| Open Mike Eagle Drops the “Qualifiers” Video, Signs with Mello Music Group for “Dark Comedy” | February 26, 2014 |
Max Bell believes the rules came from Slick Rick. Hellfyre Club stalwart and rap game P.T. Anderson Open Mike Eagle has inked a three album deal with indie rap label Mello Music Group for 2014 and 2015. The first of the triad will be Mike’s next album, Dark Comedy, which is slated for release this summer. […]
| Nocando, The Wave, and Little Green Monsters | January 31, 2014 |
Max Bell also endorses the Howie Mandel and Fred Savage vehicle, Little Monsters. Nocando has been riding the wave for a minute. Low End Theory remains popping and popular as ever (ask your local fire marshal). Hellfyre Club dropped one of last year’s best rappity-rap releases (Dorner vs. Tookie) and will soon be headed to […]
| Nocando & The Hunt for Little Green Monsters | December 4, 2013 |
I host a podcast with the rapper of this song. Said podcast returns tomorrow. In the interim, after more delays than an Italian train line, Nocando’s Jimmy the Burnout drops on Feb. 4th. “Little Green Monsters” is a song about jealousy, with a title inspired by a Max B lyric. Liphemra handles the hook with […]
| Busdriver on His Worst Behavior | November 26, 2013 |
Max Bell throws barbs over laser discs of “Barb Wire.” To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, I dislike the Drake. Hate is a strong word, and there are more loathsome individuals on this rotating blue orb than an ex-Degrassi cast member turned rapper. More than anything, it’s that I don’t buy what Drake’s selling. He’s not sincere, […]
| Bombs Over Breakfast Scones: Hellyfre Club’s “Dorner vs. Tookie” | November 6, 2013 |
Max Bell favors Michael Concepcion for the TDE Connect. Hellfyre Club is one of the strongest and most necessary branches of the hip hop tree. The natural and logical outgrowth of Project Blowed, much of their roster has weathered the calms and storms of the ever fluctuating indie rap landscape for years, refusing to break […]
| Manchester United: Busdriver, Nocando & Milo Vs. The World | October 18, 2013 |
Three generations of art-rap coming together to get cold. If you’ve been following LA rap for the last decade, you don’t need me to play connect the dots. The Blowed influence filters in through the abstraction and questioning of false claims. Even if you exclusively want rap harder than basalt, you can’t deny the honesty […]
| Open Mike Eagle & “Mef’s Lament” | September 3, 2013 |
Open Mike Eagle finding the missing link between the M.E.T.H.O.D Man and cLOUDDEAD. This is so intense it should come with a hand towel and a Xanax. Production courtesy of the essential Ernest Gonzalez. There are lines in here so razor-sharp that they will make your soul slowly roast in a free-trade cast iron cauldron. […]
| Busdriver at the Versachi Store | August 8, 2013 |
Max Bell Versace Versace Versace. Your favorite art rapper doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Despite what you might think, not even Mike Eagle exclusively listens to They Might Be Giants all day. They’re probably up on the most popular rap songs on the Internet and/or radio. At the moment, whether your like it or not, […]
| Milo’s 16-Bit “Besos” | August 7, 2013 |
Milo: The Pythagorean diner, the David Mamet finder, the Now & Later connoisseur, the Parisian spy consort, the Moleskin scrawler, the wavy dancer, the bedroom shrine constructor, the earthquake pill holder, the worldview inquirer, the beanbag doppelganger, the abstract oligarch, the Internet forum shunner, the banter baron, the turbo graphic 16 besos offerer. Off of […]
Max Bell was a Blowedian in a past life. If Busdriver is the adenoidal vocal gymnast and Open Mike Eagle is the smooth and laid back “dark-skinned art baron,” then Nocando is the man in the middle (and the man at the helm of Hellfyre Club), with Busdriver’s seemingly inexhaustible energy and Mike’s ability to […]
