Mac V. and Bad Karma - Coffee Table Talk

Imagine if The Cool Kids rapped over Jay Dee's (J Dilla) Welcome To Detroit instrumentals. It sounds like an odd combination on paper but that is pretty close to what you get when listening to SD rappers, Mac V. and Bad Karma.
Mac V. and Bad Karma, two young rappers out of southeast San Diego, just released a mixtape entitled Coffee Table Talk for free download through Myspace. I wasn't able to glean much information about them from their Myspace pages other than the fact that they are all pretty young and don't like to be categorized as "rap/hip-hop" straight-up (on Bad Karma's page, he lists himself as "Experimental/ New Wave"). That fact might normally be some type of red flag for a hip-hop head. But this mixtape shows a lot of talent and potential from the emcees and their team of in-house producers.
Rappers Mac V. and Bad Karma bear an uncanny resemblance to The Cool Kids in their rapping style. Everything from their chill, low-key delivery to their low, whisper-like vocal tone to their kinda vapid lyrical content (all songs are pretty much about weed and women and talking sh*t) filled with what has been dubbed "hipster irony" reminds me of The Cool Kids. Which isn't to take anything away from the two, who clearly have rapping skills (check how Bad Karma blacks out on the second verse of "Ch[ee]rs"). They are more than serviceable as rappers, able to ride the beat with confidence while dropping clever one-liners here and there.
Production for vast majority of the album is handled by two in-house producers, Mike George and KriiS Mon3y, who are more or less on the same wavelength stylistically. They come from the J Dilla neo-soul/hip-hop school but it's very solid, composed well without relying on samples too much. There's some great low-end work here but then they often hint at some more space-age territory that gives the tracks a distinct feel.
At this point, the challenge for the whole camp is to learn to transcend their influences. But this is a great start for young artists who still have a lot of time to develop.

Download: Mac V. & Bad Karma's Coffee Table Talk.