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Blue Sky Black Death (abbreviated BSBD) is a production duo based in San Francisco, California and Seattle, Washington[1]. The duo consists of Kingston (real name Kingston Maguire[2]) and Young God (Ian Taggart[3]). They are known principally for their hip hop and instrumental music, made with a mix of live instrumentation and sampling. Their name is "a skydiving phrase alluding to beauty and death"[4].
[edit] HistoryKingston and Young God met and began collaborating on music in 2003[5]. Young God began creating beats to rap over, but abandoned rapping and started producing exclusively around 2000, while Kingston began working on production seriously around 2002[6]. Kingston began his solo producing career around 2004, working on projects for Virtuoso's Omnipotent Records. He contributed a number of tracks to Jus Allah's scheduled Omnipotent debut All Fates Have Changed, but the album was shelved[7]. The tracks "Vengeance" and "Drill Sergeant" were later released on BSBD's Dirtnap mixtape[8], and a number of other beats recorded for the album were bootlegged on The Devil'z Rejects album Necronomicon[9]. One Kingston beat ("Supreme (Black God's Remix)") was included on the Babygrande Records release of All Fates Have Changed in 2005[10]. The duo signed their first record deal with Mush Records in August 2005 to release the label's first double-disc album[11]. Their debut, A Heap of Broken Images, was released on June 23, 2006. The first disc featured twelve instrumental tracks with heavy live-instrumentation, while the second disc featured nine rap collaborations made with traditional Hip Hop sampling, and a closing instrumental. The guests included Jus Allah (of Jedi Mind Tricks), Sabac Red (formerly of Non Phixion), Wise Intelligent (of Poor Righteous Teachers), A-Plus and Pep Love (of Hieroglyphics), Chief Kamachi (of Army of the Pharaohs), Mikah 9 (formerly of Freestyle Fellowship), Virtuoso (formerly of Army of the Pharaohs), Awol One and Wu-Tang Clan affiliate Holocaust[12]. The album received acclaim from various sources, including URB, Vapors, Word, Mean Street, UK Hip Hop and Allmusic[13], and landed the duo on URB's 'Next 100'[14]. The album's acclaimed production led to the duo landing a record deal with popular independent rap label Babygrande Records later in 2006. Their first release on the label was a full-length collaboration with Holocaust, titled Blue Sky Black Death presents: The Holocaust, released on September 5. Holocaust provided all the album's vocals with no guest appearances, and BSBD provided production for every track. The album included the duo's first 12" single "The Ocean" b/w "No Image"[15]. The duo's next album was a collaboration with another Wu-Tang affiliate, Sunz of Man and Black Market Militia member Hell Razah. Their album Razah's Ladder was released on October 23, 2007. Unlike The Holocaust, the album included outside guest appearances, featuring Crooked I, Shabazz the Disciple, Ill Bill, Sabac Red and Prodigal Sunn[16]. The duo strayed from the dark soundscapes featured on The Holocaust, instead providing a soulful backdrop for Razah. Shortly before the release of Razah's Ladder, the duo released their first mixtape, titled Dirtnap, featuring various unreleased collaborations and two instrumentals from their forthcoming album[8]. The duo's next release was their first all-instrumental project, Late Night Cinema, released on April 29, 2008. The dense instrumentals featured contributions from violinists, organists, trumpeters, synth players and vocalists, as well as guitar, keyboard and drum kit work from the producers themselves[17]. The album received high acclaim from XLR8R, Music-Reviewer, PopMatters, SputnikMusic and RapReviews.com. RapReviews writer Pedro Hernandez stated "With this album, Blue Sky Black Death pushes the limits of what hip-hop music can be" and called it "essential listening"[18]. BSBD stayed active online throughout 2008, releasing two instrumental podcast blends titled Gifts in Jail Vol. 1 & Gifts in Jail Vol. 2, and a screwed version of Late Night Cinema titled Lean Night Cinema In June 2008, after an online petition from fans, Babygrande released the acclaimed instrumentals from The Holocaust on vinyl and CD[19]. The pair then contributed twelve of thirteen tracks for Phoenix MC Gutta's debut album Heads Will Roll, released on Babygrande on September 2[20]. On September 30, Babygrande released the album The Evil Jeanius, by pairing Jean Grae vocals with Blue Sky Black Death beats. [21]. November saw the duo's fifth-release of the year, Slow Burning Lights, an indie pop project with singer Yes Alexander (of The Casual Lust [22]), which was recorded and completed two years before its release[23]. BSBD also completed another album with side project Deadpan Darling, a collaboration with singer Ceschi, and were recording a collaborative album with rappers Crooked I and Ill Bill[24], which has since come to a halt. In June 2007, "Rebel to the Grain" and "Slapbox with Jesus", tracks that were completely made up of various Wu-Tang samples, were posted on myspace. They were planned to be released on a tribute to Wu-Tang Clan or a limited edition 7" release on Mush Records but eventually appeared on the duo's free-to-download compilation "Lost and Unreleased" in August 2009. [edit] Discography[edit] Albums
[edit] Mixes/Podcasts/Other
[edit] Production credits
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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