I saw many Top 10 Lists at the end of 2023.  Sadly, I found most of them missing a name that should have been near the top of every true Hip Hop Lovers list. As a matter of fact, not seeing this name on many of these lists left me doubting the competence and Modern Indie Hip Hop knowledge of the List Drafters. There are very few who could boast the level of musical output that Fort Wayne Indiana’s SANKOFA added to his discography in 2023. With 8 full lengths and countless collaborations with other artists, SANKOFA’s rapped fire lumber jack vocals could be heard on top DJ Mixes weekly.  If you have no idea who I’m talking about, your just one more listener we are happy to wake up, and 12 CROWS ON A WIRE is excellent alarm clock music.

Listen to 12 CROWS ON A WIRE by SANKOFA x TALI RODRIGUEZ below:

The latest Collaboration between the relentless SANKOFA and KNUCKLE DRAGGUZ Emcee/Producer/Engineer/College Professor TALI RODRIGUEZ is a heavy dose of Boom Bap Bar Bombardment. The chemistry between these constant co-conspirators has reached critical mass on 12 CROWS as TALI feeds the Bearded Bald Polar Bear beats that perfectly fit his syllable calisthenics.
Whether he’s flying over the race track of NIGE’S BIMMER or over the Funk of EWING WITH THE WORK (Instant Fave), the haunting 13 WINGS, or the smoooooth LAMBORGHINI MOUTH, KOFA knows exactly how to fill every nook and cranny of RODRIGUEZ’s Production, “And He Just Dont Stop, And He Just Dont Quit”.
Tracks like MEDICINE IN PARADISE, JEROMES NIECE, and MATEENS CLEAVE show that there is as much depth and substance to SANKOFA’S verses as their is breadth to his vocabulary. Then bangers like CHICKEN BONE NECKLACE feat the KNUCKLE DRAGGUZ (P-RO, G FAM BLACK, & TALI RODRIGUEZ) and the laid back JON?DOE anchored COME BACK, show that SANKOFA knows how to play nice in the Sandbox. It’s just that his friends consider leaving faces permanently screwed to be “Playing Nice” .
WHAT THE FUCK is TALI RODRIGUEZ doing on beats like ROWANDAN MINORA, NIGES BIMMER, JEROMES NEICE & my personal favorite TRIFECTA, where he weaves 3 different beats together throughout SANKOFA’s 3 verse mini-opus. His production on this album is some of the best I’ve heard from the long haired hermit of the Georgia Hills and I am an avid fan whose heard most of his work. My only let down on the album is not hearing TALI ROD and KOFA go back and forth on more verses. I guess if you want more of that you’ll have to revisit last year’s epic TFK – 11:59 LP featuring KOFA & TALI over grimey production by FLU.
Sankofa Performing Iive
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Tali Rod Pic 1
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Sankofa Merch
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SANKOFA mentions that album in hilarious fashion as he describes the creation of 12 CROWS ON A WIRE.
“Once upon a time, there was a guy selling hats. The guy found out one of the people who bought a hat was a producer. The producer reached out to him about being on a song or two, including a 20 minute
posse cut. At some point, that producer became the engineer and friend of the guy selling hats. Turns out the producer/engineer guy was also a really dope rapper, so they made an album together with a coke rapper producer. At that very same time, the producer/
engineer guy and the hat selling guy worked on another album, that album became 12 Crows on a Wire, purportedly a snippet of conversation between the hat
selling guy’s sons. What you have here is that album where the producer/engineer/rapper provided beats
for the guy selling hats.
Moral of the story: make sure to sell hats, just in case a really talented producer/engineer/rapper buys one
producer/engineer/rapper_Tali Rodriguez
guy selling hats: Sankofa
coke rapper producer: (redacted)”
KOFA puts that same attention to detail into every bar, every Instagram Post, and every peace of Merch that he sells to his growing fan base. Never satisfied with the basic, run of the mill, he pushes himself creatively like he pushes himself physically daily, still going on ever extending jogs. And as he promises me that this year is going to be even busier for him than last year (Aiming for 1 release a month), he is also aware of his shelf life. As he writes on LAMBORGHINI MOUTH, one of the album standouts,
“Pushing Envelopes can only lead to paper cuts/ For Meer mortals Grinding in machines who can only pray for Rust/”.
      He knows his time is winding down, but he also knows he has an obsession with putting out quality Hip Hop that will take more than not getting mentioned in some “Top Artists of the Year” lists to stop.
       Give SANKOFA – 12 CROWS ON A WIRE a few good spins and stay tapped in with the Big Beard. He will be on your top Artists list come December, guaranteed.
Instagram: @sankofafw
Support the Artist Directly at https://sankofa.bandcamp.com/music

Written by 8ch2Owens

Founder of Vice City Cypher, WVCC Radio, PROFRESH Publicty. With over 20 Years in South Florida’s Hip Hop Scene 8ch2Owens has carved his name into the Miami Hip Hop history books, and now uses his talents to promote the best in South Florida Indie Hip Hop and Underground Hip Hop from around the globe.

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