Metal Lungies

Footage of a cramped concert with awestruck kids in front + shrine of classic rap LPs = G-Side, steady backpacking. For the swag averse.

Heavy psych is the best thing to happen to rap since James Brown.

Download: Gangrene – The Odditorium

via Red Bull

Copping a Danny Brown verse equates to a willingness to be upstaged, but Ab-Soul still commands plenty attention as an abject TDE foot soldier.

Download: Ab-Soul – Terrorist Threats (ft. Danny Brown, Jhene Aiko) (produced by Dave Free)

via Top Dawg Entertainment

I’m so glad there’s a rapper with a name as awesome as SpaceGhostPurrp whose music is actually well worth sharing.

Download: SpaceGhostPurrp – Lustful ’97

(Image from Interview Mag)

Maybe I exclusively should start highlighting interviews that are worth reading or something. Here is an extremely likable brief profile & interview over at the illustrious Interview Mag conducted by David Shapiro. We learn that Wacka really likes to record raps, no matter where he is, that includes the back for non-flashy sedans.

After we’re done, Waka Flocka Flame picks up his phone and walks outside the tattoo parlor. We follow him out and find him sitting in the back seat of a red Toyota Camry, next to a guy with a Macbook Pro on his lap, with a microphone set up in the middle seat between them. Waka has headphones on and he’s rapping into the microphone in the back seat of the car while his crew stands on the sidewalk and marvels about the mobile recording studio in the car. He looks like he’s having a good time in there.

His favorite snack is also Salt & Vingar chips, how can you really hate the guy?

Read the full interview here.

Yesterday, the upcoming media outlet known as Time dropped their ‘100 Most Influential People in the World‘. No one really in hip hop said much about Time’s list omitting rappers. It’s true they didn’t have many musicians on the list, and entertainment in general. Other influential people in the world picked the likes of Rihanna, Louis CK, Jose Andres, etc. No one picked a single rapper. In my eyes the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye, even Drake are more influential than the aforementioned. What does this all mean, are rappers not influential or did Time just reach out to a bunch of people that didn’t find rappers to be influential (I mean, why didn’t the secretary of Education, Arne Duncan pick Lil B?? HE JUST LECTURED AT NYU). I’m guessing it’s the latter. What does influential even mean? Tyler the Creator can probably organize a riot of teenagers before you can say “Time”, isn’t that influential?

Sidebar: how ironic that Jeremy Lin picked Tim Tebow?

If all rappers told stories as good as GZA, then there would be a lot more interesting interviews with rappers on the internets. Also, if all interviews were made into cartoons like this? I would probably watch every single video interview ever made. Props to Pitchfork.

Rev. William Burke has been shadowing RZA for some time now, but they’re so casual about releasing music that it seems like Burke is content to remain a footnote on Wikipedia articles. On “Thank God,” Burke displays uncanny mic skills — the kind that make you want to transcribe his lyrics and try to recite them. Immaculate, dynamic brag rap with a hallowed air thanks to baleful Wu-Tang production. He’s a worthy sidekick for RZA: low-key and deceptively talented.

It’s great that G-Side’s production is only getting weirder. This beat sounds like it took a horse tranquilizer to the jugular — and it was made by G-Side’s very own Clova.

No joke, I nearly had an anxiety attack when I saw this on the Coachella stream an hour ago.

After some digging around, I’m led to believe that a company named Musion created this mind boggling “performance” of 2pac.  A bunch of “news” sources quoted Deutsche Telekom as the creator, but my guy Victor pointed out to me Deutsche Telekom is german for T-Mobile. After some more researching, DT just sponsored Musion to create a Mariah Carey concert this past Christmas, they don’t make the holographic technology. Hope that clears up some confusion. I hope some tech blog or wired can do a detailed piece on the entire thing, though.