Omid x The Good Life

Busdriver, apparently, at some point said something to the effect of, underground hip hop happened ten years ago – but he said that five years ago. So he meant the mid-‘90s. Maybe. The Gravediggas, Black Moon and other New York acts already had discs out for a few years by that point – and to me that really should be the demarcation point. 1991-92? Maybe.

Anyway, what Busdriver was specifically referring to – since he’s an Los Angeles dude – is the fact that the Goodlife open mic night began around ’93 or so. And without that outlet, the LA rap scene – or the west coast underground as a whole – just wouldn’t be the same.

The Goodlife was a health food store that somehow saw fit to host a weekly event and invite emcees from the LA area to perform. This could be figured to be the impetus of Project Blowed and its universe. Out of that, though, in addition to all those ‘big’ names – Ab Rude, Aceyelone, etcetera - is a producer named Omid Walizadeh, that probably deserves a bit more attention then he has thus far garnered.

To this date, Omid’s only released three full length discs – in addition to a few mixes. But the Beneath the Surface disc really served to introduce the Goodlife scene to a wider audience. His subsequent work hasn’t focused on the inclusion of emcees as much as that first disc did, but the level of competence over these other releases should never be called into question. Some of Omid’s work even borders on IDM territory – and while the rap game has shifted to include more and more of this type of production, Omid may have been one of the first producers to insert it into hip hop.

Being of Iranian extraction gives some of his work a completely different basis to work from. The producer has been conscious to utilize that template and he points to a few specific instances from his Distant Drummer album as the development of this particular perspective. But the recently posted Goodlife Mix: Chapter 1 (thanks to GrandGood) doesn’t incorporate too much of the producer’s background. It does however, as one could guess from the title, focus on his background and the scene that gave birth to some of the most important emcees on the west coast.

The thirty minute single track begins with what can be figured as an introduction to one of the Goodlife Open Mic Nights. It’s a pretty authentic beginning with Acey thanking the evening’s benefactors for providing some new microphones.

It does become difficult to pick out every emcee that’s featured here – and certainly some of them haven’t gone on to impact the game as much as others – but everyone displays their rap prowess. The production is rather consistent. Not to say that there isn’t any derivation from a single perspective, but with Omid matching his work to the vocal snippets he’s working with, it most likely required a less adventurous look at how to connect all of this. But even if you’re not a fan of the emcees associated with this time and place, take a listen just for the beats- ‘cause there’s no way in which to denigrate the music.