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Columbia Records is set to release All City, the eagerly-awaited new album from
the groundbreaking female hip-hop trio Northern State, on Tuesday,
August 17. In celebration and anticipation of the release of the group's new album, Northern
State has signed on-board as one of the support acts, along with labelmates
the Wylde Bunch, on the upcoming X-Ecutioners tour beginning June 2 in New Haven,
Connecticut.
All City showcases Northern State at its brash iconoclastic best with tracks
like "Ignite," "Girl For All Seasons," "Nice With It,"
"Last Night," "Think Twice," "Don't Look Down,"
"Siren Song," "Style I Bring," "Time To Rhyme,"
"Speaking For Me," and "Summer Never Ends." Nearly a year
in the making, All City features tracks produced by Northern State, Manifest,
DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill, Groove Bros., DJ Mighty Mi, Ahmir "?uestlove"
Thompson of the Roots, Pete Rock, and John Fields.
According to Northern State's Hesta Prynn: "We really wanted to take advantage
of the fact that we were making an album for Columbia and work with different
people and different sounds, try on new styles and use this as an opportunity
for real musical growth. All City is definitely classic Northern State in that
there is a balance between fun and a message."
"We were involved in the production every step of the way," says
Sprout, "and we're really grateful to the people we worked with -- DJ Muggs,
?uestlove, Pete Rock, High and Mighty, and the others -- who helped us get the
sound to the level we were envisioning."
The group's Spero agrees, saying that All City "displays an emotional
range, musically and lyrically, that wasn't as evident on our previous recordings.
I think we've crafted a sound that's more layered, complex, and unique."
Northern State is: Hesta Prynn, Spero, and Sprout. Formed in 2000, the New
York-based white girl rap trio performed its first show at the Luna Lounge in
Manhattan in April 2001 and proceeded to play more than 20 more New York area
shows by the end of that year. The group holed up in Ithaca, New York, to record
a four-song demo, Hip-Hop You Haven't Heard, in January 2002, and proceeded
to use the demo as a calling card to garner press and book shows at bigger and
better venues. Rolling Stone picked the recording as one of the "10 Best
Debuts" of 2002, asking the musical question: "Who'd have thought
one of the year's best hip-hop records would come from three white Long Island
girls with college degrees? Heard has the sass and bounce of the early Beastie
Boys."
Before long, Northern State was opening for the X-Ecutioners and De La Soul
and sharing bills with Le Tigre and the Donnas before heading to the UK to open
a string of dates for the Roots.
During the summer of 2002, Northern State recorded the group's first full-length
album, Dying In Stereo. Released first on the indie label, Star Time, Dying
In Stereo came out on Columbia Records in May 2003 to unanimous critical acclaim.
"Northern State is just what rap music needs right now: young, female-centric
insight and intellect that amuses as it amazes," wrote the Village Voice.
Rolling Stone gave the group a four-star review, calling Northern State, "
... old school and totally original ... literate and full of New York sass ...
deeply catchy and underground in spirit."
Northern State/X-Executioners Tour Itinerary
06/02/04 New Haven, CT Toad's Place
06/03/04 Farmingdale, NY The Downtown
06/04/04 Portland-Poland Spring, ME The Asylum
06/05/04 Providence-New Bedford, RI Living Room
06/06/04 Boston, MA Paradise Lounge
06/08/04 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
06/09/04 Cleveland Heights, OH The Grog Shop
06/10/04 Lexington, KY The Dame
06/12/04 Chicago, IL The Metro
07/07/04 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
07/08/04 Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle
07/09/04 Norfolk, VA Norva Theatre
07/10/04 Baltimore, MD Ottabar
07/11/04 Philadelphia, PA TLA
07/12/04 New York, NY Irving Plaza
07/13/04 New York, NY Irving Plaza (Tentative)
www.northernstate.net
www.columbiarecords.com
