One of the things I like the most about hip hop is that the community behind it has a sense of family. Back when Sage Francis released "A Healthy Distrust" I was on the Epitaph mailing list and got an advance copy of the CD. If that was my only reason for ever contacting Epitaph it was well worth it. From falling in love with Sage Francis I was introduced to other artists such as B. Dolan and Wheelchair Sports Camp. It becomes difficult for me to put into words why you should be listening to WSC when a Sage Francis reccomendation should be reason enough.
I've listened to the songs of Wheelchair Sports Camp through various outlets online and I also follow their accounts on social media. (Cheap plug) I saw the post come up on their Facebook page about this cassette and thought to myself, well, I've been listening to them enough otherwise for free, it's time to put some cash down and get this cassette. (Other artists who see me blowing up their Spotify/Soundcloud/YouTube/Bandcamp/etc take note)
If you've read anything I've ever written about rap music before you likely know I listened to cassettes in the 1980's and 1990's and a lot of them (Thanks, Columbia House!) are from the rap genre as well. So listening to WSC is also a lot of fun for me because even though something to that effect is stated at one point (a '90's rap kid) I can hear it in the songs, specifically something like "Scooter Pack" has that acoustic guitar loop vibe and it makes me think of "Scenario", which if you don't know that song then I'm already beyond being able to help you.
Though I'm not a rapper myself, I like to write and I realized recently that the most difficult part of creating a song is coming up with that hook. If you can create that hook- those few rhyming lines to always come back to- then the rest just falls into place because you just kind of rhyme a lot of other thoughts related to your hook and I can write for days so I just have to re-work it a bit to rhyme. Anyway, yes, writing hooks is hard. But trying to rap is harder. You have to have that flow and timing which I, vocally, do not possess. WSC makes it look easy though and for all the years I've been listening to them I've never been a doubter of their collected talent.
If you're into compact discs that's cool, but I really am a fan of the idea that I can take my cassettes from 2Pac, Dr. Dre, all these weird soundtracks I have for some reason (Remember the movie "Who's the Man?" I don't but I have the soundtrack. And "Trespass" too) and put them with this, combining my musical past and present. I think it's a fitting sign that the way we listen to music might change over time but quality music will never go out of style.
[$7 // 4 remaining as I type this // https://wheelchairsportscamp.bandcamp.com/album/no-big-deal]
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