PDX Hip-Hop Scene Report Summer 2010 Volume 1

picture: Cloudy October. Stolen from his FB photos

What up kids? It's been a minute, but I was quite inspired by Goldie's recent 2 part interview @ PDX.FM. Please check it and listen to it if you haven't already. She has some very wise words regarding social media, how you can turn a chip on your shoulder into positivity, being the matriarch of this blog, how content is king in the digital realm, and why everyone should have a blog.

So let's get to the content...

I've explained this before but despite being immersed in the indie-rock world in Portland for almost a decade I have since shifted my attention to my first musical love, which is hip-hop. When I moved to Portland from St. Paul, MN in 2001 I was quite dismayed to find the hip-hop scene to be very underwhelming in comparison to what I was used to. In Minneapolis/St. Paul the indie-rock kids and the hip-hop kids supported each other. I guess the best example is Slug from from Atmosphere being at pretty much every Lifter Puller show and vice versa. And versa vice.

That said, I feel a sea change coming in summer 2010 here in PDX. And I'm so so psyched that it's finally becoming a reality.

Exhibit A = Cloudy October.

Any time someone comes to me bemoaning the current state of hip-hop in Portland I point them straight to Cloudy October. They invariably end up speechless and thanking me for the heads up. Get it straight, this is not your average rapper. From the production to the mind-blowing artwork to the imaginative lyrical content to the amazing live show, dude is, apologies to Snoop, realer than real deal Holyfield. I've exhausted every superlative I could ever expound on this cat, and yet I never grow tired of doing so. So I'll say it again. Don't sleep on Cloudy Oct son. His artistry is second to none. Super super psyched he is doing a PDX-POP set this year! Let it be known. I said it here first, Cloudy October is not only YOUR favorite emcee, but also your favorite indie-rockers favorite rapper too. Well deserved. Dude is off the chain!

Volume 2 + 3 to follow this weekend.
Feel free to do your homework ahead of time and follow along.
Tope & Epp and Portland Trailblazers draft edition post manyana.
Followed by Hives Inquiry Squad post Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, Anti-Pop Consortium @ the Doug Fir.
I wrote a lil' something for the Mercury bout it bout bout it.
Soon people.....