Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Born King as...Killa Fifth - The Blacklight Mixtape
After I reviewed Born King's last album, The Secret Order, in the City Paper a couple months ago, I got a chance to sit down with him and his brother singodsuperior and chop it up a little bit. And it was pretty interesting to get a better idea of where Born King's music was coming from, because I was never sure if he was coming from the arty side of hip hop or just taking the grimy Wu Tang thing to a kind of new extreme. But it turns out he really is into stuff like Def Jux and Jay Electronica, which makes total sense, and he's been making music for a long long time and has a whole team of interesting people arund him. One thing that he mentioned kinda offhandedly was that he put out a mixtape a year or two back, and I was like damn, why didn't you mention that before? So singodsuperior sent it to me and kind of explained it to me as "the foundation for The Secret Order," and like that album it's also credited to Born King's alter ego, Killa Fifth. He even says something like "Born King no longer exists" on one song, although I dunno, it could get pretty confusing if he doesn't just commit to one name or the other at some point. Anyway I wasn't expecting a real traditional mixtape or anything, but as far as I can tell the format of this is the same as all of his albums, same producers, same types of songs, no freestyles or industry beats, same length (only about a half hour long), only difference is that there's a host, Jimmy Beamz. I'm not complaining, though, the more I hear this guy's weird-ass music the more I appreciate it. And I believe he has another album already finished, I think he said it's coming out in June.
Born King as Killa Fifth - "Tonz" (mp3)
This one's my favorite, real crazy beat.
After I reviewed Born King's last album, The Secret Order, in the City Paper a couple months ago, I got a chance to sit down with him and his brother singodsuperior and chop it up a little bit. And it was pretty interesting to get a better idea of where Born King's music was coming from, because I was never sure if he was coming from the arty side of hip hop or just taking the grimy Wu Tang thing to a kind of new extreme. But it turns out he really is into stuff like Def Jux and Jay Electronica, which makes total sense, and he's been making music for a long long time and has a whole team of interesting people arund him. One thing that he mentioned kinda offhandedly was that he put out a mixtape a year or two back, and I was like damn, why didn't you mention that before? So singodsuperior sent it to me and kind of explained it to me as "the foundation for The Secret Order," and like that album it's also credited to Born King's alter ego, Killa Fifth. He even says something like "Born King no longer exists" on one song, although I dunno, it could get pretty confusing if he doesn't just commit to one name or the other at some point. Anyway I wasn't expecting a real traditional mixtape or anything, but as far as I can tell the format of this is the same as all of his albums, same producers, same types of songs, no freestyles or industry beats, same length (only about a half hour long), only difference is that there's a host, Jimmy Beamz. I'm not complaining, though, the more I hear this guy's weird-ass music the more I appreciate it. And I believe he has another album already finished, I think he said it's coming out in June.
Born King as Killa Fifth - "Tonz" (mp3)
This one's my favorite, real crazy beat.
Labels: Born King, mixtape/album review, mp3
