Track Listing:

1. Early Morning

2. Three Finger Ring

3. NAIA

4. 3 For Stevie

5. Through Habana Fields (Riddim)

6. The Beared Fist!

Back in early 2000's I watched this band performed in Lancaster. My friends at the time knew the MC and percussionist of the group. They had no cd's or recorded material, so it was new to me and most of the young crowd that night. The best thing is to compare them to The Roots and Crown City Rockers (known as Mission at the time) since they were the only live instrument hip hop bands I knew at the time. I believe their musical talents could match those bands, but you can feel that their influences reach out further than just jazz. There was a point where both guitarists came out with broken guitars and started to play a melody that captured the crowd. On top of that, the MC's has reminds me of the positive messages that surfaced from golden age hip hop. Since then they've been rocking shows in LA and are frequenters of events such as the Root Down and Soul Sessions. They've been touring a lot more lately, which gave me an opportunity to see them again in my hometown, San Diego. Along with them, I was able to catch up with a few LA friends that they brought down. As for their music... they added a horns to their band and they are down to one MC. Their music is all over the globe, and fuses it together to one thing I would call soul. Peep them out: http://simplectizens.com

SPONSORED BY DJ GAVEEGAV