Plastic Little – Philly Pioneers

Outside of actual sales, is success garnered from credibility or identity?

This is a theme ceaselessly discussed and bitched about both in the music industry and by music fans. In the case of Plastic Little at least it seems a bit of both.

Starting out in the summer of 2001 the duo of Kurt Hunte and Jayson Scott Musson spent their twighlight days tearing apart empty bars and frustrating doorman with their unique blend of debauchery, eroticism balanced with an underlying social and political commentary.

Having quickly realised this was not the quite the direction they were hoping to take and that essentially Hip-Hop is mainly supported by suburban white kids a recruitment policy soon emerged. Or in their ever poetic lexicon;

“Kurt, we need to put some motherf*****g sugar in this Plastic Little coffee, dawg”

“Whuh?” uttered a confused Kurt.

“We need crackers in our band, nigga!” Yelled Musson,

“We need some proper white folks in Plastic Little! We’re not going to make it anywhere in this rap game unless we can capture that white fan base, and we can’t capture those white fans unless we give them something to identify with”

Taking this realization to heart, emcee Jon Folmar and super producer Michael “SQUID” Stern entered the Plastic Little stable in late 2002. Now balance had been found it was time to start on the path to riches, regularly straying from this path to basically get on it and generally have a  blinder at any opportunity.

This general fulfilling of the id is a defining factor of Plastic Little, though not something to label them by. They soon found critical acclaim in their native Philly and quickly surpassed many local rap acts in notoriety, not simply because of their attention to hilarity and debauchery but also due to the profound metaphor and observation that tempered their work.

And quite some work it has been.

Their UK debut, ‘Welcome to the Jang Haus’ was an amalgamation of an initial mixtape ‘Thug’s Paradise’ and Plastic’s debut US album ‘She’s Mature’.  Using hard liquor and samples ripped from the wealth of popular music, these Hip-Hop pioneers continued their epic and brought the party to the UK. Since that  release last year there have been a few murmurings from the quartet in the form of 3 EP’s – ‘Crambodia’, ‘I’m not a thug’ and ‘Get Close’.

I am hearing rumors of a new release on the horizon though. I can safely say ‘Welcome to the Jang Haus’ was easily the best Hip-Hop album I heard last year, and must admit I am itching to hear the next episode.

Watch this space.

I will be.