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Tag: Michete

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Coolest Tricks

At the start of 2020, Michete went under the knife to transform she/her fantasies into realities. She held a plastic surgery face reveal party at the start of March, only days before the start of the pandemic. Though we’ll all emerge from quarantine as different people than we were before, this will be much more literal in Michete’s case. To wrap one era of superstardom and embrace the next, she dropped “Coolest Tricks,” a delicious 18-track collection of her greatest hits. If you’re not already a fan of Michete’s in-your-face electro-rap, start with the song “#Fuckboy.” This is delightful music full of joy and burns and profanity and energy that’ll have you jumping around in your living room. It’s on Spotify. It’s fun. Michete also devotes one album track, podcast-style, to explaining the background of the collection and themes in the music. After listening to these great audio liner notes, I hope other artists are inspired to add them, too. It’s a great idea and a cherry on an already great collection.

Coolest Tricks was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Cool Tricks 2

“Squawk!,” the delightful second track on Michete’s 2016 record, Cool Tricks 2, is a joyful ode to confident absurdity. Few rappers in this town have the courage to be so wildly funny, while at the same time so incisively devastating. Michete takes no prisoners: “Want to know where your career’s headed? Straight to the trash like an unwanted email.” And, as if to demonstrate commanding dominance, in the next verse is making chicken noises. I laugh so much while listening to this fierce flow. It’s definitely very “ill with the jargon,” rhyming obscurities like “Modus operandi” with “Klondike.” Over these eight tracks, you will get very comfortable with the word “pussy,” as both a dis and a statement of feminine power. The electro-funk of “Come Get It, Daddy” is the most-played track on SoundCloud. It’s a confessional spoken word featuring up-and-comer Reverend Dollars—of Darqness fame and thrower of fun queer and trans hip-hop DJ parties. This song probes the ways in which we feel uncomfortable being ourselves while urging an honesty with who we aspire to be. There are many of these insights throughout the album. As on “Tim Nook,” where Michete says, “I hate capitalism, but I’m also really good at it.” What a fascinating listening experience.

Cool Tricks 2 was created in and features appearances from:

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Distinction Management Essentials 001

This opens with DoNormaal’s “50 Jasper Horses,” (feat. the newly renamed “Rave Holly”), and the placement of that song, first, forces you to hear it anew. The flow into “Dead Rose” by Nightspace is seamless, demonstrating the genre fluidity inherent in Seattle music. (The Deadmics track, with Hekl, The Mad Scientist is a revelation.)

Distinction Management throw these ultra-hip underground parties, at places with made-up names, where everyone attending is a celebrity and you have to know them, or know of them, to know who and where and when. Last Thursday’s had pop-up clothing shops, Taylar Elizza Beth and Aaron Cohen.

Distinction puts out these coveted mixed CDs–this is the first one… The second one was just released. It’s their collection of who’s hot right now, and they know: nerdy hard rock-tronica from Youngster Jiji, gender-fluid Michete (who’s “Red Rover” kicks some serious team-switching ass), musical chameleon Wolftone and of course Sleep Steady. Anna, Jasmine, Sasha and crew, hats off to you. Of course this CD is great.

Distinction Management Essentials 001 was created in and features appearances from:

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