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Tag: Rajnii

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Helladope

This week, I’ve been spinning Helladope, a 2010 self-titled sci-fi concept album from Tay Sean and Jerm D. Helladope’s space ambassadors are a funky, musical Bill & Ted, wending their way through an early ’90s action-movie musical landscape, phat synths, treble-positive snares. Throughout their adventure, our duo encounters amazing auditory aliens THEESatisfaction, Jarv Dee, Isabella Du Graf and others. Gorgeous cover art by War.

Seattle hip-hop blog 206UP picked this record as one of the “Top 10 Albums of 2010,” saying that:

Helladope’s Tay Sean is far too young a cat to be making music with this much soul and expert tribute to the R&B and funk of yesteryear. Still, he accomplished the feat with ease. Along with emcee/vocalist Jerm, Helladope’s debut album offers a fresh take on the P-funk/G-funk rap amalgamation that originated in Southern California in the early ’90s. The sound is updated here with extraterrestrial gimmickry that amuses but isn’t essential to the album’s vibe.

Helladope was created in and features appearances from:

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Think Tank

Seattle collective the Mind Movers released this ambitious record in 2008. City-wide in scope, the talents of over 30 Town emcees, vocalists, DJ’s and producers were utilized in the creation of this solidly underground compilation; probably exposing many of them to an audience that may have not heard them before, thus making it somewhat of a Do The Math for the Northwest’s third wave of hip-hop.

Think Tank is 21 varied and energetic tracks in length, and each song has multiple contributors. Crew cuts! I for one had only known of a few of the collaborators when I picked this up; it certainly opened my ears to a ton of great talent. The Mind Movers are made up of emcees Khanfidenz, Inkubiz, Mic Flont, Open Hands, Phreewil (who also handles production, and now resides in Hawaii), and producer/DJ Dead Noise. Besides those cats, the massive Seattle crew Alpha P/First Platoon represents as well, with features from emcees Jerm (also of Cloud Nice), Inkubiz and Phree Wil(again!), Kasi Jack Gaffle, Diez, Asad, Rajnii Eddins, Rufio, Jerz, Julie C, Yirim Seck, and Asun, who especially kicks it all over these tracks. Other names appear as well… It’s a huge who’s who.

Musically the beats are heavy, dusty underground gems. With six beatmakers in attendance, the tracks are surprisingly cohesive, although the ranges of styles are vast. Drum-heavy, broody, atmospheric tracks are heard in abundance (thanks mainly to Phree Wil), alongside upbeat soul samples, and mellow jazz piano loops. Whatever, it’s all nice; no beats out of a can here, this is artistic craftsmanship from the bottom up. Despite the huge undertaking, only the surface of the last decade’s hip-hop scene has been scratched with this release. The Town is bursting at the seams with talent. This is just a decent slice of it. (This review originally appeared on the Bring That Beat Back blog and was written by Jack Devo.)

Think Tank was created in and features appearances from:

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2003

Between 2000 and 2002, Geico ran a funny TV commercial called “Bob Wehadababyitsaboy” in which a family tricks the phone company into getting a free long distance call. Audiences loved the fact that an entire sentence was packed into one word.

Seattle rapper Asun used a similar technique when he dropped his debut album Titanium Buttermilk Rhinoceros Briefcase in 1999. Briefcase featured tracks like “Search Party,” that were loaded with words and phrases smashed together in a blizzard of speedy vocal delivery. After that, he temporarily took on an alias named Kakurot, and continued the rapid rap technique on his Saiyan Of Earth album in 2001.

A couple of years later Asun recorded his third album, titled 2003, which gives us more of the same recklessly fast flows. Listening to the accelerated lyrics can be a fun puzzle, but at times, your ear may fail to decipher the words as they fly by. The boisterous “No Shorts” and the more reflective “Help Yo Self,” both nicely produced by Idel One, are a bit slower than the rest of 2003, and in my opinion they are two of the CD’s strongest cuts. “No Shorts” is a challenge to other MCs to battle on wax, “Trade in the gat, cop a pen, write tracks, when I mash I hold hold the jawn like I miss the strap.”

“FYI” is interesting for its gentle beat produced by Mat The Alien. The track is a good compromise for me between Asun’s tongue-twister technique and his slower, more intelligible side. At the beginning, “FYI” delivers a short rap, then lets the soothing music ride for two full minutes. The last song on 2003, “Serve It Up,” has a jolty, electric, Frankenstein-ish vibe, and it succeeds at capturing the crew’s infectious energy. Asun would continue his career with many more releases, changing his stage name to Suntonio Bandanaz in the mid-2000s. Written by Novocaine132

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