what be crackin yall?
we wanna give a shoutout to all the hustlas and hoez that been peepin' and praisin' us over tha last few yearz. we wuz outta tha game fo a minute, but thought we'd make our prezenz heard on myspaze. ya hurr??if u feelin' the joints we be postin', den let us know! give us a shout, an maybe we's shout back. one.~Raytown 4 Life, 40's Weed an Ice~
the Raytown Hustlas
whatchu wanna know 'bout the Hustlas?
The Raytown Hustlas were formed in 2000 as a tongue-in-cheek, satiric jab at all of rap musics indulgences, idiosyncrasies, and clichés. They consist of Justeezy (Justin K) as producer and Deezy (Chris K) on vocals. In response to rappers like Master P, Ja Rule, Nelly, and the Hot Boys, the Hustlas began recording solely for the purpose of showing people how easy it was to make music about nothing but ice, cars, and women.Their first album, Off the Heezy (2001), was created more as a joke, a direct shot at certain artists, almost a parody. With the release of their second album, We Back in dis Whoadie! (2002), however, there was a definite turn toward artistry and originality, although the basic concept of playing off of hip hops foibles remained the same. The beats, production, and rhyming matured a great deal as the Hustlas began to find their own unique sound.
The culmination of this artistic process is the Hustlas third album, Trill-A-G. Released in 2003, it is by far their most stylistically mature work to date. Deezys vocals, while still about weed and bling, shine with a new-found confidence, and the production, with the help of some new equipment, is as good or better than a lot of hip hop, underground or otherwise. While still poking fun at hip hop, and basically just having a good time, the Hustlas music has, at the same time, attained a new level of creativity and post-modern flavor, taking it to a level far above the its simple beginnings.
With the success of the three Raytown Hustlas albums, Deezy began to listen to what people had been telling him since the beginning: that he has the talent to do more serious music, and shouldnt have to hide behind Deezy in order to get away with rapping. With influences such as Wu-Tang, the Beastie Boys, Zach de la Rocha and Slug, Chris began work on a serious album, under the alias Eli Cash . With Justeezy (now going under the alias The Jolly Taxpayer ) still doing beats, recording and engineering, the duo formed Lowkey Productions . The Eli Cash project is currently underway, and is already sounding like something special. The style is darker, more complex, and much more mature, although the ghost of Deezy still flickers every now and again.