I’ve been watching a good amount of Coachella performances on the 5 Gum Youtube stream this weekend, as you may have read on twitter. On Friday, when I scanned the stream schedule, I was kind of bummed to see Mr. Kanye West missing (esp. after missing him at SXSW). When I glanced at the schedule a few minutes ago, there is a TBA listed at a 10:30 PM PST slot (time Kanye is scheduled to play) on Channel 1 (which has broadcasted all of the main stage performances). So maybe in a last minute scramble 5 gum laced Kanye and the GOOD Music crew with crates on top of crates of their fine gum (and cut an enormous check) to let his performance grace the internets.
Just pray TBA means Kanye and not some encore…which would be a cruel joke. I’ll update this post if I hear anything more.
EDIT: IT IS CONFIRMED: THE SCHEDULE NOW SAYS KANYE.
While watching the ongoing Coachella stream this weekend I came across a dope promo video for the festival that feature Hip Hop head & Funkateer Dave 1 (1/2 of Chromeo), and Creative legend Eric Haze (I pray own an album with his art work). They both share candid reflections on their careers, especially worth hearing is Dave1 talk hip-hop, which a lot of people seem to overlook.
You can catch Dave 1 jam out when Chromeo performs later today on the official Coachella stream on youtube (8:35pm PST/11:35EST), If you haven’t seen them live I implore you to check it out.
Bizarre was smart to grab a Yelawolf verse for his album about a year ago. Ironically, it would probably be harder for Bizarre now that Yela is under the Shady umbrella. I mainly remember Bizarre as the guy who would ruin Shady Records posse cuts with painfully slow gross-out rhymes about having sex with his aunt. Not the case here. His verse is stone cold sober and he lets Yela take control of the song to great effect.
During a lot of Terror Squad sessions, having an entourage led to a whole other pile of things. I remember one of the dudes in Joe’s crew called one girl, and she had to suck off like 20 to 25 people. [Laughs.] We’re in Sony [Studios], and you see a line of dudes going into the bathroom getting sucked off, while Beyoncé and Lenny S walk by not knowing what’s going on.
ML Homie Alex slipped me this joint from a promising indie duo The Black Sunn & 810 called United Division. The duo raps about the so called “unity” amongst the DMV, that seems to exclude Bmore, where the duo hails from. The hook sounds almost like an ironic PSA. I’m really interested by the message in the song, because I always found the rivalry/tension between BMore ant it’s southern neighbors really dumb (for real). If you agree check this video out. A sidenote, I *hate* the team DMV, it’s much bigger than that… and the I *know* the real DMV, why would you wanna share an acronym with that place?
We tapped a lot of people to talk about their favorite beats for last year’s colossal year-end Beat Drop, but I was especially excited to get Paul White’s picks. The largely overlooked British Dilla disciple was sure to pick something mind-blowing. His five picks were Georgia Anne Muldrow’s “Language of the Flame,” a vinyl-only Madlib Medicine Show beat that we couldn’t even find, a funky offering from the Dilla Donut Shop EP, and two unreleased tracks that Alex Chase of One-Handed Music was nice enough to provide.
Of the two unreleased tracks, “Syncro System” by Mo Kolours was the one that piqued my curiosity. The half-Mauritian singer/percussionist has a tropical, handmade funk. His debut release EP1: Drum Talking draws upon the the sega music of Mauritius and the single “Biddies” matches garbled chants with a soothing bassline and Kolours’ airy singing. Listen and escape your modern life for a few minutes.
ML: When was the last time you saw Prodigy and how is he doing?
Havoc: I seen Prodigy about two weeks ago and he’s doing real good.
ML: How do you think he’s going to sound when he comes out?
Havoc: I think he’s gonna come out sounding hungrier than ever.
ML: Do you have any concrete plans yet?
Havoc: Nothing concrete, but I can tell you one thing for sure, when he get out, we definitely gonna be working on the Mobb Deep album.
Time to check in with our old friend, New York hip-hop. Boom bap luminary Large Professor is back with an album with Neek the Exotic called Still on the Hustle. The title track is strictly for those who crave beats lacking synthesizers and don’t mind rhymes we’ve heard a million times already.
Alabama duo Untamed dropped Street Solid last year and it was straight beatdowns, albeit more measured and less repetitive than what you get from today’s trap rap stalwarts. “Do It Till You Feel Good” trades violence for sex with fuzzy handclaps, 80s keys, and nasty bars.
