Crib Notes

I’m going to flip the script and put the moral of this story right at the top. Hopefully, every “undiscovered” artist gets it: Sometimes it’s not how many people come to see you perform, but who, that really matters.

Last night at Smith’s Olde Bar, there couldn’t have been more than 25 people sparsely scattered throughout the room to catch a performance by Radiant Kids. The local, rag-tag crew of emerging artists — including solo MCs L-Marr the Great, Small Eyez, Spree Wilson and punk band Tendaberry — originally joined forces to lend mutual support among Atlanta’s disparate, clique-heavy underground scene.

They’re finally starting to get some of the attention that evaded them early on. Several key tastemakers, promoters and artists (Fadia Kader of Come Up Kids, Thomas of Proton, Jessica Tonder, Seven of Chocolate Industries, Ree de la Vega of Bang Bang, Arjan of ArjanWrites.com) came out last night to show suppport and/or see what the growing buzz was about.

(Click here to listen: “Word!”)

In the past month, several outlets (Urb magazine, ArjanWrites.com, and yes, Creative Loafing) have glowingly written about standout Spree Wilson, who’s equally adept at rapping and riffing on his electric guitar while Alien 1 backs him with insane drumming skills.

But enough about the show, this post is about the new track Wilson debuted in front of the live audience. It’s called “Word!” and it’s produced by his mentor No I.D. If his name sounds familiar, you might recall hearing some random dude named Kanye West rapping about “No I.D. my mentor” in his song “Big Brother” off the Graduation album.

No worries, though. Beyond sharing the same mentor, the two have little in common style-wise. Spree Wilson’s a better dresser, too.

Click here to listen: “Word!”

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Tags: L-Marr the Great, No I.D., Radiant Kids, Small Eyez, spree-wilson, Tendaberry.