The Rap Music Plug Podcast

Music and art in general is special because it can’t be quantified, calculated, explained, or re-created through algorithms. Surely, through the rise of AI you can create technically accurate facsimiles of music. But that special IT factor that turns music from simply aesthetically pleasing to special, cannot be replicated by robots, and is often impossible to put into words. With today’s guest th...

Likely due to my incessant thirst for control and structure, whenever I take in a piece of art and consider how the creator approached the making of this thing I find so great, my mind immediately assumes that there was this rigid, almost scientific forethought put into every detail. And while some artists work with more of a structure than others… as you will learn in this free-wheeling conversat...

The Plug (0:58). The Interview (2:36). As purely a consumer of music, one of the most rewarding and genuinely valuable things to me is to be able articulate why a particular piece of art resonated with me. It’s a big reason why I started this podcast. Even without being a creator of the music myself, I think there’s a lot of insight and provocative thought that someone like me can provide, that ca...

The Plug (0:21). The Interview (2:37). In a VERY special bonus episode of the RMPP, I joined the latest installment of Freemusicempire's State of the Game series to discuss all things Mach and #RAH with the FME boys, Kam of Crate 808... AND AUGUST FREAKING FANON!!! Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING Join the Freemusicempire here: https://freemusicempire.com/%C2%A0  ...

The Plug (0:57). The Interview (3:12). 'Black sheep' is an idiom used to describe a member of a group who doesn’t fit in with the rest. Now while this is often used with a negative connotation, I feel there’s a flipside to this concept that can be a positive. Where not exactly fitting into any one group can allow you to pull from many different influences, and combine that all together into someth...

The Plug (0:56). The Interview (2:40). Making a name for yourself as an artist with a unique perspective, and a unique sound is impressive in its own right. But doing so outside of a major hub for hip-hop, Edmonton, a city in Western Canada, is an even more impressive achievement. This is what today's guest, Cadence Weapon has done. Cadence Weapon is here to discuss the making of his new album, RO...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:57). The Interview (2:30). Throughout my experience listening to music, one of the most important life lessons I’ve learnt is that of patience. I’ve had too many instances of an album initially not grabbing me, but then as I continued to revisit it and give it an open and curious mind… I fell in love with it months, and...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:43). The Interview (1:49). As a longstanding champion of the music from today’s guest, it’s been such a rewarding experience to witness the growth and incredible artistic vision found on Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace, a new collaborative album by Real Bad Man and Lukah. This highly conceptual record left a huge...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:40). The Interview (2:08). An iconic rap album is more than just beats and rhymes. It’s the interludes, the cover artwork that set the foundation for the image we as listeners associate with the music. All of those elements combined, when done exceptionally well, are the ingredients to leaving a true lasting impact on th...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:49). The Interview (3:31). Nourished by Time is an artist who is on pace to becoming one of my favourites… of all time. After dropping Erotic Probiotic 2, an album that made my top 5 of 2023, Nourished by Time’s stock has risen tremendously. And not just in my personal musical world. On the heels of recently signing to X...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:55). The Interview (2:26). These days, homebase for me musically is calming, grounded music that allows me to weather some of life’s recent storms in my personal life. And so the music of sleepingdogs, the duo comprised of andrew and jesse the tree, has been some of my most played as of late. The way they capture the blu...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:39). The Interview (2:07). Throughout my life, music has consistently been a vital channel for me to process emotions and make sense of the world. Very few artists have allowed me to explore the darkness and melancholy swirling around in my head quite like Sadistik. Since the moment I first heard Sadistik’s music over a...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:46). The Interview (2:46). Few things have been more important to me in my life than hip-hop music. Growing up, I lacked identity and a sense of community. So as I continued to listen to more and more hip-hop music in my teens and early 20s, it quickly became a key vessel for me to learn about the world and connect with...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21) For me, 2023 was the year of “oh wow, thank you”. This was a refrain I found myself more or less saying, time and time again. It signified a genuine gratitude for whatever nice thing some other person said to me, virtually, or IRL… but also signified that I was genuinely taken aback by the love, and that it has been...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:48). The Interview (1:53). The living embodiment of all that is great about Detroit hip-hop - distinct sound and originality in spades - represents Bruiser Wolf to a tee. Bruiser Wolf is part of the Danny Brown-led collective, Bruiser Brigade, home of some of the most forward-thinking hip-hop coming out of Detroit. Wolf...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:51). The Interview (2:08). As soon as you here the iconic, “HEY TONY” tag, you know you’re about to hear an absolutely banging beat. With me today is Tony Seltzer, a Brooklyn-based producer who’s known for his catchy ear-grabbing beats that feature hard drums and booming bass. Tony’s catalog casts a wide net, having work...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:44). The Interview (2:28). I love rap because not every collab needs to “make sense” on first glance. As long as the artists in question are on the same page artistically, know their strengths, and are willing to take risks and compromise when needed, the results can be great. This is precisely what we get with today’s g...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:44). The Interview (2:08). On this show, I know I’ve used terms like "unique", or "one-of-a-kind" quite a bit to describe the artists I’ve had on this show. But I promise you, today’s guests truly embody these terms to the fullest degree. maassai and JWords, otherwise known as H31R, are a duo hailing from Brooklyn who sp...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21). The Interview (1:57). So I’m kind of annoying when it comes to certain things with music. Albums where the last verse isn’t from the main artist? It just doesn’t feel right. Remixes? I’m oddly wed to the original. And finally, producer albums with a bunch of different rappers on it are another type of record, where...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21). The Interview (1:49). To me, one of the things that impresses me the most about music is its ability to make me care about life experiences, perspectives, and topics that I either don’t know anything about, or have no relation to my current day-to-day life. Today’s guest, rapper-producer Pink Navel from Massachusett...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21). The Interview (1:48). The ability to be authentically yourself is a superpower. It makes people feel more comfortable around you, and gravitate towards you because there is a certain solidness or realness about you that people can latch on to. This is a concept that 100% applies to music, and in particular rap, whic...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21). The Interview (1:46). For those who heard the last bonus episode I released, or follow me on Twitter, it should come to you as no surprise that I absolutely adore Leather Blvd., an album created by Pink Siifu and Ahwlee, as B. Cool-Aid. This was a record that did so much good to my spirit, helping me get through som...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21). The Interview (2:05). As a 28 year-old hip-hop head, I’d like to say that I’m still somewhat young. So given this youth of mine, I haven’t been able to witness many of the greatest movements or waves in hip-hop history firsthand. I wasn’t even alive when Wu first jumped onto the scene. I could barely form sentences...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING The Plug (0:21). Main Body of Discussion (2:06). The ability to have tough conversations about complex topics is an art. It requires not only a great deal of nuanced knowledge on a topic to speak thoughtfully on it, but it also requires a great deal of self-awareness and empathy. On The Golem of Brooklyn OST, Defcee successfully has...

Video animation by: Big Flowers Intro/Outro beat by: BLOODBLIXING Beginning of Episode (1:05). This edition of the Conversation Pieces series is the most ambitious and personal thing I've ever done. It almost felt a bit too close to home to put out publicly, but honestly... creating this was truly a prime example of that 'writing = therapy' trope. Leather Blvd. is an album that soundtracked the ha...