Level Up (The Ill Cypher)

"Level Up (The Ill Cypher)" is a song recorded by American rapper-producer MC Zappa featuring the Too Much Phunk Posse and Hakeem Shakur, from his debut album, It's All A Game.

Background
"Level Up" was conceived in mid-January of 2018, in the midst of a grueling recording session for It's All A Game. While experimenting with different levels of attack for triangle basslines, MC Zappa accidentally played a funky pattern that was to become the bassline for "Level Up". After completing the beat, MC Zappa decided that he wanted other MCs to rhyme over it, and subsequently recruited Chicago rapper UG, Hawaiian rapper J.D. Ryda, and Canadian rapper N0va.

Content
As the title infers, the song is a freestyle (cypher), with each MC rhyming for 16 bars.

Samples

 * Maskman & The Agents - "One Eye Open"
 * Wilson Pickett - "Land Of 1000 Dances"
 * MC Zappa - "Hardcore"

Trivia

 * This is one of the few tracks on It's All A Game to have featured artists.
 * This was the last song to be conceived for the album.
 * "Level Up" is one of four songs on It's All A Game where MC Zappa samples his own voice (the "you know my cypher is hyper" and "takin out MCs wit' a murderous cypher" lines from Hardcore)
 * Being that the beat consists of a triangle wave bassline, a DPCM sample, and a noise sweep, this track (minus the drums) could be playable on an actual NES.
 * The song is composed in the key of F minor.