eccentric, basement-style, golden era hip hop

14 MP3 Songs
HIP HOP/RAP: Hip Hop, URBAN/R&B: Contemporary urban



Details:
Biography

Joe D and Cool Cee Brown met in 1999 on the campus of North Carolina Central University in Durham. By then they had both made names for themselves, independently, as undiscovered talents.

Cee Brown frequented local poetry readings and gained popularity as a spoken word artist alongside songstress, Yahzarah, and the funk/jazz fusion band, Hidden Image. Joe had turned his apartment into a home recording studio and was compiling a catalogue of underground hits with rap trio, Train of Thought.

As fate would have it, after Train of Thought and Hidden Image disbanded, they both, now hungry for a creative outlet, joined the new go-go group, The Marquee Band & Show, as frontline vocalists. There, for the first time, they witnessed each other's talents and Dirty Water emerged from the mire of failed attempts and unrecognized potential.

While the music is an amalgamation of dozens of influences, it has a distinct sound of its own. It begs the listener to feel, not just listen. It has what today's hip-hop music seems to be missing: passion-a passion for life and art and their many complicated and overlapping issues. It doesn't glorify; it explicates. It doesn't judge; it analyzes. It isn't pretentious or self-righteous; it's honest. It relates to the common man in a way that has yet to be attempted. They come to us as two among us, not below or above.

Discography

Drowning (Spring 2004)
That Good Dirty Water Mixtape, Vol. I (Fall 2004)
Love, Lust & Everything in Between:
The Limited Edition Valentine's Day EP (Winter 2005)

Compilations

Subterranean All-Starz
The Red Stapler Records Compilation
Yellow Light District (Thick Magazine Mixtape)