You might think it's odd that K Records has released the Northwest hip hop compilation All Your Friend’s Friends. The iconic local label has made a name for itself releasing mostly indie pop/rock over the past thirty years. But, as you'll see, this collection is one of the most "K" things the label has ever put out.
In 2012, K hip-hop artist Eprhyme came up with this crazy idea: what about sampling from the entire K Records catalog? Smoke M2D6, of the Northwest's largest hip-hop crew Oldominion, spent the next two years listening to the label's extensive discography, grabbing samples from unexpected artists like Jeremy Jay, Dub Narcotic Sound System, Ashley Eriksson, Mirah, Make-Up and Beat Happening. With the beats in place, assorted MCs were invited to add their unique rhymes to the tracks.
And therein lies what K Records is all about: All Your Friend’s Friends encapsulates that spirit of community, the collectiveness of art when your friend takes something a friend made, adds their ideas, and then another friend gets involved, and pretty soon, you've created something fantastic and new, together. As K Records founder Calvin Johnson says in the film, "That's what's exciting about music: it's a collaborative process, even if people don't know it."
KEXP is excited to premiere the debut of this behind-the-scenes film for All Your Friend’s Friends, directed by Olympia-based filmmaker Red Williamson of Newspin Films. This 20-minute documentary captures the creation of this unique NW audio artifact, through interviews from everyone from Calvin to Macklemore, as well as XPERIENCE, Silas Blak and Jace (Silent Lambs Project and The Blak Stax), Onry Ozzborn, The Chicharones, and album producers Smoke M2D6 and Eprhyme, among others. Watch below.
All Your Friend’s Friends is available now via KRecs.com.
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