Note: I’m going to sound pretty fake if I start talking about flow or ill rhymes so I’m just going to talk about things how I normally talk about them.

Heiruspecs promo shot

Heiruspecs (myspace) hail from Minnesota but follow the live-band-as-hip-hop example of Philadelphians the Roots. “5ves” is really catchy—it feels sort of strange saying that about a hip hop track, but it is. There are really nice bass and keyboard lines and during the chorus all the parts interweaves nicely together.

Heiruspec – 5ves (mp3) (buy)

Seattle, WA’s The Saturday Knights (myspace) toss up a track, “45″, that my friend David (no, not that Dave, and not that Dave either…) calls the “perfect hip hop track”. It’s definitely got a classic sound to it and the group chorus is bound to rap along after carefully checking that no one can hear you.

the Saturday Knights – 45 (mp3) (buy)

Ivan Ives is a Russian-American rapper out of Los Angeles these days. “Victory” feel a bit over-the-top and ridiculous, but I like it. Or possibly, so I like it. It’s got this sample of some bombastic Russian orchestral tune (I can’t place it. Can anyone help on that?) and Russian men’s choir-sounding chorus. It kind of makes me smile. It’s certainly a better marriage of classical and modern than that horrible disco Beethoven’s 5th. Damn that song sucks.

Ivan Ives – Victory (mp3) (pre-order)

Ivan Ives’ “Got It” video after the jump.

I’ve also been aborbing the new Kanye and will probably write something about that later. Lest you think I’ve gone all-hip-hop, I’ve got plenty of indie and other stuff coming up. Don’t you worry!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 8:59 am Posted by adrian in mp3s. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.