Kevin Parx: No bricks!

With his form readied, Santa Ana rapper Kevin Parx dropped his latest mixtape Freethrows earlier this week. The collection of 15 tracks definitely elevates his craft to another level. Parx warms up with a signature 'Haa' grunt before killing verses throughout. On the mixtape, the choruses comes with rhymes that stay stuck on listeners' minds. The title track "Freethrows" declares "Now the streets know/ Fuck that other shit/ This is freethrows" before breaking out into a repeated chant of 'free-throws!' On "Explosive" he rolls out a catchy lyrical interpolation from the similarly titled song off of Dr. Dre's 2001 album.

The mixtape bumps through the beats of Get Money Boy$ (GMB) production with Wizzo and KY handling most of the tracks. Back when the Weekly checked in with Parx before the release of Freethrows he hinted that there was a conceptual element surrounding relationships. As it turns out, it's damn clever and paced throughout the album in the form of skits with characters June, Karma and Trinity.

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Nu3tron posing with his pops

Now that Mother's Day is officially behind us, is it too early to start talking about Father's Day? If you're looking for a way to show pops you care (besides showering him with socks and neckties next month) you might wanna pass along rapper Nu3tron's latest video, "Like Father Like Son." The latest tidbit from the rapper born Matthew Leonard is served up as a black and white day-in-the-life of his dad, Gary. Right away, we can tell where he gets his tough guy rapper poses from.

Even if you're not familiar with the Anaheim emcee's boisterous brand of boom bap--long gestating under the umbrella of OC collective Technicali sound--any hip-hop head knows that the virtues of being a starving rapper means there's always a new story of strife to splatter over a beat. In Nu3tron's case, highlighting his dad's daily grind is supposed draw a clear link to his struggles as a rapper. The song's four-and-a-half minutes (produced by LDontheCut) is a crash course in true manhood.

Papa, where you goin'? You're always gone, always working hard, always on your job/ He says "Son, there's no time for sleeping/ Life is unfair and the pay isn't decent/ Someone's gotta pay the bills, he works weekends / Over time grind and he sinks his teeth in.

We talked to Nu3tron about shooting this touching ode to his old man.

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JT FULPS

Sage One

[Editor's Note: This new Weekly music feature highlights outtakes and personal stories from bands who just finished working their asses off to put out new music.]

The weather is starting to warm up and people cruising around town need something to bump with their windows down. Costa Mesa-based rapper Sage One (born Ethan Jimenez) has come through with his seasonal release of The Summertime EP. The collection of a half-dozen songs flows steadily upon mellow beats and herbal hazes. Choruses are crafty like on "Rollin Stoned" and Sage One's skillful wordplay is displayed on "Verbal Dianetics." The wise wordsmith, who we profiled in Locals Only earlier this year, is taking his new set of songs to headlining stages during the rapper's "Free the Mind" local tour where his irrepressible energy is allowed to roam free. Catch him on stage at the Observatory this Friday opening for School Boy Q.

Sage One tells us more about The Summertime EP after the music video jump that makes most of us Weeklings feel really, really old!

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By: Heidi Darby

[Editor's Note: Spare Notes is a Weekly music feature highlighting outtakes and personal stories from bands who just finished working their asses off to put out new music.]

Robert Jon & the Wreck generate a southern-infused, classic rock sound that's both authentic and infectious. The past three months revealed a whirlwind of opportunity for the local five-piece, who built up enough momentum to earn the OC Music Award for Best Live Band, complete a new EP, and lock in a cross-country Spring tour. The group recently released their single, "Rhythm of the Road," as a precursor to the new EP, due out in June. The single is currently available, for free download Thanks to their strong songwriting chops, memorable live energy, and keyboardist with a penchant for picking up his board and jamming with it against his head, Robert Jon & the Wreck offer substantial performances. Long-haired, bearded front man Robert Jon went from solo-artist to collective band member, and it's working to everyone's benefit.

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[Editor's Note: Spare Notes is a Weekly music feature highlighting outtakes and personal stories from bands who just finished working their asses off to put out new music.]

As a producer, DJ and rapper, Hands leaves his prints all over Soul Projection. The Santa Ana-based MC's second solo effort features a clean collection of a dozen songs. Hands drops the beats on all but two of the album's tracks. His multifaceted approach manifests in laid back rhymes and vibes whether it's on the opener "Real Skills" or "Everything is Not Real." Hands does a lot of heavy lifting on Soul Projection but calls in collaborations whether it's Vel the Wonder lending her rhymes on the jazz flavored "Corpulent Rhymes" or the West Coast sounds of Cloqwise's production on "West West."
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Konsept Project

Endz chillin' during a recent show in SanTana

[Editor's Note: Spare Notes is a Weekly music feature highlighting outtakes and personal stories from bands who just finished working their asses off to put out new music.]

All the flowers can be cut, as the late poet Pablo Neruda reminds, but the coming of spring can not be detained. That same relentless spirit alluded to permeates No Colored Flowers, the latest collection of songs from Orange-based rapper Endz that dropped down the chimney for free on Christmas. It's not only the follow up to his Half N Half solo venture from earlier this year, but also the We Are Locally Grown mixtape by Locally Grown Collective released in the summer. In short, Endz is puttin' in work and it's paying off as the EP already maxed out its 200 free downloads on Bandcamp and collecting many more on Soundcloud!

With No Colored Flowers he continues to display his lyrical prowess whether on the rap-rock vibes of "Filthy Corpse" or the back and forth rhyme trading chemistry with Los Angeles underground rapper Reverie on "Sickest of MCs." Pensive, mellow and self-reflective at times, No Colored Flowers reveals the motivation behind the music. Endz shouts out his single mother on "Dear Thoughts" before rhyming, "One day you'll stop working / I'ma get us out this mess / Until I reach the top / Until my last fucking breath." It's a theme he returns to again and again on different tracks including over the musing melodies of "Imagine."
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IllNes

[Editor's Note: Spare Notes is a Weekly music feature highlighting outtakes and personal stories from bands who just finished working their asses off to put out new music.]

Despite misguided fears, the world has not ended in apocalypse today, but the local underground hip-hop scene should prepare for an 'IllNes Infection' anyway! The cautionary warning is the opening salvo from Santa Ana rapper IllNes' newly released Dose One mixtape. He's out to come sick with it by combining old school hip-hop vibes with energetic, emphasis-laden wordplay throughout the nine-track effort.

IllNes (aka Nestor Medrano) possesses a delivery that delves into the raspy realms of Canibus at times while expressing urgent political messages in his verses. A prime example of that is on "Si Se Puede" which also illustrates his bilingual abilities on the mic. On another track, the rapper recruits collaborators Mic Hempstead and JoEse Gloria for "Savages," a recolonizing reclamation! It will all have hip-hop heads feeling the symptomatic onset of an IllNes Infection by the mixtape's end.

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C4mula

[Editor's Note: Spare Notes is a Weekly music feature highlighting outtakes and personal stories from bands who just finished working their asses off to put out new music.]

There's usually something borderline awkward about listening to rapper's CD while you're in the car with them. You hope you like it, but what if you don't? What if you can't hide the fact t that you don't like it? The possibility of their anger and disappointment inspiring them step on the gas and drive you off a cliff is always in the back of your mind.

Luckily, as I listen to rapper C4mula's freshly-minted, sarcastically-titled new offering, "Another Stupid Mixtape Too," the Orange-based rapper's mixture of battle rap bars and deep diary entries rocks well in the cabin of his black, Lincoln SUV. It's about 10 p.m. near the Santa Fe train station in downtown Fullerton. We're parked. That's a good thing. Mostly because C4mula can't help but spit his verses over the actual recording, his hands leaving the wheel to trace the air over the dashboard in time with his rhyme cadence.

Razor tongued delivery and a wild, wide-eyed grimace remain an indelible part of his style. But as he raps, it's clear the new mixtape trades most of his braggadocio for  a much deeper perspective on his life, his personal family struggles with substance abuse and the general hazards of being a white rapper. On a weeknight in between spitting verses and sipping beer, the MC who's done everything from ghost write for major artists to rap for crowds at charity food drives talks about his newest release and a few of the important elements of his identity that have changed over the course of releasing it. And in case you haven't realized it, the quality of the rhymes will definitely inspire you to bob your head rather than drive off a cliff.

See Also:
*Scott Keltic Knott Ties Hydropolitics to Hip-Hop
*The Shrills Perfect the Art of Drunk, Last Minute Recording
*Ariano is Not Going Back, Only Moving Forward on His New Album

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Gema X

Scott Keltic Knot

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The Shrills

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