Category: Gothic Hip-Hop

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]

“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.”

Listen on Spotify

“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

(read the full story here) “…Why this title? Being a white Western male abroad, you travel trailing centuries of history behind you. You are always White Man – you can’t escape that. This album is partly an attempt to shine some honest light on myself as White Man, along with that long tail of history and the ugly little elephant-in-the-room I travel on.

It’s also partly a homage to the humanity and courage of the people we met in Iran, who lead their lives in the shadow of an oppressive regime but still remain so hospitable, warm and funny. I promised I would tell the world some of your story – here it is.

And of course, White Man (Moves) is a scrapbook for the memories of good times and brilliant people met over the course of an adventure. With that in mind, I dedicate this album to all those people – this album is full of the sounds of your voices and your streets. Finally, I offer White Man (Moves) to Laura. I never remember to take pictures, but here’s something to remember our trip by.” -Dizraeli

“Welcome to the mixtape. These words woven from old ideas & new perspectives are not something I came to alone. I’m blessed to be in community with some next-level magickal individuals. Much of what motivates me to make & share music is the abundance of inspiring conversations & ideas condensing from the unique atmosphere in our Appalachian holler.

Amidst mass media fear-mongering, I don’t believe I’m alone in hungering for authenticity, revolutionary conversation & solution-oriented ideas. I felt called to export some of these rare tropical fruits of thought & perspective to contribute my small part to the larger conversation.

Evolution is the topic. How are we going to adapt to all the ways things are changing? This mixtape is a freely given gift to hip hop culture which has given me so much, and anyone who desires to live in a more beautiful & harmonious world.” ~Numinous the Bard

“Ghost Pipes (Monotropa Uniflora): Herbaceous perennial plants native to temperate regions of Asia, North America and northern South America. Their lack of chlorophyll gives them their characteristic translucence which lead to the common names of ghost pipe, corpse plant, ice plant, and ghost flower. These rare heterotrophic plants can grow in near total darkness since, unlike photosynthetic plants, they do not draw nutrients from the sun. They instead pull sustenance from surrounding tree roots and forest brush via mushroom mycelium. This relationship is not symbiotic, it is more parasitic in nature. Though the ghost pipe does not contribute anything of known value back to it’s host, humans have discovered valuable uses for the plant. While the entire plant is technically edible, this is not the best use. Through extraction, M. Uniflora has been found to create an effective pain relieving tincture helping those with both physical and emotional suffering. It is said not to erase the pain entirely, but to put the person beside the pain in a more cognitive sense of acceptance.
These songs are ghost pipes for myself and others.” – Anthony Maintain

“As an openly queer rapper, Texas’ Chris Conde combines the classically detached spheres of hip hop, indie rock and avant-garde experimental art punk of the drag variety. In their sometimes hysterical but always poignant bars, Conde strives to relate to their audience through an honest communication of their personal narrative of overcoming drug addiction, internalized homophobia and self-acceptance.”

“Five years after releasing Return of the Astro-Goth, Yugen Blakrok descends from the vast cosmos and delivers to the world an impressive lesson in style, with her second album Anima Mysterium. Far from the stars but heavy with their radiant wisdom; it’s towards Earth, humanity and the obscurity at its core that the South African rapper directs her incantations.
Accompanied by Kanif the Jhatmaster’s beats, Yugen’s flow sows the frontiers of a world where the subconscious frees itself and confronts man with his most hidden secrets. Yugen’s poetry has something Ovidian, depicting her as an agent of Metamorphosis, a reincarnated goddess in terrestrial form calling humanity to itself.

“Why in the deepest darkness my soul beams like a lantern, Engineered in female form…silent carrier of the force, I’m a sandstorm in desert dunes, a shadow with a torch” Land of Gray, Yugen Blakrok”