Shade Cobain and Ill-Tone, better known as Blacktivity, are back with the first single “Black Boy” from their fourth studio installment, #UncivilLefts.
From start to finish the song grabs your attention with a bouncy bass-line and eerie fading horns orchestrated by Shade Cobain, with Ill-Tone crafting enlightening lines such as, “is it getting better or fitting to get worse, they labeled color a race to see who can get to the top first!”
The track touches on various issues from unity to what plagues black communities, wrapped in a history lesson. It’s a very informational song without coming off as “preachy.”
“Black Boy” has enough depth to spark interest, without going over the head of casual listeners.
Check the song out below via Bandcamp.
About Blacktivity
With advances in technology geography is nothing, collaboration is effortless,and worlds can and will collide. Artists can pool their talents without ever being in the same room. Such is the case for Michigan artists Ill-tone and Shade Cobain, or as you will come to know them… Blacktivity.
There are striking similarities; both have paid their dues, honed their skills and both call the Midwest home. Those roots, being from the Midwest, can easily be described as Shade puts it, “We put our all into whatever we do.”
Call it a watchword, but one thing you will note about Blacktivity is that that statement rings true throughout the project. Each displays the skill set that proves they are at the top of their craft and details are worked out down to the lowest possible consideration.
Sloppy it isn’t, nor is it taking the easy way. A well thought out and even better executed endeavor it is, Blacktivity cuts the fat off of what could be a “you give me beats, I’ll spit rhymes over them” quid-pro-quo often seen in today’s image heavy, substance lacking climate.
References have been made in each of their cases that they are 90s, old school, or golden era, but they’re not. They are two serious hip-hop preservationists, one could consider them sentries, and while they’re stand watch, real hip-hop culture will never be extinguished by the mainstream.
You can follow @ShadeCobain and @DreadFlintstone on Instagram.
