Sean P steals the show on perhaps the hardest beat of the year. Kill Devil Hills drops August 31. DJ Muggs and Ill Bill will be at Fat Beats NY this Friday at 7:00.
via unkut.com
Sphere: Related ContentCall it Food Network rap. Strong Arm Steady’s In Search of Stoney Jackson is out now and amazing.
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Pete Rock is usually one of the first three names mentioned on any top five producers list. During that hallowed era known as the 90s, when classic albums came out every other week, Pete Rock provided a triumphant and raucously funky answer to his East Coast counterparts whose sound rarely strayed from project hallways and back alleys. Soul Brother Number One hit us up one Sunday afternoon to talk about working with artists as disparate as Kanye West and Oh No as well as upcoming projects with DJ Premier, Smif-n-Wessun, Camp Lo, Styles P, and maybe even Raekwon.
First thing’s first, what was this Pete Rock/DJ Premier album you tweeted about awhile ago?
PR: Oh yeah, we’re working on that right now.
You’re both producing?
PR: We’re doing an album together where he does one half and I do the other.
Who’s gonna rap on it?
PR: All kinda people. Like, underground MCs, whatever.
How much progress have you made so far?
PR: My side of the album is done. It’s just getting the rappers in. But me and him have to come together and be OK with the beats and then we’re good.
How did this idea come about?
PR: On tour. We were in Japan together and we did a Pete Rock vs. Premier show. It was supposed to be a tour. It started in Cali and it ended up in Japan. And we talked about it in Japan and I think it’s something we should do because it hasn’t been done. None of these artists or producers get together, in a sense, to do something incredible like that, so we want to be the first in hip-hop to do that.
Do you have a title yet?
PR: Nah. It’s just called Pete Rock vs. Premier. That’s the name of it.
Is there a secret to flipping a horn sample?
PR: Not really. It was just something I did. It wasn’t no science to it. I just did it. I didn’t say in my mind, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be the horn producer.’ No. I just did what sounded good and I did something people didn’t do enough or never did.
Melvin Bliss just passed away–
PR: Yeah, I know man. I was thinking about that for the past couple of days. I saw that Bernard Purdie played the drums and I bugged out and it still got me fucked up, even right now. Like, wow. All this time I knew about that record from Ultramagnetic [MCs] and it’s fuckin’ Bernard Purdie? Playing the drums? The shit just fucks me up. ‘Cause I got enough of Bernard Purdie albums from his jazz to his soul ones to the 60s to his 70s. I got it all and I didn’t realize that looking at other artists, that there’s infamous people behind the music but you don’t see it on the record credits. ‘Cause, the first time I ever seen that record was a 45. He never made an album, that was his single. That was his one single he made. He was just trying to figure out what he was going to do for a B-side record and actually the [“Synthetic] Substitution” record was bigger than the A-side. Yeah, that’s a great, interesting story.
Did you ever meet him?
PR: Nah, I wish I would’ve.
Why do you think “Synthetic Substitution” is such a classic break?
PR: Because the drums are incredible. It’s just a funky record. And the guy Herb Rooney who came up with the music is the one who should get all the credit musically. And of course Bernard Purdie, he stands on his own, he’s worked with everyone. But you would never think — because Melvin Bliss, he wasn’t that famous as an artist like a James Brown or an Isaac Hayes or anything like that, but he had a dope record. He’s like an unsung hero. He was great. He was a great singer, he had a great subject title, and came across with great music. If you think about it, it’s like, wow, this is the most infamous drum break in hip-hop. Just to believe Bernard Purdie is the one.
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K.R.I.T. sure knows how to drop a ‘mothafucka.’
via Traps N Trunks
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Underground lyrical slayers Sene, Co$$, and Homeboy Sandman trade their craziest Bible-themed rhymes on this transcontinental apocalyptic posse cut off producer J57’s new electronic album Digital Society, which is out now.
The iTunes re-release of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II includes six songs, but the only one you need to hear is the RZA-produced “Rockstars.” Inspectah Deck breaks out an incredible double time flow that makes GZA sound old and sluggish by comparison. Thea, a Dutch singer who sang on five songs off Digi Snacks, acts as RZA’s own personal Erykah Badu, purring sweetly on the hook.
via GRANDGOOD
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Pea’s Gotta Have It is a coming of age story based on Von Pea’s days at the Boys & Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Said the Tanya Morgan producer in a press release, “It’s a concept album based around high school, around what I thought my album would sound like when I was 17.”
Tanya Morgan’s music has always been fun and evocative of better days, so Von Pea’s concept should be a natural fit. The rapper/producer’s solo debut drops October 12.
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Fat Beats, my favorite place in New York City that doesn’t involve food, will close its remaining locations in New York and Los Angeles next September, XXLmag.com reports.
I wrote about Fat Beats and the business of hip-hop vinyl last year. DJ Eclipse told me that hip-hop wasn’t part of the niche resurgence of vinyl, but it never occurred to me that Fat Beats might close. How could it? Like so many others, I looked at Fat Beats as the old friend I could see whenever I wanted. Fat Beats was a haven for people who live and breathe hip-hop. You walked in and MF Doom, Smif-n-Wessun, and Count Bass D watched you from their LPs on the walls.
Record collectors will mourn Fat Beats as the source of hard-to-find records. But I grew up on mp3s and immediate access to every song ever made. I will remember Fat Beats differently.
I’ll remember Fat Beats as the place where Tanya Morgan told me they follow my insignificant blog. Where I met underground artists like Homeboy Sandman, Magestik Legend, and Shawn Jackson who turned out to be amazing talents. Where People Under The Stairs performed for me and no more than a dozen others who had the will to trudge through the rain. Where artists waited on the sidewalk to force their CD into my hand in exchange for a few dollars. Where I got to tell Black Milk how crazy “Motown 25” is. Where I interviewed Blaq Poet while he swigged from a bottle.
Fat Beats was a place where you could surround yourself with music and people who love that music. No club or concert venue can ever take its place or duplicate its feeling.
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After an exciting non-album cut, here’s the first official single for Bilal’s upcoming album Airtight’s Revenge which drops September 14. “Restart” trades the turmoil of young love for a grown man’s attempt at picking up where he left off with that special someone. Something sophisticated for us young thundercats.
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It took me a minute, but I can now confidently call myself a Freddie Gibbs fan. You can only avoid the deafening consensus of the hip-hop blogs for so long. Gibbs & company sell a determinedly bleak, glamor-free brand of gangsta rap reminiscent of the survivalist mentality of 2Pac and the Outlawz. Equipped with an agile flow and an excellent ear for beats, Gibbs has no trouble delivering a tape that’s great from beginning to end.
Str8 Killa No Filla is the mixtape. Str8 Killa is the EP, which drops Tuesday.
Update: Here’s the untagged version of the mixtape minus the songs that appear on the EP. Yay for not having duplicates in iTunes! Grab it at The DJ Booth
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