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Life has a funny way of offering us false starts. It seemed like as soon as 2009 got under way, Seattle hip-hop was moving in the wrong direction. A fatal shooting inside of Chop Suey on January 4th left rapper 29E dead from gunshot wounds and two others wounded. Not exactly a great way to start the year.Just a week later, three members from local rap group Mad Rad got arrested outside of Neumos causing a larger-than-necessary hullabaloo.
Only two weeks into the year, the hip-hop headlines were negative. But once all of the nonsense simmered down, the music itself heated up in a major way. Even local rock’n'roll vets will tell you that 2009 has been a year where hip-hop was king in Seattle. That’s not to slight other genres, but it is what it is. Consider what follows as an homage to the best local hip-hop releases of the year.
They Live! Gatsby (Larry Mizell Jr.) and Bruce Illest
It is undeniable that the best moment of They Live!’s first single, “Weed Murder,” released in the earlier part of 2009, comes when lyricist Bruce Illest rapped: “I be smoking that Whitney, so come and get with me,” a line that references Whitney Houston’s former love of smoking the good shit…whatever you perceive the good shit to be.
Not surprisingly, the boys were smart enough to turn that funny hook into their next single, simply titled, “Whitney.”
Although they’ve released about four singles this year, including an EP, in my opinion, “Whitney” is the best song in their catalog. And it’s also got the most bounce.
