Category: Intellectual Hip-Hop

This was my favorite album for a while in high school. It taught me a lot about the absurdity of life & how to take it all as it comes, no matter how nonsensical everything is. There are a lot of drifter vagrant anthems on here because Buck was homeless when he wrote a lot of these songs. I thought that was rad for some reason when I was a teenager. Also there’s lots of contemplations about “suicides” via Buck’s profound “Riverbed” series. I hope you get as much from these abstract rhymes as I did so many years ago. ♥Neonn

This album feels unreal in how brave it is. This motherfucker is really out here talking this hardcore of revolutionary shit I can still hardly believe it even after listening so intently to it all. “They fucked the slums so hard they gave birth to a resistance….” Carrying Dead Prez’ torch on here, telling folks in the hood to redirect their anger (& traumatized destructive expressions of it) at the system that oppresses them rather than their neighbors who might disrespect them. Hip Hop needed this album, bringing back that Panther energy. Please listen, it will blow your mind. ♥Neonn

“KXNG Crooked dropped a new album titled Good Vs. Evil, his third project of 2016. The LP sees Crooked donning the persona of a superhero from an alternate reality. In this universe, lower class citizens use violence to fight back against oppression.

“It all started when I was watching a news segment on the murders of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and all the other black people killed by Police” Crooked said. “I saw Tamir Rice’s mother on TV and the pain in her eyes made my blood pressure boil. No mother should lose a child like that. Then, I watched cops kill unarmed people on film and go home to their families like black lives didn’t matter. No charges and with paid leave. At the same time, I watched officers capture Dylan Roof alive and buy him a hamburger after he slaughtered nine black churchgoers. I thought to myself, are we under attack as black people to the point where I might have to shoot an officer just to survive a mere traffic stop? I thought, how crazy is it that we even have to think about in America (in 2016)?  Then I thought, how ill would it be to have a black superhero (that other black children can look up to; the same way we do Marvel characters) to tackle and these issues.” [XXL]

One of the best emo pop punk albums I’ve ever heard. This gives me a whole new level of respect for MGK, who was always a talented hardcore emcee but never somebody I was particularly impressed with in terms of substance. This album is interesting because it’s like the emo meme was barrowed from punk into Hip-Hop, & then back to punk again. This a wonderful cathartic synthesis of both aesthetic sensibilities. Listen close! Great driving music, too. ♥Neonn

“dear friend, after countless hours of work over the last 14 months, this experiment of an album has finally been released into the world. i feel a strange ambivalence, at once joyful to share the work and hollow, having just let go of this art(ifact) which has incubated within me for so long. there is also the familiar sensation of being so close to the project now that i no longer have more than a vague inkling of its merits. i look forward to listening to it a few months from now with fresh ears.

“‘EXISTENTIAL RISK’ is an attempt to come to terms with a number of rather heavy issues facing humanity, many of which i’ve never heard anyone else address in the rap genre. it is also an urn containing the ashes of past selves and many experiential particles which needed to be ejected from my psyche. thank you, from the bottom of me, for listening to and contemplating this thing i made. i sincerely hope it gives you something. love, jordan” (more description here)

“‘FRAGMENTED’ is an EP about uncertainty, cognitive dissonance, fragmentation of identity, suffering, heartbreak, and the oft-overwhelming process of attempting to synthesize a coherent worldview or life-meaning from the various intermelding oceans of context and culture through which we swim in 2016. it was “born in a nightmare,” as Open Mike Eagle might say.

“if you look closely enough, it’s also probably about love and fun and peace and laughter and joy and all that good stuff. it’s also about whatever you want it to be about, or whatever it seems to be about to you. i put a lot of me-stuff into this artifact, and i hope it gives you something. luv, jordan.”

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“IOWASCA is an 80-Minute Digital Ayahuasca Ceremony. A deeply healing, liberating, and uplifting Medicinal Sound Journey. One that you can return to time and time again. To let go of old patterns and burdens. Tap into Higher Frequencies. Move deeply into the Now. And reprogram your subconscious mind for… Gratitude. Joy. Lightness. Abundance. Love. Fun. Fearlessness. Peace. This entheogenic genre-bending soul-rap album is…

“A Portal to a new Universe… A Magical Place where fear is an illusion, Divinity is everywhere, and Life is an Eternal Playground to express your Soul. This Universe actually exists, and it’s possible for you to tap into it Now. Heaven is a frequency, available at all places and times. If you allow us, we can illuminate the Path to get there.”

“a wise man named Dunzo Donalds once told me that “your first songs are your best songs,” which further confirmed an intuition i had felt stirring within me: that i needed to release my earliest raps….

“really though, these songs i recorded in a small studio apartment in Busan, South Korea in late 2013 and early 2014 hold a special place in my heart, and it feels right to me to share them with you all. these glimpses into my psyche were born from a place of pure excitement—from a sense of the world of rap-making as a Narnia of endless possibility.

“as always, i truly hope this music gives you something.

“with love and a jolly belly laugh,
jb”

🔥 Anton Iorga (@antonyofegypt) is a prolific metagnostic activist scholar poet, my favorite emcee in the world, & a good friend of mine, who writes verses from the perspectives of various mythological guises, such as Kalki, Antony of Egypt, Legion, Kikwaakew, & Sunya, to name a few.. 👽
They’re busy writing & studying & juggling a ton of different projects, including managing a fully nonprofit hip hop record label called Revolt-Motion Records, which publishes all their music & literature & graphics & videos as free culture in creative commons, so they leave it up to listeners to upload their tunes across the interwebs 🎃 so heere ya go fam, Enjoy & Evolve! 🔮

For tons more intersectional activist music & resources, check out their website www.revolt-motion.com/

Send your compliments directly to the poet @ www.facebook.com/kikwaakew

And check out my epic interview with this brilliant artist on the Utopian Cartography podcast @ www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQu78Vl7-5c