729
Birmingham, AL | Established. Jan 01, 2017 | INDIE
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
FOR FANS OF: Jazzy Hip-Hop, Spacey Beats, Flatbush Zombies
This one is really under the radar. The first time I heard 729's Windin' Zpirit on YouTube, it had 5 views. One day later, there are 16. 729 is a joint EP from Birmingham, Alabama rapper Ozu and rapper/producer Erthling. I first heard of Erthling last year because I really dug his project Magical Realizm. I had never heard of Ozu before. Erthling handles production only here, so my expectations going in were curbed having never heard of Ozu, but he can spit. His voice is rough and unpolished, and almost resembles Tyler, The Creator sonically. The beats are jazzy and a bit dusty, just the way I like them. You can find the whole EP over at HiveMuzik. - Cranberry Moonwalk
29 is the new project from Birmingham artists Ozu and Erthling. While the two have been in each other’s orbits for a while, this marks their first official collaboration together. They start things off with an EP appropriately titled Greetings..
While Erthling is a dual threat, producing and rhyming, for this project he’s sticking to the beats while Ozu hops on the mic. If you’re familiar with Ertling’s production, you know that he possesses the ability to get weird and ethereal with his beats, but also knows how to rock the crowd with some funky beats that bang. And that’s exactly what we get with Greetings.. It might only be a four-track introduction to the group, but in the course of those tracks they manage to go from a kind of sci-fi inspired beat to a crowd rocker to a smooth, jazzy beat, and then end on a banger, all while maintaining a sense of flow, so that all of the songs are in conversation with each other. Ozu has a great voice on the mic, with a low conversational twang to his delivery that sounds great as he delivers his words clear and direct, with just a little bit of swing to them. It helps the project have this intimate feel to the proceedings, like Ozu is talking directly to you as he goes from philosophical rhymes to personal confessions, to just fun wordplay. There’s a great deal of promise here, and the two obviously have great chemistry together. Really, the biggest problem with this EP is that it’s over just as it starts to get going.
Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for the next project from 729, because it really sounds like Ozu and Erthling are on to something here, and they’ve only begun to scratch the surface. In the meantime, we’ve got a nice four-song introduction to tide us over and to get us excited for whatever comes next. - Chi Chi
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Some unions are forged in fire, but even those pale in comparison to the potential of the aesthetically-pleasing duo based out of Birmingham. Comprised of Bessemer-bred lyricist OZU and producer-extraordinaire Erthling., the group’s hard-hitting beats are combined with lines and rhymes that entice the mind… Some might call it divine, but they just refer to it with three digits: 729.
With monthly EPs rolling out for your consumption via streaming services, the content from the two isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
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