Str8 Buttah is a Lagos (Nigeria) based collective of MCs– Teckzilla, XYZ, R-Cube, Deck the Nexus, Enigma and Rae – an amalgamation of crews and solo artistes that frequently interacted in the Lagos underground scene in the early 00’s, united by mutual respect, time-tested friendships and their undying love for hip-hop. Their origins can be traced backed to ‘The Constellation’ a four-man rap crew that had Rae, Teckzilla and Deck as original members while at the University of Lagos. The Constellation released their free EP (A Stellar Demonstration) and got sparse airplay with the single ‘Mic in my hand’ in 2003. After the crew split Rae and Teckzilla became ‘Ill Alliance’; Deck the Nexus went on to release his seminal underground classic ‘By Word of Mouth’ in 2005 with production by himself, Teckzilla and Rae under the banner of Str8 Buttah Productions. On the strength of ‘By Word of Mouth’ and unreleased tracks from the Ill Alliance project a buzz started to grow for the trio as a production crew. Following the failed reunion of the constellation as ‘Street Poets’ they began working closely with R-Cube (an MC they had been working with since the early days and the closest thing they ever had to an A&R, manager or publicist) and his brother Enigma, a budding lyricist, both long-time friends of Rae on numerous unreleased projects. At the same time XYZ was building a buzz of his own as a solo MC and producer. One half of the duo Afromystictechs (with fellow MC AZ) he joined Str8 Buttah Productions out of mutual respect and recognition of similar visions. In 2006 he formed (another!) group with Teckzilla and Rae called LMN-3. The crew, though still undefined, by then had started gaining more recognition and radio play. In 2007, Str8 Buttah evolved from being just a production crew to a dedicated rap group on the verge of releasing their ‘IllaStr8’ mixtape, a labour of love featuring a Who’s who of The Lagos hip-hop scene, arranged by Teckzilla and XYZ with support from longtime group collaborator MC/Producer Venomous. The video for the lead-single ‘The Anthem’ featuring, Venomous and directed by R-Cube (Dedicated to the memory of fleet militant R.I.P) is already getting airplay as this six-man crew keep mic cords and fingers crossed on the rest of their story being history…The Anthem
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