Posted by Jack in 2010 | 8 Comments
On Tap: MKE’s Best Mixtapes
In the massive and mysterious square mileage that is Milwaukee proper there is a hip-hop movement on par with any major musical movement in the past decade. For any excusably uneducated anybody there is hope in the form of the freshly-minted (yesterday) MKE’s Best mixtapes.
This championing effort can be seen as WMSE’s response to the Great Hip Hop Debate of 2010, who, after hearing the witless arguments on either side of the turntable spectrum, decided to team-up with The Mad Bloggers, and compile the pure evidence of Milwaukee’s thriving hip-hop scene.
The two mixtapes, Light or Draft, are replete with Radio Milwaukee radio play favorites, and anybody who downloaded the Yo MKE Raps! mixtape will be familiar with most of the 42 songs. The usual suspects (Prophetic, JC Poppe, Haz Solo, Kid Millions, House of M et al.), who compose Milwaukee’s dream team of young and expert lyricists, all make appearances on the mixtapes. Apart from the chorus of familiar voices you can expect the crisp production from Dylan Thomas, 88 Keys, Adlib, and the rest of the Cream City’s wizards-behind-the-curtain.
Some of the biggest surprises on the tapes are “Chasing Success,” by Misen Lync, which name-drops Prophetic way too much, but all over a slick beat that sounds like Timbaland in a rain stick, as well as Stream of Consciousness’, “It Will…” which is as transitory as advertised. As far as the best, previously-unknown, track on the two mixtapes, it has to be “Phone Sex,” for a whole host of smirk-inducing reasons it is the sleekest track and by far lightest cut on the Light mix.
WMSE and The Mad Bloggers have accomplished what the set out to do, which was to collect the micro-eskers and whorls of Milwaukee’s fingerprint. Even if the mixtapes weren’t especially deep or vast they serve as a needed introduction to Milwaukee’s booming hip-hop scene.
You can download the entire mixtapes for free HERE and HERE.
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We would actually prefer it not to be seen as “WMSE’s response to the Great Hip Hop Debate of 2010″, but rather another example of the station's ongoing commitment to exposing great local music. And most of the credit should go to the Mad Bloggers. They've been earnestly giving Mke Hip Hop a lot of props and did a great job of representing our city's hip hop scene.
Sorry about that, I hope our readers keep you comment in mind. P.S. We're distant relatives, your great grandfather is my great great uncle.
seriously?
no joke, every time I use my debit card in Bay View someone asks me if I'm related to you or your brother, so I called my dad and asked him if there were any other Schleicher families in Milwaukee, and apparently our two branches of the Schleicher tree came from the same farm or something like that.
We would actually prefer it not to be seen as “WMSE’s response to the Great Hip Hop Debate of 2010″, but rather another example of the station's ongoing commitment to exposing great local music. And most of the credit should go to the Mad Bloggers. They've been earnestly giving Mke Hip Hop a lot of props and did a great job of representing our city's hip hop scene.
Sorry about that, I hope our readers keep you comment in mind. P.S. We're distant relatives, your great grandfather is my great great uncle.
seriously?
no joke, every time I use my debit card in Bay View someone asks me if I'm related to you or your brother, so I called my dad and asked him if there were any other Schleicher families in Milwaukee, and apparently our two branches of the Schleicher tree came from the same farm or something like that.