Metal Lungies

Shabbat shalom, ML readers! I’ma leave you for the weekend with two of my favourite mashups of recent memory. The rest of the Lungies team are a bit busy right now, so I’ll be doing most of the posting for a bit.

The first is from the amazing mashup/culturejam team, Evolution Control Committee. Off their Herb Alpert/Public Enemy mashup album, The Whipped Cream Mixes. This is song is a mashup of PE’s "Rebel Without A Pause" and and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass song (anyone know which one?) I’m not going to post the whole album, but you can find it online somewhere. This was actually one of the first mashup albums, pre-Grey Album. What? Yes, they did exist before a capella albums were released officially.

This version of the song is absolutely brilliant.

Rebel Without A Pause (Whipped Cream Mix)

Here’s a sweet promo video made for the song too.

The second mashup is the Al Green/Nas mashup album, Almatic (props to the awesome Dumpin.net for pointing this out to me). This would be one of the best mashup albums in recent memory but for three things:

1) Most of the acapellas are clean versions.

2) It has a bunch of DJ drops.

3) One of the songs chosen is Oochie Wally. There are some things you can’t fix, my friends.

But it’s still very dope. Y’all know I’m an Al Green fan and the beats they sample from his stuff are consistently great. Here’s my favourite mashup of the album, the remix of "Made You Look" mixed with Al’s "Love & Happiness". It’s also one of the few songs that isn’t censored.

Made You Look/Love & Happiness (ft.Jadakiss & Ludacris)

Cop the whole album here, courtesy of the good folks at Swindle Entertainment. You can download the songs individually too, which is nice.

Have a good weekend!

Today I’m doing an RT on one of my favourite West Coast groups (word to Trav at WYDU). Today I’m covering two different remixes for the Liks’ classic “DAAAM!”, off the equally dope Coast II Coast.

First, let’s go over the original, produced by Alkaholiks member E-Swift. The album version floats on a thumping bassline and a synth-y sample. It brings in the always fresh Nautilus sample on the chorus, which is probably one of the most sampled breaks ever. You can see the video for it below.

The first remix is on the original single release for the song, done by E-Swift himself. The “Swift Mix” rocks much harder drums, downbeat piano keys and an upbeat horn sample. It has new verses from each Liks member too.

The second scored its own single, done by DITC producer Buckwild. The Buckwild remix puts a much breezier backing behind the original verses. It floats on smooth keys and what sounds like sleighbells. There’s the odd “Check it out y’all” Big Daddy Kane sample that pops up here & there as well. All three versions are well worth your time, which can’t be said about a lot of remixes.

DAAAM! (Album version)

DAAAM! (Swift Mix)

DAAAM! (Buckwild Remix)

One thing I wanted to ask my readers here: when I do Remix Tuesdays, do you guys want/expect instrumentals or acapellas as well? Or are you cool with standard vocal versions? Let me know in the comments.

Great interview.

Haha, I keep forgetting about this series but I finally got a new one together for y’all. (sidenote: if anyone really digs these posts, leave a comment. I’m really trying to do these on a weekly basis and a little encouragement would help me out.)

Today’s remix is from the 1996 promotional “O.D.B. EP” release. It has a few non-album goodies on it but the real treat is the remix of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”, done by Bay Area producer (& frequent E-40 collaborator) Studio Ton. Ton’s remix replaces the dusty drums and and memorable piano sample of the original with a fat bassline, squelchy synths and Zapp-style claps.

ODB raps over his own vocals throughout the song, occasionally shouting along with himself. He even flatly resings the chorus over the original, which is played in the background. Ason also adds a new verse at the end of the song, along with an amusing series of shout-outs. Of course, there are also excellent guest verses from MC Eiht & E-40. They even did a pretty crazy video for it, with fake looking fire effects and some hilarious dancing from ODB.

Here’s one of the two videos for the original song for comparison:

Listen: Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Studio Ton Remix)

I’d love to go to this, might even head up to NY for it. Jeff says he puts on the best live shows in the business. Thanks to GRANDGOOD for the hookup, that’s a dope poster.

Bonus: Edan’s infamous “Johnny the Fox” routine being performed at North Eastern University.

At the Red Bull Music Academy website, there are lectures in the form of interviews with a variety of hip hop luminaries, mostly producers. The lecture series started in 1998 in Berlin, with its most recent lecture in Toronto earlier last year The interviewers consistently ask great questions, and Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, even does a few of the interviews.

The interviewees range from legends like DJ Premier, DJ Red Alert & Hank Shocklee to future legends like Just Blaze, Black Milk and ?uestlove. This site is a goldmine for any real ‘head, definitely worth your time. Lectures are available in text, streaming video form and audio via podcast .

I’ve only watched the Oh No & Black Milk lectures so far, and they’re great.

Here’s a brief explanation of the the Academy off the site itself.

In a nutshell, what is the Red Bull Music Academy?
The Red Bull Music Academy is an event that travels the world. A yearly celebration of all the journeys and breakthroughs, all the dreams and intricacies that go into the music we love. In between checking gear, chatting on tunes, and spinning in clubs, you’ll get a rare glimpse into local musical hybrids in different countries each year. Believe! And in your free time, you can talk to people from around the world who started revolutions in sound. They’re the people we look up to, and they’re looking to you for a fresh perspective in turn.

(Props to Dart at Poisonous Paragraphs for pointing this out to me)

Well, I dunno if anyone checks the blog roll here but I recently wrote a guest post for the dope mp3 blog Bounce/oz about the history of the talkbox. Of course, the blog’s title comes from Zapp & Roger’s classic, “More Bounce To The Ounce”.

Anyway, a comment on that post pointed me to a video assembled by producer Battlecat in affectionate tribute to Troutman, called “Still Mo Bounce”. The song features raps from an all-star cast of West Coast rappers, including Ras Kass, Tash from Tha Alkaholiks and Kam. The video itself has cameos from ML interviewee Kurupt, Xzibit, Saafir, DJ Quik, D-12’s Bizarre and George Clinton (!).

The song is produced by Battlecat and features him on talkbox.

For those unfamiliar with Roger Troutman and his work, now you have no excuse. Go read up.

ML’s Best of ’07 is on the way, and it’s going to be massive. Stay tuned

Late pass please! I just saw this on E!, it looks like Hip Hop has FINALLY infiltrated young kids television programming with Hip Hop Harry. I can see it now, kids during recess claiming they are hip-hop cause they watch this. But why isn’t there a Rock N’ Roll Robby or Country Chuck??

Anyway here is a magical clip dealing with dried apples:

For some reason, I think Soulja Boy’s agent better be on the phone right now trying to holla at HHH’s (no wwf) people.

I know AM put up something a bit ago.. but I HAD to use this picture (note: YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST ON THE INTERNETS!). Enjoy some videos on how Prisoners spend their Christmas + Others, after the jump. Back Wednesdayish…

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A Bay Area duo, Bash Bros, that I don’t know a whole lot about shot a video for their great song “Joy Riden”. I was hipped to it by the excellent GRANDGOOD, who first put up the song on volume 28 of their regularly posted audiocast.

I’m diggin’ the production on this, by a cat named Style MiSia. He’s currently set to produce the entirety of their upcoming album, “Main Event”, due out next year.

This song is the street single off “Main Event”, which also features appearances from Sean Price, Pumpkinhead, Big Pooh of LB, among others.

You can check out more material by the Bash Bros at their official website or their MySpace and download songs by the group, including “Joy Riden”.