AltWeeklies Wire
King Mez's My Everlasting Zealnew
As far as rap in The Tar Heel State goes right now, King Mez is our leader. And like The Listening a decade before it, this is the new classic text. (self-released)
Chuuwee & Sundown's The Millennium Falconnew
Instead of sitting on a pile of Sundown's emailed beats, Chuuwee decided to catch a flight to North Carolina for an 11-day, 12-song recording spree.
Tags: Chuuwee & Sundown
Jozeemo's True Identitynew
East Durham rapper and longtime rabble-rouser Jozeemo claims his latest LP is his last. But he can't quit now; the fun is just getting started.
Tags: Jozeemo
Kooley High's David Thompsonnew
As it relates to Kooley High, hang time means relevance and continued musical growth—two things they accomplish here, even if the crew is a little fragmented. (Mecca Records)
Rapsody's For Everythingnew
On For Everything, Rapsody's third full-length project overseen by producer 9th Wonder, her sex appeal and tomboyish, B-girl charisma work in tandem.
Tags: Rapsody
The Away Team's Scars & Stripesnew
The relationship between beatmaker Khrysis and lead emcee Sean Boog has persevered, a fact that's more impressive than the music they continue to make.
Tags: The Away Team
Rapper Big Pooh's Dirty Pretty Thingsnew
With Dirty Pretty Things, Pooh doesn't party as much as he used to, but Durham vocalist Darien Brockington returns from his spiritual hiatus on the penetrating "Soul Music."
Tags: Rapper Big Pooh
Actual Proof's Still Hotter Than Julynew
(Jamla Records) On the latest project from this North Carolina hip-hop duo, Enigma and Sundown find themselves trying something larger—less spring-and-snap action and more knockout, bare-knuckle boxing.
Tags: Actual Proof
Heather Victoria's Graffiti Diarynew
A Jamla recording artist, Victoria is a freshly minted, B.E.T.-black songstress trying to repave the bridge that R&B icon Mary J. Blige built from soul to hip-hop.
Tags: Heather Victoria
King Mez: The King's Khrysisnew
This six-song set of self-assured work with N.C.'s best beat statesman, Khrysis, is a proclamation of the aggressiveness previously missing from some of Mez's work.
Tags: King Mez, The King's Khrysis
Gil Scott-Heron's Remarkable New Record, 'I'm New Here'new
Gil Scott-Heron is the gruff-voiced griot and spoken-word poet who laid a good chunk of the foundation for what we know today as rapping. I'm New Here is his unremitting self-portrait of a man who's had years to catalogue and now capture his paranoia, thrills and agitations.
Big Pooh Strikes Out Solo on 'Rapper's Delight'new
Rapper Big Pooh's mixtape is the Little Brother emcee's latest litmus test for a serious solo career post-Little Brother, if that day ever comes.
Little Brother Reworks 'Justus'new
The duo is re-releasing it in retail form with 16 full-length songs, omitting much of Mick Boogie's superfluous cascade of DJ punch-ins, shout-outs and drops.
Phonte Coleman Flashes Back with 'Zo! and Tigallo Love the '80s'new
A collaboration with Detroit musician Zo!, Little Brother's Phonte Coleman laughs himself across hip-hop semi-stardom by revisiting the follies of '80s synth-silly chart toppers.
Yahzarah Reintroduces Herself as Purple St. Jamesnew
With the Purple St. James of The Prelude, you get the feeling she could care less if there was music behind her or not: All at once, her voice confabulates, celebrates, massages, cries.
