♫♪  Killer Bee - Otaku

“Tell me how the it feel, to get hit with the motherfucking reel?”

In the process of writing this, Killer Bee’s nod to anime and “lo-fi” hip hop culture promptly sold out on Grifo Tapes. The label is one of the first in Memphis Tennessee to take on the cassette resurgence. It’s about damn time, too – Memphis has a rich history of underground MCs dropping hastily-cut cassettes in the 90s, many of which are now collectors items for rich, white Germans. This is Grifo’s first grip, and the second for New Jersey producer Killer Bee. It’s an excellent entry point into a heavily populated and sometimes overwhelming landscape of perennial vibes and carefully chosen clips of film dialogue and pop culture ephemera, with an eye for high quality artwork and shimmering, floral beats.

“I don’t think people should judge each other so harshly.”

For all appearances, Killer Bee seems much more honest and, well, *human* than most of the megalomaniac soundcloud entrepreneurs offering to sell their own curated “drum kits” and flaming each other on twitter. A note accompanying the tape thanks his family, Tracks like “swordfish” and “✿blossom✿” are freewheeling yet intricate, and flashes of bleak wisdom, protestor angst, and rap royalty permeate the empty space between the heavy thud of Killer Bee’s kick. Dude’s got a solid knowledge of the best producers in the game right now, which he details in the tape’s liner notes, but this work is all his own. And by the end of the production, you get the sense that Killer Bee is really in bloom. The last take, “Final Fantasy” is an unexpected epic: a “Bohemian R(h)apsody” for the lo-fi game, moving between 80’s croon and Blade Runner synths, with peanut butter-thick bass bumping throughout.

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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