The Original Symphony of Los Angeles Nerd Rappers | Rootbeer (Pigeon John & Flynn Adam) - 18 Minutes EP

LA Symphony may be the most underrated hip hop crew of the last 20 years. Representing the counter gangster rap culture of the Los Angeles underground, LA Symphony, as a crew and through various side projects and solo albums, have been making heads nod, bodies dance, and faces laugh consistently since before Composition #1 dropped in 1999. 

Pigeon John, the most prolific member of the symphony, joins forces with fellow nerd rapper Flynn Adam Atkins to drop another humorous, narrative driven, dancing EP - 18 Minutes.




The WhatUpWally? Blogging Symphony,
WhatUpWally?

Rappers You Need to Know | Mickey Factz - 740 Park Ave (Free Download)

As a XXL Freshman Class alum, you would have expected to hear Mickey Factz in every club rapping over some sort of trapped out electronic dance track. However, as a true descendent of New York hip hop, Factz released a collection of underground tracks and mixtapes. The price of creating authentic art is to be relegated to the margins of the music industry, only to be kept alive by blogs and hip hop fans not amused by the culture industry's one dimensionalization of the culture.

In 2012, Mickey Factz released the most creative mixtape and possibly on of the best albums of the year: Mickey Mause. 

"Mickey Mause is a pseudo character created by RCA artist Mickey Factz who is thrown into the 1980’s as a graffiti writer who was among the stars of that decade: Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Fab Five Freddy, then mentor Andy Warhol, etc." 

In 2008, Factz dropped the track "I'm Sean (50 Shots More)." Written from the perspective of Sean Bell, who was shot and killed in Queens by undercover officers the morning before his wedding, Factz demonstrates the creative power of hip hop artists to offer political and cultural resistance and critique.



Never satisfied with cliche'd and simplistic lyrics, Factz pushes himself to create, inspire, and critique and in doing so, makes himself one of the truest voices of his generation.

"I'm just another black man shot dead

Cuz the pig that was holdin the gun was a hot head

And tell Rodney King, I think we'll never get along

There's Bulls eyes on minorities this shit is wrong

Now I'm just another punchline in niggas songs

And ever black leader now wanna get involved

I just wanna be with Nicole 

Plus my soul is yearnin for my two daughters hearts cold

Next day I was supposed to get married, damn

Right now I'm supposed to be a married man

Racial profilin is so violent, 

The way things going, I Don't think they'll ever stop it

I just wanted my story to get across

I'm rested in peace for now

Truly yours"

Stream Mickey Factz's latest release below and hit Datpiff for the download.

Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Powered by DatPiff.com

Bloggy Factz,

WhatUpWally?

Uncle Snoop and His Little Cousins Bring Back Some West Coast G Funk | Snoop Dogg & The Eastsidaz - That's My Work Vol. 4

No disrespect to Snoop Lion or Katy Perry and her California girls, but we here at the WUW? office prefer the D O Double G when he is riding that West Coast G funk bass line. 

Stream the new mixtape below and hit Datpiff for the download.

Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Powered by DatPiff.com

Typing that pure blog funk,

WhatUpWally?

Acoustic Soul | The Foreign Exchange - NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Jasiri X takes Drake's fluff and turns it into Malcolm's Sermon | ‪Jasiri X - #‎NeverLovedUs‬

"Man we need Farrakhan security 
For every Black child that made it outta puberty " 

"Dangerous black kids we ain't welcome in suburbia 
All we want is justice and equality the nerve of us 
Still deny services criminalized by journalist 
Turn the other cheek and get killed by christian conservatives 
Mass incarcerated in prison is where they herding us 
Calling us thugs you see em try and Richard Sherman us 
They act like ain't nothing worse than us"
 

London Southern Blues Rock | Greighwolfe - Black EP (Free Download)

The distance between the UK and the US has never been far when it comes to the blues, soul, and good old fashion rock music. From the 60s British Invasion, when the Rolling Stones Europeanized the American soul sound, to the recent radio takeover of Sam Smith, our friends and former colonizers have continued to master the sound that sings the blues to the American soul. 

Greighwolfe, exists in that same oceanic gap where R&B, soul, southern rock, and the blues floats beneath the surface of public consciousness, sometimes peeking its head above the charts, but most of the time remaining submerged beneath the waves of popular music. 

Greighwolfe's sound exemplifies the best of all worlds, combining the southern rock sensibilities of The Black Keys and the dark synthetic sounds of The Weeknd. Never giving into the cliche, Greighwolfe vibes within diverse tempos and styles to place his flag in between the crashing waves of transformation to create beautiful and innovative music.

Stream below and head on over to Soundcloud for the download.

Spotted @ AFROPUNK

American Blues Bloggin,
WhatUpWally?