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Eviction Notice

Pour yourself a tall glass of Hennessy, curl up on a comfortable couch, and digest this album like you would a theatrical production. With Eviction Notice, Campana brings forth a deeply personal and emotional, autobiographical full-length offering, underscored by the loss of a friend and musical homie Thee Ruin, whose name is featured on the cover, spelled out in stars above a dark desert road. For a record so much about the loss of direction, this music has such a grounded sense of place. Such physicality in the instruments. The knocks we face in life teach us lessons, and on tracks like “Look Around” with its pop chorus, Campana comes out swinging, and on “Organics” he’s shaking the dance floor.

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Mirror

I have one of Romaro Franceswa’s “NO ENEMIES” shirts that I wear all the time. In the current climate, it’s a message I like to project. His latest release, Mirror, strives for a certain audio maximalism, There’s an unrelenting quality, rarely a quiet moment. It’s like you’re in the mind of Romaro’s cover protagonist, worked up, nervous, twitchy, steeling oneself with liquor, afraid to look up. The opening of “Forgive Me” starts with a few mumbled lines and then there’s a joke I always laugh at about Kanye getting back to making records. On headphones, there’s lots to listen to, multiple instruments constantly moving in multiple directions. Some great collaborators here: Parisalexa, Ryan Caraveo, Warm Gun, and Ariana DeBoo. A great release from the always stellar Black Umbrella collective.

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Ambaum

It’s been quite the year for 21-year old Travis Thompson: Last week he had a Li’L Woody’s burger named after his delightful 2017 record Ambaum. As a result of his involvement with Macklemore’s Gemini album, last month he performed on a little-known late-night TV show called The Tonight Show, and he’s been a regular sidekick on ol’ Mack’s North American tour, playing stadium shows across the country, including this Friday at Key Arena, where he’ll be standing in front of 17,459 people.

Not that long ago I saw him perform at the Crocodile back bar, in front of a dozen people, so congratulations on the big step up to these much bigger stages.

So let’s talk about Ambaum, his mixtape from August 2016. The Tyler Dopps production on the early tracks, and the pop hooks, and the earnest lyrics might leave you the impression that Travis is a worthy Mack-lite protégé. While I suppose he is—three tracks in, during “Born in ’96,” this record begins to defy those expectations. There’s a tonal shift where Travis repeats a self-aware comment that, while this may be his moment to shine, “every day they make another one.”

Indeed, at 21, he’s already questioning when the next generation will be nipping at his heels. And it’s an inflection point that pushes this record in a completely different direction, more serious and inventive, one of proud underdog autobiography.

Here are a couple of moments I love: When on “Candy & Corner Stores” he raps, “Them kids from the back of the class know a lot more about living than anyone.” Any time there’s a smart, sexy guest feature from MistaDC, Nyles Davis, or Parisalexa. The inventive house beat (courtesy of Nima Skeemz) that closes “Party Favors.”

Also on this closing song, Travis jokes that his music covers the “Lifestyles of the broke and rapping.” Perhaps a little less so after this year of success. Hats off to you, man. That Ambaum burger was solid.

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Tacos on Broadway

The Stranger picked Tacos on Broadway as one of the “Top 5 Albums of 2013,” saying that:

The two young rappers, Tiglo and Cole, of Brother from Another had a very good year for three reasons. First, they were correctly selected by XXL magazine as one of Seattle’s “rappers you should know,” and second, the EP Tacos on Broadway, which featured production by one of my favorite beat-creators in town, Nima Skeemz (he not only did beats for one of the best tracks of the year, Raz Simone’s “Sometimes I Don’t,” but also the local hip-hop classic by Sol, “Stage Dive”), has a consistently crisp and chill sound. When listening to this EP, one feels that Tiglo and Cole are in no rush to become famous, but are more concerned with getting their sound and rap mode down. Third, they also released the best hip-hop video of the year for “Pike & Broadway,” which expressed new urban values for the hip-hop culture of the future: the pleasures of cycling around the city and visiting/enjoying parks.

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