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Hi kids. I’ll keep this brief because I’m manually clicking out these words after spilling coffee on my keyboard last week. I remixed this song from my album using Aloe Blacc’s “I Need A Dollar” which is also the theme song of HBO’s new series How To Make It In America. Another brilliant promotional idea from the mind of QM. Peep it, download it, spread it. You know the drill. Rico Cochino. Out.

Richie Cunning
One Dollar Wonder (How To Make It In America Remix) DivShare

RoutineFly and Richie Cunning are proud to present the official video for “Richie Cunning’s Day Off”, shot and directed by Trevor Traynor (www.trevortraynor.com / www.ishooteverything.com). The video is filmed in a grip of locations including but not limited to; someone else’s limo, a matinee showing of “More Than A Game”, and a cave. The song itself is available on Richie Cunning’s “Late Night Special” mixtape as well as Rec-League’s “Season Two” compilation, both released in December of 2009. Richie Cunning’s debut album “Night Train” is available now on Routinefly.com as well as iTunes, Amazon and other fine internet music retailers.

Some San Franciscans make a Mission burrito run as soon as they return to town. Rapper and producer Richie Cunning just takes a deep breath and says, “Oh, thank God.” He loves the city’s air enough to give it a shout-out on his debut LP, Night Train, a record with a Blue Note look and a Golden Age hip-hop feel. “There’s definitely a different smell in different parts of town, but there is always the air,” he explains. “In a literal sense, it’s not so much the smell as the texture, the moistness of it.”

There was plenty of moisture — buckets of it — in the air the day I met Cunning at the High Tide, a cozy Tenderloin dive bar his father used to own. “When I was a wee lad, I used to come here with my dad [while he did] the books on Saturdays and Sundays,” he recalls. “I’d just drink 7-Up and grenadine [and play] Pac-Man.”

Richie Cunning was born Richard Lipton; he remembers the day, 15 years back, when he swapped one name for the other. He was lugging a stack of LPs from Amoeba Music to the Sunset District, mulling over rap names. “Richie Cunningham [from Happy Days] just came to mind,” he says. “I was like, ‘That would be cool, without the ham on it.’ I always thought of it like I sampled the name — I only use the part that I want.”

Cunning moved to Santa Cruz for college, where he met the like-minded Rec-League All-Stars crew. Luckily, they followed him back to San Francisco, because he couldn’t have stayed away long. The city is the center of his universe, and there’s no better time to enjoy it than late at night. “The city actually goes to sleep,” he says. “I’ve had many, many years of getting stranded [and] taking the bus and/or train home by myself. That’s where I delve deepest into my thoughts.”

These late-night journeys heavily figure on Night Train. Among the many references is the hilarious “Call me the zen Buddha of the N-Judah.” On “The Station,” a funky, boom-bap joint with Leslie organ swirling over the chorus, he rhymes, “I murder any microphone I happen to touch/Then I’m cracking a Dutch on the back of the bus.” Cunning’s horn- and jazz-heavy production, coupled with his swaggering, perfectly enunciated delivery, results in an upbeat and aggressive revisiting of his luminous predecessors Gang Starr and Pete Rock & CL Smooth.

On the gospel horn–inflected “Work It Out,” Cunning notes, “When I took the stage, other rappers took cover.” This is understandable. He and the Rec-League sold out the Night Train release party at the Elbo Room last month, thanks in part to their ability to maximize the impact of their stage show. “One of the ways that you really lose crowd energy is by pausing in between songs,” he says. “So we [developed] a rapid-fire, machine-gun style. The beat just drops. This song ends; this song starts. We don’t even give people a chance to get bored.”

This style might be too much for most aspiring rappers to achieve on the first time out, but Cunning and Co. have launched a campaign imploring MCs to “Stop Performing Over Your Vocals.” The issue springs from hip-hop shows being marred by the use of accompanying CDs that contain beats, recorded choruses, and sometimes entire songs. “That instantly turns me off,” Cunning says. “All you have to do is be on the mike. It’s already almost like karaoke, but to go one step further down the ladder and put vocals onto [the CD], it’s like, ‘C’mon, dude. Try a little harder.’”

MCs, take heed: Cunning is cleaning up like Dirty Harry.

feeling frisky?
http://www.trevortraynor.com
http://www.ishooteverything.com

You have hopefully already heard the four songs we previously released, Hear My Train A Comin’, City Boy, I Got People and Takin’ A Train. (If you’ve been under a rock, check the links below) The mixtape includes his early radio appearances on the world famous radio show The Drum KZSU, hosted by Kevvy Kev, (the longest running hip hop radio show of all time) The mixtape includes his track with Fashawn & U-N-I, Keys To The City, which was used to promote the Imeem.com concert series of the same name. You can also hear Richie’s track from the Zion I Mixtape, The Search & The Seizure, produced by Amp Live and co-starring Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples as well as collaborations with fellow Rec-League artists, Grip Grand, QM, and more. Richie shines not only with his rhymes, but also with his production, having produced a handful of the original songs on this mixtape himself.

Richie Cunning is an experienced artist with a refreshing sound and a rock hard grasp of what it takes to catch the listeners ear. This mixtape is another step in his growing career. URB Magazine has described him as having “surprising grit, undeniable swagger & perfectly ill flow”. His song The City (off the upcoming album, Night Train) has been played numerous times to hype the crowd at Oracle Arena during Golden State Warriors games. He was infamously banned from Canada in 2007 while en route to headline his first international show. More and more people are starting to take notice as Richie, “The Son of the City”, continues to spread his own special brand of rugged yet polished rap music. While we’ll leave the final decision up to you, if you choose to agree, we won’t be mad at you.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Richie Cunning – Late Night Special Mixtape

Previously:
Richie Cunning – Hear My Train A Comin’
Richie Cunning – City Boy
Richie Cunning – I Got People
Richie Cunning – Takin’ A Train’

This week’s song, Hear My Train A Comin, reads a little more like a country ballad than a rap song. Richie pulls the ol’ one track jack on Jimi Hendrix and the result is this hallucinogenic, whiskey-soaked, barnburner. Give it a spin and be sure to tune back in next Monday for the rest of the mixtape. City up, little doggie.

Richie Cunning – Hear My Train A Comin’ DivShare | UserShare

Week 3 is upon us and here, as promised, is the third track from Richie Cunning’s Late Night Special Mixtape. There will be one more track leaked next Monday before the entire mixtape will be released for free download on December 7th at RoutineFly.com. Richie’s self produced debut album, Night Train, will be subsequently released on January 15th, 2010.

This week’s song, “City Boy” produced by Richie Cunning, is sure to make his underground fans hate him and his girl fans remark, “Oh, I kinda like this song”.  Richie’s take on a familiar San Francisco anthem provides a look into the drive of upcoming artists in the often unwelcoming world of the music industry.  See for yourself what all the fuss is about.  Listen closely, and pray you don’t miss the train.

“Fuck it the train’s comin’ ain’t no keepin it back / you don’t wanna get hit? Don’t sleep on the tracks”

Richie Cunning – City Boy

Divshare Download

Richie Cunning’s “Night Train” is scheduled for release on Jan. 15th.  But before that you’re gonna get your face melted with the “Late Night Special” mixtape!  All new joints and a few classics from the past wrapped up into one delightful package

This track, “Takin’ A Train” is the first leak from the mixtape.  There will be 3 more songs released,  one every monday before the mixtape is available.  So enjoy the first new track you get to hear from the upcoming mixtape.  Let the ride begin…

Richie Cunning – Takin’ A Train – Usershare / Download

New song from Season 2.  Music Monday continues with this little treasure….  Season 2 is finished and will be invading your system soon.  Stay tuned.

DOWNLOAD:
QM, Rob Rush & Richie Cunning – “Our Way”