Xtaci = Bola & Sunshine, though i didn't realise this until relatively recently. I thought it was one girl who just had a slightly inconsistant cadence. But i think Xtaci is the best name ever EVER. There is something so aesthetically pleasing about it, it's kind of dynamic and exotic and lean and xciting. They are wicked also, kind of Salt-N-Pepa/L'Trimm girl rap but with a really substantial hood update. They are solid crack in the shape of a giant X. Check out these few tracks -
This song is one of my all time favourites really, the beat is insane - i love the strata, where the beat kicks in for the opening chorus, but then kicks in again on a whole 'nother level for the first verse - absolute bass murder - and the girls are so on top of the flow. check out the second verse's opening, a rare perfect synergy of word and bang:
God DAMN, what they say when I step up in the room Bitch, I bloom like a flower on a Sunday afternoon (in late June)
not to mention the way "X T A C I nigga get right" hits every beat on the way down.
The beat is crazy here, absolute southern smoke/comfort/other good thing. The bubbles of toms are so propulsive, and the melody is monstrous. swinging head music again, like Romy & Michelle.
The girls are signed to Grand Hustle - T.I.'s record label, but they ain't released an album yet. "X and The City" was what was supposed to be released, but i can't find it anywhere - but check out their myspace
Also, this is a video for Billy Cook 'Missing You' feat. Raw'LT. it is slightly histronic, but pretty good all things considered. They even kiss! gross. and check out the Lost highway half way through, and the awesome figurine of man clutching a womans midriff on their mantlepiece, and the way she hoiks up that dog, and her oily legs, and the Benny Hill quality at the end. But then the last shot of her face is really beautiful
Infamous Syndicate were a female duo from Chicago, and released their sole album, Changing The Game in 1999. I think they had some commercial success with the single 'Jenny Jonez', but I'm much too young to have had any awareness of that. There most notable these days for being the starting place of Rashawnna "Shawnna" Guy, who of course is one of my favourite MC's (see below), but her partner, Lateefa "Teefa" Harland is also doing good stuff these days, albeit on a smaller level.
I picked up the album in Amoeba Records, Haight Street, San Francisco last time i was out there, two years ago. I wish to god i had been more on the ball and just bought every female album i could find, but i didn't sadly. I knew of Infamous Syndicate though, and was pretty excited when i found it.
The album's a mixed bag, with some of the tracks sounding just too insubstantial and/or generic late 90's for me. But actually, about half the album keeps an impressive standard up. The opening "Here I Go" is biting, laced, as with tracks on Shawnna's solo albums, with some Buddy Guy guitar. The MC's voices make a nice contrast, with Teefa's higer girlish tone next to Shawnna's familiarly deep and raw one. Top of the pile are:
Yes, Kanye West in 1999! Ahead of the curve. He produces this track, and it's beautiful, a bittersweet trilling guitar, and soft waves of electric piano. It features Teefa and Kanye alone, exchanging battle of the sexes rhymes on the theme of illicit relations. Exciting! I don't much care for Kanye on this - His style has matured in the years since it was made, and there's an uncomfortable misogynistic edge to his lines (though obviously not as bad as some). But Teefa is one hand to cut him down to size on the third verse, cutting him off like so:
I knew since the day i met you if i would fuck you or not so later on i asked my girl how many bitches you got i never loved you a lot but then this nigga got turned out he told his boy, they told his boy and now the words out ... I swear y'all, better keep the game on 'em yeah, y'all, now watch me change on him rule 1: never tell your nigga who you fuck and always smile back if he tell you he in love rule 2: most men try to control you take my advice cos it's so true what women go through rule 3: you think he don't cheat and he committed he still get invitations from the last girl he been with let this ho get mad i bet she'll tell you that he hit it Just check inside his pocket's find another bitches digits...
and to see what Teefa's doing now(ish), check out this track from a couple years back, produced by Vudu. I love this track, she's witty as a mother on this
Shawnna's sophomore album on (Ludacris' label) DTP, Block Music, didn't do nearly as well as it should, and now she has left the label and is going independant. But it should be pointed out that at least half of Block Music, maybe more, is amazing.
I remember hearing "Gettin' Some Head" for the first time, listening to it on my iPod on the bus to College. We were passing through Matlock, glamourous Matlock, when the second verse kicked in, and the last syllable of every line was drawn out into a honeyed drawl, and i thought 'she's stepping up her game'. It was so exciting to hear her pushing her style in new directions, and Block Music proved her to be one of the most stylistically experimental MC's going. oh yah.
Witness the slathers of bass rubbed all over this track, the beat that clacks, flaps and pops like a geyser. Block Music's first 5 songs totally raised the bar in terms of ice cold crack music and electrifying flows, and Shawnna's imperious on this one, delivering one-liners like this:
i keep my O's straight in order like it's tick tack toe and I'm x-ing out any nigga with a bitch ass flow
This beat is literally pure evil. Simultaneously menacing and nauseous, the strings flail about, providing the kind of terrifying atmosphere you just don't associate with commercial hip-hop. The beat bangs relentlessly, and the sampled chorus, 'candy coated paint, got the bitches at the bus stop, sick, but at the same time...' seems so incongruous against the musical background, that you've just got to go fucking mental and stop thinking about incongruity. Shawnna is deadly on this one, first interacting with the sample like Kanye and Rhymefest on "Brand New", then after 8Ball & MJG's second verse, ripping the track the fuck up with lethal doubletime spitting. When you hear a song like this, you just think, why drop her (assuming she was dropped, and did not leave)? OK, she didn't sell a huge amount, but she's clearly as good as any of her peers, and clearly pushing the envelope so BAD! But then, i'm not a CEO, if i was i would have a roster full of talented MC's selling nothing and then i would go bankrupt. But that's the crux of commercial hip hop, if you're not selling, then you're not successful (from the artists viewpoint as well as the labels), whereas in other genres, it's acceptable to be unsuccessful as long as your good. Oh well, c'est la vie de la rue. You need to get that money. Shawnna - Can't Break Me feat. Shareefa & Buddy Guy
After the opening salvo of bangers, there's a trio of more laidback r'n'b-ish tracks, which are of a high standard themselves. This one stands out though, for the tension and anger in Shawnna's flow that increases even as the song goes along, contrasting with (Shawnna's father and electric blues legend) Buddy Guy's fluid guitar licks and Shareefa's sweet hook.
Sadly, the album tails off towards the end slightly (though the Mandy Moore sampling "Chicago" is a highlight. Really.), and listening to her preceding mixtape, Block Music: The Mixtape, hosted by Clinton Sparks, you can't help think some of these bangers could off beefed up the album proper. Like so: Shawnna - Chicago Shit feat. Kanye West Shawnna - Gangsta Shit (Bust Ya Guns) feat. Rick Ross
You know, i really hope that Shawnna does it now she's gone independant. I really hope she gets in some good producers and DOES IT, because she's too good to disappear like so many sidekick female rappers before (remember Amil?).
BONUS!!
check that second verse i talked about, c.l.a.s.s.i.c.
So you all remember L'Trimm right? "We like the cars, the cars that go boom"? Yeah, they were fire, cute, snotty and banging. And you know electro is huge, right? and you know Uffie, this white girl from Miami, is a blog superstar? And she totally jacks the steez of all those 80's girl rappers?
Well guess what, Lady Tigra (one half of L'Trimm) is back, and she's got her foot firmly up asses!
Rather than try to integrate into modern hip hop, like so many of her contempories, Tigra hung back and is now ripping electro a new hole.
Seriously, i can't tell you how excited i am to see someone who was there when it started come back and kick the renaissance's ass. and she does.
The mp3 is courtesy of Tigra's own website, www.theladytigra.com, which is 100% worth checking out, especially for the awesome music video for the "Bass On The Bottom" Remix. Beautiful design as well.
Throwing you back to some old school shit, 1997 style. Snoop Dogg's right hand woman The Lady Of Rage's album Necessary Roughness is hit and miss, but there are some wicked tunes on it, like this one. Rage is definately a lyricist, all her verses seemed to be flushed with the love of language and twisting it around. This music makes me feel all warm and L.A. ish on these dismal summer days.
