Underground Rapper of the Week: Homeless

Underground Rapper of the Week is a new feature designed to raise awareness of rappers from all over the world who, if that world were a perfect place, would be more famous than they are. It will be updated every Tuesday before the sun goes down. Feel free to email suggestions of slept-on rappers from your city or wherever to: ezra.stead@gmail.com

Sincerity has seemingly gone out of fashion in the past several years, but the upside of this unfortunate trend is that when an artist breaks through the veil of detachment and irony, their impact can be doubly forceful. Emcees like Guante and the now Los Angeles-based Homeless are perfect examples of this phenomenon, rappers with a sense of urgency about the things they want to fix in the world and a healthy humility about how they’re going to do it. Originally from Minneapolis, Homeless has branched out to the West Coast, along with his frequent rhyming partner Just Riley, and since the move he has only gotten more love from his hometown, as evidenced by his recent shout-out on the blog of the beloved Twin Cities radios station The Current.

Self-described on Homeless and Just Riley’s wonderfully titled track, “Trill Cozby,” as “dirt poor, nerdy fresh,” the rapper known to his friends and family as Ryan Kopperud began getting on the radar of local word junkies as a spoken word artist. Work such as the aching, imagery-filled “Manifesto from the Tinman” and the heartbreakingly emotional “For Joseph” brought him to the National Poetry Slam for the first time in 2006, when he was still under legal drinking age, but it was clear even then, in poems like “Run Like Hell (Numb It Down to None),” that Homeless had an insatiable love for the rhyme. As one of the few artists to ever have success in both poetry slam and GrindTime battles, it was clear Homeless was meant to be a rapper, and when he released his debut EP, Patient Makes Lighter, in 2009, that promise was fulfilled.

Using “beats begged, borrowed and stolen,” Homeless fills Patient Makes Lighter with the same gorgeous poetic imagery found in his slam work, mixing childhood nostalgia with grown-up worries on tracks like “Mischief, Mischief,” which evokes a grittier Shel Silverstein when he spits, “Sit fireside at night, hold my skeletons and shiver / Playgrounds gangway to fully grown settlers / Word-junkies, monsters, magic bean peddlers.” Throughout the entire record, Homeless manages to walk a fine line, speaking on social and political issues on tracks like “An Open Letter to Asher Roth” and “The Box” without being too preachy, and digging deep emotionally on “Preoccupied” and “Somniphobia” without being whiny.

Homeless has continued to stay on his grind and up his cachet with a series of raw online cypher videos, before making a major breakthrough with an official music video for the lovely, laid back “Rest in Peace.” As he says in that song, “How easily relaxing turns into procrastination / And you wake up years later, just wondering where your days went.” This is a problem Homeless clearly aims to avoid, and since then he has continued to move forward, releasing a live EP, Right As Rain: Live at 7th Street Entry, and another strikingly original music video for his song “Epic Meal Time.” With a beautiful new track produced by Big Cats! recently released, Homeless is an up-and-coming emcee to watch out for, in Minneapolis, L.A. or anywhere else.

  

Underground Rapper of the Week: Rheteric Ramirez

Underground Rapper of the Week is a new feature designed to raise awareness of rappers from all over the world who, if that world were a perfect place, would be more famous than they are. It will be updated every Tuesday before the sun goes down. Feel free to email suggestions of slept-on rappers from your city or wherever to: ezra.stead@gmail.com

There are few emcees alive grimier and more underground than Los Angeles’ Rheteric Ramirez. One of the most respected battle rappers in GrindTimeNow, Rheteric spits creative punchlines in battles and fluent, rugged flows on gutter tracks like “Dear Diary,” a single from his upcoming, as yet untitled LP from Hellfyre Club Records, on which he breaks down his deadly battle abilities: “I hit the head on the nail, they laughin’ loud as hell / Things I say about you, wouldn’t say about yourself / This is your brain on Rheteric and I’m scramblin’ the yolk / You’ll always be on the outside of my inside joke / Dear diary, got me feelin’ I’m in the wrong genre / ‘Cause my lyrics aren’t somethin’ they’d introduce to their mama.”

Too true. Rheteric’s lyrics and subject matter are far from family-friendly, and he has no patience for soft, suburbanite hipsters and poseurs, as is evident in these lines: “You’re a productive member of society and a name-dropping social retard / With a members-only jacket and a designer flannel green scarf.” A lot of Rhet’s lyrical content involves his frustration with this gentrification of his beloved L.A., which he makes a point to warn y’all is not for everyone, but he also digs deep into his past and present feelings on tracks like “The Loneliest One” and “Tender Loving (Nothing),” and unleashes a blistering, all-encompassing rage on tracks like “Reverse Engineering.”

On the other hand, in his battles Rheteric often has a playful, humorous approach that incorporates strange, unexpected concepts like his Stephen Hawking-channeling verse in the second round of his hilarious battle against Tiger Ty, which also includes ridiculous punchlines like “You’re what happens when you do too much nitrous oxide / You’re what happens when you punch yourself when you’re cross-eyed,” and “You’re what morning breath looks like.” He is an uncompromising artist capable of jokes, vicious battle raps and pure poetry, like this gem from the second verse of “Skyscraper Cemetery”: “God named this city after angels, but did not reveal their names / To protect the identity of the demons who run this city into the grave.” In other words, Rheteric Ramirez is hard to pigeonhole, and y’all should probably give him some money while he’s young enough to enjoy it.

  

Aqualung: Magnetic North


RIYL: Beck, Bright Eyes, Ben Folds

Aqualung, a group that is essentially one man, Matt Hales, flirted with retirement before realizing that his gift for songwriting needed to continue being shared by the masses. His/their latest, Magnetic North, is Aqualung’s second album on Verve and first set of new material since 2007’s Memory Man. Following a move from his native England to Los Angeles, Aqualung’s new material is slightly more upbeat and inspired in spots than some of his previous work, which tended to be mostly dark, moody and melodic. Right from the start, Magnetic North kicks off with “New Friend,” a super catchy ditty that features, for lack of a better term, a psychedelic piano riff. “Reel Me In” is like a cross between Ben Folds and Death Cab for Cutie, and it’s another upbeat anthem.

There are more melodic-as-hell tracks in “Fingertip” and “Hummingbird,” but that doesn’t mean Aqualung forgot where he came from. Some of the best numbers are the haunting and falsetto-laced “Lost,” which sounds like it could have come from 2004’s Strange and Beautiful; the powerful “36 Hours;” or the quirky and dark title track, a fitting closer to this unique batch of songs. If you’re a fan of alt-pop that has more alt than pop, chances are good you’ll love this new one from Aqualung – and as an added bonus, it’s the kind of record that will make your significant other think you’re cool and sensitive. And what could be wrong with that? (Verve 2010)

Aqualung MySpace page