dallaspenn.com

The entire DallasPenn.com staff is in the city of brotherly love this weekend for the Roots picnic. The staff would be Chocolate Snowflake and myself. I was granted press access to the picnic and a few art gallery invites through the city so check out some of the sights and scenes that I upload this weekend as I go a little deeper into the legendary city.

Philadelphia is an interesting town. It’s definitely a metropolis, but it still has a quaintness type quality. Like it didn’t want to get too big for its britches, or conversely, its bridges. There’s definitely a southern flavor to Philadelphia. Maybe it was the politeness of folks that heard me ask for directions and quickly offered their expertise. I like Philly for that.

What really attracts me to Philadelphia though is that it moves like a working class city. New York was like this too, but now with all the tourists and the movie sets I don’t even recognize my home sometimes. Mostly I can’t afford my home. Do you know how rich I have to be just to be POOR in NYC? Makes me wanna holler sometimes.

I also came out to Philly to do some work. To peep out the the scene and get up with some of the folks that represent the blue collar ethos that has come to symbolize Philly’s grind. Truck North from the Roots collective got at me and invited me to come to his studio office and preview some of the new tracks he was working on. Truck North just released the Truck Jewels mixtape through OKayPlayer and he is steady working on his next project.

Truck and his ace producer Bear-1 are coming with that classic soul filled boom bap that I almost think is dead sometimes until I hear it again. I am going to start making formal petitions to see if I can get Truck North and Sean Price to do a song together. I think their styles complement each other well. I made some video while in the studio with these dudes as well and I will try to roll that out before I leave Philly. In the meantime listen to this track Bear-1 produced titled ‘Never Ending Flip’ off the Truck Jewels mxtape.

Truck North is clearly a descendant of the Philadelphia rhymesayers that have preceded him. His flow is complex but it isn’t too wordy either. I like this track ‘Never Ending Flip’ because it the type of rap that describes real life on the daily in every hood. That guitar sample is hardrock shit too. Rap music is blues at its core. It’s about your reality and how you cope with the shit you see around you everyday. These are the stories that Truck North wants to tell. Inside the studio a bassline by Bear-1 shakes the walls like thunder. This is the perfect place to craft those griot tales.

Their studio office is just like my lab back in Freeport. Records, CD’s and other sampled resources are stacked all over the place. I don’t know what is in which pile but I’m sure Bear-1 knows where everything is. The studio is located in the back of a record store across the street from Temple. Sandwiched in between a barber shop, chinese food spot, a pizza joint and a pawn store. If that ain’t a working class ‘hood strip then I don’t know what is. While outside the record an impromptu cipher sparked up and some dude tried to sell us a bottle of laundry detergent.

I remember this strip well. This is where we used to post up back in the day after the Greek picnic at Fairmont park. The strip isn’t totally the hood any longer thanks to the money that Temple University has invested in the surrounding buildings, but the best part of Philly that I have always loved is how you only need to cross the street to be on the wrong corner.

Truck North – “The Never Ending Flip” from Monsee' on Vimeo.