As I sit here, deciding what riveting news to bring to you this week, it crosses my mind that I listen to some (to quote a friend) "pretty f****** obscure music", so in an effort to share my "pretty f****** obscure music" with the world I decided to show you all what I deem to be absolute bangers, but most importantly, to talk about my absolute most favorite underground rapper, and in my opinion he is one of the best rappers of all time.
Who is he? Well, he goes by K.A.A.N. which is an acronym that stands for "Knowledge Above All Nonsense", in my expert opinion his handle is important because it represents the content of his raps. His raps are deep and meaningful, they are what one would refer to as "conscious rap" as opposed to "ignorant rap". Keep a pin in that, the content of his rap is going to be a recurring theme. His real name, is Brandon Perry. And he is very good. His raps are everything that makes rap fun to listen to: rhythm and rhyme, wordplay and style, storytelling and signifying, he has it all. Oh and he's a 24 year old Brickmason from Maryland.
Anyway, my armchair analysis aside, lets talk about this guy. He spits straight fire, and as much as I want to sit here and describe his style to you, I've decided to just show you one of his songs so you can bump along with me.
Fire right? Like, when the hell does he breathe? His flow though! His flow is f****** crazy! The beat was nice, but we all know thats not original content. But, sampling a beat aside (because literally everyone does it, unless you're Tunji Ige and you get all your beats from Alfred Hitchcock movies, no s*** I'm dead serious, he does that) the rap sounds amazing, he spits fire, its really easy to get lost in the song. The flow, the length of the verse (that was all one verse in case you didn't notice) it comes together really well and sounds pretty good. But here's where it gets crazy. Check this out. Those are the lyrics to the song you just played. They are about as deep as the Mariana Trench.
That brings us to the beauty of K.A.A.N.: fire raps, but they are done in a way that the conscious content doesn't ruin the tone of the song. The flow, speed and rhyme patterns allows you to get ignorant without thinking about all the issues of domestic abuse, depression, and hypocrisy arising from man's role in religion.
His music feels pretty special to listen to, the man is really pouring out all his problems, issues, and really anything bad that has happened to him into these raps. He is also trying to appeal to the kids who don't want to chug a bunch of cough syrup and Robotrip or pop some Xanax so you can see the motivation and even more reason behind his handle, he is trying to oppose ignorant rap.
Now, it should be clear what makes this guy awesome. He's a 24 year old brickmason from Maryland, his music bumps, his raps embody everything that make rap good, he records all his music in his friend's basement, and he flawlessly combines two forms of rap which are often seen as being mutually exclusive. But in addition to all of that, he doesn't just rap as fast as he can, listen to him on Kaancepts.
You know what? Here are some other bangers by K.A.A.N.
Ok, I gotta go, have fun with your new music.
