TOWN LOVE is an online art museum dedicated to celebrating the vibrant past and present of Northwest Hip-Hop. You can browse by artist or browse by year.

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Artist: Dyme Def

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Yuk The World

Seattle hip-hop blog 206UP picked this record as one of the “Top 10 Albums of 2011,” saying that:

Here we have the trio of Brainstorm, S.E.V., and Fearce Villain behaving in the way we’re accustomed to: Mixing top-shelf brag rap with sobering tales about growing up hard in the South End. It’s been over four years since Space Music, the area’s official introduction to the Three Bad Brothas from Renton. Since then, the crew has been missing a key component to their hustle: The production of Bean One, whose lively trunk rattle serves as the perfect delivery vehicle for the three MCs’ sharp witticisms. Thankfully Bean is back here, providing the majority of the framework in which Dyme Def gets busy. One complaint: Yuk The World is too long, but that’s only because Dyme Def’s real voice hasn’t been heard in some time. Consider this a year-ending takeover attempt by one of the SEA’s most important groups in history.

Yuk The World was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Panic EP

It’s been a tensely political week in a highly political year. I took a brief break by rolling the clock back to 2009 when the nation’s concerns were recession and house foreclosures and dealing with the great George W. Bush hangover. Obama was a brand new president and we didn’t know what to make of him yet. It’s in this context that Dyme Def released their Panic EP, featuring seven highly political songs from another era. The title track repeats the refrain, “somebody please help me.” Most of the work here is classic boom-bap, with naked drums, sample-heavy riffs, brass hits, and sirens that channel ’90s NYC, like on the captivating “Pick Up A Flow.” There are some great spacey stereo effects on “Foot Up On The Gas” worthy of your headphones. It’s track 3, “Not That Dude,” that most closely contemplates the identity politics of our past week, with a verse that begins, “you’re not like me and I’m not like you.” Let’s hope we can all find common ground regardless. I’m bummed I missed both of their summer ’17 Seattle shows, but hopefully, we’ll hear more from Dyme Def soon.

Panic EP was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Space Music

Space Music by Dyme Def from 2006 isn’t one to listen to on headphones: Channeling old-school rap, remixing heavyweights like Kurtis Blow and The Beatles, this is the album to bring to the next beach party–preferably on cassette on a ghetto blaster–and play loud while kickin’ it with friends. This is music to be shared. I love the interplay between the three emcees and the way sample hooks are derived from the less obvious parts of the song, like “Clap your hands…” from “The Breaks.” A good soundtrack for summer.

Space Music was created in and features appearances from:

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