"Multiply" - A$AP Rocky ft. Juicy J

When a video has two people getting Director of Photography credits, shit had better look cocaine immaculate. Thanks to the quantum-spiritual guidance of ASAP Yam$, who had the excessive good sense to list "Wardrobe" and "Casting" with a straight face, the video for "Multiply" looks precisely that good, if not a little better. Playing hard on the contrast between the empty, ostentatious, glittering sets and the fast-moving, extra-filled tracking shots gives this video a lot more blood in the veins than most. This is movie-quality urgency that not even Juicy J can fuck up.

(He tries, though.)

Here at Real Yeti Rap, our politics is essentially defined by frequent usage of the word "TRILL" so obviously A$AP Rocky gets our vote in 2014. He takes a vast nothingburger of a beat and layers it with compelling, precise flow patterns. In the space of this short single he managed more experimentation than you'll hear from any "Real Hip Hop" activists this year. It's almost like being sanctimoniously concerned over a "Culture" you're only a single pebble within is less important than actual creative contributions? Time will tell!

At around the 2:50 mark, the Universe grinds to a halt as Juicy J lights up, well, some sort of experimental marijuana hybrid, apparently. The A$AP team have access to movie-quality drugs these days, too: one hit and the guy spends four bars dancing in slow motion, raps for six bars, then leaves the very fabric of space-time itself, as if his whole second career had never happened; or at least, as if it wasn't a feature at all.

Still, if you're going to make a rap video, make it good and weird and memorable. "Multiply" is all three.

"Magician in the Mountain" - Louis Mackey

World Around Wednesdays is back.



strangle game changers with cable cords
watch their face blanken straight from beige to orange
with commercial tracks, subversive raps, work my magic in
on dirty mattresses, Merlin’s manuscripts and burnt cadaver’s skin

"Inside Out" - clipping.

Damn.

What easily could have been a corny concept is instead a professional piece of work. Wicked impressive and worthy of cinema-style video masters like Gondry and Cunningham.

Rap-wise, it makes sense this cat is on Sub Pop, home of Afro-futurist heavies Shabazz Palaces. (And, of course, Nirvana.) His flow is an Aesop Rock x Freestyle Fellowship hybrid and a finely tuned West Coast chopping machine, with high-end articulation and visuals. There's not a great deal of rhyming in most of his bars, but I can't hold that laziness against him when the final results are such an enjoyable ride.

Overall, this gets the coveted Yeti Trax tag and we'll be subjecting you to a lot of their work. WHALAM.

"Tron Song" - Thundercat

Well, holy motherfucking shit. We said we loved creative & psychedelic low-budget videos and, boy howdy, the Universe provides. This latest gem is directed by Eric Andre -- yeah, that Eric Andre, obviously -- and was allegedly funded with a "mere" five thousand dollars. (Los Angeles does strange things to your sense of proportion.)

#CLASSIC: "Refuse to Lose" - Non-Phixion

Back in simpler days, I took a Greyhound bus initiation from Portland, Oregon to Montpelier, Vermont. That shit takes a long time. I had a minidisc player and a handful of mixes burned by friends with better taste than myself. I would reckon that, during the course of my seven day journey across the continent, I spent at least eight hours with this track on repeat. A full work shift, right there.

This was in the jagged, panic-melodrama aftermath of September 11th, 2001. There was no other topic of conversation on the bus ride at any point, mostly just craven speculation about Where They Would Hit Us Next. Hence the headphones: I was trying to escape some sad, herd fuckery and get to Vermont without giving up on life itself. This song helped.

We covered Non Phixion here before, and verily, we will again. (Their legacy is still making money in 2014, so it's not like I'm carrying some obscure torch here.) They were royal blood anointed, from MC Serch to DJ Premier, classic album to solo careers. It didn't last as long as Slayer but there's something pure about that, yeah?

LXXXI - THE SHEWING-FORTH OF SIMPLICITY.

1. True speech is not elegant; elaborate speech is not truth. Those who know do not argue; the argumentative are without knowledge. Those who have assimilated are not learned; those who are gross with learning have not assimilated.

2. The Wise Man doth not hoard. The more he giveth, the more he hath; the more he watereth, the more is he watered himself.

3. The Tao of Heaven is like an Arrow, yet it woundeth not; and the Wise Man, in all his Works, maketh no contention.

"Dunked On" - Froggy Fresh ft. Money Maker Mike

It's hard to hate on this. Won't even try. Great beat, funny video, and best of all, this is a story anyone can relate to.

The team here at Real Yeti Rap hugely supports the running joke of having Money Making Mike prominently featured on tracks he is not even actually rapping on. Much like the modern spartan sage Frank Reynolds, we are also big fans of poop jokes -- poop is funny.

Also: Internet Rappers, something something something, thinkpiece.

"Come Back" - Write Brothers

You're riding with the Write Brothers, first in flight. A second single from the increasingly impressive cross-coast collaboration featuring Learic (BTV) and Dante DaVinci (LAX). Tablas, firebomb synth chops, and a damn catchy hook drive the point home: this will almost definitely be the best rap project coming out of Vermont this year.



Learic honed his chops battling in Washington, DC years before he came to Vermont, but he's probably best known for his work with The Aztext, the Green Mountain State's most successful import. They've delivered four ambitious & straightforward rap albums, so Write Brothers is a sharp left turn for him sonically, with Dante DaVinci's dub reggae x Low End Theory EDM thump. It really works, too. "Come Back" has him flexing in the space between Kool G Rap and Gift of Gab, and there's some perfectly cut bars on display here.

"When the pens in my hand, your attention span tends to expand." Fuck yeah.

R3AL Y3TI RAP 2014

Bloggers were sucking too much; we had to get involved here.



It is impossible to stop listening to rap. Rap is repetitive bullshit, rap is endlessly creative, too. We fucking love rap. We're not mocking it. We are talking shit. This is that Real Yeti Rap.

THE INBOXXX is what we do to submissions. Not all of them. Hit YoHumpJones@gmail.com and it will at least get listened to. Parts of it will. The beginning parts.

DISPATCHES has been described as "so fucking stupid I don't know why anybody would read this hater ass dribble" by the author, Louis Mackey.

#CLASSIC is, well...nothing very creative, that's for sure. Exactly what it says on the label. We made it a hashtag because we think hashtags are dumb and obnoxious.

The rest is just dope shit we like.

"Ghost at the Finish Line" - Quelle Chris

Fuck yeah. A low budget fever dream, creative, brave and fun stuff. Quelle Chris is one of my favorite rap mammals, an unpredictable and bluntly genuine free spirit type from Detroit. The good people at Mello Music Group released his last album, which has a name in common with this song.

"EYE RHINO" - Bishop

At first you might think you're in for some Marko shit, but no: this is pretty rad and hella weird. Engaging, fast-moving Qi Gong Surrealism rap is a genre in short supply, and this is a strong chi shot right here.

Keep submitting great low-budget video, folks. This has been an inspirational summer so far. Kids these days are fucking smart and they're doing awesome stuff.

"DieNasty" - KNife

Well, fuck yeah. Great and rare is the weekend morning where my inbox leaves me impressed rather than depressed. This cat can definitely f'ing Rap Good, and the beat is a woozy stomp straight out a Low End Theory night. This video is definitely weird, simple and powerful. We will definitely be checking for this KNife character in the future.

This is an encouraging artifact; further proof of concept that quality material does indeed sell itself when properly packaged. This was an easy video to make, largely the fruit of hard work and human capital vs. big budgets and obligatory Professional™ sheen.

Just focus on The Work, daug.

#CLASSIC: "Make it Plain" - Divine Styler

Fundamentally, I have never understood most of what Divine Styler is styling divinely about, but that's not a problem for me. I've always thought of this particular cut as his Crossover Hit -- too catchy for college crackers to deny, despite the fact it's a Five Percent PSA, front to back.

I love rappers who wander wherever they want to go, and when I first got into Divine Styler, my writing was straight from the Gift of Gab / Eminem template of metronome multisyllables. It took me years to appreciate the elegant simplicity of a GZA and I admire the Aikido pockets of modern writers like Has-Lo and Elucid and Ka, all minimalists with flawless taste.

Now, this next cut was my jam during early High School Rap Awakening stages. This is a world apart from that bubblegum funk we started with...



For a 17 year old with a face full of LSD, you can see how the disjointed hypno-flow could connect with that DJ Shadow dark shit and do some real damage to a young brain. Divine Styler was like a West Coast Sir Menelik to my idiot ears, captivating and totally impenetrable.

"A Clean, Well​-​Lighted Place" - PremRock

This right here is certified goods. PremRock returns with a dang album of diverse & cohesive rappage. In particular, we would like to call your attention to "Criminal Childish," which features Philly phenom Curly Castro over a Blockhead jazzbanger. This is All Good Shit.

"Spontaneous Grooves: Episode 20" - Central Parks & Es-K

This is a pretty huge slice of MPC artistry right here. Everything thumps and this is an album with huge horizons; there's clearly some fertile soil chemistry going on between the two producer-scientists.



This minor masterpiece got hashed out in late night sessions at NEKtones Studio in Burlington, VT with the NEK legend Walter Westinghouse presiding.

#CLASSIC: "Masters of Illusion" - Kool Keith & Motion Man

This is one of the few rap albums I still bump, end to end. Motion Man needs to keep on making records, for the good of the species.

#CLASSIC: "Broken Language" - Smoothe da Hustler ft. Trigger tha Gambler

Aside from the dress code in the video, this really hasn't aged a single f'ing day.

#CLASSIC: "Terror Works" - Sir Menelik

One of the first rap songs to truly blow my mind. The drugs helped, sure, but this still stands as a highwater mark for NYC lyrical wildstyle 90's shit.

"The Everafter LP" - Witness

Starting off 2014 with a week of album recommendations. This is a tasty, jazzy and distinctly boozy piece of art and a beautifully coherent album. That's rare enough to get some gushing praise from a grizzled hater like Uncle Hump. This album immediately finds an original angle and sticks to it, front to back.

Witness writes damn fine bars and also produces most of the tracks on this album. As I'm sure he would put it himself: this shit goes hard in the paint.

"Sell Coke to White Folks" - Tomorrow Kings

Lead single from Chicago assault squad Tomorrow Kings off their upcoming conversation-starter, Nigger Rigged Time Machine. Dig it.

"Bitches" - Lil' Debbie

This might represent a career peak for Lil' Debbie, but let's enjoy the ride while it lasts, right? Her delivery keeps improving and this beat is a catchy little nightmare.

I have this whole song memorized and I recite this shit at work all the time.