After reintroducing the hip-hop world to intricately-layered jazz chords with Colossus’ West Oaktown, ushering in a post-neo-soul era with Strange Fruit Project’s The Healing, and showcasing the non-hyphy side of Bay Area rap with Zion-I & the Grouch’s Heroes in the City of Dope, Om Hip Hop unleashes its most visionary, groundbreaking and (quite possibly) controversial release to date.

Rise Up, the long-awaited album from veteran underground emissaries Zeph and Azeem, offers thirteen tracks (and two interludes) worth of consciousness-lifting metaphors, party-rocking beats, and undiluted, 100% rebel music from one of hip-hop’s most slept-on duos.
As Zeph explains, “Movement and music have a lot in common. Musically, this album incorporates several styles that Azeem and I agreed on going into it. Q-Tip once described hip-hop as (a) form of music based on other forms of music. We represent that idea.” Adds Azeem, “All we knew is we wanted to create our own sound. We mixed up beat tempos with reggae and threw some Latin influences in there and shit started to come together. I don’t get an idea then write. I let the beat tell me what it needs…the vibe, the rhyme pattern. Somewhere in that process, the album named itself.”

Rise Up emanates with an almost-punk rock attitude reminiscent of the early days of hip-hop, when Grandmaster Flash and the Clash could play the same bill and not raise eyebrows. If songs like “10 Steps Ahead” and “Play the Drum” make an extra effort to be original in a time of creatively-challenged rap, well, that’s by design.