Milwaukee rapper Ku Mays doesn't perform live much these days, but he continues making music, self-recording experimental hip-hop albums he releases for free online. They're aggressively abstract, sometimes light and silly, sometimes noisy and twisted, and he admits they aren't for everyone.
“Even my wife kind of cringes at them from time to time,” he says, “though she usually puts up with them, so it's cool.”
Though they aren't nearly as accessible, Ku May's new experiments are a continuation of his work with the mid-'90s hip-hop trio Stranj Child, a group that spiked the upbeat jazz-rap of the time with dark undertones.
“We were a bit like early Tribe,” Ku May recalls. “We also had a little arrested development feel in there, because that's what was going on at the time. We were trying to get signed by Speech's label at the time. Our music was a little grimier than those groups, because of our production, but it was still friendly, though.”
The trio dissolved when it became clear they weren't going to get signed. Though they were a popular club draw, one of the more visible Milwaukee rap acts of the era, Stranj Child didn't leave behind much of a recorded legacy, releasing just a short LP and a cassette tape they sold out of their trunk.
Next week, though, Dope Folks, a vinyl-only Milwaukee label that reissues rare and out-of-print golden-age hip-hop, will release a retrospective of eight lost Stranj Child songs. They've teased the release with a YouTube video of the lost Stranj Child track “Paranoid,” a head trip in the spirit of Prince Paul's first Gravediggaz record.
Ku Mays says that while he's removed from the modern hip-hop scene, he still feels a connection to the hip-hop of the '90s.
“You listen go back and listen to albums by Nas and those cats, and that's quality stuff, both lyrically and in its production” he says. “Today's party music is cool when you're going to party, but when you're in your ride or cleaning up your house, you want to hear some quality stuff that makes you think; '90s hip-hop was all about that. If you didn't come with the lyrics, you'd be noted as being garbage. I'm sure cats do that today, but I think it was more important to have your lyrics tight back in the day, verses today when you can just put out a song about shaking booties. Nowadays you can put out a booty shake song and it's all good, but if you did that back in the day, you'd get dissed about it.”
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Dope Folks is taking pre-orders for its Stranj Child release now through dopefolks@gmail.com. The record ships Monday, Sept. 27.
