Longtime Sacramento creative Bru Lei is a talented rapper, muralist, activist and much more. Though he doesn’t limit himself to labels, Lei admits that the title of magician comes close.

“I think that people who label themselves are limiting themselves,” said Lei when Submerge sat with him at B-Side on S and 15th streets. He noted the bar’s charming “dive class” and continued, “No matter what you call yourself, whether it’s a shaman or teacher, I think magician would be what I’d call myself. Do I believe in magic? Yes I do. Do I feel the world is magical? Yes I do.”

Lei is originally from Columbus, Ohio, and is set to open for fellow Ohio rapper Blueprint at Blue Lamp on June 27. This won’t be the first time they’ve shared the stage. Sitting over an old scrapbook and photo album, Lei showed us momentos from touring with Blueprint more than a decade ago. As he pulled out old concert flyers and posters, we looked over snaps of him and Blueprint on the road. One of his shirts in the photos is emblazoned with “Ohio” on what looks like a road map; it’s easy to sense Lei’s pride in being from the Buckeye State. The last time he and Blueprint saw each other was in Ohio more than two years ago for Lei’s birthday.

Lei cites his mentors as DJ PRZM and Blueprint for their large roles in helping him develop his craft and learn the music business. As we dove deeper into his past, we started talking about his beginnings in hip-hop.

He first dabbled in rapping as a teenager, recording himself with a tape recorder and a CD player. Lei would stand between both components trying to get the timing right. He recalled a time when he took a Nas record his mom owned and rapped over the disc as it played. In the recording, Lei can be heard spittin’ rhymes over Nas’ raps while the beats are heard in the background. His first experiences with rapping over original instrumentals included trips to his uncle’s music studio, where he would play him potential beats on instruments like the piano and more. Although he doesn’t quite remember why he performed, Lei remembers his first show being in 1999.

Though choosing music full-time has always been a dream, Lei noted how difficult the industry is and how challenging the strive for success can be, especially when finding trustworthy peers to help fulfill your dreams. He was burnt out eventually on the road, and touring wasn’t making him feel as enthused as it did for him in the beginning.

“I respect all artists that are actually doing it because it goes back to that longevity and work a person puts into it,” explained Lei. “There is a lot of stuff that will break a person down or quit. Whether gangsta rap or underground or backpack rap or whatever. If someone has been doing it [striving for success as an artist in the music industry], I respect that because it’s hard. You see artists go crazy because of it.”

When Lei came out west, he followed DJ PRZM to Sacramento. Lei has seen the city change so much since he arrived in 2006. Prior to the move, he had never been to California and though he has lived all over the Golden State, now he’s back in Sacramento.

“I had responsibilities in Ohio, but at the time [I moved], I never really had been depressed in life besides a break up or something At that point I was like ‘What am I really going to do with my life?’ And then I moved out here,” explained Lei. “PRZM was a big part of the hip-hop scene in Ohio and he was like my older brother, so it just made sense for me to come out here after that.”

Lei added that after his first show in Sacramento on the Capitol Building steps in downtown, he thought “This place is interesting,” and decided to stay for a while to see where his curiosity lead. Throughout the years he’s made friends and family in Sac and has become actively involved in the art, music, and activism scene.

“I’ve been just doing a lot in the art community,” Lei said. “I try to stay up with the music community and the music scene and the art scene, but I’m only one man and can only do so much. I try to be selective with my energy and time so I can go out and support other artists.”

Lei contributed a piece to Art Street last year; one of the more recognizable pieces involved a black-and-white mural on the outside of an installation as a type of ode to Sacramento. It included the familiar Wu-Tang Clan logo manipulated to reflect Sac’s thriving area of creative minds in Midtown.

Wu-Tang Clan has had a huge influence on Lei his entire life. As he recollected multiple meetings with Wu members, he mentioned an awesome encounter with Method Man as a young teen at Disney World. He also brought up another encounter when RZA gave him shrooms.

“Wu-Tang Clan changed the hip-hop game,” remarked Lei. “To the level that they did, they just changed it more than anybody else as far as the culture and as far as

the clothes. They had Wu Wear, they had nine members, they had break-off groups, and they were in movies, yet all so down to earth.”

Sacramento now has a strong pull for Lei, too. Blue Lamp in particular brings up good memories for him.

“The last show that I did was at Blue Lamp when rapper Eyedea passed away. The first drink I ever had in the state of California was at Blue Lamp. It’s a sentimental place for me,” detailed Lei. “Blue Lamp has this gravitational pull that leads me back. It’s always special when I’m in there. I’ve seen it change owners but still play hip-hop. It stands the test of time.”

Lei has toured around the country, opened up for Del the Funky Homosapien at Concerts in the Park last year and continues to make an impact on the world through his art and creativity. His two albums released last year, Selfie and The Secret Recipe, are both reminiscent of that gritty, strong East Coast rap from the ‘90s. It reminds us of the foundation of what rap was built on.

“No matter who likes my music or who doesn’t like my music, the fact that I’m still doing it is enough for me,” explained Lei. “I’m supposed to be on songs that have been months or weeks in the making, but if I don’t have the right time and proper setting to actually work on something, I’m not really trying to force it just to say that I did it. No matter what other people think of my music, to me it matters if I liked it.”

On what’s igniting his creativity now, Lei reported that he’s been painting. He just finished a mural for a Co-Ed youth basketball league that was created in hopes of connecting communities across Sac. Now he is going where the universe guides him and looking and listening for signs.

“I’m on this ‘survive in Midtown’ thing, so right now I’m just fighting to survive in Midtown,” said Lei. “Like the universe will let me know if I can’t afford it. I’m not gonna live in the ‘burbs. I can do that in any city; why would I live in the ‘burbs here when I can could live on the outskirts of San Francisco, Oakland or New York City? We’ll see what happens.”

Whatever he is doing, we will eagerly stay tuned on what the magician has up his sleeve next.

See Bru Lei live at Blue Lamp (1400 Alhambra Blvd., Sacramento) on Wednesday, June 27 at 8 p.m. Also performing will be DJ Detox, Sparks Across Darkness, Circus Runaways, Errth and headliners Blueprint. For more info, go to Bluelampsacramento.com.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 20 – 21 of issue #268 (June 18 – July 2, 2018)**

Music is awesome, isn’t it? Whether intentional or not, music is a big part of everyone’s lives. It’s all around us: on TV, in ads, in our headphones and earbuds attached to our smart phones with streaming audio. Chances are if you’re reading Submerge, you love music too. Even though there is more great music being made than ever and access to it is becoming easier and easier, it’s still sometimes hard to know where to look to discover new tunes. Enter Submerge’s annual year-end best-of list! In 2013 there were so many amazing albums released that we actually expanded this story to feature the top 30 instead of the top 20. You’ll notice that a lot of this list, approximately 50 percent, is local. That’s not by mistake. That’s not because we tried to include local albums just to round out our list. No, we just have that much talent right here in our own city.

Compiled by all of our contributing writers and staff, we hope this list will help you discover something new. And because all of our attention spans are so short nowadays (are you still with us?), we kept our reviews to 140 characters or less, because we all know that reading someone’s short, to-the-point Twitter post is a helluva lot better than reading someone’s four-paragraph-long Facebook rant. Now, set forth and discover some new jams! Who knows, your new favorite band/album may be waiting for you somewhere on this list.

30.

Danny Brown
Old

Fool’s Gold

What can you say about Danny Brown? He’s rap’s Jim Morrison, The Lizard King. Old has been on repeat since the day I got it. And will be.

29.

Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels

Fool’s Gold

As dope as promised, it gets no better than this. Killer Mike is at his best, and El-P provides the perfect sonic-scape for destruction.

28.

Biosexual
The Window Wants the Bedroom

Debacle

Fantastically produced debut album of avant-garde supergroup featuring the great Jocelyn of ALAK, brother Michael RJ Saalman and Zac Nelson.

27.

Paper Pistols
Deliver Us From Chemicals

Self-released

2 can do it all. Skinner & Lydell are all binary: beard/belle; drum/voice; age/youth; decadent/austere; beautiful/music.

26.

EGG
Overly Easy

Self-released

If Cake and Phish had a baby? Close, but doesn’t quite describe this amazing band. An infectious sound that makes you wanna get up and GO.

25.

M.I.A.
Matangi

N.E.E.T.

M.I.A. is pissed off, and still fresh as ever, rapping over aggressive beats and keeping the Sri Lankan sound alive.

24.

The Men
New Moon

Sacred Bones

Brooklyn noise punks retreat to a rural cabin, finding a balance between a Mudhoney dustup and a Grateful Dead peace-in.

23.

Gauntlet Hair
Stills

Dead Oceans

Gauntlet Hair dropped the dopest, weirdest album we’ve heard in a minute and then immediately broke up. Spacey, strange, with a dash of pop.

22.

Jacuzzi Boys
Jacuzzi Boys

Hardly Art

The Miami trio switched things up with a more polished than pure garage sound. Still playful and infectious, just adding new dimensions.

21.

Gap Dream
Shine Your Light

Burger

Mid-tempo sex appeal born of psychedelic melancholy and rock ‘n’ roll disco; drugs, dance, drugs, booze, dance, fuck.

20.

Miley Cyrus
Bangerz

RCA
 
Crying cats ftw! The most dissed/discussed AoY; w/ hits by Dr. Luke, Pharrell & Mike WiLL, twerk! This is Miley’s year.

19.

Chuuwee
Thrill

Self-released

With rap albums you usually either get bangin’ trap beats OR real lyricism. On Thrill you get both. One of Sac’s best in top form.

18.

Century Got Bars & Bru Lei
Midtown Marauders

Self-released

A flawless Tribe tribute and audible tour of this fair city’s nucleus. If you’ve spent more than five seconds in Midtown, you want this. 

17.

David Bowie
The Next Day

RCA

Charming, confidently progressive with kick-ass guitar solos. It’s classic Bowie with a modern, enthusiastically suspended twist.

16.

Black Sabbath
13

Vertigo/Universal

Pure smokin’ stoner doom rock at its finest! Timeless lyrics and riffs. This album picks up where the band left off with Ozzy 30 years ago.

15.

Nails
Abandon All Life 

Southern Lord

Yeah, it’s a light version of Unsilent Death (the most brutal album ever), but it’s still hard and evil enough to kill your grandma.   

14.

Bombino
Nomad

Nonesuch

A perfect album for trekking the Sahara. Blues guitar, smooth Tuareg vox, steady rhythm. Produced by Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys).

13.

Meat Puppets
Rat Farm

Megaforce Records

Return to form for desert-baked Brothers Kirkwood. Simple, honest, catchy… Bare bones and poignant. May the Puppets live forever.

12.

Foals
Holy Fire

Transgressive

With Holy Fire, these British boys delivered their most focused (and heaviest) album to date, bringing a new meaning to “modern rock.”

11.

City of Vain
Back Against the Wall

Self-released

Sacto punkers bring forth one of the best punk rock records of the year, not just locally, but globally. Warm tones and classic style!

10.

Middle Class Rut
Pick Up Your Head

Bright Antenna

More fierce rock ‘n’ roll from Sac’s Dynamic Duo…and we <3 it! Grimy grooves and distorted chaos mark MC Rut’s best album to date.

09.

Horseneck
The Worst People Ever

Artery

Booze-fueled bone-breaking sludge metal with a sense of humor. This EP gives Sac’s heavy music fans something to smile about.

08.

Tel Cairo
Voice of Reason

Illicit Artists

Tel Cairo is the best kind of weird. If Kurt Cobain made hip-hop music in space it would sound like Tel Cairo’s Voice of Reason.

07.

Foxygen
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic

Jagjaguwar

Flamboyantly lilting pop with occasional Jagger twists; creates proneness for nymph-like prancing, sometimes mincing.

06.

Death Grips
Government Plates

Self-released

A dizzying mix of poetry, yelling and other stuff people hate. But in the eloquent words of MC Ride, “Fuck your idols/ Suck my dick.”

05. 

Screature
Screature

Ethel Scull

A solid debut by the Sacramento quartet. Guttural lyrical torrents coalesce with shadowy, rhythmic tones, blending into a dynamic framework of sound.

04.

!!!
THR!!!ER

Warp Records

Your favorite dance-punk band is back again with more rump shaking, baby making, all-night-party-inducing tunes. Instant classic!

03.

Cove
Candles

Self-released

It’s an insightful album. An emotional excavation replete with lyrical fluidity, melodic flirtations and a groovy aftertaste.

02.

Doombird
Cygnus

Eightmaps

Vivid percussive landscapes seen through a celestial-tinged lens. Spacey harmonies embedded within hypnotic textures and bright timbres.

01.

Chelsea Wolfe
Pain Is Beauty

Sargent House

A beautifully haunting album. Wolfe’s ghostly vocals, layered with cascading guitars, violins and synths, will put you in a trance.

This Second Saturday get your hands on all the swag Heart Boutique (1903 Capitol Avenue) will have to offer at their second anniversary party. Sales and specials will be going on all day from noon until 9 p.m. inside the petite boutique while performers DJ Esef, DJ Mosean and Bru Lei entertain guests. At 6 p.m., a sidewalk fashion show will take place featuring the latest fall styles offered at Heart. Free ice cream, desserts and beverages will be provided by local food truck Popcycle, and you can also enter a raffle for prizes. Heart Boutique carries popular women’s clothing lines BB Dakota, House of Harlow, Lush and much more for moderate prices. The boutique’s decor mirrors the on-trend clothes and accessories with a pearl-white deer head and a black and white striped dressing room that makes for a fun shopping experience. Owner Vanessa Lopez says that this party “is a great way to mark our anniversary and thank our customers for all of their support.” She and the rest of the Heart family will be there celebrating so come wish them a happy birthday! Get a feel for Heart’s style on their website, http://shopheartboutique.com/

-Natalie Basurto

After many delays, Tribe of Levi release their first album, Follow My Lead

Tribe of Levi is a fixture in the Sacramento hip-hop scene as members of The People’s Revolution collective, but in the six years of being a crew the group never released a proper record. With the completion of Follow My Lead, the true schoolers are bringing local pride and world vision to the burgeoning scene.

The night before our interview, Chuuwee, Task1 and Poor of Tribe of Levi, among other local MCs, hit the KDVS airwaves for a session as part of the ATF: All Things Fresh’s last show of the semester. Tribe of Levi member, N.O.N. listened in while on the job saying, “It was a good display for the radio with good MCs.”

With N.O.N. on the job and Mic Jordan tending to “domestic things,” Poor represented for Tribe of Levi on the session. “While I was there, it hit me that this radio show was really special,” Poor said. “Not just because there were hella rappers there. But because this show was the only underground hip-hop you can hear on the radio. I’m not talking about Internet radio either. No diss to all the Internet radio cats out there, but I’m talking, in your car coming home on a late night radio. Feel me? On the FM dial! Plus, it is rare for me to be in a room with a lot of rappers that I consider really talented.”

The following morning, sitting down with Mic Jordan and N.O.N. of Tribe of Levi at the Javalounge, it was stated immediately, “Sacramento, per capita, has the best hip-hop scene in the country.” Without my provocation, Mic Jordan and N.O.N. came to the interview with a positive spin on the exhausting conversation of the local scene. Perhaps, it is time to stop worrying about what we don’t have and start appreciating the assets we do?

Like all talks with locals, it lapses into issuing complaints, issuing blame upon permits, shady promoters and community apathy. But as Tribe of Levi’s Follow My Lead record came together, the group saw past the common discrepancies to find inspiration and pride within the people who helped construct the album. As bleak as it can feel, an engineer working off the clock to perfect a mix, a local producer bouncing ideas and gathering resources and friends contributing guest verses and video treatments encouraged the group to see to it that Follow My Lead was released–even if they had to do it on their own.

The making of Follow My Lead began after a trip to Austin, Texas, for SxSW in 2011. The group returned home rejuvenated from the love it received in the southern oasis. An unfinished record entitled Levitation, was waiting for them at home, looming over their heads in limbo after issues arose with a producer who decided his beats were off the market, despite the songs already being laid down.

“We felt a little bogged down after spending five years trying to do Levitation,” Mic Jordan said. “It started to feel like an albatross.”

Mic Jordan opened the front apartment of his Midtown property to producer Lee Bannon. With Bannon a door knock away, the group began recording in his living room. The producer also linked up Tribe of Levi with New Jersey producer Akili Beats, who handled a majority of the production. “At first we were re-arranging beats,” Poor said. “Switching one out for the other, and so on. Until eventually, we decided to just write a whole other album. Lee Bannon played a huge role in helping the Tribe of Levi get a second wind.”

In August 2011, Tribe of Levi offered insight into the progress of Follow My Lead with a Jae Synth-directed video for “Things to Do” featuring fellow The People’s Revolution member Bru Lei. Shot at Mic Jordan’s home and around his 19th and G block, “Things to Do” opens with Poor riffing, “I’m on my Sacto shit today/I’m on my grown man shit too,” which is telling of the group’s mindset. Each rapper on the track sets up the closing stanza of his verse with, “I’m a grown ass man/I got things to do.”

On Follow My Lead, the group attacks each track with a no frills mentality that runs deeper than just on record. Mic Jordan had few qualms with stating that the record will be their push to take the group global, rather than fall victim to the small town thinking associated with the city. On “Things to Do” he raps, “Our community is crawling with future kings/But usually we stupidly ruin things.”

“Historically and even presently we deal with this conundrum of being on the verge of being a big city and the verge of being a small back water,” he said. “There’s this strange confluence of really motivated, driven people and then you get to a certain level and you get shut down by retrograde, backwards, close-minded people who are plugged into a good ol’ boys network trying to preserve a status quo that’s actually kind of weak. It’s just rough.”

Much like Mayor Kevin Johnson’s vision, Mic Jordan spoke of Sacramento as a “should be” destination city, citing the climate, the capitol and its beauty as attractions. The deterrent to a blossoming music scene, to him, comes down to overlapping enforcement agencies and regulations on live music that make it so little can be done.

“International visitors can’t even get into the 21-and-over venues with their passports,” he said, which lends restriction on putting Sacramento hip-hop on the global scale.

“The idea for this album was to be able to do something that had national appeal,” he said. “If we are able to make the jump to being national or international, I hope I can put some sort of bridge or infrastructure in for the rest of the artists.”

Historically, the artists from the capitol have not done much for the city that raised them, and it continues with bands like Trash Talk repping Los Angeles harder than here or Death Grips hiding out but only playing three shows locally. Listening to the Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty record, a Mixmaster Mike phone call before “Three MCs and One DJ” features Mike saying he’s out here, but as N.O.N. notes, “It’s just a trip because you don’t see people like Mixmaster Mike out here doing events.”

“People don’t associate Sacramento’s biggest acts with Sacramento,” Mic Jordan added. “People don’t know that Blackalicious went to Kennedy. Other than [Brother] Lynch [Hung], he’s the only major act from here that was associated with it. But things are changing with Chuuwee, Death Grips and Bannon. Maybe the tide is turning finally. We’ve just got to figure out how to push it further.”

Follow My Lead is littered with hometown pride as the city’s name is invoked numerously throughout the record. It boils down to the people who helped make the album possible. Tribe of Levi is deeply rooted, recording tracks in Bannon’s kitchen and taking them to be mastered by PeteSpace at SoundCap Audio. “Everybody seemed to really believe in what we were doing and made it feel like they were participating in something worth while,” Mic Jordan said.

N.O.N. said he was recently searching Pandora Radio to see how many local MCs had stations, only to find artists like Mahtie Bush and Death Grips on the server. The initial push for Follow My Lead will begin on the grassroots level, as the group intends to handle its own public relations by writing letters and emails to the friends they’ve made internationally while traveling. The group will follow up the album with the delayed Levitation record, which is shaping up to be more of a mixtape, as well as solo projects from each member. N.O.N joked, “There’s a reason you have a mic in your house instead of a horse,” and it once again harkens to their grown men mindset.

“There’s not many people from Sac who are up on Pandora,” he said. “We’ve been keeping it real underground for the most part. We’ve performed so many songs that people can’t buy or listen to in their car. We’re putting our record on there.”

Tribe of Levi’s album release show for Follow My Lead will be Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at Harlow’s. Follow the band on Twitter (http://Twitter.com/tribeoflevi) for more updates and information. You can listen to some of the tracks from the album on the group’s Reverb Nation page (http://www.reverbnation.com/ and search “Tribe of Levi”).

Grimey Tuesday, in case you don’t know, is a biweekly dubstep and bass heavy night at Townhouse featuring residents DJ Whores, Crescendo, Jaytwo, X GVNR, emcee Skurge and emcee Bru Lei. Basically, every other Tuesday these residents and special guests from all over the place turn Townhouse into a full-on sweaty dance party and much fun is had. April 12 will surely be no different when Grimey and Concerts 4 Charity team up to bring Sacramento’s favorite dance-punks !!! back to Townhouse to headline a quick stop on their way to Coachella. If you’ve never seen !!! live, you’re missing out big time; they deliver the goods. And by “goods” we mean about an hour or so of non-stop groovy jams and funny dance moves from frontman Nic Offer. Also performing upstairs that night is hip-hop-meets-jazz-meets-funk band Who Cares. Downstairs will feature performances from Man Machine, Billy the Robot and Ellis Rush. Get $7 presale tickets at Sacramento.ticketleap.com/chkchkchk. Show will be $10 at the door, 21-and-over only and everything kicks off at 9 p.m.