Music, Real Life - Thursday, December 25, 2008 13:05 - 13 Comments

Hassaan Mackey

So, as you might suspect, I know a lot of rappers. And if I really sit back and think about it, most of the rappers I’ve met over the last 5 years, I’ve met via T. The Beat Specialist a/k/a Slopfunkdust or in association with his ever expansive Beat Fanatic crew.

If you’re unfamiliar with Slopfunkdust, well, I feel sorry for your mother. T. The Beat Specialist, besides being a dope producer in his own right, pretty much knows everyone in the underground in some shape or fashion. And we’ve also got pretty similar tastes. Which is encouraging when you’re surrounded by a bunch of tastemakers that don’t seem to have any taste whatsoever.

Last year, T. headed up the Rawkus 50, an ambitious project where 50 of the dopest and willing underground artists dropped digital albums online via Rawkus Records. There was a long list of very dope artists involved, most of which I hadn’t heard of before, or would only hear T. telling me about.

Now let me be honest, I slept on a lot of them. A lot. Even the ones I knew in my heart of hearts would be dope, just based on the fact that T. was telling me about them (knowing how ADHD I am when it comes to rap) and our similar taste in beats, emceeing, and hip hop in general.

Hassaan Mackey was one of those 50. For some reason, I still get email at the now unpublicised Rappers I Know email address, and luckily, after having forgotten/lost the password to said email address for over 5 months, I was able to log in and saw a message from Hassaan. I’m glad he reached out and kept sending me joint after joint after joint. A lot of the joints I’m going to post were on his Rawkus 50 effort, but they new to me, so I’ma post em. Him and Kev Brown make a great duo. In fact, more rappers should holla at Kev Brown.

“Simone (Louder)” produced by Kev Brown

“Soul 4 Sale” produced by Young Cee

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