Backwoodz Records Presents: Shrapknel & Skech 185

💣MAY 25 💣HIP HOP BANGER ON THE OUTSIDE STAGE

Backwoodz Records Presents: Shrapknel & Skech185 – Analogue Rebels Tour

SHRAPKNEL – Curly Castro and PremRock; a duo as dissimilar as they are made for each other. The two artists are a veritable study in contrasts and contradictions, Castro was born and raised in Brooklyn but lives in Philadelphia, PremRock grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania but has been in New York since ‘08. Castro’s militant wordplay, reggae-influences, and booming baritone somehow perfectly balance PremRock’s silver-tongued flows, literary allusions and deadpan humor. ShrapKnel is a Venn diagram of ill communications; Schooly D to Stromile Swift. Def Jux to Detlef Schremf. Students of Black Uhuru and Breeze Brewin, Baldwin and Bukowski. Steel sharpens steel and this blade is as sharp as it gets.

It has been more than two years since ShrapKnel’s debut album, during which time the duo of Curly Castro and PremRock have individually released successful solo albums with Backwoodz Studioz. Fittingly, these two albums were nothing alike; Castro’s incendiary Little Robert Hutton is an high octane soundclash, a stark contrast to the knotty intimacy of PremRock’s Load Bearing Crow’s Feet. A new ShrapKnel album means a return to foundry and forge, the alchemy of turning two into one. Carbon and Iron make steel, rest assured, there will be no sophomore slump. Metal Lung is the evidence.

SKECH185 – the most studious of heads, was where SKECH185 cut his teeth and developed his style, implanted within the legendary Tomorrow Kings crew. Growing up on the city’s southeast side with his head typically buried in a drawing book or comic, SKECH can recall being told to stop rapping to himself as early as first grade. A life and family tree peppered with artists, business owners, bible thumpers, farmers, drug dealers and teachers, SKECH185 describes his younger self as “odd comparatively, but enthusiastic and inquisitive enough” to receive the right kind of support from his elders. His love of drawing and fascination with anime served as a logical launchpad into graffiti by high school, a medium that he credits for his namesake.

$10 ADVANCE/$13

Doors 9 PM

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@shrapknel

@curlycastro

@premrock

@backwoodzstudioz

@skech185