Philadelphia Weekly Music Issue: Hip-Hop

The new issue of Philadelphia Weekly, which hit streets and the Internet today, is all about local hip-hop music. That means that if you stroll around the comments sections long enough you’ll see a lot of Anonymouses complaining because Anonymous hirself, hir brother, sister, BFF, client, neighbor, plumber, doctor, or whoever, was not included. THEY DESERVE TO BE, Anonymous will claim!

That’s what happened when I wrote the PW cover on dubstep/electronic music back in November. Everyone knew a DJ, and every DJ other than the ones I mentioned deserved to be mentioned more than the ones I mentioned. Anyway, such is the game.

But, I think it’s an overall solid issue, for which I wrote four profiles. It seems obvious to me why these artists should be included.

1. Cee-Knowledge. He’s the local veteran, and you probably know him as Doodlebug of Digable Planets. Following the 2010/11 return of DP’s Butterfly as Shabazz Palaces, there’s been some buzz about a proper DP reunion, including a new album. Whether than happens or not, Cee-Knowledge is out there making music, and I think it was important to spotlight him because very few people seem to know that he’s from Philly. In fact, a few opening paragraphs that I put in to further illustrate Cee’s Philly roots were unfortunately cut from the article. Thus, I’m including them here.

“Central High would bring DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith into the gym for these wild dance parties,” Craig Irving remembers about coming up in Philadelphia as a teenager in the 1980s. “Everyone was wearing Adidas shell toes with fat laces. You’d have to look over your shoulder cause a thug element was always clocking to see who had the illest new shit. Philly was the truth!”

He taped Lady B’s rap radio shows and studied the rhymes. “I could get the channel, but I had to really twist the antennae. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t know rap music. From Schoolly D to Meek Mill, B taught us all.”

“They don’t have block parties like they used to,” Irving says about summer afternoons spent barbecuing and digging tunes spun by DJs Cosmic Kev, Spinbad and Cash Money near his grandmother’s house on Forrest Avenue. “They’d have these gigantic speakers and everyone’d be cuttin’ it up. Young cats like me would stand by the booth and try to figure out what records were spinning, but DJs blacked-out the labels so nobody could find out. Good times!”

2. Jahlil Beats & The Beat Bully. Two young brothers, 23 and 20 respectively, from Chester, Pa. They blew up this year, with Jahlil signing to Roc Nation, and the Bully currently entertaining a Maybach deal. They also produced two of the best, and most popular, rap songs by a Philadelphia artist this year, namely Meek Mill. Jahlil’s responsible for “Ima Boss,” the Bully’s responsible for “House Party,” both on Meek’s Dreamchasers mixtape.

3. Gun$ Garcia. Gun$ exists somewhere between hip-hop and club musics. She hasn’t done any production work, and she’s not an MC. She’s a DJ. However, her Bad Bitches Bomb First mixtape–featuring all female MCs–was the only album by a woman to be featured on any significant hip-hop year-end lists for 2011. Her tape popped up on Spin’s top rap list.

4. Young Chris. IMO, Chris is the second best rapper in Philadelphia (with Meek Mill at #1). 1/2 of Young Gunz, and a member of State Property, Chris got fucked after Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella records abandoned its Philly roster. Yet, Chris has continued to grind on the mixtape circuit, and his output is consistently good. His Revival (2011) mixtape was dope.