Okay the holiday vacation is over & much to my disappoinment the world didn’t end on 12/21/12, leaving Kevin Costner to lead the survivors to post-apocalyoptic redemption. What did happen is the Fist Fam realeased their latest single & 1st self produced/directed/edited video.

“White Picket Fences” is  the final track in the line up of their recently released album “Weekend Cult,” the song pays tribute to the group’s sacrifices over the last decade spent making quality rap music. Contrary to popular belief, there are no white picket fences for psychotic, psychedelic, shit talking rap megalomaniacs. Although the group has received many honors, garnered regional fame, and partied like Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, it all comes at a cost. Listen closely and you can hear the groups philosophy subtly stated on the outro, “If it were easy then everybody would do it.” Many have tried, and many have failed, left to limp home with shattered livers and broken dreams.  Not the Fist Fam. This tenacious group of misanthropes has been tearing clubs up across the country, leaving a wake of destruction in their path since the turn of the millennium. After spending the last six years in the alcoholic neverland known as San Francisco, the group has moved back to Asheville NC to recharge their damaged livers, chop some wood to fuel the flames of the oil lamp hash, and try the simple life for a while. Join them in spirit, with spirits. Sit back, pour a glass of the hard stuff,and enjoy.

Link: www.weekendcult.bandcamp.com

The official motto of Gurp City South is “Eat Swine, Drink Shine Everyday”. But perhaps the unofficial motto should be “Whiskey & Wings”, because perhaps the only thing that tops our heroic consumtion of the tarantula juice is the frequency with which the crew convenes to competitively cook & eat enough spicy bird to declare a fowlacaust. What I’m saying quite franlkly is that not only will GCS drink you under the table, we are guarding enough secret recipes that I am confident we will dominate any other rap crew out there in a hot wing cook-off (with the possible exception of El Da Sensei, who cooked the wings in the above art for the single & is a Top Gun level wing man.)

This week’s free single is sort of a dedication to that lifestyle, hence the name “Hot Sauce”. It’s the 1st release off the upcoming collaborative EP by Foul Mouth Jerk & Gus Cutty titled Scofflaw which is entirely produced by Grand Invicible’s DJ Eons. The EP, perhaps not coincidentally, was recorded entirely over a 2 day period during Thanksgiving weekend in San Francisco, fueled by a steady intake of leftover baked ham sandwhiches & tallboys.  All of which may pave the way for Gurp City’s motto for 2013 “Food, Booze & Shroomz”. Buckle up

Link: http://www.audiomack.com/song/gurp-city-south/hot-sauce-ft-philo

They Don’t call Z-Man “Greedy Z” for no reason. The hardest working man in the Bay came home from European tour & hit the ground running with 1 video, 4 songs, 3 new albums and countless wardrobe changes (including one as an Asian, Clement St. store owner) This may be the dawn of Z-Man’s “Trapped in the Closet” era, I don’t know. But what I do know is that nobody is mixing old school technique with truly original styles like Z. …Also I know that only Daniel Boone & Prince Markie D cruised so successfully in coon skin caps. But neither of those things should come as a surprise from a dude whose been on this rap grind since hustling 4-track tapes in 96.

This video “A Day in the Life” is actually a crash course of tracks from the Gpek produced EP  In Case You Forgot (available now), the upcoming  Slim Godworthy production  All Jokes Aside and “The Art Show” off the upcoming Opening Act project produced by Elonis. So keep your eyes peeled for the latter two & go pick up the former below:

In Case You Forgot:  http://gurpcitymusic.bandcamp.com/album/in-case-you-forgot

 You know that drinking by yourself, staring at the bottm of your glass feeling? When the good advice of well meaning assholes barely registers as that sound that Charlie Brown’s parents make when they talk? You gambled it all, the good guys lost, and  they don’t award purple hearts for self-inflicted wounds. So pour another shot and raise it to happy endings… because there are No Fairytales.

Link:

http://www.audiomack.com/song/gurp-city-south/no-fairytale

You ever heard of those old tribesman that believed if you ate the heart of your enemy you would consume their soul and acquire their powers? Well the Fist Fam is working off some pretty similar philosophies. I can’t be certain that this song doesn’t promote devil worship when played forward at normal speed. But I am fairly sure that it is the pyschotic ramblings of desperate individuals far too cavalier in their recreational use of DMT in heroic dosages. To quote Gus Cutty’s verse; “The first to go is the lucky one”.See for yourself…

Link:

http://www.audiomack.com/song/gurp-city-south/escaping-souls

That’s right Gurp City artists are independent as fuck… not so much because of any high minded artistic integrity, mostly because we’ve burnt far too many bridges for anyone  to ride with us. But the motivation as to why we do everything ourselves is neither here nor there. The point I’m trying to drive home to you here is that Gurp City is outchea accomplishing an astounding amount of work for a bunch of grumpy,drug addled, disreputable booze hounds. And this Philo produced first single featuring a hook by John Boy, titled “By Myself”off Fist Fam’s upcoming album  is their ode to that work ethic… “Better to show up drunk  than call in sick”.

Free Download:  http://www.audiomack.com/song/gurp-city-south/by-myself

Wandering San Francisco’s Tenderloin district sharing bottles with the city’s disenfranchised while  espousing philosophies like “change comes from within” is what earned J-Eazy the monicker “The Bum Whisperer”. If Bum Whispering were turned into a tandem team sport, the soundtrack to stumbling drunk through the filthy city streets of the Bay, gleefully spreading inebriation & imparting wisdom would clearly be “Just The Way I Am”. Joining J-Eazy in this effort are Free Radio’s John Boy & Weekend Cult’s Philo, who co-produced the track with S.F. underground stalwart Micah Aza. Whether judiciously reflecting on the circumference of the finer sex’s hindquarters, or engaged in deep introspection on the merits of sharing your weed these gentlemen of leisure speak  with the easy assurance of sporting men comfortably floating their way down the lazy river of life… beer in hand.

You could learn a lot from the day drinkers of Jones & Ellis.

Link: http://gurpcitysouth.bandcamp.com/

Contrary to popular belief, or what the title may lead one to think, this is not yet another addition to the seemingly endless procession of politically charged rap songs addressing Chick-Fil-A’s open hostility towards the marital rights of the gays. Not simply because the debate between fowl & homo has become so vitriolic, or because Gus Cutty stuck the landing on this particular “controversy” months ago with his infamous portrait of Dan Cathy in the cosmetic drag of Lady Divine, but most importantly because we have other dead horses to beat. And that specific dead horse has really lost all of it’s shits & giggles.  So we have made an executive decision to take the high road and go back to beating the dead horse that has endeared us to the hearts of dozens, i.e. fried food, booze and narcotics… also pussy. Today’s new release is a posse cut from a random collection of GCS’s rappers of ill repute, Philo, Smidi, Ronny Mac & Foul Mouth Jerk and is produced by Big Sean of Bored Stiff. So if you like songs about sticky fingers for various reasons this is probably the song for you… and if not fuck it, it was free. Unless of course you named some price other than zero dollars, in which case we thank you from the bottom of our black & shriveled, raisin-like hearts.

Link:

http://gurpcitysouth.bandcamp.com/

 Oscar Wilde once said “Work is the curse of the drinking class”. Well it’s my opinon that no one making music today quite embodies that sentiment as much as Free Radio, and perhaps this song more than any. The title of their latest single seems pretty self explanitory. “Payroll” is kind of a modern day interpritation of Tenessee Ernie Ford’s “16 Tons”, if you catch my drift. Which I’m guessing you don’t since you’re not an octogenarian. Nonetheless, the song is a brilliant account of the bitter pill most people in this country are swallowing on a daily basis as the overworked & underpaid “heros” of the American salt mine. It’s the lead single from Free radio’s debut full-length Powers That Be and will be followed up by some videos in the near future. So grab this single for your ipod, take it to work and put it on blast while your considering whether or not to choke someone from middle management to sleep if they take that tone with you again. Because as another great philosopher of the late 20th century once asked “Is it in bad taste to wish that your boss would get ass raped?”

Link: http://www.audiomack.com/song/gurp-city-south/payroll

As if I wasn’t already isolated enough from the majority of the contemporary hip hop scene, underground or otherwise, last week for reasons unclear even to myself I decided that for the foreseeable future I would listen to nothing but Gurp City artists, albums both past & current. It’s as if I won’t be happy until I’m left completely divorced from any and all human relevance mumbling my incoherent ramblings on the subject of rap to my only-est friend, the volleyball with the blood-splattered palm print which I’ve fashioned  into a rudimentary face. But thus far I couldn’t be more delighted with my choice. And today I have come to a place of complete vindication. After burning through Free Radio’ “Powers That Be”, Weekend Cult self titled album, and Z-Man’s “Show Up, Shut Up & Rap” I went back over ten years to Sacred Hoop’s 2001 full length “Sleep Over”. Where amongst other way-ahead-of-their-time gems I found a humble little masterpiece called “Worst Person”. A song that boasts possibly the most succinct hook ever in the form of “I hate you,  you suck. You are the worst person, even if your mom was the holy virgin”.

So in an attempt to exemplify just how long Gurp City has been ahead of the curve, or possibly simply to justify my increasingly eccentric neuroses scribbled across the internet here is a link to my new favorite song affordably appraised at name-your-own-price.

Link: http://sacred-hoop.bandcamp.com/track/worst-person