i met this guy from , fever1. really solid breaker. some buddies of mine where i used to work are doing a live action/animation piece with a few of the members. fever1 had been breaking out west for years in seattle before heading out here to brooklyn and linking up with in ‘97 or ‘99–something like that. we got talking about seattle hip hop, which, for the most part, relegates to sir-mix-a-lot’s bass thumping “my possseeee’s on broadwayyy.” maybe xavier mcdaniel or shawn kemp tried to make a rap album, blazing crossover grounds for shaq, iverson, or ron “the wild card” artest, but i think not. (side note: when i was 14 i was driving with my dad down broadway and i saw the fattest, ugliest tranny. she easily weighed 130 kilos and was wearing black boots, fishnets, a vinyl mini, and a feather boa. the gut poked out enough that there was no need to even attempt a tuck back, or fanny-pack cover up. i am guessing she wasn’t in mix’s posse.)
seattle has always seemed to be short on producing widely-released hip hop. west coast freestyle/backpack culture grew in a time when grunge ruled, and the synapse of space between the bay area and seattle seemed to leave the pacific northwest open to much more influence from the east coast. writers, djs, and breakers found their niche up there (thanks pinoys!), as evidence shows in alleyways and clubs, but that seems to be about it. there is an argument to be made that much of the pinoy influence can be attributed to the close ties between the black and filipino cultures through the 50s/60s/70s, but that’s for another friday. as far as the music, even the conscious era in the mid 90s would have appealed to the granola factor of seattle, and i am sure that it did/does but i don’t hear anyone rapping about rice cakes and holistic living anymore.
so what? nothing really, just some thoughts, and i could be wrong. the is out of seattle, though. you could catch a boom bap gig with some quannum folks, or dead prez if you were in seattle for a little summer vacation (a vacation which i would highly recommend). their music doesn’t really shake my tail feather and reminds me of anything from LA in the 90s produced by anyone associated with dilated peoples, but still, they do their thing:
, by the boom bap project
as a side note, thanks cynicole d, because true or not, .
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stylin!
seattle has definitely been trying to get it’s weight up…Boom Bap and Grayskul(also on RSE) are mos definitely some of our best exports, but there’s a bunch of young cats coming up right now, and for the first time in awhile things seem to be really bubbling. there’s plenty of that mid-90’s consciousness type shit goin on too. check me out or at my blog or at my neglected seattle rap blog for more info on whats poppin in the 206.
phlih
OK, that was me trying to get the authentication text right….
Anyway, lmjr, you have actually responded to my greatest fear: a hip hopper from the land of the Huskies, Sonics, and Phuket in Queen Anne. I am glad that you found no great fallacies in any of my comments. Thanks for the links, it is always good to hear what is going on in Seattle, it has always been a hotbed of music influences, especially through jazz, soul, and rock through the 70s. Judging by mom’s hotpants (gross) disco lived also. Awesome to hear, not awesome to have thought about mom’s hotpants.