Scene Check

Today I am going to look as some of the rising stars in underground hip hop coming out of Toronto and Chicago.

Toronto

Last week I brought up the Arkeologists, a production crew out of Toronto. Aside from the aforementioned Chuggo the Arkeologists did all of the production for Poor Man Militia. The subjects that PMM rap about are much different than what Chuggo focuses on. While Chuggs is bragging about how much pussy he gets and how comfortable he feels in a jail cell, PMM are a lot more conscious in a Wu Tang kind of way. There are reference to crime but their are just as many references to the despair that nessestiates crime. There is also a touch of the island influence that we saw in Wyclef in his solo debut The Carnival in one of the MCs and in the beats.

Highlights of this album are "Robbery," "Stay Calm," "Still Thinkin'," "Victims," "Richman/Poorman," and "Newspaper Nap."

http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2CIOS0MQ29MFE1EBOMN9NMI3RV

Chicago

Does anyone here remember Prime? At one point he ran with the Molemen. After parting ways with them he started his own collective known as "Middle Ground." So far they have not released any music but I was given a CD last year full of all the shit they've done so far. When I got this CD I knew that none of this shit was commercially available so I'm not too sure how much of this shit is out there now but here are 13 tracks and one music video by Prime's new team. My favorite track is the one featured in the video and if anyone could rip that into mp3 for me that'd be fresh.

http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1CSHNXA0F6IJ90AOIKX07VAEQ4

If anyone has full albums from crew from around their way and you feel that they deserve a bit more shine than they are getting now please send mp3s my way at mustafagoodprose at g mail dot com.

Peace,

MGP