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: Silas Blak

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

A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Apollo Crow

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Apollo Crow was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Silas Sentinel

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Silas Sentinel was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

1986

What an intro it is! Silas Blak from (Black Stax, Silent Lambs Project, and Blind Council) spits the most brain-stimulating abstract metaphors you can imagine, in delivery so dark and jarring it causes hiccups. He leaves you hanging on to every grimy word he speaks, while your head-nod slows to nothing, and your feet forget to dance. He’s the rarest kind of poet; one that is able to speak the most eloquent stanzas you wish you could think up, but in plain rap, straight to your brain.

There’s nothing frou-frou here, no self-absorbed coffee-house spoken word crap or tired-out boasting. There’s no wasted space. Every word is what he means. On beats, Silas is joined by Specs One, King Otto, Dropcast Music, and Vitamin D (who also lends a verse on one track). From 2006, released on CD-R. A darker and heavier hip-hop record has yet to be heard. For now, listen to this and yearn. (This review originally appeared on the Bring That Beat Back blog and was written by Jack Devo.)

1986 was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Time Called Think

One of the sickest 12″s I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, this is Silas Blak and King Otto’s “Time Called Think” b/w “How Obnoxious” and “I Know Why” from 2000.

As a lyricist and stylist, Blak is unique; a true artist unlike any other. His dark, abstract imagery is only made more vivid by his deep and off-beat delivery. Otto comes with a set of beats that are equally impressive. “Time Called Think” is haphazardly carried along by a chopped, stumbling bass loop with little else to fill the empty space; while in contrast, “How Obnoxious” utilizes a big band. Always a fan of the b-side, my personal favorite is the epic and atonal dirge “I Know Why”. If ever a track was too short, it’s this one.

These tracks were meant as a sampling from the forthcoming album Slowburn that apparently never made it to the store shelves. If this 12″ was any indication of the quality present, it’s truly a shame it never materialized. (This review originally appeared on the Bring That Beat Back blog and was written by Jack Devo.)

Time Called Think was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

#Blak Friday: The Mixtape

The production and the beats from Kjell Nelson on 2015’s #BlakFriday: The Mixtape span a broad landscape. Find a comfortable chair and your best pair of headphones, and listen for the horizons. Spitter Silas Blak is Seattle hip-hop royalty: Summarizing our city in sentence fragments, somehow plainspoken and abstract, both at the same time. “The Exchange” is an unexpected club banger, that’ll leave you desiring crowds and lights, in a record that otherwise surfs in solitude: “Silas at the bus stop, barking at my shadow,” he recites as a mantra towards the end of “Bus Stop.”

#Blak Friday: The Mixtape was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Editorials: (wartunes)

Been spinning Silas Blak’s Editorials: (wartunes) all weekend. Gorgeous production and deep thoughts. Great head-bobbing headphone tunes. He was recently nominated for a well-deserved Genius award by The Stranger.

Editorials: (wartunes) was created in and features appearances from:

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