Can’t forget the Dub Rap mixtape featuring Bay Area microphone stylings and other people that have been on this combination tip for time.  I love that Chae Hawk & Rx made it onto the final tape with “Malt Liquor” and Plastician’s selections are generally excellent (as expected).  I do wish that he’d gone with his own remix of “Snoop Dogg Millionaire” as that’s far better in my opinion, but I’m too played out on Eastern Jam to comment.

Big respect to all involved in this from the promoters to the MCs to the original producers.  I hope this combination continues and more people fuse these two genres to create a new flavor of dubstep (dare I say hopstep or some other nonsense genre name?)

Comment on what you’re thinking!  I’ll do the same once I give it a proper listen.  I should also add that you can download the Xzibit and Murs tunes for free.

This is going to be the summer that dubstep exploded. The growth over the past year or so has been rampant with an estimated tenfold more shows in San Francisco so far this year than last year. This is only going to continue in the face of this mixtape due to come out in about a month. I don’t even have the full tracklist but the bits that I’ve heard destined for the mix make me know that this is going to get rinsed everywhere, including grocery store speakers, pop radio stations, and so forth. Whether this is good or bad is up for debate. Personally I love this sound and know that it will keep evolving. I was blown away when I first heard produers like Joker or Gemmy that they didn’t have hiphop MCs queueing to flow over the tracks and now it’s finally happening.

The mixtape is called “Mr Grustle and Tha Russian Present Dubstep LA.” There are at least 6 tracks on it though I’m not sure on the official tracklist. Plastician (rinse.fm, Terrorhythm, Surefire) is mixing the tracks for the mixtape and sampled a bunch of them yesterday on his weekly rinse.fm radio show (download). I got so excited that I’m going to post samples from the set. Some of these are predictable, but some really blew me away, especially the Grouch and Eligh vs Vex’d cut. These previews are low quality with talking over them but I don’t care, give it a listen and take it in.

Before I post these I have to give credit to the people that have been producing similar work for time, notably DJ Nappy and the Rock The Dub THUGSTEP series (free downloads there), Dread Foxx, gWorm (see his recent mix), AC Slater (check here), Rx and Chae Hawk (check Malt Liquor on Rx’s space), KidLogic with the cali remixed EP (he as another one coming out this summer), and the Totally Unauthorized album by MRK1 and Chimpo.  Late breaking additions: forgot the remix tendencies of 6blocc, Parson, and the Dumbsteppaz. Also check out this early tune from Nebulla plus DJ Dore on La Dubstep Nostra.

Right, back to the mixtape. The general theme is existing dubstep productions iced by a variety of hiphop MCs. Beats are pretty raw and edgy including two bits from Chase & Status. First up, the first one released and the one that started a HUGE discussion in the scene about the future of dubstep, Snoop Dogg Millionaire:

And Plastician’s remix of Snoop Dogg Millionaire (I like this one much more):

Now for the freshness. I’m starting off with the track that I was feelin the most which is The Grouch and Eligh of Living Legends over the Jamie Vex’d remix of Scuba – Twitch. Listening to a teaser of this track is like eating just one pringle: leaves you wanting more and more and more.

Next we’ve got Murs vs Chase & Status – Madhouse. Madhouse is a SERIOUS tune in a similar style to Eastern Jam and Saxon. Murs rips it. Love this one too.

Fifth tune is from Alexander Spit based here in San Francisco over Rusko – Mr. Chips. Again this one is BAD. When I first envisioned MCs over dubstep it wasnt over tracks like Chase & Status and Rusko’s productions, but man it works well.

Last but definitely not least is Jimmy Jams vs Rustie & Joker – Play Doe. Play Doe has been asking for an MC from day and I’m amazed it took this long to get one on it. Jimmy Jams destroys the mic, big sounds.

The only other info I have is that there’s a still unheard tune with Xzibit vs D1 which has serious potential. Gotta get the mixtape to hear that one

For more info check twitter/dubstepla, twitter/djplastician, and this site. Now looking forward I’d really like to hear Busta Rhymes, Aesop Rock, Keak da Sneak, and tons of other MCs over dubstep, especially over the sounds of folks like Joker, Jakes, Gemmy, Guido, Plastician, Noah D, Starkey, and so on. Gonna get wild this summer!!!

The last thing I’ll say is to the haters both in press and in the forums is that a musical style is made to evolve. Dubstep itself evolved from dark garage and is currently an alamgam of many different genres of music. To claim that something like the introduction of American hiphop MCs to the sound of dubstep will “commercialize” or “ruin” the sound is shortsighted. This sound is a new dimension in dubstep, yet another sound that falls under the name of “dubstep.” The exact reason this music is so magical to me is because of the variety of sounds that are all “dubstep” so adding another dimension just means for more diverse mixes. Tell Miles Davis that by recording Bitches Brew he ruined Jazz. Tell Elvis that his sound ruined the blues. Tell Grandmaster Flash that mixing breaks ruined funk. And if you’re really not feeling it then just don’t play it.