PDP REC: Steady Business.

Continuing our series of press-you-missed, here's an article from the June 2, 2010 issue of the Providence Phoenix spotlighting the recent works of PDP's Reason and Falside:

"Poorly Drawn People has some new members, and a new way of doing biz."

Earlier this year, acclaimed hip-hop collective Poorly Drawn People announced (via PoorlyDrawnPeople.com) the birth of Poorly Drawn Recordings, a home base for PDP pioneers Storm Davis, Dox, and Reason, as well as producer extraordinaire Falside, a key free agent pickup for the PDP ensemble. The February blog post gave some insight on the newfound, streamlined approach under the PDP REC umbrella: "We've managed to go our entire existence without signing to or establishing an actual record label . . . We've done pretty well as a 'collective,' a team with a revolving roster that carried the same flag onto the field every game.

"Same house, just got some new furniture."

PDP REC is accruing talent outside state lines, having signed Maryland-based duo Educated Consumers as well as providing support for longtime cohort Entity, who relocated to the D.C. area. Indeed, business has been steady at PDP HQ in '10, with Falside cranking out must-have mixtapes on a quarterly basis and the recent release of the critically-acclaimed Landlords & Lullabies by veteran PDP wordsmith Reason.

Esteemed producer Falside just turned 21 but has already garnered the respect of some serious indie-rap luminaries, particularly with his latest mixtape, Dollars Make Change. C-Rayz Walz drops two quality tracks, "Catching the Strange" and "Hall of Game," while Pacewon and El Da Sensei tear up "Too Many MCs." Termanology and Vast Aire also appear, and the standout closing track "Too Much" features Boston-based rhymer Slaine of La Coka Nostra fame. The Dollars mixtape is available for free download at Falside.com; while you're there, be sure to look up his previous releases, namely the Meet n Veggies EP with Boston turntablist DJ Emoh Betta (of the Deck Demons) and the '09 "seasonal beat tapes" Cold Feat and Bugs In Ya' Teef. "I've just recorded a record with Jeru the Damaja," reads a Falside tweet from last weekend. Not too shabby, considering Falside was barely five years old when Jeru the Damaja dropped The Sun Rises In the East (Jesus, we're getting old).

Andrew Martin, local journalist and co-founder of the rap authority PotHolesInMyBlog.com, acknowledged Fal's enviable skills behind the boards: "Falside's production is just too damn good to not want him to take over, or at least be a major part of the game."

Falside produced seven of the 14 tracks on Reason's Landlords & Lullabies, with quality production help from ESH the Monolith of Labeless Illtelligence and PDP's Dox. Landlords is the official follow-up to his 2006 solo debut Gemini Slang (the recent Stalker Stories mixtape is also up for grabs free of charge); he was also an integral voice on Poorly Drawn People's Nothing Stays Gold, Shoot for the Stars, Hit the Ceiling, and Motion Not Emotion.

Landlords & Lullabies boasts more of Reason's slick quips and punchlines, necessitating the aural double-take when zipping through bars on "Girls with Cameras" and the new single "I Don't Want to Build," but Reason sounds more coolly confident on Landlords, and the opening four cuts are some of Reason's finest yet. Falside's funky percussion escorts Reason on the opener "Apocalyptic Sunrise," ESH loops drunken saloon piano on "Release," Storm Davis and Reason address trust fund "starving artists" on "Designer Kids," and "Paid Bills" (which debuted on The Ocean State Sampler, a free download available at PotHolesInMyBlog.com) proves why Falside and Reason make a nice tandem. No filler (or nonsense skits) here, as the latter-half cuts hold their own, from the funky Dox-produced jam "The Touch" to the new single "I Don't Want to Build," addressing wannabe "genre-hopping" Internet emcees. And a nominee for double entendre of the year goes to ESH on "Distracted": "Deep in a hole like Courtney Love on Ketamine."

FALSIDE.COM | MYSPACE.COM/REASON | Hit up PoorlyDrawnPeople.com for info on all past, present, and future PDP REC releases

Peep the article by Chris Conti in its original context here.

Falside: Action Bronson.

Queens, NY wordsmith Action Bronson released his new video today for the Falside-produced song, "Imported Goods." Check it out and tell Falside what you think over on his Facebook page.

RADIx: Say Yes.

Friends-of-PDP RADIx (you've heard them on the collab track "Never Be Forgotten" off of the Poorly Drawn mixtape Nothing Stays Gold) have been on the promo trail for their new album Say Yes for awhile now, so we wanted to give a little assist and post up the video for the title track for you, our other Friends-of-PDP, to peep.

Quite Nyce & Seek are not only two of the hardest working dudes in the underground scene, but also two of the most genuine as well. We've performed countless shows with them over the past 5 years, and they've always gone out of their way to show us support. You can do the same by downloading the mp3 for "Say Yes" on iTunes here.

Reason: AboveGround Magazine Interview.

As we continue to bubble under the surface, slowly constructing the next monsterpieces to be unleashed from the catacombs deep 'neath the basement of the PDP Mansion, we figured we'd take this downtime to post up some old press from the past few months that we failed to share with you when it was at its freshest.

Here's an interview with Reason done by the fine folks at AboveGround Magazine:

Reason is a member of the Rhode Island-based independent hip-hop collective, Poorly Drawn People. He recently dropped his sophomore album Landlords & Lullabies, which is the follow-up to his acclaimed debut album, Gemini Slang. With his time between albums, Reason traveled the East coast and beyond with the PDP crew in support of their collaborative projects, Motion Not Emotion and Shoot For The Stars, Hit The Ceiling. Reason has worked with underground artists such as Drumat!c, Lazerbeak (of Doomtree), Phillip Drummond and fellow PDP-members Falside, Storm Davis and Dox.

We hooked up with Reason for this week’s First 5. Check it out!

1. Tell us something no one knows about you.

I’m a hypocrite but only on the weekends. I also document any spelling, grammatical, punctuation or print errors I come across in anything I read. I’ve got 3 notebooks dedicated to it.

2. What do you want people to take away from your music?

People should give back to my music but if they have to take something away hopefully it’s a little less self hatred. Also, an understanding that yes, your friends and their friends, are better rappers than Reason.

3. What is one of your biggest regrets?

Deciding to take rap music seriously.

4. What’s one of your greatest hip-hop memories?

Seeing RUN DMC live! No, that never happened. I’ve never seen them live. My greatest hip-hop memory or memories are probably when it wasn’t cool to be a part of hip-hop. Those were fun times.

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully not here but who knows. I’ll probably still be making music and still paying rent. If that doesn’t pan out perhaps I’ll open a bar with someone else’s money… Dream big kiddies.

To purchase Reason’s releases visit his MySpace page. To purchase albums from Poorly Drawn People visit their website.