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Over the past few months, in a somewhat clumsy attempt to get back to experiencing hip hop as a "regular" fan rather than as a blogger (though with so many blogs and direct feeds from artists available these days, the distinction between a typical hip hop head and whatever it is I've become over these last few years is perhaps less remarkable than what it once was), I've made a conscious effort to ignore the deluge of professional promo blasts and press releases that find their way to my inbox on a daily basis. The upshot has been that I've sat through significantly fewer disposable songs from rappers who place quantity above quality in their strive to continually be a topic of the blogger conversation. The downside, however, is that the occasional gem has slipped past my narrower field of vision.
Case in point: L.A. rapper Bambu's collaboration with Soul Assassins' DJ Muggs, Los Angeles, Philippines, which I only recently discovered has been out since last November. I've been a big fan of Bambu's since first hearing his track Quit a couple of years ago. Whenever I try to put people up on Bam, I describe him as a Filipino amalgamation of Chuck D and Ice Cube (well, a Bomb Squad-era Cube before he realized that a rapper promoting revolution is a lot less likely than a rapper spouting ignorant gangsterisms to receive a fat paycheck from Hollywood), a politically conscious emcee whose world view has been strongly influenced by his earlier life as a gangmember. He's certainly not the only rapper dropping political rhymes, but he's one of the few emcees with a political bent to come on the scene post-9/11 who's been able to drop real knowledge without getting bogged down in spaced out conspiracy theories. He also happens to be one of the few conscious rappers with a knack for picking out beats that are dope enough to be blasted out of car stereos, an attribute that has been further enhanced by teaming up with Muggs and the Soul Assassins.
LA PI is one of the few releases in recent memory that has a tracklisting devoid of filler, and certainly the only mixtape breaking the ten song barrier to meet that criteria. Every song on here is capable of standing on its own, from Bam's reconfiguring of Cypress Hill's smoker anthem Stoned is the Way of the Walk to the decidedly more aggressive call to arms Grenade. If you're getting a late pass on this mixtape like I am, it's highly recommended that you go out and cop this right away:
Bambu and DJ Muggs - Los Angeles, Philippines Mixtape (left-click to d/l)
Below are two of my favorite cuts from the mixtape. The first is a lesson for the Drake generation, the second track has Bambu offering up his thoughts on the lack of Change from our current administration (thoughts that are very similar to an argument I made over four years ago; good to see a few rappers are finally catching up!):
Bambu - Check (right-click to d/l)
Bambu - Firearm (right-click to d/l)
And here's one of the promo videos that Bambu released for the mixtape last year:
Bambu and Muggs - Pow Wow Drums
3/1/2011 5:30:00 PM posted by Fresh