I have a slight confession to make:  I'm the living embodiment of the Source's East Coast bias.  My misspent youth was spent literally hating on West Coast rap, with the possible exceptions of Ice Cube and MC Eiht.  The success of Dre and Snoop literally made me break out in hives (true story) and I literally could not get laid back enough to allow the G-Funk to relax my inner city pressure.  But I'm not 15 years old anymore and I even listen to music that's not hip hop (shocking, I know).

Either way, I'm more open minded now and dear reader, I hope that you will be more open about this artist from just east of Hollywood, Shawn Chrystopher.  His new mixtape  I Wear Glasses is a nice introduction to an artist that has somehow slipped by my radar.  Now the blogsphere has created a somewhat spurious tag of hipster rap and I have to admit that Shawn Chrystopher falls within these parameters.  His mixtape called I Wear Glasses.  But the anti-hipster sentiment or backlash is really one based on what model of black manhood that you subscribe too.  I tend to think the artist that are so called "hipster" fit the spirit of mid to late nineties hip hop far better than revivalist acts that try to imitate a bygone era.  This is understood by those from that period:  how else could you explain The Abstract touring with the Cool Kids and The Knux.  But if you dig this, you should check out Shawn Chystopher MySpace and blog.

Here the tracklisting for I Wear Glasses

1. Inglewood Hero
2. La La
3. Meaning Behind I.W.G.
4. Quarterback
5. Full House
6. Showing Love
7. Let Me Finish My Drink
8. Shawn Chrys? Who the F***??
9 . Blogs…
10. Top 2 Bottom
11. All I Wanna Do…
12. via Text Message
13. I Will Never Change
14. Excuse Me
15. (Not Your) N.I.G.G.E.R.
16. 20,000 Money Making
17. Guilty Pleasure
18. Don’t Touch My Sneaks
19. 09 Range
20. Buy My S***!!!