Secret Bonus Level presents:

 

 

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It’s crazy sometimes living in a Secret Bonus Level. Those normal guys in the normal levels, they’re probably jealous of us. But really, it’s a grass is always greener situation up here. And yes, the grass is always greener on Secret Bonus Level. And yes, we eat cake every day. And yes, we take showers in the Great Fairy’s Fountain. But what you don’t see is the hard work that goes into things behind the scenes. The Secret Bonus Level Band practices hard every week. Noah Page is always out there scouring rap shows and popping out of the holes in records, trying to find newer and more interesting rappers than you’ve ever imagined, and then convincing them to come back every week. We basically sleep never. Like Batman, we’re always out and in the city. Always on the prowl. Well, this week we finally came home. Welcome to Wayne Manor.

The Secret Bonus Level Band was on point this week. New jams. New improvs. One of the things they were rolling with literally had all these rappers dancing in the studio. It was crazy. It was this slower, latiny sounding thing. Jesse was tapping in the drumms, no loops. Brandon was walking up and down the neck of that 5 string bass in those short little cha-cha step-turns multiple-hyphenates needed to explain. It was too much. MC Correct grabbed these sunglasses he just found and I think he all got all the rest of us dancing, honestly.

MC Correct was in rare form tonight. We’re always fans of that guy, but man. Tonight he was making up hooks on the spot and where his rhymes are usually slip-slide tonight they were just slick (it’s a subtle but important difference).

Oh, and the other guys! This week we were celebrating an especially good Facemelt Friday, which took place two days after this broadcast. Dogfriend, Khari, Lithium God and Vos were all on the bill plus those guys from Raw Most Records: OG Keesh, Uptown Rico and Jon Swaii. It was really the best Facemelt bill I’ve seen in a while. To celebrate, and since it was kind of a family affair, we had Dogfriend and Khari back on the show. This was Vos FIRST live performance since Secret Bonus Level started too! We were all WAY excited to go out and support him for the first time as a team. As friends! As a family.

Khari continued to impress us. This guy feels almost like a young Talib Kweli or something. He’s got a particular way of crafting lyrics that’s really unique. I’d say more about him, but he was only there for the last little bit of the show. I really want to experience more of this guy before I speak on him too much. I think that’s how all of us on Secret Bonus Level feel about Khari. And not that it’s bad! He’s really, really good. We just want to hear more. He seems really complex and involved. We want to step deeper into whatever is going on with this guy. Really live inside of it. Anyway!

You could technically say the same of Dogfriend, as far as his having a unique approach to rap. But the more we see Dogfriend do his thing, he’s starting to almost feel like he’s not even really a rapper. He’s like a poet or performance artist using rap as his primary medium. He’s like a crazy Batman of Zur-en-arrh making a rainbow batsuit out of scraps of rags he’s found in the alleys of our city’s orange streetlights. His lyrics are like Rorschach’s diary. Weird, slightly disturbing stories wrought with uncouth imagery and words a normal brain wouldn’t put together.

Then there was Throwdaparty. This guy. So, here’s the story. Noah Page, This(), Sanji, Vos, Princess Beet Farmer and a bunch of other dudes were all hanging out at the first ever warehouse event in Chum Media’s new space. It was a DJ/Dance party, except they weren’t even in the party. All the Secret Bonus Gang was just hanging out in this tiny little back room, playing beats and rapping at each other. Other people started to overhear the commotion we were causing and poke their heads in and come in to rap with us too. It was a lot of fun. Then this one guy was all of a sudden standing in the door YELLING this REALLY good rap verse at the whole room. He had everyone’s attention instantly. Then, as soon as he finished, he was just gone. He just vanished! And we were all like, “WHO WAS THAT!?” Noah Page went chasing after him, caught up with him in the parking lot, and found out his story. Throwdaparty was a party promoter (I mean, surprise, right?) who had always rapped in his bedroom and stuff, but never made anything of it. He wasn’t even sure he had a rap name. This was so incredible. Noah Page gave Throwdaparty his number and just prayed he’d show up for the next Secret Bonus Level. And he did. He was ON POINT all night and his Can You Rap to That? over the Andy Griffith theme song was SO GOOD that we think it was the best one we’ve seen a first timer do EVER. I mean, we’ve had some epic, really amazing Can You Rap to That?’s. But it usually takes our guys a week or two to get into it and really do an amazing one. Not Throwdaparty though!

A highlight of the evening for a lot of us too was Freakolafat’s return. We all love Freako. For reasons beyond anyone’s control, he wasn’t able to be with us the past few weeks on Secret Bonus Level. He missed some incredible moments too. The Dula/Rod or Die tag team against the Sanji/This() tag team. The episode where EVERYONE in the city came out to rap. Freak would’ve shone brightly in those situations. But the important thing is that he’s BACK. And while he’ll be gone again next week, I think we’re working out some kind of an every-other-week custody arrangement thing. We have to share him, afterall, with the Lafatty Gang. And he’s working hard on Freakodise II plus the follow up, which I believe is called Freakodose. Plus, there is a very lit track he’s got coming soon over a Sanji beat, with a little mini-feature from Sanji on it too. It’s REALLY premium Freak. Freakolafat in general has been consistently hitting his next level stuff lately. Everyone’s really looking forward to where he goes next. But this week we were just stoked to have him back.

Anyway, next week’s show is going to be equally special as we welcome on the gentleman who encouraged Noah Page to rap in the first place! Come back and see us again for that!

Playlist:

    Time: September 20 - 9:00:50 pm
  • Secret Bonus Level, “Pickle Rick”

    from Secret Bonus Level

    WRIR - 2018

  • Time: September 20 - 9:03:50 pm
  • Freakolafat, “Let$Ju$tChill”

    from Freakodise

    self-released - 2017

  • Time: September 20 - 9:06:00 pm
  • The Secret Bonus Level Band, “The 21st Cypher of September, Part 1”

    from Live on WRIR 2017-09-21

    WRIR - 2017

  • Time: September 20 - 9:53:00 pm
  • The Secret Bonus Rappers, “Can You Rap To That?”

    from Live on WRIR 2017-09-21

    WRIR - 2017

  • Time: September 20 - 10:16:00 pm
  • The Secret Bonus Level Band, “The 21st Cypher of September, Part 2”

    from Live on WRIR 2017-09-21

    WRIR - 2017

    Secret Bonus Level    September 21st, 2017

Posted In: Music, Music Shows