“It’s been years since we offered an addition to the series and the feeling inside was we had to do something new with a unified theme,†said Hidden Beach president Steve McKeever.
[Music]
After nearly a three year hiatus, the Los Angeles-based Hidden Beach Recordings has refreshed its popular and critically acclaimed Unwrapped collection.
“It’s been years since we offered an addition to the series and the feeling inside was we had to do something new with a unified theme,” said Hidden Beach president Steve McKeever.
“The idea came up that southern rap has exploded into pop culture, why not offer Unwrapped recordings of these monster hits. At the same time but on the opposite coast, the Atlanta-based ColliPark team had begun bringing jazz renditions of their catalog to life under the working name ‘Crunk Jazz Café’” he added.
Hidden Beach A&R man Jerrold Thompson connected with ColliPark’s Karl Marcellus Washington, Esq., who brought in the project’s Executive Producer Abdul Ra’oof and from this triumvirate Unwrapped 5.0 was born.
The Collipark Café Sessions is the fifth in the series of hip-hop/jazz hybrid compilations and is due to be released on June 24, 2008. What sets this one apart from the rest is its unique Southern hip-hop theme. Once considered a sub-genre, southern rap music has not only solidified its place in the hip-hop world but has bullied its way into pop culture as well.
Testaments to this success have not only been heard on the radio, but singles from Southern rappers have begun to dominate the ring tone and download single sales charts as well. “Crank That (Soulja Boy Tellem)” last year’s number one selling ringtone, receives the Unwrapped treatment in this 5.0 edition.
Working in concert with ColliPark Studios; best known for producing smash hits by Soulja Boy, Ludacris, Young Jeezy and many more, Hidden Beach scoured a litany of interpretive tracks then refined and seasoned them to produce one of the most exciting Unwrapped projects yet.
“The ColliPark Café Sessions provided a unique opportunity to revisit and mold a new body of work from Team ColliPark contribution to the Southern hip-hop movement. The result is an intoxicating blend of hip-hop’s pitch and timbre fused with jazz improvisation,” said ColliPark.
Unwrapped 5.0 will continue in the line of sterling quality established by the brand. It is an exciting and inventive contemporary jazz collection of southern hip-hop’s club-ready singles that have been etch into pop culture.
The stirring eleven track collection features the Unwrapped regulars such as Hidden Beach’s own Mike Phillips, and Peter Black along with Karen Briggs, Jeff Lorber, and Patrice Rushen as well as some new voices like Fred Wesley, Abdul Ra’oof, Jimmy Brown, Kofi Burbridge and Wirlie “Wyl-e” Morris among others.
From Lil Jon & the EastSide Boyz monster hit “Get Low” to the chart topping Hurricane Chris smash “A Bay Bay,” Unwrapped 5.0 has it all.