In the final years of the last millennium, two native New Yorkers added a p… Read Full Bio ↴In the final years of the last millennium, two native New Yorkers added a page to Chicago's hip hop history with the advent of the WHPK Wednesday Night Rap Show. Although short-lived and never formally christened, the show had heads from Roosevelt to the Hundreds stuck on 88.5 FM midweek. In the show's aftermath, from the ashes of countless vinyl crates and echoes of chaotic show-closing freestyle sessions, Typical Cats was born.
Featuring MCs Qwazaar, Qwel, and Denizen Kane, producer DJ Natural and media assassin Kid Knish, Typical dropped a self-titled full-length album, Typical Cats, on Galapagos4 Records in 2002, and began a relentless campaign to restore a fallen hip hop world to its former promise and glory. The talent assembled was unmistakable, the sound created was formidable. Firmly planted in tradition, unorthodox in invention and possessed of a strength only earned in the furnace of experience, their sound is the future that hip hop's past would have had if its present weren't held hostage by the uninspired and unrepentant. A flurry of solo projects later, Chicago's prodigal sons return. Hip hoppers rejoice. Suckers duck and cover. Typical Cats come to conquer. Battle champs, hotline legends, poetry circuit kings. Typical cats released their second album titled Civil Service in 2004.
Typical Cats return, the last of the great true school crews—bearers of transformed tradition, innovators par excellence, and heralds of an undying devotion to the science and magic of boom bap music. The latest installment in the TC saga is 3, their third studio full-length. It plays like a message in a bottle from Hip Hop’s timeless present to the bizarre post-physical, digital, viral world in which we live. DJ Natural’s production chops have only deepened with time, and the rugged loops of the self-titled “Orange Album” and the live instrumentation of Civil Service have melded to yield a mélange of soul, jazz, funk, roots, radical politics, and a sly refusal to bend to the dictates of current fashion. Kid Knish reprises his role as hip hop’s all-time greatest unseen crew member (sorry, Jarobi), serving up samples, historical references, and vinyl oddities for Natural to slice and serve as android slabs of production genius.
TC’s trio of MCs—Qwel, Denizen Kane, and Qwazaar—rhyme like men breathing from the soles of their feet. The basis of their legend is in full effect—crackling chemistry, unnerving flow, and true stories. The album plays like a jazz-era cutting session turned confessional booth, a stylistically freewheeling effort threaded together by moments of revelation, underpinned by fiercely focused production and dominated by stories of journey, moments of transformation, and warnings against coming catastrophe. For TC, the MC is a misunderstood figure, a musical seer, a minor prophet, and reluctant hustler, using words to outwit enemies, trump circumstances, and emerge from the belly of the beast with respect and rent money.
Highlights abound—Kane returning to his spoken word roots on “Denizen Walks Away,” Qwel giving his early battle rap classics a run for their money on nickel-plated platters like “My Watch” and “Gordeon Knock,” and Qwazaar flexing uncanny musical intuition, anchoring the record with meditative efforts on “Puzzling Thing” and “Reflections from the Porch” before pummeling tracks like “Better Luck” and “On My Square.” Although the LP is studded with solo shots, crew tracks are the soul of the record. “On My Square” opens with a flurry of horns before exploding into an array of signature styles—multisyllabic combinations from Qwel, laid-back but incisive chatting from Kane, and a classic Qwa verse full of declarations, threats, and witticisms, all cemented by a Qwel chorus imbued with requisite layers of meaning. Natural’s production evolves with each verse, sliding from Meters style guitars with knocking drums to moody keys with ease.
The first single, “The Crown” is a frenetic display of jagged guitars and style-shifting that makes it a perfect complement to the Orange Album’s classic “Reinventing.” The name, however, is something of a misnomer. TC have never been interested in being kings. They’ve been griots shouting from the village limits, stoning the village idiots, interrupting thieves, and solidifying sterling reputations as rappers’ rappers, smokers’ smokers, underground Gs, tribal chiefs. There will never be another Typical Cats. They leave the set like five men exiting a burning building, leaving wrecked stages and a catalog of classics in their wake. With their exodus, we find ourselves suddenly grown, having come of age with the culture, standing, as always, at the crossroads. With the music, we move like Gayle Sayers, howl like Magic Sam, see the city like a kid on the project bench, and mark it all down in a black book that will never close. It is what it is. Forever.
QWAZAAR - A native of Chicago's gritty Low End, Qwazaar strikes from hip hop's essence. Whether the subject matter is inner city or interplanetary, the flow remains untouchable - a percussive yet fluid attack that evokes South Side rain and helicopter blades in a single breath. The content is heavy-a holdover from days when this veteran MC (No Pity/Outerlimitz) had to lyrically slay rivals to earn his sterling rep. "After the dust settles, witness the blood puddles..." Lights out, kids. The Q-W-A is here.
QWEL - You first saw his name dangling a quarter mile up on a suspension bridge from your scratch-bombed window on the Orange line. You first heard that distinctive melodic/abrasive storm of syllables on old Nacro and Scam Artist tapes with inserts printed at the Kinko's. Now the heat's been perfected and this nasty North Side revelation music rebel is out to wake the sleepers. From Ted Turner's devil ass to the so-called competition, everyone and their mama gets dealt with when the kid laces up his boots.
DENIZEN KANE - From the rum and Coke rumble of Chicago's North Side flow spots to the celluloid veneer of Def Poetry Jam's main stage, Denizen Kane rips the party with a poet's heart and an outsider's eye. Journalistic, impressionistic, real-life and drastic, young Kane's late night Red Line revelations turn into heathen hymns on tape, capturing the moody face of the metropolis in color. How long can a lost one roam until he finds his way home? Listen to your city fall apart through the muddy mouth of an immigrant.
Featuring MCs Qwazaar, Qwel, and Denizen Kane, producer DJ Natural and media assassin Kid Knish, Typical dropped a self-titled full-length album, Typical Cats, on Galapagos4 Records in 2002, and began a relentless campaign to restore a fallen hip hop world to its former promise and glory. The talent assembled was unmistakable, the sound created was formidable. Firmly planted in tradition, unorthodox in invention and possessed of a strength only earned in the furnace of experience, their sound is the future that hip hop's past would have had if its present weren't held hostage by the uninspired and unrepentant. A flurry of solo projects later, Chicago's prodigal sons return. Hip hoppers rejoice. Suckers duck and cover. Typical Cats come to conquer. Battle champs, hotline legends, poetry circuit kings. Typical cats released their second album titled Civil Service in 2004.
Typical Cats return, the last of the great true school crews—bearers of transformed tradition, innovators par excellence, and heralds of an undying devotion to the science and magic of boom bap music. The latest installment in the TC saga is 3, their third studio full-length. It plays like a message in a bottle from Hip Hop’s timeless present to the bizarre post-physical, digital, viral world in which we live. DJ Natural’s production chops have only deepened with time, and the rugged loops of the self-titled “Orange Album” and the live instrumentation of Civil Service have melded to yield a mélange of soul, jazz, funk, roots, radical politics, and a sly refusal to bend to the dictates of current fashion. Kid Knish reprises his role as hip hop’s all-time greatest unseen crew member (sorry, Jarobi), serving up samples, historical references, and vinyl oddities for Natural to slice and serve as android slabs of production genius.
TC’s trio of MCs—Qwel, Denizen Kane, and Qwazaar—rhyme like men breathing from the soles of their feet. The basis of their legend is in full effect—crackling chemistry, unnerving flow, and true stories. The album plays like a jazz-era cutting session turned confessional booth, a stylistically freewheeling effort threaded together by moments of revelation, underpinned by fiercely focused production and dominated by stories of journey, moments of transformation, and warnings against coming catastrophe. For TC, the MC is a misunderstood figure, a musical seer, a minor prophet, and reluctant hustler, using words to outwit enemies, trump circumstances, and emerge from the belly of the beast with respect and rent money.
Highlights abound—Kane returning to his spoken word roots on “Denizen Walks Away,” Qwel giving his early battle rap classics a run for their money on nickel-plated platters like “My Watch” and “Gordeon Knock,” and Qwazaar flexing uncanny musical intuition, anchoring the record with meditative efforts on “Puzzling Thing” and “Reflections from the Porch” before pummeling tracks like “Better Luck” and “On My Square.” Although the LP is studded with solo shots, crew tracks are the soul of the record. “On My Square” opens with a flurry of horns before exploding into an array of signature styles—multisyllabic combinations from Qwel, laid-back but incisive chatting from Kane, and a classic Qwa verse full of declarations, threats, and witticisms, all cemented by a Qwel chorus imbued with requisite layers of meaning. Natural’s production evolves with each verse, sliding from Meters style guitars with knocking drums to moody keys with ease.
The first single, “The Crown” is a frenetic display of jagged guitars and style-shifting that makes it a perfect complement to the Orange Album’s classic “Reinventing.” The name, however, is something of a misnomer. TC have never been interested in being kings. They’ve been griots shouting from the village limits, stoning the village idiots, interrupting thieves, and solidifying sterling reputations as rappers’ rappers, smokers’ smokers, underground Gs, tribal chiefs. There will never be another Typical Cats. They leave the set like five men exiting a burning building, leaving wrecked stages and a catalog of classics in their wake. With their exodus, we find ourselves suddenly grown, having come of age with the culture, standing, as always, at the crossroads. With the music, we move like Gayle Sayers, howl like Magic Sam, see the city like a kid on the project bench, and mark it all down in a black book that will never close. It is what it is. Forever.
QWAZAAR - A native of Chicago's gritty Low End, Qwazaar strikes from hip hop's essence. Whether the subject matter is inner city or interplanetary, the flow remains untouchable - a percussive yet fluid attack that evokes South Side rain and helicopter blades in a single breath. The content is heavy-a holdover from days when this veteran MC (No Pity/Outerlimitz) had to lyrically slay rivals to earn his sterling rep. "After the dust settles, witness the blood puddles..." Lights out, kids. The Q-W-A is here.
QWEL - You first saw his name dangling a quarter mile up on a suspension bridge from your scratch-bombed window on the Orange line. You first heard that distinctive melodic/abrasive storm of syllables on old Nacro and Scam Artist tapes with inserts printed at the Kinko's. Now the heat's been perfected and this nasty North Side revelation music rebel is out to wake the sleepers. From Ted Turner's devil ass to the so-called competition, everyone and their mama gets dealt with when the kid laces up his boots.
DENIZEN KANE - From the rum and Coke rumble of Chicago's North Side flow spots to the celluloid veneer of Def Poetry Jam's main stage, Denizen Kane rips the party with a poet's heart and an outsider's eye. Journalistic, impressionistic, real-life and drastic, young Kane's late night Red Line revelations turn into heathen hymns on tape, capturing the moody face of the metropolis in color. How long can a lost one roam until he finds his way home? Listen to your city fall apart through the muddy mouth of an immigrant.
The Crown
Typical Cats Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'The Crown' by these artists:
Archive She left me there Standing alone Standing alone I cant fall …
Ashes & Arrows Whoa whoa Whoa whoa Whoa whoa whoa The head The crown The ma…
Bazil THE CROWN GIRL MI LOVIN THE WAY YOU CHANT SWEETEST SOUND…
D.B. Bryant Band Crown me, are you ready to crown me? Crown me, are…
D.W.I. Ah-ah Let me show you real thing, crown jewel (ah) Crown jew…
Dangerflow Mama always said we were royalty She even said it staring…
DasKuchenMann The timing is perfect Colossal infusion I could've invented …
Dead Sentry We are everywhere and made in all societies Established many…
Dimash Kudaibergen 兜兜转转迂迂回回的纠缠 轰轰烈烈孤孤单单的尘埃 明明白白反反复复的荒诞 随随便便潦潦草草的离开 越深爱越悲观 爱是荆棘…
Everlast With a soft underbelly And a hardened heart They say you've …
Fally Ipupa The Crown Long life to the king Allez suivez le guide Oh ba…
Fifi Rong & Lô The Crown Who is there, for me now After this, big fall…
Gary Bird & the G.B. Experience They gone hold you down But they can’t take your crown What…
Gary Byrd People of the world wherever you be Welcome to Cosmic Unive…
Gary Byrd & The G.B. Experience They gone hold you down But they can’t take your crown What…
Gary Byrd & The Gb Experience People of the world wherever you be Welcome to Cosmic Univer…
Gary Byrd And The G. B. Experience People of the world wherever you be Welcome to Cosmic Unive…
Gaza Know your children will know more of this earth than…
Honeydogs Come hell Or hot water You're going down And easy, lies the …
Ikue Mori & Maja S.K. Ratkje Bandit Business Yea umm I learn my game in the streets you…
J.Rob The Chief The king is back, the king is back The king is…
Ja Rule They can't keep a good man down (yeah) All these people…
Ja Rule (ft. Sizzla) Believe in yourself You can be the best And reach for the…
Jacob Powell Here I am three sheets to the wind I'm on yeah…
K-Major Bandit Business Yea umm I learn my game in the streets you…
Leah All I feel Consuming me All I breathe My destiny In my sleep…
LEAH — Kings & Queens Revelation 2:10 Feare none of those things which thou shalt…
Lisa Stansfield He will always me my man to me That…
Livekill A test of faith Re-sentencing You will be sold as dead A te…
Madball I won't walk away from you, not like this I have…
men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E For thine, is the kingdom, and the power, and the…
Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. HUMBLE HUMBLE HUMBLE MIGHTY CROWN ME SAY WE A COME AGAIN HUM…
Mizuchi 'Member when a nigga 5'2 On the playground Sippin' on some o…
Nipsey Hussle Suicide doors, smoke grey Phantom Fuckin' these whores, bitc…
Ot the Real Yeah Benny the Butcher O.T. the Real You know how we do this…
OT the Real feat. Benny the Butcher & Elcamino Uh, every king will be crowned Trust me Uh This marathon sh…
Projected Stand down now When it all comes 'round Hold your ground …
Retna In the bible you are not at the mercy of…
Roswell Six I was born in tradition, I know it is time I…
Sirimiri I knew it was a bad idea To meet you here Alone I…
Sizzla Believe in yourself You can be the best And reach for the…
Slapshock You see me fall In my despair I'm on my knees but…
Stick to Your Guns [Verse 1] Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the good…
Super Junior 짙은 어둠 흩어져있던 많고 많은 별들 중에 혜성처럼 판을 흔들어 언제보다…
sydneyunicorns She's the queen provocateur Everyone wants to be her Oh, I f…
The Brooks ( Notre Dame cathedral in Paris…) VERSE 1 I seen it before…
The Elite We are the cause we are the cure It's so easy…
The GB Experience People of the world wherever you be Welcome to Cosmic Unive…
The Honeydogs Come hell Or hot water You're going down And easy, lies the …
The New Story Hey man, Don't you see our world is crumbling down It's va…
tie a tie Through the kiss of youth I have nothing to lose I’m…
Twin Caverns if it wasn't it wasn't there you've come to find it is it…
Vetis Bury your child - bring me its head I cannot feast…
Young and Company Yeah I'm gunning for the check they call me sold…
Z-Ro On the roads you roam Trying to find your way back…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Typical Cats:
02. Reinventing the Wheel Come on y'all get live get down Coming to you from…
13. what you thought hops Poetry is the language of imagination Poetry is a form of…
14. thin red line 88.5 Chicago. Yeah. I shoot the gift on the radio station …
Any Day [Qwell:] Rain shine, was fate denied by state time Ya cage…
Clich See Qwels way past math to drop techs on future…
Cliché See Qwels way past math to drop techs on future…
Cliche See Qwels way past math to drop techs on future…
Intro Fuck choosing a word, use everyone you've ever heard In tha…
Justice Coming 24 Appuntamento Appointment Hai perso l'autobus? Did you mis…
Qweloquiallisms For the hell of it You spit irrelevant Delicate flows Speak …
Reinventing The Wheel Come on y'all get live get down Coming to you from…
Snake Oil I would revise my history if I could but right…
The Manhattan Project I wont stop painting 'till the world looks the way…
Thin Red Line 88.5 Chicago. Yeah. I shoot the gift on the radio station …
What You Thought Hops Poetry is the language of imagination Poetry is a form of…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Typical Cats TV | Galapagos4
we appreciate the support homie... kind of fresh knowing this shit got bumped somewhere in Kosovo... that's dope. keep a heads up for more TC videos, and other material coming out very soon.
Trulawn "Trooper Tru" McCray
At last! A Typical Cats music video! I've been listening to them for years! I personally know Denizen Kane, but the other members I now see for the first time... this shit is awesome!!!
JAM ONE | Midwest Hip-Hop Media Junkie
Thanks for checking it out, the guys are extremely talented and amazing artists, good to see their music reaches the masses!
Austin Krauss
This is the vid that made me want to start bboying. I was really into MCing when I first watched this 5 years ago and this was probably first time I saw the real, raw bboy style. Dope MCing lead me to dope bboying, and that was exact moment I crossed over. I been breaking eversince
Isaiah Banks
God bless typical cats 🐈 forever
Damion MacCannell
Long time listener! Never actually watched a video though, and i didnt expect to see faces like that behind the voices! Fucking fire
Marmalade Venus
Shit still deserves so much more love <3
JAM ONE | Midwest Hip-Hop Media Junkie
Right!? Typical Cats, Ces Cru, Qwazaar, so many I can't even begin to list, lots of Midwest people are sadly left out of the spotlight in terms of mass media, shit with our fingers we could count the number of Chicago's emcees who made it "big" in terms of worldwide mass media's exposure/fame. I've fallen in love with more of my own friends and midwest folks music then I ever have off of a lot of what's been pipe-lined down the radio and tv my whole life
FauxReal
Typical Cats, I never really listened to these guys before! Good stuff. The weird thing is, I would bet money that they're friends of friends of mine.
James Stodgel
great to hear you still killing it with funky fresh roots shit! Dope track what up from Kosovo