East Coast Hip Hop, Raw & Gritty

7 MP3 Songs
HIP HOP/RAP: Hip Hop, HIP HOP/RAP: East Coast



Details:
Just consider this: five people no one has ever heard of. But the record is actually good and you'd enjoy yourself listening to it. Even though there needs to be an elaboration on the label 'good': It's good in a very solid kind of way. Stryke and friends do not re-invent any- and no-thing. But starting with "On The Prowl", Stryke shows that he's a confident rapper, with his feet firmly on the shaking ground of recording music. The song is a braggadocio exploration, with Stryke's fire burning a low flame, while the piano of the beat (even though it comes from a keyboard), adding a slight edge to the song. Better is "Here I Am", where Stryke takes a stance of strength, fencing off all the non-believers. The beat is driven by a piano and refuses to change much during it's duration. But it changes enough, heck, even more than too many other songs, so this song does satisfy.
The formula of piano based beat is repeated on "The New Era", while the lyrics and the overall vibe get a little more fierce. It's a combination of strong stance and boasting words, putting a difference between him and them. Stryke succeeds in sounding comfortable to speak into a mic and even if he's not the most clever rapper on this planet, the whole effortless air he adds to his recital, gives him a distinctive advantage. One that he even furthers with "The Intuition". The Sense One beat is strongly stopping and going, making it necessary for the rapper to find an inner rhythm. Or adapt to it. Stryke does a little bit of both, on this quite commercial song.
As said: five people - one rapper and four producers (assuming that none of the producers is an entity, but all are individuals) - you probably have never heard of before. But they are solid.