The Cave

JPEGMAFIA, aka Peggy, is a rapper/producer originally from NY but describes himself as a Baltimore artist. At 13 Peggy moved to the south where he eventually would join the Air Force and serve a 4 year tour in Iraq. Peggy is now an acclaimed artist covered by publications from Pitchfork to Fader and everywhere in between. Oh and if this doesn't work out he'll turn to journalism.

This week in The Cave we have two of our favorite artists from the Midwest - Smino & Monte Booker. Smino is getting ready to kick off his HOOPTI TOUR starting tomorrow, while Monte is still trying to find his way back to Earth. LA Rapper Buddy (loves kush) makes an appearance as well.

This week on The Cave, we are joined by the elegant, charming, inimitable Rico Nasty. She has descended from her bejeweled perch among the immortal souls of Mt. Olympus to join the peasants below and remind us why we all pray to her shrine nightly. Kenny, who just so happens to be a white person of the male gender, assembles an instrumental out of thin, blunt smoke air and the magic begins. Their collaborative album, Anger Management, not to be confused with the 2003 comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, is set for an April release. Expect emotional purging, guitar shredding, screaming, and KENNYYYYYYYYYYYYYing.

Kicking off this season is Detroit legend Danny Brown. We learn about how Kenny and Danny’s paths crossed for the first time almost a decade ago. We learn about how the real life Pootie Tang saved Danny’s life with a belt. We learn the WiFi network. And by the end, we all learn something about ourselves.

This week on The Cave we welcome Atlanta’s 6lack. He’s here not to sing but to rap, bringing capital B Bars to our humble show. Kenny cooks up a New York style, getting money on the block in Brooklyn type beat, inspired by thumbing through all the fake hundreds that have accumulated in the studio. We learn about 6lack’s process, that he hasn’t physically written his music since 2010. We learn about his history with battle rap, and his transition to singing. We learn that with enough time and personal, private effort, anyone could become a vocalist. Just don’t let anyone hear your shit for a while. And finally, we hear one of the most effortless freestyles ever witnessed on this show. So effortless in fact, that after the first few bars, 6lack takes a seat and raps the rest of it on the DOTS couch. By the end, we are left with the overwhelming feeling of having been given more than enough bars.

Welcome back to The Cave, where today we are joined by our first guest from across the pond, U.K. legend slowthai. His vibe of choice: a combination of strippers, Scarface, and pasta. Kenny expertly constructs a Nando’s PERi-PERi sauce infused instrumental while slowthai initiates his transcendental, inner-truth-seeking creative process. After a series of advanced meditative techniques, including the ancient Taoist practice known in some rare traditional circles as the “outdoor cigarette and slow kick,” thai was ready to face the booth. His freestyle gives us entry to what English philosopher Aldous Huxley referred to as the doors of perception. Replete with the keys to enlightenment, slowthai’s bars begin to spill over like nectar of the Olympian gods overflowing their amphora vessels. Not long after rejecting the confines of the beat and continuing on into a cappella, our guest is asked to “get out the booth bruh, you’re done,” by which he graciously abides.

In the Greek philosopher Plato’s seminal work, Republic, the famous allegory of the cave describes a group of people staring at a wall. These cave dwellers concern themselves with nothing except what’s inside the cave and what’s projected onto the wall. As objects pass through the light of a fire, shadows form on the wall and create reality. They never leave the cave to find out what lies beyond, nor realize that the shadows on the wall are not reality but merely a consequence of a larger reality. Philosophers of their time celebrated themselves for reaching out toward the sun, but the cave dwellers were right to stick to what they knew, watching shadow puppets on the wall and chilling by the fire. That sounds better than most outdoor activities. What does this mean? I don’t know, I don’t even think people read this far into the descriptions. You should be watching the video instead of scrolling this far down, truly. It’s Isaiah Rashad the most anticipated guest of this show’s history.

Back at it with ¼ Italian Mac DeMarco. We went for sort of a Godfather pt. II theme with this one. The cigar smoke wafted us into an osteria with every pasta shape you could imagine. Fusilli. Orecchiette. Tagliatelle. You name it. The music just developed organically from there. At some point in this video you may wonder: what the fuck am I watching? That’s a great question but I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that I’m scared because for the first time, my anonymous identity as YouTube description author was almost compromised in this episode. I might as well get ahead of it, so I confess: I’ve been living in the attic of The Cave now for months unbeknownst to Kenny or any guests. I make little meals every day, blow big gas (second hand from downstairs mostly), and I spend weeks at a time writing these YouTube descriptions. It’s my only creative outlet and it’s sacred to me. Rent in Los Angeles is steep as ever, and DOTS only pays me 15k per description. I need to cut costs.

Welcome back to the Cave. I’ve been living in the attic of Kenny’s studio now for several months. I think this is week 15. It’s hard to tell at this point. The days are running together. I’ve been surviving off Yerba Mate and Wingstop leftovers that I occasionally find at night. I make my moves swiftly and strategically, only when I know Kenny won’t be around to see. Sometimes I think he knows I’m up here and is just biding his time, waiting until the perfect moment to strike me with a vintage synthesizer. Occasionally, when he’s downstairs making beats at high volume, I’ll sing to myself or write little raps that no one will ever hear. I have this fantasy where one day I just go down there and he doesn’t trip or anything, just invites me into The Cave for a special guest episode. Wait, he just walked into the studio. I need to lie completely still. I don’t know if he can hear me typing this. Until next time friends, please enjoy Episode 3 of this season, with guest Kenny Mason.