Dj Fishr Pryce

Dallas-based DJ Fishr Pryce is recognizable for a few reasons: One, he's often the man working the ones-and-twos behind Damaged Good$' impressive live displays about town; and, two, he always seems to have a new mixtape on his person, ready to hand out, every time you speak with him.

Those discs are almost always a good time, usually harping on the classic backpacker end of the old-school hip-hop spectrum (the most recent disc he passed my way features mixes of A Tribe Called Quest, The Beatnuts, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, etc.). But now Fishr Pryce has his hand in yet another pot.

He just now finished up work with his childhood friend, the L.A.-based but Dallas-born rapper Mes the Jive Turkey on... you guessed it, another mixtape. But, actually, this one's got a little bit different of a story to it.

The project, which is available for free download here, is called the Stealing Stars Mixtape, and, well, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Fishr and Mes stole some beats from some of the finest producers in the industry (Pharrell, 9th Wonder, Jake One) as well as some of the finest from the local producer set (S1, Picnic, Rob Viktum) to create, as it turns out, one of the more interesting local hip-hop releases of this still-kinda-early year.

Granted, the beats aren't theirs--that's the idea, actually--but, with the way they're mixed (Fishr's work) and the way the rhymes dropped upon these beats flow (Mes' work, with some help from guests like Headkrack and others), it makes for some top-notch listening. Plus, you get to hear the local producers on the download, recording bits in which they pretend a) that they didn't know Fishr was stealing their beats, and b) that they're upset about it.

Regardless, if you like some backpacker hip-hop, hearing new beats and want to support the local scene, this download's pretty cool. So, as I said, go ahead and download it.

And, while you're there, download the latest Snack Pack from Rob Viktum (get the earlier ones here), which Fishr and Mes have already posted to their fresherthan.com site.