People Under The Stairs: Montego Slay
Double K (aka Michael Turner) from seminal LA hip-hop duo People Under The Stairs passed away this week, at 43 years old. Double K and Thes One (aka Christopher Portugal) founded the group in 1997 while they were both attending high school and became admired for their laidback style, eclectic and obscure samples, back-and-forth rhyme dynamic and DIY approach—undertaking almost all sampling, DJing, MCing and producing themselves. The band’s third album, 2002’s O.S.T. includes an especially large number of expertly used samples. From that record, “Montego Slay” uses 20 snippets from Jamaican souvenir records spliced together. Weaving jazz, funk and psychedelic elements throughout their tunes, the duo’s legacy is a plethora of effortlessly hypnotic music.
