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It's easy to see why Milwaukee rapper Taiyamo Denku's latest album Articles of Mind didn't receive much local attention when he released it this January. In a hip-hop scene that's increasingly collaborative, Denku is a bit of an island. That's not to say he's a complete loner, though. The album features guest spots from Keith Murray, Carnage and Organized Konfusion's Prince Po, and he's currently cooking up a track with Main Flow and Mos Def producer Ayatollah. Those collaborators affirm an allegiance to '90s hip-hop that should place Denku right at home in Milwaukee's heyday-minded rap scene, but more than most of his neighbors, Denku stalks the darker corners of '90s rap, holding particular allegiance to the uneasy, highly conceptual (and often highly claustrophobic) early records by Def Jux artists like Aesop Rock and El-P.
"When I do concept tracks, I really go deep, telling abstract stories," Denku says. "Sometimes crowds don't really know what to make of them, because it gets pretty laid back, and that's not really what anybody else does around here, so I also do some of the more typical, pro-hip-hop anthem stuff, and freestyles, which go over better. I do my own version of Supernatural’sthree words, where he freestyles about three words the audience suggests, or I do the objects, where I tell people to pick outan object from their pockets and I go around and rap about what they have. At my last show I had somebody pull out a copy of the Shepherd, and I picked out words to rap about as they turned the pages, so I do a lot of stuff like that."
Since releasing Articles of Mind last winter, Denku has been performing more local shows, which has opened him up to more Milwaukee collaborations.
"I'm starting to meet a lot of people around here, and recently I’ve been doing stuffwith some local people," he says. "Mad Static is one of them, and me and SpeakEASY were talking about doing asong together, too, and the same with Echo, who used to be in the House of M. I've been rapping seriously since probably about 2000, but I used to mostly do shows in Chicago and Louisville, where I had a connection. I'm starting to get more comfortable around here now, though."
In January Denku posted the free mixtape Articles of Mind: Lost Thoughts to his Bandcamp page for free streaming and download. Two tracks are embedded below.
"When I do concept tracks, I really go deep, telling abstract stories," Denku says. "Sometimes crowds don't really know what to make of them, because it gets pretty laid back, and that's not really what anybody else does around here, so I also do some of the more typical, pro-hip-hop anthem stuff, and freestyles, which go over better. I do my own version of Supernatural’sthree words, where he freestyles about three words the audience suggests, or I do the objects, where I tell people to pick outan object from their pockets and I go around and rap about what they have. At my last show I had somebody pull out a copy of the Shepherd, and I picked out words to rap about as they turned the pages, so I do a lot of stuff like that."
Since releasing Articles of Mind last winter, Denku has been performing more local shows, which has opened him up to more Milwaukee collaborations.
"I'm starting to meet a lot of people around here, and recently I’ve been doing stuffwith some local people," he says. "Mad Static is one of them, and me and SpeakEASY were talking about doing asong together, too, and the same with Echo, who used to be in the House of M. I've been rapping seriously since probably about 2000, but I used to mostly do shows in Chicago and Louisville, where I had a connection. I'm starting to get more comfortable around here now, though."
In January Denku posted the free mixtape Articles of Mind: Lost Thoughts to his Bandcamp page for free streaming and download. Two tracks are embedded below.
