Reef The Lost Cauze | Photo by Josh Pelta-Heller for WXPN | hellerhound.com
Required Listening: Reef the Lost Cauze makes his voice heard on “Radio Suckas”
Philly rapper Reef the Lost Cauze has never been one to mince words, and his latest record, Furious Styles – out now via Soulspazm – sees him and a cast of friends, from producer DJ Bear One to STS, Peedi Craak and Truck North, doing just that.
Exhibit A: the fierce and furious “Radio Suckas,” which meditates on the homogeny of corporate media, and the barriers it creates – particularly for black artists – when it comes to getting voices heard. “I’m tired of getting treated like a lesser artiste, ’cause I don’t turn up,” raps Truck North on his verse, later twisting the knife by spitting “I hear the radio’s dyin’ too ever since the satellite shit came through.”
Reef vents about a career-long conundrum he’s had: “How they don’t play me in Philly when I’m packin’ stands in Pakistan?” And how, when mainstream radio actually embraces local artists, it’s limited: “‘Flipside’ ain’t the only song by Peedi and Freeway / they claim to rep the streets but that ain’t what the f’in streets say.”
Listen to the entire song below, and pick up your copy of Furious Styles via iTunes.