The Green Seed are a Birmingham hip-hop group who have been performing for years. So why haven’t you been out to one of their shows yet? One of their MCs has a pretty logical explanation: “This is an untapped market, but mostly, we’ve come to realize that we are essentially best enjoyed on people’s iPods”. Kind of sad, when you think about it… but honestly, you haven’t thought about it, or you would’ve checked them out already!

The group is fronted by Randall Turner, a.k.a. R-Tist, Complet and their masterful DJ, FX. They provided, what was by far the most fun I’ve had at a dinner in a long long time. I met them at Surin West one week night after we’d all got off of work to talk local music and their take on rap/hip-hop in the Magic City. I quickly realized that these guys are different — very different. R-Tist is based out of Pell City and has a degree in agricultural engineering. DJ FX works for Southern Company, and Complet is a suburban dad based out of Hoover via Illinois. They’re big Star Wars geeks and throw the word fanboy around like a common adjective. They even debated working out an entire mixtape devoted to John Williams’ compositions. Yes, I’m serious.

Their sound is melodic and their lyrics are complicated and have a flow so natural that you begin to wonder if their internal monologue is entirely in rhyme. It’s not very hard to describe at all, it’s just difficult to be fair to them when drawing comparisons. But for white kids in metro Birmingham’s sake, they sound like a fusion of Jurassic 5, Kidz in the Hall and… something that could be called sophisticated Southern.

When I talked about the show itself with the guys, they were very vocal about how much they appreciate venues such as The Bottletree and Java & Jams. They are smart rappers and brutally skilled DJs, who spend more time with their computers than in the club getting loud. FX spent more time talking about a certain spinning skill and I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time being genuinely enthralled in a semi-lecture like that since E3.

This isn’t the drink and get crunk band, but if that’s your motivation for coming out to The Terminal’s show tomorrow night, then they’re not “mad” at that either.

If you are one of those people (/shutter) who likes “anything but rap or country”, then please let this be your transition into another facet of good music.