Hey hey, what up my internet peeps? I hope you’ve all had a good week and are, like me, set to do nothing but chill on this, the “first” weekend of winter. To help facilitate your chillage I bring you the intense lyrical stylings of Mister E.B. Phillips, a fo’ real rapper coming out of Brooklyn NY.

As far as I know Mister E.B. doesn’t have an official EP or album, but he does have 12 songs up on his soundcloud, which is close enough for my purposes. (There is, of course, an important distinction between an album and a bunch of songs that happen to be in the same place, but it’s like 6-10 of one and a half-dozen-ish of the other… If you get my drift.)

The reason I term Mister Phillips a “real rapper” is because his lyrics and flow are the main focus of his songs. A lot of other rappers (I decided not to put that in quotes, see how nice I am?), especially in today’s pop-centric musical environment, throw a whole lot of bells and whistles into their songs, almost as though they are trying to distract you from they’re possibly-less-than-actually-talented wordplay. Not so with E.B. While his beats are good, and some of them are a lot more intricate than others, the songs that I’m the biggest fan of are very simplistic, rhythm-wise. My favorite of his songs, and the one I think best exemplifies this simplicity, is “Did It, ft MONK”.

The beat is created, for the most part, using just two elements: a very simple looping piano line and a really sick, super quick cymbal rhythm. These two lines meld beautifully, with occasional little change-ups thrown in and a truly perfect vocal sample that you really need to hear for yourself.

Be sure to check out the rest of E.B.’s tracks, they’re all in the same dope vein as “Did It”, and well worth a good solid listening.

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy holidaze, merry christmas, etc. etc. blah blah blah. Mostly just try and stay warm, cool? Cool. See y’all next time.

– Zev