Casey Birch grew up 1700 miles from the birthplace of hip-hop. Borger, TX is "the gateway to the Texas Plains", and is best known for hosting the world's largest fish fry each June. Every year kids in the Texas pan handle pick up the guitar and dream of becoming a country rock star, but in 1986 Casey heard the Fat Boys and fell in love. In the late 90's Mr. Birch began DJing and banging out beats on his MPC. Armed with a giant collection of dusty breaks and rare grooves, Casey created his own brand of boom-bap, and Beat Rabbi was born.
Beat Rabbi earned his first major production credit in 2000, when he provided the beat for "Divine Lines" on Dirt's sophomore LP A War To Restore. That same year Beat Rabbi was contacted by Manchild of Mars Ill, and invited to meet with members of the then fledgling Deepspace5 crew in Nashville. The meeting would lead to BR joining DS5 just in time to produce the lead single from the crew's label debut The Night We called It A Day. "Stick This In Your Ear" continues to be a fan favorite among DS5's ever-growing catalogue.
While Rabbi was making a name for himself with guest-spot production, he was also working on a full-length album with his group Circumcised Mind. The Real Battle showcased emcee Apologetic's lyricism over BR's rough, rugged, and raw beats. The self-released project has been compared to early Quannum Projects releases, and is considered to have been ahead of it's time since its release in 2001.
For years now the beat teacher has continued to provide bangers for an all-star list of emcees including Braille, Playdough, Sivion, Listener, Fred B, Sintax.the.terrific and others. In 2005, Deepspace5 released Unique, Like Everyone Else, and again Beat Rabbi delivered the singles in the form of "People Are People" and "Your Biggest Fan". It seemed like only a matter of time before fans would get to hear an entire DS5 album produced by the funk rabbit. Little did they know that the process had already been set into motion.
In the summer of 2003 Casey decided to create an album that would pay respect to the early 90's hip-hop sound. He began crafting beats fusing soul, jazz, funk, and breaks to make his own version of that Golden Era sound. The next step was to hit up his crew members, and get them to lace these tasty tracks with their witty rhymes. Nearly five years later the result is Deepspace5oul. The twenty-two track album features all of the Deepspace emcees but also offers tracks with each of the established groups within the large crew (something noticeably absent on other DS5 projects). Another unique feature is the presence of Illtrip, the long-time Deepspace member that was unable to participate on either of the DS5 crew albums. The highlight, of course, is Beat Rabbi's block-rocking beats, which are sure to please heads from the plains of Texas to the trains of New York.
Beat Rabbi earned his first major production credit in 2000, when he provided the beat for "Divine Lines" on Dirt's sophomore LP A War To Restore. That same year Beat Rabbi was contacted by Manchild of Mars Ill, and invited to meet with members of the then fledgling Deepspace5 crew in Nashville. The meeting would lead to BR joining DS5 just in time to produce the lead single from the crew's label debut The Night We called It A Day. "Stick This In Your Ear" continues to be a fan favorite among DS5's ever-growing catalogue.
While Rabbi was making a name for himself with guest-spot production, he was also working on a full-length album with his group Circumcised Mind. The Real Battle showcased emcee Apologetic's lyricism over BR's rough, rugged, and raw beats. The self-released project has been compared to early Quannum Projects releases, and is considered to have been ahead of it's time since its release in 2001.
For years now the beat teacher has continued to provide bangers for an all-star list of emcees including Braille, Playdough, Sivion, Listener, Fred B, Sintax.the.terrific and others. In 2005, Deepspace5 released Unique, Like Everyone Else, and again Beat Rabbi delivered the singles in the form of "People Are People" and "Your Biggest Fan". It seemed like only a matter of time before fans would get to hear an entire DS5 album produced by the funk rabbit. Little did they know that the process had already been set into motion.
In the summer of 2003 Casey decided to create an album that would pay respect to the early 90's hip-hop sound. He began crafting beats fusing soul, jazz, funk, and breaks to make his own version of that Golden Era sound. The next step was to hit up his crew members, and get them to lace these tasty tracks with their witty rhymes. Nearly five years later the result is Deepspace5oul. The twenty-two track album features all of the Deepspace emcees but also offers tracks with each of the established groups within the large crew (something noticeably absent on other DS5 projects). Another unique feature is the presence of Illtrip, the long-time Deepspace member that was unable to participate on either of the DS5 crew albums. The highlight, of course, is Beat Rabbi's block-rocking beats, which are sure to please heads from the plains of Texas to the trains of New York.
5 comments:
Man that's groovy!
Paragraph breaks homey!
These are excellent! A great way of demonstrating your committment to the craft while focusing on others and encouraging the whole genre in a positive and respectful way. Disregard any criticism or cynicism... this is a blog for goodness sake!
If you don't like what it says, or how it's structured, navigate away!
I got mad love for Beat Rabbi...the next DS5 album comes out soon. When does your new album come out?
Soon. Very soon!
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