Undeniable – Black Market Artists [EP]

Though stylistically, New York hip hop has always been diverse, trademark New York hip hop DNA still can be found in music on stages around the Big Apple. Forceful voices with touches of gritty flair, delivery full of New York confidence, lyrical content that includes boastful braggadocio, but is not afraid to venture into substance, and head-nodding beats that exhibit elements of their boom-bap laden, Golden Era-ancestors.

Two-man crew Undeniable (Sinnagi and 07) attempts to lasso in all these elements, and as their new EP Black Market Artists shows, the results are, at times, undeniably effective.

Undeniable held a September release event for their EP Black Market Artists at Manhattan’s Bowery Poetry Club, in conjunction with the Coffee Grind showcase series. With a well-chosen lineup of opening acts (including Rebelmatic, Mohammad Dangerfield, K.O.N., Gab Gotcha, Jeanette Berry and Eye-N-See) each putting it down solidly themselves, Undeniable’s night-ending performance displayed an energy that was a touch more elevated than I had remembered from previous performances, over beats that seemed a touch crispier than I recalled as well.

Not that our prior experience watching these two Queens representatives had been a let-down, quite the opposite. After their performance at the co-release event for New Jersey rapper/producer KON’s Above The Clouds and Raw Nature’s The Direction, we stated that Undeniable “upped the head-nodding ratio considerably, riding smoothly over well-crafted beats.”

Not much has changed for Undeniable, which in this case is a good thing, and in fact, their EP release event further solidified our opinion that they are definitely worth a listen.

Undeniable’s EP Black Market Artists can be sampled and purchased at their website, www.undeniablemusic.com.

Undeniable – “Sippin Slow” (off the Black Market Artists EP)
[audio:sippinslow.mp3]