The degrees of separation that kept me from K.Flay were approximately two: Twitter and her website. After observing Athrin campaigning his new Twitter account in the comments, the journey led me to catch the interaction between him and this “person” whom he was requesting a new album from. Intrigued, I continued on the Twitter trail to be met with a passive-looking brunette with an electric guitar.
As Taylor Swift-y as it appeared to be from the outside looking in, I could tell she was mixed–with Hip-Hop.
So I bit. Onward to her house of worship where I immediately spied what I came for: the mixtape. White girls in the rap world could produce one of two extremes. A laughingstock of an artist that has its own derivative branch out, which leads to a ridiculously amount of buzz and success (see Ke$ha) or just a flat-out flop. Either way, the fans are shortimers. Or we could thankfully add another dedicated iPod playlist, another show to attend–another worthy blip to our musical radar. And, just so you know, K.Flay is no Lady Sovereign.
Kristine’s venture into music is the traditional one for those not bred in the ghettos, freestyling to paint chipping off the walls. Setting out to Cali for college from her Midwestern suburbia, she got to dabbling in production in between study halls. And she can rap, so it was f*ck school, she’s too cool to go back. Give her a mic and show her where the studio is at.
The concept of her mixtape, MASHed Potatoes is just that. Performing MIDI surgery on some of the industry’s most enticing eclecticsims (the tape opens to her vocally cruising over Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Over The Bridge”), I was pleased with my sidetracked mission to say the least. Able to carry a note and even topically equipped for battle (check “MONEYmakerz”), she makes lemon meringue from lemons with her mashups of artists ranging from Gnarls Barkley to Eminem.
But enough talking about the chef. Sample her cooking.
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Download — K.Flay – “supa dupa FLYING”
Now get the entire side dish.
Download — K.Flay – MASHed Potatoes
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booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Mashed Out Potatoes (M.O.P.)
This post is great for the following reasons:
1.Her music is great.
2.When she performed at my school as an opener for Snoop Dogg, I immediately fell in love with her music once she actually showed how she made the beat for one of her songs, heavy CROSS OUT. Like literally had the drum machine and sample and flipped it in front of my eyes.
3.I’m providing a contribution for good hip-hop.
4.I’m putting on a female Emcee other than Jean Grae
5.TSS proves once again they are ahead of the curb.
6.TC Rocks
7.I’m slowly building up my way to an actual hip-hop blogger.
I was gonna write up an extensive blog entry about her and why she’s a face of female in hip-hop we don’t see often, but seeing how you guys did it for me, I may rethink that. Actually, no, I’m gonna type up a hurricane (like I am now). Good work TSS!
Whhhhaaaaat?! Athrin is on Twitter?!
Am I the only human being left who isn’t actively tweeting? Twitter and Jeezy… the two trains I missed outright.
…I might as well start rapping. I’m white, from the midwest, I love Hip Hop (more then these other slur of white rappers) and I can put rhymes together, and I got plenty of cats that make beats on Facebook…
LETS GO!
i had to come out of a 6-9 month lurk mode to say the following: Get the F*CK outta here with this old okey doke bullshit. This is a perfect example of why blog sites are fucking off their credibility more and more by the day. Be clear blogosphere. It is 2010. At this point hip hop is post-modern ,anybody with half an interest in rapping {and even less in hip hop} can fake a {barely} passable flow and jump into the game now. It’s up to us to police our own house now and this k. flay broad and tc is under arrest.
Who pissed in OhExtra’s Corn Flakes?
^^^ lol crunkness.
I mean she can sing a lil…but….idk.
p.s- athrin whoever you are, please ether yourself. you clearly have no taste. 1.
shiiiiit…shorty can make beats, play the guitar, and rhyme somewhat decent…thats more talent than alotta people in Rap these days
@ OhExtraMoney. You really need to get the fuck out of here with the elitist attitude. You, for a fact, have no idea who I listen to, or what my taste consist of. If you want me to print my Winamp music library, I will, so you can see over six thousand songs ranging from Joe Budden to J Dilla–From Clipse to Brother Ali. If you wanna continue to bash an artist you haven’t 1. heard live or 2. probably taken the time out of your “busy” schedule bashing any hip-hop artist that doesn’t fit the norm you have created, you will see that her music is actually quite listenable. You wanna be a Hip-Hop police, but right now, you’re acting like the LAPD.
Get the fuck outta here.
^ Horrible sentence structure, but I was eating. My excuse lol.
It’s up to us to police our own house now and this k. flay broad and tc is under arrest.
===
Enh… different strokes for different folks. We aren’t the police. Ain’t no one under arrest. I tried to arrest Jeezy for myriad recycled samples and I got hung the fuck out to dry. The other day David and I compared what we believed to be two of the wackest videos on God’s green Earth… and those two dudes have HUGE followings of loyal fans. It’s all just a matter of perspective. We present you with you options, you decide what you like and don’t like. But at least we give you the options.
Now do I like this girl based off this listen? Not so much. I might define it as okey doke bullshit, myself. But I love that we posted it because I like knowing what else is out there. Wack shit and all.
K.Flay is fucking dope. She’s cool as fuck to chat with as well. I’ve seen a few of her live shows and girl can flow, play guitar, kill a live beat, plus she ain’t bad on the eyes either.
I heard she’s working with Amplive from Zion-I on her album, can’t wait to here it.
It’s up to us to police our own house now and this k. flay broad and tc is under arrest.
==================================
And don’t make your first comment about “policing” our house. That’s like trying to redecorate someone’s house on their first visit.
Now do I like this girl based off this listen? Not so much. I might define it as okey doke bullshit, myself
oooooh shit…shots fired.
cat fight!
*waits for clothes to be ripped off*
I personally think K.Flay is what Kellee Maize was a few weeks ago: Something you like or don’t. I don’t expect female white rappers who grew up in the suburbs to rap gritty and street like. Not what I look for in K.Flay. She’s good live, can flow quite well despite what the song may suggest, and she’s not on some gimmick tip. It’s just her.
In a genre like rap, where we have so much personas, it’s often cool to hear an artist (female at that) just do them. And for the record, I’m not getting paid or anything you guys accuse people of. Shit, I wish I did, so I won’t be on my broke college student status.
She got a good flow and voice, actually, props.
Athrin you might want to spell your blog url correctly on your twitter page lol
Ole girl aint sound too bad, I’ll check out some other tracks from her.
I love going on Twitter trails.
zion-i feat k. flay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ame5i5ud67Y
she didn’t rap but that’s how I got intro’d
so far i like her. i’ll have to check the mixtape.
oh and check out Eternia. she’s white and she’s the shit. she’s from the Canada but yes…she’s still the shit, lol.
http://rockcandydiva.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/eternia-at-last-im-just-a-little-too-hyped-about-this-single-right-here/
@Athrin- you’re a self described broke ass college kid and also an obvious lame with bad musical taste. in the real world you’d watch your mouth. stay in school and your lane.
@MZ- the “house” i’m referring to is this thing of ours called hip hop. not this site{no shots}or any other gotdamned blog/website for that matter. a lil too overprotective and over attached to virtual reality for my taste. also, for the record this is not my first comment on TSS. It’s just that I, seemingly unlike you, have a life. Gotty knows of me {word to that autographed Mike Bigga Underground ATL Lp i’m still waiting on} {absolutely no shots at the Boss} and more importantly even though LC Weber backed me down for my aggressive language, at the end of the day she agrees with me. and wrote back to my comment. and is fine. and can have breakfast, lunch or dinner on me wherever she picks, whenever she’s in NYC if she chose to because i’m not broke like aspirin or assrim or whoeveryourname is.
Gotty knows of me {word to that autographed Mike Bigga Underground ATL Lp i’m still waiting on}
================
Aye! I’ve STILL got the damn vinyl sitting here in the shipping pkg lol. I emailed you & you never hit me back. I looked @ that shit the other day like “man, that shit’s taking up space” lol. Holler @ me.
@OhExtraMoney, it ain’t your house, to call home, who the heck are you anyway? Daddy-O from Stetsa?
Either way, I’m liking what I’ve heard of K-Flay thus far.
I agree with Oh Extra Money,surprise….Yall posting bullshit like this makes yall look FOOLISH.
i just dont appreciate this bitch rapping,off the song yall picked to let people listen,it just tells me,Ok this bitch is a JOKE,rapping about BULLSHIT,”putting words together JUST TO MATCH”-jay-z…. making a mockery of a musical genre that dudes spent whole lives trying to build and establish. i dont care about her guitar or singin skills,and if they are that good,than why the fuck rap? just because you think its funny and cute? GTFOH.
Reminds me of Doomtree’s Dessa. White people are creepin’ up hard on this rap shit.
I truthfully wasn’t bowled over by the song myself, so we woulda been had I made that clear? As for the not having a life shot, just believe what you wanna believe on that one buddy.
@Sir Run Run Paw- Hip hop is my house family. On the daily I live the street culture that you blog comment on. also, you taking shots at stetsasonic is not a good look for your hip hop pedigree. when’d you get into this??
@MZ- i’ll be a man about things and apologize for the stray shot. sometimes my gun just go off…
@OhExtraMoney Watch my mouth? I don’t care if I typing this or saying to your face: You are some dude who dismisses anything that doesn’t sound the same to what you are used to. You don’t know me or what I listen to, but you seem to think you do. Again, if you want I’ll post my winamp music list so I can see you right the words: I’m Wrong. I don’t have beef with the fact that you don’t like her, because it’s your opinion and I can respect. I just have beef with the fact that you’re trying to call me out like you’re the end-all-be-all source on what is music and what is not because I happen to enjoy what she puts out.
And I say broke college student because I never like paying $400-$500 for books that I won’t use more than once in my life. I don’t get what that has to do with anything because I still have money to do what I want, just not enough to splurge on the weekends overseas.
@Athrin- what a presumptuous little twitface kid. i don’t care to know what you like and you have no idea how i perceive music. get more knowledge out of those books you’re struggling to pay for. my interest in music is vast and definitely beyond any 1 era or genre. you and your little 6,000 song winamp collection can go somewhere and screw each other forever on infinite repeat. i have that smashed on one old 80 gb ipod, lets not talk external hard drives, vinyl, cds and tapes. bottom line is you’d be a terrible a&r so please refer to my first sidebar to you and ether yourself. if k.flay is talented then you framed her in an incredibly sh**ty light. step your ear game up.
@OhExtraMoney-I’m the presumptuous kid when you’re the one slanging insults around? You can write a wall of text about your musical prowess and how “vast” it is, but at the end of the day, all you’re doing is simply trying to bash me for liking K.Flay and disagreeing with your opinion on her. You right about music knowledge–I’m only 19, but that doesn’t stop me from searching for music to expand my knowledge and improve my already high joy of it. I don’t know why we’re arguing, but it’s clear we have lost sight of the topic. Call me a bitch, pussy, whatever, but I simply had an opinion and disagreed on you said she was trash. The Ether comment was highly unnecessary and so was you idea of me having horrible musical taste, but hey if that floats you’re boat, go ahead and continue. I made my peace and us continuing only makes us look childish.
Ya’ll elitist, “I am the only official lover of hip-hop” dick-wipes need to recognize that this shit doesn’t belong to you and you have no biz talking about who has the right and who doesn’t have the right to grab the mic. You ain’t feeling an MC, nuff respect. But don’t be a hypocrite and shit on anyone going for theirs, regardless of whether or not YOU think they deserve to be down. Go on K.Flay! Leave the Hateorade in the cup!
@OhExtraMoney, when did I get into this? When Hey You The Rock Steady Crew was around, precise enough for you?
I wasn’t taking shots a Stetsa, so don’t get it twisted. My point was to say that you acting like a zealot with your King Sun 1989 era style warblings. You live this hip hop shit huh? I could’t care less how close you are to the action, even if you were a booger up KRS One’s left nostril whilst he is giving a speech to the Zulu Nation at the Temple of Hip Hop it don’t mean jack to me.
You’re right I don’t live this shit, as a matter of fact I couldn’t give a shit about this thing, I’ve been there, done it, did that. There is more important things in my life than this thing here. My passions are good food, good movies, chilling out and Liverpool FC, notice how hip hop ain’t there?
@Devin, man if you’re around, Chelsea just threw the title race open again huh? I’m confident that Liverpool will beat Chelsea, and as long as United don’t drop any points. The title is yours, however, Spurs are on fire at the moment, if they get the final Champions League berthm well done to them, they deserve it.
Um…wow. Testosterone much? I don’t have a problem with K. Flay sounding like a white girl for the suburbs and no I don’t think her beats are tremendous but I definitely like her lyrically. I was also introduced to her on Zion I’s Coastin’ and had no idea she could spit. She has her own personality but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have as much or more to bring to the table than a particular rapper whose name rhymes with Stinky Garage.
p.s.- go ahead Athrin and do your thing. i love how the more seasoned generation of hip hoppers cease to realize that the youth must be encouraged not discouraged and that we really need to fucking evolve already. i love golden era hip hop but that’s not the only shit i listen to. damn. broaden your horizons my dude.
Wondered why I used to hate reading blog comments. Thanks for the reminder.
I think she’s really good … for waht she is. she isn’t meant to satisfy everyone.
i for one hate lil wayne – i think he’s garbage. but i obviously respect his work effort and his reach.
i’ve actually abandoned hip hop recently and now only listen to reggaeton because of all the redundant stuff out there (and yes, i know reggaeton is redundant too, but at least it’s new redundancy!), but now hip hop is getting really creative – but the only way to get this music is through blogs like this.
Thanks to the hundreds of thousands of music blogs out there, me and millions of other people (cyber babies) no longer have to watch MTV!
MTV will die a slow death, but their death is inevitable. Radio is already dead.
It will be all about niches.
I got put onto this blog because I follow Kellee Maize’s career – if it wasn’t for you guys writing about her, I would have never heard of the smoking section and pigeons and planes. Now im hooked and check out TSS once a day.
all im saying is that when you post articles like this, you’re doing the new main stream a favor! (the new main stream is the “long tail” of people that don’t watch MTV)
Thank you!
I know exactly what you’re writing about. I’m going through the same thing now… Thanks for sharing!
Why isn’t she rapping about money, jewelery, or how many bitches(or dicks) she got? I DON’T GET IT!!! Fuck this, I’ma listen to some Wakka Flockka or Soulja Boy. That shit is REAL!!!!!!!!!1!
Nice post!
Wanted to share also that i’ve been rockin out to the playlist that K. Flay put together on Shockhound.com, it’s pretty legit!
Check it out…
http://www.shockhound.com/features/1475-k-flay–shockhound-playlist?cm_mmc=SocialMedia-_-November-_-Interview+Playlist-_-WK+1
Cheers!