Animal Farm

Animal Farm is one of the newest groups to burst upon the northwest hip-hop scene, creating a significant buzz in just a year after joining forces. The group has quickly developed a large regional following after performing live with legends from KRS 1 to GZA from Wu-Tang Clan to Brand Nubian, and many more. Animal Farm’s MCs, Hanif Wondir, Gen.Erik, Fury, and Kenny Wilson, have gained recognition due to their extremely energetic live show, which combines serious lyricism with a lighter side of comic relief. The group is a collaboration of MCs from Portland and Eugene, OR, and was also named the Eugene Weekly’s best local hip-hop ensemble in a recent fan vote. The “True School” hip-hop sound is well described in a recent issue of Portland’s Willamette Week newspaper, “The group takes simple, catchy loops and cranks the bass up a bit, achieving back-to-basics, rhyme-driven hip-hop that gives props to the simpler days of the artform.”

The much anticipated debut album will be released in Winter 2007 and will feature some great surprises and collaborative efforts, including the legendary KRS-One. Some of the songs expected to be found on the album are “Ragtime Gal”, a great throwback to the 1920s, “Mean Streaks”, a humerous track about bad tempers, “All Out”, and many soulful tracks often produced by group member Gen.Erik.

Cleveland Steamers

In imagining the standard, stereotypical hip-hop group, listeners will find that the Cleveland Steamers are anything but. Comprised of Mic Crenshaw, a Portland, Oregon poetry slam champion and national finalist, Gen.Erik, a satirical lyricist with the ability to transform into a hip-hop DJ and producer, and DJ Aero, who has toured the world with Tommy Lee, as part of Methods of Mayhem, and with Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom Huck Jam, the group’s creative cohesion has mesmerized numerous crowds since the three members decided to form a union. Although each member of the Cleveland Steamers is a veteran to the music industry, they have emerged as a group, combining Crenshaw’s socially conscious clever lyricism and Gen.Erik’s thought-provoking wordplay with DJ Aero’s melodic, head-nodding beats.  As an added bonus, Cleveland Steamers often throw in DJs Wicked and Wels, two of the Northwest’s best hip-hop DJs, who are known as Style Molesters.  Wicked is also known for his “Got Milf” CD and touring as the DJ for Grayskul.  The Cleveland Steamers’ much anticipated album, “Treasure Chest”, will be released in late summer 2006, and features Sy Scott and Rhymesayers artists I Self Divine and Nightclubber Lang (Boom Bap Project), among others.

The Cleveland Steamers debut album “Treasure Chest” is a potentially classic hip-hop album, led by “The Decider”, a groundbreaking concept, in which MCs Mic Crenshaw and Gen.Erik trade rhymes with none other than George W. Bush over a smooth beat composed by DJ Aero. By utilizing the President’s popular foolish sound bites (Bushisms), the Cleveland Steamers substantiate Bush’s lack of compassion and intelligence in a clever manner that is entertaining and comedic to the listener. In an example of the song’s brilliance, Crenshaw exchanges quips with Bush, …Bomb the nation into oblivion/ Some say a village is missing it’s idiot/ Saying stuff like ‘poor people aren’t necessarily killers’/Damn George that’s the illest/ Now watch this, listen to how he feels/ ‘Just because you happen to be not rich doesn’t mean you’re willing to kill’. Gen.erik also takes some witty jabs at the President, You conned the nation taking photo ops/ A background filled with soldiers they probably fixed in Photoshop/ You broke the laws with your vanity/ No respect for those ‘working hard to put food on their family’. “The Decider” is a song that you will have to hear for yourself.

In addition to the politically charged single, Cleveland Steamers offer a wide variety of subject matter on Treasure Chest, ranging from pop culture to personal struggles to underground groupies (labeled “Undergroupies”). The album showcases superb lyricism from Gen.Erik alongside Poetry Slam Champion Mic Crenshaw. The majority of Treasure Chest was produced by DJ Aero (DJ with Tommy Lee and the Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam). The album also features production from Gen.Erik, Arkitek, P-Cutta, Mic Q, and Gregory B. from Italy.�