[Nathan] Corbin’s production stays free of pre-conceived ideas of what modern rap music is and also avoids the trappings of what could have been nothing more than old-school revivalism. Instead he approaches it on his own, indie/noise, terms and this, sometimes abrasive, production leads to something utterly unique. [In a] WNYC interview, the girls admit that at first they didn’t know what to think of some of the sounds their collaborator made for them. It’s certainly hard to imagine them or any of their peers quite knowing what to do at a Z’s or Excepter show. Likewise, it’s hard to imagine most of Z’s and Excepter’s peers knowing quite how to move beyond their familiar and comfortable loft party affectations. Representing NYC is a mutual push into unexpected territories. It’s a gentle shoving in hopes of engendering even more ambitious experiments somewhere down the road from Brownsville.
Fly Girlz (listen) is a hip-hop group whose members are all 12-to-14-year-old girls. So, yes, there's some inherent gimmickry, as there is bound to be whenever you have adolescents performing just about anything. But man, the group's CD, which is being released by local experimental label Sockets, is pretty fresh. That's probably how the girls -- Tamera, Tyshana, Vernice, Sharmaine, Ameena and Ashli, all students at PS 284 in Brooklyn -- would describe it, at least. For kids who weren't alive during hip-hop's golden era, they sure are influenced by it. The beats are mostly simple, sometimes spacey, no doubt thanks to the production work of Nathan Corbin from Brooklyn improv-noise collective Excepter. Things just keep getting weirder, right? But it's the girls' rhymes that keep things grounded. They rap about the topics you'd expect -- boys, Brooklyn, low-rise pants -- and if the circumstances surrounding the recording make you skeptical, at least the girls are sincere with their rhymes. They probably don't think that it's "hip" and "neat" that their record producer's part of the Representing NYC project, which pairs native Brooklyn kids up with new-to-Brooklyn artists. They probably just think it's cool that they're in middle school and have a pretty awesome hip-hop album being released. The CD release party is tonight at Red.Awesome! We're excited.
Chris Grier exudes musicianship. His unique approach to composition references the familiar while at the same time blasts a shotgun-sized hole in what you know about the guitar. No stranger to Sockets Records, Chris was featured on the first two Sockets Audio Zines.
