A Healthy Obsession With Petanque? Why of course. What could be healthier than men standing around and occasionally tossing their balls? Except we’re not on about the game petanque here but the forthcoming hip-hop LP on serial crowd fund label Paris DJs from reggae beatmaker Grant Phabao and emcee Racecar. Less tossing of balls than beats and bars then? Precisely. Oh – except – don’t be expecting either exclusively the boom-bap beats favoured by Racecar on previous productions or exclusively the reggae for which Grant Phabao is more usually known.
Instead the six track sampler reveals the Paris-by-way-of-Chicago emcee holding forth over Phabao beats that nod to psychedelic funk, afrofunk, reggae, ska and soul jazz. The pair’s first collaboration – the afro-tinged hip-hop of Return Of The Dig-Fu from Paris DJs comp Killas, Thrillas and Chillas makes it on while Think Of It All also has afro-funky vibes with a beat recalling something by The SA Move. We Do Anything and One Free rocks a reggae vibe, One Two One Two brings the psych funk, Rock Your Boat features Breakestra-ish rhythms. And if you like the sound of that – you’ll be want to know more details about this crowd-funded project which is looking to raise funds to drop the LP on cd and wax – and you can get those details HERE.