Here in the Triangle, family values are dictated by which ACC basketball team—Duke, UNC, or NC State—you’d die for in a bar fight. This means that at this very moment (and for eternity), somewhere in this 30-mile radius people are arguing about who was the best ACC basketball player of all time, Duke’s Christian Laettner, UNC’s Michael Jordan, or NC State’s David Thompson.
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Now, the symbiotic nature between hip-hop and basketball is the force behind Raleigh’s long-time, hip-hop sextet, Kooley High, naming their new album after David Thompson.
It’s an obvious choice, considering that the crew assembled as a student-run hip-hop organization at NC State. Kooley High’s “Yeah Yeah”—is a trimmed-down, droopy jam featuring Foreign Exchange Music emcee, Median. It’s the lead single from the group’s David Thompson LP, set for release on Dec. 6 through Fat Beats Digital Distribution.
Here, Kooley goes outside of its in-house producers, Foolery and The Sinopsis, for this DJ Prince production full of double-clap snares, a tender bass pulse and stray flutes.
Missing from “Yeah Yeah” is Kooley High queen, Rapsody, but thankfully Median makes for a fine, substitute, comparing Thompson’s iconography with his own, “…got em all day and amazed like hey look at that/ I too, a hero and a flame from the Wolfpack/ fame when it’s looked at/ today from a look back/ Carolina spawn him/ spar till they sharpen him/ my outcome inspired/ like I am David Thompson.”
Oh well, Rapsody is probably a Jordan fan anyway.
