Pop Iconz - Georgia Anne Muldrow

Is it absurd for us to post this? Almost definitely. Here at Real Yeti Rap, we celebrate Stitches, advocate drug use, and devote most of our work here to the painstaking demolition of underground rap dreams. By any standard, we are horrible people, intent on becoming even worse. None of that means we can't enjoy this video, though. As the lady herself explains:

“We as parents have to walk a very fine line between being watchful and overprotective of what our kids are exposed to...and that job is being made even more difficult by the hyper-sexual, consumerist and vain aesthetic packed with visual associations that are intentionally targeting the pre-teen generation. I’m placing the blame on the corporate agenda that abuses the minds and souls of talented or even aspiring artists.

To represent an awareness that is willfully avoidant of self-realization is the bottom line for these influencers of consciousness; if someone’s life goals are completely external his/her mind can easily be subdued and controlled.

Art means too much to me, I ain’t having it."

"Play 2 Win" - Signif ft. Elzhi

We've been digging the carefully cultivated work of Signif since her first EP, so throwing an Elzhi guest verse into the mix is a guaranteed ticket for Real Yeti Rap coverage. (We love Detroit, period.)

#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.

"ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards)" - QELD

We don't usually fux with the British rap but there were some good lines on this puppy, and the sentiment is a heart-warming classic.

They say the system doesn't work, but you know that it does
They get richer every day, we get totally fucked

"Lucid Dream" - Nocando x Dam Funk

We fucking love psychedelic rap videos and this right here is a doozy. Not that dude is necessarily into psychedelics -- as he puts it, "I just love life so much my wife gets jealous." We also love Dam Funk and this jamalam is straight from the hands of the grandmaster. Big props to Ryan Calvano for an exceptional piece of work, the visual here are gorgeously demented.

"Have Discipline" - Rahim Samad

A baffling piece of work. Rahim Samad is clearly a hardcore hip hop head and he brings a very West Coast x 90's Vintage flow: technically precise, multisyllable sequencing, poetic braggadocialist propaganda. It's also 90's Vintage in the sense of being three consecutive verses of, politely, rappitty rap-ass rapping.

Dude can spit, but why, tho? Exponentially ramping up the confusion levels is the video itself, a gritty and basic rap template that is interspersed with footage of Yasser Arafat, IDF airstrikes, and dead kids in Gaza. This is probably a clever gimmick to get more video views, and it definitely worked on me. I wound up watching this three times trying to determine if, at any point in three verses, dude actually referenced the Middle East.

I came away with more respect for his mechanics -- he maps out flow patterns superbly -- and a sense that Rahim Samad could have written a dozen more verses over this beat that would have been more or less precisely the same. There's definitely standout lines, but his work is primarily filler. And despite referencing Knight Rider, American Psycho, and the obligatory shoutout to Lent, at no point does dude actually reference the Middle East.

I don't get it either. Shouts to having real scratch hooks in 2014, though...more of that, please.