Global, Strange Fruit Project, Clemits, and J Kapone

A former member of Austin's pioneering CBS B-boy crew, Global drops Scientific Nigerian with the megaton payload of hip-hop's storied golden age. Imagine Rakim's decree of "let's travel magnificent speeds around the universe" taken as a daily rule. Global borrows beats from all accessible sectors, including an Organized Noize leftover here and a Jimi Hendrix studio outtake there. The elliptical foci of Louis Armstrong's vocals from "Saint James Infirmary" and Global's weeded, postapocalyptic affirmations make for comfortable interplanetary coffin mates. Resurrecting black consciousness with reminders that they "brought you in from out of town for that free labor," Scientific Nigerian detonates a cascading mushroom cloud of lyrical truth. Waco's Strange Fruit Project maintains an upwardly diagonal trajectory with its Om debut, featuring contributions from Dallas' Erykah Badu, North Carolina's Little Brother, and Seattle's Jake One. Strange Fruit's Myone, Myth, and Symbolyc One adorn third album The Healing with their signature Jay Dee-inspired finesse and breezy optimism. Austin's Clemits subscribes to a similar school of thought as evidenced by his incorporation of the same lackadaisical Tower of Power sample used by Diamond D for his boom-bap classic "Sally Got a One Track Mind." Further recycling of samples from Planet Asia's "Summertime in the City" and Zion I's "Bird's Eye View" reveals Last Laugh Rising Sun (MSG) as an extension of the mid-Nineties Left Coast underground explosion come to Texas. Austin's J Kapone connects with the DJ Screw set and has been blowing up the Beat 104.3 as of late with "Watch My 15s Stutter." Along with VIP and Basswood Lane, Kapone echoes Pimp C's boastful proclamation, "Everything I drive go'n have leather and wood." Presented by Top Dollar of Whut It Dew fame, Hood Tale 2 shadows legendary "Grey Tapes" with guests, including Trae, Dok Holiday, Swift, Nac, and DJ Bounz along for the inebriated ride.