Not to take classes, though. Instead, I’ve returned back to the University of Washington campus this past year via The Raps. From kicking off fall quarter at Dawg Daze in October, to being invited to speak at Prof. Jeanette Bushnell and the homie Third Andresen’s hip-hop class, to rocking in the basement of a house party–it’s been good to have any excuse to come back. Even better to see a thriving mini-music scene of talented producers, visual artists, photographers and emcees creating good shit and getting that degree amdist all the bullshit tuition hikes and budget cuts. In salute to you all who are grinding out finals week at the UW and elsewhere, here’s a re-introduction to some Husky collaborations I’ve done recently:

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Bent Twig – Can’t Go On feat. Prometheus Brown (prod. Ill Pill)

When this cat named from UW, Preach, hit me up for a verse, I had no idea at the time that Preach and Gregory Christine, starting offensive lineman for the UW Football team, were the same person. All I knew was that the beat he threw me (for his album Asymmetry of Life) from Ill Pill (dude who produced Grynch’s My Volvo) immediately clicked with some lines I had floating in my head at the time, which is exactly what the homie had in mind for the song concept.

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Jack The Ripper – Don’t Look Back feat. Scribes, Sol & Prometheus Brown

Jack came through when we rolled around the town with a mobile system on The Ave (for the OOF! EP release). I’d heard his name ’round town through joints he did for Khingz and Spaceman, and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he was holding it down at UW. We knocked out this track, the title track off his just-released debut LP, with the homie Kitone (who produced all of Abyssinian Creole’s Sexy Beast album) engineering the session at Undercaste Studios. That’s Jack himself singing on the track, the first time he’s ever done it!

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Solzilla – Spliff (remix) feat. Thig Natural, Grynch & Prometheus Brown

This is the product of a recording session we pulled one night at The Physics lab the night before their “Three Piece” EP dropped. The vibe on that record is a perfect representation of the vibe at the spot, as you can see in the behind the scenes video. Right across the hall, J Pinder was in The Pharmacy and came in for a visit while Maddy and Hollis of Canary Sing were working on their own material. Justo’s in the corner editing a promo video, and I’m somewhere getting my greasy fingers all over Jake One’s vintage keyboards.