New music dump: Hard-beat hip-hop from BKR + K Pizzle; socio-punk/emo from Decide: Defy
Plus, an upcoming events list.
Emcee/lyricist BKR (read as Baker) teams up with Fresno super producer K Pizzle on “Dirty Money Clean Hands,” a dark and emotive bit of of hip-hop that hit streaming services on Friday.
“I wanted to write this project with a little more of a gritty attitude and darker tone,” BKR says. “Pizzle’s modern boom bap style production really brought it all to life.”
K Pizzle has long been a force on the scene, having produced killer tracks for a long list of Fresno rappers in the late 2000s (most notably for me Chuck Dimes and Populus).
The production on “Dirty Money’s …” seven tracks certainly carry K Pizzle’s signature and will hit with those who still put on Dime’s “Keep the Change” (or anything from General Populus) from time to time (as I do).
Side note: Populus and Pizzle collaborated on “KEEDS: An Album Called LFTFLD” last year. It’s worth checking out.
BKR is a Chicano rapper that’s recently earned himself mentions in Source Magazine and HipHop Weekly with skillful wordplay and lyricism. He bills himself as a neo-traditionalist, which seem wholly appropriate on songs like “Sniff” and “El Capo.”
“This project should elevate him to a spot he deserves in Central Cali Hip Hop,” K Pizzle says. “I think this is some of both BKR and myself best work, lyrics and production. No gimmicks. Hard beats and lyrics.”
You can hear BKR and K Pizzle talking on the Unfiltered Podcast last month.
Decide: Defy — “Fields Of Dreams and Blood”
Decide: Defy is the solo project from Robby Olsen, a Visalia sound engineer and guitarist/songwriter in the punk band the Strikingly Originals.
Its first release, “Fields Of Dreams and Blood,” is a bashing 15 or so minutes of post-punk, hard-core and emo thrash metal that somehow manages to sound coherent in tone and message while paying disparate homage to the likes of DRI, Fugazi and … R.E.M.
The project takes its name from “Radio Free Europe” and much of its themes from those early R.E.M. records.
Side note: The Strikingly Originals released a cover of “These Days,” last year.
“Four me, it’s like 2020 in four songs,” Olsen says, by which he means “the project bleeds intensity and angst.”
The EP showcases Olsen’s prowess in the studio. He wrote, played and produced the entire thing from his home studio, with additional guitar and vocal work from Stephen Tasey and Matt Bolden of the band The Remedy.
“Fields Of Dreams and Blood” is available now.
Events list for July 5-11
Art Silva has taken to the hills and is promoting a series of events at Shaver Lake (and also Huntington Lake, later this summer).
My Sweet Summer Escape features music at Shorthorn Bar and Shaver Lake Pub n’ Grub at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturday through July.
Promoter Brad Jaurique is working with Chukchansi Park on a series of live summer music events that includes rapper (and weed entrepreneur) Berner on Sept. 11.
But fist, rapper Snow tha Product, performs July 10. The show starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30.
The following weekend, the stadium hosts the Sun Kissed Summer Festival, with Said The Sky, Jvna and Wenzday.
That’s it for this week. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com