Larry Mizell Jr. is an LA-born, Seattle-based rapper who has written a weekly column about hip-hop and such for The Stranger since 2004 and DJ'd a weekly radio show on KEXP since 2009.

“The Sounds of the Frontier”
Shaped by isolation and identity issues, the last frontier of rap in the US has long struggled to recognize itself and its voice. A strange brew of styles from NYC, the Bay, and the LA underground has steeped in the great White north, where the children of "progressives" and Black Panthers have jostled for air under the grey clouds—and the heavy 8-eye boot of an indifferent Seattle Rock City. The loss of the Sonics, the birth of real regional pride, and relentless growth/gentrification have given voice to the country's least understood rap scene. My talk promises to break all of this down.