Any new artist who’s not trying to get beats off the homies is trippin’ right now. If you’re trying to get beats off like Timbaland or someone like that, you’re trippin’ on some old shit. The smart people are going to go and get a beat off Nosaj, or Hudson Mohawke – someone like that.
Or Shlohmo. “Places” starts off in left field neo-soul territory, but it slowly morphs into something more ambient. Oddball touches like white noise and the sound of a coin sliding across a table distinguish it as a product of LA’s thriving beat scene. Bilal, this one is all you. The Places EP comes out March 15.
Rappers, get your Burn One beats while you can afford ’em. “Like That” is just as cinematic as any J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League production and it has the added bonus of not having Rick Ross on it.
Nicolas Jaar took “Fail Forever” by Danish electronic pop band When the Saints Go Machine, stripped it of its dance-pop sensibilities (for the first three minutes, anyway), and turned it something that might play out of an antique music box.
Part of our act was we would come out onstage with the shiny suits on to ‘If You Think I’m Jiggy’ and rip them off, and go into one of our harder records. But the crowd would sometimes go, ‘Awww…’ They wanted us to keep rocking ‘Jiggy.’
This particular strand of New York rap deserves greater recognition. Sene and Von Pea rarely drop an unimpressive rhyme and J57 and Audible Doctor have good old East Coast sample-based production on lock.
I was at the barbecue with Nas, Ak, and Pro,
They ain’t let me on the mic, ’cause I was ten years old.
We’re back like cooked crack, as Fat Joe Juelz likes to say, for live blogging action of The Amazing Race 18, Episode 2 at 8PM EST. Clear out your Sunday evening social calendar and join us. Don’t even bother DVRing the Oscars. Don’t forget that you can use the twitters with the tag #mlamazingrace, and your brilliant thoughts will be added to our feed.
Funniest rap video in a minute. Meyhem Lauren and Action Bronson just made New York rap cool again. Off Self-Induced Illness, which is dope, but runs a tad long at 41 songs.
Last night, DJ01 was in the middle of a rant about Mac Miller when I confessed that I actually like his new joint. For the uninitiated, the above picture will tell you everything you need to know about the newly anointed XXL Freshman. He was the guy in your high school physics class who was always talking about that sick party he went to last weekend and how that girl gave him head in his car.
On “She Said,” Miller tries to play the frat boy and the rap nerd. It’s a Wiz Khalifa-derived ode to weed and naked chicks, but with some dorky humor and a Tribe shoutout thrown in. So why do I like this song again? Oh yeah, the beat! The kegger takes on an unearthly tone over Khrysis’ heavy drums and thick sample-based haze. With the right beats, maybe Mac Miller can turn the frat party into a suitable setting for a rap album.
We all know the CIA invented rap music in the 1960s to rile up inner city youth and make them kill each other. Nevertheless, this evil music can serve a good cause. Sales of this song will support a little boy waiting on multiple organ transplants. His single mother can’t work because she stays with him at the hospital. TERRENCE of the 2dopeboyz comments section sums it up well: “3 OF THE DOPEST AND A DOPE MUFUCKIN CAUZE.”
