Evolving West Coast Hip Hop Microcosms

It was requested by Trace that I include some of the hip hop I mentioned in class the other day. I'm really into a hip hop scene on the West coast that suggests strong influences by DIY electronics, Electronica, Dub, 70's/80's glam, science fiction, pop and lock/krumping, and remix/mashup. I've also included a lot of samples if you've never heard any of this before.





To my understanding most of this music culminates in and around Low End Theory night at the Airliner, a bar in LA. Here is a really interesting documentary project (someone beat me to it) where Daedalus (Alfred Darlington) talks about the fusion of rock, electronic aesthetic and hip-hop in this specific club scene. The resulting music is complex and sophisticated, melding earth pounding bass with throwback funk and punk sensibilities. Here is a brief tour de force of some of the artists breaking ground:

LazerSword:
http://www.myspace.com/lazersword

Low Limit:
http://www.myspace.com/lowestlayer

Nobody:
http://www.myspace.com/nobodyelvin

The Gas Lamp Killer:
http://www.myspace.com/thegaslampkiller

Samiyam:
http://www.myspace.com/samiyambeats

Robot Koch (from Berlin):
http://www.myspace.com/robotkoch
Mixtape:
http://soundcloud.com/robot-koch/robot-koch-robots-dont-sleep

Lunice (from Toronto all of his albums are free there are links on his Myspace):
http://www.myspace.com/Lunice

Slightly Different scene but also involved:

Flying Lotus:
http://www.myspace.com/flyinglotus

Many Low End Theory Podcasts:
http://www.lowendtheoryclub.com/podcast/



Finally, on another note I thought I'd share what came to mind in reading about the space age bachelor pad music. Fat Jon takes on the nom de plume Maurice Galactica for Humanoid Erotica, science fiction imbued, headphone hip-hop. Here are two nice tracks from the album as well as the very "Heavenly Bodies" like album cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyTPiLTMDKk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDkTAWSYXjk