Day: June 12, 2017

Stuck in the depths of a dark alley, blocked by yet another breeze, hitting a stone wall, road sign ahead: “Dead End”. Impasse. “Cul-de-sac”. Hip‐hop. The original, some would say, official music of the late 20th Century Bronx. Some say it has endured it’s fair share of distractions, detractors and defectors. Some say it has murdered itself, having been abandoned by its so‐called best men, those who have gone off in other directions, or who have, simply, just beat‐retired. Yet, there are plenty of Soldier Monks still out there, prepared to sweat it out in the Temple of Machinery and Mics. Low Cut honored this cause four years ago, with his MPC crafted minimalist version of NY Minute and he’s back to ring the bells and unsheathe the samples! The starting point of Dead End’s production remains the 90’s boom-bap, but the will to carry it even further brings it to its destination. By decorating it with rich samples flushed out after digging through vinyls pressed several decades ago, it is guided by a compass pointing deposits to the East. With sound quality inherited from a fastidious composition and mix works, using inspiration rather than just being a copycat, Dead End celebrates it without setting it up as a museum piece. Picturing the beatmaker stuck in the depths of a dark alley, ended with a brick wall, is easy. But far from isolated in his Parisian basement, Low Cut has rung phones in New York, Baltimore and Detroit, rounding up