To Translate My Ancestors' Anthems

November 5, 2010 10:59 PM

Looking for new underground hiphop? The last 10 years have seen the rise of a growing Asian/Pacific Islander American hiphop scene, including groups like Blue Scholars, Native Guns (consisting of Bambu & Kiwi), Power Struggle, Typical Cats, and Magnetic North. Also of note is the solid number of women taking up the role of MC'ing in the scene- Rocky Rivera, Hopie Spitshard, The Skim, Sun The Real Sun(exception - Canadian). (Multiple Youtube links, natch)
posted by yeloson (33 comments total)

This thread was inspired by this Meta thread for new hiphop recommendations and the sadly appropriate Native Guns' Handcuffs cut given the Mehserle sentencing.
posted by yeloson at 11:05 PM on November 5, 2010

Cheers yeolson, I love what I've heard of Blue Scholars.

In New Zealand we have Scribe and King Kapisi, who are both relatively well known, and who I think are both of Samoan descent.
posted by supercrayon at 11:23 PM on November 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

For female MCs, I love Eternia and Speech Debelle
posted by Theta States at 11:25 PM on November 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Hey Supercrayon, thanks for the links! So far all I've heard from New Zealand is Ladi6 and Dam Native, but so far I've been digging what I've heard.
posted by yeloson at 11:39 PM on November 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

For those that haven't seen it, The Rub has released thirty years of hipop mixes, all professionally done and pretty solid. From them, I found this great J Dilla track. Great places to find some old gems you might not have heard before. Also, here is a track by an MC I've been listening to lately, Mr. Lif that's pretty solid.
posted by yeahwhatever at 11:40 PM on November 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Props to the hip-hop flow on Metafilter the past few days. I like where this is headed.

Blue Scholars was a new one for me and I'm loving it so far. I recognize the backing track too - Bibio's Lover's Carvings. I play it in my cafe regularly. Happy to hear it sampled and used to such effect.
posted by mannequito at 11:41 PM on November 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wups, forgot this track by Kno.
posted by yeahwhatever at 11:42 PM on November 5, 2010

If I may self-link, on stage I go by Mercury, one-half of J-Pros. Our style is mainly rooted in Golden Age hip-hop. Seattle big up.
posted by bayani at 11:48 PM on November 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Thanks for taking a weak and fairly insulting callout, and pretty much posting the perfect rebuttal.

Right up to your face and diss you
posted by danny the boy at 12:01 AM on November 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, massive props.
posted by christhelongtimelurker at 12:20 AM on November 6, 2010

Blue Scholars will always have a place in my heart for writing a song about the bus I spent a large portion of my youth (and a fair bit of my broke-ass young adulthood) riding. Joe Metro
posted by billyfleetwood at 12:44 AM on November 6, 2010 [4 favorites]

This is so good. Keep it coming.
posted by Dr. Curare at 1:20 AM on November 6, 2010

If you're mentioning New Zealand Maori and Polynesian acts, let us not forget OMC (Land of Plenty, albeit sadly defunct with the death of Pauly Fuemana), Savage (Swing), Mareko (Stop, Drop, and Roll), Che Fu (Mysterious Vibe), Nesian Mystik (It's On).
posted by rodgerd at 3:11 AM on November 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ooh. Power Struggle is from Minneapolis. God I love how much amazing hip hop this city produces.
posted by cthuljew at 3:24 AM on November 6, 2010

Lately, I have mostly been listening to some new L.A rappers: Earl Sweatshirt - Couch (feat. Ace Creator), Domo Genesis - Super Market (feat. Ace Creator)
posted by zeer00 at 6:55 AM on November 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mod note: few comments removed - if you want a place for your "fuck America" rant, might I suggest MetaTalk? Seriously, it's like you don't even like MetaFilter.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:26 AM on November 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

Straight outta Canton, suckas! It's Notorious MSG!
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:34 AM on November 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is this the place to plug gypsy.cz? Czech Romani language hiphop with a sense of irony. Website, music, better music, more music.

They're pretty popular although they scored nul points in Eurovision.
posted by shinybaum at 10:23 AM on November 6, 2010 [3 favorites]

OK, let's go back to the oldschool in New Zealand with some Upper Hutt Posse: E Tu and (not hiphop really but trust me you need to hear this: Patea Maori Club: Poi E). Pride and defiance in the face of a really shitty deal.
posted by Infinite Jest at 10:25 AM on November 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow, great links. This will be fun to explore. Thanks for putting these together.
posted by Forktine at 11:38 AM on November 6, 2010

Although they're not "underground" (anymore) in any sense of the word, you can't deny Far East Movement and their rise to the top of the charts with "Like A G6." I love love LOVE the exposure that FM is giving to the AA hip-hop scene. I hope it gives rise to more Asian/AA artists to break into the charts.

Bubblin' up.
posted by bayani at 11:48 AM on November 6, 2010

When is Sushi K gonna show up?
posted by abbazabba at 11:54 AM on November 6, 2010

Yeah, I was debating whether to drop in "Like a G6", BEP's "Bebot" or Foxy Brown's occasional Tagalog, but decided to keep it to underground folks. And then there's old school like Gangsta Nip. And Lyrics Born, though he hasn't really made much of stopping in to Asian American hiphop circles.
posted by yeloson at 11:58 AM on November 6, 2010

fucking NICE.
posted by vito90 at 12:46 PM on November 6, 2010

decided to keep it to underground folks

Gotcha. Nice FPP by the way :D
posted by bayani at 1:04 PM on November 6, 2010

yeahwhatever, that J. Dilla track is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Great, great FPP.
posted by k8lin at 1:20 PM on November 6, 2010

Some formerly underground Korean rappers:

San E "Rap Genius" from his underground days. He's now signed with JYP and released "맛좋은산" which pretty much disses the entire current k-pop scene, including his boss JYP and other JYP artists, as well as other Korean rappers such as Outsider.

E-Sens from Supreme Team, 꽐라 (Remix), feat. Swings and Verbal Jint
Simon Dominic (or Simon D) from Supreme Team, rap medley, also featured with Untouchable in Deepflow's Seoul State of Mind
(Supreme Team tracks: Step Up, Supermagic)
posted by needled at 2:39 PM on November 6, 2010

Don't forget that rap was invented in New Zealand.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 3:24 PM on November 6, 2010

I've been totally jamming French hip-hop recently: Seyfu, NTM, MC Solaar. I love the way flows differ in other languages.
posted by schyler523 at 4:29 PM on November 6, 2010

I've been totally jamming French hip-hop recently: Seyfu yt , NTM yt , MC Solaar yt . I love the way flows differ in other languages.

Real talk! There's something about the staccato delivery of French that seems to really lend itself to rap.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:28 PM on November 6, 2010

oh, cool!
Blue Scholars!
Came across them via Slick Corea!
Children of the Idiom, a thesis project, I can't find the download link of the pdf, and images, but the songs can be heard in several places, the whole project was pretty awesome stuff, a real package.
Cool post, very nice!
Thank you.
posted by infinite intimation at 7:30 PM on November 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ps, I would not be doing my duty if I didn't mention that;
Liz Vaughn is AWESOME!
(Youtube, kinda bad quality live recording, yet still wicked; if you like her, and want more, she contributed on several of Slick Corea's tracks linked above.)
posted by infinite intimation at 7:40 PM on November 7, 2010

Love the track Loyalty, Blue Scholars ft Common Market. Laid Back. Cool Veedyo too.
posted by infinite intimation at 8:00 PM on November 7, 2010