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Tag: Key Nyata

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It's A Long Game

Before it was released, Key Nyata announced that It’s A Long Game would be his last project under this moniker. Given the major buzz this project has received, you have to wonder if he’s still committed to hanging up his brand. Us Versus The World praises these “10 feel-good tracks … an emotional ballad, a grimy banger… Key Nyata does his thing on every single track.” All Hip-Hop presents this record as a mix of “classic West-Coast sounds of the ’90s with bars from today—a funky juxtaposition the rap game is primed to embrace.”

It's A Long Game was created in and features appearances from:

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Tomorrow

At some point this year I stuck a sticky note on the front of this CD that says, “Killer tracks: #2, 3.” Later, I went back and added the numbers for pretty much every other track on this record. Tomorrow is an album built around all the amazing things Dave B can do with his voice, with phrases and verses providing all the momentum here, constantly pivoting forward, fast, slow, in reverse. On this release, his voice stands alone in Sango’s stripped-down ambient environment: distant synths enveloping the verses, and ever-present washes of reverb. I love the sounds of rain falling throughout the opening of “Cold Weather.” The “Rainier Beach Station” announcement from a Link light rail car grounds this record in a place: It’s the sound of Seattle’s south end, magic and multicultural.

Tomorrow was created in and features appearances from:

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Friends, Funk & Liquor

There’s an easy, happy vibe that you find in most of the records of Sam Lachow that I just love. Sam’s latest one, Friends, Funk & Liquor, further demonstrates the evolution of his career from young wine to fine port: here are seven slick and stylish songs that slide by in the most satisfying way. Sam is a presence that vibes throughout this record, but he often steps back to give lead mic to one of his many talented contributors, including Ariana DeBoo, Gifted Gab, B. Skeez, and others. Dave B is featured on three tracks here. The third track, “Absolutely” will have you jumping around your living room. This is party music, the sound of hanging out with your friends, and Sam’s many friends and collaborators are featured on the cover. What a party.

Friends, Funk & Liquor was created in and features appearances from:

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7 Slaps In The Sack

7 Slaps In The Sack is a video interview series created by Carrick Wenke. Shot between 2014 and 2020, the show has more than 50 episodes, each of which involves going record shopping at Everyday Music on 10th in Seattle with “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.”

Everyday Music is sadly gone now, but you can view all the episodes from the series on YouTube. A wide range of Town talent has spent the day shopping with Carrick, talking about favorite records, influences, and craft, including Jarv Dee, Keyboard Kid, Nacho Picasso, Romaro Franceswa, Travis Thompson, and many others.

We’ve embedded a few of our favorite episodes below.

7 Slaps In The Sack was created in and features appearances from:

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The Shadowed Diamond

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

Producer/MC Key Nyata carries the Rvdxr Klvn flag in the Pacific Northwest region of their dominion, and the rap scene here is benefiting from it. Electronic howls, muted explosions, piano keys in the dark, and of course trunk-rattling low end, are Key’s calling cards. The Shadowed Diamond‘s left-of-center aesthetic is definitely the star of the show, though Key Nyata’s prayerful shit-talk adds additional shades of color. Witness him dismiss “wave riding” hipsters on the title track, and non-apologetically recount his hustler days alongside Fresh Espresso’s P Smoov on “We Dwell on Planet E4rth”.

The Shadowed Diamond was created in and features appearances from:

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High & Mighty

The Stranger picked High & Mighty as the very best album of 2013, saying that:

Released on the very last day of October, High & Mighty has three things that make it the top record of the year. First, the production on this album is just solid. From the first track (the darkling “Crime Waves”) to the last (the brilliantly twisted “Sounds Like the Outro”), the music keeps the listener engaged and pleased. High & Mighty does not have a single weak or lazy beat. Second, it has a unified sound that corresponds with reason three: Nacho Picasso’s rap mode. His rhymes pulsate just above the subliminal, often spiral into the surreal and pornographic, are often packed with references to deep and dark parts of popular culture, and imagine a nocturnal 206—a 206 that never sleeps but is also not really awake, existing in the twilight of the two states. High & Mighty is a record Seattle can be proud of.

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

Nacho Picasso branches out sonically on High & Mighty, which makes for his best release since 2011’s For The Glory. Nowhere to be found on H&M are common collaborators Blue Sky Black Death, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the atmosphere is lighter. Here we have out-of-Towners Swish and Swiff D providing gothic, trap-inspired soundscapes, in addition to local heavyweights Vitamin D and Jake One on more densely composed beats.

And of course Nacho, possessor of the most recognizable voice in Seattle right now, is in rare form, laying out his bleak philosophy on life on “Crime Waves”, making (ahem) fowl assertions on the opposite sex on “Duck Tales”, and laying out the skeletons in his closet on the emotionally bare “Alpha Jerk”. In 2012, it was often difficult to see the forest for the trees in Nacho Picasso and BSBD’s collabs: too many clouds shrouding the deeper layers of the rapper’s complex psyche. High & Mighty, though, is a step through the looking glass, lyrically and beat-wise, and it results in a much more intricate picture.

High & Mighty was created in and features appearances from:

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Young Seattle

Between 2012 and 2016, musician Sam Lachow created three collaborative short films, each bearing the name “Young Seattle.”

Slightly confusingly, the videos are labeled “Parts 1, 2, and 4.” Part 3 was released as an audio-only track with no video.

Here’s his explanation of the concept: “I make these Young Seattle videos each year simply because I’m a huge fan of all these artists. As a fan, I just thought it’d be badass to put them all on one track. My favorite thing about the Seattle hip-hop scene is that we don’t have any specific sound. There are so many different types of styles in this little city and yet we all fuck with each other. We’re all part of the same culture. It’s fucking cool.”

Young Seattle was created in and features appearances from:

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