by Dan Olney

Hungry and aware that your collaborators push you beyond where you can go alone.

If you pull up Fused Arrow’s Bandcamp page you’ll see a long list of really impressive projects from a wide range of talent. From Nosaj to Duncecap, Fatboi Sharif, Fat Tony, Andrew, AJ Suede, and of course Alaska Atoms. These artists exist within this underground hip hop community as blissfully unique known for the exclusive stylistic POV they impact on songs. All of the artists I mentioned change the nature of a song they feature on. Steel Tipped Dove recruits impeccably and delivers as a label head, producer and mixing/mastering as OG audio engineer. Here are five artists I would love to come out on Fused Arrow:

 1.H31R-When writing these lists (most of the time) my mind is dazzled by what the mixture of these forces could create together. A brand new outcome due to the chemical combination of electric artists overflowing with talent. This is not the case with maassai x J Words, I don’t want to alter their compound in any way shape or form. J Words is so far ahead of the production curve with her electronic, danceable dazzling bpm’s it will take a while for the market to catch up with her. From ve-loc-i-ty to HeadSpace they are getting better together, maassai is AKAI SOLO levels of disjointed yet perfect. I want them to release on Fused Arrow to provide them resources, access to an audience that will love what they do is a big part of it. When they hit their peak I want all the ears to hear it. The other resource is Dove who knows everyone and is a dope producer/ engineer. This opens the door to interesting mixes and a new world of features.

2.Wiki-The two lanes of Wiki are the two lanes Dove is best at. Tony Seltzer Wiki can rampage tracks, leaving you blinded by the pace and energy with rewindable fascinating bars stuck in your brain. Navy Blue Wiki can pull his life apart, reflect, diagnose and sorting through a mix of hazy memory and confusing reality. Over the course of a beautiful career Wiki has proved to be a NY hip hop monument and Dove is not just a NY heavy hitter but someone who just gave us the most exciting Alaska Atoms album in years next to the somber claustrophobia of an album like Long​-​Light Derecho. Wherever they would chose to go both have the skillset to do their best work once they arrive.

3.Sunmundi-The Ka comparisons have been jokes that turned into sincere compliments. Fused Arrow music doesn’t have the regimented limits and expectations other labels have. If you follow and enjoy Fused Arrow you are ready to be surprised when you press play. Sunmundi definitely writes in power punches, no jabs. Every project has shown growth and going from Midnight Oil to Lived and Born he is in an intense learning phase. Ka was someone who enjoyed writing from a dark place, he realized what few do…that the dark has much more dimension than typically gets explored. Sunmundi is not on a mission to match that depth but similarly fascinated with all the options outside of the light.

4. blkchai-This is exactly the kind of artist that Dove enhances. A wordsmith of a high caliber with roots in classic 90’s NY hip hop influence who has a knack for warping them to create his own dimension. His content is literary, fly, and subversive. Dove would help plant the freak flag even deeper and the outcome would be an album everyone spoke about. I have no doubt that Dove’s diversity of sound and fine ear would be the best partner for blkchai to push to the next level.

5.Rap Man Gavin-You could never kill Ultron the same way. Marvel’s dangerous psychologically damaged cyborg would come back with a new protection in place against the fatal attack from last time. Rap Man Gavin is the same type of emcee, every project is an upgrade to the system from To Live and Die in Any Given Place with Clouded Slum to Memories, Dreams, Reflections with postureless. His dexterity of flow from track to track along with his searing feature work show Gavin is hungry to reach new levels. Hungry and aware that your collaborators push you beyond where you can go alone. I have absolute faith that Fused Arrow would put his name where all the heads can hear it.