Bebo

In the brief time since Common Market dropped their extraordinary debut album, the duo has gathered praise as Seattle Weekly’s 2006 Best New Artist and performing slots on grand stages such as Sasquatch Festival and The Capitol Hill Block Party. They have shared the stage with the likes of KRS-One, Zion I, Ghostface Killah and The Coup. The album’s regional success, along with the rising tidal wave of Northwest hip-hop, has poised the group for a serious push into the national scene, as the Common Market LP has been mixed and mastered by legendary Seattle music engineer Martin Feveyear and repackaged with new album cover art. Common Market will be the first official new release of Mass Line, a co-op indie record label run by Common Market, Blue Scholars and Gabriel Teodros.

Like a true mic veteran, RA flips between abstract imagery, straight-forward slogans and storytelling with an unmistakable delivery you would expect from someone well-versed in classic boom-bap hip-hop from the era of Brother J, Beatnuts and A Tribe Called Quest. More than just another throwback album, Common Market also dares to pose questions about religion, politics and the state of mainstream hip-hop. At the core of Common Market’s music is a critical, unapologetic world view that change is not only necessary, it is inevitable, and can only come about through having love for and serving the people.