Those KingHellBastard boys are bad. Bad meaning good. Ha! With Joell Ortiz on the feature and White Shadow on production, the Milwaukee collective deliver up Commercial Free from their new LP The WarRoom due out in December on Uni.Fi Records. Solid track and as Common says in the sampled hook, this is real hip-hop music from the soul ya'll. Enjoy. Chea!
One of my favorite KingHellBastard tracks, with Stan P shooting footage of KHB opening for W-Tang in Milwaukee back in October. The track produced by Dima TheWhiteRussian with co-production credit going to Reason of 4AR. Enjoy.
The Milwaukee crew KingHellBastard have never been really into the whole mixtape thing, so with their new project they venture into uncharted territory for the group. But instead of just doing any type of mixtape, they decided on the 17th anniversary of the release of A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders to release A Tribe Called Bastard - On the Blvd. of Layton. I had the privledge of rocking with the press advance over the weekend. The project is fresh. With appearances from Sadat X, Akrobatik, Raashan Ahmad and Stricklin, coupled with the energy of KHB, this joint is definitely worth the download. Enjoy.
KHB has never been interested in the hype-over-substance world of here-today/gone-tomorrow mixtapes, so it is only fitting that our sole contribution to the medium opts for a different template. Instead of jumping on instrumentals from the latest pop-rap radio singles, we decided to see how our previously recorded verses would hold up when synched with classic beats from hip-hop's past. In particular, beats from A Tribe Called Quest, hence the name of the project. The results surprised us, and we think you'll be pleasantly surprised as well. Mixed by our very own DJ OneL, "A Tribe CalledBastard..." makes for a blissed-out trip down memory lane with some new friends.
Check out the new edit of KHB's "I Believe" featuring Raashan Ahmad. The vid was shot and edited by the homie Darren Cole of Alphabang Productions. Directed by Michael Danahey. It's fresh!
I'm sure I've said this before, KingHellBastard is dope. Their latest offering, Remember The Name EP, packs features from Sadat X, Stricklin, Raashan Ahmad among others. The Milwaukee crew makes some incredible music together and the visuals for their tracks are always on point. Their latest video, "I Believe" featuring Raashan Ahmad, is shot and edited by Darren Cole of Alphabang Productions and directed by Michael Danahey. The video is dope. The track is dope. Enjoy.
Remember the name? Shit, how can I forget. KingHellBastard is dope.
It was about a year or so ago that I first came across the Milwaukee crew KingHellBastard. It was group member Dana Coppafeel who put me on to the group. Sidebar, I don't know how Dana has so much time to be in so many groups and focus on his solo work too and give it all 110%. The dude is hard working and definitely gets the work done to put out good music.
Anyway, I've been rocking with KHB since the first time I heard their stuff. At the time, they had a few joints floating around, namely a track called "Danger." That joint blew me away.
Their latest offering, Remember the Name, is set for an August 21 vinyl release, with a release party and video shoot at Mad Planet in Milwaukee on Saturday August 21, from 10:00pm - 2:00am. I've heard the full project that boasts features from Sadat X (Brand Nubian) Akroabatik, Raashan Ahmad, Stricklin and cuts from The White Shadow of Norway. The project has that "raucous boom bap" that their label Uni.Fi Records is so proud of.
The project opens with "Clubber Lang" and just builds lyrically and gets better from there. My personal favorites, "I Believe" with Raashan Ahmad, "Its The Crew Again" with Sadat X and a track that should be blasting EVERYWHERE in Milwaukee, "Ma'waukee."
If you weren't a believer in KHB before this project, you damn well better be after it.
I've had the privledge of previewing most of the upcoming KINGHELLBASTARD (KHB) album and let me tell you, there is NOTHING but dope cuts throughout. It's definitely an exciting project. Check out KINGHELLBASTARD (KHB) "I Believe" featuring Raashan Ahmad off of the upcoming Remember the Name EP. Enjoy.
Die-hard Milwaukee hip-hop group KingHellBastard continues to deliver raucous boom bap and potent lyricism on their latest release from Uni.Fi Records. The album comes off a stellar 2009 which saw KHB receive constant airplay on 88.9 WYMS and 91.7 WMSE and led to the group winning Artist Of The Year and Video Of The Year in the Radio Milwaukee Awards, a trend which continues in 2010 with 88.9 already adding the first single "I Believe" to their rotation.
Building upon years of riotous performances and international collaborations, KHB brings out the heavy artillery on the 8-song record with appearances from Sadat X of the legendary Brand Nubian, Def Jux affiliate Akroabatik, Raashan Ahmad from Crown City Rockers, Stricklin from hip-hop supergroup EMC, and blazing cuts from The White Shadow of Norway.
Starting off with a veritable explosion of sonic energy and a thunderous verse from Akrobatik on the song "Clubber Lang", MCs Dana Coppafeel, Shemp, and DNA waste no time heralding their return with steely-eyed conviction over a heart-stopping beat from producer Reason, accented by the nimble bass playing of LMNTlyst and deft scratching of resident DJ OneL.
Keeping the intensity high, the record hits a celebratory note with the second track "I Believe" featuring an exuberant verse from crowd rocker Raashan Ahmad over joyous horn blasts and breakneck drums from Reason and a blistering scratch coda from White Shadow. Side A closes with two slices of serious funk, the booming bass of the White Shadow produced "It's The Crew Again" featuring the unmistakable voice of Sadat X, and the certified G-Funk banger "North Coast" featuring a hilarious verse from fellow Milwaukee native Stricklin.
With Side A dedicated to showcasing some of the collaborative efforts KHB have generated from constant touring, Side B allows the group to stand on it's own considerable talents with three songs from in-house Uni-Fi producer, The White Russian. First is the kaleidoscopic "PhD" where the MCs weave in and out of the verses as the beat builds up in layers of shifting soundscapes.
Next comes the fist-pumping ode to hip-hop's golden age "A Tribe Called Bastard", where each MC references quotables from the past over a beat that could have been at home on a tape deck in 1988 and recalls classics like "Scenario" and "The Choice Is Yours".
Lastly comes the heartfelt hometown anthem "Ma'waukee", an introspective look at the blue-collar roots and hardscrabble character of the Midwest set to a soulful and exultant beat that has already proven to be a show-stopper during live performances.
I guess like wine, sometimes the rhyme gets better and better with time. Perhaps that's the case with 32-year-old Dana Coppafeel. He calls himself an old head, in his second child hood. Originally from Rockford, IL he moved to Milwaukee, WI in the 90s, then Madison, WI for school and back to Milwaukee.
“I would say Milwaukee is where I grew up because it just feels more like home to me,” he said.
I reached out to him after checking his video for the track 88 (check it out below). You got to love that dude shot a video at a laundromat. That’s multitasking – get a load done while shooting a video and delivering real hip-hop. 88 is definitely a dope track (there I go using the word dope again). Immediately that beat takes you to another place. 88 is one of those tracks you need to listen to a few times and each time you’re like “ooooh” when you catch something you overlooked the time before. After checking the video, I immediately went on a hunt to check out more of his tracks. Impressed! There’s just something cool about his lyrical flow and it’s not just on one track. It carries.
“I’ve always free-styled ever since I first heard hip-hop music,” he said. “Even before that my mom used to take me to guitar lesson but I sucked pretty bad but she just knew music was my calling.”
“It’s kind of funny though because I told her I should sing or something like that,” he continued. “Hip-hop was filled that void.”
But he’s been seriously doing music since 1995/1996.
I reached out to him via email and this is what he had to say.
Is music your career or do you have a "day job" “I like to think music is my career. I spend so much time out of the week in just music alone. At least four days, about 40 hours invested into music. There is really not a lot of money to be made it seems. It’s just endless grind sometimes just to support what you love. It’s my love and whether money is coming in from it or not I just want to perfect my craft. I always end up giving my music away free on the Internet anyways. But I flip burgers part-time (hahaha) for real. I don't even eat burgers.”
How would you describe your music? “My music is just that real hip-hop you know I'm an older head. I like that gritty street shit but there’s a real message in the mix of it all. I'm from the Wu-Tang era, you know knowledge born. I study the 120 for a few years in my life but at the same time I'm a real big Dilla head and I'm talking about Jay Dee before Dilla died type of fan. So I really like the mixture of those elements.”
What projects are you working on? “Right now I'm working on a CD, which is almost done called "Coppa's Welfare Foods" it should be done by summer. Also I'm working on a pre-album with the songs that are left over. I’m going to drop that first, but no name right now. I'm in two groups in the Milwaukee area. The first one is KingHellBastard. We are working on a summer release on 12 inch featuring SADAT X (also check YouTube for the KingHellBastard and Sadat X video) and STRICKLIN from EMC. Right now you can download our newest EP called "Y’all got excuse we got reason" (Click to download). The other group is like a super group with like 10 members called the House of M and we are right now working on a LP and a mixtape. So it busy, busy, busy...”