Another one from Linkin Park’s Recharged remix LP, featuring guest verses from Cody B. Ware and Styles Of Beyond’s Ryu. Not quite a Fort Minor reunion, but close. “Fort Minor, we major / let’s take it to phase 2 / I’ve been on the internet / Hearing fans talk / maybe we should consider it.”

LA’s Styles Of Beyond have been putting it down since the birth of the independent hip-hop movement, which saw the release of their fan favorite albums, 2000 Fold (1998) and Megadef (2003). The SOB’s caught the ear of Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, who invited them to be a part of his Fort Minor offshoot project, delivering one of the best and certainly most slept on major label hip-hop albums of the year, with The Rising Tide, back in 2005. This would lead to Styles Of Beyond being signed to Shinoda’s Machineshop Records imprint, via Warner Bros… only to suffer the same fate of many artists of the indie hip-hop movement, to find their album shelved indefinitely. Recorded in 2007, and finally seeing release this year via the Demigodz’s Dirty Version Records, it’s evident why a major label would want to shelve this record: it’s too good.

Let’s back up for a second on that last statement. It’s not to say that the major label system is incapable of releasing a “real hip-hop” album, but we’ve seen this happen countless times, almost suggesting that they simply throw their collective hands up in defeat, before even attempting to work something without a “hit single”. Reseda Beach has plenty of moments that attempt to light-heartedly pander to the major label system, utilizing familiar breaks (“Dunky Fividends”, “Call My Name”), penning pre-LMFAO songs about getting drunk (“The Pirate Song”), songs about girls (“Sugar Honey Iced Tea” – also known as “S.H.I.T.”), a double-time song (“Take That”, which also features a blistering verse from Celph Titled) and an ironic, middle finger to radio itself, “Dumb It Down”.

Nevertheless, it’s all done with quality and integrity, so even in their attempts to dumb things down, Styles Of Beyond still come off with phat beats and cheeky-yet-crass, well-thought out lyrics, with an incredibly solid LP. If the above mentioned tracks were their attempts at slightly leaning to more commercial appeal, the rest of the LP takes on a more rugged edge, as tracks like the J. Dilla produced “Hard” and the Big Daddy Kane inspired “Second To None” bang with reckless abandon.

In it’s 48 minute play-time, there really isn’t a bad cut on Reseda Beach, and given the fact that this as-of-yet-unheard LP is now five years old, and still sounds brand new, it is a testament that this is timeless music. So while the long list of Shawty Lo’s, OJ Da Juiceman’s and other one-hit wonders continues to expand, leaving behind a legacy of nothing, Styles Of Beyond have left us with something that will live on for many years in the hearts and minds of rap fans: classically driven hip-hop that knows not age or expiration date. Perhaps one day the major labels will get it.

After years of delays, Styles of Beyond’s 3rd album “Reseda Beach” is now available on iTunes and CD at demigodzstore.com – And what better way to celebrate with an Aqua-produced track from the album featuring fellow Demigodz brother Celph Titled. The LP is executive produced by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and also features Apathy, Scoop Deville, Somaya Reece, Bishop Lamont and Shinoda himself.

Los Angeles hip-hop heroes, Styles of Beyond, return to bring you their long awaited third album entitled “Reseda Beach” which will be released on 10-23-2012 via Dirty Version Records and its executive produced by Linkin Park/Fort Minor’s Mike Shinoda.

The first leak from the project made you say “Damn,” as SOB linked up with Grammy-Award winner Michael Buble’, the second leak, “The Pirate Song,” (produced by Vin Skully & Apathy) from the project was an ode to the adult beverage.

With the third leak from the project the group has included a track from the bonus disc of their upcoming “Reseda Beach” LP entitled “Radio Clash” (produced by the group’s own Vin Skully).

Pre-orders for Styles Of Beyond’s “Reseda Beach” are now available at demigodzstore.com (which includes the bonus disc of all new material), order now and get the bonus double-CD and a T-Shit shipped to you by release date.

Los Angeles hip-hop heroes, Styles of Beyond, return to bring you their long awaited third album entitled Reseda Beach which will be released on 10-23-2012 via Dirty Version Records and its executive produced by Linkin Park/For Minor’s Mike Shinoda.

The first leak from the project made you say “Damn,” as SOB linked up with Grammy-Award winner Michael Buble’, the second leak, “The Pirate Song,” (produced by Vin Skully & Apathy) from the project is an ode to the adult beverage.

Styles Of Beyond member Ryu revealed via Instagram that the release of their long-awaited album, Reseda Beach, will also come with a bonus disc. The disc will feature individual tracks from the group’s classic Razor Tag mixtape, which originally was produced to set up buzz for the release of Reseda Beach, plus some unreleased songs. The album is due in stores October 23rd.

If you can judge how “gnarly” or “tubular” a rap group is based on the length between album releases, then Styles of Beyond shreds brah! The S.O.B. Crew was conceived nearly sixteen years ago and since then has only released two full length albums. But while others may drop records quicker, so shall they fall. Styles of Beyond consistently keeps their boards waxed and polished, perfecting their sound to ensure bitchin’ trips down the pipeline. So put on your Oakley Razor-Blades and dowse your nose with some PDF-30 because is S.O.B. is back with their junior release Reseda Beach which will be released on 10-23-2012 on Dirty Version Records.

Styles Of Beyond’s long-delayed Reseda Beach LP has achieved mythical type status due to the fact that the group started work on the project so many years ago we lost track; as it was recorded for Warner Brother’s Records under Mike Shinoda’s (Fort Minor/Linkin Park) Machine Shop Recordings imprint.

Executive produced by Mike Shinoda, with production from J. Dilla, Mike Shinoda, Apathy, Scoop Deville, and Aqua as well as group members Vin Skully & Cheapshot, Reseda Beach is by far the most refreshing album hip-hop has heard in some time.

Tracklisting and credits for Styles Of Beyond’s Reseda Beach:

1.) Here We Go (Produced by Scoop Deville)
2.) Hard (Produced by J. Dilla)
3.) Sugar Honey Iced Tea (Produced by Vin Skully & Co-Produced by Cheapshot)
4.) Take That f/ Celph Titled (Produced by Aqua)
5.) Call My Name (Produced by Apathy)
6.) Bumble Bee (Skit) Starring Alex 2Tone
7.) The Pirate Song (Produced by Vin Skully & Co-Produced by Apathy)
8.) Damn (Produced by Vin Skully & Co-Produced by Cheapshot)
9.) Dumb It Down (Produced by Apathy & Co-Produced by Mike Shinoda)
10.) Howdy Doody (Produced by Cheapshot & Co-Produced by Vin Skully)
11.) Live from Ibiza (Skit) Starring Alex 2Tone
12.) You Love Us f/ Somaya Reece (Produced by Vin Skully)
13.) Shut Everything Down f/ Celph Titled (Produced by Vin Skully & Co-Produced by Apathy)
14.) Dunky Fividends f/ Apathy (Produced by Vin Skully)
15.) Second To None f/ Mike Shinoda (Produced by Mike Shinoda)
16.) The Valley (Outro) Starring Alex 2Tone

Los Angeles hip-hop heroes, Styles of Beyond, return to bring you their long awaited third album entitled Reseda Beach which will be released on 10-23-2012 via Dirty Version Records. To set things off properly, it seems there was this song laying around featuring guest vocals from Grammy award winner Michael Bublé that was originally recorded and intended to be on Reseda Beach. A non-Bublé version of this song will end up on the retail album, but for now let’s all enjoy this little buzz starter/teaser treat from the West Coast wing of the Demigodz. “Damn” is produced by the group’s production team, Vin Skully & Cheapshot.

Styles of Beyond’s Reseda Beach has been in the works since 2007, the follow-up to their last LP, Megadef. After a short stint with Mike Shinoda’s Fort Minor project, the project has been in development for years now, having tracks recorded with Celph Titled, RZA, Apathy, Micheal Buble (!), and Holly Brook (aka Skylar Grey) in the can. While it is uncertain whether or not this is the same album that was recorded during those sessions, or if they have fine-tuned it for a 2012 release, Ryu announced on Twitter today that it will be released within the next two months via Celph Titled’s Dirty Version Records.

Get Busy Committee is Ryu (Styles of Beyond, Fort Minor), Apathy (Demigodz, Army of The Pharoahs) and Scoop Deville (son of Kid Frost, producer of Snoop’s “I Wanna Rock”). Despite the group only officially forming one year ago, the trio have managed to use their past experience to cultivate a solid sound, at once a throwback to days of hip-hop past and its future. And while their subject matter may be considered lighthearted to some, there is no end to the serious level of craftsmanship put into the group’s songs; they manage to successfully know when and where to emphasize lyrical content and when to hold back for lighter fare. Their full-length album, “Uzi Does It”, was released late last year to critical and consumer acclaim.

why i am the baddest deejay known to mankind from them too photography on Vimeo.

The Styles of Beyond, Get Busy Committee, and Fort Minor deejay markets himself hard.

Apathy, Ryu of Styles of Beyond and producer Scoop Deville have teamed up to form The Get Busy Committee, which is sort of throwback group project which Ap describes as “havin’ fun, doing some different shit”. They released their first track, “Little Razor Blade” in January via YouTube, which should give you an idea of what kind of shit they are on for the forthcoming LP, Uzi Does It.

The latest entry realy drives the point home, as they cover Jodeci’s “Come & Talk To Me”. This is a special freestyle, which most likely will not be included on the group’s album, so this is most likely not the type of thing you will hear on the full-length. Yeah, you can’t take anything too seriously with a Raiders hat wearing koala bear on the cover. – DJ Pizzo

Download: Get Busy Committee (Apathy + Ryu + Scoop Deville) “Come & Talk To Me” (MP3)

Sophomore slump?  Fuck no!!  Megadef is an explosive LP that whether intentional or not, resounds with the same genre-blurring, frat boy exuberance found on the Beastie Boys  seminal debut License To Ill.  Picking the brains of Rick Rubin, the Bomb Squad, and Guy Ritchie, DJ Cheapshot bridges the rock/rap hybrid with relative ease and manages to turn a veritable melting pot of sounds and influences into his own rendition of hip-hop gumbo.  Though the Euro house shuffle of “Eurobiks” and the cookie-cutter, double time rhyme cadence of “Pay Me” feat. 4Zone are obvious miscasts.  Cheapshot’s production is both incendiary and riot inducing, as he implements stabbing electric guitar wails over Jefferson Starship’s “Somebody To Love” on “Outta Control”, and the frenetic metal chords unleashed on “Megadef” & “Superstars” (peep Ryu’s Camp Lo impersonation) would make even Chuck D and Dave Mustaine nod their heads in approval.  Likewise, Cheapshot deftly juxtaposes elements of The Stooges and the theme from Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels on Ryu’s fiery solo-excursion “Be Your Dog” where Ryu’s (who is unquestionably one of the industries most underrated emcees) inflammatory vocals seem to be aimed squarely at a certain multi-platinum outfit that Cheapshot previously helped “Reanimate”—-”another half-ass hit out now/we used to chill till that motherfucker bit our style” and further “now you stuck with the truth till we dig up the bones/I feel pregnant birth to a musical clone.”

While Megadef marries a wide-array of genres (where else will you hear an emcee express his “infatuation with the Human League” as Ryu does on “Live Enough”) its not an LP that hinges strictly upon S.O.B.’s ability to bridge gaps. The playful lead-single, “Mr. Brown”, maybe a misfit, but its undeniably catchy and Cheapshot provides a more traditional backdrop for the bicoastal extravaganza “Playing With Fire” featuring Apathy & Celph Titled.  However, Cheapshot saves his most trill effort for “Live Enough” (think Beethoven meets Hendrix) where Ryu and Takbir’s chemistry reaches an apex on the LP’s magnum opus.

Though Megadef epitomizes the sound groups like Linkin Park can only strive to achieve,  those who subscribe to a set ideology of what Hiphop is “supposed” to sound like will undoubtedly snooze, as its one of those efforts that cannot be conveniently tagged or confined for mass consumption (unlike Linkin Park).  Yet, if you’re able to approach it with an open-mind you will discover what is soon to be one of 2003′s sleeper hits.  Just don’t ask if the samples are cleared!!

Tak: My background is with me and Cheapshot [Styles of Beyond DJ]. We did little talent shows, little demos. Around the first semester of college, I met Ryu…Another guy we knew introduced us and we ended up going to the parking lot and listened to some instrumentals. I heard Ryu bust and we just clicked.

Tak, what did you think when you heard Ryu?

Tak: I noticed right there and then, he wasn’t trying to put too much on it. He wasn’t trying to rap a certain way because he is white or something like that. It was natural, just raw.

Ryu, how about your impressions of Tak?

Ryu: When I heard Tak, I was like god damn. His rhyme patterns were so dope and the shit he was saying was so dope. It was straight off the top of his head…If I could have made my own partner on the computer, it would have been him. I think we were drawn together by uptempo music. It’s not so much you have to rhyme fast, you just got to be in the pocket with it. A lot of people, when you rhyme over fast beats, they think you gotta rhyme fast or double time slow. There’s a pocket for it. We hear it naturally when we hear fast beats, we know where the rhymes are supposed to fit in. I think me and him just got it like that when it comes to uptempo stuff.

How do you feel about being the only hip-hop act on your label?

Ryu: It’s good because they concentrate on us. We don’t get caught up in the mix of who’s hot at the time.

Tak: They’re not really trying to market us as an underground hip-hop group. They’re hitting us to completely new audiences that actually appreciate our music too.

Anybody gave you some props that surprised you?

Ryu: We would never think in a million years that the Dust Brothers would even hear our shit, let alone want to sign us to our label. That was a really big complement.

Describe your music.

Ryu: Our stuff is just hype. It’s not really old school or nothing, it’s just high energy music.

Who do you compare yourselves to?

Ryu: It’s hard to say because we’ve tried to pinpoint who were like and I cant come up with any answers. Were not like any other group. Were not super weird or anything, it’s just we don’t sound like anybody naturally.

When did rap music become your job?

Ryu: When we got our first record label check, that’s when I was like, “Damn, you can actually live on this shit.” You can make a good living putting out records.

What’s your take on guest appearances?

Ryu: I could say I want to do a song with Pharoahe Monch, but I don’t know Pharoahe Monch. We’d be in a room together twiddling our thumbs, trying to figure out what kind of song. I know how to interact with Tak, but I don’t know how Pharoahe Monch likes to do shit. It’s kind of uncomfortable.

Tak: People just pull names out and say, “do a song with this blah blah.” It has no impact just because of a name.

That’s one independent rule you’ve broken. On most of the cuts, you’re on your own.

Ryu: We don’t want to use anybody else’s name to get up any kind of credit. We want to do it all ourselves. We want to be known as Styles of Beyond first and foremost. It’s like me, Tak, Divine Styler, Bilal [Tak's brother, a one time member of it's Rhyme Syndicate], 007…

Tak: Our producer Vin Skully, DJ Cheapshot. Anything outside of that doesn’t exist. That’s it. That’s the circle we want to keep. That’s what made 2000 Fold.

What can we expect on your next album?

Tak: I think that [2000 Fold] came together well, but you know, that’s not it.

Ryu: Now weave got some money from the label, we built up a studio and everything sounds crackin’ now, sounds more professional. The album, whatever people think about it, is a really good stepping stone to the next album, That one, seriously, that is gonna be the shit. Were not gonna let that shit go until we think every single song is just ‘the shit.’