It's about damn time
This one literally fell on my head. I know next to nothing about the NAP Project - it's a collaboration between two left-coasters (NickLbag & mixLPHiX), on a tiny label called Twenty Twelve records, that's also new to me. It rode in on the weekly e-mailbag, that usually fills the collective MFR inbox with a gazillion demos, most of which fall squarely into the thank-you-but-no-thank-you pile. This one caught me totally off guard, in that it wasn't just good, it's pretty damn near excellent for an act that's almost completely off the rader (save for 867 view on Myspace at the time of writing).
Here's the hook. NP's music is a perfect blend of all the best elements you want in a feel-good hip-hop track (or 14): warm, smooth emcee vocals (complete with a little singing here and there); sick, sick rhyme schemes that he carries for lyric after lyric after lyric; production that is both intelligent and fun, bringing tones of Fat Jon, Scott Herren, etc... the whole thing just works. Vocal tricks clumsily exploited by mainstream chumps are used with almost surgical skill, words mesh together to effortlessly and intelligently to tell the story (no braggadocio crap here), and the whole thing just leaves you feeling good. If you're a Gift of Gab or Blackalicious fan, you'll probably love this (Paragraph President anyone?).
While there's only one track posted here, and I have no clue as to when something resembling an album would arrive, you can download 14 tracks for free from the label's site! Check out Sorry and International for a few more examples of top-shelf lyrical play. This one's been really satisfying for me, I hope you enjoy it as well.