http://www.mellomusicgroup.com
https://mellomusicgroup.bandcamp.com
When people ask me who I’m paying attention to in underground hip-hop, my first answer is “anything from Mello Music Group”. The label was founded in 2007, and has been making a lot of moves particularly in the past 5 years. Literally every project that has released since I’ve been paying attention has been dope. The styles within the label vary, but a couple things that the artists have in common are high standards for lyrical and expressive content, polished vocal and instrumental production, and clear influences from classic forms of underground hip-hop reinterpreted through contemporary stylistic twists.
Below is a mix of some of my favorite MMG tracks for a sample. The track list is at the bottom of the post:
The Latest Playlist: Mello Music Group
The next major Mello Music Group release is a duo of 2 emcees I’ve been following for years now. Open Mike Eagle and Serengeti team up to make the group Cavanaugh. Their project “Time & Materials” will be released November 20th, 2015. Below is the video of their pre-released track “Screen Play”:
A few weeks ago I did a post titled Producer Profile: Apollo Brown. Apollo Brown is one of MMG’s heavy hitting producers, so refer to that post for a longer breakdown of his work. Another key MMG producer is L’Orange, whose speakeasy influenced style uses a wide variety of jazz and blues as well as movie and radio quotes and sound effects. He’s done full collaborative projects w/ Stik Figa, Jeremiah Jae and Kool Keith, several full solo albums, and has made beats for a plethora of emcees on individual tracks. Below is a video of the track “The End” produced by L’Orange featuring Billy Woods:
A classic group developed from 3 Detroit artists in MMG: “Ugly Heroes” consists of Apollo Brown, Red Pill, and Verbal Kent. Their self-titled debut album dropped in 2013, and has been highly regarded by underground heads. Below is their track “Desperate”:
Another prolific emcee/producer on MMG is Oddisee. Below is a video of one of his hypnotic instrumentals, “After Thoughts”:
Some of the Mello Music Group emcees have a bit more progressive unconventional approach to their content and flow structure. Artists like Open Mike Eagle, The Black Opera, Quelle Chris, and Castle are a few that come to mind when thinking about MMG emcees that take more alternative approaches in their work. Also see the post Project Profile: Canyonland for a look at Henry Canyons’ latest MMG release.
I didn’t get a chance to speak on everyone in Mello Music Group here, but I highly recommend exploring this label in depth. Below is the mostly complete MMG roster. Check out https://mellomusicgroup.bandcamp.com for the full MMG Discography.
Oddisee | Apollo Brown | L’Orange | Gensu Dean | 14KT | Def Dee | Red Pill | Quelle Chris | Open Mike Eagle | Mr. Lif | Rapper Big Pooh | yU | Kenn Starr | 7evenThirty | Georgia Anne Muldrow | Verbal Kent | Dudley Perkins | Has-Lo | Jamall Bufford | Substantial | Boog Brown | Castle | Henry Canyons | Hus Kingpin | J Bizness | Uptown XO | Trek Life | Kool Keith | The Black Opera | Ugly Heroes | Diamond District | Cavanaugh | Semi Hendrix | 1978ers
The Latest Playlist: Mello Music Group
The Mic is the Message 