L to R: Lyricks, Dumbfoundead, Esna Yoon, Manifest, Zo, Lyraflip, JL
I’m honestly not sure when or where this picture was taken, or even how we found it. But my best guess is that this is on set of the music video for “Lava” by JL, L. Scatterbrain, Lyraflip, Lyricks, Manifest, Dumbfoundead and DJ Zo – meaning the photo has to be at least a year and a half to two years old. How’s that for a Snapshot in time? Esna makes an appearance though L.S. is curiously missing… perhaps he’s taking the picture?
Odd to think how much has happened since this photo was taken. Mani & JL have been to Korea and back again (welcome home fellas!), Lyricks has remained a staple in the DMV/East Coast Hip-Hop scene, Dumb & Zo have been conquering the world… and I dunno where Flip & Scatter are right now. They’ve been kind of quiet, fell off our radar a bit. Can’t wait to see what will become of everyone in another two years!
Here it is folks. The highly anticipated music video for “Angry Asian Man” off Decipher‘s album The Effect. The music video has the highest production values of any of his releases thus far. The song features Mani & Zo in arguably one of the best collabs of the year. You can DL the song for free from his bandcamp as well. Glad this track was selected to be pushed as an official single. Lyrics are available after the break!
Knocksteady recently had the opportunity to catch up with the legendary DJ Qbert. It’s always fascinating to hear from the Hip-Hop pioneer, and I’m sure DJ Zo was stoked to talk with Q. Like always, the following clip is a highlight of interview session. If you want to hear it through to completion (in it’s 22 minute glory) then go ahead and check it out via iTunes or Soundcloud.
As we predicted, once Ly gets on a creative roll – he doesn’t stop until he’s tapped out. Here are a pair of videos featuring some of his long time friends and collaborators, Josh Shepard & Petey-O on “Guy on the Couch” and DJ Zo on “Spray Paint Cans and Prayer”. Any one familiar to the NoVa area should recognize some of the sights and locations in the video. These aren’t full blown MVs so much as they are companion pieces to the music – a notable distinction.
It’s been years since we’ve seen a full-length LP from Philadelphia rapper Decipher. Sure, we’ve seen a couple mixtapes from him along with a plethora of feature spots on other artists’ songs but those aren’t enough to truly gauge how an artist has evolved over time compared to an actual, conceptualized album. But this changed at the top of 2011, when Decipher dropped his long awaited return, The Effect. The MUzO artist did a good job of building anticipation for the album, but does it live up to the hype? We’re gonna find out.
Who would have thought these three rappers would have joined to make a video together? When I first heard they were collaborating together, I was really excited and didn’t know what to expect. At first, I thought they were going to be really serious with the video but I was totally wrong. It had a comedy style but the lyrics were still exceptional, I didn’t suspect any less from them. Another surprise is Jin coming out of the blue to work with DFD and Traphik. The beat was steady and enjoyable to listen too. Also I found it interesting that the rappers mention each other in their verses. DJ Zo’s cuts were on point, you can never be disappointed with his work. If you like the song, it will be available next week on iTunes!
Dumbfoundead goes off on this beat, he was very lyrical in the video. The instrumentals you hear is something you wouldn’t suspect. Even though the instrumentals sounded very space like, DFD made it sound appealing with his verses. If the beat wasn’t in the instrumentals, the video wouldn’t have been as good as well. Theres not much more to say but enjoy the music and expect a lot from DFD in the year 2011.
I’ve become a huge fan of typography animation. I think it’s such an interesting way of expressing the written word and a great way to enhance scenes (example: the film Zombieland). This is why I found it completely intriguing that DFD & Zo decided to release their latest MV for the song “Love Psycle” entirely in this format. It really highlights the lyrics and showcases their music in a new way. I highly recommend you check this one out. Oh and it’s off their free mixtape Cut + Paste that dropped a few weeks back.
Decipher has dropped his latest solo album, The Effect, of which we’ve heard a couple of tracks from so far. The album features Dumbfoundead, Lyricks, DJ Zo, Jay Park, Furis, JL, Andrew Choi, Manifest, Schoolboy DUKE, Ailee and Sam Ock. The album is currently available digitally from Bandcamp and as a CD from his big cartel store. Look for it to be released soon on iTunes and AmazonMP3 as well. You can stream the whole release via the widget below. Start the new year off right with some fresh hip-hop!
