Karmaloop TV releases an official video for 47 Piiirates, a Capital STEEZ song from his mixtape, Amerikkkan Korruption. The song features one of his best friends, Dirty Sanchez. They released the video at 11:47 tonight, around the anniversary of the death of Capital STEEZ. Steez was one of my favorite rappers at the time of his death, and it still affects me to this day.
Tag Archives: 1999
Joey Bada$$ “My Yout” Remix
Joey Bad teams up with Maverick Sabre, an Anglo-Irish musician/MC, for a remix of “My Yout” from his most recent mixtape, Summer Knights.
The Pro Era Crew
Pro Era is a hip-hop collective from Brooklyn, NY. They bring brain-twisting metaphors & similes over your traditional boom-bap NY sounding beat that you hip-hop heads will love. They have a mixtape, PEEP: The Aprocalypse that released on the 21st of this past December that does not disappoint. A couple of members are featured on each song with verses that bring a pleasant variety of different NY accents. You can also check out some of the members featured on their frontman’s (Joey Bada$$) tape 1999 and the new Summer Knights tape. The late Capital Steez also released a tape named Amerikkkan Korruption where you can hear fellow PE members. Other members have said via Twitter and other social media that they are working on their own solo projects and plan to release those eventually. Did I also mention all of these guys will not only become your favorite rap collective, but they are all 21 and younger? That’s right, we have some baby-rap geniuses here.
Anyway, here’s all the members.
Joey Bada$$ (MC)
CJ Fly (MC)
A La $ole (MC)
Kirk Knight (MC, Producer)
Dirty Sanchez (MC)
Nyck Caution (MC)
Dyemond Lewis (MC)
Powers Pleasant (Producer, DJ)
Chuck Strangers (Producer, MC)
T’Nah Apex (MC)
Dessy Hinds (MC)
Rokamouth (MC)
Niles (Designer)
Capital Steez RIP (MC)
Dee Frosted (Photography, Designer –most of these pictures can be credited to him. Others were found on the Internet and do not belong to me.)
There might be more members, but these are who I am familiar with and the official MC or rappers of the group. You can check out their website here for downloads of their work, their online store, and blog. And if you didn’t catch the drift, these guys are my favorite and what this blog is themed around. These are the illest lyricists out there.
In Remembrance of Capital Steez
Jamal Dewar, who goes by the name Capital Steez or Jay Steez, was a rapper from Flatbush of New York who is a part of the rap group Pro Era from Brooklyn. The Yellow Tape is the first mixtape Steez released, as far as I can see. He has also released videos of early songs, but they aren’t on this tape. Capital Steez has a solo, 21-song-long, mixtape named Amerikkkan Korruption that he re-released after remastering some songs. That was released on April 7th, 2012 and later that year on December 21st, Pro Era as a group released a mixtape blessing us with 17 songs. Capital Steez is a part of 7 of those songs, some of my personal favorites being Like Water, Vinyls, Run or Fly, & Bun N Cheese. Soon after the release, Jamal Dewar (Steez) unfortunately committed suicide. He tweeted “The End” a little before midnight on the 23rd of December.
I remember that morning waking up around 7 a.m. and being told Capital Steez was dead. I checked twitter to find answers about what happened, but only found confirmation of his death by fellow Pro Era members I followed on twitter. I felt uneasy and didn’t go back to sleep that day. Thoughts ran through my mind about what happened, and the indications I saw that lead to suicide flooded my mind though I didn’t want to accept that yet.
Steez was always one of my favorites of Pro Era since I first heard him on Joey’s 1999 tape and soon after that I downloaded Amerikkkan Korruption by him. It became and still is one of my most played tapes. The first time I saw a video of Steez was the interview of him on The Smoker’s Club tour they did early on when Pro Era began. I remember thinking, ‘Who is this crazy kid?’ , instantly being drawn to his friendly & open-minded personality. His lyrics have always stood out to me and his overall sound. I enjoy listening to Steez and Pro Era because of the type of poetry they dish out in their music. These are real artists who talk about interesting things and the word play causes you to actually think. Capital Steez, along with some other artists, is a main reason I like hip-hop so much currently. I listen to it all day long and Steez contributed to this strong interest I now have in this genre.
It wasn’t a while until after Jamal’s death when Joey Bada$$ finally confirmed that his death was self inflicted, in an interview on Sway in the Morning in mid January. As a fan, this was upsetting that I was just able to find out what happened, as I was trying to search the Internet almost every day for information about the cause of his death. I understand how privacy is important for them and I was overall more saddened by this loss, of course. The death of Capital Steez took a toll on me and I am just a fan. I couldn’t imagine what his family and friends were going through. I prayed and continue to pray for them to have strength and dependence on God.
So many lyrics from the work of Steez indicated that he never wanted to give up and planned to ‘take over the world’, though plenty of others also indicate that ‘this life may seem great, but it ain’t.’ It’s saddening and also encouraging to listen to Steez because of how determined he was, but to also be reminded of how real life can be and how to always care for your loved ones surrounding you. I look forward to members of Pro Era releasing more work from Steez in the future that we fans have not heard yet. Chuck Strangers has mentioned in an interview that he and Capital Steez planned to do a project together called ’47 Strangers’ and that we’ll see the light of day for those songs eventually. The reason this happened may never be known, but I hope in the future when Pro Era becomes huge, because they WILL, an intensive documentary will be done on them and they will share more about Steez and his life. I am honored to be a fan of Pro Era and am anxious to see them grow into the amazing artists they are already forming.
welcome to the progressive era 