At music festivals, you can usually tell which acts have a following amongst the local audience.  Though any talented artist or band can rock the stage, there’s a certain way that the crowd moves when they’re familiar with the songs.  At Fresh Espresso’s performance during Bumbershoot, it was just that way.  Girls screamed, guys nodded their heads to the beat, and everyone seemed to be able to fill in the words when P Smoov turned the mic their way.  That’s a true sign of a group on the rise.

There are two main ingredients in Fresh Espresso: P Smoov, who sings a bit, rhymes a bit, and perhaps more importantly, makes the beats, and MC Rik Rude, who delivers a smooth flow over those beats.  Rik Rude is the one who gave the group its name, and though he recognizes that people either “love it or hate it,” to him, it’s a name that makes sense: “New York is The Big Apple.  Seattle is Fresh Espresso.”  It’s surprising then, that neither P Smoov nor Rik Rude are Seattle natives (they’re actually both from Michigan).  In a true testament to the power of the web, they met via Myspace.  When P Smoov heard MC Rik Rude’s tracks, he immediately made a connection.  It didn’t take long for them to realize that P Smoov’s beats complemented Rik Rude’s style.  Now, they’re just focused on making music that people can move to.  P Smoov was able to tell us their mission in a line: “We want to make it OK for people to celebrate the good things in life.”

Seattle may not run the Hip-hop game, but after Bumbershoot, it may soon be known for its Fresh Espresso. Check out their tracks and the official video for the popular single “Big or Small”. And as always, let us know what you think… but you might want to back up, because the lazerbeam is so hot.

The lazerbeams by FreshEspresso

DIAMOND PISTOLS by FreshEspresso

Written by Ashley Ellis