Artist Interview: Has-Lo

I am going to go out and just let it out in the opening sentence: Mello Music Group is probably my favorite up and coming label out right now. Because of this, having the opportunity to chat with one of the most unique artists in the MMG roster, Philadelphia-born Ha-Lo, was obviously very special for me. We featured him on our 2012 Oh.Globe freshmen list for good reason. I made sure to take advantage of this Q&A to gain some more info on Has-Lo's group The Wrecking Crew, his future with Mello Music Group, and his planned releases for 2012. Check it out.

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Oh.Globe 2012 Freshman List: What the XXL List Should Have Been

Yesterday, the annual XXL Freshman Class was unveiled. Like recent years, the list has been criticized for either having artists who have been doing their thing for enough time where they are nowhere near being "Freshmen" (I'm looking at you Macklemore, French Montana, and Danny Brown) or for obviously having a bias for more of the "industry" players. After seeing this, I decided to construct a list of my own, one that I feel would have been a much better substitute than the one that the geniuses at XXL threw together.

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Album!: Small Professor - Gigantic, Vol. 1

Philadelphia's own Small Professor's alias is obviously (not so) cleverly paying homage to legendary producer Large Professor. What the up and coming producer lacks in name picking creativity, he makes up for with serious musical creativity. He started gaining buzz with his masterful remixes of tracks by guys like Elzhi and Phat Kat. His debut compilation is full of indie heavyweights on features (Blueprint, Guilty Simpson, Has-Lo, and Philly's own Reef tha Lost Cauze) but also features not so top-bill names. The familiarity of the artists who are complementing the beats mean nothing as nearly every MC featured on this project does lose a step. Buff1 expertly preaches about the doubts of being so deep in the hip-hop game on "Can't Be Scared" while flowing over a boom-bap, sample laden concoction by Small Prof which, *gasp*, actually has a really nice hook (something that is rare for an underground hip-hop record these days). Stik Figa has a charisma explosion on "Attitude Problem" over another brass-sample-heavy beat. Don't get me wrong, the main attractions do their thing, too. Blueprint's appearance on "Make Moves" results in far and away the best song on the album while Has-Lo's collab with Small Prof on "When the Last Leaf Falls" closely follows, even if it's way too short. Small Professor has put together an impressive debut producer-compilation and you can definitely expect his name to gain more weight in the next few months in the same way that Statik Selektah's did after he started dropping his compilations back in 2008.

You can support Small Professor and buy the album here or you can stream it:

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