Brown, Apollo & Philmore Greene - Cost of Living (Red Cloudy Coloured Vinyl)

Apollo Brown & Philmore Greene - Cost of Living (Red Cloudy Coloured Vinyl)

Cost of Living is an album full of authenticity that can't be faked. These are songs that betray the scar tissue. Contemplative fire. Verité films of the westside of Chicago. It's this noirish part of town that nourished Greene and gave him nightmares. The place where he saw his first dead body in his early teens, where he lost his brother to the street violence only a few years later, and where he turned to the pad, pen and microphone as a refuge and way to share his hard-fought wisdom.

Behind the boards, Apollo Brown creates a cinematic backdrop of tense, moody strings and hand-of-god drums. A reminder of why he's already become a rightful heir to the throne of Pete Rock, J Dilla, and DJ Premier. As Pitchfork recently raved, the Detroit's producer's "fidelity for the grime and grit of rap's second Golden Age goes beyond simply trying to recreate DJ Premier beats. Flourishes across his instrumental projects and over a dozen collaborative albums unearth the passion he puts into his art." Philmore Greene is an ideal match for Brown's sumptuous canvasses, an MC who the Chicago Reader has hailed for making "confident, luxuriant boom-bap." But it's his ability to convey complex emotions, empathetic street narratives, and heartbreaking pathos that make him singular. Consider the sharp detail of his words on "Welcome to the Ave," where he namechecks the dice games, "all my n**'s grinding in the same clothes as yesterday," the robberies and larcenies, the street pharmacies, the "question marks where the fathers be."

Tracklisting:

01. Consequences
02. Nice To Meet You
03. Keep Goin'
04. Day On The Ave
05. Immaculate
06. Time Goes
07. Paradise (feat. Evidence)
08. Steep Life
09. Hittin' Blocks
10. This Is Me
11. Free
12. Just Imagine
13. Promises
14. It's Different
15. Where's The Love (feat. Rashid Hadee)