A look at Pueblo’s underground rap scene
by Adam Gazzolla
I confess that I have had a hand in the
production of a few hip hop/rap albums
you may have heard of. But Google
remembers more of that part of my life
than I do. I moved out here to Pueblo about
three years into my hiatus from the “biz”
and saw two things I had never seen before:
an actual tumbleweed blowing down Main
street, followed by a pimped
out pickup truck.
I thought, now THAT’S
gangsta!
So when P.U.L.P.
wanted to do a piece on the
local rap scene I was dying
to check out what’s going on
in the land of tumbleweeds
and pimped out pickups.
I met with Pueblo’s own Made Up
Minds members Nato and ZET to get their
perspective on the Pueblo rap scene and
to listen to some of the music that’s being
made here.
The music they brought for me was
pretty damn impressive. It had a cool, old
school De La Soul/Tribe Called Quest
vibe to it. The rhymes were intelligent,
well thought out, tightly executed and
without a hint of thuggery. The music had
a nice sensibility to it: interesting blends
of smooth, knocking beats and eclectic
loops and samples. These tracks were not
just about the drums, and were loaded with
plenty of ear candy.
Made Up Minds is part of Pueblo’s
“underground” rap movement. This does
not mean that these groups and shows are
secret or hard to find; it is in reference to
the style of rap. Underground rap takes a
more cerebral approach and celebrates the
art of rhyming: telling stories rather than
just bragging about money, guns and hos.
They drink whiskey and beer and smoke
their trees out of glass pipes, as opposed to
Henessy, Alize and blunts.
These guys are all about having fun.
There are two primary venues to catch
underground hip hop in Pueblo: Phil’s
Radiator and The Senate. Pueblo rap fans
are so ravenous that they have attracted
national touring rap acts to these smaller
venues more often than Colorado’s larger
cities. These shows can be quite an event.
Recently Phil’s Radiator was host to the
national act The Chicharones, as well as
several local acts for a hip hop extravaganza
night. The event proved to be one of the best
attended shows at Phil’s.
The party didn’t stop with completion
of the show. It moved out on to Phil’s patio
and continued with the “Ultimate Colorado
Freestyle Session,” where rappers ZET,
Tha GOD, Milogic, Contraband, Bias,
Con, Big J, Distrakt, Don Fausto, Kove
One and Ego participated in a twentyminute-
long freestyle-spitting and beatbox-
banging rhyme fest.
This freestyle session can be viewed
on YouTube.
Unfortunately, the local rap radio
station caters mostly to major label blahde-
blah releases instead of its own hip hop
community. This forces local artists to rely
on the Internet for most of their promotion.
Record sales are done from the trunk of a
car at show performances. Yet they seem to
persevere.
Pueblo hip hop is a force to be
reckoned with. If there’s one piece of advice
I can offer to these aspiring mc’s and beat
makers, it’s just to keep doin’ it, and doin’ it,
and doin’ it. Good things will come.
You can check out some of Pueblo’s
underground rap scene Sunday Aug.
2nd when Sleep, Made Up Minds and
TooTone Taurus will be performing at
Phil’s Radiator at 8 p.m.