Project Blowed at SXSW

Another year of the South by Southwest Music Conference brings a thousand or so rappers from across the globe to Austin. Last year, we enjoyed an overflowing smorgasbord that included such luminaries as DJ Quik, Bone Thugs N Harmony, the Dogg Pound, 8ball & MJG and so on. This year, I'm excited to see each of EPMD, the Wu Tang Clan, Labtekwon (wow!) and Freestyle Fellowship on the offical SXSW bill.

But as time goes on, it's becoming more and more typical for the non-offical events to be bringing the major heat. For instance, there's this Project Blowed gathering going down at Club 1808 on East 12th Street. Project Blowed, a long-standing open mic night in Los Angeles, holds a special place in my heart, as writing about its pre-cursor the Good Life Cafe for 4080 Magazine back in the day was one of my first major placings as an aspiring rap journalist. 

Over the years, I've made friends with a bunch of Project Blowed artists, helping them to land shows here in Austin and whatnot. And now, Riddlore? of Chillin Villain Empire actually lives down here in Austin and has without hesitation become an integral part of the Destiny by Design afterschool porgram at Kealing Middle School. Anyway, credit Riddlore? with putting this Project Blowed BBQ together.

And while we're at it, Riddlore?'s group CVE has just recently put out an album titled Not Like Those which I can't seem to take out of my cd player. Between Ridd, Ngafsh, Wreccless, and newest crew member Nevathad, innovative double-timed flows are the norm and they even send a shout-out to Texas rap in the form of the following song...