New York gave birth to two genres in music: Punk and Hip Hop. And New York also gave birth to Sam Siegel, a new emcee from the Upper West Side section of Manhattan. Just by the look of him, most will probably think of Asher Roth. The half Jewish and half Italian rhyme spitter has the hair of a rebellious rocker. In one part of his newest project, he says “I’m MCA mixed with Robert Plant.” And it can be argued that we haven’t seen a New York emcee with this type of punk rock swagger since the highest times of the Beastie Boys.
Sam Siegel’s American Degenerate opens up with Jimi Hendrix-esque guitar chords which make me feel like I’m at Woodstock with weed smoke blowing through the air. The introduction—entitled “Sex”—shows Sam utter the words “I just fucked this beat!” It’s a great teaser for what to expect from the entire album. Besides a crisp and clean flow, cockiness is what Sam Siegel is best at and it’s the type of cockiness which guys like Sid Vicious, Joey Ramone, Kid Rock and the like were/are masters at.
The production on this album delves into boom bap, trap, soulful, etc., but the project never feels like it is too all over the place. On the vocal and production side, there are a number of stand out New York credits from Entreproducers (producer for Capital STEEZ, The Underachievers, etc.), Adrian Lau (known for his work with Harry Fraud), Hefna Gwap, and HOA Bossman just to name a few.
Chill out and rock out and stream American Degenerate below.