Metal Lungies

When I got this I was confused. I didn’t think people did this anymore. Initially I gave it a quick pass, and blew it off as a set of good, obscure dance tracks. That is not the purpose of a break tape though. So, last night, I took some of the tracks and threw them onto my Virtual DJ program. As I moved through the collection I began to notice that instead of looping up single parts of tracks I was looping damn near every section of each song. I made soulful beats. I made fast beats. I made scary beats. But more than that, I Made Beats!!!! The entire night I was thinking that this must be the feeling that great producers have when they find the perfect part of the perfect song. And those suckers have to dig for their breaks. I guess that kind of explains the subtitle on the CD, “Breaks For Modern Living.” After all, some of us aren’t paid to look through stacks of wax all day, and who has the free time? So for all you “modern” people, this is the answer to your production fantasies. Mr. Thing has done the work. So you don’t have to. Now, I’m off to look for an MC. It’s time for a block party.

Favorite Tracks: Lloyd Charmer – I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little Bit More, Blackbuster – ShackUp

To preview the compilation go here. My copy didn’t have this, but the retail version will also have a Mixed CD made by Mr. Thing. It comes out February 11th. Very Limited Vinyl, but who cares? Everyone has Serato or something digital anyway.

I’ll always have a soft spot for N.E.R.D. & Pharrell’s “solo” musical efforts (I’ll even forget about In My Mind if we ever see ?uestlove’s re-work). All 3 or so versions of the 1st N.E.R.D.  album were pure gold.

In case you somehow missed the mp3 floating around here it is:

MP3: N.E.R.D.-Everybody Nose.

Podcast

Hello Again!!! Metal Lungies Radio is back for Season 2. Our first show was just a healthy dose of all the music we’ve been listening to over our extended break and we didn’t get any calls because we changed our night without telling anyone. But its a great show anyway.

Look forward to our next installment, and send your requests.

Playlist:
Little Brother- Breakin’ My Heart (Feat. Lil Wayne)
9th Wonder and Buckshot- Slippin’
Stevie Wonder- Golden Lady
Dr. Dre- A Nigga Witta Gun (Feat. Snoop Dogg)
Jay-Z- No Hook (DJ Skee American Godfather Remix)
Ghostface Killah- The Sun (Feat. Raekwon, RZA, and Slick Rick)
Raekwon- Baggage Handlers (Off that Dillagence Mixtape)
Streetz- Ready, Aim, Fire
Jay Electronica- Departure / Are You Watching Closely?
Gorilla Zoe- Hood Nigga
UGK- It’s Supposed To Bubble

So the idea behind these posts is to highlight unsigned artists or artists on independent labels who deserve more exposure.

Today I’m profiling Poizunus, a vocal DJ and beatboxer from my hometown of Toronto. Here’s a little bit of the bio from his site:

As a child, Poizunus struggled with a speech impediment but after speech therapy, he learned to control his voice while speaking. Overcoming this obstacle has been a great achievement for this talented MC who is now mastering beats and creating all types of sound effects with his voice.

Amalgamating the new and old world of beatboxing, Poizunus has been spitting beats ever since he was a curious young boy who stumbled upon his cousin’s hip-hop tape collection. Music has always inspired this Toronto native who is influenced by his parents collections of soulful music.

Last year Poizunus won first place in Scribble Jam Beatbox Battle. I saw him perform at the Frosh concert at my university with Bedouin Soundclash and the Stills, among others. He did some very dope routines, including vocal beat juggling, completely stole the show.

He also recorded an “beatbox instrumental album”, called A.ctive D.reaming D.isorder, that’s he selling online. The tracks I’ve heard on his MySpace are dope. He’s basically recording his beatboxing and sequencing it on an MPC. Some of the tracks are instrumental while others have some decent MCs whom I wasn’t too familiar with. You can listen to some tracks at Poizunus’ MySpace or stream it from CD Baby (where you can also buy a physical/digital copy of the album).

You can see some video of his routines on YouTube here. Here’s one of my favourite routines, Poizunus doing the sound effects for the NES version of Donkey Kong:

Hey, he’s on “the Tweeter” as well (what up Travis?) as PoizunusLive.

“First”? Interview coming REAL soon.

Just like last Tuesdays’ post on the Alkaholiks, I had some trouble finding a decent-sized cover of the single for this post. Plus this cover for the Lovesick 12′ is the closest I could find to a cover for this release of this particular remix of Gang Starr’s “Lovesick”.

This remix is done by someone named John Waddell, whose Discogs profile is pretty sparse; I think his Gang Starr remix might be his earliest release but in the field of hip hop, he did some work for Monie Love & Queen Latifah, among others. Educate me, ML readers, if you have any more info.

With that out of the way, let’s break down the two versions I’m comparing today: The first is the original “Lovesick”, produced by DJ Premier. The remix is “Lovesick (Upbeat Mix)”, produced by the aforementioned Waddell.

The Premier original floats by on a jaunty horn stab, a slow piano line and an understated bass line. Guru ends every verse with some variation of “I’m lovesick” which leads into Premo’s now trademarked scratch chorus: “Love…” “Sick, sick, sick…” I think the “sick” scratch is of Shock G of Digital Underground but I’m not totally sure. Anyone know?

The instrumental is pretty, understated and a lot slower in this version, as compared to Waddell’s remix indicated by the “Upbeat” tag applied to his version. The Upbeat Mix has a kind of 1920s-40s jazz feel to it, oddly enough seeming to foreshadow Premier’s work with Christina Aguilera in 2006 (for comparison’s sake, listen to Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man“). It features a catchy piano line that runs throughout the song, the bass line is a lot bouncier, and a trumpet enters the mix every few lines. Enhancing the jazz feel of the song is the fact that each of the aforementioned instruments solos at the end of each of Guru’s verses. The chorus has changed as well; Guru says “And now I’m lovesick”, the trumpets from the verses blare loudly and there is a little call-and-response that occurs twice per chorus:

Guru: ‘And now I’m lovesick.’

Backing vocals: ‘Hey hey hey!’

Sampled female vocal: ‘Lovesick!’

Backing vocals: ‘Ho ho ho!’

The whole package works really well, and actually manages to be about 50 seconds longer than the original, mostly from the new chorus. A nice addition to your Gang Starr collection (speaking of which, don’t sleep on Know The Ledge’s massive collection of Gang Starr rarities and treats. Here’s a link to pick up part 1 of their 5 part collection.)

I couldn’t find a video with the original version but they made a video for the Upbeat Mix, which I’ve embedded below. I won’t get into too much description for it, but it features Premo on the turntables, Guru walking around with some girls, a jazz band and um, dancers in baggy pants. It’s kinda cool to see Premier & Guru so young though. Listen to both versions below:

Gang Starr- Lovesick

Gang Starr- Lovesick (Upbeat Mix)

Gang Starr – Lovesick (John Waddell Upbeat Mix)

Bonus Beats: While I was searching for the video for “Lovesick”, I found this bizarre video of a bald German man lipsyncing to “Lovesick” wearing an unbuttoned shirt. He actually imitates Guru pretty well. I’m not going to embed it for your own sake but this amused the hell out of me. You can watch it here.

I just got an email from Tree Beats, of the very dope Too Fat, You Must Cut Lean blog, about this new project he’s started with a bunch of my favourite blogs & bloggers (several of whom are ML affiliates!). Here’s the skinny:

We’re starting a new beat battle site at http://ihookabeatup.blogspot.com starting Sunday, February 3rd. Basically, a song is provided (from the likes of Mr Mass from Mass Corporation, Dr OK from And It Don’t Stop, DJ Nes from Dirty Waters, or Scholar from Souled On) then several producers will take the song and sample it and flip it the way they want over the next week. The beats are then posted and a panel (including Travis from WYDU, Eric from WTR, Max from Hip Hop Isn’t Dead, Mike Dikk from Dumpin.Net, Andrew from Strictly Beats and King E from the Justus League boards) will discuss what they liked and/or didn’t like and then it goes to a public vote. If you remember the Lawn Jawns, it’s very similar.

Sounds freakin’ sweet. I Hook A Beat Up is definitely something you want to check out when it “premieres” tomorrow.

Here a few dope flyers they cooked up to promote the site as a bonus:

Got Beats?

Dig Beats

And my favourite, Your Country Needs You.

Man, it’s been a while since ML hosted a True Story post. Last one was back in July before I even joined the site. Basically

Earlier today I was in a Chapters (for our non-Canadian readers, it’s a crappier version of Borders or Barnes & Noble) browsing when I felt nature calling. I located the loo and did my business. When I went to the sink to wash my hands, there was a middle-aged lady looking around the bathroom with a puzzled look on her face. As I started the tap, she looks at me and asks:

“This isn’t the ladies room, is it?”

I tried my best not to laugh and shook my head. She thanked me and left. Wow.

Via Wu-Tang Mountain Via Bang The Box 

I had no idea this existed. Mostly covers Ol’ Dirty’s release from prison while on parole. He sings old R&B with his mom, eats his first meal outside and comes on to a reporter at his press conference. Russell looks afflicted with the “bloat” in these clips, and seems kinda out of it the whole time. Still a must-see, period.

Best line of the whole thing:

“I thought that was a really nice gift for him to give me.”-ODB’s manager (I won’t reveal the context.)

RIP Osirus.

ML Exclusive! Tape courtesy of ML Reader Talib Porter.

Mp3: http://www.zshare.net/audio/54958584c09e73/

Picture: Source