So... working in records stores has instilled in me endearing habits like 'best of the year lists' that no one cares about. With that said, here goes...
my top 10 albums of 2009
1) Tinariwen: 'Imidiwan'
2) R.A. the Rugged Man: 'Legendary Classics Vol.1'
3) C-Rayz Walz: 'Whodafuckareyou?!'
4) TopR: 'The L. Ron Hustler Mixtape'
5) 4Hero: 'Extensions'
6) The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band: self-titled
7) Richie Cunning: 'Late Night Special Mixtape'
8) Mayor Hawthorne: 'A Strange Arrangement'
9) Raekwon: 'Only Built For Cuban Linx 2'
10) Lily Allen: 'It's Not Me,It's You'
Sean Price is definitely one of my favorite rappers. Besides being a badass emcee, dude is hilarious. As a vegan I totally appreciate that the homie reads labels...he needs to stop fucking with them canned greens though.
My homie Somos One from the Oakland crew BRWN BFLO recently re-posted their mixtape "Batos, Baqueros and Busboys" (hosted by Zumbi of Zion I) for a free download. If you dig intelligent, genuine and honest hip-hop then peep this. Buy their debut self-titled album while your at it.
Watching rap battles on the internet is usually pretty fucking boring. Too often they consist of corny ass dudes spitting written and/or recycled lines at another dude trying real hard to look disinterested. With that said this battle between F.L.O. and Dirtbag Dan in Oakland is off the chain. Besides being ill emcees, both dudes are hilarious.
Independent record stores have got to be my favorite places in the world. Without digressing into a debate about the perils of the download age, this video sheds a little insight into the reality that this breed of shop is definitely facing some critical times.
This track is in direct response to Memphis rapper Yo Gotti’s song, “Five Star Bitch". This song is as ferocious as it is controversial... Don't even really know what else to say.
On a similar note Nas, Nick Cannon and Affion have a video lampooning the living stereotypes rappers have become...
For those who aren't hip to Columbus, Ohio hip-hop, DJ Pos2 has been a vital part of some of the most important aspects. Besides being a part of the Spitball camp and putting out ill Bustown centered mixtapes, dude rocked with the Fonosluts crew and helped put on the unparalleled, unfuckwithable Bernie's hip-hop night. Nowadays Pos does a dope blog called The Bustown Stomp, full of mixtape gems. Back with a vengeance from a little hiatus he just dropped a sick mix called 'Flexi with da Tech vol.1'. Cop that on the pronto...
This blog is seriously becoming the death tally of influential people. I'd love to go a month without someone else dying, but damn... legendary hip-hop DJ Mr. Magic passed away Oct. 2nd of a heart attack. DJ Premier posted a little tribute on his blog...
I want to send out the utmost respect and condolences to the memory of John Rivas — aka Mr. Magic.
He passed away this morning of a heart attack.
True hip hop heads know that his history is so long due to him being the first rap mixshow to ever be on commercial radio on New York’s WBLS (107.5) with Marley Marl and Fly Ty in 1982-1984. Then went on to to WHBI in October 1984 and then back to WBLS in 1985 and WDAS in Philly. Simultaneously he paved the way for all radio stations that ever did mixshows and also sparked the career of Boogie Down Productions due to the ids he showed when they came to shop their demo to him and was turned away which then sparked “South Bronx” and “The Bridge Is Over”. He was known for his direct and sarcastic attitude on the air and every artist wanted his approval when it came to breaking new records. He even had songs dedicated to him by the legendary Whodini (”Mr. Magic’s Wand”) which was surprisingly produced by one of my favorite artists, Thomas Dolby.
Shouts out to Marley Marl & Fly Ty for the correct information on this. Rest in Peace Mr. Magic. -DJ Premier
I also found a great collection of his radio shows, mixtapes, etc. that you can download right here
Paavo Järvi: Estonian National Symphony Orch. - "Pärt: Summa" Holly Golightly and the Broke-offs - "Devil Do" Nightmares On Wax - "Morse" Tyrone Davis - "Can I Change My Mind" The Zombies - "Time Of The Season" Black Sabbath - "Planet Caravan" Cymande - "Dove" Robert Johnson - "Hell Hound On My Trail" C Rayz Walz feat. Trinity - "Chorus III" Roger Robinson - "Dream Keepa" Bettye Swann - "Just Because You Can't Be Mine" Louis Jordan feat. Louis Armstrong - "You, Rascal You" Miles Davis - "Moon Dreams" The Cinematic Orchestra feat. Fontella Bass - "Familiar Ground" 4Hero - "Les Fleurs"
Recently I found out that Jason Willer, the drummer/singer for this amazing punk band Cross Stitched Eyes lives literally across the street from me. I would have known this years ago if I wasn't such a bad neighbor. They have that gritty, grimy Crass/Amebix/ Rudimentary Peni feel of early 80's English punk...my favorite era and style of the genre. Plus Jason is a super nice guy and our cats are friends.
Apparently Amy Winehouse has a protege, 13 year old Dionne Bromfield. Much like Amy, Dionne has a booming, retro-soul voice that definitely suggests experience beyond her years. I guess hanging out with Amy Winehouse when your in middle school would age you pretty quick. The music is dope. Clean, poppy, sort of a pre-Motown girl group sound with hints of ska. People wanna call this throwback sound trend played out, but on the real I'd rather hear stuff like this than like, 99% of what's out right now.
Music just keeps taking losses. On Saturday Sept. 19th Grandmaster Roc Raida of the legendary X-Ecutioners passed away. Besides being one of the illist and most innovative turntabilist to ever bless the decks, he was (by all accounts) a humble, genuine and down to earth guy. His presence will be greatly missed in the world of Hip-Hop.
Busta Rhymes posted the following on his twitter account: "Anthony Williams p/k to the world as The Legendary Grand Master Roc Raida has passed away unexpectedly today Sept 19 2009. He is survived by his wife, 3 lovely daughters, mother and friends. Raida was recently in an mixed martial arts accident, something that he has been practicing for several years. Although he had under gone 2 surgeries with great success, was released to an inpatient physical therapy facility and was in great spirits the past few days. This morning he started to have complications and passed. The family asks for privacy at this time."
I miss the Ol' Dirty Bastard all the time. Not like I ever knew (or even met) dude, but I miss him nonetheless. People wanna act like ODB was just a clown, a character... sure, but he was also seriously gifted as an emcee. He was as original as you can get...his name reflected the fact that "there ain't no father to his style". Rappers, overall have little to no sense of humor about themselves and ODB was one of the few cats to interject humor into hip-hop without being gimmicky or corny with it. Plus, him being so unpredictable was always entertaining...
Maybe the best ODB moment ever...at the 1998 Grammy Awards he rushes the stage, interrupting Shawn Colvin's acceptance of the "Song Of The Year" award and says: "Please calm down, the music and everything. It's nice that I went and bought me an outfit today that costed a lot of money today, you know what I mean? 'Cause I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win. I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. You know what I mean? Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best, Okay? I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all. Peace!". Even more bizarre, earlier that same day he helped save a 4 year old girl from a car accident by organizing onlookers to help him lift the car she was pinned under. Supposedly, when asked his name by the girls mother he drew a Wu-Tang symbol on a napkin and rushed off like fucking Batman.
Ol' Dirty Documentary..."Dirty Minded"
It'll be 5 years in November since he passed away. RIP Russell Jones aka Ol'Dirty Bastard, Big Baby Jesus, Sweet Baby Jesus, Dirt McGirt, Dirt Dog, Osirus, Osiris the Father, Joe Bananas, Ol' Dirt Schultz, Hasaan, Ill Irving the Murderer, The BZA, The Drunken Master Styles, Ason Jones and Ason Unique.
I thought my rap game was tight. Or rather...my knowledge of the rap game. Rarely can someone get me hip to a dope emcee that somehow has managed to slip under my vigilant radar. Last night my eyes were opened to the great white hope that is Denny Blaze aka "The Average Homeboy". I'm not the only one that slept on dude's style...his demo was rejected by every label and MTV let it sit on their shelves for 17 years. The fates intervened and now his star is rising to it's rightful place...AT THE TOP! All you young bucks in the game...just quit...it's over.
All this time I thought she was just another marginally talented, over-hyped, gimmicky pop-star that may or may not have a penis. Turns out she is a mindless puppet of the Illuminati overlords encouraging us to give in to the inevitable enslavement of humanity for their nefarious purposes. That's deep...
From the article: "Lady Gaga is a poster-girl for Illuminati mind control, a puppet who embodies exactly what the public represents in the eyes of the elite: mindless drones, mannequins, remote controlled robots, hypnotized degenerates incapable of thinking coherently. On the other hand, her symbolism is deep, esoteric and even spiritual. This paradoxical aspect of Lady Gaga is something that deserves to be analyzed and understood. While masses of young people imitate Gaga’s brain-dead persona, the subversive symbolism surrounding her art still reaches the fan’s subconscious. She is not the Antichrist though (last I’ve heard), she is simply one of the many pop stars sending out similar messages to the public. Combined with Hollywood movies, TV shows and commercials, media outlets are programming young minds to think and act a specific way."
What can I say but "thanks" to those ever-vigilant few keeping the world safe from, and exposing the dark truths and evil plans of hermaphroditic, pop-star whores from the future...
Sometimes you come across something that is so bizarre you have a hard time believing it. I thought for sure this was fake...spent way too much time searching for conflicting accounts/evidence and only found more information supporting it.
Being someone who believes in evolution (aka someone who is not a complete idiot), I've definitely always had a sense of respect and admiration for our ape ancestors. They have a strong sense of community, possess the ability to use tools and can even learn sign language. They are truly majestic, magnificent creatures... apparently they also love heavy metal.
I just wonder if they like amazing Metallica or lame Metallica. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it's "Master of Puppets" era. Anything past "...And Justice For All" would mean that they still have a lot of evolving left to do.
I know this is old as hell...but guess what? I don't follow the goings on of Mariah Carey. Sorry to disappoint you. Anyway...yadda yadda yadda...Eminem and Mariah Carey supposedly dated for a second, she is now denying it, Em is pissed, and each side made a diss track. I really could give a fuck, except the Eminem track is straight fire. I love battles/ diss tracks so here goes...
Not that it's even worth watching, but Mariah's track "Obsessed" won't allow embedding so you'll have to go elsewhere to see it. The video has her playing an Eminem type character and is every bit as horrible as you would imagine. Check it out if you like garbage.
People keep asking me what "Hold The Floor" means...
Not people from Ohio, mind you...and it's not only because they happen to be the best people on Earth. "Hold The Floor" is a fucking Columbus, Ohio anthem from 2 of our most beloved fallen soldiers DJ Przm and Camu Tao. I've literally seen fools get punched in the mouth to this track. Basically the Bustown equivalent to "Ante Up"... always makes me wanna break something.
Around where I stay in Oakland we have this little game called "Ghetto Scavenger Hunt"...
Here's the scorecard:
crack sacks - 1 point
empty tall boy of King Cobra in a brown bag - 5 - with a straw 15
a single shoe - 10
empty Robitussin bottle -10
empty "travel size" E&J Gin bottle - 10
chunk of busted ass weave- 10 - full weave 50
syringes - 25
bullet casing - 30
As you can guess - the smaller the point value the more commonplace the item. While not as common as say, empty drug baggies, Robitussin (aka "Bo" in Bay slang) bottles mos definitely litter the streets of our fair city. I'm from the school of "try that shit when your 14 and leave it alone", but the post-hyphy generation of Bay Area rappers are hitting up Walgreen's on the daily, son. Oakland rapper Shady Nate recently dropped a mixtape called "The Bo-Fessional" where pretty much every track is about...wait for it...drinking Robitussin. Fucking amazing. Here's a sample of Oakland's love for the syrup:
If your the kind of nerd that can sit and look at record covers for an extended amount of time (like I just did), check out this incredible site LP Cover Lover. A huge collection of LP covers ranging from the strange to the semi-pornographic...
(from rap-up.com) "Titus “Baatin” Glover, a founding member of hip-hop group Slum Village, has died at the age of 35.
Tim Maynor, tour manager for Slum Village, confirmed his death to MLive.com on Saturday. A cause of death is currently unknown.
News of Baatin’s passing spread online over the weekend. On Twitter, artists like Solange and ?uestlove of The Roots mourned the Detroit rapper.
“Ive never tried to start a trending topic before…but it would just sadden me too much that artist that moved me in such a way dont get the recognition they deserve,” wrote Solange.
“Most of you won’t understand but this dude’s music moved me man,” added ?uestlove.
Baatin, along with T3 and the late J Dilla, were founding members of Slum Village. The original trio released two albums together, 1997’s Fan-Tas-Tic, Vol. 1 and 2000’s Fantastic, Vol. 2. They scored one of their bigger hits with “Tainted” featuring Dwele."
This track/video was made around the height of the most recent Presidential campaign about Alaska's favorite debutante Sarah Palin. Your boy John Brown from VH1's "The White Rapper Show" masterfully conveys that, while Palin may be totally crazy...he still kinda wants to fuck her. With the nonsense that keeps spilling out this broad's mouth it still seems pretty relevant...
"So I heard you from Alaska? Bitch you into Nascar? Ever been with a rap star?"
I fucks with NPR hard, son. Please believe it. For most of my life I've trusted NPR to get me hip to vital and unadulterated political/cultural news...the kind of honest, in-depth reporting that makes one feel on point with the current state of the Global Community. That is...until I read this nonsense:
I love Rap beefs. Since Krs-One and MC Shan went at it, beefs and battles have led to some dope records. Plus...they are often hilarious. You can flex your grad school hip-hop theses about the deeper meaning of one-upping some fool on the microphone all you want...at the end of the day it's simply about bragging rights. I'm dumbfounded to read shit like:
"The conflict in question is between established rapper Jay-Z and and up-and-comer known as The Game. Jay-Z has been attacking other rappers for using Auto-Tune software, which corrects pitch while singers record. Auto-Tune is widely used in the industry, but Jay-Z is making a call for authenticity. "He's saying 'these are the rules of the international system. If you want to be a civilized member of our international society, you have to not pursue nuclear weapons,''' Lynch says.
and my favorite part:
"The difference today is that we're in a uni-polar world with the United States on top. In the rap world, Jay-Z is that guy. The Game is the erratic wildcard. "He's North Korea; he's Iran," Lynch says. "He might not win, but he can hurt you if he drags you down into this extended occupation, this extended counterinsurgency campaign."
Obviously this is comically and unnecessarily analytical. My only hope is that the inevitable few white liberal douche-bags who will buy into this shit will try to talk to their teenage "rap fan" kids about their new understanding of the Jay-Z/Game drama...and that the conversation will do nothing more than fuel said teen's hatred for their annoying hippie parents.
Asher Roth is horrible. Like, really horrible. When Hip-Hop has been slowly decimated to the point where beer pong playing, frat boy douche-bags are getting shine it really seems like the beginning of the end...
On the other hand, it's pretty apparent that dude is a joke. No one really thinks for a second that this fool is capable of holding his own in a battle. Enter Copywrite. Copy reps my hometown of Columbus, Ohio to the fullest so right away I'm inclined to side with him. Even if he didn't rep the O, I'd be pulling for him... dude is seriously a beast on the mic. I've repeatedly seen the homie slaughter incredible emcees with (seemingly) minimal effort. So basically, Copy serving this kid seems a little...unnecessary to me. Almost unfair...
Unfair maybe...but still funny. Especially when Asher tries to retaliate. Mos definitely worth watching this drama unfold.
Words from Copy...
Diss #1:
“You’ve got to be able to spit and come with original shit, not some paved master plan, but then again the first CD you bought was Dave Matthews band.”
Asher's Response:
Pretty weak.
And...the inevitable follow-up by Copywrite:
The video is wack...but he gets his point across. Waiting on Asher's response.
Record Collecting seems to be a theme I return to quite often. I've always been fascinated by the odd, obsessive culture surrounding it as much as the records themselves. Through the years I've definitely come to subscribe to the notion that digging isn't for everyone. Artist Stefan Glerum and his series "Crate Digging...Don't Do It" brilliantly illustrate the pitfalls awaiting anyone contemplating this all-consuming hobby...
With everybody arguing over who the best rapper alive is I'm steady perplexed why no one is mentioning The GZA. While I'm not necessarily proclaiming him the best mc of all time he did drop what I consider the best hip-hop album ever made..."Liquid Swords". If you've never heard this masterpiece of 90's hip-hop do yourself a favor and cop that shit on the pronto...you won't be disappointed. Unlike most hip-hop albums "Liquid Swords" is not only well executed, but possesses a cohesiveness rare to the genre. There honestly isn't one throw away track in the bunch. Even the skits (usually a source of great annoyance in rap albums) add to the theme rather than detract. The good folks over at Wax Poetics Magazine recently sat down with the GZA and chopped it up about this incredible album...peep it right here.
Apparently Shaheen was a finalist on "Brittan's Got Talent"...never heard of him until the Michael Jackson tribute last night. This kid is only 12 years old and absolutely killed it. Here's him singing "Who's Loving You" the Smoky Robinson song made famous by a young Michael Jackson.
Just finished watching VH1's Michael Jackson tribute and I can't front...I shed some tears. I always found the reaction people had to the death of Elvis or John Lennon borderline ridiculous. Crying over someone you didn't personally know always seemed to me more about getting attention for how sensitive or emphatic one was than any genuine emotion.
Like many times before...I was totally fucking wrong.
As a kid I had Michael Jackson EVERYTHING...record player, dolls, trading cards, albums, videos, etc. (even rocked the red jacket and one white glove jacked from my moms closet) but it was more than that... Michael was the first artist that I wasn't exposed to through my parents. I loved MJ so much because i really felt a sense of ownership. The whole experience from music to marketing to merchandise was tailor-made for my generation in a way that has never been matched. So fuck it...I cried. Just like all the people I made fun of for crying over Kurt Cobain or Shannon Hoon did. As corny as it sounds I almost physically felt a piece of my childhood die...and it's pretty damn depressing.
Anyway...Here's some dope mixes...I'll link to more as they inevitably pop up:
As a long time vinyl fiend who's constantly adding to my stockpile, I've always been interested in the obsessive compulsive nature of record collections. Alan Zweig's documentary "Vinyl" holds a self-deprecating mirror up to the ultra strange and often mind-boggling world of record "enthusiasts". A humorous, almost cautionary tale for those of us drawn to those dusty dollar bins... (part 8 is missing though)
