While considering the approach for their next album, Oregon hip-hop group Lifesavas created a complete fictional work. Gutterfly is inspired by a fictitious character, political activist and writer Baraka Feldman. He nearly completed a blaxploitation film in 1980, but it would be over 25 years before the project saw the light of day. After being diagnosed with cancer, he passed his ideas on to hip-hop producers JUMBO the Garbageman and VURSATYL (a.k.a. Lifesavas) who, in conjunction with their DJ, Rev SHINES, decided to incorporate the characters from Feldman’s unfinished piece into their next album.

Gutterfly sees Bumpy Johnson (VURSATYL), Sleepy Floyd (JUMBO), and Jimmy Slimwater (DJ Rev SHINES) as “a trio of ghetto superheroes for the 00s.” The basic plot of the album doesn’t fall too far from most blaxploitation films, but what gives the project life is synergy between the imagined characters and the lives of the performers. The end result is less a musical adaptation of the film and more a dialogue between the musicians and the story.

Gutterfly is out April 24, 2007 on Quannum Projects. 

Tracklisting
1. Intro – “Welcome To Razorblade City”
2. Double Up prod. Oh No
3. Gutterfly feat. Camp Lo
4. No Surprise prod. Vitamin D
5. Shine Language
6. Take me Away
7. A Serpant’s Love feat. Ish
8. Dead Ones feat. Fishbone
9. The Warning
10. Superburn prod. Jake One
11. Night out feat. George Clinton & Meganut
12. The Squeeze feat. Smif ‘N’ Wessun
13. Long Letter feat. Don Blackman
14. Freedom Walk feat. Dead Prez & Vernon Reid
15. Celebrate – Finale

Cameron Octigan