Local Release Roundup
Thursday, January 2nd, 2020
Originally aired on Radical Beat Radio on Alternative Frequency (R.I.P.)
Stoop Coupx
Self-released, 2019
St. Pete rapper Acoupstix wants in on your front porch, but unlike some Washington-backed injustice in Latin America he wants to share the stage with the elected government of the house (ie. you). This November releases title is a play on the artist’s name (Acoupstix is spelt with the word ‘coup’ in the middle, Boots Riley style), but I’d more accurately describe the experience as a stoop squat. It’s all about bringing out good social interactions, like if some people took over a luxury condo building downtown and opened a coffee place where the fusion restaurant is supposed to go. Acoupstix’s choice of stoop juice is definitely caffeinated (mug mug mug), with his playful persona moving around over minimalist mid-tempo jazz-hop beats. I’m also reminded of the likes of Digable Planets and Jamiroquai in some of the track themes, such as positivity (Spite, Wiseman), humility (Righteous), small pleasures (Coffee), and being good to one another (The Rain). Within these posi vibes Acoupstix indulges in occasional aggression and accumulation brags but is generally kept tethered to Earth by the beats, where, for better or worse in this style, the beautiful instrumentation sometimes absorbs the rapper like an artistic swirl in a hot cup. While Coup's character is generally enough to avoid the record becoming wallpapery, perhaps what it needs is some kind of blown-out hip hop cover of Cock Sparrer’s We’re Coming Back - an observation in no way spurred by staring at the Acoupstix emblem of what appears to be Guy Fawkes fresh from his Epic Rap Battle with Che Guevara, winking from a remixed Liverpool Football Club crest.
Acoupstix is also active in the community, appearing to spend a good amount of his time imploring Mayor Rick Kriseman not to let sewage spill into Tampa Bay. Local levels of coffee consumption are no excuse for your bad infrastructure spending and the bay itself should not hold the tint of a dark roast. So instead of Kriseman, from the album Stoop Coupx, this is Wiseman.
(Also broadcast was the review for the Low Season release Four More Songs.)
(Also broadcast was the review for the Low Season release Four More Songs.)
