Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Members: FLYNN, CookBook, Sharlok Poems, UNO Mas, Joey the Jerk
For fans of: A Tribe Called Quest, Black Eyed Peas, Jurassic5, De La Soul
Label: Gotee Records

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For nearly a decade, LA Symphony built an iconic underground following with a rap style that walks the line between purist and pop. With such a strong foundation in place, this multi-ethnic group—featuring CookBook, FLYNN, Sharlok Poems, UNO Mas and Joey the Jerk—is poised to break out huge with their new disc, Disappear Here. Skillfully crafting a positive lyrical foil to the violence and materialism of their hip-hop peers, LA Symphony (which represents the City of Angels from East L.A. and Long Beach to downtown and the Westside) pulls back the veil and reveals what's inside the heads of these urban street poets.

Case in point, LA Symphony's lead single "Timeless"—produced by Evidence of Dilated Peoples, mixed by Segal (Dr. Dre, Eminem) and featuring DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beat Junkies—flows like a statement of purpose and an opportunity to put words into action. "I once heard Q-Tip say, 'I am all about style, but I'm never about trends,'" notes FLYNN. "This song is about preserving what we do through all the fads instead of just following the latest production or rhyme styles. We do this by maintaining humanity and integrity in our music and by being vulnerable in a time when artists tend not to be."

"Timeless" joins "Grand Piano" and others as fundamental tracks that appeal to the hip-hop heads, yet Disappear Here also gets the energy poppin' with party anthems like "Funky Music," "Dance Like" and the motivating club banger "Put Up Or Shut Up." Elsewhere, "Give" rolls out a smooth R&B groove to praise selflessly lived lives, while "Don't Call Me" takes a humorous turn by giving the real answers to commonly asked questions. Noteworthy appearances on the disc include Soup the Chemist producing "Less Than Zero," which takes a dark look at Hollywood's knack for chewing people up, and Grammy-nominated singer Tonex lends his vocal hooks to "C'est La Vie" and its portrayal of loneliness and missed loved ones. Madlib, known for his work with tha Alkaholiks, also put his spin on LA Symphony with the track "Universal."

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