hop nerds like myself continue to cherish.

“M” is for MARRIAGE:

August 27:

After dating for a longer duration than most modern-day marriages last, two of my closest friends — Zach & Ariel — finally took the plunge.  The ceremony was held at Bittersweet Farm in Westport, Massachusetts, and although that skank-bag Irene had already begun to flaunt her shit, that part of the day went off without a hitch.  Dinner was a breakfast buffet, an idea I thought was just about the best in wedding history.  Ironically enough, I only ate about one scrambled egg and a half-slice of bacon before I gave up food for the evening and decided to roll with straight Beamers for as long as I could hang.  Apparently my handle on pounding bourbon shots wasn’t as tight as I thought, because not too far beyond the kick-off time of the after-party at the Bluefin Grille (at The Marriott in Downtown), my drinking privileges were axed.  Booze-talk aside, it was a great day, and I’m happy for and proud of the now Mr. & Mrs. Taylor.

September 17:

When my father passed, it was, and very much still is, difficult to accept his loss.  Almost as difficult was wrapping my head around the idea of Mary, my mother, linking-up with someone new, but once it happened and the initial awkwardness wore thin, I don’t believe she could have made a better decision than Slick Rick. She’s happy; My family loves him; And 99% of all yard-work no longer includes me.  After six-or-so years and a threat from Mary’s mother Millie, MC Ricky D popped the question and laced my mom’s ring-finger with some truck jewelz. My sister Kiley and I couldn’t be happier for the both of them.  It was the best wedding I’ve ever attended that I can remember.

“N” is for NEED NOT WORRY:

Need Not, an emcee with impeccable grasp on the art of story-telling, is another local favorite of mine.  He’s the Richard Walters of Rhode Island making spaced-out rap ballads.  Although a single (“Ride”) and a Sterby-rocked album sampler were all to be heard from Need Not Worry over the last year, the promise of his hopefully sooner-than-later return on record built-up enough excitement to land him a spot in my year-end post.  ”Dreams,” the SoulChef-crafted track currently featured on the producer’s Here & Now via Blue Bottle Records, will also be included on the upcoming Star Stranded LP.

Listen:

Once the album drops, I will surely be one of the first to let you know about it.  Stay tuned in to TECB, but in the meantime visit my post about Kitchen Dip, a great new website I was put on to earlier in the year and home to a couple of Need Not Worry tracks I had never heard before. Enjoy.

“O” is for ONE-HANDED:

In my opinion, there’s only one album to give The Alexander Green Project a run for its money as the best of 2011; Rapping With Paul White, the latest and greatest from across-the-pond producer Paul White, courtesy of independent UK label One-Handed Music. Rapping recruitment for the album includes a handful of the beat maestro’s favorite emcees — Guilty Simpson, Marv One, Moe Pope, Tranqill and Danny Brown, among a few others — each of which offering stellar vocal contributions in yet another of White’s multi-layered instrumental experimentations.

Over the past few years White has crafted a unique style of his own, continuing to push its boundaries with each second spent making music.  His out-of-the-box approach is something I’m fanatical about, as the different sounds and genres blended with pure hip-hop aesthetics are rarely mixed with such perfection. Another great attribute to Paul’s music is how OHM front-man Alex Chase delivers news of it with his smart, humorous email newsletters. They’re truly a great label who hasn’t allowed the digital brigade to cause a demise of their pressing of physical product. Much respect.

“P” is for PROVIDENCE:

In April I relocated to Providence, the capital city of Rhode Island.  My East Side apartment has been dubbed “The Echo Chamber” by a few of my friends, a title that brings a smile to my face each time it’s heard.  Although phone and digital correspondence are still my main connections to local artists, living five-minutes away from every live music venue in the city has allowed me to have more personal interaction with people on the scene, as well as provide a handsomely big-nosed face to associate with the RI division of The Echo Chamber Blog. (Yeah, I blog. What up, skinz?) Quite a few people now know me just by way of the support I’ve shown to the overflow of talent throughout the smallest state, and I’ve actually formed a few new friendships in doing so. Peace to all of you. And peace to Providence. I love it here.

“Q” is for QWEL:

Visible Light — the newest offering from Typical Cats member and Galapagos4 artist Qwel — may mark the first time I’ve ever purchased digital music voluntarily. If you’ve read TECB at all before, it’s probable you’ve witnessed a rant about how I only like to buy CD’s and vinyl, and loathe the purchasing of digital tunes. It’s a collectors thing, mostly, but I also like to hit the stores and be able to have accessibility to liner notes, artwork, et al. That said, this specific collection of freestyles, poems, and spoken word pieces has never been available in a physical format.

However, I don’t let anything from the Windy City native blow by me without grabbing it, so I made the purchase, equipped with various sketches from Qwel’s notepad, and I’m very happy with the project.  There aren’t any direct links to score Visible Light, but contacting Carole (s.carole [at] gmail [dot] com) will get a link sent directly to you along with PayPal instructions. A must have for any Qwel fan — much like every other piece of his work.

“R” is for “RI REDS”:

Horror movie junkie and local noise maker Meta P released Edison’s Ink, his second and most triumphant all-8th-produced project, right in time for Halloween.  The album caught much love (three separate mentions, I believe) from RI-based music journalist Chris Conti of The Providence Phoenix, and  ”RI Reds,” the album’s killer single, has been a staple of many WRIU shows since October. We let the song hit our pages with the one-two-three punch before finally bringing it to you a fourth time as a highlight of the year.

T of P.O.W. Camp sets the rhyme off followed by the host of the party, Meta P, with Milez Grimez serving-up the third verse, the godfather Swann Notty batting clean-up, and 8th closing out what is likely the most major joint of forces I’ve ever witnessed on a local level. The song couldn’t be much better.

“S” is for STANLEY:

I grew up a Bruins fan and toughed it though some of the worst seasons, so watching the 2010-2011 squadron be crowned champions after their poetic, anxiety-inducing postseason victory was the best sports-related feeling I’ve ever experienced. (Yes, over the NBA, Super Bowl, and World Series Championships.)  When the Black-and-Gold were parading the Stanley Cup around Boston, Andy Brickley, former B’s left winger and current NESN analyst, was asked about his favorite moment of the celebration, stating that it was when the Bruins’ captain Zdeno Chara first raised The Cup — because “it’s never been held so high.”  Brick might not even know how much of a gem he dropped, but just thinking of the line almost brings water to my eyes.

A big thank you goes out to my EL brother D.R. for scoring me the Providence Journal printing plates to the front page and the sports section from the morning after the B’s took The Cup.

“T” is for TAD FRESH & TRONNY T:

Unless you’re twice the nerd I am, not a single one of you will have the slightest idea as to who these guys are.  Truth is, I know Willie Evans Jr. and Paten Locke from their Asamov days, but when they refer to themselves as Tad Fresh and Tronny T, the two members of Dumbtron, even I have trouble remembering who in the holy hell is who.  In any regard, that doesn’t really matter.  (Willie is Tad, Paten is Tronny.) What matters is the show-stopping, party-starting video you see above.

The song, titled “Stay Classy,” is tighter than my post-holiday spending budget, and the live aspect of Paten keeping it locked on the wheels and Willie getting busy on the video mixer is quite possibly the best thing I’ve seen in twenty-years as a hip-hop fan.  If I had the opportunity to witness Dumbtron perform a set like this, afterwards I’d need to take my pants to the pants store to fix the optical illusion my pleats were causing.

“U” is for UNDERGROUND SOUND:

On my sister’s birthday I was able to make my debut radio appearance on DJ Primitive’s Monday-evening show Underground Sound.  I may or may not have mentioned this before, but getting on 90.3 WRIU to speak about TECB was a goal I set for myself back when I decided to start covering Rhode Island hip-hop in mid-2010, so accomplishing that was one of my defining moments of 2011. Without WRIU my knowledge and judgement of hip-hop music probably wouldn’t be what it is today, and my embrace of locally grown artists would definitely not be as prevalent. Essentially, The Echo Chamber Blog wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for URI’s commercial-free radio station, and my gratefulness to all of the DJ’s over the past ten-to-fifteen years is unmeasurable.

A big shout out to Primitive, FourOhOne, and Sense One for the weekly mentions of The Echo Chamber Blog and always holding us down on the airwaves. Also, peace to Prim for letting me get back in the studio again on the day after Christmas to help me promote this post:

You can download the show from our server, or from MediaFire if that’s what floats your boat.  The fine gentlemen of Underground Sound also welcomed me back to the station again for today’s show, so expect to see that available in the near future.

“V” is for VILLAIN:

“Rarely has intelligence and ignorance co-existed so gracefully on a page,” writes Kevin Beacham, much-respected Midwest DJ and former face of Scribble Jam, in his review of Root for the Villain: Rap, Bullshit, and a Celebration of Failure, the debut book from hip-hop artist and aficionado J-Zone.  There is no better description to offer. Ridiculous lines like ”creative copyright infringement makes my dick hard,” among others of the same context, still mesh together with telling reflections of his family, struggles in the music business, and legitimate gripes with societal nonsense. Zone is a master of conveying humor on the page — possibly more so than he ever was on record, which is saying a lot for a guy whose music career was hilariously excellent.  I’ve never read a book so good. And I was an English Major in college.

“W” is for “WUNDAHGROUND”:

If 8th is known as the king of Wundahground, Milez Grimez is the rowdy resident who wreaks havoc over all of the land’s instrumentals.  As of late the two have been gaining some well-deserved attention, both respectively and collectively.  In February, 8th went up against famed Dipset producer Araab Muzik in an MPC battle, ending with neck-and-neck results at the finish line with Araab barely clinching what many still say was a controversial victory.  Milez earned a clear victory in RA the Rugged Man’s “Most Murderous Lyricist Competition” at the end of the summer, which landed him a feature with Rugged Man over a beat from C-Lance, the producer who worked with Jedi Mind Tricks on their latest offering.

While a cut with long-time Rhode Isle-emcee Romen Rok and a number of tracks to feature frequent Wundahground collaborator Swann Notty are seeing their finishing touches, 8th and Milez appearances on “RI Reds” and the more recent FourOhOne-produced Dirty Durdie track ”I Told You So” have proven enough to keep their names pushing the thermostat.  Also, their video for “What Used 2 Be,” a single off the long-awaited 8th & Milez Grimez LP When Sleeping Giants Awake, is yet another song so scorching, it’s in need of extinguishing.

“X” is for XEROX:

Take a look at your favorite hip-hop website.  Verbal and I could do what they do — copy-and-paste email press releases, regurgitate the particulars — but we’re over here doing things differently.  Some people are offended by how we go about our business, but those are the same Gerber babies who prefer to be associated with the carbon-copy, cookie-cutting music powerhouses that offer no opinion or personality. These junk-juggling tastemakers of today promote nearly every scrap of rubbish tossed into their inbox.  Their lists are lame and forgettable. And they get away with amateur moves like offering downloadable songs through spam-ridden file sharing stink-holes on a daily basis.

If those are the type of sites you enjoy, please…

Get off my plane.

Or you could start the new year off fresh by subscribing to The Echo Chamber Blog, the Air Force One of the internet, and help spread the word of two music-loving fake journalists. #Creek

“Y” is for “YOU DON’T OWN THE ROAD”:

At first, placing “You Don’t Own the Road” on here was my last stitch effort to give Blood Pressures, the fourth and possibly (possibly) best full-length LP from The Kills, a well-deserved mention in my year-end post, but now I’m viewing it as a buffer to somewhat neutralize the trash I just talked throughout “X” and the ego-tripping I’m planning for “Z.”

I’m fully aware that my site may not be the best or even the most preferred on the web for many reasons.  I’m no blog revolutionary, but I do like to think we’re paving our own path and traveling quite fruitfully.

Alison Mosshart. Tweet

“Z” is for ZERO:

Zero. That’s how many websites have matched us on a local level.  And you can eat shit if you think otherwise.  Shout out to all of our readers and much love to all of my Rhode Island people.  Be sure to bookmark the site because we already have some fine plans for the upcoming year, including “I’m Not Verbal Spacey” t-shirts and the potential for other merchandise.

Now you know your ABC’s.

Fin.  I applaud you for making it all the way through and thank you for your time, especially if you were brave enough to read every last word.  A lot of my time and energy went into making this post and I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit to The Echo Chamber Blog.  My name is Chris.  Any and all feedback is welcome in the comment section.  I can also be reached via email, FaceBook, and Twitter.

Regards.

It would be a sad day if the United States Post Office shut down. It hasn’t been run very well over the years and Union pressure and Republican opposition seem to always have it as the ball in the proverbial Foosball game. For me and many of our fellow blogging brethren, mail call is always a fun time. Those manila-colored, padded CD mailers usually mean an hour of our time will be devoted to blocking out everything that matters, or doesn’t matter, and music will be absorbed into the cerebrum.

I’m no biologist, does music even get absorbed into the cerebellum? Are cerebellum and cerebrum the same thing? Have I had lunch today? I think I fell off the beaten path … right. Mail calls. About a week ago I pre-ordered IV the Polymath’s latest release, a full instrumental album called New Vs Old. Here’s the album preview:

The rest of the album is shaping up just as the preview hinted. I’m twelve tracks in as I type and it’s atypical IV with his multi-layered style of live instrumentation and obscure drum samples and high hats and pauses and … you get the idea. I’ve been particular to brass and flutes in hip-hop for years now and it seems, to me anyway, very under utilized. Since I’ve linked up with IV over this past year I’ve had the chance to hear instrumentals that capture pretty much everything I listen for in hip-hop production.

Check out all IV’s music we’ve posted about here on TECB, here, and if you’ve been liking what you’ve been hearing, head on over to his website and start adding things to your virtual cart. New Vs Old should be the first thing you purchase. Polymath Records has a pretty extensive collection and it’s perfect for vegging out to (literally, as the big homie IV is vegan, much like your resident dick head blogger is (me)), freestyling to, as I’ve heard many an emcee mention before, or using as a backdrop when you’re entertaining a group of  friends.

Since a plethora of horse shit has been dropping from my mail slot since I’ve moved to Long Beach, it’s rewarding to look forward to something and be pleasantly surprised when you finally open it. Ship it.

Meet Eyes and Teeth. His album, Dusted, is a 9-track trip into Satan’s face. And I mean that, literally, the best way possible. Eyes and Teeth had some dark and trying times and the best way to cope was to create. Being a talentless blogger I can relate, as there have been days that the only thing that’s made me happy was writing about someone’s dope new music or writing about some statistical anomaly I found while looking at baseball stats.

Eyes and Teeth, however, may or may not love baseball stats like me, but what he does love is compiling sounds, hooks, loops, Conan O’Brian bits, movie dialogue, and pretty much anything that crawls into his head. When it’s all put together, it’s done pretty well I must say. As a listener we get a view into what he was dealing with at the time. Take, for example, my personal favorite, “Germany’s National Anthem” :

The first ten-seconds or so are some robotic, computer voices talking, and then the drop… and then some 8-bit Nintendo sounds… and then it get’s hairy at the 1:05 mark or so. So many different chops and loops yet it never deviates from the initial sound.

When I was handed this album Eyes and Teeth told me I should down an entire bottle of Robitussin before I dove into it. Looking back, he wasn’t completely off base. All nine tracks are so different and off kilter, if one were to be on the influence of anything from, Robitussin to more traditional hallucinogens like … peyote? …  they’d paint a picture so vivid you’d probably be admitted.

By all means, download and listen to Dusted and formulate your own visions. You can cop it here for free. Eyes and Teeth also has a much less experimental album out called Beats and Bits and he wants YOU to rhyme over them. But by all means, let him know and get at him before you do so. Peep that joint here. You can reach Eyes and Teeth on his twitter feed, and tell him we sent ya.

Charities are tough to give to. I won’t lie about that. Especially when they use slimier tactics than I would use in the cell phone industry to get you to buy phones and plans you clearly can’t afford. Green Peace comes to mind. A girl straight up lied to me and my girlfriend once, telling us there was an island in the Pacific called “Trash Island” where companies dump their waste. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, sweetie. Then she went ahead and told is “it’s only ten bucks a month, you can afford it.” I’ve never been as close to knocking a clipboard out of someone’s hands before than that moment.

In any event, the good people at Uncommon Records have released their 2nd pop-up album in 2011 where all the proceeds go to a charity. The first one, The Sun Never Sets, benefited victims of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan this past Spring. Save The Horn, is of the same mold, sixteen-tracks of progressive hip-hop for a small $5 (at least) donation. Seems like a win-win. All the proceeds for Save The Horn will help towards paying for and building drilling equipment in order for the people of Ethiopia to have better and more drinking water. Working in San Diego the past two years allowed me to meet hundreds of Somalian and Ethiopian ex-patriots. Much like most third world nations, they did what ever they could to flee their war-torn and poverty ravished nations to come to America and settle into a community. Many times they would tell me and my co-workers about what was going back home and they were more than grateful to be here.

So this was an easy sell for yours truly. I’m a fan of hip-hop, both progressive in nature and the good ol fashioned kind, and I’m familiar with the issues surrounding the tip of Africa’s east coast. Do a good deed and head on over to Uncommon Records’ site and purchase this pop-up album, which will only be around for one month. You’ll see the likes of some of TECB favorites such as IV the Polymath, Black Tokyo, Adam Warlock, Short Fuze, Megabusive, Taiyamo Denku, Agartha Audio and many more.

I could use a Green Peace-esque sales tactic by saying I’m unemployed and my unemployment benefits were denied and I still found some money to purchase this album. But I won’t say that, because I know better than to guilt people into donating. I’ll leave that for the Catholic church (heeeyyyyy oooooohhh! *rim shot*). That being said, get your cyber-asses over there when you can. Support good music and a good cause.

If I knew how to write about any other genre of music besides hip-hop, I’d be writing paragraphs of wordiness about How Do You Do, the second full-length LP from Mayer Hawthorne.  But I went to Rhode Island College and didn’t study journalism like I probably should have, so I plan to continue on with the lack of formality and non-existence of substance known to the common people as “blogging.”

Hawthorne’s debut, A Strange Arrangement, has been celebrated amongst my circle, so we’ve all had our eyes on his follow-up, especially once we heard the release was to be courtesy of Universal rather than Stones Throw, the indie imprint that helped establish Hawthorne as a famous falsetto.  Surprisingly, though, I believe I’m the only one that has purchased his major label effort.  And to be completely honest, when I was in the record store, my residual hatred for the video (it’s distracting) of the album’s second single, “The Walk,” had me skeptical of making the transaction.

Thankfully, I curbed my feelings towards the video and walked out of the store a proud owner of How Do You Do.  After hearing the album in its entirety, I realized how it would be criminal of me to hold any ill feelings towards the album.  Practically every artists misses with a video here and there.

Quickly moving on…  The album is fantastic.  I don’t know if I haven’t been checking in the right places, but based on the quality of the release I wish there was more positive publicity in circulation.  Rightfully so, critics and fans raved about A Strange Arrangement, but I’m confident in saying Hawthorne’s latest twelve-pack of tracks is not only tastier than its predecessor, but also capable of quenching the thirst of Motown’s most dehydrated diehards.  How Do You Do gives a great buzz, and it’s one that will never be followed by a morning of haziness.  The D-Town salute “A Long Time,” “Dreaming” (I’d be amazed if this wasn’t the next single), and the Snoop D-O-Double-G collaboration, “Can’t Stop,” are just a few of the album’s shining moments.

I laugh every single time I hear Snoop say the lines, “And maybe we can get naughty / I’m so bossy, bossy.”  Classic pimp shit.

All that said: How Do You Do > A Strange Arrangement 

Your thoughts?