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

Tag: Suntonio Bandanaz (Asun)

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

The Blank Canvas

Filmmaker and hip-Hop musician Rafael Flores spent six years making The Blank Canvas: Hip-Hop’s Struggle for Representation in Seattle. The film attempts to document the unique identity of hip-hop culture in Seattle, through interviews with over 100 rappers, producers, DJs, graffiti artists, break-dancers, fashion designers, and promoters from The Town.

It takes us on a journey that investigates the origins of Hip-Hop in the Northwest, the legacy of Sir-Mix-a-Lot, the notorious 1985 Teen Dance Ordinance, Clear-Channel’s dominance over commercial Hip-Hop radio, the increasing popularity of white rappers in Seattle, and hip-hop’s struggle for representation in a seemingly liberal city.

The full 96-minute film is available for rent on Vimeo for $5. Watch the trailer below.

The Blank Canvas was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

The Black Lab Mixtape

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The Black Lab Mixtape was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Ethiopian Tattoo Shop

This is a rare treasure: A document of a singular moment in time, fueled by wild creativity with the force of a pressure cooker. Beauty made under the gun. Phreewil, Nathan Wolfe, and Graves33 wrote and recorded this album, inspired by the book by the same name, in a matter of weeks.

Each track represents a different story or parable from the novel, and therefore the songs play out in a connected fashion; not linearly, but philosophically. Raw and brilliant work, at times jaw-dropping in its psychedelic urgency.

Despite the other-worldliness, this is not some Piper At the Gates of Dawn, “Listen To What the Flower People Say” sort of album. This is vehement and craving, conscious of its mortality. Which makes the hurried and inspired beauty found in each song all the more poignant. Phreewil noted that this is his favorite contribution to music, and although I’m not familiar with all his work I would be duly impressed to find another such passionate, metaphysically connected contribution to the art, from him or anyone else. Quite generously, the ETS crew opened their doors to several of their friends for contribution, including Asun/Suntonio Bandanaz, Leland Jones, Tru-ID, Milo, Khanfidenz, Audiopoet, and Page1. (This review originally appeared on the Bring That Beat Back blog and was written by Jack Devo.)

Ethiopian Tattoo Shop was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Hidmo Next

Between 2006 and 2010, a Central District Eritrean restaurant called Hidmo served as an important hub for Seattle’s hip-hop scene. Its location at 20th and Jackson was “a community center masquerading as a restaurant,” according to Gabriel Teodros. It was run by two sisters–Rahwa and Asmeret Habtes–community organizers, activists, chefs, and entrepreneurs who offered up a safe space for artists, musicians, youth groups, nonprofits, and activists.

This 21-minute documentary from Scott Macklin captures the final closing night party for Hidmo. It’s “the place that fostered my art,” says JusMoni, before launching into a stunning acapella. Felicia Loud, Suntonio Bandanaz, and THEESatisfaction share acapella songs and raps.

There’s a real feeling of family throughout this film. Toddlers dance in the background during freestyle raps. You really get a sense of how special Hidmo was to the community. At one point, the camera veers away from the action and visits the kitchen staff and other people working behind the scenes. The director, Scott Macklin, makes a brief appearance in front of the camera to remind us that “Hidmo is about the we,” while addressing apprehension about what comes next.

This wonderful portrait is a beautiful testament to what culture can be fostered when “people just got together and did it.” Watching Hidmo Next in 2021 hits a little differently: We lost Rahwa in August 2020 during our pandemic year. In a memorial tribute in The Seattle Times, Hollis Wong-Wear tried to sum up her impact: “Rahwa was the engine, the nucleus, the crucible of that space — I saw her as a titan.”

Hidmo Next was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Love or Fate

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Love or Fate was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

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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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

5 Bux Aint Shit

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5 Bux Aint Shit was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

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

2003 was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Saiyan Of Earth

The Oscars give an award every year for “best” acting, but there is no award for “most” acting. If there was such an award, it might go to Nicholas Cage or Kristen Wiig. Rappers compete for the same type of honors, and someone like Rakim could win for “best” rapping. Other MCs like Twista or Eminem compete for the “most” rapping category, packing hundreds of words into a verse. Rapid rhymer Asun is a good example of this head-spinning sub-genre of rap music.

Asun took on an alter-ego named Kakurot for this 2001 CD. From the very first Saiyan Of Earth track, “What I Don’t Know,” we are off to the races. Asun blasts a firehose of lyrics at the listener. The haunting “Festive?” places his frenetic flow over Ukrainian composer Mykola Loentovych’s Christmas classic, “Carol Of The Bells.”

The respectable “RAPS” flips one of DJ Premier’s funkiest chops, the one he used in “Check The Technique.” My favorite cut on Saiyan Of Earth is near the end, titled “The Light,” featuring Ashley Young on the keys. “The Light” slows things down a notch, allowing the track some space for the lyrics to stretch and unfold. “I can tell, I think on it, speak on it, while others speculate I become it,” raps Asun. A couple of the songs here show promise, but they contain experimental beats which are too prickly for me to really enjoy. For example, I’m thinking of the odd squealing noises in “Morning Dew,” or the free-jazz madness of “Come Forth.”

One of the things this album does well is recreating the excitement of standing in a circle while your friends take turns freestyling. With a long list of guest MCs, Saiyan Of Earth feels very alive and loose, like the recording is happening at a party rather than a recording studio. But at the end of the day, most of the tracks are five minutes long, and several are close to seven minutes. Rappers would do well to remember that concision can be a useful concept. Written by Novocaine132

Saiyan Of Earth was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Open Your Eyes

A young Ben “Macklemore” Haggerty launched his solo rap career in 2001 with this debut album, Open Your Eyes. Setting aside the “Intro,” and the three “Interludes,” we are looking at fourteen tracks here. “Welcome To The Culture” starts things off, calling out fake MCs over a slick, groovy beat. “Look in the mirror and honestly tell yourself that you are keeping it real,” he chides. The brilliant “Wake Up” is a first look at the winning tone that would eventually become the Macklemore brand–a comedic, quick-witted entertainer telling concise stories with clear social messages. The sample in the chorus of “Wake Up” cleverly flips the line, “Use your mentality, wake up to reality,” from Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Under My Skin.”

“Her Name Was Music,” shows Mack’s innocent earnestness and lack of inhibition baring his soul on the microphone. The track’s lyrics fall closer to to a high school romantic poetry assignment than rap verses, and before the end of the track, the music-as-woman metaphor feels strained. “Her Name Was Music” may have been inspired by Ghetto Chilldren’s “Equilibrium,” which has lines like, “Since my youth I’ve been in cahoots with this friend of mine, I’m in her mind, kick back with her, she soothes like Calamine.”

“Flossin” showcases the contradictions of Macklemore’s entire career. Why would a conscious MC want to floss? “Don’t take life so serious, get that neck knocking,” says the MC with the most deep, ponderous thoughts per bar. How can we “get this party hopping” with grim meditations on the true colonial origins of America’s Thanksgiving myth found elsewhere on the album? The lyrics of “Flossin” show Macklemore realizing in real time how hard it is to strike a balance between intellectual raps with a purpose, and catchy, lightweight ditties.

To me, solipsistic tracks like “Fresh Coast,” and “Earthlings,” resemble an Only Fans, no privacy look into Mack’s personal life and academic musings. SNL once called Common “a TED Talk with a beat,” for Macklemore just replace “TED Talk” with “CRT 101.” Is the confessional, self-diagnosing therapist version of Macklemore less compelling than the humorous-yet-poignant storyteller? Would there be “party” Macklemore without “political rally” Macklemore? The fact that he was able to bring both of these components of his personality along for the ride speaks to Mack’s integrity and his refusal to abandon the honest, truth-to-power style that brought him to the rap game in the first place.

Around the release of Open Your Eyes, opportunities opened up right and left for Macklemore. His hip-hop group Elevated Elements dropped their CD titled Progress, with interesting tracks such as “Sympathy,” “Truth Is Gravity,” and “Perspectives.” Also, Gabriel Teodros’ 2001 album Sun To A Recycled Soul featured Mack’s vocal and production work on three songs, including the deceptively mild-sounding “F*** The Industry.” It was an auspicious start to a career that would take Haggerty many times around the world. Written by Novocaine132

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Enter The Madness

Enter The Madness is an hour-long film from 2000 that provides an essential time capsule of turn-of-the-millennium hip-hop in the Pacific Northwest. It was directed by King Khazm and produced by DJ Scene, and includes flashes of late-’90s Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, too.

The film adheres to the four pillars of hip-hop, devoting a roughly equal amount of time to riveting turntable battles, incredible, lengthy breakdancing sequences, freestyles, rap battles, and walls painted with now long-gone graffiti. The film captures many moments that even at the time were fleeting… That today would be forgotten were it not for the existence of this film.

There are some curious editing choices here–like, say cutting back and forth between graffiti and a peeing elephant–or the addition of picture frame borders, fisheye lenses, and inverted film negative effects, but there are also dozens of blink-and-you’ll miss cameos from Seattle hip-hop greats like Silver Shadow D, Kutfather, Asun, Khingz, and others. Sit back with your favorite accompaniment and enjoy this visual spectacle.

Enter The Madness was created in and features appearances from:

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A film about Northwest hip-hop from

Titanium Buttermilk Rhinoceros Briefcase

Hmmm... There's not a lot of information about this project in the museum encyclopedia. We'd love your help! TOWN LOVE is maintained by an awesome community of passionate volunteers who keep it all up to date.

Do you know something about the history of this record? Do you have a favorite lyric or a favorite memory? Send us an email on why this is one of the great hip-hop albums from the Northwest. Thanks!

Titanium Buttermilk Rhinoceros Briefcase was created in and features appearances from:

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