Frankenstein’s Topster Produced by Dick Nasty Feat DJ Quest [mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/frankensteins_topster.mp3[/mp3]

Topr’s new shit knocks. You all better be coming out on Friday no excuses. Shits going to be off the heezzlebub. Hear more tracks from The Marathon of Shame at Topr’s Myspace page.

Drunk Topr photo by Emcee Oroville for God Hates You Productions.

Stay Tuned, More to come real soon…

Grand Invincible “TIME TO GET GUCCI”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/11-time-to-get-gucci.mp3[/mp3]
Many gurpos will think that this song is all about Schoolly D, but actually the rap was inspired by the tongue-in-cheek pimpiness of Miami’s Gucci Crew and cats like Gigolo Tony– a b-boy Kerouacian stream of conscious about bein’ stewy and introspective in the club when everybody else is there to dance and schmooze. The baseline with the horns that Eons swiped for the chorus reminds me of that “Crazy Boys” song from the musical Westside Story. Fuck Officer Krupke!
If anybody can tell me the title of the 2 Live Crew song that I ripped off for the flow of these last two songs, I’ll buy you a barely pop at the show (Topr’s excluded from the contest, ’cause he already called me out on it and I always buy him drinks anyway, the couch-surfing, hippie-hating bum that he is).

Grand Invincible “DENNIS RICHMOND”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/12-dennis-richmond.mp3[/mp3]
Dennis Richmond is about delivering the rap news where the top story is almost always an indepth report on the demolition of a duck emcee. And yes, that is Baby Huey on the intro.

Grand Invincible “LISA”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/13-lisa.mp3[/mp3]
Every Grand Invincible album has a song titled with a girl’s name (kinda like EPMD’s Jane saga, but about different chicks each time not just one). Ask The Dust’s is called Lisa… her brother was a greaser.

And that’s it! You’ve heard the whole album, now come to the show!

*note to thuggy: put flyer here

Grand Invincible “MEGABLAST”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/08-megablast.mp3[/mp3]
I used to know a girl who would hit Richard Pryor’s chalice, grab me by the ears, and say in a gravel voice, holding back her exhale, “Shotgun this megablast, bitch,” and then blow a full-on horizontal mushroom cloud of burnt-styrofoam flavored smoke directly in my face. It was a pretty heavy thing to experience and I’ve never been able to shake it from my memory. Also, this song is Cali’s answer to Chill Rob G’s “Wildpitch.” Compare the two you’ll find vast similarities. Dan came sick with the 45 King-ish (not to be mistaken by Pete Rock-ish or T-ray-ish) horns at the end, don’tcha think?

Grand Invincible “ELEPHANT TRANQ”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/09-elephant-tranq.mp3[/mp3]
I think it was DJ Eons homey Jake who found this record in the street and gave it to him. Lo and behold from someone else’s trash came this amazing break. The perfect theme for the Year of the Rat “and that’s twelve whole months of the/ hardest G’s alive hidin’ under their comforters.” (Do you recognize the nod to AZ pioneers Supermarket in that lyric? If you don’t, get Brandon B from Trunk Drank to put you up on game at the show on Sunday, this Sunday, Jan. 20th).

Grand Invincible “WAR MEMORIAL”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/10-war-memorial.mp3[/mp3]
This next one isn’t necessarily about the current war, it’s more a comment on all wars and conquering people. I was inspired by Killah Priest (of course, Eons dubbed out Wildstyle samples, especially the baby cooing, got me in the mood, reminded me of that remix that GZA did for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with KP on it) and the war poems of Alan Dugan (here’s one so you get the idea; it’s called How We Heard the Name, enjoy:)

The river brought down
dead horses, dead men
and military debris,
indicative of war
or official acts upstream,
but it went by, it all
goes by, that is the thing
about the river. Then
a soldier on a log
went by. He seemed drunk
and we asked him Why
had he and this junk
come down to us so
from the past upstream.
”Friends,” he said, ”the great
Battle of Granicus
has just been won
by all of the Greeks except
the Lacedaemonians and
myself: this is a joke
between me and a man
named Alexander, whom
all of you ba-bas
will hear of as a god.”

LAST POST COMES TOMORROW!!!

Luke Sick says:

Alright gurpos were gonna keep rollin’ ‘em out so y’all can get juiced for the show on Sun. Jan. 11th

Grand Invincible ‘NORTH ROUTE’
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/05-north-route.mp3[/mp3]
Yo man, we chillin’ this funky fresh jam. I wanna tell you a little somethin’ about us. We’re the Grand Invincible Productions crew and due to the fact that no-one else out there knew what time it was, we have to tell you a little story about where we come from…

Grand Invincible “THE STYLE IS BONKERS”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/06-the-style-is-bonkers.mp3[/mp3]
Conceit left a comment on our myspace saying that this was his theme music forever (peep it: myspace.com/grandinvincible). Grimey time!

Grand Invincible “GOLD WITH CURSIVE”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/07-gold-with-the-cursive.mp3[/mp3]
This is a totally necessary throwdown about drinking original Coors and comin’ fresh on the mic. Can you name the two rappers that Eons cuts up at the end?

Stay tuned gurpos, three more are coming tomorrow and then three more after that. Then, come to the show and celebrate Luke Sick, Heathakilla, Raw B’s birthdays. Say word.

“We would have better records today if people said, “Look, you’ve got 5 hours to make a record.” The problem is that people got all day. They got all week. They got all month. They got all year. So thus, you in there second guessing yourself.” – Hank Shocklee

This quote from the Bomb Squad’s general of apocalyptic bass kind of sums up the recording aesthetic G.I. attempts to employ in the Invincible Lab with the aluminum foil walls. Most of the records we love were made with this sort of urgency and immediacy (KRS-ONE has bragged that BDP’s “The Bridge Is Over” was recorded and mixed in an hour and a half) and that’s what made them vital. It’s not like we are working against the clock trying to make the most out of expensive studio time, but our day jobs and busy-everything-except-music lives make recording sessions rare, so when it is time to record: Dan’s beats gotta be ready and I’ve gotta have my rhymes ready to spit in usually one or two takes, because we are trying to record an entire album in a five-hour period. Wouldn’t Hank and the boys from Spectrum City be proud?

Anyway let’s continue the “ASK THE DUST” saga with two more mighty jams from this Grand Invincible debut:

Grand Invincible “TIGHTER”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/03-tighter.mp3[/mp3]

This little chopped soul ditty is a brief public service announcement directed at all those mid-twenties ladies runnin’ around town fulfilling their “Sex in the City” fantasies. “Light on my hat like those dirty coal miners do…”

Grand Invincible “PURSE THIEVES”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/04-purse-thieves.mp3[/mp3]

100% grimey! Back in the early-nineties when San Jose Live was still open in the south bay during the Hump Hut Gang’s forever-broke-never-have-a-job days, my ace boon cracker Oak D and I used to kick girl’s purses underneath the pool tables and then send Ruddy Rudd to crawl under and get ‘em into the bathroom, loot ‘em, and throw ‘em in the trash. We’d also snatch 3/4 full Long Islands off the bar when fools had their backs turned and suck ‘em down quick. We were full on fuckin’ dengenerates and it is kinda with a mixture of embarrassment and pride that I speak of it now (mostly pride though, fuck it I’m a scumbag, y’all know me). Anyway, “Purse Thieves” kinda turned into an homage to that time in my life with a little modern shit thrown in (the first title for this song, before I wrote the chorus, was: Doing Coke in the Car). And the moral to the story kids?: Being dead broke should never stop you from getting drunk if you are determined and shameless enough. And if you should get caught? Do what we did at the Hut: Deny it to the bitter end. Why? “‘Cause nobody believe dem hoes!”

Don’t forget the show this Sunday!

Grand Invincible was formed under the philosophy that hip hop as an artform was best served under the technological limitations of the late-80s and early-90s. Armed with only an AKAI MPC 2000, two turntables, a mixer, a microphone, and a diggin’ ass record collection with the intention of making the most out of the least (the original hip hop aesthetic), the duo set out to resurrect the grimey breaks and elevate a rare science. Time to put the hoodies and Tim boots back on and spark a White Owl as we present their debut demo/album “ASK THE DUST” here at gurpcity.net. Everyday or so we will be streaming a new track (in the order they appear) off the album up until G.I.’s debut show on Jan. 20th, 2008 (MLK weekend) at Annie’s Social Club (with Conceit, Trunk Drank, and DJ Toph), so STAY TUNED until then and peep the whole album which will be available in full as a 13-track CD accompanied by a comic book (filled with the artwork you see displayed with every streaming track) at myspace.com/grandinvincible for a ballin’ on a budget price.

Grand Invincible Track 1 “Codenames” is an introduction of the men in charge:
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/01-codenames.mp3[/mp3]
DJ Eons One– producer/DJ (former guitarist of Bay Area power violence outfit, Spazz)
Luke Sick– M.C. (from Bay Area’s legendary Sacred Hoop and Gurp City)
Eons One’s heavy, hoodlum-velvet loop and disciplined, name-dropping rubs put you right on the stoop, only pulling your freezing hands out of your Carthartt to split the blunt, dump it, fill it, light it, and occassionally ash it. Use your bus transfer to make a crutch for that roach, dun, the journey’s just begun!

Grand Invincible Track 2, “Earn The Pay”
[mp3]http://gurpcity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/02-earn-the-pay.mp3[/mp3]

“Ask The Dust” was recorded in the Invincible Lab with the tin-foil walls in San Carlos, CA, and mixed at Cornerstore Studios (AKA the West Coast’s resurrection of 1212) in Oakland by Hiro Matsuo, a purist who at first assumed “Ask The Dust” was a respectful tribute to seminal “Golden Era” records like Gangstarr’s “Step in the Arena” and Chill Rob G’s “Ride the Rhythm,” but upon closer examination he became aware that “Ask the Dust” is actually a renewed call to arms for disillusioned b-boys worldwide. Hiro was really feeling the opposing basslines laid down by Eons on “Earn The Pay” and beefed them up considerably (like Bob Power on Low End Theory) to cushion Luke’s rant about the current state of the world and its insignificance to his purpose. Luke’s position is simple: “I’m here for the hip hop, I ain’t here for the hugging,” perfectly capped off by Eons final stinging acapella cut: “All these weak rappers steady makin’ hits?” All together now: “Fuck that!”

Two more.