KAB THA DON

Kab Tha Don is interviewed outside of New Era Store in Atlanta after performing the previous night on the "Staright Outta Texas" Showcase. - Blog Team/A3C Festival

Well, it’s Friday the 13th.

If you don’t know what that means, just understand that every Friday the 13th will be a Kab Tha Don release day. It could be a: song, video, interview & in the case of his next mixtape Live & Learn, July 13th is next on the calendar. Get ready.

In this clip, you get to hear Boss Mac Kab discuss: a little bit about his rap history, how he approached Bully On Tha Beat, his performance energy, and even a cameo by his right hand man, KDOGG. Big shoutout to Laced & Lamez. We linked up with these guys awhile back & they’ve followed Kab around getting his performances from the KRIT show, Dante Higgins show where Kab performed, studio footage & much more is on the way. Look out for the I Got 5 On It video which is coming soon.
- WE-CU.com

"There's no place on the earth for the righteous." -KAB, being insightful

"I'll put a prize on your head; I'll raffle you." -KAB, being clever



KAB, budding rapper and occasional criminal, released his Bully On Tha Beat tape. Here it is. Download it. It deserves to be in your iPod. It is a proper debut outing, full of harangued energy and, at times, monkey sounds (seriously).

Now, KAB is clearly a talented rapper, that seems an obvious point to make (see the blustery "Jungle" if you need to be convinced). What's less clear, though, is why.

Because he isn't who your brain is telling you that he is.

Listen to "Jungle" by KAB

There are two reasons why KAB is considerable beyond the music (or because of it, maybe). The first reason is entirely visceral and predictable. It spirals into the second though, which is entirely academic and somehow surprising.
(1) KAB is viscerally interesting because he looks to have been carved out of north Houston bedrock by Ares to play the role he currently occupies (to be reductive: gangster rapper). He is physically substantial --or, rather, PHYSICALLY SUBSTANTIAL. His hands look like shoe boxes, his neck touches his ears and his chest might be where they buried Jimmy Hoffa. When he moves, he relays every bit of the laborious process, thudding along at whatever pace he deems appropriate (slow, and ostensibly angry, typically). It is remarkable and unquestionably effective. Were all of the people in Houston lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, he'd be the first one you picked if you had to guess which one had a song called "Sleep In A Casket." Of course, this all acts as a force multiplier for the second reason.

(2) KAB is academically interesting because he is an illogicality that feels logical. What that means: Houston has seen big, burly rappers before. And the two guys Houston music fans think of when talking about large persons that rap (Big Moe, H.A.W.K.) have been locally deified since their deaths. Thus, there's almost this evolutionary predisposition among music nerds to favor the big guys. You see KAB and you get excited, even if you don't understand why. The illogicality of the situation is that he's nothing like either of them, or anyone of them, really. Moe and H.A.W.K. oozed calmness; words spilled out their mouths at their leisure. With KAB, he is fiery fluster, all hard, biting treble. His vowels are harsh, jutting out in all directions. Counterintuitive to local lexicon traditionalisms, his consonants are an afterthought, like his lips can't be bothered to purse because fuck you they just don't want to.

What does any of this mean, either within a macro or micro discussion of music and historical analogues and blah, blah, blah?

Who knows.

What should be clear is that this:
(video)
isn't this:
(video)
I mean, fuck, he's not even wearing a bowler hat, guys. - Houston Press

There’s a reason why people are drawn to KAB Tha Don. He’s huge. An immense personality that hugs the vapors out of a room and squeezes them dry. You see him, you immediately want to get on his good side and watch his gold fronts light up a room. You don’t want to get on his bad side because more than likely his meaty hands would clobber you with a single flick.

Charting the rise of KAB can be dated all the way back tot he original incarnation of Kickback Sundays at SF2 North. He didn’t even have a name, just a dude with a bruising appearance and a catchiness to him. An adlib, a fiery live performance that snatches you by the throat and refuses to let you go, all tools for typical big guy rap. And his oft-delayed and anticipated Bully On Tha Beat mixtape made it’s arrival into the world on Friday the 13th.

KAB lyrically is as straight forward as a shank to the gut, unflinching with threats and slight hashtags that seem right at home. “I hate you, I wrote a song to demonstrate it,” he quips on “Wack Eulogy Rap” with SamDavis, shooting slugs at janky promoters and enemies as if his life depended on it. He hates all wack things, promotes “Good Music” with DJ Mr. Rogers and even shakes ragtime bars with George Young on “Houston”.

The route KAB’s dealt with involves death, jail and destruction. Let him tell the story and you might fall in as a newfound fan. Or a supporter who’s been waiting for this for seemingly forever.
- Day and a Dream dot com

Tonight, KAB tha Don, monsterly dignitary, will host a mixer celebrating the release of his first proper mixtape, Bully On The Beat, at SF2 North (215 W. Greens Rd).

Now, KAB is nothing short of a Houston Press fan favorite. He is big and mean and, should he choose to be, hyperintimidating. His menace is entirely believable. He is perfectly built for the gangster rapper role, and we've been excited about hearing his tape since his surprisingly sunswept single "Good Music" made its way onto the Internet near the beginning of last year. But still, we, very likely, will not be in attendance tonight.

See, tonight is Movie Night at the Serrano household. Every Friday night, we pick up the boys from Tae Kwon Do, take them to Blockbuster, let them pick a movie, then go home and watch it together. It's a proper good time, and one of the few instances during the week that the boys get to watch TV. We've not missed one in more than two years.

We explained this to KAB, even (jokingly) suggesting that he postpone his mixer until tomorrow and join us instead for a viewing of Diary of a Wimpy kid. His gorgeous response:
And that's the story of how the KAB Knows Children's Movies feature came to be. What follows is a list of ten beloved children's movies, along with a (mostly sic'd) synopsis of each by one of the most imposing rap forces in town. It couldn't be a better fit.
Toy Story

How IMDB Saw It: A cowboy toy is profoundly threatened and jealous when a fancy spaceman toy supplants him as top toy in a boy's room.

How KAB Saw It: Talkin' toys? Come on now. Fucc, kids watch anythang.
Lion King

How IMDB Saw It: Tricked into thinking he killed his father, a guilt ridden lion cub flees into exile and abandons his identity as the future King.

How KAB Saw It: My nigga Simba avenges his father's death and gets tha "Pussy"* at tha end.

It's unclear whether he's using "pussy" to mean "vagina" or "pussy" to mean "feline." Either way, it's pretty perfect.
Peter Pan

How IMDB Saw It: Wendy and her brothers are whisked away to the magical world of Neverland with the hero of their stories, Peter Pan.

How KAB Saw It: That nigga Peter came bacc to tha old hood and beat tha shit out of Captain Hook; fed his ass to tha gator.
Shrek

How IMDB Saw It: An ogre, in order to regain his swamp, travels along with an annoying donkey in order to bring a princess to a scheming lord, wishing himself King.

How KAB Saw It: Fucc Shrek. Tha jacc ass [Donkey] shoulda had its own movie. That nigga was funny.
Princess and The Frog

How IMDB Saw It: A fairy tale set in Jazz Age-era New Orleans and centered on a young girl named Tiana and her fateful kiss with a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again.

How KAB Saw It: Tha blacc cartoon would have something to do wit' voodoo. Fucc ya'll.
Beauty and Beast

How IMDB Saw It: Belle, whose father is imprisoned by the Beast, offers herself instead and discovers her captor to be an enchanted prince.

How KAB Saw It: Ugly niggas get hoes too.
Bambi

How IMDB Saw It: Animated film about a young deer, Bambi, growing up in the wild after his mother is shot by hunters.

How KAB Saw It: Even when you see your mama die you gotta keep buckin'.
A Bug's Life

How IMDB Saw It: A misfit ant, looking for "warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe.

How KAB Saw It: Save for tha winter, tha drought will come.
Aladdin

How IMDB Saw It: Aladdin, a street urchin, accidentally meets Princess Jasmine, who is in the city undercover. They love each other, but she can only marry a prince.

How KAB Saw It: What's throweder than a magic carpet wit' a bad bitch? Nothin'.

Follow KAB on Twitter at @KabThaDon. Go to his mixer tonight at SF2 North (215 W. Greens Rd).




- Houston Press