Chow Lee & Friends

The shiny suit era peeked some 25 years ago. Conceivably then, today former-would-be-shiny-suit rapper grands trade remember-back-in-the-days over sips of Cristal. Meanwhile, drill. Chow Lee and Cash Cobain's 2 Slizzy 2 Sexy landed an honorable mention in The New York Times' Best Albums of 2022. Lee and friends have a show coming up at Baby's All Right March 22 and a sticky new label compilation called Welcome To The Dollhouse out now. Being an 80-year-old man (see last post), I came up on Chow Lee via PDF-form EPK. More to come from that in the weeks and months ahead.

Remy Represent - "Tranquillo" (Lyric Video)

One of Long Island rap's most elusive artists might be set to become slightly less so ... emphasis on "might be" because such is the nature of elusiveness. 

Little has been heard from Remy Represent since he first appeared on this site back in 2015, but that doesn't mean he hasn't kept busy. "I’ve been working in silence for a long time since 'Death Prone' and many things have happened since," Remy says. "But I’m finally back and ready to drop a new EP called LOST ON WHERE TO START, coming with a whole new brand relaunch, with a new clothing brand called “RA1NCL0UD."

If you fully took in "Death Prone," then you already know Remy as a multidimensional talent whose focus extends past music to video, illustration and beyond. Case in point: the lyric video for "Tranquillo." Premiering below, the animation somehow manages to keep pace with Remy's rapid-punch-combinations juxtaposing Japanese otaku and New York hip-hop, at least until he drops the word "trylophobic" to describe the aim of a retired cop, at which point the video basically says, "look it up yourself," and you do because it's that goddamn dope.

In conjunction with the above video and announcement, Remy Represent is also launching his new website, RemyRep.com, which will give you some additional insight into who this artist is and what he's been up to these past few years ... emphasis on "some" because there's more in the works. Look out for LOST ON WHERE TO START coming soon along with an interview furnished by none other than Long Island Rap Records.

Remy Represent - "Juneteenth"

Seeing the words "Remy Represent" pop up on the Soundcloud feed is a rare treat. This is because, as far as I can tell, Remy Represent has released a total of two solo tracks over the past five years. The first, "Death Prone," was accompanied by a beautifully dark short film, which, in combination with Remy's incisively introspective lyrics, managed to lift the goth-rap sentiment that was beginning to find traction around the middle of the decade, from mere aesthetics to real art. Five years later, "Juneetenth" comes with no artwork, video or mastering, and no less gravity than its predecessor. Here, Remy Represent speaks truth to power, framing the day's social unrest as an extension of Black people's 400-plus-year struggle for freedom, justice and equality. Yet again Remy Rep's real.

Dread Da Don - "Mafioso" ft. Don Cash

It's a meeting of three Dons as Inwood's Dread Da Don brings in Long Beach's Don Cash for a New York crime side saga produced by Don P. A longtime LIRB-favorite, Cash was recently featured on LongIslandRap.Comp Volume 2 and, bluntly speaking, makes this track his own even though he's the one listed as the featured artist. You know what they say, though: "Cash rules."

Remy Represent - "Death Prone"

Inwood's Remy Represent can tell you more about this beautiful, two-sided song than we can, so here's some of what he had to say:

"I aim to make the midnight soundtrack for people [who/to] stay up and think all night. Dark, bold conceptual music that both sonically and lyrically represents the flawed human perspectives of various people's minds, explores and analyzes the human psyche and sheds light and focuses on mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and self harm which can affect millions of people and their loved ones. "Death Prone" was produced by my main producer René Derobe and is my first official release and it was inspired by my own struggles with health anxiety/panic attacks and how I was really feeling at time like I wanted to hear a rap song that represented what was going through my mind, feeling helpless and prone to death."

If you can identify with any of those sentiments, then you'll surely find something relatable in this song. If not, watch the video anyway and stop being such a hard-ass. Directed by Tauno Ostra, the visual accompaniment to "Death Prone" pretty much obliterates the line between music video and short film. (And for our purposes, it puts an excellent exclamation point on a month already filled with artful and imaginative videos.)



Also visit Remy's Soundcloud page, where you can download the song, and RemyRepresent.com, where you'll find a full gallery of artwork dedicated to it.