Knowledge Medina, REKS, & Numonics' "Dead or Alive" Glints With Golden Era Spirit

​Back in late December, our main music feature spotlighted the colossal producing exploits of Pompano-based hip-hop beat-smith Numonics. In that piece, we found the studio dynamo preparing to unveil five projects with five different emcees in 2012. Brother was certainly in demand.

Numonics sent us a taste of his studio wizardry with "Dead or Alive," the first single off renowned battle emcee Knowledge Medina's EP Never Enough (the first of Numonics' aforementioned five projects, this one set to be released on February 7 via djbooth.net,) featuring a guest appearance from cerebral rapper REKS.

This laid-back track is a prime example of Numonics' silky-smooth work on the decks. Maestro assiduously mixes recorded bass and guitar instrumentals over drum machine beats to create a flow that sounds mint and modern. All the while, he creates a lush background that comes off as a long lost Al Green B-side. This unique production style has become Numonics' trademark and serves as the velvety backdrop to his emcees slick verses.

Hollywood's Knowledge Medina is in the driver's seat first on this track that serves as a battle cry for "real" hip-hop heads. "Taking back to breakdancing, real rapping, DJs, ill scratching" declares Medina about hip-hop's resurrection. REKS comes out of the gate with a sharper tongue, spitting out verses a mile a minute, "Terminology lives!" he declares defiantly in his lower register bravado.
 
By the end of the track both Knowledge Medina and REKS have sufficiently made their case, golden era hip-hop is most certainly alive and well and way beyond the bling bling, AKs in the air mentality that dominated the genre for the past decade.

Sample the throwback sound here:
Knowledge Medina ft. Reks - DOA (Dead Or Alive) [Prod. Numonics] by Cheerstothis

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