First off, apologies for the lack of original content on my part. It’s been getting hectic like Guru and The Brand New Heavies. There was an East Coast sojourn, a flurry of deadlines, and a hair-brained scheme to build the world’s first mind-reading machine–which failed miserably (see photo evidence here). Thankfully, like free lunches, Sach and Douglas have held it down like steel.
Hopefully, next week will boast fresh content–in the interim, allow me to point you to my feature on People Under the Stairs that ran in this LA Weekly. As an addendum, you should also read Noz’s take on how indieground “backpack rap” acts have suffered as a result of critics ignoring them to fetishize “cooler” rappers that they can giggle at with detached irony. Of course, the situation is infinitely more complex than that. The magazine biz and journalism are in tatters–as much as a perceived coolness drives Clipster* journos’ crushes on coke dealing Southern rappers/Panda Bear, don’t underestimate the economics at play. Subterranean rappers have always been niche and if magazines like Blender, Fader, et al. waste acres of trees on Lil Wayne puff pieces, it’s because they sell copies and rack up page views. This is also part of the reason why if you ignored blogs and hip-hop magazines, you’d probably think hip-hop consisted exclusively of the holy Weezy, Jeezy, Yeezy trinity.
But the point of the piece and this post really, is to point out that over the last decade, People Under the Stairs have quietly amassed a very strong discography–one arguably deeper and more consistent than J5 and Dilated, their late 90s backpack brethren. They may not have “swag”, but I guarantee you that their stage show is liver than Mickey Factz and Asher “My Bassist is a Hero But I Get All The Free Press” Roth.
* Copyright Sach O, 2009
LA Weekly: “Up With People Under the Stairs”
Download:
MP3: People Under the Stairs:”San Francisco Knights”
MP3: People Under the Stairs-“Acid Rain Drops”
MP3: People Under the Stairs-“July 3”
MP3: People Under the Stairs-“Anotha (BBQ)” (Left-Click)
