I assume at this point in time that Six One Tribe needs no introduction but here’s a quick primer just in case you still haven’t heard of the award winning collective representing the sound of Nashville hip-hop through collaborative albums and individual solo outings. That’s it, that’s Six One Tribe. Last time I checked there were upwards of sixteen members, each contributing their own unique voice and style to the overall sound.
There’s two huge hurdles that Six One Tribe faces whenever they drop new music. First, they’re openly working to represent the entire city’s contributions to a wildly diverse genre. How does it stack up? Secondly, there are sixteen members! Are they creating a platform to showcase each voice or crafting a specific song; leveraging the strengths of each emcee to create something unique.. as per question number one. These are very lofty goals to achieve and this latest set of videos for “Spirit Week / Backstreets” does a great job of answering both of them.
“Spirit Week” is just a scant 30-seconds but not one ounce of it is throwaway. It’s subjective but Corduroy Clemens flow always hits me the right way; you can often hear the wry grin coming through his lyrics. I don’t know the story behind the beat but the drumline and choral cheers are downright historic in the context of TSU. That’s a lot to extract from half a minute but it’s all there.
“Backstreets” is the prime attraction here; featuring HB Mandella, Blvck Wizzle, Negro Justice, Namir Blade, Gee Slab, and Riø Tokyo. A lazier group would just run the same beat the entire time, putting all the focus on the distinct vocal styles but Six One Tribe is not a lazy group. Each emcee gets their verse and the backing track morphs expertly to support them. By the time Namir Blade starts crooning, the track has morphed through four different movements; threading the needle expertly to never once feel disparate.
At this point in time, Six One Tribe has won a great deal of accolades but it can be hard to know where to start with them. With two full-length records and at least a dozen solo records, there’s a lot of material to earth. This track is an excellent entry point to pique your interest to dive further into Reset for the Rejects, their latest release.
