Karniege

There hasn’t been an album like "From the Left" released from the New York Underground in quite some time. This is some heavy B-Boy music. The combination of Karniege’s gruff hard-delivered rhymes and Nasa’s heavy progressive beats is something that has been brewing for a minute. They met back in 2002 and quickly had a hit single for Definitive Jux called “Make News” which also appeared on the “Definitive Jux Vol. 3” compilation. Since that point they’ve both grown into their own strong entities individually. Karniege has been on tracks with emcees as varied as Aesop Rock and El-P to Sean Price and Immortal Technique. He’s also worked with big name producers like Da Beatminerz, J-Zone and Ayatollah. His music has shown up on MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” and NBC’s “Law & Order” just to name a few. This is all in addition to the multiple mix cds and the collabs with Vast Aire that he’s known for. Meanwhile, Nasa started his own record label, Uncommon Records which has now been going 4 years strong and has been part of the power behind the re-emerging Progressive Hip-Hop scene in New York. He’s produced and released tracks for emcees like Vyle, K-the-I???, Super Chron Flight Brothers, Masai Bey and BMS, all the while growing his own group The Presence and throwing shows like this past years’ “Yule Prog” festival. With all their combined experience it was a perfect fit for them to regroup in 2008 to put this collaborative project out on Nasa’s Uncommon Records. Nasa’s beats act as a stick being used to coax out a hungry lion, Karniege being one of the hungriest emcees in the underground today, and he proves it over this production. He’s not alone either, Marq Spekt & Access Immortal make appearances on the album’s follow up single “Busy Boys”, Metro jumps in on “The Truth” and longtime collaborator Nathaniel Roberts lays down some heartfelt rhymes on “Random Denial”. Uncommon’s own Shortrock destroys the turntables on 4 tracks and a remix of the lead single “People’s Anthem” by Dig Dug is also included. This album goes from a steady head nod to a jump up and down and back in the blink of an eye, capturing the still beating heart of the Big Apple from two vets that keep up the fight in the city’s trenches. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.