OBEY RECORDS Ep. 31: Alphafox

New Obey Records EP. 31 by James Guinto aka Alphafox from Southern, CA, member of ROTU / Dome of Doom records. has made a lot noise since his 1st debut at The Yost Theater to Low End Theory. Lefto calls him their secret weapon. Alphafox’s extensive knowledge of music history, including jazz, soul, electronic, and hip-hop. Alphafox cites artists such as Flying Lotus, Earl Sweatshirt, Mr. Carmack, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, and Samiyam as heavily influential to his path as an artist and the approach he’s taken on his debut LP. His previous work has been celebrated across BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6, Boiler Room, Red Bull Radio, NTS, and Studio Brussel, also sharing stages with the likes of Teebs, Free The Robots, GLK, and Lefto. 1st Full LP “La Haine” released on Feb 21st via Dome of Doom is now available on all streaming platforms and a physical cassette available on bandcamp. The album features Gangsta boo of Three6Mafia, A-Frame, and Yellowmane. Enjoy this 30 Min all original mix by Alphafox.

Get a copy of the tape HERE.

La Haine is the Long Beach-based hip-hop/electronic producer’s second appearance on the Los Angeles label, following 2017’s Before You’re Gone EP. It was recorded between 2018 and 2019, and derives inspiration from the ’90s black-and-white French film of the same name, initially released by director Mathieu Kassovitz in 1995.

“La Haine means hate. I wanted this album to also help people come to terms with what they hate in their life or anything that they hate about themselves, and be at peace with it,” Alphafox says. We’re told that it’s “laced with a level of tension rarely heard in electronic music and instrumental hip-hop.”

La Haine‘s centerpiece is “Sauced Up, which finds a trajectory between trap and experimental bass music and features Gangsta Boo, whom Alphafox connected with at the now-defunct Low End Theory weekly after performing “Stress,” which samples Gangsta Boo’s verse from the Three 6 Mafia’s song “Late Nite Tip.”

“After we met, we exchanged numbers and we have kept in contact since,” Alphafox recalls. “I hit her up shortly after to rework ‘Stress’ and she added adlibs and redid some parts. On my first album, I hit her up to see if she was down to do a verse on a song and she ended up doing the full track, verses and chorus included.”

Photo by CJ Parel & James Guinto /Article by Glen Repol