As talked about in an earlier post, each member of Kooley High has started releasing their own solo projects – starting with Charlie Smart’s F’alex project. Over a week ago, Tab One released his own project – the Tabloids, and I would have written about it much earlier had it not been dwarfed in my mind by Blueprint 3. I must confess, Tab One is probably my favorite member of both Kooley High and Inflowential – his lyricism is seriously upper level and he throws in his fair share of North Carolina based references.
I threw the “single” of the tape onto the Needle & the Groove’s first mixtape, entitled “Vc Insd My Hd” or Voice Inside My Head for those who are fans of vowels. Its just a great track to just sit back and relax to, thanks to quality lyrics and a really nice soul-sampled beat.
Tab One – “Vc Insd My Hd”
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Another favorite of the Tabloids is “Who’s That?”. Similar to all Kooley High tracks and songs on this tape, its another soulful track. Tab One slows his pace just a bit on this track, and provides some perspective of his past/inspirations to become a rapper.
Yo, don’t even get me started,
Cause reminiscing gets me really broken hearted,
Thinking ’bout days with cassettes and a tape deck,
Rewind…bring it back, make the tape stretch,
Had to take time back then,
Now its all point-click, too quick, new trend
-Tab One – “Who’s That?”
Tab One – “Who’s That?”
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Like always, I strongly encourage you to get the whole album (FREE) – here. There are really no weak tracks on the cd, and support local hip-hop.
Tab One – “Tell Us The Truth”
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I love local music. In a very Young Jeezy “Put On” sort of way, its a great feeling to have someone producing quality material from your hometown. Well such is the case with Kooley High out of Raleigh, NC. I was first exposed to the group in a very similar group known as Inflowential. Inflow opened for Clipse or dead prez at Cat’s Cradle (I can’t remember which one) and performed a killer set. Don’t get me wrong, the crowd wasn’t into it at all – there were like 25 people there, not enthusiastic about the show at all, and that shit is infectious – but such is the life for opening acts. It didn’t phase the guys onstage at all though, and their talent was definitely noticeable. The next day I went and bought their EP, Evolutionary Process, off of their MySpace and loved it. After that, I didn’t get to go to shows as often and forgot about them for a year or so until I saw Kooley High open for Wale at the Cradle.
Inflowential – “Change”
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Well, two members from Inflow are also in Kooley High (MCs Tab-One and Charlie Smarts) in addition to other members Rapsody, a female MC; DJ Ill Digitz; and producers Sinopsis and Foolery. The best way to really be exposed to the group, however, is through the documentary entitled One Day. It goes through a day in the life of all the crew members and really reveals the life of hip-hop outside of the chains, glamour, and jewels. Little Brother rapper Phonte describes this as a Hoop Dreams for hip-hop; it is definitely worth the 40 minutes of your time.
Unfortunately, if you catch them live you’re likely only exposed to the 3 MCs – who are all talented, but different from one another. I can’t really describe individually what makes them different, but I think its pretty evident in their delivery and lyricism. One thing they do have in common is their love for classic, soul-inspired hip-hop. You can put on their tracks and seriously just mellow out – do schoolwork or study even. They released the mixtape, Kooley is High, earlier this year and it got a large amount of pub from various blogsites. It’s still available for free download across the internet, so check it out.
Kooley High – “Flow Glow”
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Kooley High – “Kooley Is High”
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These are two of my favorites off the mixtape – but like I said earlier, its something you can put on and drift away in. Individual tracks don’t really stand out as much as the album as a whole.
In other Kooley High news, all three MCs are planning to release their own mixtapes before the end of the year, with a group LP coming early ’10. Charlie Smarts released his tape, f’alex this past week – and it very much keeps the soulful theme running. The tape is a little more uptempo and female oriented than the Kooley is High tape, and a very enjoyable listen as well.
Charlie Smarts – “Out of this World”
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Charlie Smarts – “Fly”
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All their mixtapes are available via a simple google search (2Dopeboyz, Nahright, and the groups MySpace are all hosting them).
Time to tie up some loose ends. Here are some songs that came out this week that I didn’t get a chance to cover.
Charlie Smarts – “Well Done”
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Part of Inflowential and Kooley High, Charlie Smarts drops heat from his mixtape F’alex. More on this later in the week.
Deep Rooted – “From the Heart” featuring Blu
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Never heard of Deep Rooted, but I always support a Blu feature.
Peedi Crakk – “Smile (You Mad)”
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Consistent Roots contributor and Philly native releases this song for his solo project.
Eminem – “The Warning”
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Eminem, after putting out a terrible Relapse, goes back to what he does best – battle tracks. Not really fair going against Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon – but Mariah shouldn’t have tried to call him out on “Obsessed”.
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I’ll be the first to admit it, I am an unabashed Wale stan. When I found out he was coming to Cat’s Cradle, I bought my tickets, told everyone I knew, and eventually rounded up a group of 10-15 to head to the concert with me. I arrived slightly before doors to ensure front row standing space and then anxiously waited through the opening acts in anticipation of Wale. The opening acts were a lot better than anticipated, Kooley High (Raleigh, NC) was entertaining and I enjoyed Colin Munroe despite getting no love from the crowd. J. Cole, a new signee to RocNation and a product of Fayettville, NC, was overwhelmingly impresive. I tend to think I stay pretty current with the music scene, so when I had never heard of him prior to the show, I wasn’t expecting big things. The two songs that stuck out to me were “School Daze”, which borrows a sample from Ahmad’s “Back in the Day,” and “Grown Simba.” You can tell he is far from a finished product, but he has talent, a love of hip-hop, and being signed to Jay-Z’s record label won’t hurt him. I’ll give you more from him later in the week, as his new mixtape “The Warm Up” dropped yesterday.
Let me just say that live hip-hop is probably one of the reasons I love the genre so much. When a crowd is really into a show, an artist has perfected the art of being a true M.C., and your standing for 4 hours straight in a packed, sweaty, hole in the wall venue, I struggle to find a better form of entertainment. When a hip-hop artist adds in a live band… multiply the previous statement by 100. Reading interviews by Wale, you can tell he takes his live show very seriously and wants it to be something that defines him as an artist. Needless to say, he has succeeded. Having not released a official album – you’d think he’d struggle to fill an hour and a half set… but at the end of the show, there were still countless songs the crowd was begging to hear (Leaving one in attendance to chuck a New Balance at the stage because he couldn’t hear “DC Gorillaz”). Performing with UCB, they reinterpreted some of his more “popular” tunes – mixing Jay-Z’s “Sweet” into “Back in the Go-Go”, Dr.Dre’s “Next Episode” into “Artistic Integrity”, and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” Not uncommon to rap shows, several surprise guests showed up as well – 9th Wonder, David Banner, and Young Gunz’ Young Chris. I managed to get some HD video courtesy of a flip cam of the show which is posted in chronological order below. These videos made their rounds on 2DopeBoyz and elitaste. As corny as it sounds, all I could think of during the show was “I love hip-hop.”
Wale – “Intro/Breakdown”
Wale – “The Artistic Integrity”
Wale – “Chillin”
Wale – “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.”
My favorite part of the show (unfortunately not on video) was Wale’s performance of “the Elevator.” He did the song to a much more simplified beat than the recorded version, which explicitly highlights the cadence Wale mimics with his flow. Below is a video posted from HardKnockTV, at the 2:20 mark you can catch a glimpse of the performance.
The show ended in chaos with a performance of “Nike Boots.” As the song came on, Nike’s all around Cat’s Cradle were lifted into the sky as Wale desperately tried to sign each and everyone of them. As the song progressed, fans started jump on stage turning it into one massive dance party, the likes of which I haven’t seen since Talib’s Cradle show in 2006.
