The other day, someone tried to sell Macklemore to me. “You’ll like him,” they said, “he’s funny.” I watched the video for “Thrift Shop”, his ode to buying used clothing, possibly off your grandfather. I smirked maybe once the whole time. His music’s more disarmingly amusing than funny, the unassuming “Two and A Half Men” of hip hop.
Now Satellite High, that’s someone who is funny.
An independent hip hop artist coming out of the Bay Area of California, Satellite High should be on your radar: he makes hip hop that’s catchy, clever and, more often than not, pretty damn funny. His music ranges from experimental to hilarious to moody, sometimes even in the same four minutes.
But jumping into Satellite High’s back catalog is like diving into the deep end of the pool. Over the past few years, he’s been steadily releasing music via his Bandcamp page: there are over a dozen mixtapes, EPs and full-lengths, plus singles and stray tracks appearing here and there. But by and large, he was best known among the few.
Recently, he’s been growing in popularity. One of his songs “The Bus is Late” showed up on Welcome to Night Vale, one of the most popular podcasts in North America. He went on a short tour across the US. And he threw together a 19-track compilation, Made Us Grits. It’s a great entry point to his music, giving the newcomer or casual fan a cross section of all his sounds.
Musically, his tracks are all over the map: “Manual Labor” sounds like something unearthed from the late 90s, with a bombastic riff and jangling guitar. On “Milquetoast” things are slowed down, with a double bass and fingersnap driven beat. And on “Guess Who Just Downloaded the Autotune Trial” he breaks out, well, I’m sure you can figure that one out.
It also shows his growth as an artist, with the newer material here having some of the album’s best moments. Tracks like Double Feature and Rap Hands don’t just have better production, they have some of his best rhymes, too: “And it even features a track from his covers album, Sing Along With Satellite High: his take on The Dead Milkmen’s “Born To Love Volcanos”.
Granted, there’s a few of my favourite moments missing from this record: a funky cover of Faith No More’s “We Care a Lot”; the hilarious broadside towards internet culture on “Sodom & Gomorrah, Jorts & A Fedora” (“Lookin sharp, everybody in the club said it / and by club, I mean the Fedora subreddit”). And his “Put Your Vans Up” freestyle is pretty rad, too.
Still, it’s a worthwhile collection, especially for newcomers. Start here, then work your way through his catalog: personally, I’m a fan of Sing Along and his latest album, The Art of Living Obnoxiously. But there’s way more to choose from, including two fun Shark Week mixtapes. You can find them all at his Bandcamp.
http://satellitehigh.bandcamp.com/
http://www.satellite-high.com/