The Doppelgangaz - "If It Wasn't For The Cloak"

I've always had a hard time getting into The Doppelgangaz and not a damn thing has changed in 2017. As much as we all want to be unique, rapping raps and making beats is nothing special. The cloaks are cool and the aesthetic is fun, but The Doppelgangaz are typical hip hop story: a rapping duo with great beats...and one good rapper.

That would be Matter Ov Fact, who goes first here. He'll never re-invent the wheel, but he'll never deliver a half-ass take, either. He is smooth, clever, confident and a world apart from the tag-along filler that EP brings to the table.

"Gangaz really out here, movin' on excursions/ never not without beer, shorties ain't no virgins" -- those are EP's opening bars here. That horseshit is unforgivable. You're an adult male human being, write like one. I want to tell myself that this dude could be funnier or better if he tried harder, but in my heart, I know that is a lie.

Every turn of his soft little sixteen here is atrocious, the work of someone who is forcing his flow patterns to fit...and doesn't read very much. Hell, it doesn't even sound like he listens to other people talk very much. Stilted and stumbling. His whole verse is Google Translated from Russian: awkward as fuck, bud.

It makes sense that these guys are huge in Europe, where dope beats are at a premium and good English is not.

Now, the video. This is a very fucking nice video, pal, a serious piece of work. Clean drone work and smooth composition. It looks great and it made me laugh at several points: I expect little else, here in the Kali Yuga.

I also dig the fact they've got Big Josh posted up smoking. Just because. (If you don't know Big Josh, well, check out "Shawty Told Me.")

All in all, this is a Two Dicky affair. As much as I want to give respect to their accomplishments and just enjoy the vibe -- and the crushing wall of glorious sound that is this beat -- I can't. The mediocrity just kills my fucking high. No love.

"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.

"Abstract Art" - V. Nova ft. Smif-n-Wessun

I'm a sucker for that whole time exposure approach, especially when you get an art project involved. NYC rapper V. Nova makes it a point to rep some elements in his video, and he's also procured some feature juice from the Boot Camp Clik. The beat is hazy but compelling, a perfect mix of chill and insistent.

V. Nova has a relaxed, solid flow but the lyrics is where it all falls apart. This was paint-by-numbers underground rap, and when he says "this is not that weak bullshit that you're used to," you already know this poor fool wants to Save Hip Hop. So when he comes back around to "the game needs saving, should have been a lot sooner," my frontal lobes are already shutting down.

Will I check out future jams from V. Nova? Definitely. Capable rapper with a good heart. This, however, Valium.

"Buck a Cop" - China Mac

Given the brisk pace of killings by police officers this year, it was pretty fucking inevitable that this would happen. And rest assured, it will happen again. Back in August we featured an entertaining UK jam called "All Cops Are Bastards," but that was more socio-political critique type shit. This right here? This an open provocation to kill police officers.

It's easy to take that stance, of course. Body Count's 1991 pop masterpiece "Cop Killer" established a pretty clear precedent on this one. The notion that Ice-T dealt with a "backlash" is fucking absurd: he made millions on tour while a bunch of police unions made token gestures of protest, and now decades later Ice-T plays a cop on TV. Perhaps China Mac will mellow out in his old age, too, but for now, this is some snarling entertainment.

This cat has a big image problem, insofar as he raps a lot tougher than he looks. It is also interesting that he identifies as Asian American but looks like an Italian model. A lot of crackers love to say they "don't see race" and this is a rare case where that would actually be true: hopefully the Gawker crowd can give this cat a couple million YouTube plays and embrace his multi-cultural message.

The video is tightly edited, beautifully shot, very energetic, but ultimately just surreal. An absurd juxtaposition of powerful images and trite lyrics. That's not a dismissal, though: this could easily be the most emblematic video of 2014. Use the hashtag, like it on Facebook, buy the shirt. This is politics now.

"Christ Conscious" - Joey Bada$$

Big, loud, pretty and boring. This cat has done way better with the bars, but so what? The video sells itself. The Alex Grey / Kris Kuksi bling and CGI ornamentation is fucking gorgeous and Mr. Bada$$ sells every frame -- shit might not amount to much, but at least he really means it.

...but so what? You could have put Viper on camera the whole time and it would still be a compelling watch. This is a snarling, mescaline-spiked cathedral of a video and it's all built on top of a single verse. So props due to director M-I-E, who clearly had a much bigger hand in the final product than simple editing. Since Greatness is always a team effort, props to the animators, too: Yukai Du, Richard Payne, John L. Wilkinson and Richard Payne.

Joey's got a big team behind him, too, and he's gearing up for a big 2015. This video was on MTV, perhaps that still means something and I hope it does. History will probably show this video had a "Yonkers" level impact -- history always laughs at me, blood and shrapnel and screaming civilians in his bloody, mile-wide incisors. I was wrong, I am wrong, I will be wrong again.

"Lazarus Pit" - Tragedy Khadafi

A damn great slice of classic rap, some dark cipher hypnosis. Tragedy Khadafi is one of the best to do it, although he gets outshined by the opening verse here: Starvin B carves out a wide lane that doesn't get equalled for the rest of the track. You know, rapper shit.

Speaking of, this is of course a gloriously "problematic" piece of oral culture, replete with hate speech, surrounded by a gnawing fog of Trigger Warnings. Also, they fucked your bitch at least twice and earnestly want us all to know. Some might see that as a political agenda, but I just take it as further proof that thug life is actually pretty boring and they don't have a lot to talk about outside of work.

And ain't that a bitch?

#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.

"In My Blood" - Broadway Barrett

Marshall McLuhan loved black and white TV, but then he loved pretty much everything, except all the happy young people and their loud music. Today, that poor motherfucker is a counterculture hero ... proof, perhaps, that Hell is real.

Here at ®©al Y©™i ®ap, we're lifelong fans of low-fi black and white rap videos. "In My Blood" is exactly that, from a hungry Brooklyn underdog we've never heard of. He is clearly a big believer in Going In, a religious movement whose popularity has waned considerably in recent years.

Maybe you're too cool for this or it's too much of a throwback to sound fresh or your Pro Tools sterilized ears resent the audible breaths inherent in real rapping, but this cat is writing intricate flows, delivering them in one take, and it sounds damn good.

"Photosynthesis" - Premrock

Perpetually perambulating performance artist Premrock has dropped another video, this time opting for that live vibe. We love that shit here. Shouts to Tony from Deep Thinka Records, an operation that is pretty much always Doing It Right and this release is no exception. The final product before you was polished by DTR fam Tim Cielinski & Madeleine Ezell.

We love to credit people because holy shit, quality audio and video content is a lot of work. Anyone putting time in for us creative shaman types who just vomit incantations all over your equipment deserves a shout out. And a pat on the f'ing back and also money.

It should be noted, albeit rude to discuss tradecraft before marks and swine, that PremRock has made a very artful move here. This dude was in Denmark getting paid for shows and shooting a video. He's got a great album and he's touring on it. It's hard to criticize too much without risking...well, the urine-tang smell of Hate. Not saying you have it in your heart, of course, just that it might sound that way.

And look that way and also smell that way.

"Young Leaders" - Sene ft. Blu, ANTHM

Sure, I'm two years late on this, but still: damn.

Blu has been having one hell of a year and Sene is working on another great album. ANTHM never stops moving.

"Let Me See Your Tongue" - PremRock ft. DJ Addikt

Way less creepy than it sounds, this seizure-tastic new video from gifted spitter PremRock is a well-executed slice of cinema. It also taught me that PremRock probably gets mistaken for Intuition fairly often when he's out on the West Coast. I am not civilized enough to crack a coherent joke about who he gets mistaken for in Europe.

This cut is off his new album, a tasty buffet called "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," which is a literary reference I was too pagan to process until Passion of the Weiss pointed it out. (Thanks, guys.)

"Serenity" - Es-K ft. AG from DITC & General Steele

This album is definitely going to be a landmark for Es-K. He's linked up with the Duck Down Records fam for this lead single, the title track from his forthcoming Cold Busted release "Serenity." Several things I never knew about Es-K, but just found out from Dunn Deal PR:

1. Es-K was born in Holland. (The actual Holland, not the small town in Vermont.)

2. Es-K is an abbreviation for "Essential Knowledge."

3. "Serenity" will also feature C-Rayz Walz, Charmingly Ghetto, DJ Grazzhoppa, Central Parks, M-Dot, Chel Strong, and the 802's own MC Dialect.

#CLASSIC: "Rock Stars" - Non Phixion

Saying this "brings me back" is a pathetic understatement. This is a flat-out LSD flashback.



Fact: Non Phixion never blew up because they made a conscious decision not to. Look at the the trajectories of everyone involved after they splintered into solo careers -- they expanded on the blueprint but never strayed too far, either. This was the rare group where every style involved meshed perfectly.

So you blow up off that -- do you take it to Will Smith heights or party as hard as you can for as long as you can? I'm not casting aspersions or rendering judgement, just explaining my own intended approach toward anything even resembling "fame." In related news, DJ Premier made this beat.

"Stuck in the Past" - Kool Keith

The Pitch: "The legendary Kool Keith and New Jersey hip-hop producer Keith Science team up to bring you some crazy ill shit!"

The Verdict: Truth in advertising.



New ranting from Kool Keith is good news for the humanoid species, but this was an especially fresh slice, right here. Kool Keith has always been the velour Godfather of the stupid simple, yet crazy catchy, repetitious rap hook. His God level ninja powers are in full effect here. This cut has a timeless feel, which is not intended as a backhanded compliment on the boom bap template. This is a perfect MPC banger, spacious and raw.

"Saturday Night" - Tut-Piece

It's always a welcome break for us when someone submits music that does not suck. Tut-Piece is a young producer from an obscure backwater called "New York City," and this is an instrumental album. This cat has a conceptual vision and it mostly works: a radio broadcast from an alternate universe where the 80's never ended. It was a hella decent soundtrack for a bunch of cleaning and organizing work earlier today. Everything fits, everything works.

The composition here is straight beats, so it does become obvious at many points you're essentially listening to instrumentals that haven't been sold to rappers yet. The structures never deviate much from basic demo packaging, but fuck it; it knocks, too.

If the concept of wall-to-wall synth grooves and gratuitous saxophone samples doesn't turn you off, this is a fucking enjoyable ride. We also salute the no-nonsense album copy -- which is necessary, since rappers are dumb herd animals:

"Terms and conditions of use: Purchasing any digital downloads from Ivy-League Zombie Productions does not give you license or ownership of any intellectual property rights of the content you access. You may not use content by Ivy-League Zombie Productions without permission from its owner."

Fuck yes. Teach 'em.

"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.

#CLASSIC: "The Last Huzzah (Remix)" - Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire ft. Everyone

Photography against a white background: did you know Amazon patented that this year? God damn right. Remains to be seen whether they will pursue litigation over this NYC production. They clearly had a blast filming this, fun is contagious. (Unlike money.)

Music videos: the only thing clothing companies are good for anymore.

#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.

"brooklyknight" - Sene

Like a transmission from an alternate universe, with a customer-tailored video treatment to match. This is hella tasty stuff. Sene keeps improving on an already impressive flow.

"Diary of a Dreamer" - Man Mantis Remix

The latest single from the PremRock & Willie Green project Reassembled, this time spotlighting production from World Arounds' own human hybrid MPC destroyer, Man Mantis: #FLAMES, gentlemen. Strongly recommend the entire "Reassembled" project, which is a headphone trip unto itself.