Brave New Rap the long awaited collaboration album between Chicago Heavyweights Verbal Kent and Kaz One (who has previously worked with Sean Price, Sadat X, ED O. G and RA Da Rugged Man) is set to be released April 1st, 2009 on Gravel Records.
Verbal Kent has released three albums previously, What Box, Move With The Walls & Fist Shaking and been featured in XXL and Urb Magazines. Verbal has also collaborated with such artists as Ill Bill, Marco Polo, Wordsworth, One Be Lo, Oddisee, Pacewon and he’s also toured nationally with Sadat X, ED O.G, and Count Bass D.
Brave New Rap features production entirely from Kaz One, with guest appearances by La Coka Nostra Leader Ill Bill, EMC’s Wordsworth, Braille, and Coldhard of the legendary Crucial Conflict. Track after track, Verbal and Kaz team up on what many hip-hop connoisseurs are terming to be "the return of real tag-team rap". The chemistry boils as the album blasts off with “Dedicated” and never cools off. The old-fashioned boom-bap of “Wars R Us” and “Remove The Gag” follow, reminding fans of what happens when people who know each other well make music together (e.g. Wu-Tang, EPMD). Tracks such as “Questions” and “Suck A Grenade” ponder what Hip-Hop would be like if skills were the only thing that were relevant and later, Verbal examines the American way and challenges its course with “Identity Theft” and the epic “Power II.”
As Verbal Kent laments Brave New Rap is the culmination of a musical relationship that was fostered over nearly a decade “Me and Kaz met at a emcee battle at a club in Chicago in 2001. This album is the culmination of 8 years of getting to know each other musically. He has produced over half my music, but never a whole record; that's why this release means the most to me. We started off recording songs in a one bedroom apartment in Dekalb, IL. I would take the trip down from the city to build with him a few days a week and after recording a few songs together, we knew we had something good going. A year or so later, Kaz moved to Chicago above a coffee house a friend of mine owned and we just continued to bang out tracks. Kaz produced more then half of my first LP (What Box) and has also produced multiple racks on every record I have ever released and people have always told me I come across best over his beats…I think now I finally agree. Building with just one producer on a record is almost like having this pre-arranged musical outline that you get to weave in and out of when writing a song. It alleviates the pressure and replaces it with urgency. This album has easily been my favorite to work on and I think it shows thru the songs. You want to like a record for a few weeks then buy some other album. Cop this one and your going to memorize every track. That’s what I used to love about a great Hip-Hop album. I’m trying to bring that feeling back.”
Brave New Rap is exactly what the rap game needs---proving to the world that Hip-Hop is alive; and more then well.
Tracklisting and credits for Verbal Kent & Kaz One’s “Brave New Rap”:
1.) How We Figured It Out (Introduction)
2.) Dedicated
3.) Wars R Us
4.) Remove The Gag f/ Ill Bill & Wordsworth
5.) Questions
6.) Snake F*ckers & Androids f/ Soweto Kinch, Sunny Jim, Altruisms, Roadblok and Doomsday
7.) Friends (Interlude 1)
8.) Suck A Grenade
9.) Fast Rapping Time
10.) Identity Theft
11.) Verbal Assault f/ Cold Hard Of Crucial Conflict
12.) Silly Rapper, Vomiting Is For Kids (Interlude 2)
13.) Big Bang
14.) Fast Forward
15.) Faith f/ Braille
16.) Power Pt. II
(All tracks produced by Kaz One)
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