Nashville Music Blog

As my man Coolout says, "Don't call it Cashville cuz we're br-br-broke still!" Even though I did finally receive my "underemployment" check after seven weeks of dealing with the rather slipshod Web-based services of our state bureaucracy, I still can't afford to buy music the way I used to. I've been scouring the interwebs looking for some quality jams that I can cop for free while still respecting the intellectual property rights of others. No matter how broke I am, I still feel guilty for stealing music--Lapsed Catholic guilt is a bitch.

You can imagine my delight when local promoter Tyzayah Gold-Kiser hit me up with a message about his latest event, Black Market at the Exit/In on July 17, and its accompanying mixtape. See, Tyzayah, unlike some folks in town, has realized that if you want people to come to a show featuring out-of-town acts that nobody has heard, you've got to get those acts heard. The easy solution? Set up a specific website for the show and curate a collection of the aforementioned artists' most compelling tracks so lazy folks like me can actually concentrate on the music rather than spending an hour trying to find that shit on MySpace. It's really kind of genius, which is why we gave him a "Best of Nashville" award last year, I guess.

The Black Market mixtape is a slick little snippet tape of progressive electro-influenced hip-hop that clocks in at 15 tracks in 25 minutes and sounds like the cyborg offspring of Roger Troutman and Mantronix. The tape and the show are heavy with heat from the Norfolk/Virgina Beach scene, including one of my favorite underground rappers, Ced Hughes, and his boys Max Mega and Battle. It also includes two of the top local summer jams, "Product of the Game" by Future a.k.a. Future Unknown a.k.a. the MC from Biscuits N Gravy and N.O.B.O.T.S.' "Flight of the Navigator." If you like squiggly synths, full-tilt party rhymes and not paying for shit, then you're gonna dig this tape.

Black Market happens July 17 at the Exit/In. You can scope the whole lineup and download the mixtape here.