Sole

Sole

Crimes Against Totality

Black Canyon

Crimes Against Totality is the final release in Sole’s Ruthless Criticism trilogy. Initiated last year, the series has since reaffirmed his place as “experimental rap pioneer,” breaking new ground among leftist zines, radical blogs and activist-minded people everywhere. Critics and fans heralded previous installments No Wising Up and Ruthless as some the artist’s greatest work to date; “a poetic blend of critical theory and experimental club beats.”  Crimes Against Totality is a collection of songs from the Ruthless Criticism sessions that have been locked away deep in e-vaults and are now released to the world to fight the class war on their own. The dozen tracks feature production from Man Mantis, Thavius Beck, Egadz, Skyrider, Crushcon7, Fanesha Fabre and Hollagramz.

Sole

No Wising Up No Settling Down

Black Canyon

The second installment in the Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing series, No Wising Up, No Settling Down focuses more on the personal and social aspects of philosophy and class conflict and abandons overtly political songwriting for a more subtle, honest, experimental and poetic approach. Although the album contains pop elements seen in the past few Sole releases, it also harkens back to his classic stream-of-consciousness poetry and noise styles.  No Wising Up, No Settling Down features collaborations with Goldpanda, Sean Bonette of Andrew Jackson Jihad, The Hood Internet & Shapers, Man Mantis, Dosh, Loden, Cars & Trains, Skyrider, Spencertron and Snubluck. A decent chunk of the production is handled by DJ Pain 1, who’s produced tracks for Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane and 50 Cent and pushes Sole’s Nuclear Winter aesthetic into new, exciting and uncharted territory. Coming mere months after the successful release of A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing, this album is a testament to what can be accomplished by truly DIY artists when they own their own time and labor.  “... an artist who has continually—and beautifully—made politics and social issues a part of his music, pushing the boundaries of what hip-hop sounds and looks like.” —Huffington Post  “It’d be easy to assume the former Anticon chief is a man out of time, but that’s not the case.” —Spin  “Sole is a real revolutionary.” —Pitchfork

Sole

A Ruthless Criticism Of Everything Existing

Black Canyon

Sole’s first solo album in seven years is about resistance, power, global revolution and philosophy. The title is lifted from a Marx letter by the same name.  This avant-garde hip-hop album takes the rap-as-critical-theory aesthetic that Sole has developed over the past few years on the Nuclear Winter mixtapes to a more concrete and original musical format. Following up on the critical success of Hello Cruel World, A Ruthless Criticism is the next logical step in this development of rap music; it is challenging and sometimes poppy while still pushing things in a more experimental, belligerent and militant direction. Like Sole’s previous solo albums, A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing has a multitude of collaborations with various producers, and features Busdriver, Alias, Open Mike Eagle, Alias, Ryan Hemsworth, Ausker, Factor, Man Mantis and others.

Sole

Learning To Walk

Black Canyon

A compilation of early sole recordings made between 1994-1998. Featuring collaborations w/ Alias, Moodswing9, Dj Mayonnaise and more. This collection of music shows the evolution of sole from a almost-typical east coast mid 90s rapper to the avant guard rap legend that he would later become. Originally released as a CD via 6months distribution.

Sole

Mansbestfriend Vol.6 - Radioactive Rain

Black Canyon

Recorded during in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown, sole conjures the radioactive rains that swept the world in its immediate aftermath. The 6th installment of the mansbestfriend series is heralded as the best self produced work by sole to date. Ethereal and proggy, new agey and belligerant... Radioactive Rain is 25 minutes of pure love.

Sole

Mansbestfriend Pt. 5

Black Canyon

***The fifth installment from the critically acclaimed mansbestfriend series. SOLE continues the Lazarus-like re-envisioning of his work with the most polished mansbestfriend to date. The music is poppy at points, at other points; "experimental." Thirteen tracks including a remix of “I Walk Alone” by GRAHAM O’BRIEN. Packaged in 4-panel digipacks with artwork by YASAMIN HOLLAND.

Sole

Nuclear Winter Vol. 1

Black Canyon

***Nuclear Winter, SOLE’s first mixtape in a projected series, is both a return to his Ice Cube roots and an exploration of the mixtape as a form of folkloric practice. Not only does he cold jack beats from the likes of Kanye, Biggie and Rick Ross, he extends traditional mixtape appropriation by reworking each song's original theme into a broader critique. Though sole has long made songs from the raw material of recession, the war in Afghanistan, racist immigration law, and the industries of hype, Nuclear Winter smuggles them into the club.  It is a rap edition of the Broadside records of the '60's and '70's that sought to work as a kind of singing newspaper, reporting on the moment with a radical accent; the Situationists called this détournement, "the diversion of already existing cultural elements to new subversive purposes." When Woody Guthrie heard the Carter Family's hit hymn to Christian disconnection with this world, "Can't Feel at Home," at a dust bowl refugee camp in California, he ripped out of the song its exhausted pieties, and with what was left crafted, "Ain't Got No Home," a hard truth ode to the dispossessed.  On the record's first single, "My President," sole & Jared Paul of Prayers for Atheists (Strange Famous Records) demand the progressive president they wanted to imagine they were voting for. On "Everyday I'm Hustlin'," sole notes that "even the brokest among us are hard workers," and asks, "what the fuck is a hustler?" "Swagga Like...

Sole

Desert Eagle

Black Canyon

Sole

Exhile Ep

Black Canyon

Sole

Man’s Best Friend Pt. 3

Sole Records

***STILL GOING STRONG!!! The third installment in the Man’s Best Friend series from Anticon mainman and underground dope pilot SOLE. You get sixteen tracks of afterhours hip hop groovecraft from a known master. First two in the series were runaway successes.

Sole

Live From Rome

Anticon

*** "Iraq ain't lookin' so good-- but the mothafuckin' club is crunk!" (from "atheist jihad") And so sole reemerges roughly two years after the aestheic and critical breakthrough of his second album, Selling Live Water, having moved to Spain, married, and continued to refine his inimitable blurring of sarcasm and bone-dry honesty. The lion's shareof the music is, like Selling Live Water, laid down by odd nosdam and alias, but sole has noticeably changed: the enflamed and verbose jeremiads of Selling Live Water have cooled slightly into a more reflective-- and effortlessly funny-- simmer. Live from Rome, recorded and produced both in Oakland, California, and Barcelona, Spain-- no, it's not a live recording-- has heavier hooks and a noticeably broader palette, moving from upbeat, half-serious vegan anthems to the half-kidding faux Eminem. Though sole still isn't going to peddle a million records to the red states, his effort to place the personal and self-critical in the big and political helps him avoid singing to the choir; Alternative Press has noted that his "willingness to lyrically bust caps in the asses of the left as well as the right make him a fairly revolutionary revolutionary." Live from Rome is a lyric volley of shots taken, but it's thankfully lightened by his humor and ultimately made compelling by the beats-- a rare mixture of the dynamic and the raw. Taken altogether, this very well may be one album worth surviving the future ruins of the new and improved Rome. 

Sole

Songs That Went Tin

Black Canyon

Sole

New Single

Anticon

***Fueled by his relocation to Barcelona, Spain, and subsequent touring of war-torn Eastern Europe, sole returns with a new record and a new perspective. Backed by a host of all-star anticon producers, The New Single preps the world for his highly anticipated, third studio album, Live From Rome. The critically acclaimed Selling Live Water turned sole's focus from industry rants and self-deprecation to political observation and social commentary. "Sin Carne" is an odd nosdam-produced classic with a chorus that nods to Bob Dylan. sole cites his targets in the song's intro: "talking shit about the government," "people," "ignorance," "alienation," and "marginalization." Always sure not to take himself too seriously, sole never loses his signature self-deprecating sarcasm. The second track, also from Live From Rome, "every single one of us" is an end-of-the-world anthem with darkness accentuated by alias's production. Of course, it wouldn't be a sole record with out some industry ranting! The New Single also features an exclusive jel-produced track "t.i.m." Hard-hitting jel drums back sole's reflections on his place in the fashion show that is the music industry. The New Single demonstrates once again why sole is one of the most watched and followed trendsetters in indie hip hop.  Track listing:  1. sin carne (radio mix) produced & mixed by odd nosdam, from live from rome 2. every single one of us produced by alias, mixed by odd nosdam, from live from rome 3. t.i.m. (unreleased b-side) produced by jel, mixed by jeremy goody 4. sin...

Sole

Mansbestfriend Pt. 3

Black Canyon

Sole

Plutonium

Anticon

***plutonium, the follow-up 12-inch to sole's acclaimed full length selling live water has finally arrived. The title track remixes the classic, alias-produced sole anthem about searching for truth in left- and right-wing propaganda in the press. alias remixes his own beat down to its teeth, creating a Blade Runner eeriness to sole's already dark ponderings. For the second track, odd nosdam remixes his original contribution to sole's full length, the title track "selling live water." nosdam's remix puts sole's vocals in the forefront, while maintaining that tape-dubbed dirtiness characteristic of nosdam's sound. The A-side finishes off with a previously unreleased bonus track, "the surface," featuring sole over an alias beat. Here sole is at his finest, angry about the world and ranting about it. The B-side contains instrumentals of the remixes of "plutonium" and "selling live water," along with a bonus track of beats by sole and odd nosdam from selling live water.  Track listing:  1. plutonium remix (produced by alias) 2. selling live water - dead food remix (produced by odd nosdam. additional production by jel) 3. the surface (produced by alias) 4. plutonium remix instrumental 5. selling live water remix instrumental 6. live water bonus beats (co-produced by sole & odd nosdam)  * Follow-up 12-inch to sole's acclaimed selling live water full length * Features brand new beats by alias, odd nosdam and cuts by jel * Contains a previously unreleased bonus track, "the surface," produced by alias

Sole

Bottle Of Humans

Anticon

***Bottle of Humans, sole's debut full length release on anticon, was originally released in 1999 and quickly became a cult-classic, but by 2001 the record's initial pressing went out of print. Now, the bootlegging is finally over! This highly anticipated CD reissue has been remastered, the record's artwork has been revitalized the way it was originally intended (including the album's lyrics in the liner notes) and its track listing has been slightly altered. Bottle of Humans combines the anger and conviction of early Ice Cube with sole's own brand of self-deprecating honesty. Looking and sounding better than ever, Bottle of Humans is classic, vintage sole. Features production from ALIAS, JEL, DADDY KEV, RAGGITY ANDY, SCOTT MATELIC, ODD NOSDAM, and CONTROLLER 7.

Sole

Selling Live Water

Anticon

***Twenty-five, bookless, bored, obsessive, hypocritical, barb-witted, full of shit, and horrified by the war machine; what else could this outspoken tangle of contradictions do but make the next classic rap album? sole lives out a perpetual identity crisis so we don't have to, surfacing each of his past lives in his music: the 13-year-old Ice Cube from Maine, the Lord Finesse-styled battle MC who ruled open mics in New England, the hyperactive San Francisco transplant consumed with the idea of anticon, and finally the sagacious mid-twenties writer who hums Dylan and guns for Bush.  When the hip hop he loved failed to inspire him further, sole made rap songs that defiantly drove back the border of what could even be considered a rap song. And when the cogs began to click in harmony, he locked himself in for a year and half and authored an album that completely blew away the expectations that have been steadily growing around it. The late American poet Gregory Corso once satirically referred to himself as "an ugly bag of water," and sole elaborates the phrase, suggesting that humans, as "live water," are systematically devalued, that their lives and opinions are to an extent bought and paid for. Rather than lodge heavy-handed attacks, however, sole does the only thing he can do: bare his inner dialogue with all the anger, humor and insecurity that you'd expect from someone who turns the lines "I wanted to be black at age 14 / so when they...

Sole

Salt On Everything

Anticon

***It's been two long years since sole's last official release, Bottle of Humans, a ground-breaking underground hip hop cult classic. "salt on everything" is the lead single for sole's full length album selling live water, upcoming in November. Although it might seem impossible, sole has been resurrected from the dead once again and he sounds even more jaded and fed up than ever. sole maintains his complex delivery and original style but this single demonstrates that he has refined everything he does so well. In his signature hoarse voice, sole assaults hard, brooding tracks from anticon producers odd nosdam, alias, and jel with that characteristic honesty, sincerity and a touch of endearing self-pity. Features an exclusive track with Sage Francis.  * Deep Puddle Dynamics made URB's "Next 100" in April 1999  * Bottle of Humans sold over 12,000 units with no promotion  * Street team promotion in major markets  * National college radio servicing  * Guest appearance by Sage Francis  * Features beatmakers alias and jel of anticon and odd nosdam of cLOUDDEAD and anticon 

Sole

Mansbestfriend Pt. 1

Black Canyon