Tim Porter – International Vacation

Tim Porter – International Vacation

This is an EP is every way. It’s short, and progressively gets better with every track, then leaves you wishing there was more. This is a straight up hip-hop type release; no canned sounding records, just straight, to-the-point rhymes. It took me back to the notepad.

I never would have expected something this raw from Suburban District, who is known for their party anthems and jubilant presence and it was cool to hear something totally different from that set. Records like “Challenges” or “Stillwater” help you get to know who Tim Porter really is, but a track like “Ocean Painted Valley” shows you why he ended up on The Source Magazine’s website. Don’t Sleep.

Stillborn Identity – Slow And Steady

“I’m not like other groups, faking it till I make…./Instead I make it until I feel like faking it” ……Every now and then something happens to slip through the cracks.

I put up a few posts asking for artists to submit their music, and I got this project in my email from Stillborn Identity himself. An indy guy who is DIY, I didn’t bother to read much more of his email because I didn’t want to spoil it.

So as I went through this, I couldn’t help but feel like I was listening to Richmond’s own Confederate Flagger battling Goad Gatsby’s weird twin or something. It turns out this this guy is from PA, but sounds really like one of our own non nonchalant hipster-hop artists. Hate it or love it there’s some unique stuff going on here that actually caught my ear, I suggest you listen to “Ceiling Fan Hustle” produced by DJ Nebula to get what I mean… it’ll only cost you 2 minutes and 36 seconds and afterwards you may realize that really, we aren’t the only ones feeling the way that we do here in Richmond.

I’m a fan of individuals who come off genuine instead of contrived, and what we’ve got here is something half-happy accident, one third on-purpose, and whatever’s left….well that’s something else.