Results tagged “austinsurreal”

AustinSurreal, a vital source for local hip-hop news, mp3s, and more, presents its latest show tonight at Red 7. Invincible from Detroit headlines -- check out the video for “Sledgehammer” on YouTube. She will be preceded on stage by some of our state’s finest hip-hop acts. Houston is represented by PersephOne but the most of the line-up is powered by Central Texas artists like Blacklisted Individuals, Crew54, and DJ Crop Diggie (Superstar DJs). This evening’s gig also includes a first ever performance by local all-stars The League of Extraordinary G’z, featuring members of DA C.O.D., Dred Skott, and SouthBound. DJ Hot Bologna, Drank & Gravy pilots the beats inside in The Wreck Room.

We'd be remiss not to check in with Matt Solanza, journalist/blogger, radio host and promoter and supporter of Austin's burgeoning hip hop scene. A recent transplant from Houston, Solanza came to Austin to work at SXSW and continues to blog prolifically at Austin Surreal.

There's no one in the Austin music community more dedicated to the emergence and support of hip hop here than Bavu Blakes. He's a tireless and talented performer, and a very vocal positive voice in the hip hop world in Austin and beyond. We couldn't complete a collection of local opinions without finding out what he listened to most in '08. Don't miss him perform tonight when "What's Wrong With the Scene" series.

AustinSurreal’s Matt Sonzala continues his '08 rolling rap show with two big gigs over the next seven days. Despite the bevy of contacts he brings with him from Houston, Sonzala balances between the gimme shows (Bun-B a day after II Trill dropped) and freewheeling, throwing his clout behind acts that wouldn’t normally come to or draw a crowd in Austin, like the Palestinian rappers who played here in May. The first show – Saturday night at the Whiskey bar – is more the latter. Ice Mike is far from a household name in rap, but the New Orleans bounce sound that he helped to cement some 15 years ago has resonated in the mainstream since, from that platinum late 90’s Cash Money sound to the Baton Rouge scene that is just now hitting nationally. Largely, though, N.O. bounce remains a strictly regional sound, as no big names ever resurrected it to the same degree as Baltimore club.

On Sunday night - before my sinuses joined the writer's strike - I fancied myself a Rockwell-ian protagonist. In my crappy efficiency apartment, I laid leisurely in an armchair, reading Yeats and watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also made laborious use of the first-person singular and listened to a new Bavu Blakes song, which arrived in my inbox that night.