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.

This gallery page is organized to highlight the creative work of

Artist: RA Scion

As you scroll, items are sorted from most recent to earliest.

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The Sickle & the Sword

The Stranger picked The Sickle & the Sword as one of the “Top 5 Albums of 2013,” saying that:

RA Scion had a busy year in 2013. In spring, he released Adding to the Extra, an album produced by Todd Sykes (one half of Tacoma’s CityHall), which marked Scion’s return to the “old boom-bap” and introduced a new and very talented rapper to the scene, John Crown (he is on “Amalgam X”). But in the fall, Scion dropped a huge, beautiful, and deeply spiritual/philosophical LP, The Sickle & the Sword, which was produced by New York City’s Rodney Hazard. Three reasons for loving this record: One, the dubby, ghostly, gorgeous track “Bloodletter” is one of RA Scion’s highest achievements as an artist; two, it has a unified sound (thanks to Hazard); three, it takes a lot of risks and does not fear overflowing or even failure. Hazard and Scion need to join forces again.

The Sickle & the Sword was created in and features appearances from:

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Live & Learn

Hmmm... There’s not a lot of information about this record in the museum encyclopedia.

This TOWN LOVE website was created in 2021 as a pandemic-era project. It was a volunteer-led effort to help document and celebrate the complete history of Northwest hip-hop between the years 1981 and 2020. This public archive we built is now available for free online for everyone to read and explore.

If you'd like to contribute, and you know something about this particular record--a story, a memory, or a favorite lyric--please email us a short write-up, and we’ll add your thoughts to the archive when we get the chance.

Thanks for your help in preserving the history of our scene!

Live & Learn was created in and features appearances from:

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Adding To The Extra

Seattle hip-hop blog 206UP picked this record as one of the “Top 10 Albums of 2013,” saying that:

RA Scion dropped two full-length albums this year, opposites in sonic style. His collaboration with New York producer Rodney Hazard, The Sickle & The Sword, was all meditative, ambient hip-hop experimentalism. This blog, however, preferred the grimier (by comparison) excursion Adding To The Extra, with Tacoma producer Todd Sykes. AttE featured rough-around-the-edges boom-bap, heavy on samples, and dusty breakbeats, ideal for RA’s 99 percent-leaning bootstrap rap. It can take hours to untangle Ryan Abeo’s dense wordplay, but the exercise is worth it if only to reveal how deftly he laces tales of the working class into tightly-wound, philosophical rhymes.

Adding To The Extra was created in and features appearances from:

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Sharper Tool; Bigger Weapon

This sensational record has been in rotation for me pretty much every day for the past few weeks. Sharper Tool; Bigger Weapon, a 2014 release from RA Scion and Vox Mod belongs in the upper-echelon canon of interstellar Seattle electro-rap. (Spin this when you want a break from Shabazz Palaces‘s Quazarz.) RA Scion is known for his enjoyably decadent five-syllable word choices and verses that deftly juggle “elucidate,” “pantheon” and “vacillate.” Vox Mod’s emergent, menacing synths call out to be heard on through mega-loud club speakers, alternately sharp and gurgling. There are many standout tracks including “Introspector” and opener “Passage to Transience.” But I also love the cuts where they step back and give the stage to featured contributors: DJ Indica Jones on the instrumental “Plush Portal Stylings” and double-tracked vocals from Kung Foo Grip‘s Greg Cypher on closer “Res Publica.” This whole record is all great.

Sharper Tool; Bigger Weapon was created in and features appearances from:

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