I have been getting lots of messages in my inbox from the team that represents L. Hammond. I honestly have never heard of this cat. I have never seen him on a local bill. I have also never heard anyone or any other artists talking about him. I do not know everyone and everything though. I usually do not write about artists that do not have a local presence. If you are not rocking shows on a regular basis - then to me, you are just a person in a box, an Internet hip-hop presence at best, sinking in a sea of meaningless tweets and instagram pics.

I thought this was the case for L. Hammond. Then I read his bio.

I knew he should have his spot in the column.

L. Hammond has built extensively with many notables in the hip-hop community in Tacoma and Seattle. Check-out his videos on YouTube, then tell him to do more shows so I can have something more to say about the kid. He had one big show last summer in Seattle, and that is all I could find.

He just dropped a video on YouTube titled "Sicksixteen." It is a 16-bar verse over Kendrick Lamar's "Swimming Pools" beat. I was not impressed. If you are going to spit over another Man's beat, then it better be good, hopefully better than original artist's bars, but at least comparable in skill. This by no means happened. It is an uninspiring flow, no dope wordplay, no knowledge dropped, no original swag, no fresh cadences, just regular so-so rhymes that sounded hella unspecial. It was basically some lame battle-bars that would not win any battle and some bland rhymes about how he treats his women, which is not very respectful. It was not the worst I have ever heard by any means, but it was totally unforgettable.  So, there ya'll have it. L. Hammond is down with the Faded and Famous crew.

I usually only get to tell ya'll what to go do on the weekend, so I'm going to end this week's column and tell ya what to do this Thursday night. Ya can go see Q-Dot, A King Also, and Carl Rowe at the High Dive in Seattle. The show starts at 8 p.m. It's a canned-food drive for "No Thankstaking Day." Admission is one or two cans of food, nice! Also that night, you can catch live hip-hop at The California Club, Eastside Tacoma! On the bill are P.M.E. and Beanz and Rize.

Have a good week Family!