Crib Notes

By the looks of this video, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish Atlanta’s other hip-hop scene from the mainstream. Perhaps that’s the point. Of course, this is a song about “Caddys” — what more should one expect? Ride out. Park. Post up. Repeat.

That’s not a diss, just an observation on the visual tip. My hopes for SMKA’s The 808 Experiment are still as high as they were when I wrote about the compilation several months ago.

So, in case anyone gives a fuck cares, here are my votes (in this order) for the next video, if that’s even an option: 1) “Sweet Confusion” feat. Wil May and Toussaint, 2) “Alien (When in Rome)” feat. Jay West, Savage and Gilles, 3) “I’ve Been Drinkin’” feat. J Beans and Crysis.

Keep bangin’ people.

Bookmark to:

God bless the child that’s got his own.

From the outset of SMKA Productions‘ newly released compilation, The 808 Experiment Vol. 1, it’s clear that Atlanta has finally arrived.

Surely, you say, the hip-hop capital of the world is no newbie to rap’s all-encompassing map. And you’re right. But among Atlanta’s emerging rap underworld — filled with hipster-leaning hoppers, 2nd generation ATLiens, and otherwise unidentifiable but objectively fly MCs — that original, Dirty South sound had been all but bleached out and forsaken. Until now.

With The 808 Experiment, SMKA accomplishes the seemingly impossible: It bridges Atlanta’s slick, hipster-hop derivative with the indigenous, red clay swagger for which the A has always been known.

Beats simultaneously swim in bass-drunk, 808 kicks while dancing between melodic, pastel-colored keys. Even when SMKA dares to sample esoteric pop songs like Sting’s “Englishman in New York,” the resulting track ["Alien (When in Rome) feat. Jay West, Savage and Gilles] is certifiably stamped “ATL.”

Their secret weapon? SMKA producers Blake “808 Blake” German and Kyle “7King” King, along with in-house “hustler” Mike Walberg, are all Atlanta natives. Damn near unheard of in this day and age, right? Meanwhile, the compilation features plenty among the city’s rising crop of natives and transplants alike, including Gripplyaz, A. Leon Craft, and Young Trimm (”Caddy”), trio Supreeme (”I’m On Fire”), Wil May (”Sweet Confusion”), and o8o of T!Katz (”Fire in the Hole”). But some of the biggest surprises come from lesser known cats who turn in equally stellar performances, including Double R of Miami, Nuff Sed, J Beans, Dee Rail, Fat Tony, Niko Villamor, Jay West, Rome Fortune, J Young, Radcliff Hyphen, Crysis, Brandon Michael, Toussaint, Alexandria Lushington and Tom P of Decatur. El da Sensei of New Jersey-based Artifacts is also featured.

With only 48 hours since it’s release it’s impossible to say just yet, but here’s hoping The 808 Experiment represents a truly formative moment in what’s already proven to be a watershed year for Atlanta’s slightly off-the-radar hip-hop movement.

Needless to say, I had to talk to the guys behind SMKA to find out where the heck they’ve been hiding. Oh, and you’ll never guess what SMKA stands for?

DOWNLOAD: The 808 Experiment Vol. 1

Y’all seem to have come from out of nowhere?
Mike: I’d say that’s pretty much right. 7King has been an engineer for awhile, he’s worked out of a couple of studios around town. 808 Blake has been producing for about five years since his freshman year in college. And I went to a business school out in L.A. So it’s kind of a motley crew. But we went to high school together at Paideia, but since graduation we all started doing our own thing and then Blake kinda got us all together and wanted to get serious about it. So it started about four months ago, man, at Chik-Fil-A during lunch, and we just kinda said let’s start a company and get serious about it.

What Chik-Fil-A were y’all at?

(more…)

Bookmark to:

For today’s Roll Call, we call out Atlanta’s favorite black hipster, Wil May, who’s been hibernating in L.A.

Who are you?
I am Wil May aka Bill Whitfield aka Lil WiWi fa sho. My mom calls me WILLIAM. I am WILLIAM E. MAY by birth. Regal, I know. And, in college [Emory University] they used to call me POSTMODERN. So I am POSTMODERN. I am an artist/music producer/the orchestrator of the MAKESHIFT movement.

Describe yourself in three words.
Uber, Astute, MAKESHIFT

Whom — dead or alive — would most you like to meet?
As of now, Mr. Barack Obama. I wouldn’t want to just meet him. I wanna be homies with him.

Whom would you most like to slap in the face?
Billy O’Reilly (make sure you put Billy). He just says dumb, insensitive, incendiary shit to me.

What song do you wish you had written?
I can’t just say one song. Debussy’s “Clair De Lune,” Pink Floyd’s “Time,” OutKast’s “Elevators” and T.I.’s “What You Know.”

Lil Wayne or Little Richard?
Weezy F. Baby. Say what you will about Weezy but Lil Wayne’s work ethic is amazing. Peep the skit on his new mixtape Dedication 3 called “You Love Me You Hate Me.” He explains his work ethic in a hilarious way. Plus, Kanye, TIP, and Wayne are basically giving ppl evidence that the music industry still exists in a major way. And, now WEEZY is expressing that he wants to start pushing the boundaries of his craft. Hopefully he’s serious. So Weezy F. Baby over Little Richard. Plus, I was never a fan of Little Richard’s perm. I feel what he was doing back then in the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll and all, but now, nahh.

LP, CD or MP3?
The MP3 is liberating by nature. So the MP3. Only high quality ones though … 320kbps. The LP is cool, but for cultural reasons. CD’s are just annoying at this point.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
I feel like I have. I was wearing Topsiders, colorful ones too, way before they got popular again, back in my early URBAN W.A.S.P.in’ days.

I would like to start a trend to seriously use and continually improve alternative, green and cheap energy to the masses.

If you could end one trend, what would it be?
I’m not easily annoyed by things, trends or ppl. Trends are trends because they comment on something profound or seemingly profound. Ppl don’t like trends because they become clichés, and “errbody got ‘em.” But clichés are clichés only because at some point they were profound or interesting or cool … to a lot of ppl.

But one trend I would definitely end is 360 artist deals. It’s unethical.

With whom would you most like to play a game of spin the bottle?
I think I played enough of that in high school during those summer nights on Lake Michigan, but still, who’s not down for a game of good, old-fashioned spin the bottle. So I would say Janelle Monae is with whom I’d play.

Download “Sweet Confusion” MP3

Bookmark to:

Backpage Review

My latest whipster crush comes in the form of a pixie shtick named Sophe Nix.

Wil May introduced her to me at Caleb Gauge’s Sloppy Seconds (MJQ) party last Saturday night. She couldn’t have stood an inch over 4-foot-11. I had to stand on my tip-toes just to glimpse her onstage through the crowd.

Her hair was all done up like Material Girl meets Apollonia in “Purple Rain,” but it seemed less ironic than innocent. She came on to me like a cheap one-liner, whispering sweet nothings in my ear — some song called “Get It.”

She and her two dancers moved like synchronized swimmers bathing in a hot tub of electro static and a billion beats per minute. Sorta reminded me of another ’round-the-way chick, Muffy “the Body” Cupcakeopia, minus the confusion and sexual angst. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not. At the end of the night when I stalked past her near the bar, she pretended to accidentally brush up against me.

I’ll have her dancing on my laptop in no time.

Bookmark to: