Top Five | Syracuse Rappers
A new generation of eclectic MCs poise for their break-out moment.
Chris Leonard started Love & Loyalty Records in 2007. Four years later, the hip-hop label boasts nine artists, a packed party schedule, and a brand-new compilation album.
Hardcore, jazz, and ska ruled Syracuse for decades. But another niche music scene thrives in local basements and downtown clubs, and it swaggers harder than the genres that came before it. From novelty potato raps to old-school hip-hop, these MCs make a strong case for the future of rap in the 315.
5. ToTs
ToTs began as a party joke, but Michael John Heagerty is serious about potatoes. In fact, the Camillus native and his DJ, Emmett VanSlyke, filled three full-length albums with French fry, home fry, and tater tot-themed raps. Their lyrics range from the hilarious ("I'm so deep-fried") to the unabashedly bizarre ("I'm butt naked and covered in fries"). A world record-keeping site, URBD.com, even awarded ToTs the record for most potato references in a rap song — admittedly, there isn't much competition. ToTs plans to finish mixing his third album, Au No You Didn't, in time for a summer release. He already dropped the the album's irrepressible lead single, "Crispy," on iTunes.
4. Mouth's Cradle
Mouth's Cradle consists of Kevin "Mouf" Hegedus on the mic and Brandon Linn, or Master Rogers, on the beats. Together they make songs about everything from Pokémon to ice and snow. Mouf's obscure references mixed with Master Rogers' danceable beats result in weird, hyper-literate party music like nothing you've heard before. Consider their most recent release, Mouth's Cradle Is Terrible: The five-song EP rhymes words like Finnegan and cinnamon and samples found video footage from EverythingIsTerrible.com.
3. DooWiTTle
The recipient of back-to-back Syracuse Area Music Awards, Michael "DooWiTTle" Widger's far-ranging and intelligent raps earned him gigs with Fat Joe, Camron, and Gym Class Heroes before he took off in 2007 to focus on filmmaking. His best-known single, "Popular," samples the Wicked soundtrack; on "Sultan's Dance," his rhymes weave around a Middle Eastern melody. Widger recently finished his apocalyptic film The End of Syracuse NY — giving fans hope that he will soon return to music.
2. Jay Foss
Jordan Foster, a.k.a. Jay Foss, began rapping at age 13. Since then, the Syracuse University sophomore and Fayetteville native became a regular at local house parties and venues like Funk 'n Waffles and Spark. On "Dolla and a Dream," a highlight off his 2010 EP Evil Genius, Foss lays hard verses over a remix of Aloe Blacc's "I Need a Dollar." He recently signed to Activ music, the booking agency run by SU grad student Ade Coker.
1. Love & Loyalty Records
Love & Loyalty Records gathers some of the biggest names in Syracuse hip-hop under one motto: "Love over money, because without love, what do you got?" Christopher "Oxburg" Leonard, the label's founder, won a 2008 Syracuse Area Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Artist. Oxburg's labelmates, which include 315 notables Skip, A-Train, and Young Gutz, have also released albums of their own. The group sounds strongest together, however: This spring, they collaborated on the compilation album Love Over Money, which dropped May 1.
