Philaflava.com ::

1. Beneath The Surface (Orion South & Phoenix Orion)
2. When The Sun Took A Day Off (Aceyalone , P.E.A.C.E., Self Jupiter)
3. Who's Keeping Time (Blackbyrd, Raaka Iriscience, St. Mark 9:23. Xololanxinxo)
4. Hazardous Curves (Sesquipedalien)
5. Night And Day (Circus & Of Mexican Descent)
6. Sunny Side Up (DK Toon & Ellay Khule)
7. Line Posting In 'Pedro (J-Smoove & St. Mark 9:23)
8. Farmers Market Of The Beast (All Deadly Jizzm, Awol One, Radioinactive, Xololanxinxo)
9. BustMustJustUs (2Mex, Ellay Khule, Wreccless)
10. Subterannean Service (Adlib, Okito, Zagu Brown)
11. For Her Souly, Slowly, Solely (H.I.M.N.L.)
12. Surveillance (Faymus, Khynky Rhead, Otherwize)
13. (In)sense (Puzoozoo Watt, Slant, Vixxen)
14. What Up - (CVE, 2Mex, P.E.A.C.E., Sesquipedalien, Longevity)

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There is not a lot of information online about Beneath The Surface, a Project Blowed compilation from producer Omid Walizadeh aka OD. I suppose followers of the Goodlife Graduates roster in 1998 were too busy drooling over Aceyalone's A Book of Human Language, released the same year. But I thought by now, over a decade later, that more heads would have recognized the greatness of BTS. It is, in my assessment, the second best effort to ever come out the Blowed camp, behind only the classic ABOHL.

The cool thing about this compilation album is it sort of bridged the more established emcees associated with Freestyle Fellowship and CVE (Aceyalone, Self Jupiter, NgaFish, Riddlore?, Ellay Khule) with some of the newer, lesser-known and more out-there associates (Awol One, Circus, Xololanxinxo, Sesquepedalien).

This ensemble cast performs some of their best work of their respective careers on this album, but the true star of BTS is the unfuckwithable production. Most notable is the Middle-Eastern influence (Omid is Iranian-American) in the samples, drum patterns and overall atmosphere of the entire record.

Check out Hazardous Curves featuring Sesquipidalien:

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Dude flipped the sitar way before Timbaland, and did it better--with flutes and drums that give the record a true indigenous flavor. Sesquipedalien has a strange lyricism hearkening to the beginnings of the Anticon and Shapeshifter sound. It's kind of weird, but it works. Where is this dude now? No idea. But Omid's talent is not just in making dope beats or selecting dope rappers to work with, but in creating an environment that reinforces the talent of the lyricists and encourages originality and creative song structures.

Check out Sunny Side Up featuring Ellay Khule and dk Toon:

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Anyone familiar with the work of Ellay Khule aka Rifleman knows he spits with a lot of energy and virtuosic style, sometimes to the point of being aurally invasive like dude, slow down. Omid tempers the Rifleman's rapid fire fury with a smooth pallet of vibes, creating an eerie dichotomy that perfectly compliments the chorus. dk Toon shows his capabilities with a signature sing-song style.

Check out Farmer's Market of the Beast featuring Jizzm, Awol One, Circus, Xololanxinxo and Radioinactive:

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I know, it sounds like a stupid idea at first: "Hey let's all pretend we're different animals and rap our verses accordingly!" But the final product is stellar. Actually, Omid sort of takes a break on this one, still producing an incredibly unique, flute-and-bassline track. But for the most part, he just lets that shit play for 9 minutes and has these five emcees take the initial idea and run with it. This song embodies the unpredictable genius that can occur when talented lyricists with freestyle ability are unleashed. It's hard to put into words how strange and hilarious this brand of stream-of-consciousness rap can get, so just listen to it. Take note of rapper Circus (of the Shapeshifters crew), who finishes off with a primate-based rant that takes up half the damn song. The shit is either brilliantly retarded or retardedly brilliant, but either way you should definitely give it a listen, as Circus did not put out anything remotely listenable before or since.

Check out What Up featuring Nga Fish, Riddlore?, 2mex, PEACE, Sesq-whatever, and Longevity:

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No Beneath The Surface retrospective could be complete without mentioning What Up, appropriately slated at album's end as its brick-to-your-face climax. On a compilation featuring chiefly abstract poeticism and esoteric New World Order themes, What Up is straight up high energy shit-talking and muscle-flexing. Unlike Sunny Side Up, the production on this one actually magnifies the raw energy of the six emcees with hard ass drums and an infectious bass line that is all over the place. Rumor is this was one of the first songs recorded for the comp. Omid walked into a room where these six guys were, knocked out a quick beat, and then these guys freestyled. That shit is scary.

Check out Beneath the Surface featuring Alien Nation: it's got a tight beat and two guys rhyming about pyramids, UFOs and shit. It's tight.

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djjeffresh wrote: It is, in my assessment, the second best effort to ever come out the Blowed camp, behind only the classic ABOHL.

its your opinion and all but, nah man not even close on either points.

christian from austin wrote:

djjeffresh wrote: It is, in my assessment, the second best effort to ever come out the Blowed camp, behind only the classic ABOHL.

its your opinion and all but, nah man not even close on either points.

Word, I havent heard this but I'll check it out.

While A Book of Human Language is really dope, All Balls Dont Bounce is easily my favorite album of Acey. Mikah 9's first album and the original Project Blowed CD's still get rotation from me too.

I can't imagine this album being better than any of those. Acey only on one track and no Mikah?!?!? Still should be dope though, so props.

i dunno... nobody's soulmates is pretty damn good and has been criminally slept on.

Amazing that you didn't link tracks 2 & 3, which are far and away the best.

Thun wrote:Amazing that you didn't link tracks 2 & 3, which are far and away the best.

yup. those are good, too. ill up them after work. perhaps you'd say a few words about why they stand out for you. id like to hear your thoughts.

djjeffresh wrote: No Beneath The Surface retrospective could be complete without mentioning What Up, appropriately slated at album's end as its brick-to-your-face climax.

Ironically I think on some of the releases this song isn't even on there. That and a couple of the other songs are dropped in favor of GPAC "To the Turn of the Earth", peace "You are in my clutches" and awol one "little piece of heaven." Those 3 are also fantastic. I'm not sure if any of the vinyl releases had all the tracks.

But yeah I agree although I would pick some different ones as my favorites. Don't really care for Hazardous Curves that much. I am curious about sesquipedalien, I've only heard him on 1 or 2 other songs / freestyles, who was this guy?

Anyway I agree no one should sleep on this album, it's one of my all time favorites, just beautiful production and many of my favorite emcee's. Omid has a nice catalog, Monolith was a good producer album too although not at the level of beneath the surface. Omid's a really cool guy too btw.

can we get a freestyle fellowship/project blowed thread? whats that album youre talkin about godmc?

it's a downtemp/instrumental album with one vocal cut on each of the four sides. it's ill.

I have "Soulmates", but I never got around to exploring it in-depth. I'm gonna have to do that in the near future.

His "Earthtones" EP from '99 is dope. My favorite track from the EP:

Aceyalone - Faces Of The Deep
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http://www.divshare.com/download/6866021-0d3

Also, here is Omid's "Beneath The Surface" Instrumental LP:

http://rapidshare.com/files/195157656/o ... -_2002.rar

Jacked from secretcloud.com/motherboard

bignormy wrote:Ironically I think on some of the releases this song isn't even on there. That and a couple of the other songs are dropped in favor of GPAC "To the Turn of the Earth", peace "You are in my clutches" and awol one "little piece of heaven." Those 3 are also fantastic. I'm not sure if any of the vinyl releases had all the tracks.

I have the triple vinyl that says Full Length Release + 2 bonus cuts and it is missing a couple songs from the CD version. I remember there being two CD versions, one with a red CD, one with blue, but i dont ever recall hearing that GPAC song. so...

How's Ellay Khule's newest album 'Califormula'? I guess it's produced by Omid and Nobody.

djjeffresh wrote:

Thun wrote:Amazing that you didn't link tracks 2 & 3, which are far and away the best.

yup. those are good, too. ill up them after work. perhaps you'd say a few words about why they stand out for you. id like to hear your thoughts.

Check out When The Sun Took The Day Off And The Earth Stood Still featuring Aceyalone and Self Jupiter:

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Check Out Who's Keeping Time? featuring Xololanxinxo, Blackbyrd, Rakaa-Iriscience and St Mark 9:23.

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Cleanhobo wrote:How's Ellay Khule's newest album 'Califormula'? I guess it's produced by Omid and Nobody.

I really liked it. Don't think it's his most recent though. Really good while maybe not quite spectacular IMO.

Cleanhobo wrote:How's Ellay Khule's newest album 'Califormula'? I guess it's produced by Omid and Nobody.

I thought it was okay. http://rapidshare.com/files/152607655/E ... _2005_.rar

why dont yall up some more of these albums. would also be cool if u could throw some of these rarities in a file and up em together so that i dont gotta do it one at a time. anything by em from the 90s is dope.

who got the CVE album?

peace for the ups so far though.

solid joint off soulmates:

01 Shades of Orange _Featuring 2mex_.mp3 - 10.20MB

godmc wrote:solid joint off soulmates:

01 Shades of Orange _Featuring 2mex_.mp3 - 10.20MB

I'm not a 2Mex fan, but this track is great. The beat is tremendous.

yeah, his flow and voice are an acquired taste. nobody kills the whole lp though.

godmc wrote:yeah, his flow and voice are an acquired taste. nobody kills the whole lp though.

Kevin Beacham used to play these two on the Time Travel show right around '01, plus some Visionaries posse track that had a pretty dope 2Mex verse.

Worship The Music, Not The Man
Shades Of Orange

On the strength of those tracks, I sought out all 2Mex related releases, but ultimately, I wasn't really feeling any of it. I love his flow and voice, but his lyrics are just too fucking odd for my taste. I don't know, I can't really put my finger on it. I want to like him, though.

check out a song from lodge infinite called seconds ago. beat and flow are dope.

oh, check out lightpost 2 lightpost as well. might as well peep no category as well. they're my favorite joints off that album.

Thanks for the suggestions. That album is from late 2003, huh? My cut-off point for all things rap-related is right around the turn of the century, but I'll check it out. I must warn you that I hate 99.9% of post-2000 rap, though. I strike out every fucking time.

I'll have to revisit his stuff from the late 90s at some point as well.

How does the instrumental version of BtS not have the Surveillance beat??? Blast!

Yakub Shabazz wrote:How does the instrumental version of BtS not have the Surveillance beat??? Blast!

Huh, that's strange.

Surveillance (Instrumental)
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http://www.divshare.com/download/7441760-86f

Beneath The Surface Instrumentals
A1 Beneath The Surface (4:25)
A2 When The Sun Took A Day Off (5:03)
A3 Hazardous Curves (4:00)
B1 Who's Keeping Time (5:10)
B2 Farmer's Market Of The Beast (9:16)
C1 Sunny Side Up (3:08)
C2 BustMustJustUs (3:27)
C3 Surveillance (4:30)
C4 Night And Day (3:38)
D1 For Her Souly, Slowly, Solely (6:16)
D2 (In)Sense (3:15)
D3 Little Piece Of Heaven (5:09)

If there's anything else missing, let me know.

Roy Johnson wrote:Also, here is Omid's "Beneath The Surface" Instrumental LP:

http://rapidshare.com/files/195157656/o ... -_2002.rar

Jacked from secretcloud.com/motherboard

NICE!! I was just thinking it be nice to get the instrumentals.

JustDuWitt wrote: who got the CVE album?

Which one?

Never been much of a Projet Blowed fan. It's borderline Nerd Rap in my opinion and fits in with all that Atmosqueer and Sage Francis garbage. Aceyalone is cool, but I really don't own all that much of his material.