DUCKWRTH
Hip Hop has been showing a lot of love for its roots lately. Emcees like Joey Bada$$, Action Bronson and Roc Marciano have been dropping records reminiscent of Big L, Ghostface and ‘Live at the Barbeque’ era Nas, delivering a fresh sound and a history lesson with each tape they’re dropping.
As great as this is for Hip Hop’s soul, there’s another side of 90s NYC Hip Hop that deserves to be revisited. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were doing their own thing in that era, and it was arguably as impactful on the state of Hip Hop as what Nas & Big L were doing. Someone’s going to have to pay homage to these artists to let the next generation of hip hop heads know what the smoother, funkier side of 90s New York Hip Hop golden age was all about.
Enter Duckwrth.
Duckwrth dropped his debut mixtape Duck Tape last summer via bandcamp. While a lot of that tape puts him more in the Childish Gambino/Mac Miller category, it also holds some indicators (5th Nebula, Black Vimana) of what was to come for the San Francisco based emcee.
However, if you want to really get stoked on Duckwrth’s potential, check out what he did over a Flying Lotus beat on the track “MultiDimensional” released earlier this year. That’s where Duckwrth’s De La Soul / Tribe influences come to the forefront, and what got me really hooked on him.
On The Web: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp
‘MultiDimensional’ (Official Video)
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ACE REPORTER
Ace Reporter may be the most interesting man currently not found in a Dos Equis commercial. The Chicago by way of Brooklyn singer/songwriter is quite the well-traveled young man according to his Instagram, as well as a Harvard grad, and someone who got their start singing as the lead soprano for the soundtrack to the movie The Crow when he was still a pre-teen.
Still not convinced he’s an interesting guy? Ace spent 2010 writing and recording a song per day. Yes, that’s 365 songs written in one year. The best ten tracks from this project were re-recorded in 2012, and now comprise Ace’s debut full-length Yearling, released earlier this year on Ooh La La Records.
Yearling is a record as eclectic as you’d expect from such an interesting individual writing an album in such an ‘outside-the-box’ manner. As diverse as Yearling is, Ace’s brand of infectious, ethereal pop runs down the record’s spine keeping it on course. When this is combined with Ace’s ability to paint the listener a vivid picture via his lyrics (a la’ Ben Gibbard), Yearling is certainly a record that deserves to make its way to a much larger audience.
On The Web: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Spotify
Untouched & Arrived (Rooftop Video)
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Bronze (Official Video)
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AUNT ANGE
Aunt Ange is more of multi-faceted artistic endeavor than a band. The project lives in the shared subconscious of the band’s leaders, Patrick O’Brien and Jack Kearney, who founded it over a decade ago and remain the creative force behind the project.
Each of Aunt Ange’s three releases have been brilliant concept albums, supplemented with visuals by way of the beautiful charcoal drawings of front man Patrick O’Brien and an actual text story, which O’Brien and Kearney create together.
The texts for the band’s first two records were kept between O’Brien and Kearney. But for their latest release Olga Walks Away, the band will be releasing an accompanying full-length novel this October. When combined with the fact this is the most beautiful album they’ve released to date and the surreal artwork that O’Brien devised for it, hopefully this will be the point where the world at large finally takes notice of what an artistic gem we are lucky enough to witness unfolding in Aunt Ange.
To The Sun And Die (Live in Studio)
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Olga Walks Away (Book Trailer)