Rap Links Connect

In my ears, Crooked I has always been one of the very most monstrous newcomers, skill-wise, not much more... but upon listening through Young Boss Vol 2 I see a writer rising up from between the rhymes, an author showing extreme concern for the construction of a line, details of rhyme patterns, cadences, rhythms, double meanings. Not to put him on a level with a Rakim, or an Eminem... but perhaps he will be there one day. Until then he will have time to develop a unique voice, which seems to be lacking at times; his attitude can be a bit too much, exagerated and simple minded. And the beats, well, they kick, bang, thump real well and all that, but with fewer variations. But it is a mixtape, not an album, and how can I can complain when he is working on a project with these people?

(The fact that he is recording with Ill Bill is beautiful... just like seeing Cormega and Immortal Technique on stage together... who finally has a new album coming out, by the way. Revolutionary Vol. 2 was partly monumental, and The 3rd World seems to be a good continuation, angrier, more concentrated. Go to his Myspace and listen to him share the mic with Ras Kass, Pharoahe Monch, Chino XL, Crooked I ... and Bootcamp Click's Military Mind. And he will be on Ill Bill's The Hour Of Reprisal. FUCKING CHRISTMAS DAY. Somewhere here lays the seeds to the revival of the rap genre, in the battle field where the seven-headed hydra of industry funk will be slayed, where veterans and up-and-comers connect, and Ice-T leads the troops).

Normally the staff at Runkbåset only read blogs looking for the few valuable Zshare-links, but the old favourite Cocaine Blunts, and the newly added Byron Crawford - The Mindset Of A Champion, are also worth their weight in writing. Noz at Cocaine Blunts keeps a low profile, but it is hard to miss his love and dedication for obscure rap history and its present mutations (and for the art of putting a sentence together, something screamingly missing 'round rap blogs). Crawford does not write on the low, he pumps it out over the top, with fuses blowing, and the HATE-O-METER in the red, in traditional, american alcoholic, self-obsessed, rhinocerous-like, HST-style.

Spliff Huxtable is a good source for instrumentals, both classic and fresh for the day... and because of this post, among others, you will find Ripped Open as one of the permanent links on the right, next to the regular, mumbling, stuttering, fleeing, unevenly updated flow.