January 10, Music » Album Review. The Vermont hip-hop scene is a strange construct: a collection of stylistically diverse micro scenes, united by the sheer fact of existing in such a sparsely populated state. While hip-hop in the is cross-generational, younger rappers have been making a lot of the noise of late, from former 99 Neighbors rapper Conswank to North Ave Jax to Obi the Voicegod to Rivan.
The young MCs have injected the scene with much-needed fire, along with a swaggering exuberance. Which makes the curious case of Freddie Losambe even more intriguing. The South Burlington-based rapper, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist has been quietly dropping emotionally complex, lyrically profound and sonically pristine records for more than a decade. A tour through his Bandcamp discography reveals the trove of a savant, with folk records, Christmas music and alt-rock peppering Losambe's prodigious hip-hop work.
Estates of the Realm , Losambe's first album on local hip-hop label Equal Eyes Records, raised eyebrows around the state in A thoroughly adult work full of spiritual longing and cutting political commentary, the record revealed Losambe as one of the area's most innovative producers.
No one in Vermont, in any genre, is making the kind of music Losambe turns out. His latest, The Leaves Still Dance , doesn't just continue that bold originality but reinforces it.
With a title taken from the Congolese proverb "Even without drums, the leaves still dance," Losambe's new LP is a staggering entry into the annals of Vermont hip-hop, easily one of the most original records produced in the Green Mountains. The Leaves Still Dance is a soundtrack to a mind on hyperspeed, bouncing from second song sketches such as the boom-bap funk of "Uncle Ray Ray" to the dark, churning auto-tune jam "Buenos Aires ft.
