Durham Blues 🔵
Tomorrow night, a fixture of Bull City hip-hop returns to the fray. Plus: J. Cole's "The Fall-Off," Deniro Farrar's "Raw Materials," and more.
Editor's Note: You can read an abridged version of the below, along with other 919-area items for your radar this week, in today's INDY Selects.
In any city, but especially one that’s transformed as rapidly as Durham has over the past 15 years, IYKYK-type nostalgia is an easy shorthand for assessing local bonafides, based on what bulldozed landmarks, defunct shops, or shuttered watering holes someone is rooted enough to remember. Reminiscing back to Runaway events is its own, albeit more recent, stamp of “local” status; firsthand experiences of watching the Bulls play at the original DAP, or playing pool at the original Green Room (the one from Bull Durham, before it moved across Broad Street), attests to a different level of OG status entirely. Here’s one I like: whether or not a person is familiar with the music video for “Hulk Smash,” by the rapper then known as Professor Toon.
Made in 2011 by Jason Ho and Saleem Reshamwala and set mostly on the Surf Club/MotorCo block between Riggsbee and Foster streets, it’s not just a litmus test for whether you remember today’s slick ax-throwing bar as yesterday's cavernous depot that sold giant, antique pots and Persian rugs, or can recall a version of Liberty Warehouse Apartments that was actually, just… a big warehouse. It also suggests your fluency with a time in which Toon (later renamed Lord Fess) came to be synonymous with Durham hip-hop—filling a void after many of the luminaries of a previous generation had either physically or figuratively drifted away. From event organizing (including, with The Real Laww, the multi-year DURM Hip-Hop Summit), to his own electric performances, to his arsenal of "at one point, over 75" secret handshakes, few can claim to have poured more of themselves into the scene than Fess, and few know the kind of near-unanimous, inter-generational respect that he enjoys as a result. Still, for all his good works and dedication, a culminating artistic statement befitting that legacy has never quite arrived. In recent years, as he’s delved further into the world of film and media, his musical output has slowed to a trickle, amounting to just a handful of singles over the past few years.
That now seems poised to change with an upcoming album release party this Friday, announced alongside a set of IG posts that nod at an artistic reset, and a project more comprehensive and focused than anything he’s released in years—maybe ever. It’ll be a special night for the “Hulk Smash” crowd, to be sure, but not only for them. Because Fess’s greatest achievement isn’t what he did back in the day; it’s that he’s still here, still at the center of culture-making moments in Durham, all these years later.
ALSO THIS WEEK(ISH):
After a three-week newsletter layoff (HNY from SE, btw), the volume of activity to catch up on is almost too much for one sensibly-sized email, so I'm herding most of the "new music"-related material into another dispatch for early next week. There are, however, a few items that either dropped too long ago, or are simply too important, to hold 'til then. Starting with...
- 🔥 Two-Six, Literally: Yesterday, J. Cole announced the release date—2.6.26—for his long-awaited (and possibly final) album, The Fall-Off, a seismic event without equal in the landscape of NC hip-hop. Also included was the song and video "DISC 2 TRACK 2," which borrows the one-day-told-backwards conceit of Nas' famous "Rewind," and stretches it across Cole's entire life. It may not outshine its predecessor, but it's a fittingly grand opening statement for what's been framed as a career-capping, magnum opus work for the Fayetteville native and Raleigh resident. Over the past few months, the hands of untold Triangle-area creatives have been all over this clandestine operation—from music videos to styling to distribution and more—and every last one of them has signed NDAs so won't talk to me about it. Trust that in the weeks to come, SE will be stubbornly pushing these people to divulge any and all that they can without putting their vocational well-being at risk, and will be covering this rollout with the diligence it deserves.
- ⚙️ Raw Materials, by Deniro Farrar: In a year that saw Charlottean and former "cult rap" leader Deniro Farrar release two different albums in its first eleven months, I was maybe predisposed to overlook this album when it dropped in early December. Turns out that was my loss. This thing is great from top to bottom, from pseudo-title track "Kinetic Sand" to the Lute-assisted "Quartz Crystals." Perhaps in response to current events, I've been going through a major phase of listening to lighter, more comical or abstract fare, at least as it pertains to rap. But from first listen, the steely wisdom of Raw Materials had me back at the altar of high-stakes hip-hop, and appreciating the power of music that confronts head-on the many trials and tribulations of real life.
- đź“ş Videos, videos, videos: "Triple Nickel," ft. MIKE, which would be the best song on MAVI's recent The Pilot mixtape if it weren't for like three or four even better ones; Ak! Niran's "One Spirit"; James Soleil still very much in the DVSN-esque bag with "GO!*"; Deniro Farrar's "Kinetic Sand," and leroy & Ducee' DropTop's green-screened masterpiece that they so kindly dropped on my birthday, "Indubitably."
- đź”— Other links: an exploration of how 919ers, including Sylvan Esso, are discovering new music these days (INDY); Alphonse Pierre on Charlotte underground up-and-comer TopOppGen (Pitchfork); little kids at a Wake Forest basketball game absolutely losing it for "FE!N;" North Carolinians TiaCorine, sosocamo, and prettifun appear on an extremely underground-heavy Rolling Loud '26 lineup; and comedian Dan Harumi talks about his voice narration that fans heard on yesterday's J. Cole teaser video, and the extended video essay it originally came from.
That's it for now, y'all—another email focused on new music is on the way soon. And as always, if you have story tips, music recommendations, or are willing to break your J. Cole NDA, please get in touch.
Peace,
Ryan
