Buffalo Hip Hop Collective

By Devlin Marino

A large gathering of people meet and mingle inside the quaint store “The Cellar” on Elmwood Ave., as the sun shines peculiarly yet tranquilly on an early March day. Parallel to weather outdoors, the listening party for Skate Cobain’s debut album smoothly carries on, as Skate himself calmly sits and talks with those who have come to show support. The room is filled with blunt smoke, as if it were an NBA locker room, cigars filling the room with celebratory smoke. Folks from all around the community come together to celebrate the mark of Skate Cobain in the Buffalo Hip-Hop scene, throwing his “Coming-Out Party”. In this small genuine moment, one truly gets a glimpse into what Art of Procrastination 2 means and more notably, who Skate Cobain is.

The Art of Procrastination 2 dropped on February 22, 2020 to much anticipation from many artists, producers and individuals around the Buffalo Hip-Hop scene. Oddly enough, despite being a rapper for roughly ten years, Skate Cobain has never released any solo music. With that being said, none of that necessarily ever held back Skate Cobain, managing to establish himself as a figurehead of the underground Buffalo scene through his time spent with Ooze Gang and initially Koolie High. When asking Skate Cobain what was the driving force behind AOP2, he said,

“Well, I’ve been rapping for so long and I am a personality. I am a fixture in Buffalo Hip-Hop, so I just feel like it was necessary, you feel me? Solidify it”, says Skate Cobain, “let me drop this tape just to show everybody I can rap. Cause I do a lot of other shit, so it’s just to solidify my rap. Like ‘yo I’m better than most of you’”

Making music and maintaining that overall artist image can be difficult and mentally taxing, which Skate Cobain is no stranger to. When Skate went on his first journey to create a solo project, it almost caused him to give up on being a “solo” artist.

“I started a project a few years back and basically completed 90% of it, [and then] the computer crashed.,” states Skate, “It was the ‘Art of Procrastination 1’, the original. And when it first happened, I was like ‘you know what, fuck this. I don’t do albums. I’m not a rapper. I just do features when I feel like it’.”

In reality, that had been working well for Skate, especially during his time with Ooze Gang, Skate noting “when we started up our Ooze Gang campaign, I was like, I’ve never been more motivated. [and] I was in a position where I could call some shots, you know what I mean? I could put in more directions as opposed to when I was in Koolie High. It’s just like, ‘I’m here for the ride, whatever we need to do’. Ooze Gang was like, I was saddled up. My shoes were tied tight and I knew what I wanted to do. So I was executing shit that I saw in my mind.” 

With any pursuit of solo work at the back of his mind, Skate continued to solidify his place in the Buffalo Hip-Hop community with a handful of Ooze Gang projects and co-hosting “Local Legend Podcast”, a podcast focusing on some of the best creatives the City of Buffalo has to offer. Skate kept rolling with this until one day, “I just got the bug, you feel me?” recollects Skate Cobain. Tragically, Skate’s cousin passed away, with Skate recalling, “My cousin passed away, maybe that had something to do with it and I just had a fire.”

That fire continued to burn bright, as Skate cranked out the Art of Procrastination 2 in “roughly a month to 45 days”. A third of that time was spent by Skate rolling out the album, which played a pivotal role in its success. The online hype within the Buffalo Hip-Hop Community was high, supplemented by unique, eye-catching album artwork. The album boasted two album artworks, created by Khalil Senpai, incorporating Skate’s old family photos and Dutch Master artwork, illustrating to the listener who Skate Cobain is. 

The entire roll-out was thought up on the fly by Skate himself, describing the process saying  “I’m a thinker, I like to say. So I just sat around and thought of shit. The fucking Pokemon cards. The Cellar release and shit like that were just ideas I had. It wasn’t necessarily a plan, like ‘yo, we gotta execute this and that’. It’s just things that we thought we needed to do to represent my shit.”

Art of Procrastination 2 exhibits Skate Cobain’s artistic versatility through songs like “Fliers”, a conversational flow taking you through a typical day for Skate, or “Survivor’s Remorse, with Skate claiming “ I feel like that the most vulnerable I’ve ever been in a rap”. 

What the album also successfully does is give us a lens into who Skate is. On the track, “Sui”, Skate says “Been through it all, Yeah I’m a dog. Bigger they are, the harder they fall. N—-s holding me up like a wall. I took those risks and now I’m a boss.”, which sounds metaphorical but you’d be wrong. 

Skate explains “Yo it sounds like it’s a metaphor but that’s literally my real story. I’ve been through it all, like ‘the all’ is a multitude of things, you feel me? My tracklist and shit I’ve been through speaks for itself so I don’t have to go into it but I’ve been through it all and it made me a dog. So, the bigger they are, whoever the opp is or the competition [is], the harder they fall. That’s a normal saying, all our dads taught us that shit. The ‘holding me up like a wall’, that was an ode to people that pretend to have your best interests at heart, you know what I mean? They just want to keep you close, under their wing. You’re holding me up like a wall. So eventually, I had to take those risks and do the things I deem necessary. Do the shit I felt was necessary and not to get validation from someone else. Just do the shit that I thought was necessary and that made me a boss, know what I mean? Not anyone else. So like, everything isn’t for everyone. I always tweet that shit randomly. I always put that shit up, post it on everything because everything isn’t for everyone. You could be telling me one thing, it’s gonna work one way, [then] I do it and it turns out a totally different way, you know what I mean? But yeah, that’s not a metaphor. Nah, that’s straight.”

What the track “Sui” also gives us a glimpse into is the talent from Buffalo that Skate put together for this album. The track “Sui” boasts Freak the Miighty member Neftali with the album as a whole containing some of the city’s best out, flaunting Gaine$, Billie Essco, 14 Trapdoor’s Bendyface, MileHigh’s YoLeek, Toneyboi, Ayam JC, including young stars The Miserable Genius, Nolo the Slayer and ZayRo$e. 

Skate elaborated on the wide-ranging features saying, “Literally, I fuck with all these people. I fuck with their music.So when I made my music, it was only right that put them on, you feel me? I feel like my fans deserve to hear Zayro$e. I feel like my fans deserve to hear Miserable Genius. I feel like my fans deserve to hear YoLeek. So like I went out and got the people I’m impressed by. You know what I mean, put them on there. It came together nice, I’m proud of that shit.”

The album also incorporates some of the most talented producers working in and around the Buffalo Hip-Hop Community. Skate reflects on this saying, “A lot of these people I see on a daily basis but we just haven’t worked together, so it’s just [long] time coming. Mvrro is OD, fire every time we link. Same with Flexx. Lordy, Psoulist. All of these dudes bring out a different flow. That’s why there’s so many vibes and so many flows [on the album]. I’m willing to work with anyone I super, super fuck with. I wanted to make sure it was thorough and not to leave anyone out. That’s why there are so many features and so many producers and shit. It was like my Nas, you feel me?”

Many of the fine details and aspects that Skate had thought out played an essential role in the album’s success and the overall product, when considering the roll-out and production on the album that the Art of Procrastination 2 became. 

When describing the album Skate said, “I just want to push the envelope bro. I want to show people like you can care about your shit, you know what I mean? Even on the small shit, you can care. People notice, you know what I mean? But like put in the work. If we all put in the work, it’ll make everything look better. It’ll make everything look better.”

Art of Procrastination 2 permanently etched Skate Cobain into the proverbial bedrock of the Buffalo Hip-Hop scene, with the thoughtful roll-out, outstanding features and production and Skate’s enigmatic flow and bars. The album is an idyllic view into the man Skate Cobain, told through his specific sound and fluid bars. 

When asking Skate if he viewed Art of Procrastination 2 as his coming-out party as an artist, he said “Yeah, it’s definitely my coming-out party. A bunch of people know I rap. A bunch of people know what I’m into but like that was the first time I stamped it and put my name and face on it.”

By Devlin Marino

A tall, quiet man slinks into a loud, boisterous and smoky room. He sits down, opens his laptop, pops on earphones and gets to work. After about 30 minutes or so, he packs up, daps everyone up and heads out. In that small microcosm, one could see just who the artist and producer that Gaine$ truly is, without even hearing a song. 

For those unfamiliar with Gaine$, he is one of the pacesetters of the underground Buffalo Hip-Hop scene, acting as an example for truly following your dreams with an unrelenting will to get there. Gaine$ has been making music since the late 2000s, eventually founding Koolie High with Toneyboi, Jordan “Koolie” Hood, and Skateboard in 2010,with many other Buffalo hip-hop scene main-stays joining the ranks in years to come. Eventually they rebranded “in a way”, founding Ooze Gang in 2017. 

Gaine$, the artist, is true and authentic to himself. From small glimpses, one can see his drive and love for music, free from any sort of vanity or fallacy. He feels no need to put on any type of front to sell himself but that still took time for him to reach. 

“I found it easier to rely on just being myself. You know, rely on how I truly feel about things. My day-to-day. My take on life. My take on shit that’s happening around me. And instead of just trying to give those same ideal answers to everything, it’s like “nah, my shit is just real to me.” says Gaine$, “I could only paint a picture of what I’ve seen. You could also paint pictures of things you imagine but I’d rather be real.”

In 2018, Gaine$ released his solo project Tuxedo Dreams and Gaine$ Stands for Profits 2019, branching off of Ooze Gang as a collective and beginning to understand the space of being your own artist. Soon to release in 2020 is Gaine$’ third solo album Native Son, displaying his own experiences and growth as an artist. 

“This project, it was super authentic to me, that’s how I was thinking. This album set a foundation for me. It’s like ‘okay, this guy really can rap, this guy can tell a story,  and this guy can tell his story. This guy can make it feel like his story is yours’. Those elements are what I am looking for. I want to be a dope storyteller over dope beats. Boom.”

The album, Native Son, serves as a “lens” into understanding Gaine$ growth itself as an artist, with Gaine$ elaborating, “a peek into myself as an artist and somewhat who I really am. For years, [my] music wasn’t able to give both sides, it’s just ‘a great creator’ but who is he? I guess it’s my step into showing those around me who I really am.” 

Gaine$ doesn’t only want to communicate this message auditorily but visually as well. The album artwork, which Gaine$ collaborated with artist Jessica Saddleson, communicating his ideas for her to recreate into an exact image.

“She had taken some of the ideas I ran by her… [and] we have a good relationship so she has an idea of where my art, what direction I’m going with it. So she came up with it, took an actual picture of my eye and that turned into somewhat of a moon or sun in the sky. The river is just me standing in the middle of it. It’s kind of me, describing the image as my path to self-discovery, I found myself in the water, with myself.”

Possibly one of Gaine$ most valuable attributes, as well as Ooze Gang, is his resourcefulness and know-how of repurposing beats and verses that are over 5 years old, applying them to new tracks. Gaine$ when speaking about it said, “What’s crazy is I’ll go back to some of that stuff…just shit I recorded. I was like ‘yo these are the elements that I need to put out. Something new. Something fresh. Something that is authentic to myself versus just rapping over something, just trying to make it sound, like ‘Oh this is for the audience’.”

Gaine$ upcoming album could be viewed as a musical collage, containing both elements from his old and newer music, painting the very image of Gaine$ through the album. 

“ I wanted to control how you listened to this project. So if you have a favorite song and it happens to be the second or third song out of the “Act”, you’d have to listen to the song before that to get to it, unless you fast forward. Ultimately, I want them to [listen]. It’s a short listen, only about 25 minutes long in total so you’re going to want to listen to the whole thing anyway because it has transitions. It has things that bring you into a new room, a new space throughout the ‘Acts’.”

Jordan “Koolie” Hood described the album as “a project that had no direction but we directed it”. One of my favorite elements of the album is the way that each track contains 2-3 songs inside of it. This draws a parallel to Gaine$ analogy of building songs and albums to building sandcastles.

“You’re building songs, building projects. You’re treating them like castles. Okay, I’m done with this sandcastle, build the next one. I’m gonna move and build over here, create another one. Okay, I’m gonna make another one, start another one over here. Okay cool, I’ve got three castles, now let me go back and perfect the first one before I release it. Now, go on to the next one. Add songs, new songs that I’m going to keep creating. [And] It’s like before I know it, I’m stocked and have solid work.”

I wanted to control how you listened to this project. So if you have a favorite song and it happens to be the second or third song out of the “Act”, you’d have to listen to the song before that to get to it, unless you fast forward. Ultimately, I want them to [listen].

GAINE$ ON HOW tHE STRUCTURE OF nATIVE SUN

During a check-in interview with Gaine$ weeks before the drop of Native Son, I revisited the sandcastle analogy that Gaine$ made to albums to see where that statement resonates now that he is “95% done with it”.

“Now at this point, if it was still being compared to building sandcastles, I feel like I took the experiences of building projects and my own mixtapes through all the years, it really brought it all to this one. And it’s going to be the same process for the next projects to come.” explains Gaine$, “I just [was] really taking my experiences of building and crafting, understanding my process and how much time it takes to let the music digest with you before you give it to the world. You know, sometimes we record today or make something today and then it’s out there tomorrow. It’s like, did you fully become one with that piece, you know what I’m saying?”

A large part of why Gaine$ approaches projects in this manner is because he has released plenty of music and understands the importance of patience and perfecting what you release through trial and error. What makes Gaine$ such a unique artist is how he views past released music, despite how many people listened to it, he still views it as growth.

“Guess you could say it didn’t fail, because I don’t think any project I released is a failure. Unless the goal was [to blow up]. At the time, the goal was to make music and share music and show people that ‘hey, I’m good. I got it. I’ve got something going on’.” says Gaine$, and it went from that to “Okay, well I can actually sell these CDs, you know, this is back in ‘07. ‘06-’07. I could sell CDs. Alright cool, I got away from selling hard copies and I just got deeper in the creating process of how I want to make a song. How to really put a record together without understanding what the beat calls for. What type of vibe I’m trying to set. What component in who am I in this song speaking. It’s interesting because everybody thinks that because they have a voice, that it belongs in any room, anywhere. Everybody has a voice but don’t get me wrong. It’s just how to lay and identify the person that you are through the microphone without saying ‘I am such and such’ ‘I am Gaines’. So now how do I stamp who I am? It’s your voice. Your voice is your signature.”