Case in point: Minneapolis vocalist and songwriter K.Raydio. Her debut EP, the entirely Mantis-produced Significant (Other) dropped yesterday amidst minimal fanfare, but still netted hundreds of plays and downloads off of Facebook buzz alone. The record is a fresh blend of Raydio’s stunning voice and Mantis’ crisp, engaging beats, featuring some solid guest appearances from J.Dante and Phonetic ONE.
All of this is leading up to the release of Cities Without Houses — the long-awaited spiritual successor to Mantis’ classic original album. You can catch a preview by checking out tracks 5 and 7 on Significant (Other):
First up, the Madison heavyweight hip hop live band dumate has been having an amazing year, and to celebrate, they’re offering their full length album, We Have the Technology, for free through Bandcamp. Click here to get yours. This is a limited time offer deal.
The dumate team has been very, very busy this year…especially MPC player / producer Man Mantis. He’s dropped an experimentally awesome EP’s with J. Dante, Whole New World, and a classic-flavored EP with dumate emcee DLO titled The IceMantis EP, which has been getting great reviews.
I mean, really great reviews. The Onion’s A/V Club gave it an “A” rating, concluding that the dumate crew was “grotesquely underrated on both a local and national scale.” Amen.
Up next, Man Mantis is working on an instrumental release, Cities Without Houses. Based on what I’ve heard, I think it’s going to make some serious noise for him…stay tuned.
We’ve got a lot of extremely dope producers on the World Around roster.
This year has seen incredible releases from nearly all of them. First we dropped Naturetone’s debut, Nihon, an ambitious and exotic tribute to the music and culture of Japan. Naturetone was fortunate enough to make a pilgrimage there this year…and he got married this year, too!
Then came Dr. Quandary’s magnum opus, Beyond All Spheres of Force and Matter. It’s been a trip watching this release ripple through Teh Internets — we see a ...
World Around listeners were first introduced to smooth-talking SeniorClassman J. Dante when he cranked out a whirlwind EP with our resident boom-bap specialist Man Mantis; the result, the Whole New World EP
, was an instant classic, and earned the duo a lot of accolades in the blogosphere.
Dante has big plans, and we’ve already received word that the Whole New World LP is in the works for 2010. Meanwhile, the ever-hungry rapper keeps breaking new ground and concept-to-fruition speed records. This time around he linked with his cousin, producer and vocalist DawnsSon, for the Destiny EP. It’s a bit of a departure from his laid-back and classic style, featuring heavy electro influences and autotuned choruses alongside Dante’s signature delivery, but it’s dope and different nonetheless.
The man Man Mantis never stops moving — he’s always got something new in the works. Case in point: this amazing EP he threw together on the quick with slick-talking emcee J. Dante of Minneapolis’ Senior Class. It’s coming your way for free on April 16th, but you can grab a sneak peak of two tracks today by stopping by their Bandcamp page.
By our best estimates, Louis Mackey has well over 100 full-length tracks that have never seen the light of day beyond MySpace or SoundClick. The man is a machine, constantly cranking out beats and lyrics — however, the adverse effect of his rigorous routine is that he’s moved on to the next project by the time the first is finished.
That’s why Funky Motherfucker, Yeah! has been so long in the making: ever since it was conceptualized, it’s been restructured, rewritten and further honed by Lou’s ravenous appetite for quality. In the end, we’re glad he decided to just pull the trigger on the project, because the result is an excellent “best-of” style collection spanning Lou’s entire rap career, from as far back as 2004 to the present.
The record features Lou’s signature brand of lyrical wit and funky production, with cameos from beatmakers Dr. Quandary, Man Mantis and The Banana Hammocks, as well as guest verses from AnP and Vermont freestyle veteran Chris Dizzy.
Click on the cover to download Funky Motherfucker, Yeah! in 320k MP3 format, with high-quality album art by Jacob North and PDF liner notes.
Click on the image above to download 18 exclusive and upcoming tracks from the entire World Around roster, along with high-quality album art and PDF liner notes. Happy New Year!
Tracklist:
S.maharba - The Look
STINK TANK™ - NSFA
Humpasaur Jones - Breakup Music
Naturetone - Lone Wolf
dumate - Devil is Dope
IceMantis - In rmary (feat. Dudu Stinks)
Daimyo! - Two (feat. Louis Mackey)
DJ Multiple Sex Partners - Serious Mammals
Man Mantis - Les Yeux
Algorhythms - No Flower (Snippet)
S.maharba - Briefcase Found
Dr. Quandary - Feijão
Louis Mackey - Hades Isn’t Real (feat. Adam Kadmon)
Man Mantis brings his sampling skills to the world of visual media once again, with this rhythmic wash of human body imagery for his new song Minor Aches and Pains. He’s got a great collection of dumate and STINK TANK™ performance footage, along with some live MPC antics, and he’s always adding new stuff, so be sure to check out his channel on Youtube.
Never one for dormancy, Man Mantis hit us off with his directorial debut today: a music video for “Infirmary,” the lead-off track from his upcoming collaborative project with DLO entitled IceMantis. As if this combination wasn’t potent enough, they’ve also tagged fellow dumate emcee and STINK TANK™ mastermind Dudu Stinks for one of his premium verses, and the resulting track is dope as hell.
Props and thanks to Andre Linzmeyer, publisher of 608 Magazine. He’s also had great things to say about our favorite MPC-driven live show wrecking crew in Wisconsin:
“First of all, they are all excellent artists,” Linzmeyer says of the five-member dumate. “They are individuals who all do their own thing but they all come together really nicely, too. They represent the 608 very well. They are a diverse group, which is nice because hip-hop today brings in all kinds of people from all kinds of heritages.”
MORE COVERAGE: the tech-heads and hip hop producers will appreciate the detailed science Man Mantis is dropping in his recent Audible Hype interview, where he’s discussing using the MPC sampler live, as well as what he’s learned in the process of mixing and mastering his last two albums.
