“I’m under the bed of the monsters living under your bed”—a line from MarcMostro that serves as a kind of summary of the clever humor and dry braggadoccio of Prime Example, a four-man hip-hop collective from North Buffalo consisting of neighborhood friends Mostro, JoeLocus, Steve0bvious and IronMic.

“Not every song has the four of us on it,” explained Steve0bvious in a November email interview with Buffalo.com. “Sometimes it’s two or three of us. Sometimes it’s a solo song. And sometimes its the whole posse. We have future solo projects, duo projects and beat tapes in the works, as well as our full four-man collaborative projects. We’re all for one and one for all, in essence. Everything we do is Prime Example, whether it be one, two, three or all four of us.”

Prime Example is young—each member is either 20 or 21 years old—but they have serious connections to Buffalo’s underground hip-hop scene and on their debut EP, Modern Marvels, the group shows they learned their lessons well. The new recording—produced and engineered by the four members—is now available for download on bandcamp.com.

In the aforementioned email interview, 0bvious also discussed Prime Example’s sound, the recording process and what’s up next for the group.

On their influences: Our influences are vast, man. It’s hard to really even come up with a list. I guess anything that can make our head nod and get us to vibe. Like straight-up boom bap, bass-thumpin,’ lyrical goodness. True to the art of hip hop. It’s gotta have soul.

We all started emceeing at different ages. IronMic has been rhyming and writing since his early teen years, doing some solo and group ventures before P.E. JoeLocus and Steve0bvious started getting serious about hip hop and emceeing together during high school. Locus’ older brother is local Buffalo hip-hop veteran Thrice Third, a.k.a Third Son. So we were both influenced heavily by him at a young age. Always exposed to hip hop. Mostro started to emcee later on in high school with Joe and Steve. IronMic came into the picture shortly after P.E was formed and here we are today.

About ‘Modern Marvels:’ Modern Marvels was recorded in a mixture of MarcMostro’s studio at his old apartment and (my) basement studio at the crib. We do all of our recording in-house. MarcMostro mixes and engineers all the tracks we put out. JoeLocus produced the majority of the entire album, aside from MarcMostro producing his solo track on the project. IronMic also produces for the group. And Steve is not only an emcee but a long-time drummer/bassist and plays live for recordings and for performances.

Also: Buffalo veteran DJ Optimus Prime of the E.V.C blessed the project with some cuts and scratches on a few joints.

As far as the writing, it’s a collaborative effort. We all write our own verses but for hooks and concepts we always discuss and have multiple inputs on it. The EP is fully Prime Example original.

When can people see you guys live? Our next live performance is Saturday, Dec. 15 at Tudor Lounge (335 Franklin St, Buffalo). We’ll be sharing the stage with Buffalo hip-hop artists Type Relevant and Keith Concept (a.k.a There Goes The Neighborhood). Doors are at 9 p.m.

Photo from ReverbNation.com.