Continuing his prolific string of releases in 2009, Baltimore emcee 810 has just released a new EP, I Hate OBPs, in advance of his new album Glass Half Full. For those keeping count at home that's two albums and two EPs, along with numerous co-starring roles with his Bmore partner Black Sunn on various other tracks, in less than twelve months. Like I said, the kid's prolific, but what's been impressive has been the amount of effort that 810's been putting into these releases. Most rappers who put out such a steady stream of material generally end up sounding like they're rapping just for the sake of rapping (or keeping their names on the top of the blog lists), but 810 has been consistently thoughtful and creative with his lyrics, examining the source of racism one moment and crafting tales of bank robberies as intense as any celluloid caper the next.
For this latest EP 810 jumps on a handful of "other people's beats" (the OBPs of the title), jacking a rather diverse group of artists for their instrumentals, from Cash Money to Kanye. With a tracklisting of just five songs the EP is brief, but should hold you over until the real album comes out in November. Peep:
The beat for NFL is taken from Jay-Z's A Million and One Questions, but I have to admit I'm drawing a blank on the source for La La La. Drop a line in the comments if you can id it.