Hip-hop blogger and Sirius radio host Mz Stylez is a toughcritic, as Milwaukee rapper Adebisi learned last year when he submitted one of histracks to her for review. In a vicious, four-minute YouTube video rant, Stylez trashed the song and Adebisi, at one point feigning tears as she blamed him for essentially killinghip-hop.
She may be over dramatic, but you can't accuse of her of being close minded, though. Stylez had a change of heart about the rapper after hearing his mixtape Victory: The Hunger for War last year, then sought him out to work on a project together. Adebisi already had a project in mind.
"A local producer called No Gimmicks had just given me all these '80s instrumentals, so I was like, 'fuck it, let's do a mixtape with all '80s samples called 80's Babies,'" Adebisi recalls. Recorded at producer Reason's 4AR studios and featuring drops from Mz Stylez and DJ Green Lantern, the mixtape is an album-length celebration of breakdancing, box fades, jeri curls, "21 Jump Street" and the Fresh Prince, built from re-purposed classic breaks, scratches and horn blasts.
"I was born in '81, right around the time hip-hop was really coming into its own, so the album captures my early experiences with music," Adebisi says. "My older cousin was a DJ, so hip-hop music was always a big part of my life from '81 to '89, and I wanted to pay homage to that era, because it's part of my essence."
In an example of grassroots marketing at the most micro of levels, the mixtape, which is available for free download here, was released on Feb. 15"because it was my birthday," Adebisi explains, "and I knew naturally everybody would be hitting it up on my Facebook page, so this was like a gift I gave out."
It should be the first of several releases Adesisi puts out this year. His live band, Fresh Cut Collective, is planning on finishing an album this spring, and Adebisi is looking to release a solo album before the end of summer. He'll play a CD release show for 80's Babies on Friday, April 30 at the Stonefly Brewery, donating a portion of the proceeds from that show to the South Division High School music program.
