Mixtape Reviews
Mixtape Review: IamSu!: KILT
May 15th, 2012 | by Rayana | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
“Same pack, same crew. Your boy stay true.” This line from Richmond’s own IamSu! is more than true and can be proven by the work put into his newest mixtape KILT.
38thnotes.com’s Bay Abridged Mixtape Is Back!!
May 11th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music, The Bay Abridged
This spring we are relaunching The Bay Abridged mixtape series with local luminaries Oaklandish. The end product is a tape that sums up the eclectic nature of our dynamic hip-hop and R&B scene here in the Bay Area. DL and Listen!
The Park’s Nate Mercereau Brings The Twang
April 11th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
$1,000,000 Worth of Twang is a brooding country opus from guitarist Nate Mercereau of Bay Area band, The Park. The instrumental themes were recorded in Mercereau’s bedroom and mixed in SF, but they might just as well have been recorded in a ghost town [...]
1-O.A.K.’s Debut Album, Special Request, is a Classic
March 11th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
The Honor Roll’s freshman crooner has made his official debut, and it was well worth the wait! Special Request is well rounded, eclectic and expertly executed. Sonically, there is electro influence, soul samples, new school funk, Brazilian flavor, boom [...]
Music You Should Download: Rafael Casal’s Mean Ones LP
March 4th, 2012 | by niema | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
“Mediocre is a part of our culture,” Rafael Casal riffs on the title song for his solo project, Mean Ones. But one listen to the LP and it’s clear that the Bay Area raised, Los Angeles based MC’s tracks are far from pedestrian. The Bay Boy enlisted The [...]
Oaklandish 2012 Mixtape mixed by Dion Decibels
March 3rd, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music, Thursday Throwbacks
Imagine you’re driving down East 14th, and as the blocks pass, so do the years. Well that’s exactly the type of listening experience DJ Dion Decibels has created with Oaklandish’s 2012 mixtape. Please beware however that this musical journey is non-linear; [...]
Mixtape Review: Nio Tha Gift: No More Mr. Nice Guy
February 25th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
Nio is an emcee with a 2Pac-ian heart. Both the streets and the classroom course through his veins– the perfect pedigree of a ghetto intellectual. It helps that his mouthpiece spits out well-conceived wordplay and punch lines with precision. Nio isn’t [...]
Album Review: Daveed Diggs: Small Things To A Giant
January 26th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
Daveed Diggs is a soft-spoken maniacal motherfucker. He’s a quiet fellow when you first meet him–no rapper braggadocio or traces of ‘too cool for school’ bravado to speak of. He does stand out though. Aesthetically, Diggs fuses hyphy fashion sensibilities [...]
Mixtape: The Team Is Back!
January 6th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
The Team is one of my favorite groups of all time. They’ll never be compared to A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC or the Wu Tang Clan, but for an Oakland boy coming up in the height of hyphy, no one else compared. Their sound was uptempo enough to get you [...]
Mixtape: The Free Experience presents: Free Jazz Vol.1
December 20th, 2011 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History, Mixtape Reviews, Music
All the cool kids fancy themselves music aficionados. We all want to be on the new dopeness first and be steeped in crates of rare old school vinyl that no one this side of Medicare has ever heard. Even the most well versed music heads tend to [...]
Mixtape: iamsu!: The Miseducation of IamSu!
December 14th, 2011 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
The Miseducation of IamSu! might as well be called the Misrepresentation of IamSu! On the mixtape’s opening interlude Su says as much, and then goes on to present a tape that stands in stark contrast to what you may have heard from him on the radio. “(I [...]
Mixtape: GQ: Trouble Man EP
December 11th, 2011 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
GQ has been on the radar of those in the know for a while now. His storied days on Oakland’s blacktop and Chapel Hill’s hardwood behind him, the Oakland emcee returned home and sequestered himself in the booth with the E-Team and some good tree. The result? [...]
