The Solution

Meet Add-2, our featured out of town artist for The Solution Showcase #6 on Saturday, 5/26 at the Meadowlark…

.:Add-2 – Save Our Souls:.

.:Add-2 – Tale Of Two’s City Vol. 4: Better Days:.

.:Add-2 – Tale of Two’s City Vol.3: The Rise & Fall:

Above: Add-2 “Luxury”, as featured on MTV, VH1 & MTVU’s Top 5 Freshmen /// Below: Add-2 feat. Deejay Juice (produced by 9th Wonder) “Going, Going Gone”

Chicago’s Add-2 caught our attention a few years back with the song “Luxury” from his Okayplayer and 2Dopeboyz-backed mixtape, Tale of Two’s City Vol. 3: The Rise & Fall with a very dope, classic Chi-town inspired flow a la Lupe on “Go Go Gadget Flow” or Twista/Do Or Die/Crucial Conflict aka some great rapping with a rare flow.  That was just the tip of the iceberg though, we listened more and found out Add’s got a variety of top notch styles and great songs, racking up co-signs from a lot more than just us, with everyone from Common to Kendrick Lamar to the Roots to 9th Wonder (check out their collabs, “Going, Going Gone” and “Super-Genius”) praising his music.

.:Download Actual Proof – Super Genius ft. Cutlass Reid, Skewby, Naledge, Add-2, Kendrick Lamar, Brittany Street, The Kid Daytona & Laws (Prod. 9th Wonder):.

Above: Common calls Add-2 & Lupe his favorite new Chicago MCs + Add-2 “Ghetto Dreams Freestyle” /// Below:Add-2 rocks with the Roots at Highline Ballroom, NYC

Since then, Add-2’s released three more standout projects, Tale Of Two’s City Vol. 4: Better Days w/Okayplayer & 2Dopeboyz, Save Our Souls w/LRG and One Missed Call, establishing himself as one of the best new rappers in a city known for exceptional rappers.  With songs ranging from the controversial “Modern Day Coons” to straight up jams like “One Of Dem Girls” to potent lyrical exercises like “Bring Em Out”, his latest project, Save Our Souls, is one of our favorites to drop this year, and we think you’ll dig it as well.

Above: Add-2 “Dream Catcher” feat Nida Nasheeda /// Below:  Add-2 “Cotton Fields”

Catch Add-2 in his Denver debut at The Solution Showcase #6 on 5/26, along with BLKHRTS, Izaak Haze aka Mass Prod and Mo Heat of the Foodchain, DJ Low Key & more at the Meadowlark (2701 Larimer St).  Stay tuned to@DenverSolution for more info, a chance to win free tickets & more.  21+ /// $5 Pre-sales available at Family Affairdowntown (plus get 15% your entire purchase when you buy a Solution Showcase ticket) /// $8 at the door.

Above: Add-2 “Dream Girl” /// Below: Add-2 “Starter Jacket”

Meet BLKHRTS, our featured Denver group for The Solution Showcase #6 on Saturday, 5/26 at the Meadowlark…

.:BLKHRTS music on Bandcamp:.

.:King F.O.E. of BLKHRTS brand new project, J.U.N.K.I.E.:.

If you’re in Denver or you’ve been paying attention to the national blog scene over the last few years, you’re probably already up on Yonas, King F.O.E. & Karma aka BLKHRTS.  They’re one of the wildest hip hop groups I’ve ever seen, on some rock star rap shit, if that makes sense.  If you’re not up on F.O.E., Karma & Yonas, check out this great piece on them from one of my favorite music writers, Jeff Weiss of the LA Times/Pitchfork/Passion of the Weiss, written right before BLKHRTS played the infamous LA party, Low End Theory last year:

Denver’s BLKHRTS describe themselves as M.O.P. meets Morrissey. A strong claim, but the union of the Mash Out Posse and Mr. Meat Is Murder does make for something noteworthy. Imagine the gladioluses  that fans would drop at Morrissey’s feet, only now getting bashed by lead pipes of M.O.P. Picture a trio of vowel-averse velociraptors rapping as if the phrase “he who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain being a man” was tattoed on their foreheads.

Member King Foe described them as “a breath that you take the moment after the bungee cord is extended to its fullest extent jumping into the Grand Canyon.” The words and beats hit like shrapnel, with samples from “Eraserhead,” Matthew Dear and Joy Division’s first incarnation, Warsaw.

They merge the crowbar rap of Brownsville with a disjointed post-Def Jux aesthetic. Their voices sound as if they’ve been slit with scythes. Denver doesn’t have a subway, but somehow their songs rattle with the shuddering velocity of a train car going off the rails and killing dozens. It is rap as hard-core punk music that never forgets it’s hip-hop.

Topic include sex, drugs, money and death, nightmares, demons and hearts pumping like the fury of angry slaves. At a time when the rap world is monomaniacally fixated on the throne, BLKHRTS play like a poisonous agent assassinating the tired tropes of fancy watches, foreign cars and esoteric concerns. After all, their debut EP, this year’s “BLK S BTFL,” examines a subtext similar to that of Jay-Z and Kanye’s recent would-be opus: racial strife, temptation and gods and men. It’s rap by mad villains, rawer than the fish that richer rappers feast on. Underground not because of a willfully obtuse aesthetic, but for its sense of subversion.

.:More BLKHRTS press:.

BLKHRTS will be bungeeing minds in person at The Solution Showcase #6, along with Chicago’s Add-2, Izaak Haze aka Mass Prod & Mo Heat of the Foodchain in their live production debut, DJ Low Key & more on Saturday, 5/26 at the Meadowlark (2701 Larimer St).  Stay tuned to @DenverSolution for more info, a chance to win free tickets & more.  21+ /// $5 Pre-sales available at Family Affair downtown (plus get 15% your entire purchase when you buy a Solution Showcase ticket) /// $8 at the door.

Above: BLKHRTS “BLK S BTFL (Unofficial Video) /// Below: BLKHRTS “OVR” live at the BLK S BTFL Release Party

BLKHRTS Alt EPK

Meet Mass Prod & Mo Heat (from the Foodchain) aka Izaak Haze, our featured producers for The Solution Showcase #6 on Saturday, 5/26 at the Meadowlark……

Mass Prod & Mo Heat are the musical masterminds behind most of Denver heavyweights, the Foodchain’s, exceptional brand of CO hip hop.  Lately, they’ve been fine tuning a live production set and we’re lucky enough to have them debuting it at The Solution Showcase #6 on Saturday, 5/26!  Based on everything we’ve seen and heard from them so far, y’all are in for one hell of a treat!!!

Mass Prod and Mo Heat are best known for their in-house work with the Foodchain on top notch projects like Corpsesand Brunch, but have also worked with the likes of former Little Brother MC, Big Pooh, producing three tracks between them on his Dirty Pretty Things album last fall (more info here), as well as producing recent tracks like the Catch Lungs, Danny Brown & Donny Goines collab, “Gotta Kill This” and shopping some beats to Raekwon, check the video below:

Take a quick look at the videos in the post to get a glimpse of their ridiculous musical talents and don’t miss Mass Prod & Mo Heat, along with Chicago’s own Add-2, BLKHRTS, DJ Low Key & more for The Solution Showcase #6 at the Meadowlark (2701 Larimer St) on Saturday, 5/26.  Stay tuned to @DenverSolution for more info, a chance to win free tickets & more.  21+ /// $5 Pre-sales available at Family Affair downtown (plus get 15% your entire purchase when you buy a Solution Showcase ticket) /// $8 at the door.

Above: Mass Prod in a Brunch teaser clip. /// Below: 3 part video series of Mass Prod, Mo Heat & DJ Louiscide in the studio.

Check out more videos from Mass Prod, Mo Heat and the Foodchain on the Foodchain Youtube Channel.

Saturday, 5/26 -> The Solution Showcase #6 w/Add-2, BLKHRTS, Izaak Haze (Mass Prod & Mo Heat of the Foodchain), DJ Low Key & more at the Meadowlark…

SATURDAY, 5/26 -> May’s Solution Showcase is a beast!!!  We’ve got one of Common & 9th Wonder’s new favorites, Chicago’s own Add-2, CO’s wildest group, BLKHRTS, the live production debut (!!!!!) from Izaak Haze aka Mass Prodand Mo Heat from the Foodchain, The Solution’s own DJ Low Key and more for The Solution Showcase #6 at the Meadowlark (2701 Larimer).  Don’t sweat it if you’re not familiar with someone on the bill, just trust that your favorite DJs aren’t gonna steer you wrong (a big part of The Solution Showcase is about discovering dope new music, you’ll dig it, trust). So stay tuned to DenverSolution.com to learn more about the performers and hopefully we’ll see you at the party! 21+ /// $5 Pre-sales available at Family Affair downtown & get you 15% off your entire purchase /// $8 at the door /// Doors at 9.

The Solution Beat Battle and DJ Low Key on Boonie Mayfield’s Boon Documented series…

We were excited to see that our friend and insanely talented producer Boonie Mayfield featured lots of footage from the Solution Beat Battle, some bits with Solution co-founder DJ Low Key and a studio session with Che Grand (our guest for The Soluton Showcase #4, song coming late Summer/early Fall) on his latest episode of Boon Documented (Do It Live:Episode 3).