Thursday, April 14, 2011

The Green Tape


Portland hip-hop heads are probably well aware of local emcee Illmaculate's battle-rap championship caliber prowess as well as being a pillar of the Voltron-esque supergroup Sandpeople.

What some may not know is that Illmac has paired up with local transplant via Eugene, OR beat maestro Calvin Valentine who up until recently went by the name of G_Force, the 3rd member of TxE with Tope & Epp.

The resulting album has been years in the making, and is composed entirely of samples from Al Green's somewhat obscure 2007 release Lay It Down.

All told, it's an amazing snapshot of how high the artistry bar of PDX hip-hop has been set. Whether you're aware or not, this town is in the midst of a huge hip-hop renaissance lately. Luck-One, Hives Inquiry Squad, Rose Bent, Cloudy October, L Pro, Destro, IAME, Mic Crenshaw, Serge Severe, and too many others to mention which is a good problem to have. No amount of superlatives I could spit here would do this record justice, so cop it for free RIGHT HERE. Bump it in your headphones and thank me later.


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