Those not familiar with York Records are more than likely familiar with one of its leading artist — battle rap legend Arsonal da Rebel. Most recently, the Newark emcee blessed the masses with last year’s Underrated, which saw 10 cuts and additional assists from Tsu Surf, Wyclef Jean, Lady London, Raheem DeVaughn, and more.
Now, York Records is ready to introduce the entire squad with the compilation Genesis Vol. 1, which is hosted by “The Breakfast Club” presenter and hip hop tastemaker DJ Envy. Genesis, Vol. 1 consists of 10 hip hop and drill tracks with contributions from the likes of Cory North, Hard Luck, BundlesFVG, Marko24k, Frxxsauce, HD Picasso, Sammy Sosa, and — of course — Arsonal himself, who appears on three songs.
Via press release, the Dizz & Capt-backed outfit revealed the reasons behind being their new body of work to fruition:
“We choose to put this compilation together based on each individual artist and where they are respectively in their careers. This is hard authentic street shit from the beginning to the end.”
One particular standout from Genesis Vol. 1 is the opening track from Arsonal, Hard Luck, and Cory North titled “City On Fire,” which sees the artists laying down some hard-hitting bars over production from Dizz, Kordz, Leon Collins, and R8:
“Hottest in the city tho, whole entire hood in my video, walk around with plenty doe and I ain’t gotta tippy toe, day ones wit’ me tho, big homies wit’ me tho, and I got that blicky tho, pause bitch, better know the name, just a Jersey dude, rap now is my background, still them birdies move…/”
Press play on York Records’ Genesis Vol. 1 below. Also included is the collective’s latest visual from the project for “City On Fire,” which sees direction from Rock Davis.
