Tanya Morgan – Brooklynati Album | What's In My Headphones

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Tanya Morgan – Brooklynati Album

Published on May 14th, 2009

Crossing cultures and boundaries in hip hop is always appreciated and this is exactly what Tanya Morgan does. At first sight of the name I said, “Hmm…must be another R&B girl…” and I was wrong. Then I thought it was just one rapper (mind you this is all before I started listening…), WRONG AGAIN. This group is composed of 2 Emcees and a Producer – MCs Donwill and Ilyas and Producer Von Pea, which started from Von Pea and Donwill collaborating on a OkayPlayer message board. Eventually, they agreed to make an album together while Donwill was already apart of a group called Ilwill with Illyas, sending files to each other thru AOL Instant Messenger (gotta love technology) and started what we know today as Tanya Morgan. Their first album was called Moonlighting which was dropped in 2006, but they’ve already also released 3 Mixtapes: Sunset (2005), Tanya Morgan is A Rap Group (2008, that title was for people like me, huh? LOL), and The pre-lude to Brooklynati, The Bridge (2008)

WIth Donwill and Ilyas being from Cinicinati and Von Pea being from Brooklyn – this album “bridges” those influential hip hop cities into one, which is the title of their second album, Brooklynati. Now, we already know of a collaboration of this type already right? Of course, you know of Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek coming together to give the Train of Thought. So, we already know Tanya Morgan has some big shoes to fill with this Brookly-Nati collabo.

Alright, I may get flack for this but listening to this album I can’t but feel A Tribe Called Quest (yes, I know they’re from Queens and it was also a 3-man group) vibe from Tanya Morgan. The production provided by Von Pea is combination of jazz and 70′s funk, with a laid-back, relaxed flow provided for Donwill and Ilyas, who provide a message throughout the album that bridges Von Pea’s Brooklyn Style with their ‘Nati lyrical content. Songs like Don’t U Holla, So Damn Down, She’s Gone, and Just Not True are lyrically superior and you can hear the influences of 90′s hip hop in how Donwill and Ilyas deliver. Features on the album include other upcoming artists with the likes of Blu, Piakhan, Jermiside, Carlita Durrand, etc.

Get into this album, get into a new wave of hip hop groups led by Tanya Morgan…check out their alubm and support the bridging of Brooklyn and Cincinati in Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati here at: