Look friends, I’m admittedly not an avid fan of most hip hop music. In the rare instance that I find a hip hop song that I do like however, there are usually some telltale qualities about the song that make it appealing to me. With songs like “The Breakdown” and several of their others, People Under The Stairs hit that FeenyFresh hip hop niche that so many other hip hop groups fail to effectively capture. From the jazzy old school sampled background music, to the persistent head-bob inducing kick-drum, to the long instrumental intros and outros, to the legitimate poetic verses that is ominously lacking from an absurd amount of hip hop music today, they truly emphasize the creativity that differentiates their work.

People Under The Stairs is an LA group that consists of Christopher Portugal (Thes One) and Michael Turner (Double K). They pride themselves on their “do it yourself” work ethic in sampling, MCing, DJing, and producing all of the songs they create. Their name accurately represents this DIY attitude as well. They formed during a time when rappers were making large crews to gain notoriety, yet they wanted to focus and stay out of the spotlight. Instead of going with the grain, they solely concentrated on their music production, only coming out from “under the stairs” to perform before they went back under again. Oh and by the by, the whole reason I posted this song in the first place is because People Under The Stairs just announced another North American tour, so now’s the time to jump on those tix!