Luke Sick & AC Join Forces for New West Bay 1980-90's Analog Mob-influenced Group CREEP PLAYER & Share Debut Project RIVAL DEALER (Megakut Records)
Bay Area emcee, producer, and musician Luke Sick (Strike The Clutch, ON TILT, DANKSLOB, Grand Killa Con, Grand Invincible, Grand Collab, DANK GOBLINS, CCRRCCSSLLRRKKRRSSS, The Disturbers, Dwarves) has returned with a new release from yet another band/group. CREEP PLAYER is Luke's new Gangsta Rap-influenced group with producer AC415n AKA AC. Their inaugural release, RIVAL DEALER, was recently profiled within the latest edition of okayplayer's Mixtape Monday, along with choice cuts from Big Kahuna OG, Justo The MC x maticulous, Zilla Rocca & andrew., Rhys Langston, and plenty more rising stars. okayplayer's Karas Lamb reported: "Luke Sick & AC combine as CREEP PLAYER to drop their super-raw Gangsta Rap collection dubbed RIVAL DEALER."
Luke Sick himself recently told The Witzard, "I think the most important thing to get out there about this tape is that it was crafted in the fashion of the classic Bay Area analog mob sound of the 80's and 90's (made legendary by producers like TC, Mike Mosley, Sam Bostic, Sean T, etc. just to name a few.)" AC's beats for RIVAL DEALER were hand-crafted and recorded using the following collection of old school gear: Moog Minimoog, Akai MPC3000, E-mu SP-1200, E-mu Emulator II, Oberheim DMX, Oberheim Matrix 1000, Roland MKS-7, Roland JD-990, Lexicon PCM70, ARP 8 Mixing Board, and a Tascam CD-RW9000 MKII CD burner.
AC further ellaborated that "beats were run through the mixer with effects and recorded directly into the CD burner and, then, given to Luke for vocals. No computers were used. Strictly 80's and 90's-era vintage gear." Adding that "in 2022, this process has its weaknesses and constraints, but, overall, I like it, as it keeps things in the realms of the past both sonically and workflow/process wise, which inspires me." Regarding the lyrical content heard across RIVAL DEALER, Sick said, "most of the stories and imagery were culled from my wild teenage and wilder early-adulthood years coming up in Palo Alto and on the peninsula south of San Francisco, a place we call The West Bay."
"My rhyme style, cadence, and flow is pretty obviously influenced by the raw Mob Rap & Funk beats that East Palo Alto [EPA] invented throughout the late 80's and 90's; groups like Parts Unknown, Totally Insane, Funklab All-Stars, Murder One Gangster, S.I.C., So Busy, The Youngen, Chunk, etc." Luke Sick added, "for being a place that is only 2.5 miles long, EPA is the funkiest Funk-producing place in the whole damn world. And if, like me, you were creeping hard around Palo Alto in the early 90's, that sound was all you heard."Luke Sick & AC's first collective collaboration as CREEP PLAYER, RIVAL DEALER, is now available exclusively on Megakut Records' Bandcamp page.
