El Da Sensei x Nordik One – Escape The Yard

Escape the Yard from San Francisco-based Outsiders Syndicate and produced by Chicago’s DJ MROK featuring Artifacts emcee El da Sensei drops  on Black Buffalo Records.

El da Sensei and Syndicate founder Nord1kone are joined by fellow Syndicate emcees The I.M.F., Jimmy Beatz, and Cyph4. MROK handles cuts with Syndicate DJ LMT Break cutting on closing track Colors of the Jungle. The six-track splatter vinyl and cassette release features artwork from graffiti artist Joey Green.

The album provides an ode an underappreciated element of hip hop. The album tackles graffiti’s dichotomy as artform and criminalized offence. Through its lyrical content, NY Boom Bap beats, graffiti inspired production samples, and snippets from seminal graffiti cinema, including 1983’s Style Wars, Escape the Yard is a journey into the subway tunnels and train yards.

“We wanted to make an album dedicated to graffiti artists that they could listen to and hear themselves in each of the tracks,” said DJ MROK. “Graffiti is underappreciated as one of the four elements and without it, hip hop would not be what it is today. We wanted to create a soundtrack that the muralists, stencil and sticker artists, and taggers could relate to.”

The project is at time menacing and foreboding, according to MROK, who cites his affection for and influence from the Philly Wicked graf-style. “The (Philly-style) murals were angular and sharp and felt like you would cut your fingers on it.” While at other times vibrant and beautiful, Escape the Yard is an opus dedicated to the oft-scorned element.