“The Beast” is the second single off of The Audible Doctor’s upcoming Can’t Keep The People Waiting EP. The track features Bumpy Knuckles and is produced by The Audible Doctor.

From the upcoming album, The Black Card.

Out Da Box TV is proud to bring you a special new episode featuring the Legendary Hip Hop producer “DJ Premier” and Veteran NY Emcee “Bumpy Knuckles”. We got a chance to chat with the two recently at Premier’s NY music studio. They took the time to speak to us on a number of enlightening topics, with regards to the current state of Hip Hop and helping to progress the culture forward. Among other topics Bumpy and Premier also took a moment to talk about the origins of NY Hip Hop and the reasoning behind how it has lost its identity over the years. This interview is just part 1 of a truly in-depth 2 part series, that will be sure to follow in the same vein as this insightful piece. Stay tuned for Part 2 next week, where Preemo and Bumpy will speak further on the impact of their music careers in helping to push hip hop music/culture forward. In the meantime, please take the time to enjoy Part 1 and also feel free to pick up Premier and Bumpy’s new collabo album entitled “Kolexxxion” which is available in stores now.

From the album KoleXXXion, in stores now. Instrumentals & Acapellas coming 7/10 on vinyl.

From the album KoleXXXion, in stores now. KoleXXXion Instrumentals & Acapellas coming 7/10 on vinyl.

As one of the most seasoned emcees in the game, Bumpy Knuckles has recorded nine albums over a massive 23-year period. So if anyone has a right to call out what exactly is wrong with hip-hop, it’s him – he’s seen and heard it all. Teaming with DJ Premier for The Kolexxxion, a sequel to his 2003 LP, The Konexion, Bumpy doesn’t break the formula over 17 tracks of raw, unabashed production.

The album begins with the smoked out intro, “My Thoughts”, where Bump trades his usual abrasive delivery for a more laid-back approach, as you can almost hear him exhaling the smoke with each line. This doesn’t last however, as the up-tempo “Shake The Room” follows, finding him teamed up with Flavor Flav for a knocking “club banger”. The Public Enemy influence continues later with the Sista Soulja sampled “We Are At War”, where he laments about piracy of his music, suggesting “I used to beat a bootlegger to death / now I gotta send a legal letter / I wish the fans would treat me better”. On “P.A.I.N.E.” he really lets the Foxxx out, bitch-slapping rappers with a cabal of hilariously threatening rhymes. This style picks up later on “The Lah” over an unsympathetic Preemo track, while he delivers another smackdown to just about every corner of the rap industry.

Premier’s production takes on many forms on this LP, as he seemingly digs through every corner of his crates for different sounds. The cinematic “Eveneverputmy4cusaway” is a beautifully mellow concoction, while the Nas featured “Turn Up The Mic (DJ Premier Remix)” rings in as an instant classic. Even the paired down four-bar loop “Own It” is simplified brilliance in sampling, as Preem shows his knack for finding the perfect sample, turning the sound of a broken record into a infectious head-nodder.

While packed with bangers of every variety, perhaps the best track here is still “The Gang Starr Bus”, which originally dropped last year’s Get Used To Us compilation. This scathing, indirect dis to Solar bangs with it’s classic Daily Operation-esque jazz loop, as Bumpy recounts the early Gang Starr tours with M.O.P. and Big Shug, as a well timed Guru sample from beyond the grave brags, “you don’t even know the half about me.”

With careers that touch four decades of rap, DJ Premier and Bumpy Knuckles not only show a talent to create timeless music, but also a testament to their legacy. Even this deep into their respective careers, they each individually show their long-standing strengths with The Kolexxxion.

Potential candidate for next year’s Blog So Hard 2 (or whatever I decide to call it)? Bumpy and Preem’s new album, The KoleXXXion, which we assume refers to the duo accumulated stacks of x-rated VHS tapes, is out Tuesday.

Clip of DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles “wEaRe aT WaR” single off of their upcoming album KoleXXXion coming 3/27/2012. Autographed copies can be ordered EXCLUSIVELY at: http://gracieproductions.bigcartel.com.

Taken from DJ Nu-Mark’s Broken Sunlight available from Hot Plate Records.

Looks like that Bumpy Knuckles & DJ Premier album, The KoleXXXion, has got a solid date for March 27th. But first, they will drop an EP called sToOdiOtYme.

]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2012/01/20/dj-premier-bumpy-knuckles-we-are-at-war/feed/ 1 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/11/28/bumpy-knuckles-dj-premier-speak-on-collabo-lp-the-kollexion/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/11/28/bumpy-knuckles-dj-premier-speak-on-collabo-lp-the-kollexion/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:21:33 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=41033
]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/11/28/bumpy-knuckles-dj-premier-speak-on-collabo-lp-the-kollexion/feed/ 2 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/11/25/dj-premier-bumpy-knuckles-speak-on-collaborating/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/11/25/dj-premier-bumpy-knuckles-speak-on-collaborating/#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:57:01 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=40988
]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/11/25/dj-premier-bumpy-knuckles-speak-on-collaborating/feed/ 1 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/10/31/bumpy-knuckles-bap-prod-dj-premier/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/10/31/bumpy-knuckles-bap-prod-dj-premier/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:13:10 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=39961

Bumpy Knuckles and DJ Premier will collaborate on The Kolexion LP, dropping soon. This beat was to be used on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3, but missed the deadline.

Download

Freddie Foxxx aka Bumpy Knuckles doesn’t release albums very often, but when he does, he picks up the mic like he never left. And chances are, he never did leave, as “rhyming is a part of [his] life”, as he let us know on 2000′s seminal Industry Shakedown. Easily one of the best indie albums that year, and of the entire independent hip-hop movement as a whole, it took no prisoners and got people to listen and respect the then already seasoned emcee. After quite a long dry spell, Bumpy recently teamed with KRS-One for the Royalty Check release, and now joins up with soon-to-be-super producer Statik Selektah for Lyrical Workout.

In a word, Statik has mastered the classic hip-hop production style, evoking feelings of the 90′s, and more specifically the Gang Starr Foundation itself, with Lyrical Workout. Combining that with a seasoned emcee that knows exactly what to do with these beats, we get one of the strongest album releases of the year. Taking it back to jazz loops (!), songs like the opener, “Still Got It” (featuring a well-timed Dr. Dre sample) beg the question why rappers abandoned this style so many years ago. The same can be said for songs like the scratch-driven “Animalistic”, or the cinematic soul of tracks like “Beats On ‘Em” or “Pen Game”. The entire album magically transports longtime listeners back to a better time, without sounding dated.

It goes without saying that Bumpy’s lyrical contributions certainly match Statik’s production, as there really isn’t a show-stealer on this collaboration. Bumpy’s a rare breed in today’s age of pandering to the mainstream, a brutally honest emcee that has extra large fists to back up his boasts. We even get a bit of vulnerability this time around, as on “Don’t Do Fake”, Bumpy laments “I can’t remember all my rhymes sometimes / I guess I’m getting old, I do forget / plus I wrote a whole bunch of shit”. It’s this type of honesty in an industry that is built off of manufactured celebrities that makes Bump’s words all the more sincere; and Statik’s buttery beat doesn’t hurt either.

There’s no deeper meaning, no concept, no hit single (or failed attempt), Lyrical Workout is just simply a “real” album, for lack of a better term. Bumpy Knuckles and Statik Selektah have created something exceptional here, that definitely should not be missed.

There is almost a bromantic quality to the way these two throw it back and forth with ease and comfort, and KRS frequently taking asides to compliment the talents of Freddie Foxxx (“ya’ll cats don’t know, Foxxx is playing the bass right now”), who did much of Royalty Check’s production. It’s a straight-forward “boom-bap” sound that feels more like a breath of fresh air than a harkening back to the glory days (i.e. Bumpy’s famous collaboration with KRS’ Boogie Down Productions on “Ruff Ruff” in ’92).

Of course, these two have been around forever and there is an element of old fogies sitting around complaining about today’s young punks and how the world has gone to hell in a hand-basket. But at least they’re not trying to be something they’re not and the fact is, especially side-by-side, complementing each other, KRS and Freddie can still hold it down on the mic. Their flows have held up remarkably well over the years. As Freddie says, “Bottom line, if you real, you relevant.”

On “I’m a Be Back” they pay homage to their own work in the game over a deep piano loop with KRS talking about his time on the road and Freddie shutting things down (“I walk into the room and it’s quiet/listen/all that thug ambition/missin’.”)

KRS, ever the Teacha, gets political on “Street Poison,” actually doing a creative rhyme rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner.” His views are a bit all over the place (doesn’t want to hear about the health care debate or immigration reform, but is concerned about funding for wildlife conservation), but Freddie’s world-weary viewpoint is the perfect counterbalance (“It’s all bullshit, stop me for a taillight/and wanna throw me in jail for a whole night/I hate the fact that you can cuss me the fuck out/ ‘Hands out the window, n***a, get the fuck out.’ ”)

On “Hip Hop We Love You,” a song title that really goes without saying, KRS gets into his past some, but also his present in a revealing statement on the Great Recession’s effect on hip-hop legends: “I don’t plan to work forever, but the 401K, the social security, pension, retirement, all of that’s gone/These days you better know how to rap, in case your degree don’t work you got something to fall back on.”

And Foxxx, one of hip-hop’s ultimate cleanup hitters, is razor sharp all over Royalty Check with minimalist, ear-catching lines, like on “Who Is It,” where he spits, with perfect flow, “MC from the element/stomp like an elephant/Bottom line, if you real, you relevant/Gunslingers really don’t rhyme/there’s a only a few/I’m one of them, the other’s not you.”

For some reason, this album has been billed as having some sort of a rock-tinged flavor, and there is an occasional electric guitar thrown in, but thankfully it’s about as pure as hip-hop gets. It’s hard rhymes over hard beats (“Change Gears”), call and response hooks (“Stand Up”), and two dudes who have no problem running up on you if the situation calls for it.

Particularly for old-school heads, it’s hard to see this not being an extremely satisfying release. Tracks like “Flowing With the Vets” deliver exactly what you would expect from two true professional rappers. When you think about it, it’s a wonder these two haven’t done an album together until now, but they prove it’s never too late to drop a jewel.