In an auspicious sea change signifying the end of an era, The Fist Fam is no more, it has ceased to be. But belching forth from the cashed ashes of the Fist, like some manner of unseemly, inebriate phoenix, comes Weekend Cult. Composed of a smarter, faster, stronger version of the exact same line up, this group is to the Fist Fam what The Six Million Dollar Man was to Steve Austin. This lofty claim is evidenced by the release of Weekend Cult’s first official body of work, a twelve song collection of the same name. Like many previous sects welcoming new members, easy entree is offered with the “name-your-own-price” option on the group’s bandcamp page, but buyer beware, there will be brainwash. Not since the fiery, apocalyptic  ending of the Branch Davidians has a congregation been so hard to leave. You may have to call the Janet Reno & the ATF to get this music out of your head. Don’t take my word for it, feel free to peruse this review from Asheville’s Mountain X-press music chief Alli Marshall

http://www.mountainx.com/article/40874/Smart-bets-web-extra-Weekend-Cult

Once you have become convinced by our formidable propaganda, follow the link below & become a devotee… feel free to earn a place of privilege in the Weekend Cult by donating $30 or more to the faith… or don’t, but remember the Chicken Bus only stops for the believers.

Link:

http://weekendcult.bandcamp.com/

The  master weirdo returns with a positive message for the kids. In my opinion this song edges out Gravediggers’ “1-800 Suicide” for best song on the subject since the soundtrack to the movie “Heathers”. It’s called “Suicide Is Played Out” and is produced by frequent collaborator & beat monster,  G-Pek.  This is the lead single off the coming album “In Case You Forgot” which is produced in it’s entirety by G-Pek. More importantly as you can tell in this vid Greedy Z is bringing back the coon-skin cap (R.I.P. Prince Marky-D’s tyrannical  monopoly on that particular market). Suffice it to say, enjoyable on many levels.

As promised this Friday marks the release party of the Fist Fam’s 3rd album release in less than a year, “Weekend Cult”. The show will be at the Elbo Room (647 Valencia, SF, CA) and will feature sets by a cadre of Gurp City members & affilliates such as Z-Man, Rec League, Grand Invincible, yours truly Foulio Iglesias and others. Spearheading this event is the release of the album’s lead single “Drinkin & Smokin” (which I suspect is actually a prequal to the “Posted” single “Drinkin”) as a free download. These guys can’t stop hitting you over the head with free music, and in my opinion this is the tightest album the Fam has put together to date. So in the words of the immortal (or perhaps just undead) Tame One “Tell a friend, tell a foe. Tell everybody you know”…

Link:
http://fistfam.bandcamp.com/track/drinkin-and-smokin

Next Friday, February 24th at the Elbo Room in San Francisco marks the album release party for the Fist Fam’s latest full length (yes another one) “Weekend Cult”. That being more or less the starter pistol for a string of releases by the Gurp City South Crew. 2012 will see albums from TopR, Foul Mouth Jerk, Scofflaw, The Ville Boyz, the Worst, and possibly more. So in honor of a future that is startlingly bright for a confederation of potential cirrhosis candidates & to educate these young buckets only just now upping themselves on the science of  Gurpology, we take a look back at the history of the Gurp City Crew by posting this link to the in-retrospect-ironically named  “Dead In A Year” a remastered compilation of hits from 1999-2004. This noteworthy collection of classics features the distinguished production high-jinks of Verse Murphy, Z-Trip & Radar as well as the superior rap shenanigans of OG Triple OG’s Brandon B, Eddie K, Luke Sick & Z-Man. Aside from being inundated with an overwhelming amount of gems that would hit just as hard if dropped in the distant future, it contains some of the funniest skits ever put to tape. In particular my favorite skit of all time “Coked Out In The 80′s” , few things are simultaneously this funny & historically accurate. So peep the skit & follow it back to the album, which is amazingly, also available for free download.

Link:

httpL://gurpcitydigital.bandcamp.com/track/coked-out-in-the-80s-skit

This weekend my buddy Vlad & I ventured down to Atlanta to watch Gurp City O.G.  TopR Holiday battle Baltimore’s Richard Cranium for Grind Time’s “Nuclear Winter 2″ event. Currently Cranium has been on a tear, earning stripes & a reputation as one of the up & coming young beasts in the league. TopR a grizzled vet, had at least a decade on just about all the competitors & the demeanor of Buttermaker, head coach of the Bad News Bears. The club was situated in a markedly turfed out section of the ATL, right behind Turner field which seemed appropriate for the days events. After a short parking lot cypher with rappers Real Talk & Manifest Destiny we were ushered inside by club owner & comedic genius Sam Stone, informing us that it was time to come in or be locked out for the remainder. That probably should have sent up a red flag. What kind of club locks several hundred patrons inside at the start of the party, at 3:30 in the afternoon no less? Answer; the kind who is  worried less about the monster fire hazard it’s just created than the non-patrons outside the club.

As the crowd gathered & the competition was about to commence the unmistakeable sound of gun play rang out from just in front of the building. Not just the casual pop-pop your of run-of-the-mill fuckery. But the distinct & repeated  report of dueling calibers of small arms. Looking incredulously to Vlad I asked with a silent eye brow twitch if I had just heard what I thought I had. And nodding with the easy assurance of a cynical bastard he confirmed that I had. Looking around it seemed that either no one else had heard the shots, or that this club was even more hood than previously suspected, and nobody gave a fuck. It turned out to be the former when moments later there was a pounding at the door & an unsuspecting Sam Stone, thinking it was a late battle entry unlocked & opened it. In stumbles a man with a dreadlocked mohawk hunched over & bleeding with a fully discharged glock in hand, makes it halfway across the room & collapses in the corner.  For a brief minute there I thought we were watching this human take his last breath. Luckily, depending on how you look at it I guess, the guy had only had about half his index finger blown off. In the words of Sam Stone  at that moment “Wow, this guy just came in & changed the whole feng shui of everything”. Quite an auspicious beginning to the rap battle… personally I blame hip hop music.

Following a brief interlude with the police, but surprisingly no ambulance the competition was resumed. As they say the show must go on. All of the battles that day were considerably entertaining and the 3rd match on the card was the one I came to see. Cranium came out with a strong showing referring to the Ogre as “Bi-furious” amongst other things. But the old man had the juice… and about a foot plus sixty pounds on the guy, not to mention 8 shots of Jack Daniels. Besides bringing size into it like a school yard bully, the 15 plus years of stage experience on how to command a room  gave TopR a decisive edge, which he used to repeatedly reign  flurries of punchlines on Cranium’s…um head (which only feels redundant), that he couldn’t recover from. TopR won a unanimous decision from all 5 judges in 3 rounds… Gurp City South, flawless victory.

Unfortunately we couldn’t record any video of the event, since that is the exclusive purview of Grind Time & their associates. But they will be posting it soon & when they do I will be sure to post the link here. Congratulations to the Ogre, TopR & to my man with the Dread Mohawk, I hope you find your finger. The irony of being shot in the trigger finger was not lost on me, sir.

San Francisco’s Blue Collar rap champ & Strange Face vet Wordsmiff recently released his new full length. Now you don’t have to hate your job to love this album per se, but it certainly will not stand in your way. Atmosphere’s Slug once said that “inspiration comes from love & stress compounding” and in a pinch I think that would work as an elevator pitch for “Day Jobs & Day Dreams”. Wordsmiff deftly captures the frustration of a life measured in dollars-per-hour.  Watching your minutes ticking away into days, weeks, & years just to keep rent & bills covered, while trying to find the time & energy  to squeeze in the things that actually inspire you & make it worthwhile. As someone who wrote their entire 1st album on beverage napkins in a dish tank, I can relate. Even craftier is that he laid all this frustration over some mostly smooth, smoked out beats, so that songs come across as less angry & more contemplative. And to top it all off , the whole album is available at the old “Name your own price” option…how’s that for working class?

Link:

http://wordsmiff.bandcamp.com/album/day-jobs-and-day-dreams

While I constantly hear people complain that hip hop is dead or that rap is all commercial bullshit, I couldn’t disagree more. While there has certainly been a deluge of craptitude of the 1st order it has become clear to me that one simply has to know how to navigate the sea of turds to find the many gems. In that spirit 2011 was undoubtedly an auspicious year for rock solid rap music especially of the lyrical variety. But I have to be honest with you. There was something missing… something almost intangible, something I just couldn’t quite put my finger on. Then like a punch in the dick it hit me… Who is speaking for the vegetables? Not just for the vegetables, but who is rapping from the perspective of vegetables yet unpicked in the garden? And for that matter who will be the voice of the voiceless rodents out to purloin those vegetables to their own ends, such as the wily ferret? When God, when is the thieving weasels time to shine?!!

Well I should have known better. Just as dark despair seemed to close it’s chilly mitts around me here come Z-man & Bored Stiff’s White Mic with the album I think we can all say we’ve been waiting for “The Vegetable and The Ferret”. For all you not-knowin members of the ignorati, a group of ferrets is called a “business”. Yes a business of ferrets, that is a fact. So this album is appropriately named because Z & Mic are on there business here. The lyrics, the beats, the whole nine. And yes they rap about topics other than delicious produce & it’s known predators, though admittedly I could have listened to an entire album of just that.  Now some of you are undoubtedly saying to yourselves “But Foulio, perhaps you just like this because of your known predilection for animal humor” to which I say Fuck You! You just feast your gaze on that album cover & tell me that the Ferret wasn’t the role Z-Man was born to play! Also it’s not just the single, they’re giving you philistines the  whole album as a free download. So click the link & get what your life’s been missing.
Link:
http://whitemicofboredstiffz-manofgurpcity.bandcamp.com/album/the-vegetable-the-ferret

 Once again Macon Beats is back at it like a crack habit. If you’re anything like me, you’re beginning to harbor suspicions that all this guy does is fish, take pictures of himself fishing, make mixtapes & then use the pictures of himself fishing as mixtape covers. Now if he could just achieve a feasible means of getting his turntables onto the boat  in some employable  fashion the circle of life for this proud Thug-Neck would be complete. Although I’m unsure what the long term effects of negligent amounts of massive sub bass would be on the well being of aquatic wildlife… but that’s their problem. Never mind the bollocks, here’s the Swamp Bucket Mix

Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vqcfg4vd1m2oaod

Two of my favorite scumbag rappers together on one track? Check. Swarthy Latin horn sample? Check. Low brow Sandusky punchline? Check.  A dog with a bottle of tequila wearing a Fucking sombrero?  You win again Rec League… I don’t know how you found out about my weakness for animals doing people shit, but I surrender. That picture was pretty much all you needed to get me to listen and QM & Wordsmiff definitely put the “Cali” in Caliente with this joint. Rumor has it that Wordsmiff has just dropped his latest full-length “Day Jobs & Day Dreams”. So hopefully we’ll be seeing some more songs from him. Pour a drink & click the link.

Link:

http://www.divshare.com/direct/16581629-600.mp3

Tired of your shitty job? Don’t believe anything you see on the news? Already sick of the relentless duplicity of election season? Wondering about what the fuck those unpronounceable ingredients on the side of your food label are?   Worried that all these concerns and more have lead you to drinking & smoking too much? … Yeah, Dirty Frost is too.

If you can relate feel free to download his new exclusive single “The Power of Confusion”.

Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?hv8x3up0rldddhs