Metal Lungies

Very solemn mood on this track and I like the beat, but Touch & Nato sound a bit too unpolished for my liking. However, Lyricist Lounge alum Wordsworth spits a strong verse on his guest spot.

Mp3: Touch & Nato Ft. Wordsworth-Somethin’ Real

Yeah, DMX may not be on your favorite rapper list and this song doesn’t really impress me on the whole, but for some reason something about his flow on the track really interests me. It’s like he wants to speed up his delivery but he forces himself not to or some shit.

MP3: Dj GQ Ft. DMX, Junior Reid, Dawg E Slaughter- Bad Boys

Another “single” off My Life: The True Testimony which is coming out through Def Jam sometime unknown. This is a hip hop purists dream.. a song about Louis Vuitton, truthfully I’d be amused to see this used for a fashion show runway song in 10 years. I don’t know what it is about Bloodraw and his  beat selection but I’m really digging this synthy heavy record just like that other cut. Plus dude has 20 chickenheads up in the U-haul!

Mp3: Bloodraw ft. Young Jeezy-Louie

There’s “classic” rock. There’s “old school” hip hop. Cheesy pop music from the ’80s has pretty much classified itself as its own sub-genre. Basically, most every genre of popular music somehow reflects upon music from past generations, either by paying homage to the older music by borrowing notes, lyrics, sounds and the like, or — in hip hop’s case — by simply not being as good as the older music. Let me put it like this… think of any hip hop album from the ’90s that you consider to be a “classic”… is that album “classic” because of how it sounds when you hear it? Or is it “classic” because the majority of albums that have come out since just aren’t as good? In the least, it would have to be a combination of both.

When it comes to soul music, however, there’s no such hand-me-down props. In fact, calling soul music a “popular” genre is a bit of a stretch in itself. Simply put, people like (to name a few) Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, and Isaac Hayes — the topic of discussion here — are not being remembered by today’s generation because there’s no real artists in the present who are making the type of music that they made.

Hayes may be an exception, however, based on his work as Chef on South Park (before he bounced after his religion-of-choice, scientology, was put on blast), his brief hawking of Lay’s potato chips, and his buttery-smooth vocals blessing the theme from Shaft, the finest display of badassery known to man… not to mention the fact that Rick Ross is a dead ringer for him. But Hayes’ catalog extends far beyond blaxploitation and “Chocolate Salty Balls”, and, like many of the legends of soul music that we’ll be covering in the future, hip hop has kept Hayes’ music alive through the sampling of his records.

Read on for a brief glimpse into Black Moses’ career, as well as some of the finest hip hop records that have been built utilizing Hayes’ music as a foundation. And be sure to check out some of the great blogs out there that help to bridge the gap between soul music and hip hop music, like Souled On (a site I’ve happily contributed to in the past) and Oliver Wang’s Soul-Sides.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today is a very special Remix Tuesday because the remix I’m covering was NEVER pressed to wax. It’s a very dope remix of one of my favourite songs, “Whateva Man” by Redman. Here’s the catch: this is a radio rip off of a radio show. You know what makes that alright? It’s a Pete Rock beat!

Yes, the Chocolate Boy Wonder laces this remix, live on his Future Flavas show with Marley Marl. So let’s get to the breakdown of the original and the remix.

The original beat is propelled by a low bass line and light drum hits, occasionally punctuated with a distorted vocal sample. It gives enough room for Redman to flex and deliver some of the funniest lines of his career. Here’s my favourite quotable:

I smoked with a lot of college students
Most of ’em wasn’t graduatin’ and they knew it

The Pete Rock mix of the song has neck snapping drums and warm keys and vibes backing the Funk Doctor Spock’s punchlines. The rip is unfortunately censored with dropouts, with Red’s objectionable words replaced by static. But it’s still a pleasant surprise for any PR or Redman fan who’s never heard it before. For those who enjoyed Pete & Red’s chemistry on “How To Roll A Blunt” and “Gimme One” (Buhizzle knows what’s up), this is a must-hear.

Redman – Whateva Man (Pete Rock Remix)

Here’s the awesome video for the original version, which has Red & Method Man dressed as the Blues Brothers, and the unforgettable image of Redman dancing with an umbrella.

Bonus beats: Read Jeff Weiss’s brilliant writeup of Muddy Waters, the album “Whateva Man” is from.

I think most of you would agree, most ‘official’ artist websites are plain terrible one way or another, usually it’s the lack of updating/content that makes them so bad. So, I was browsing the internets randomly the other day and I stumbled across the official site for The Eastsidaz. Which has a last news update of:

Wed, July 25, 2001 – Eastsidaz on Howard Stern and BET! — Snoop Dogg and tha Eastsidaz will be in New York on July 31st, which is the release date for their new album Duces N Trayz…The Old Fashioned Way.  They’ll start off the morning with an appearance on the Howard Stern show and then head over to BET to tape 106 and Park. Tune in and check ’em out!

Because I’m such a busy man I decided to dig up some other outdated sites on the nastolgia tip, here is what I found:

Gangstarr’s Virgin site is up for 1998’s Moment of Truth.

This Raekwon site is still talking about The Lex Diamond Story. This one still has him on Loud records.

Now, I challenge you ML extraordinary commentators: what can you find?

I’ve been doing this Twitter stuff since August of last year and I’ve noticed a bunch of prominent hip hop figures on there as well, some of whom I’ve started following (that means their updates show up in your timeline).

Here a few people whose Twitter pages are worth following:

-One of my favourite rappers, Q-Tip, updates his fans on his daily activity (hasn’t been updated in 2 months)

–Jay Smooth of WBAI’s Underground Railroad and videoblog Ill Doctrine (and hiphopmusic.com)

–Hashim of Hip Hop Blogs

–Khal of Rock The Dub

–Rafi Kam & RHS of Oh Word

-Mixtape DJ Mick Boogie

–JBlow of All Up In Your Earhole

-the infamous Byron Crawford

-ML friends Soul Bounce have a Twitter feed

Tavis Smiley and my man Obama do it too.

Hell, you can follow me too if you want here. Anyone I missed?

Edit: I’m going to try to keep this updated as I discover more hip hop related people on Twitter.

–Robbie from Unkut

ML commentator Dart Adams recently had a superb write up about the Lyricist Lounge Show that aired on MTV about 7 years ago. Needless to say it was my favorite thing on TV in middle school. So I did some digging in my dusty archives to bring out some rare audio clips of some of the sketches & freestyles from the show for our 2 readers to enjoy. Reflecting back on it, MTV needs to step up and release this series on DVD. Although, clearing all the music/artist is probably much more trouble than they are willing to deal with, can you imagine tracking down Master Fuol?

Zip File: Lyricist Lounge Show Mp3s.

End of episode freestyle Ft. Krazyie Bone, Big Boy, Wordsworth, Master Fuol, and Baby Power:

Reminisce with some more video footage after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fresh off having  a top 10 album of the year, Talib Kweli is the ‘coach’ (Jean Grae chips in as well) on this Made episode where yet another white kid, Colin, aspires to become a rapper. Colin’s ancestor is Samuel Colt (yea, the founder of the Colt .45), we <3 the irony.  The entertainment factor  is very close but not quite up to par (written battle rhymes!!) to C Rayz Walz/Nile ‘The Blizzard’  Made episode (which is classic, esp. the Ghostface cameo). We wonder if this guy is featured on Talib’s next LP ala C Rayz Walz & Nile on The Dropping? We pray not. Bonus: catch all of the 3429842843 additional mispronunciations of Talib Kweli’s name and the Craig G (!) cameo.

The rest of the show after the Jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

I used to be able to listen to gangster rap. Southern Rap used to interest me. Not anymore.

This past year I spent a lot of time re-listening to and discovering the Madlib catalog. Needless to say, the man is a genius; an evil genius. I had owned a copy of his CD The Unseen (Under his Quasimoto persona)  for quite some time, but I had only given it brief listens. Sure, I had some favorite tracks. We even threw some into the podcast. But around New Years I sat down and gave the album a complete listen. Then again. And again. And so on.

Later, I tried to listen to my other rap. It was awful. Everything sounded too loud. All of the vocals were screaming at me. So I went back to Madlib; and up until about 2 weeks ago that was all I listened to. Eventually, I began to ease myself back into other rap, and I started to enjoy my other music again. But not as much. Everything else still sounds wrong. I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure if I’ll ever like my music as much again!!! And its all Madlib’s fault.

I don’t want to post a track, because it might hurt you too. But I have to. It’s a music blog.

Quasimoto- Come on Feet

Travis Barker does it again, making a song we would probably never mention on the site, noteworthy. This time he adds his drum work to the inescapable sounds of Flo Rida & T-Pain’s Low.

Thanks to TJ for the heads up! (Of course NR, had this eons ago (in Internet time)).