The Feenom Circle
Souled Separately
Melatone
In their native San Francisco, The Feenom Circle (Side B, RawJ, and Tope One,) managed to move 2000 units of their 1998 debut EP, Prescriptions, all without the help of distribution. Working out of a small bedroom which served as both a recording studio and an office, the trio established Melatone Music, which brings us Souled Separately.
Souled delivers sharp rhymes over soft and mellow, jazz-byte driven hip hop. Reminiscent of Digable Planets and The Evil Tambourines, tracks like “Tunnel Vision,” “Nothing Yet,” and “Circulation” have an adult sensibility that is a far cry from the wholesale slaughter and regurgitation of random samples of Your Favorite Hits that pervades so much of mainstream hip hop today. For those with tastes beyond “bitches, hos, and chronic,” Souled is smart and smooth, the next step in the evolution of jazz-infused hip-hop.
The Feenom Circle: http://www.feenom.com
