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Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting a constant stream of submissions from unsigned artists, so I'm going to try to spotlight as many of them as I can this week. The first submission comes from Cyrano, a.k.a. Cy Yung, representing Raleighwood, North Carolina. Over the weekend, I had the chance to listen to his latest mixtape, The Return of Reel Hip Hop, and after hearing the title track I was definitely impressed.
He describes his sound on the mic as an "old school flow with a modern twist," though to me he's got a strong Little Brother vibe to him, which is perhaps not too surprising considering his N.C. origins. The subject matter of the tape is surprisingly diverse, with Cy covering everything from political subjects (focusing on the country's immigration policies and our society's treatment of women), to the current state of hip hop (the obligatory "hip hop is dead/dying" mixtape cut) to a P.S.A. on STDs (see below). As with a lot of releases from unsigned artists, this mixtape is a little rough around the edges. When Cyrano is on top of his game, as on the song featured below, he shows a tremendous amount of promise, however. Check it out:
Cyrano - Reel Hip Hop
I'm putting up one more track from the tape, called Herpes. On this one, Cyrano tells a cautionary tale of an encounter with a young lass suffering from a cold sore. I was highly amused by the song, from the lyrics ("I saw The Pharmacist, but this ain't And1") to the choice in instrumental, Slum Village's Selfish. It's like an '08 version of Kool Moe Dee's Go See The Doctor:
Cyrano - Herpes
Here's the link to download Cyrano's mixtape, The Return of Reel Hip Hop. To hear more from Cy, stop by his MySpace page
And if any of you are up for a quick history lesson, check out the wikipedia page on Cyrano de Bergerac, the inspiration for Cy Yung's name. Fans of mid-80's cinema may recognize Cyrano's life story from Steve Martin's Roxanne.
2/09/2007 06:00:01 PM posted by Fresh