Blogarhythms

I first heard Brooklyn-based Indie-Rap collective Nuclear Family (a.k.a. Nuk Fam) thanks to my homegirl Kate who happened to be handling radio-promo for their debut The New Singles EP at the time. My radio co-host Emeyesi and I loved it from jump, which is saying a lot because working in radio we hear a lot of shit we most definitely don’t love. But Nuk Fam was refreshing, like Black Sheep if they were just starting out making records with that 1991-1994 formula now, or The Beatnuts if they rapped about more than sex, violence, drinking and drugs. Anyway, they also had a really cool, well-crafted website that helped burn their name into my brain despite the fact that they were an unsigned crew who nobody had ever heard of.

Since then the seven-man collective (made up of Baje One, Krayola Spektrum, Tony Tank Top, Snafu, Scott Thorough, N.E.M.C., and Probe Cellsplitter) has broken down into smaller combinations and begun releasing side projects. The most visible has been Junk Science (Baje One and Snafu), whose 2006 Embedded Music LP Feeding Einstein put a post-modern, post-9/11, hipster/boho spin on the crate-dug sound of Native Tongues-era Hip-Hop in a manner similar to label-mate and sometime collaborator Cool Calm Pete. More recently the duo Iller Than Theirs (Krayo and Tone Tank, with production from N.E.M.C., Snafu and Scott Thorough) has emerged via Embedded, and a very different sort of act (mixing Hip-Hop, Soul and Indie Rock/Pop) called The Boys and Girls Club (Scott Thorough and Mike of electronic Pop act Short Stories) has popped up on MySpace as well.

Earlier this year Junk Science dropped a 12” (on cotton-candy-pink vinyl, and downloadable digital formats) featuring the working-class-urbanite party-jam “Pop Rocks,” the introspective, guitar-looping, Rakim-sampling “Do It Easy,” an exclusive track called “Two Minutes Hate,” and an N.E.M.C. remix of Feeding Einstein’s “That’s The Way.” It’s the lead single from their forthcoming album Gran’dad’s Nerve Tonic, which should be hitting this Fall on Embedded, and it’s easily proven to be one of the best Hip-Hop singles of the year. Iller Than Theirs hasn’t officially released anything, but Embedded serviced a track to radio called “To Be Ill,” which sounds like R.A. The Rugged Man (if he was on meds) produced by Kanye West trying do a Marley Marl/Juice Crew thing. The first time I heard it I didn’t know they were part of Nuk Fam, but the track immediately got me excited for an album, which is apparently in the can, featuring production and guest-verses from various Nuk Fam members, and appearances by Cool Calm Pete and Masta Ace.

I’m hoping both get their albums released in ‘07, and that The Boys and Girls Club get’s around to dropping something eventually too. Because if any Family should be expected to blow up, it’s a Nuclear one.

-El Keter