UPDATE: The Dillanthology 2 and Lushlife albums have been pushed back to July 7.
Who honestly doesn't like some Dilla in their life? Rapster's second volume in collecting his work in the cleverly-named Dillanthology series focuses on the remixes of the dearly-departed James Yancey. Did you miss that CD single/12” that had the “Woo Ha” remix? Did you, like me, not know that a Dilla remix of Lucy Pearl's “Without You” ever existed? If so, then this compilation is for you.
You get a sense of the musicality that Dilla possessed as he reimagined tracks from jazz, hip hop, electronic and soul from artists from nearly all coasts and overseas on this release. Even more impressive you get different sounds such as a little boom-bap on De La to more mellow jazz-chord filled beats Mood's “Secrets Of The Sand.” This release hits stores Tuesday, July 7th.
Also that Tuesday, you can pick up Lushlife's “Cassette City.” Lyrically, it's standard hip hop fare but the production is what really shines on this album. “In Soft Focus” has some nice DJ cut work while the horn-heavy “Another Word For Paradise” has a summer feel to it (while also bringing back long-lost Camp Lo). My personal favorite on the album is the laidback “The Kindness” with its nice chopped vocal sample with its screwed-vocals hook. Overall, it has a late-90s indie hip hop feel to it as you can hear on his Myspace page.
The last of the bunch sounds like it might be bad on paper but excels in execution. Wham has become the butt of many jokes, but you know somewhere deep inside you dig a few of their songs. The ReBel Yell, who is being produced by none other than James Poyser, comes through with this synthy dancefloor stepper remake of the snarky “Everything She Wants.” This is only a teaser of The ReBel Yell's upcoming album “Love & War,” and as of now, this song isn't set to be on the album, which releases this August.
Jay-Z: The Death of Auto-Tune From Blueprint 3 (Upcoming, 2009)
Now that it's been out there for a couple of weeks, what's the verdict on this new Jay Z song?
Personally, on first listen, the joint is rather fuego, especially as No I.D. hooks up a basher of a beat that has shades of "The Takeover" but instead of the Doors, the Chicago producer digs into his bag of library records:
Janko Nilovic: In the Space From Psyc' Impressions (Montparnasse, 1970)
Lyrically...I wanted to like this more than what's actually there to like. For one thing, it's about a year late and the timing here is everything - I read how someone called this "a trend song about a trend" and that's exactly on-point. Provided, it's not as out-of-time as some of Eminem's leftover disses from 2004 showing up on Relapse, but in 2009, auto-tune has already become so parodied, even Wendy's is up on it.
It's not a bad song, all said...it just feels like something that screams "mixtape cut" (which, who knows, maybe all it will end up as).
Kings of Swing: Nod Your Head To This + Go Cocoa From 12" (Virgin, 1990)
Doo Wop and Da Bounce Squad: Da Bounce Master From Noo Trybe Bootleg Summer Sampler EP (Noo Trybe, 1993)
Most Wanted: Calm Down From 12" (Fever, 1990)
Spike VST: Shut Up and Dance From 12" (Street Art, 1988)
I don't know what it was about today but I was feeling slightly melancholy and decided to start, finally, pulling out some older hip-hop 12"s to digitize.
The first two songs were pieces I had been meaning to post up a while back, after hearing Funkmaster Flex play them on his now infamous July 4, 2007 show. The Kings of Swing is one of those 12"s I've had so long...I forgot I even owned it and hell if I can even remember when I actually copped it. What can I say? Great use of the "Sexy Coffee Pot" bassline even if it's not as grimy as when Cypress flipped it. I had to throw on "Go Cocoa" too - it's not too often you hear 1) cuts devoted to DJs and 2) female DJs at that (I can only think of two others, off the top of my head, from Salt N Pepa and The Coup) and c'mon, how you gonna pass up any song dedicated to a DJ named "Cocoa Channelle"? I didn't realize they were down with First Priority but I guess that makes sense since Audio Two remixed "Nod Your Head" on the 12".
The Doo Wop/Bounce Squad joint was something I don't think I ever remember hearing back in the day, likely because it was a rather mega-local 12" (first released independently) before coming out on a promo-only Noo Trybe 12". Two things you can say about this tune: 1) nice use of Allen Toussaint's "Louie" and 2) Da Bounce Squad wasn't boasting the illest line-up of MCs - vaguely competent, sure, but not really memorable (except for maybe Snaggle Puss, who was memorable for arguably the wrong reasons). That said, this is a fun track to, er, bounce to.
The next two singles are probably tracks either my friend Hua or Dave put me up on (their random rap collection >>>>>> mine). "Calm Down" is a fiery fast rap number - four sets of verses, barely much of a song structure, but one hot beat (dig those 808 booms) and a few hungry MCs. Strangely, I can't seem to find much info on the group though I'm assuming they're out of NY.
Similar, I'm not sure if Spike VST hail from Florida (where their label is based) or Philly (where the song was actually recorded). Regardless, what struck me about this single is that I'm assuming there's a live drummer working the sticks on here and maybe even a bassist, interpolating Cymande's "Bra" though it could also be a sample. Nothing spectacular but certainly a good representation of hip-hop in that moment.
LATEE AND THE 45 KING ROCK THE VIBES
posted by O.W.
45 King feat. Latee: Brainstrom From For DJs Only (45 King Records, 1992)
45 King feat. Lati: Lati Rocks the Bells From 12" (Blazin', 2001)
I guess the formula goes like this: 45 King beat + Latee/Lati on the mic + vibes = wickedness.
I posted up "Brainstorm" back in 2007 and I don't know why it didn't occur to me to double it up with "Lati Rocks the Bells" at the time since the two songs, likely separated by a decade or so, share so much in common in terms of their style and literal vibe.
"Brainstorm" if you recall, is from a mega-rare 45 King EP put out in the early '90s that was reissued in 2004 but that too has gone out of print. My man Robbie E. has the full history at Unkut.com and I clearly didn't read his post close enough the first time since I didn't realize there were two pressings of this[1].
Anyways, hot stuff from the 45 King/Latee team, with one of the 45 King's signature drum breaks opening things before the vibes come trotting in. Latee showcases why he was one of the Flavor Unit's most slept-on talents; maybe it was Wild Pitch, maybe it was just bad luck but you would have thought he was poised to really go big in the early '90s but things never seemed to pan out that way.
Much to many folks surprise, Lati (now renamed for unclear reasons) came blasting back in 2001 with Mark again on "Lati Rocks the Bells," an unexpected (but most welcome) 12" pairing the two men again on yet another ridiculously hot, vibe-laced beat. According to one of our readers, the vibes on this cut are taken from a Cal Tjader song (which makes sense). Yo - will this mean we'll see another team-up in the next few years? Make it happen.
[1] Ok, so this part is kind of embarrassing but let this be a lesson on keeping your records in order. I got a copy of this EP off of Robbie back around 2005/6 and in theory, it should still be in my collection. The problem is, the other month, when I tried to find it, I couldn't. And when I say, "I couldn't" I mean I went through practically everything trying to find it, including going through boxes in storage (which I almost never do) and all in vain. There is nothing more frustrating than "losing" a record in your own collection and it was bugging me so badly, I just decided to say, "f--- it" and threw down for another copy. Yeah, I know, impulsive (and expensive, to say the least) but at least I have some piece of mind. One thing though: the new copy I have is what Robbie refers to as the first release - orange on one side, yellow on the other - both featuring the "Mark Head" but according to Robbie, only 50 copies exist of this and I find it rather unlikely I ended up with one of them. I could be wrong, of course, but I'm wondering if maybe there were more copies of the first pressing than was previously thought?
Apologies for the long gap in posts - I'm in "end of the semester" crunch time right now and just haven't had a ton of mental energy left.
Having said that...I was listening (late pass) to the new album by Finale, which has gotten some very strong response amongst the hip-hop blogerati. And I was really struck by the bonus song, "Paid Homage," which is dedicated to the late J-Dilla, produced by Flying Lotus, and interpolating Dilla's "Fall In Love" beat for Slum Village.
It is incredibly striking to me how "Fall In Love" has this mnemonic power to keep recycling back into our musical world, seemingly without tiring out listeners. I've always found that to be the case - as with many, it's one of my favorite Dilla tracks of all time and just in this past year, we've seen it return thrice!
One of these days, I'll throw down for this LP - Mangione nails a great vibe on the whole thing, well-exemplified by the above song but hardly limited to it. Producers certainly have felt the same way; a few cuts off the LP have been sampled and "Diana" alone has had different segments clipped.
So here's that Slum Village cut I was talking about. I'm assuming you all have heard it but for the two in the world who haven't, get ready for a treat:
Slum Village: Fall In Love From Fantastic, Vol. 2 (Goodvibe, 2000)
Great opening drums, beautiful filtered sample of the Mangione, an instant classic.
One, two.
So just how popular has "Fall In Love" gotten? As noted, in just the last year we've had three reworkings. I'll start with the Suite From Ma Dukes version.
Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: Fall In Love From Suite for Ma Dukes (Mochilla, 2009)
I've written much about this EP already and this is a lovely interpolation of the Mangione but neither a true cover of either Gap's OG or the SV's tune. It takes those two sources as a starting point and then works from there.
The Ins vs. Fleur Earth: Fall In Love From 7" (MPM, 2008)
This actually came out last year but I hadn't heard it until more recently - this is more of a direct, instrumental cover of the SV song though vocally, it's just the chorus being repeated over a loungey interpretation of Dilla's beat. And that brings us to:
True to the song's title, Finale and Fly-Lo do up this homage right on so many levels - Finale's autobiographical tale of meeting and building with Dilla feels real and heartfelt and Fly-Lo recreates the "Fall In Love" beat through his own sonic vision, paying tribute in his own way to a musical mentor. Great way to end the album and a fitting way to close this post.
Bambu: 2 Dope Boyz Drop (prod. by DJ Phatrick) From 2dopeboyz.com (2009)
Just wanted to share this - a really cool drop that my man (and former student!) DJ Phatrick put together with Bambu for the 2 Dope Boyz website. Nice production and Bambu puts it down as usual.
Jeru: Ya Playin' Yaself (remix) Black Moon: How Many MCs Must Get Dissed (remix) From 12" (white label, 199?)
This may sound strange but I've been looking for this 12" for at least 4-5 years and it's not that it's even that awesome of a white label remix 12" but I can get obsessed with certain songs/records and just need to find them, even if that means waiting a Olympic cycle or more.
I became acquainted with it through Vinnie Esparaza - we used to do a monthly party called Joyride in San Francisco (people who went to 26 Mix, holler!) back in the early '00s and he'd often play this remix of Jeru's "Ya Playin' Yaself" that I never heard and I liked it enough - at the time - to want to go find it. BUT because it was a white label 12" and because Vinnie didn't even remember where he got it, it was a hard single to track down and I patiently had to wait until it showed up on eBay (which it did, finally, the other week) and just hope no one else out there had the same silly obsession.
Like I said, the remixes are ok but that Jeru definitely doesn't sound as good now as it used to! (Oh, the irony). That said, I dig the bassline (which I think T-Love has also used) on it and the way in which it sort of plays off Prermier's style of that era without being a straight bite. The Black Moon remix is similarly decent though it's not touching the OG.
Any of my '90s heads out there know who actually did these remixes? At one point, I think I heard it was some DJ Spinna thing but I don't know if I believe that still.
THE TOP OF POP (CONFERENCE THAT IS)
posted by O.W.
As a music scholar/writer, I attend a fair amount of conferences, many of which include interesting and provocative talks and papers on all things musical/cultural but hands-down, my favorite annual event is the Pop Conference at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. I just got back this weekend from it and even after eight years, it's still a constant inspiration and source of much intellectual fodder.
This year's conference "playlist" is even longer. Here's the highlights:
1) Laura Nyro feat. LaBelle: Gonna Take a Miracle From Gonna Take a Miracle (Warner Bros, 1971)
Nona Hendryx was the opening night keynote, interviewed by two dear friends of mine, Daphne Brooks and Sonnet Retman. Hendryx has had an incredible career in pop music, spanning back to the 1960s when she was a member of Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles, to their 1970s incarnation as Labelle and then onto a solo career since the late '70s that has included collaborations with the Talking Heads, Dusty Springfield and Peter Gabriel. It was tough trying to pick one song from her massive discography to highlight but I really loved her story about working Laura Nyro on the Gonna Take a Miracle album for two reasons. First of all, I have been playing the hell out of this song lately (more specifically, Alton Ellis' version) and second, Nona made a poignant comment about how, back then, a collaboration between Labelle and Nyro - unlikely as it may have seemed to folks -could be as easy as saying to one another, "hey, I like your music, you want to do something with me?" No managers, agents or attorneys to fuss about - artists could simply agree to work together (at least, this is the halcyon world that Hendryx painted).
2) Richard Berry and the Pharaohs: Louie Louie From 7" (Flip, 1957). Also on Have Louie Will Travel
Rutgers' Christopher Doll gave a fascinating paper that uses musicology to argue that there's such a thing as a "sexual chord progression." If I'm not mistaken (and I didn't take very good notes here), I think he's talking about the E-A-D progression that you can hear in everything from Neil Diamond's "Cherry Cherry" to "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)" by the Rolling Stones to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Given that I'm not musicologically trained I could be totally misrepresenting all of this so just take it with a grain of salt. In any case, his argument is not that the progression itself has some inherent sexual quality; rather it's that it's come to be associated with the idea of sexual frustration as evinced by its use in many different songs that have similar topical themes, perhaps most famously the Stones.
Doll (if I recall correctly) traces the crossover moment of this chord progression from blues to pop/rock in the form of "Louie Louie," that ubiquitous party song most often associated with the Kingsmen but originating with songwriter Richard Berry and recorded by him with the Pharaohs. I had never heard Berry's original and I totally dig it, especially in how one of the Pharaohs uses his baritone voice to mimic the bassline.[1]
3) Onra: I Wanna Go Back From Chinoiseries (Favorite, 2008)
Van Truong gave an intriguing paper about the role of "migrant sad songs" in linking diasporic subjects with concepts of home, history and memory. She was primarily speaking about her own father and how his love for Vietnamese folk songs of the 1960s is one of the few ways through which he'll speak of the past. As an end example, Truong offered up a few songs from Onra, a Vietnamese French producer (with a notably Dilla-esque sound) who traveled to Vietnam and returned home with both Vietnamese and Chinese records and use that as raw material for last year's Chinoiseries CD. It's not as aggressively stylized as, say, Flying Lotus, but Onra has a nice sense for mood and texture, especially on the soulful "I Wanna Go Back" (plus, peep that industrial vinyl grime creating static!)
Greil Marcus plumbed the depths of Nan Goldin's "Ballad of Sexual Dependency" by focusing on the imagined songs left out of that exhibit[2] and his #1 choice was Lonnie Mack's "Why," a surprisingly underrated deep soul ballad from the veteran Memphis blues man. The conventional wisdom around why Mack's vocal contributions have gone less appreciated is that his Whiteness made him a difficult person to market to the R&B audience of the 1960s and "Why" actually languished for over five years after being initially recorded until the Fraternity label finally decided to put it out.
Not having seen Goldin's exhibit, I can't say if this song does or does not belong within it but I can certainly understand the appeal of a song whose desperation resonates in crack in Mack's voice when he screams "whhhyyyyyyy" on the three choruses, especially the final one where, if I recall properly, Marcus suggests Mack "lets the flood gates open" and you can hear the raw emotion pour fourth with terrifying power.
5) Rhythm Controll/Chuck Roberts: My House From 12" (Catch-a-Beat, 1987)
Some of you might remember Seattle's Michaelangelo Matos from the "Apache" post he graciously reposted for Soul Sides in 2005. That was originally an EMP paper and this year, Matos tackled the returning use of the "dance music's national anthem", i.e. the "My House" acapella (by Chuck Roberts and Rhythm Controll) from a then, small house 12" released in 1987. Apart from his history of the acapella and its continued use throughout dance music, Matos also argues that it is damn near impossible to "train wreck" this in a mix, in other words - you can throw this acapella over practically ANY instrumental and it will still sound good. He even played a few examples to prove his point.
This perked my curiosity enough to try it at home and you know what? He is completely correct. This acapella can "work" with many beats you might try to throw under it. Seriously, try it (play the acapella in a web browser and then load up another song on your computer's mp3 program (iTunes for example) and see how they synch up). Quite impressive!
I have to confess, being a relatively rock-ignorant kind of guy, I've never gotten very deep into Joplin's catalog except to know that she certainly had a thing for covering R&B songs. Maybe it's for facile political reasons, but I suppose I've always leaned more towards listening to her source material than Joplin herself but Lauren Onkey's paper on Joplin made me reconsider my prejudices and I was especially struck at her example of Joplin performing "Maybe," a song originally recorded by R&B girl group, The Chantels. Onkey (whose paper on Black British musicians in Liverpool preceding the British invasion was one of my favorites of 2008's conference) isn't trying to rescue/recuperate Joplin; rather, she's coming from the other direction, arguing that most analyses of Joplin have tended to elide how heavily her performance and musical tastes were taken from Black R&B artists, such as Otis Redding, and especially female artists such as the Chantels, Erma Franklin, and many in Jerry Ragavoy's R&B stable. Joplin's performance of "Maybe" is good vocally - she definitely reforms the song in her style and image - but you should also see how she did it live:
There's just something a little forced and awkward about her movements here, with her violent jerks when she wants to emphasize the rhythm peaks in the song.
7) Asha Puthli: I Dig Love From Asha Puthli (CBS UK, 1973)
To me, the hands-down highlight of the conference was watching Asha Puthli bring down the house (repeatedly) during a lunchtime talk she gave to Jason King. I wrote about Puthli before, way back when, and I've been derelict in not following up sooner given how interesting and eclectic a career she's had. (I'm working on catching back up, very soon).
I decided to pull one of her cuts out of the archives, "I Dig Love," a cover of the George Harrison song but probably flipped in ways that Harrison likely wouldn't have imagined. During the lunch talk, Puthli explained that the bubbling noise was her gurgling champagne. Awesomely flossy.
Surprisingly, Asha's LPs have never had a US release before (they're now available digitally however, which is good). Hopefully, that will be a situation that rectifies itself soon.
8) Before Carl Wilson was introduced for his paper this year, a joke was made about how he's so big, even James Franco is showing him love. The truth is though, Wilson's book on taste and criticism (ostensibly based around writing about Celine Dion) is quite extraordinary. I just started it recently and it's exceptional, heady thinking about how we form our opinions, especially via music. Perhaps it's apropos from an author on a book about Celine Dion to do a paper on Auto-Tune and in the course of describing the history of Auto-tune as a form of technology-assisted voice manipulation, Wilson played this incredible (though also quite creepy) 1939 performance by Alvino Rey performing "St. Louis Blues."
For a less disturbing variation using a similar talk box technology as Rey, there's also Pete Drake's "Forever" from the early '60s which is a haunting composition all its own (even without a steel guitar puppet).
[1] Without trying to confuse the hell out of people here - the intro to "Louie Louie" uses a very common and familiar chord progression of its own, especially within Latin music: a I, IV, V. However, this is NOT the progression that Doll is associating in his argument; he's referring to the more subtle chord progression on the bassline AFTER the intro that you hear on the Kingsmen version of the song. At least, I think that's what he was referring to.
[2] Marcus was specifically talking about the slideshow + soundtrack version of "The Ballad," and not the photo book, which he considered less powerful in the absence of the music that accompanied the slideshow.
Speaking of early '90s stuff I've been digitizing, I finally got around to digging out my copy of 45 King's famous "Spread Love" bootleg that combines the a cappella vocals of Take Six with one of the all-time, greatest drumbreaks, Ike and Tina Turner's "Cussin', Cryin' and Carryin' On." I don't know if 45 King was the first to figure out that this sounded amazing once looped, but it's stuff like this that words like "phat" were invented to characterize. The slap on this is so deep and wide, it's the breakbeat equivalent of Teahupoo.
This song has been bootlegged numerous times - I have it on three different 12"s, which doesn't include the Bozo Meko 45 that came out a couple of years ago. I don't believe this ever had a formal release but if anyone knows what it first came out on, let me know.
The "Spread Love" break (I've also seen it referred to as TKTKTK) pops up repeatedly, even now - the Eli Escobar track uses the same one, this time, interspersed with a lil Tears for Fears for a cool, 2 min track that made the blog rounds in 2007.
Nubian Crackers feat. Artifacts: Do You Want to Hear It? From 12" (Big Beat, 1993). Also on The Greatest Shits, Part 1
Funkmaster Flex feat. 9 Double M and Tragedy: Six Million Ways to Die From "Sad and Blue" 12" (Nervous, 1993)
The Masters of Funk feat. 9 Double M: Go Bang From 12" (Freeze, 1992)
I've been digitizing a storm lately, trying to bulk up my digital songs options for DJing and I was revisiting some of my favorite singles from back when I first started DJing in 1993. I always remember that era for all the DJ-oriented party-style/breakbeat records - a hip-hop sub-genre that I often associate with folks like 45 King and Kenny Dope pioneering and by the early 1990s, was being dominated by at least two labels that come to mind: AV8 and Wreck (the latter was a subsidiary of Nervous). Most of these featured instrumental tracks based off whatever was banging on the radio charts and but vocally, it was far more likely to find some ragamuffin than rap verses.
However, sometimes, you'd catch one of these with some actual rhyming on it and the two that I always remember from the time were the first two songs above. Even today, I still have no idea who the hell Nubian Crackers were (how Unkut's Robbie E. hasn't interviewed these guys yet, I don't know) but I knew their 12"s were always pretty tasty and when they first dropped "Do You Want To Hear It?" it featured a new duo out of New Jersey called Artifacts. This was before "Wrong Side of the Tracks" jumped off[1] and I don't know how many people paid that close attention to this 12" (Big Beat didn't put a ton of promotion behind this single if I recall) at the time but I've noticed, since then, it's gathered quite the following. Fun bassline bounce here and it was cool to hear the NCs reuse the same fuzzed out guitar loop from the Politicians' "Free Your Mind" as Professor Griff had flipped.
Funkmaster Flex's "Six Million Ways to Die" was actually a b-side to "Sad and Blue" (which was pleasant enough but otherwise paled in comparison). I don't remember where the whole "six million ways to die" hook first came from - I'm assuming its from dancehall but I don't know who gets credit for first inventing it - but it's a catchy enough refrain. The beat that Flex hooks up after is a monster but here's where things get a bit weird: the song features a guest verse from Tragedy aka Intelligent Hoodlum which is almost word for word the same as he did on "Funk Mode," a song from his Tragedy: Saga of a Hoodlum album that also came out in 1993. That's not a big deal except that "Funk Mode," produced by K-Def, uses the same Lou Donaldson, "It's Your Thing" loop that Flex has on "Six Million Ways to Die" and both of those seemed influenced by Diamond D's use of the same loop on the 12" version of Brand Nubian's "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down". Maybe it's just a coincidence but the timing of "Funk Mode" and "6 Million" always felt weird to me. No matter - the song's hot one way or another and frankly, I always preferred 9 Double M's verses on there to Tragedy's anyway.
And yeah, speaking of that...I always figured Nine would have a bigger rap career than he did. By the time he had changed his name from 9 Double M to just Nine (remember "Whutcha Want"?), he had already graced a handful of singles, "6 Million" being the most prominent and with that straight up grimy voice, he was an easy MC to remember. My absolutely favorite 9 Double M song was off of an earlier single by the "Masters of Funk" (presumably Funkmaster Flex and Todd Terry since both men get credited here). What's confusing to me is that I can't tell who's actually responsible for the track - Funk or Terry - unless both men collaborated. Either way, 9 Double M graces the "Flex's MIx" (which is identical to "Tee's Nine Mix" except the latter has no vocals on it. It's confusing) and besides dissing Das Efx (a popular pastime in those days), he sounds like he's having a ball here, interspersing his gangsta rough posturing with Batman special effects sounds. (Shout out to DJ Ajax, whose Jax Tracks mixtape is where I first heard "Go Bang."
[1] Have you ever heard the demo version of the song? It's a mind-blower considering how awkward the demo version sounds compared to the final version which is certified classic.
Nas + AZ: Life's a Bitch (DJ Delay Remix) From Medium: Rare II Mix-CD (Funk Weapons Int'l, 2005)
My original comments on this were kind of thin so I'll just write up some new ones...
Personally, "Life's A Bitch" was always my least favorite song off of Illmatic, music-wise. I just thought it was too soft and syrupy and even though I've tried to give it new listens in hindsight, it still doesn't really do it for me.
So when I heard DJ Delay flip a new beat under it, to me, it improved my personal experience of really listening to everything about it - not just the new beats, but the old verses as well. You'd be surprised how much you can pick up when your ear is more fully engaged with a song rather than trying to listen past a track you're not that into.
For many, I suppose anything but the OG is blasphemous but f--- it. I ride for the diggy-diggy Doc Delay on this one.
Pity the mix-CD this came out on (as a bonus track) is out of stock though!
Kanye West: All Falls Down (original mix) Deleted from College Dropout (Roc-A-Fella, 2004)
"Imagine you're Lauryn Hill. You've gone from one being one of hip-hop's greatest artists ever to landing somewhere between an enigma and a joke. Your career is so far gone that kids think "Doo Wop" is old school now. One day, Kanye West, one of the hottest producers in the game, calls you up and says, "hey, I've made this conscious song about the contradictions about being black and having class aspirations, blah blah blah and I really want to sample your song from the Unplugged album - you know, that double-LP that effectively destroyed your career? Anyways, I want to redeem it by making this really dope song using your voice, is that ok with you?" Somehow, you decide "no," thereby forcing Kanye to hire a sound-alike in the form of Syleena Johnson, a perfectly good Hill knock-off but the point is that she's a knock-off, not the real deal.
The song above is the original mix, using the Lauryn Hill sample, as it appeared on the early promos for Kanye's album. In the opinion of most, includes yours truly, it is the considerably superior version simply because Lauryn just sounds better. You decide."
Last night's "Suite for Ma Dukes" performance (part of the Timeless Series) was a really beautiful event. Even though I arrived halfway through the first set (which, I think, was mostly a live performance of what appears on the EP), I could already tell the evening was going to be special.
What really works about the whole conceit is that part of what made J-Dilla beats so memorable was his understanding of musical and emotional texture. It was never just about a loop or riff or beat (though, of course, he was gifted in working with those); it was about what those sounds could evoke. And in the hands of three dozen musicians, plus the energetic - even theatric - conducting of Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - I think they did a beautiful job of really capturing, expressing and transforming some of the emotional range that Dilla played with in his music. Most of what was played last night were not attempts at recreations, but rather flights of musical imagination inspired by Jay Dee's works and to me, that was all the more meaningful as a tribute.
And there were many people who loved Dilla in the mix that night - from his mother, Maureen Yancey, to his brother, Illa J, to his former roomie and collaborator Common, to vocalists Bilal, Amp Fiddler and Dwele, to Talib Kweli and De La Soul's Posdnuos (the latter two performed over a recreation of the "Stakes Is High" beat).
I have to say - there's two more shows in the Timeless series, one with Brazil's Arthur Verocai, the other with LA's own David Axelrod - but somehow, I can't imagine anything really topping tonight...not b/c the other men are incapable of transcendent moments of musical composition or performance but I just think, for the audience that the series is aiming at, for the sheer level of creative challenge that Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Niño rose to to make this music work. to the sheer amount of love reverberating through the room last night...this was something that went beyond the music in honoring and celebrating Dilla.
And with that, I end with one of my favorite Jay Dee beats, one that will never age or fade.
Update (2/19): As promised, we have tickets to give away for the "Suite for Ma Dukes" show, coming up this Sunday night.
I'll draw three winners at random from those who email me, with the subject line "Ma Dukes Contest". Good luck! Next in the Timeless series, following on Mulatu Astake's performance from the other week, is "Suite for Ma Dukes," a four-part suite celebrating the career and life of J-Dilla (whose birthday would have been tomorrow) by Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.
I admit, I was a bit skeptical as to what this would sound like - the idea of having a 36 piece orchestra playing compositions inspired by J-Dilla felt like it could be an aesthetic mish-mash, like when bands try to recreate hip-hop beats. But I was very pleasantly moved by the songs I heard from the EP which, far from trying to work in a hip-hop vein, are fully fleshed out jazz compositions that borrow aspects of Dilla's tracks without being strictly beholden to them (or their original samples).
Here's some streaming audio of one of the Suite's best songs:
The performance will be on February 22nd (Sunday night) at the Luckman Center (Cal State LA campus). I should have some tickets to give away for it as we get closer to the date.
I like Jay-Z as much as the next dude but even I was surprised that Netherlands' producer Umatic took it upon himself to remix the six songs off the American Gangster album (now over a year old) with tracks by the Lefties Soul Connection, a deep funk/retro soul band (also Dutch). The result: Amsterdam Gangster by Jay's Soul Connection. I gotta say, I wasn't the biggest fan of American Gangster originally; a lot of the songs felt underinspired but the beauty of these remix projects is that they sometimes encourage you to listen to the songs with new ears. Case in point - I didn't pay "Party Life" too much attention the first time around - it was a cool enough tune but just didn't leave a major impression. Yet, I found myself appreciating the word play better with this flip - something about the change in production put the lyrics in a new light.
There's also something serendipitous about the idea of mashing these groups together. After all, Jay-Z's "Roc Boys" was built around a retro-soul song, the Menahan Street Band's "Make the Road by Walking," while "Success" (another song that Umatic remixes for the Amsterdam Gangster project) is pretty much built straight from Larry Ellis and the Black Hammer's obscure funk 45, "Funky Thing". Coming from the other side, one of the Lefties Soul Connection's first songs that came to my attention was their remake of DJ Shadow's "Organ Donor."
Given the mesh between funky band tracks and Jay-Z acapellas, I also thought about another mash-up project - a blog-only remix of "99 Problems" done by The Prince of Ballard (a Seattle neighborhood) back in 9/07. He took a loop from a Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings studio performance and threw Jay-Z's verses on top and it totally works. Interestingly enough, that same loop got worked over by Mark Ronson for Solange Knowles' song, "6 O'Clock Blues."
There's many layers of face-melting madness involved in this project. Let us count the ways:
1) Unreleased Juice Crew tracks from the vaults of Marley Marl? Say what? How have these not seen the light in 20 years?
2) And not just any unreleased tracks. We're talking about legitimately smokin' hot tracks, especially the two Kool G Rap songs on here, not to mention a Big Daddy Kane exclusive, a song from Tragedy, back in his pre-pubescent Super Kids days, and another great cut from the wildly underrated Craig G.
3) Despite what you would expect to be incredible demand for these songs, the EP was pressed up at 350 units. Never to be repressed. Whoa.
4) And did we mention it will cost $80? And is vinyl only?
Give DWG (Diggers With Gratitude) credit - like Kane, ain't no half steppin' here. They designed a product that would blow minds on several levels. I suspect many hip-hop fans will go from, "holy sh--, unreleased Juice Crew joints" to "but wait...$80?" and get stuck somewhere in between.
Full disclosure: I plunked down the $80. I wasn't the happiest dude doing it but I have zero regrets (especially after hearing the full songs). This thing sold out before it was even really publicized so clearly, the price point didn't hurt the EP one bit. Folks may grumble at the exclusivity (though you can bet this will get ripped and put online within days) of it but limited edition items have been a part of hip-hop (and pop music) history for ages. I do feel bad for genuine fans who simply don't have the ends to spend on a project like this though. Maybe Marley will drop these on CD in the future, who knows? (Here's another well-reasoned defense).
But enough with the politics - peep the music.
"I Declare War" is classic Kool G Rap, by which I mean he's still just slicing up MCs lyrically vs. coming with the gangsta/murder raps his later career was known for. It can easy to forget that even though Kane was supposed to be Cold Chillin's most dexterous MC, G Rap was a close-second, flow-wise. This song ranks amongst some of the best I've ever heard from him in terms of presence and lyrical wit. Sick track too - rough and rugged like so many of Marley Marl's late '80s fare.
I also had to roll with the Craig G song here - how could I possibly pass up a song featuring one of my favorite in the Crew, rapping over a track sampling the Jackson Sisters' "I Believe In Miracles" with a little "Blow Your Head" mixed in? Ridiculous.
I really love D-Nice's second act as an artist-turned-documentarian. Gives you hope that there's life after the stage and one can still contribute meaningfully. Respect due.
HIs "True Hip Hop Stories" series are great; they're like video versions of Unkut.com. (Robbie, holla!)
THE YEAR IN MUSIC: PART 2 (THE NEW)
posted by O.W.
(from l-r: Alicia Keys, Estelle, Cool Kids, Lil Wayne Chico Mann, Menahan St. Band, Q-Tip Robin Thicke, Solange Knowles, Mayer Hawthorne, Raphael Saadiq)
(This post began life on Side Dishes and has "evolved" since).
As I suggested in PART 1, my tastes in 2008 were decidedly retro. Even the new songs I liked still sounded like they were recorded in 1968. But I'm not going to artificially stack my list below to make it seem like I wasn't stuck in some weird throwback mode for most of the year. Here's my favorite new songs of the year:
When I first heard this in early summer, I kept thinking, "it's got the build-up of a Supremes song but then never delivers. The Neptunes' beat just felt weird as a result and I initially dismissed it. Yet, each time I'd hear it, I'd just want to keep listening longer, maybe subconsciously waiting for the "real" beat to drop, but whatever the case, I soon enjoyed it for what it was - infectious pop in the best tradition of Ross and her Supremes. This was, much to my surprise, my favorite pop single of the year.
Estelle: No Substitute Love From Shine (Atlantic, 2008)
Of course, Solange was hardly the only femme getting her retro-twist on. Besides her, there was also Little Jackie and Estelle, whose Shine album was one of my favorite of the year (see below). I had a hard time choosing which of her various songs were my favorite - I guess I could just have easily gone with the ragga-fied "Magnificent" or the swinging, uptempo "Pretty Please" (produced by Jack Splash, aka my new favorite producer). But "No Substitute Love" (produced by Wyclef) lingers a touch longer in the ear for some reason - it's really all about the hook and the way Estelle pulls her notes out and milks those long vowels.
Not that I haven't alreadywritten enough about Q-Tip this year but I'm still marveling at how good a comeback he's made. It's one thing to want to champion an artist, it's another thing when they exceed your expectations. Q-Tip's return was set off by the excellence of this first single that told you some of his ol' magic was back.
The Cool Kids: 88 From The Bake Sale EP (Chocolate Industries, 2008)
Rappers for the hypebeast generation, I like the Cool Kids even if I have little interest/love for their hyper-hipster consumerism. But hey, I'm not that into the crack trade either and that never stopped me from enjoying rappers who only seem to rhyme about Pyrex and fish scales. In the end, pair two decent flows and production that sounds like Magic Mike-meets-Rick Rubin-meets-Salih Williams and that's a good combination.
Raphael Saadiq: Seven From The Way I See It (FYE Exclusive) (Columbia, 2008)
For all my reservations, I still think Saadiq pulled off one of the best crafted albums of the year, bringing together a masterful blend of '60s soul styles onto one album. However, my favorite song of his this year was actually a bonus cut from the "FYE exclusive" version (who the hell is FYE?): "Seven." I was told that this song is actually a veiled reference to Michael Vick (#7) and if you listen to the lyrics with that in mind, you can hear it. Even without that weird, pop culture nod though, I like how everything on this song comes together: the reverb on the melancholy guitars, the tap of the tambourine, and most of all, that synthesizer that comes in on the chorus with its buzzy texture. (Thanks to Eric L. for the hook-up).
Chico Mann : Dilo Como Yo From Analogue Drift (forthcoming)
Captain Planet: Boogaloo From Jazz Loves Dub (Rudiments, 2008)
My DJ partner, Murphy's Law, put me up on both of these by playing them at Boogaloo[la]. Of course, one could cite nepotism in the case of Captain Planet's tune since the two of them are brothers but hey, family relations aside, "Boogaloo" is a great, catchy instrumental that moves with a snappy step and some deft drum programming (love the fill that takes the song out of the bridges). Likewise, the yet-to-be-officially-released "Dilo Como Yo" ("as I say") has a slick Afro-flavored rhythm section and speaks the universal language of tooty-synthesizers.
Funk instrumental albums are a relatively rare breed but Brooklyn's Menahan Street Band pulled off one of the slickest albums in that vein this side of the James Brown Band circa Popcorn. Off that, I couldn't stop listening to "Home Again!" which has this beautifully laid-back feel thanks to the mellow guitar and horn section. Not sure why they put a ! on the title of such a languid composition but I'm more than happy to shout its praises.
Lil Wayne: Let the Beat Build From The Carter III (Cash Money, 2008)
I still think Carter II was the better album but hey, I'm not going to begrudge Wayne his success this year (the record industry needed some good news). But even if Carter III didn't quite exceed expectations, Wayne still came with some killer cuts. "A Milli" made a huge impact but the song that I kept coming back to was "Let the Beat Build." What can I say? Gospel-tinged vocals + Wayne's verses + slowly evolving beat = untouchable. So sick it gave birth to ill twins (see Honorable Mentions below).
Mayer Hawthorne and the County: Just Ain't Gonna Work Out From 7" single (Stones Throw, 2008)
This Detroit native turned L.A. transplant takes Allen Toussaint's drums and lays it under a simple but catchy melody and then unleashes that soulful falsetto to get the groove right. Heartbreak rarely sounded so achingly sweet.
Erykah Badu: Honey (DJ Day Remix) From 7" (Day1, 2008)
Take one of the best songs from one of year's best albums and then give it a fantastically smart and intuitive remix and you get this. In hindsight, it probably seems obvious to remake Badu's "Honey" with Delegation's "Ooh Honey," but Day gives the pairing a natural depth (something he excels in as heard previously in that Marvin Gaye edit) that, dare I say, makes his remix sound better than the original.
Robin Thicke: Ms. Harmony From Something Else (Interscope, 2008)
As I wrote in the L.A. Weekly, Thicke's sweetest confection off his third album was “Ms. Harmony,” a bossa nova-flavored blend of dreamy guitar melodies, Latin percussion and Thicke’s own, mojito-cool vocals. I don't much more to add except to say that I've been playing this as an "end of the night" song for parties and my, my, my, does it work nicely.
STUFF THAT'S RELATIVELY RECENT BUT I ONLY DISCOVERED THIS YEAR:
Alicia Keys: Teenage Love Affair From As I Am (J Records, 2007)
I know this album came out in 2007 but, um, I just started to listening to it this past week and "Teenage Love Affair" has been on constant rotation since. Single-song-repeat rotation. Part of why I'm so taken by it is how Jack Splash juices up the loop from the Temprees and gives Keys' tune such a richness and catchy drive. The other half is how Keys handles this song with just the right blend of burgeoning sexuality and chaste coquettish-ness. I think I have a school boy crush on "Teenage Love Affair."
Quantic and Nicodemus: Mi Swing Es Tropical From Ritmo Tropical EP (Tru Thoughts, 2005). Also on Shapes.
Like the Ray Barretto I wrote up on Part 1, I owe my discovery of this to Rani D. I love both songs for the same reason: electric piano + Afro-Latin sabor = unbeatable combination. That and, on this song, Nicodemus' vocals lend a gruff contrast to the soothing sweetness of the melody. I can't believe I never heard this until this past year since I'm a big fan of Quantic. This is easily my favorite track of all his tunes.
1. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War 2. Cool Kids: The Bake Sale EP 3. Estelle: Shine 4. Final Solution: Brotherman OST 5. Kanye West: 808s and Heartbreaks 6. Q-Tip: The Renaissance 7. Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It 8. LIl Wayne: The Carter III 9. Menahan Street Band: Make the Road By Walking 10. V/A: Verve Remixed 4
RBL Posse: Don't Give Me No Bammer Weed b/w Sorta Like a Psycho From 12" (In-A-Minute, 1991)
One of the great things about Bay Area hip-hop radio in the early 1990s was that programming on stations like KMEL and KSOL was far more diverse than what you'd expect in today's media consolidated days of national playlists. That's why, in that brief period, you could tune in and expect to hear both the latest hits coming out of New York alongside something like the RBL Posse's "Don't Give Me No Bammer Weed," or Total Devastation's "Many Clouds of Smoke."
The single's B-side is one of the cases where you have a humorous disconnect between music and lyric; the beat has much lighter and slightly happy feel to it compared to verses about infrared Glocks and crack sacks.
By the way, I always assumed this 12" (which is not an easy catch despite how big of a song it was) came out before RBL Posse's A Lesson To Be Learned album but the album is from 1992 and the single says it was pressed in 1993. Anyone know if there were multiple pressings of this?
1. Crowns of Glory: Ain't No Sunshine 2. Joe Bataan: Under the Street Lamp 3. Mark Holder: Mixed-Up Cup 4. Karkey and Woodward: Dirty Old Bossa Nova 5. Nancy Holloway: Hurts So Bad 6. Smith: Baby, It's You 7. Rhetta Hughes: Baby, I Need Your Loving 8. Eduardo Araujuo: Baby, Baby Sim Baby 9. Ray Barretto: Pastime Paradise (edit) 10. Fruta Bomba: Che Che Colé 11. Black Sugar: Valdez In the Country 12. Monty Alexander: Love and Happiness 13. Timothy McNealy: I'm So Glad You're Mine 14. Candi Staton: In the Ghetto 15. David Briggs: Son of a Preacher Man 16. The Professionals: I Can See Clearly Now 17. The Troubadours: My Sweet Lord 18. Roberta Flack: Gone Away 19. Alton Ellis: Ain't No Music
I will not be making this available in the short-term as a separately tracked mix (though I have something in the works). For those without iTunes access, here's a download alternative: http://rapidshare.com/files/168317017/final.mp3.
Q-Tip: Won't Trade + Believe (feat. D'Angelo) From The Renaissance (Motown, 2008)
Ruby Andrews: You Made a Believer Out Of Me From 7" (Zodiac, 1969). Also on Casanova.
Large Professor: For My People From The LP (Geffen, unreleased, 1995)
Having sat with Q-Tip's new album for a few...I have to say, this is phenomenal. I know I may be biased - like many rap fans who grew up in the 1990s, Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest might very have been to us what the Beatles were to my parents' generation. Especially given that Q-Tip has been incognito now for the last 9 years, since Amplifeid dropped (and Kamaal The Abstract did not), Q-Tip's coming back into the game at a risky time. Young bucks don't necessarily know him and old heads might have too-high expectations after such a long hiatus.
I can't speak to whether The Renaissance is going to intuitively appeal to the same cats bumping T.I. and Young Jeezy (though, in T.I.'s case, maybe they are) but as an old head, The Renaissance not only reminds us why Q-Tip was one of our favorite MCs a decade but he's also - remarkably - improved in that time off. I can't think of too many other rappers who could claim that but Tip's upgraded his flow. It's more rhythmically complex, more in-the-pocket yet can play off the beat when it wants to. Listen to how he just darts effortlessly on "Won't Trade" - this is not the same laconic, breezy flow from the days of "Bonita Applebaum."
Personally, I was also tickled by the fact that Tip uses one of my favorite femme funk singles of all time: Ruby Andrews' "You Made a Believer" out of me. Andrews' original is ferocious - I think that's the Brothers of Soul backing her and they cook up a monster of a funk mover here.
Q-Tip's sample choice actually has some Native Tongues resonance since De La Soul used the same loop all the way back in 1989 for a bonus skit called "Brain Washed Follower."
However, as I just suggested, Q-Tip is still down with the Abstract Poet vibe, recreating some of the magic of the Tribe era with songs that have a rich, emotional resonance thanks to the soul and jazz stylings and accented by Tip's own philosophical meditations. A track like "Believe" (the album's penultimate song) embodies the same qualities that Tip's embodied throughout his career - putting the MIA D'Angelo in the mix only enhances the sweetness.
I was enjoying the track so much, I didn't notice this right away but it dawned on me that it sounded familiar and then it hit me - this version of "Believe" interpolates a very similar beat to what Large Professor cooked up all the way back in 1996 for his doomed solo debut, The LP. In some ways, the two men share more than just musical tastes - both had bitter label experiences resulting from unreleased projects. Though Large Professor's new Main Source hasn't garnered the same attention (or strong reviews), there's a nice serendipity to having the unreleased song from one man's album being remade for the comeback album of the other.
If you want to check out my radio review of this album, voila. (This post originally written for Side Dishes).
Whatever you may think of Barack Obama as a potential president, it's undeniable that his candidacy has spurred a reaction from the hip-hop community the likes that I haven't seen in a generation. I don't want to go off on the typical "rap these days is so apolitical, blah blah" routine but let's be honest about this - for the last eight years, in one of the most divisive political climates we've seen since the Vietnam War era, the amount of political content in hip-hop has been stagnant at best, regressive at worst. You can blame that on apathy (or equally/more likely - media consolidation that's cut off avenues of dissent in mainstream music) but whatever the case, it's only in the last few months that I've really seen a major change and that's largely because of Obama.
The symbolic import of potentially seeing a Black person become president cannot be understated. Pundits joke about Obama being treated as a Messiah and while there is certainly a significant amount of facile hype, for several generations of Americans, the prospect of seeing our national leader finally be someone other than another White guy justifiably fills folks with sense of giddy excitement. Heck, I'm not even sure I like a lot of Obama's policies but even I can feel the power of the moment. Symbolism may not translate into material improvement but symbolism is important, especially in a society through which so many mythologies are woven.
This, I'm suggesting, explains why there's been so many "Obama mixes" created over the last few weeks, now circulating through the interweb. And I, for one, am genuinely impressed by these acts of inspiration. Here's a Side Dishes pick through some of the better ones:
King Most is a Bay Area DJ who first released this about a month ago. Most's mix is built around a series of songs that, thematically, match up with what he sees as the spirit of the candidate. The track selection begins excellently with with Smoked Sugar's "I'm a Winner" and from there, Most crafts a party mix that jumps from contemporary soul remixes (Erykah Badu's "Soldier") to some classic, dusty crate funk (Skull Snaps' "It's a New Day") to politicized hip-hop (Pitbull's "American War"). The mixing is smooth and consistent with a little flavor thrown on top but not too much. At various points, Most mixes in speeches and other spoken word bits to remind you that's there's a message behind the music.
Z-Trip's known for his eclectic mixes and this one is no different. Like King Most, Z's set is based off of thematic resonance with the election season - songs meant to inspire, uplift, outrage, etc. Keeping things on the hush, there's no tracklisting but from my ears, I caught some Last Poets, Public Enemy's "Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos," a Bob Marley cover, Arrested Development's "Everyday People," and...NuShooz's "I Can't Wait." Throughout, Z-Trip also sprinkles in bits from Obama's speeches, using them to play against the songs (as he does with that NuShooz track). His penultimate song? Sam Cooke's "A Change Gonna Come" - somewhat predictable but its impact is felt all the same.
Ok, technically, this isn't really an Obama mix since the bulk of it is like any other DJ Premier mixtape you'd hear - joints he produced, lots of mixing and cutting, etc. The main difference is the intro where Premier goes mad DJ on folks (as only Primo can). Here's the highlight: "if you want change, it's up to you motherf*ckers! Everywhere I go, across the world, people fight for their rights! Here in America, motherf*ckers is p*ssy, acting like they can't do sh*t, start doing some sh*t, otherwise you ain't doing sh*t! Make sense? It does now, because I said so!"
That alone is worth the time to download.
By the way, there was one other prominent mix:
DJ Green Lantern: Yes We Can, which I left out of this since...well...I found it rather unlistenable despite all the high-powered cameos they have on there (Nas, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, Oprah). Just goes to show that, in art, as with politics, good intentions doesn't always make for great results.
And oh yeah: go vote on November 4th. You can't hope for change and not play your part by at least taking yourself to vote.
Looking back over the summer songs season, I wanted to do the last post on the songs that ended up forming my personal soundtrack the last few months. To be honest, I thought this list would be a lot longer than it ended up being but I wanted to keep it to songs that I kept returning to over and over rather than something I found merely "good."
Soul II Soul's acapella mix of "Back to Life" came at me three different ways: Murphy's Law dropped it at Boogaloo[la] and reminded me how cotdamn fresh it was, Greg Tate's Summer Songs post made me revisit the Soul II Soul catalog and I finally saw Belly which makes incredible use of the song to open the movie. Personally, I grew impatient to actually get to where the beat drops so I edited my version down to about a 30 second teaser before the "Impeach the President" drums kick in. As ML showed me, it's always a fun cut to play out.
The Bonnie and Sheila, I have to admit, I learned about first through a quirky youtube video[1] and I wondered how the hell I didn't know about this earlier. Great little slice of New Orleans funk produced by the great Wardell Quezergue and released on King (the Cincinnati label most associated with James Brown). Words are insufficient to explain to you how much I love this song.
The Patti Drew I owe to Chairman Mao. When I interviewed him for Asia Pacific Arts, he mentioned "Stop and Listen" as an example of a great soul tune that doesn't cost and arm and a leg yet sounds like a million bucks (not his exact words but you catch the meaning). I couldn't agree more. Don't sleep on the equally excellent ballad, "Tell Him" on the same album.
I had totally forgotten about the Bobby Matos and Combo Conquistadores song, "Nadie Baila Como Yo" (nobody dances like me) off the incredible My Latin Soul album until I heard the Boogaloo Assassins play it at their shows. This may very well elevate itself to my top 10 Latin soul songs given how it changes up chord progressions and tepos not once but twice - it's like getting three songs in one; one of the marks of a superior son montuno. I can't believe I slept on this track all these years.
I found the Smokey Robinson and Miracles song during my search through Motown's catalog to find tracks to play out that wasn't part of their Big Chill/Greatest Hits collection and I never failed to be amazed at the generosity of greatness that Motown provided over the years. For those who think Smokey is all droopy ballads, "If You Can Want" is a loud, proud wake-up call of funky power. How has no one ever done a 12" edit of this?
I already wrote about the Menahan Street Band and Brotherman songs already but they're so nice, I had to list 'em twice.
Freeway's freestyle over "Let the Beat Build" goes well with my official, beginning of the summer post where I nodded at Lil Wayne's original. Free, who had one of the best albums of last year that few seemed to notice, murders over Kanye's beat here. After, uh, a million subpar "A Milli" freestyles, I was happy to hear someone pick a different track to rip.
The last song is one I should have started the summer with. Late pass. Q-Tip's had a rough, um, decade so far in terms of being able to get this music to the masses but I'm hoping "Gettin' Up" does it right for him in preparation for his Renaissance album. This is, by far, the best thing I've heard from 'Tip since this and without getting all misty-eyed for my halcyon teens and 20s, listening to Tribe, this song just f---ing sounds good in the way the best Tribe songs just sounded f---ing good. (No doubt, it helps that the sample source is also f---ng good: "You and I" by Black Ivory. Read more here.).
By the way, if I had to pick my absolute favorite song of the summer...surprisingly, it'd end up being Solange Knowles' "I Decided." Don't ask me why but this has stuck with me the entire time through without ever ceasing to be pleasurable.
And with that...I bid all you adieu until next May but hope you keep the memory of summer in your mind alive until then.[2]
"The intent of this mix was to try and capture what WE'VE all been feeling these past months: hope, struggle, and the importance of facing a challenge. It also serves as a reminder, and perhaps an introduction to what OUR candidate is all about. With that being said enjoy, register, & get involved.
History, Change, & Victory In November" -King Most
Intro/Smoked Sugar: I'm A Winner Roy Davis Jr.: People Get Ready Jackson 5: We're Almost There (DJ Spinna Remix) Erykah Badu: Solider (Sasaac Remix) Masta Ace: Beautifull Black Spade: We Need A Revolution Skull Snaps: It's A New Day Marvin Gaye & The Mizzel Brothers: We Are We Going? James Brown: Mind Power Antibals: Si Se Puede Grandmaster Flash: The Message (Next Message Blend Version) Dj Day: A Place To Go Double Exposure: Everyman For Himself Donald Byrd: Change Makes Ya Wanna Hustle Stevie Wonder: Blackman (Kay Sputnik Re-Edit) L.T.D.: Love To The World Cymande: Bra Pitbull: American War The Dynamics: Move On Up
Joe Bataan was just here in Los Angeles the last week or so (and I feel stupid for not posting up links to his performances) and we caught up twice during that time, including one meeting where he broke down the entire history behind "Rap-O, Clap-O". Fascinating stuff and I'll have to try to write that up sometime.
Anyways, the other time we met, he was asking me if I knew anything about this Common song that sampled one of his songs. Joe had gotten a check for the clearance but hadn't heard the actual use of the song yet. Not having really followed the sampling game that closely of late, I couldn't think of anything off the top so we sat down and googled it and sure enough, it was Common's "Play Your Cards Right" from last year's Smokin' Aces soundtrack. And once you hear it, it's plain as day that producer Kareem Riggins had looped up Joe's great "Under the Street Lamp" (from his Singin' Some Soul album originally). (Joe got a kick out of hearing his song sampled).
He was also gracious enough to sign a copy of his anthology that I did the liner notes for and I'm going to give this away to one lucky (and informed) reader. DETAILS AFTER THE JUMP
To be eligible, send an email to soulsides AT gmail.com with the subject line "Joe Bataan giveaway." You need to answer the following:
1) What Latin producer of Alegre fame did Joe Bataan record with prior to signing with Fania?
2) How many original albums (not including compilations or reissued content) did Joe record for Fania (this is a trick question of sorts so think it through carefully)?
3) Some of Joe's most successful songs have been covers: "Gypsy Woman, "Shaft," "The Bottle." Name the original artists behind these other Joe Bataan songs: a. "It's a Good Feeling (Riot)" b. "I'm No Stranger" c. "Make Me Smile"
4) What Ismael Miranda boogaloo mash-up/cover of "Tighten Up" does Joe Bataan make a cameo on? Name the song and album.
5) What pseudonym did Joe take on when he recorded for Bobby Marin's Dynamite label?
6) Two different songs that Joe recorded earlier in his career ended up re-released on later albums in their intact (i.e. non-rerecorded) form. One was "Ordinary Guy" - the same version appears on both Riot and Singin' Some Soul. What is the other song and which two albums did it appear on?
7) What classic from Joe's repertoire appears on his Salsoul album, but with a different name?
8) What's different about the 7" version of "Woman Don't Want to Love Me" compared to the LP version from Afrofilipino (be specific)?
9) What old school rap duo was supposed to appear on "Rap-O, Clap-O" instead of Joe rapping himself?
10) What martial art are Joe's children all masters of?
I'll select a winner at random from those with the most correct answers. Deadline: next Monday.
I also have a second (unsigned) copy of the anthology to give away, randomly, to those who buy Deep Covers 2 in the next week. (Physical CD orders only, digital downloads don't apply, sorry).
Soul Sides' Summer Songs Series has moved to its own exclusive site. I've ported over all of the past posts but for all the new, upcoming posts, I'll make a quick post here and point folks over.
RZA VS. BINK: WHO FLIPPED IT BETTER?
posted by O.W.
Gladys Knight: Try to Remember/The Way We Were From I Feel a Song (Buddah, 1974). Also on The Essential Collection.
Wu-Tang Clan: Can It Be It Was All So Simple? From Enter the Wu-Tang (Loud, 1993)
Freeway: When We Remember From Free At Last (Roc-A-Fella, 2007)
Yeah, I know it's been a minute since the last "Who Flipped It" segment. This one came to mind the other week when I was chatting about this Gladys Knight song with my wife and I thought about both the Wu and Freeway songs that use Knight's vocals so effectively. But before we get there, let me just note that it wasn't until that conversation that I realized: duh, this was the same song as Barbra Streisand's hit. Not only that but Knight manages to combine the song with lyrics from The Fantasticks, making this song an impressive proto-mash-up conceit.
Musically, RZA doesn't really much of Knight's song for "Can It Be So Simple" (look to Labi Siffre for that) but the song also wouldn't be the same without the forlorn sounding snippet of Knight ghosting into the chorus. In contrast to that kind of subtlety, Bink decides to set off a bomb in your face when he takes a different part of the song and uses it power Freeway's explosive "When They Remember" (one of my favorite songs of all 2007...the energy here is so palatable). On hypeness, I'd have to give the nod to Bink's flip.
Sorry to have been away for a while - my thanks to the Captain's Crates crew for holding it down.
I've been on award tour, starting last week at Duke University where I gave a pair of talks in conjunction with their Transcultural Humanities project. It was a great opportunity to talk about my work but the real enjoyment was spending some time, rapping with Mark Anthony Neal who brought me out there. He put me up on this stunning Max Roach/JC White Singers song but I'm still trying to track it down so that'll have to wait. CONTINUE READING...
I did catch an equally compelling exhibit at the Nasher, an impressive, first-ever retrospective of Barkely Hendricks' paintings. Hendricks has flown under the radar for decades but hopefully, this show - which will travel to the Studio Museum in Harlem and then the Santa Monica Museum of Art - will rectify that situation. His works from the '60s, in particular, are such beautiful snapshots of the time, both in terms of the cultural signifiers and the personalities that he captures in them. Here's a personal favorite, "Tuff Tony": Folks might be more familiar with this more recent painting of Fela: If you're in Durham...or New York in the fall (or Santa Monica next spring, or Philly after that), I highly recommend you see his work. Soul inspired, for real. Shout out to Trevor Schoonmaker for having the foresight and resources to put this retrospective together. Here's a video preview he helped put together for the Nasher:
After Duke, I came home for all of 12 hours then had to fly out again for the EMP Pop Conference in Seattle. I. Love. This. Conference. Which is probably something only an academic would ever say, but f--- it. I have no shame in my appreciation for the conf (as noted in the past). I'm not going to do a complete run-down but I'll say this much: the conf does much to both inspire me intellectually as well as turn me onto new music/ideas/people. Here's a quick scattering, perhaps a follow-up post later.
1) Jeffrey Govan: This bassist in the LA ska scene is also now a grad student at USC's American Ethnic Studies program. He gave on paper on the Latin influence on ska back in the 1960s (and influence that has been remarkably cataloged here. Apart from introducing me to the Skatalites' "Latin Goes Ska" (a flip on Perez Prado), I was most thankful for Govan putting all of us onto this:
Tommy McCook and the Skatalites: Sauvitt From 7" (Dodd, 1964). Also available on Tribute to Tommy.
It's a cover of a Mongo Santamaria song ("Sauvito") and the subtle intertwining of ska and Latin rhythms here are simply delicious. I love how the song opens with that piano, how the horns come in and layer themselves, and my favorite moment comes right before the two bridges with the four note horn hits - wish they had made that into an entire chorus. Great song - a new favorite.
2) Lauren Onkey: This professor at Ball State Univ. is doing fascinating research on the undersung Black rock and doo-wop bands who were part of the Mersey Beat scene in Liverpool circa the 1950s/60s. Onkey was drawn to this research given how, in most of the literature she had seen on Liverpool's music scene and the Beatles, rarely were any of the city's numerous Black bands ever acknowledged even though groups like the Fab 4 played with them and, according to some rumors, learned their R&B-styled chops from them. Onkey also makes the very provocative argument that Liverpool's historical Black population (dating back centuries to the city's prominence as the slaving port in Great Britian) is one reason why the blues fetishism that hit other British bands like the Rolling Stones or Cream bypassed Liverpool groups - they had grown up with Black people and thus, weren't as likely to romanticize/nostalgize them through the blues.
In any case, during her talk, she played this clip by the Liverpool doo-wop group, The Chants, who worked with the Beatles early on before they really became "The Beatles." Here they are, covering the jazz standard, "I Could Write a Book."
3) Gayle Wald: I last mentioned Gayle a year ago, in connection to her book on Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Gayle's now working on researching the life and times of the late Ellis Haizlip, a remarkable artistic force in New York, who, among other things, hosted the PBS show, Soul!. It's hard to quite capture how remarkable a show this was - in the late '60s through early '70s, it was an incredible meeting point of different Black artists, musicians, politicians, etc. in ways that have never really been duplicated since (no, not even by Arsenio).
The problem is that this show will likely never, ever be released to the public on DVD or any other format - the release contracts signed at the time make such a occurrence logistically impossible for all practical purposes. It's a damn shame - the clips that Gayle brought included a mind-melting interview between Haizlip and Farrakhan talking about gay sex, Ashford and Simpson performing on one of the last Soul! shows and - coincidentally enough - Max Roach w/ the JC White Singers.
Luckily (however illegally), clips have snuck out, including this 1973 performance by the Spinners on the show.
4) Last but not least, one of the other people on my panel (besides Gayle) was EMP organizer and fellow L.A. partner-in-culinary-crime Eric Weisbard who did a paper on Elton John's "Benny and the Jets" - a song that most everyone (I presume) has heard but may not remember being a big hit on not just the pop charts, but also the R&B charts. Don't believe it? Just ask Mary. Or the Diabolical:
Biz Markie: Sounds of Silence (by the Beastie Boys) (Capitol, 1999)
For real though, listening to that version isn't half as fun as watching it:
Snoop Dogg: One Chance (Make It Good) Upcoming from Ego Trippin'
Producer Frequency - who impressed a lot of heads with his beat for Snoop's "Think About It" is back working with the Doggfather again. He hit us off with this new collaboration, a song from Snoop's upcoming Ego Trippin' album. More soulful goodness - enjoy.
I promised I'd bring back some old mix-CDs once I cleared out the remaining stock. Just because it's hard to gauge interest, I only did limited stock (30 copies) on all these but after a few weeks, I'll make all four available through the digital site.
Right now, what we have left is:
Headwarmers: 19
Auditory Assault: 19
Groove Thing: 15
Adventures in Rhythm: 18
I also got free copies of Scion's Daptone Records Remixed CDs back in stock. While supplies last, any CD order from us will come with the Scion double-CD as a free bonus.
Here are the four new CDs we have available:
1) Headwarmers (O's Dub, Vol. 6)
I originally recorded this mixtape back in 1997. As you might guess, it was the sixth tape in my hip-hop mix series, and for some reason, it became the one I have gotten the most props for. DJ Shadow even has it as one of the mixtapes shown in the liner notes for Private Press.
Over the years, folks have nudged me to make more of my old tapes available on CD and while I've resisted, I decided if any single one of them was going to get "reissued," it might as well be the fan favorite.
As it is, I was given added incentive by the folks at Staple Design in NYC who had originally asked me to submit a CD of some sort for a project that eventually got iced. However, it gave me an excuse to digitize the tape - yes, this was from when mixtapes actually meant tapes and not CDs - as well as make some tweaks. Note: The CD version is a little shorter than the original. Partly it's because my tapes were always 90 minutes and I can't fit that on a typical CD. More importantly though, some songs just ran on too long to my liking on the old tape and I decided to edit the songs to make them shorter and keep the pacing brisk. All the original songs still appear though: an intriguing mix of indie and major label hip-hop that's a snapshot of the underground, circa 1996 and '97. (Cue nostalgic sigh: "ah, the good ol' days.")
I don't plan to bring back very many of my hip-hop mixtapes - there's this one, Auditory Assault (see below) and of the rest (I had 10, in all), I'd consider Vol. 8: Polyrhythmatic and Vol 9: Double Flip and leave it at that.
Speaking of which:
2) Auditory Assault (O's Dub, Vol. 9.5)
Ok...so the 9.5 thing was mostly because I had grand designs of doing a Vol. 10, Anniversary edition that'd cover ten years of hip-hop...but then grad school intervened. Then I had a kid. Then...you get the idea. In any case, this was the last hip-hop tape I ended up making - and the first one to actually be on CD. The songs on here are all drawn from circa 2000 (which now seems like an era or two ago) and even though there's a few tracks I wouldn't have included in hindsight, I do like how it comes together as a mix.
3 + 4) A Groove Thing + Adventures in Rhythm A Groove Thing wasn't technically the first soul/funk mix I put together. That'd be Soul Symphony, but this was the first real dance mix I ever assembled, back around 2002, then followed it up with Adventures in Rhythm in 2003. To be honest, I've been dying to get to a new one (I can't believe it's been five years since the last) but in going back to these two, I'm actually still pleased with how they turned out, especially in figuring out how to transition between funk, Latin and hip-hop. Song-wise, there's still stuff on here that I'd put out again though, in all honesty, some stuff I wouldn't touch again (but isn't that always the case)?
Adventures has been avail on digital download for a minute but I haven't repressed either it or A Groove Thing to CD in years and after this run, I'll likely permanently retire both to digital pastures.
TO ORDER: I've updated the Orders page. There's a discount for multiple CD orders and as noted, all orders come with a copy of the Scion/Daptone Remixed CD (while supplies last).
Jay-Z: 99 Problems (Royal Edit) From Armed Snobbery (2007)
Look...I know that it already seems like I'm on Daptone's payroll or something but frankly they're just in an amazingly productive period right now and alas, most of it is great so the more good sh-- they put out, the more likely I will be to write about it. And look at it this way: this post is Crackhouse free!
The Charles Bradley is one of the new 45s on the Dunham subsidiary (you'll recall that excellent Menahan Street Band single was another one) and this copy of the 45 was given to me at the Sharon Jones show in L.A. by the guy who wrote it. Maybe that biases my opinion but *whistle* this single is easily one the best things I've heard from the Daptone's camp yet. Just a beautiful, powerful song and personally, I like Bradley better on his ballads than doing the uptempo funk swang.
A Soul Sides reader put me up on the Anthony Hamilton - the Dap-Kings are backing him here on this cut off the American Gangster soundtrack (the Jay-Z free version, dig me?). Definitely a Memphis vibe on this one, especially infusing the song with a Hi Records flavor. I like that slow thump and Sunday organ sermonizing. (It's also a better tune than the more JB-esque Hamilton song off the soundtrack).
Ok - Jay-Z IS back on this last cut; it's a remix by the "Prince of Ballard" who runs the Armed Snobbery blog. After hearing the 50 Cent meets Sharon Jones mash-up, he sent me a few tracks in a similar fashion. You can peep the whole spread of his "Royal Edits" here. Out of the batch, I dug this and the Eazy E the best but his "99 Problems" edit is the better produced between the two: he fits Jay's verses with the Dap-Kings instrumental track impressively well. Peep how those horns drop in when Jay-Z asks for the "hit".
ICEWATER AND THE POSSE THROW IT BACK
posted by O.W.
DJ Icewater feat. Chioke and Sizwe: Throwback Vol. 1 (snippet) From Throwback Vol. 1 (2007)
Uh, ok...late pass. Apparently, this came out last April but I only got familiar recently and alas, it's not even avail through Icewater's mixtape site anymore :(
Just some quick history: I've known Icewater since the '90s, when he was interning for Solesides/Quannum in Berkeley. He's always been one of my favorite DJs and frankly, dude is just a funny, good-natured guy. He's also handled my mixtapes for several years now, both CD and digital form so I got nothing but love for all his support and help.
This Throwback mix is for the geeks and fanboys (I mean this in a good way) since it's wall-to-wall covers of rap songs. Note: hip-hop is arguably the only major American music genre in which cover songs don't exist in any meaningful way (remixes, I suggest, are a different beast and therefore, don't count) and it's not that hard to explain why (hint: authenticity claims). There are a few examples, such as that recent Beyond a Reasonable Doubt mixtape that was out there and of course, Snoop's "Lodi Dodi." Well, Throwback Vol. 1 is like that...only with a lot more songs to enjoy, spanning the classic '90s era but trying to give love to the different coasts, plus a balance between major label and smaller imprints. Chioke (The Dime) and Sizwe (Lunar Heights) may not outdo the original artists (and that's not the ambition anyway) but it is a rollicking good time hearing them flip on these classics. The four song snippet I put together includes my favorite span on the tape, beginning with Group Home's "Supastar" (note: Malachi's verses were vastly improved upon), then into Ed O.G.'s "I Gotta Have It," and back to Cali with Erule's "Listen Up" and ending with a most welcome surprise: a cover of the Nonce's "Who Falls Apart?" I'm getting all misty for '98 now...
Aaron Neville: She Took You For a Ride From Tell It Like It Is (Par-lo, 1966)
Quantic Soul Orchestra: Tropidelico From Tropidelico (Tru Thoughts, 2007)
The B.U.M.S.: West Coast Smack From Lyfe N' Tyme (1995)
DJ Shadow: Best of the KMEL Mixes Part 1 (snippet) From The 4-Track Era (DJ Shadow, 2007)
Crystal Mansion: And It Will Take Your Breath Away From S/T (Rare Earth, 1972)
It's been a while since I've done one of these GM posts but I was recently in the Bay Area on a short holiday/family trip and, of course, had to make my pilgrimage. As I've written before, the joy in going there is simply the vastness of music I can get acquainted with. Especially in L.A., where the geography isn't conducive to a similar arrangement, I miss having someplace to just kick back and chew the fat about records. That is, of course, partially why I do this blog.
This time around, I was hanging around when DJ B.Cause slipped on the Aaron Neville LP. You wouldn't think this album would be such a pricey piece - "Tell It Like It Is" is one of Neville's biggest hits ever, but the original album is quite the collector's item but luckily, the excellence of the music helped defray the sticker shock. "She Took You For a Ride" is a magnificent track, with a different soulful feel from "Tell It Like It Is," especially with the background vocals. I was initially struck by that element since I don't normally associate it with Neville but it gives this song an added dynamic in this case.
Joining me at the GM was my man Beto, who I last wrote about in July. This was the first time the two of us actually got to sit down and build for a minute...I was bouncing a ton of Latin music (especially boogaloo-related) questions off me and it is downright scary how much knowledge he's been soaking up for his research on the music scene in the Afro-Antilles. I'm going to say this now: when his book comes out, it has the potential to be a major game-changer. Remember the name: Roberto Gyemant.
In any case, while we were hanging, he hit me off with the new QSO CD - something I had been meaning to check out but still hadn't gotten around to yet. It's a great concept: Will Holland (Mr. Quantic himself) decided to record a series of songs inspired by music of the Latin American tropics, basically covering ground throughout the Greater Caribbean Basin; he recorded on location in Panama City, for example.
Beto helped turn Will Holland onto some of the artists that he works with on the Tropidelico CD, including (I presume) the incredible Peruvian pianist Alfredo Linares (I have an upcoming post about Linares and other Peruvian Latin players). That's Linares you hear at the beginning of "Tropidelico"; he has such a distinct touch on the piano with his chords and tempos. I love that Linares was killing it back in the '60s and is still holding it down in the '00s. (Rappers should be so lucky).
Speaking of which, I quietly threw on the B.U.M.S. album at the store, just for kicks, and took the assemblage on a reminisce trip back to the mid-'90s Bay Area hip-hop scene. The B.U.M.S. always makes me nostalgic, partially because I've always wondered why the didn't do better than they did, partially because the album itself was produced by one of my favorite, slept-on producers from that era, Joe Quixxx. B.Cause mentioned he'd actually been giving "West Coast Smack" some spin at his gigs and though my fave cut remains the title cut, it was worth giving some shine to one of the other tracks, especially with this CD long, long out of print.
Sticking to the Bay Area hip-hop tip, the GM had a copy of DJ Shadow's 4-Track Era CD for sale and I scooped that with a quickness. I actually had some of this on an ancient dub tape I got from the old Solesides crew but it's great that it's been compiled onto CD. The back story is this: Shadow first came to prominence on the strength of these crazy mega-mixes he did for KMEL back in the early '90s (this is back when KMEL was arguably the greatest hip-hop station on FM, west of the Hudson). You young'uns, raised on Pro Tools off your Mac Books, probably can't even remember the era of Tascam 4-Tracks and what not but sheeyit, I grew up on listening to radio DJs create these insane, multi-layered mixes off them and created most of my early mixtapes (back when they were actually tapes) off analog 4-tracks myself ('tis true: check for Head Warmers on the Private Press inset), following their inspiration. To make a long story short: even in 2007, these kind of mixes are incredible to listen to, without even factoring in the technological acumen that it would have required (f--- a mash-up, back then, we called 'em "remixes"). Damn, how old do I sound right now? I need to get out of this "back in the day" mode! Too late.
For real though, I'm still trying to figure out how he remixed that De La song at the end...was there an acapella to "Afro Connections" I didn't know about?
I'm ending with a song I've been meaning to blog about for, oh, at least a few years now but just never got around to it: "And It Will Take Your Breath Away" by Crystal Mansion. I copped this from the GM years ago and I still don't know a ton about them, apart from the fact they were a blue-eyed funk group, in the vein of Rare Earth, who never hit it crazy big but managed to stick together for about half a decade. I've always loved, loved, loved how this song opens, especially with those soulful piano melodies and then the drum drops. If this sounds familiar to anyone, there's a reason why.
The Three Souls: Herby's Tune From 7" (All-Indy, 196?)
Donny Hathaway: Lord Help Me From 7" (ATCO, 1972) Also on Extension of a Man.
UGK: One Day From Ridin' Dirty (Jive, 199) Here's an irony for you: I switched to audioblogging after doing 10 years of radio because, frankly, I found radio a bit exhausting. But nowadays, with teaching and family, blogging (at times mind you, only at times) feels like the burden. So instead of doing a few mini-posts, I'm back to cooking up mini-sets. I'd appreciate any feedback people have, namely over whether or not these 20+ minute mixes are more to their liking than single-song files. Personally, I like it better since I think music should be listened to in a sequence rather than bits of free-floating atomic units (I'm old school like that).
Anyway - here's the latest mega-post.
I have to thank Soul Sides reader, Ronnie Reese, who put me up on my current heavy-rotation player - "So Good Today" by the UK's Ben Westbeech. I'm a little surprised I didn't catch wind of this sooner, only because Westbeech is signed to Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label and I tend to follow Peterson's music. In any case, Reese was trying to put me up on the Dap-Kings mix of the song but I have to say: I rather prefer the original version. Sure, it's sugary sweet and probably only a touch less hippy-happy than, say, "Young Folks ," but to me, this is the perfect "start-your-day" song. Much better than waking up to that "ENH! ENH! ENH! ENH!" of the typical clock-radio. Dig the video too.
The Candi Staton is very, very overdue. I should have blogged about this a couple years ago, when Astralwerks put out that amazing Candi Staton: The Early Years anthology, featuring some of her best songs with Rick Hall's famous Fame studio in Muscle Shoals. I was reminded of this, pulling out songs for that recent Sharon Jones gig, and reminded about how insanely awesome "I'm Just a Prisoner" is. Seriously, it's G.O.A.T. status and I don't mean Capra aegagrus hircus. You gotta love how the song builds in intensity; it's not far past 3 minutes yet it sounds absolutely epic.
I follow that with one of the best reissues I've heard in a while; a cover of Al Green's "I'm So Glad You're Mine" done by the great Timothy McNealy, and re-released by our valued colleagues over at Truth and South in Brooklyn. This one is mega-mega rare, originally appearing on Shawn and what I appreciate about it is how McNealy strips down an already stripped-down song...it's lo-fi but in this affecting, acoustic, intimate way. I only hooked up a snippet: cop the entire thing (hopefully, T&S will get a digital sales system set up soon).
The Hank Ballard side comes from a stack of 45s my man Justin Torres broke me off with a few years back but I had misfiled a bunch of them and only recently rediscovered them. This was part of a batch of James Brown-produced singles and the deeper I get with that catalog, the more impressed you get at just how many songs from the '60s, including a song like this Ballard cut, managed to carry that signature JB sound without having to smash you ever the head with it, ala "Think" or "More Peas" (so we're clear: I like being smashed in the head by JB-production). Sweet funk like this makes my day.
Back to Truth and Soul, just wanted to hit ya'll with a quick blast of Latin funk from their Bronx River Parkway recordings (I believe a full-length is imminent). As usual, a solid dancefloor cooker that's a good transition song for the Latin newcomers but doesn't dumb it down for the real heads either.
The Three Souls jazz tune is off another 45 I re-discovered from Torres' batch. This is an interesting single out of Indianapolis, given that the A-side, recorded with a vocalist named Aretta is a soul cut whereas this, the flipside, is obviously a straight-ahead jazz track and my, my, my...what a nice one at that. Much as I appreciate the soul jazz era of the late '60s/early '70s, it's "soulful" straight-ahead jazz like this which I never get tired of listening to. If anyone else has recommendations for albums in a similar sounding vein, let me know.
The Donny Hathaway is something I originally posted back in February and I was under the mistaken impression that it had been a previously unreleased cut, put onto the Extension of a Man CD. As it turns out, it had come out...but only on 45. Given that I just reacquired the single, I wanted to put it up again especially since it is, hands-down, one of my favorite Hathaway songs (which is saying a lot). So sublime and socially conscious to boot.
Lastly, I end with a song that was suggested to me by Soul Sides reader Laughlin Siceloff as part as a two-song, Pimp C dedication. I thought it'd actually work nicely as a coda here, in the memory of a rapper who passed far, far before his time. R.I.P.
CUT CHEMIST VS. CUT CHEMIST: WHICH FLIP IS BETTER?
posted by O.W.
Pleasure Web: Music Man Pts. 1 and 2 From 7" (Eastbound, 1973). Also on Super Breaks 3
Jurassic 5: Jayou From Jurassic 5 EP (Interscope, 1997)
Jurassic 5: Concrete and Clay From Quality Control (Interscope, 2000)
Similar to the last "Which flip is better?" post, this one features a single producer who has used the same sample source twice for two different songs.
The source here is one of the more obscure 45s on Eastbound: "Music Man Pt. 1 and 2" by Pleasure Web. Personally, I couldn't find much on the artist at all; if anyone knows some details, illuminate the rest of us.
Cut first used "Part 2" of the song for "Jayou," arguably the most distinctive cut off the first Jurassic 5 EP from '97. Then, he revisited the same 7" and flipped "Part 1" for "Concrete and Clay" which first appeared on the "Improvise" EP of 1999 (and was later released on the full-length Quality Control album). Personally, I was always more partial to "Concrete and Clay" myself though "Jayou" had more buzz going. It's hard to choose b/t the different parts of "Music Man" though given that they're practically two different songs. My inclination is to go with Part 1 simply b/c I like it with lyrics better but it's hard to front on the flute flavor of its sibling.
A Soul Sider (Andrew G.) sent this in: a remix of 50 Cent's "I Get Money" using a Sharon Jones and Dap-Kings song. Heck, if Jay-Z can flip about the "Roc Boys" over the Menahan Street Band, why not this? Reminds me of that Clipse/Lee Fields blend from last year.
This isn't the most elegant way to go about things but with the end-of-the-semester crunch in full e.f.f.e.c.t., a mondo-posting, written while I'm vegging to college football, is about as good as things are going to get right now. Besides, these days, a playlist like what you see above is par for the course. Genres? Bah, where we're going, we don't need genres.
To start with...
I went to go see the new Todd Haynes film, "inspired" by Bob Dylan, I'm Not There and one of the musical moments that lingered most with me came during the Richard Gere/Billy the Kid thread, where Jim James and Calexico eerily performed Dylan's "Goin' To Acapulco" (from the Basement Tapes originally) as part of a funeral. Covering Dylan is not an easy task; in most cases, it's really not worth trying (see the rest of the I'm Not There soundtrack for other examples) but I thought James does a fine job here putting his own spin on a tune most folks (save hardcore Dylan-ites) probably don't even associate with Dylan. Think of it as a more erudite "Margaritaville."
Speaking of covers...my friend Hua recently hit me with this cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," sung by the late Gram Parsons when he was with the Flying Burrito Bros (one of the worst names in rock, evah). Parsons, to me, just nails this. It's a cover but it sounds like it should be the original given that Parsons' heroined-out voice and affect makes the song even more melancholy. I wonder if Mick heard this and thought, "damn, I just got sonned."
Just to switch up gears really abruptly, now we get to Cam'ron. His new double-CD mixtape is a bounty for any Cam fan, especially since it's been a minute since he's had an album out. His signature rhyme scheme has become even more playful and intricate of late though I picked this song more b/c I'm down to listen to any rap song that loops Journey (Steve Perry, represent). I wonder if anyone could actually get this cleared in real life...
The Cyril Neville is a song I've been playing out more of late. Neville's backed by The Meters (he was a member, of course) and this appears on the B-side of his first solo single, "Gossip." Personally, I'd put it up there with the best of any Meters-related song I've ever heard. The band is on fire in backing Cyril and along with Neville's vocals, they lend the song a marvelous energy.
No less energetic is Freeway. I admit...I wasn't always into him given his voice but with time, I've really appreciated the intensity he brings. The new album, Free At Last is incredibly good. It's definitely one of the best rap albums I've heard in a long time; Free may complain that Just Blaze didn't "chirp back" but you'd hardly miss the Megatron Don here given that much of the production is already indebted to his style. It's hard to pick any one song off this album; the whole thing is so good and I was tempted to go with "Roc-A-Fella Billionaires) but in the end, "When They Remember" comes out ahead for sheer power. The song is so loud and grand, it's cinematic.
The Kanye remix comes off The Graduate mix-CD, put together by Mick Boogie and Terry Urban. The original was on College Dropout and I was never that crazy about the O.G., production-wise, but I really like what 9th Wonder does here (I'm sure it has something to do with its nod to Primo's remix of Show and AG's "Next Level"Das Efx's "Real Hip Hop"); it strips the sound down and gives the verses an added poignancy by being so sparse.
Laslty, I recently went to go see Queen Latifah in concert at Royce Hall and she has her own version of Snow's classic "Poetry Man" on her new Trav'lin' Light CD. Much as I'd like to back Latifah here...her voice just can't quite cut it and ultimately, though a loyal cover, it's not as satisfying as enjoying Snow's original (Zap Mama has a decent cover of it too). "Poetry Man" has a distinct Joni Mitchell quality to it (which might be why I like it so much) and it's one of those songs that go down so easy on a weekend afternoon.
Lord Shafiyq: My Mic Is On Fire From 12" (NUWR, 1987)
Main Source: Live At the BBQ From Breaking Atoms (Wild Pitch, 1991)
Ghostface Killah: Daytona 500 From Ironman (Epic, 1996)
I had the idea for this post for quite a bit, ever since I remembered reading an interview with Bob James where he was asked what he thought about different samplings of his music. RZA's flip on "Nautlius" for "Daytona 500" drew high praise, especially because RZA transposed the sample into a different key, giving it a more sinister edge. However, RZA was the latest in line of hip-hop producers to play off "Nautilus," arguably the most popular of James' CTI-era compositions, though not the most recognizable.
I realize the three songs I picked were merely a handful out of dozens of possibilities but "Live at the BBQ" seemed like a good contrast, especially because the way Large Professor worked with "Nautilus" isn't as obvious as other uses. On the other hand, I went with Lord Shafiyq's random rap classic, "My Mic Is On Fire," because it was one of the early rap tunes to use "Nautilus" so prominently, and using one of the more striking passages at that.
I can't say I love the new Jay-Z album but whatever my reservations of American Gangster, I still think Jay's one of the greatest rappers out there (yeah, he'd make my "fave 5"). At the very least, AG is an improvement over Kingdom Come but that's not really saying much. I suspect that many of the songs on AG will age well but foresight's never been my strong point (my hindsight is exceptional however).
A few songs did strike me right off the bat however, namely the two above. "Roc Boys" is the closest thing on this album to a bonafide anthem - great hook, great horns - and it's one the least self-serious songs on the album, which I think is a plus. I admit - I'm surprised Diddy has his name on this as the producer (though it might very well be that Sean C or LV had more to do with it). Regardless, props on finding and using the Menahan Street Band's excellent new 7", "Make the Road By Walking" on this one (read: I hope the MSB folks get paid off this), which is one of my favorite Daptones-related songs, well, ever. I know people without turntables are rather s.o.l. but the 7" is otherwise worth copping (the b-side is equally nice). (And really, if Soul-Sides.com readers don't have a turntable yet, get thee one.
Back to Jay: "Success" is a touch more ponderous but I still love the verses I quoted for my LA Times review - super-swaggery but still clever - which is how I like Jay best. I didn't think this was Nas' finest moment but I still get a kick out of hearing those two on the same track. I'm old school like that.
No ID comes back from the milkbox to absolutely kill this track, flipping the opening organ screams from Larry Ellis' ridiculously scarce "Funky Thing." Personally, I don't necessarily like the rest of the song but Ellis' opening is a monster, especially with the reverbed drums.
A Tribe Called Quest: Rock Rock Ya'll From The Love Movement (Jive, 1998)
First of all, apologies for being MIA for a minute; it's been a long few weeks, work-wise. I've got some boogaloo-themed pieces in the works (look for the first of those to roll out in a month or so), plus two sets of liner notes involving some very interesting projects focused on one of the artists included above (hint: not a rapper), and some otherassorted things that have been keeping me busy. Once I get over the next week or so, I should be back to slightly more frequent posts. Consider this another place holder (albeit, one with actual songs).
In any case, I know I've already done a challenge feat. both artists before but I couldn't pass it up given the Charles Wright/Watts 103rd connection. The original song is off the last Watts 103rd album before the group disbanded and it's also one of the handful of their songs sung by drummer James Gadson instead of Wright himself. Great guitar line and horn reply, right?
The man, Marley Marl, was one of the first to work with that loop for one of Craig G's unsung masterpieces - "Take the Bait" - which, if I may add, very nicely incorporates Gadson's falsetto. I'm actually rather surprised that no one seemed to have picked up on it until ATCQ used the same loop (albeit slightly differently) for the posse cut off of The Love Movement.
I wrote about the Humphrey song before, about two years back, and had this to say: "My favorite Mizell's related track though is Bobbi Humphrey's sublimely mellow "Blacks and Blues" - I love how it foregrounds Jerry Peters' beautiful piano work at the front end and Humphrey's flute floats in with a nice subtlety as does Fonce Mizell's clavinet. It's a great arrangement - memorable from jump and a song you can come back to a dozen times over and never tire of." (Note: I still feel the same way).
Of course, back in the early '90s, I didn't know much about the Mizell Bros or Bobbi Humphrey. I did know something about KMD and their sequel to "Peachfuzz." Right from jump, the beat for "Plumskinzz" caught my ear and that's no small reason why I continue to be charmed by Humphrey.
I wasn't alone - "Blacks and Blues" shows up a few other places but if you're going to go head to head with KMD, who better than Rakim Allah himself? I'm not sure how actually produced this cut (real heads know what I'm talking about) but I like how they included a vocal interpolation to go along with the original sample. The whole cut has a nice smoothness that complements Rakim's honeyed baritone well.
About time we got these two producers in the mix...and with an intriguing contrast of a shared sample. The Labi Siffre track has been used multiple times but most tend to flip the front part of the song - that dramatic portion that Ski uses for Jay-Z's beat. It's easy to see what the attraction to that would be. But it was Dr. Dre, coming up with Eminem's first break-out single, who really put the highlight onto the bridge instead.
Personally, the real winner here has always been Siffre's song. Apart from the fact that I love how an openly gay Black British singer would supply a track that'd be the backbone for rap artists not exactly known for their queer-friendly attitudes, "I Got The" is an incredible song in terms of how it builds, shifts and unwinds. Right around 3:25 is my favorite portion, right in the middle of that bridge that Dre uses. Simple sublime.
Pete Rock vs. Kanye West: Who Flipped It Better
posted by O.W.
Don Covay and the Jefferson Lemon Blues Band: If There's a Will, There's a Way From Different Strokes for Different Folks (Janus, 1970). Also on Funky Yo Yo.
Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth: Lots of Lovin' (remix) From 12" (Elektra, 1993)
When I first heard the "Southside" during a listening session, my automatic thought was, "ah, 'Ye is flipping that old Pete Rock beat." Well...not exactly - there are some similarities, especially in how both songs use the same guitar/piano loop but while Pete Rock sticks with that sample, West uses more of Covay's guitar to give "Southside" a harder edge. Gives the song a nice touch of difference and should make debating these two tracks more interesting.
Speaking of Covay, this Different Strokes album follows his Country Funk album and that's an apt way to describe a lot of his tunes. It's not "funk" in the conventional James Brown sense of it but Covay's songs in this era managed to blend together country, blues and hard Southern soul together in a raucous little package.
"If There's a Will" gets love given its sampling but frankly, I've always been a bigger fan of a different song off the same album: "Standing on the Grits Line." Covay's not from NOLA but this song has a distinctive Mardi Gras piano touch to it if you ask me. Recommended!
Primo vs... Primo?: Which Flip Is Better?
posted by O.W.
Caesar Frazier: Funk It Up From 75 (Eastbound, 1975)
Gang Starr: Ex Girl to the Next Girl From Daily Operation (Chrysalis, 1992)
Gang Starr: Speak Ya Clout From Hard to Earn (Chrysalis, 1994)
I thought it'd be fun, for a change of pace, to pit a producer against himself. In this case, DJ Premier sampled two different portions from the same original source: "Funk It Up" from Caesar Frazier's other Eastbound album, 75. (I put this up a little over 2 years ago. Fans of this series will get a kick out of the first line of that old post. Looks like I've backed off my own policy, at least for the time being).
Personally, I like that a producer would go back to a once-used source and find a new way to flip it (better than Marley putting out both "Ain't No Half Steppin" then "Pink Cookies in a Plastic Bag"...one of the stranger re-uses I've heard). There's a rather obvious Dilla example of this too which I might throw up at some point.
What's so striking in this case though is how utterly different the two uses sound which reflects the differences in the portions of Frazier's original. It's unexpected that a single source would yield such contrasting sonic styles.
People Under the Stairs vs. Marco Polo: Who Flipped It Better?
posted by O.W.
Duralcha: Ghet-to Funk From 7" (Microtronics, 1974). Also on Funk Spectrum 2.
People Under the Stairs: The Dig From O.S.T. (Om, 2002)
Marco Polo feat. Large Professor: The Radar Remix From 12" (Fat Beats, 2007)
I've avoided using drum breaks as a point of comparison but I thought, given the distinctiveness of the Duralcha break and its prominence in both these songs (one being brand spankin' new), it'd be worth throwing them up for public chatter. I'm fairly certain Thes One was the first dude to put the "Ghet-to Funk" drums on a record and this was in the last 5 years so it's cool to see that the art of break diggin' (which, of course, is what "The Dig" is all about) isn't a lost one, especially with Marco Polo coming with that same distinctive breakdown in 2007. All I know is that b/t the two songs, I'm fiending for that Duralcha 45 (North Carolina funk at its finest).
The Beatnuts: Fluid From white label 12" (?, 1997?)
For this latest installment, I'm rolling with 1) one of my favorite Cal Tjader songs, 2) one of my favorite O.C. songs, 3) one of my favorite Buckwild productions and 4) one of my favorite Beatnuts' productions/songs. And as fate would have it: it's all based around the same song...
Cal Tjader first recorded (I believe) "Morning" for his Soul Burst album but he re-recorded a different version, this one with a vocal chorus accompaniment, for Agua Dulce, a surprisingly difficult title of his to find despite being on Fantasy. Both versions are nice...just sublimely mellow, but I've always been more partial to the Agua Dulce version just for the vocal touch.
Apparently, Buckwild liked it a lot too since he looped this up for "What I Represent," a stand-out, yet slept-on, song from the American Is Dying Slowly soundtrack. This was back when O.C. was still like the Promised One for a lot of cats and between his lyrical content, the beat and that chorus built off Ike White and Q-Tip, the whole song was something lovely, lovely, lovely.
About a year after that, this white label of supposedly unreleased Street Level-era songs surfaced. I've heard, from some corners, that there was an official Relativity test-pressing that had three of these songs, including "Fluid" on it that came out around 1995 but I've yet to see anyone confirm its actual existence. That said, "Fluid" definitely sounds like it could have been on Street Level and it takes the "Morning" loop and juices it up more uptempo (note: I'm pretty sure the version of "Morning" here is from Soul Burst). A different style and sound from Buckwild's approach.
Notorious B.I.G.: One More Chances (Hip Hop Remix) From "One More Chance" 12" (Bad Boy, 1995)
I still remember the first time I heard the "Hip Hop Remix" of "One More Chance" and my thought process went something like this, "goddamn, this is hot...but kind of familiar...why is that?" Back in '95, Puffy hadn't quite become the beat-jackin' villain that people accused him of by the late '90s but there were more than a few heads being scratched given that BOTH remixes of "One More Chance" were using beats that had already been put out.
The more obvious comparison was the "One More Chance/Stay With Me" remix since it used the exact same DeBarge loop that Big L had just put out a few months earlier on "MVP" (production by Lord Finesse) though Biggie had a far, far bigger hit with the track than Big L ever saw. In the case of the "Hip Hop Remix," it had been a good seven years since Craig G had lit up the same track on "Droppin' Science" (arguably one of his greatest moments in a career that never caught fire like it possibly could have).
I should also add that this whole era was like one long Donaldson-love fest for producers. In general, the Blue Note late '60s/early '70s era was being torn through but Donaldson was practically the undisputed go-to artist for loops and breaks. Good times, good times.
And before I get comments full of "and [insert artist/producer here] used this same loop too!"...yeah dudes, we know. I was tempted to include both "Hot Sex" and the "Kaught in the Ak" remix but opted out mostly because 1) I've already featured Primo and ATCQ (though I'll inevitably end up bringing them back and 2) I always liked the idea of a Craig G vs. Biggie head-to-head.
First of all, I'm glad folks are feeling this new series. It's funny - I'm assuming most folks have heard most of these songs already, thus making downloads irrelevant. Meanwhile, posts featuring actually songs folks are less likely to have are getting nary a comment. I'm not complaining mind you - I just think it's funny.
Anyways, I remember Diamond telling me how he decided to tackle this same sample on his album even though Lyte had just dropped it a few years prior...keep in mind, this was at a time where someone like Diamond probably was going to be very careful about what samples he was using and trying not to look like he's biting (diggin' in the crates and all that, y'know) so he must really have thought he could do something different with his flip. Does it really improve on what Puba did for Lyte?
I'll leave up to the peanut gallery to argue. I will say this - and no disrespect to Diamond at all - but Lyte just rips this track. Lyrically, advantage: Ms. Moorer. Also, in general, I think it's worth noting that if you don't own a copy of Eyes On This, you don't like hip-hop. Yeah, I went there. Deal.
I'm sure this is just sheer coincidence (or...is it?!) but in both these cases, The Beatnuts and Q-Tip both sampled the same songs...but used different parts of them to craft their beats. With the use of "Love and Happiness" (a lovely cover by the way), one could propose that the Beatnuts, not wanting to use the same part of the song that Q-TIp did for Apache's song from two years earlier, settled on a different portion of it.
With "One Love" vs. "Ya Don't Stop" though, they came out so close to one another, it could just be blind chance that they picked the same song but different sections. Whichever the case though, it does make measuring them against one another more intriguing. Gilles Peterson giveaway update: The correct answers were 1) Darondo's "Didn't I" on Music City and 2) Lonnie Hewitt on Wee. East Bay, represent! Winners: Allen T., Adam D, and Talbot Y. Congrats!
M.O.P. vs. Scarface: Who Flipped It Better?
posted by O.W.
Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway: Be Real Black For Me From S/T (Atlantic, 1972)
M.O.P.: World Famous From Firing Squad (Relativity, 1996)
Scarface: On My Block From The Fix (Def Jam, 2002)
Like our last face-off, what's striking here is that the beats are, for all expressed purposes, identical. You might be able to quibble with the engineering differences but really, this comes down to which MC sounds better over this beautiful little loop from Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway's anthem of self-love and pride.
I'll say this much: if it was a video showdown, advantage: 'Face.
The Roots: Silent Treatment (Beatminerz Remix) From "Silent Treatment" 12" (Geffen, 1995)
I've had this idea for a long time but had forgotten about it until I had cause to listen to Gang Starr's Step Into the Arena the other day. I had always remembered "Say Your Prayers" back in the day mostly because I loved the sample but it was also a short song and left me wanting more. I was pleasantly surprised a few years later when the Beatminerz remixed "Silent Treatment" by The Roots and used the same loop: the moody, mellow "Wilford's Gone" by the Blackbyrds.
Normally, in these situations, I felt like the nod goes to the originator but that rule of thumb has so many exceptions to it (see the uses of "Hydra" by Grover Washington or "Nautilus" by Bob James for excellent examples of how later uses improved upon earlier attempts) that it deserved a re-evaluation. So here you go: part one in a series of side by side comparisons, beginning with a heavyweight face-off between Primo and Mr. Walt/Evil Dee.
6th Sense: Frenzy (prod. by Frequency) From It's Coming Soon (forthcoming, Rawkus, 2007)
Another hit and run post (but at least you can download it, ha!). Frequency, producer behind Snoop's "Think About It," hit me with a taste of the new album he produced by the Bronx's 6th Sense. The album should be dropping on Rawkus in the next few weeks and while I'm still marinating on the CD as a whole, I'm loving this track, "Frenzy."
Here's another one of the better songs off the album:
Soul Sides' hall of famer Hua Hsu just wrote about the album and its enigmatic back story, ending up with a piece that appears on the front page of the NY Times' art section (above the fold, thank you very much). Peep:
Kanye West + M.I.A.: New and New-ish
posted by O.W.
Kanye West: Good Life + Big Brother (snippets) From Graduation (G.O.O.D./Def Jam, 2007)
M.I.A. feat. Afrikan Boy: Hussel (snippet) + Paper Planes From Kala (Interscope, 2007)
Bonus: M.I.A. feat. Akon: Boyz Remix
True tales: back in the days, when I was a teenager, before I had status and before I had a pageriPhone, you could find the O-Dub listening to hip-hop...by waiting for albums to actually make their release date. (Leopold's in Berkeley, what up?!) Then, later, when I was writing professionally, I could hope to see an advance a few weeks or months before the album was supposed to drop.
These days, I just wait for stuff to hit the 'Net. Is this an evolution or devolution?
Either way, I recently reviewed M.I.A.'s album for NPR's All Things Considered and I never tried to bother Interscope for a copy since it had already leaked onto the Internet weeks before. I didn't learn this on my own...I found out because my editor hepped me to it. The game done changed.
I raise this for no particular reason except to say that it's funny that this post, far from being ahead of the curve, is more like me playing catch-up. Kanye's CD just leaked yesterday but I guarantee that by the day it actually is supposed to drop (9/11), for a segment of the population, it will feel old hat. I don't mind being slow on the draw but it's just a bizarre phenom to witness considering how things used to be. Yeah, I sound old.
So yeah...Kanye. Look, I don't care who wins the whole "50 vs. Kanye" showdown. It's such a lame beef to have...like Ali and Frazier arguing over who had more endorsement deals. Rappers bragging about their Soundscan numbers? Straight chump. Toy status.
What I do care about is whether either man can put out a half-assed good album. The 50 is still waiting in my in-boxdownload queue but I have been listening to the new Kanye album and here's the very short review: kind of "eh." I might upgrade that to a, "better than I initially thought" later though it could just as easily go towards, "mad mediocre." If nothing else, Graduation feels half-baked and lightweight and that's a marked surprise coming after what I thought were two surprisingly ambitious albums. Ye's never going to make my top 10 list of MCs, but his previous track record has shown reserves of wit and passion that you wouldn't always assume from his public persona (or awkward Entourage cameos).
Speaking of which, I first heard "Good Life" at the end of last Sunday's episode (Sidney Pollack > Kanye as far as surprise guests go) and what instantly caught me was the "P.Y.T." loop. I'm not saying Michael Jackson is deserving of redemption but I'm not going to front: "P.Y.T." was the joint and easily one of my favorite songs off of Thriller. The problem with this song isn't that it's so pop-friendly; I'm not mad at that at all. I like some sugary sweets sometime (even if T-Pain's auto-voco-tuned vocals are far more saccharin than sucarat). But though Ye's lyrics have never been brain-meltingly dense, "Good Life" is decidedly more inane than even one's low expectations might anticipate. That goes for practically every song on the album, with the possible exception of "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (which isn't a tour de force but has more edge to it) and the bizarre car wreck of "Big Brother."
Maybe it's fitting that the song is all about Kanye's relationship with Jay Z since Jay elevated the whole confessional rap schtick to heretofore unseen levels of navel-gazing but "Big Brother" is more than a little uncomfortable to listen to. It's like sneaking a peak into someone's diary and instantly regretting it because it's TMI. The song isn't intrinsically great on its own - I read someone comparing the track to something you'd hear at the end of a Japanese video game and that's pretty dead on with those corny synths - but there's something fascinating about Kanye's baring-all love letter/passive aggressive slap at Jay. Dude is making Eminem look like an impassive statue in comparison and as a listener, it's hard to tear yourself away even when you feel like you really should. You think Jay is listening to this somewhere, sunning himself next to Beyonce, wondering, "man, Ye caught some feelings. I might have to hug it out with him."?
Back to M.I.A.: I know it may seem like I'm clowning her in my review but my point with Kala (as with Arular) is that, as an artist, I think she's brilliantly creative and compelling. As a demagogue - whether she means to be one or not - I can't take her sloganeering very seriously. I don't, per se, disagree with her politics in the abstract, but I find the ways she works in these signifiers of revolution to be a bit cloying. Gunshots work as a sonic effect but as a gesture towards...what? Freedom fighting? Viva la resistance? Most popular culture isn't capable of sustaining a dialogue about something as complex as violence and global struggle, let alone electronic dance music. I'm only saying.
But that said - cotdamn, I love the sound of this album, especially on a cut as propulsive and infectious as "Paper Planes" (yes, the very song whose chorus I highlight in my review). I find it sonically irresistible, so much so that, if I actually did have guns, I might consider putting them out with my hands up.
Likewise, "Hussel" features one of the best single minutes on the entire album, during the cameo of Afrikan Boy, both because that synth chord that drops in the middle of his intro is on some THX Deep Note immensity plus Afrika Boy's clipped verses have an intriguing vocal quality to them that constasts with the shrillness of M.I.A.'s own voice.
I also threw on the new remix of "Boyz" feat. Akon. What, T-Pain wasn't available?
This compilation from the Stonesthrow reissue subsidiary, Now-Again, snuck out there in mid-July and has stayed on the low which is a shame since it's actually a great way to make available a bunch of different songs that really haven't been on a single CD or LP before.*The history behind the album is this: one of the advantages of having Stonesthrow and Now-Again as sibling labels is that they're able to integrate projects across their respective genre lines. This has often taken the form of remixes of Now-Again funk/soul selections by the likes of Cut Chemist, Koushik, J-Rocc, etc. plus MC cameos from folks like Oh No, M.E.D., Percee P and other Stonesthrow affiliated rappers.Re:Sounds compiles together a dozen or so of these past remix projects plus adds another seven, previously unreleased. (You can see the full playlist here).
The "Cold Beats" remix by Koushik, featuring the rhyme inspector Percee P, was previously released on a 12", takes a variety of different loops and breaks off the Cold Heat comp and mashes them together into a thick-knuckled beat for Percee P to bring his signature fast rap over. Let the homicide continue.
The next two songs are taken from "Blind Man" by L.A. Carnival, one of the early 12"s on Now-Again and one of the best "rescued" songs I've heard in years. Aloe Blacc, on "Blind World," an unreleased cut, unleashes his own verbose lyricism onto a track built off elements of the original cut, his voice and that of the Carnival's vocalist contrasting against one another.
The next cut represents two of my favorite releases on Now-Again - the Cut Chemist remix of "Blind Man" which I edited together with the former white label remix by Cut feat. M.E.D. That original 12" remix of "Blind Man" by Cut is one of the greatest edits I've ever heard of a soul/funk song, especially because it flows together so organically, the remix (really, an edit), to me, is superior to the original song but it never sounds like "a remix." If you compare the two (check the original here), Cut's edit takes all the best elements and reconstructs the song and creates a new interpretation of it that is sheer brilliance. Then, with the M.E.D. remix (a remix of a remix!), the song takes on a whole new form as a hip-hop beat with the artist formerly known as Medaphor just killing sh-- on top. H y p e.
A friend hit me on IM and said, "hey, what have you heard of this Top Shelf album?" I had no idea what he was talking about so he sent me here. The short story is that, supposedly, this compilation is made up of recordings lost back in 1988 when Top Shelf Studios in New York were looted. 19 years later and some of the tapes were found and voila.
If this story seems to push the edge of credulity, it's probably because it does (to me at least) sound rather implausible for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that for such a "Holy Grail" set of recordings, what is it doing on a super-limited distribution CD from Japan? Moreover, you'd think someone, at some point, would have shared, "oh yeah, there's all these lost tapes of hip-hop giants missing from '88."
The thing is though - the recordings themselves both lend credence to this back story's validity as well as undermine it because, in some cases, the songs really do sound like they could be vintage but in many cases, they also don't sound anything like what hip-hop in '88 would have been like, especially in the production department.
On the side of, "hey, maybe this is real," there's the Craig G (mis-typed on the album as Graig G) and "Catch a Lyrical Beatdown" which is a f r e s h cut in any era. Of course, his reference of Die Hard (which came out in 1988) seems juuuuuust a little too convenient but the flow and voice sounds right for the late '80s/early '90s and the beat is also reminiscent of the period though it sounds just a tad too sophisticated to be '88.
That's definitely why Biz Markie's song, "My Name Is..." (which I really like) doesn't sound convincing to me from the era. He's supposed to be 18 on this? Word? And the beat feels a few steps beyond, say, "Return of the Biz Dance" or "Albee Square Mall" (songs from '88).
You have to say this much: if this is a hoax, all the artists did a great job of trying to kick styles that sound "right" for the era, especially in some of the lyrical references to historical icons and nomenclature (the LQ!). And there's a few songs, like the Grand Puba and Black Sheep cuts, which, if not from '88 sound like they're still more vintage than what you've heard them kick in contemporary times. Intriguing.
I included a snippet of MC Lyte's contribution, "Listen Up," since A) it's a cool song, B) I love MC Lyte and C) it uses the "Time and Place" (Lee Moses) loop that Lyte's old First Priority partner Positive K used for "Night Shift." This is actually one of my fave songs on here - Lyte sounds great.
Marco Polo + Large Professor + DJ Premier: Remix Science
posted by O.W.
First of all, while he's yet to be the blogging machine that is J-J-J-J-J-Just Blaze, DJ Premier is podcasting and that's good 'nuff.
In the midst of that near 2 hour podcast (sorry Shug, but looks like your boy Vick is going down), Primo dropped this ridiculous cut in the midst:
Marco Polo feat. Large Professor: The Radar Remix From 12" (Rawkus, upcoming 2007)
Just to give you the real flavor, I left in all of Premier's cutting up of the intro drums. You gotta love radio mixing...it's unlike mixtapes and club mixing since you really can't get away with long back-and-forth cutting like this is any medium outside of radio. Yet, when a DJ really gets into it (peep the old Pete Rock WBLS shows if you want to know what I mean), it's just pure pleasure to listen to.
And a solar hot remix to boot. Marco Polo's album, Port Authority is one of the best underground hip-hop efforts I've heard in a while and he elevates with his own remix of "The Radar," featuring Large Professor. The 12" is coming out soon and while I haven't bought very many singles in the last few, this one is at the top of my list. Congrats to Benjamin J. for winning the Light in the Attic contest! Budos Band winners coming soon. Next giveaway comes from the folks at Truth and Soul Records.
45 King feat. Latee: Brainstorm From For DJs Only EP (45 King Records, 198?)
Maurice Davis: Mr. Lonely From 7" (BeeGee, 197?)
I've spent the last week or so slaving over an assignment involving classic funk tunes and frankly, if I hear another Commodores or Ohio Players song, I might have a seizure. To unwind, I've been listening to a variety of different tunes, a sampling of which follows.
Technically, these songs are a bit out of order since I wouldn't have gotten to Tjader's "Leyte" if I hadn't been listening to Uptown Saturday Night and wondering, "I wonder what sample Ski used?" Admittedly, I probably should have already been up on "Leyte" given that Soul Sauce was one of Tjader's most successful albums ever but oddly, I never got around to picking this one up (probably because I saw it around so much, I just figured I'd grab it "next time").
Sometimes, there's nothing so good to chill out to than a great vibraphone track and Tjader has these in embarrassing abundance (at some point, I really need to post up his version of "Morning" off of Agua Dulce but another time, another time) and "Leyte" is right up there with the best. It has a smoky, Afro-Latin sabor that's laid-back without being lazy, what people should mean when they speak of "lounge" music instead of that campy kitsch that often passes for it. And the vibes - ah, the vibes - sparkling...
...which of course, brings us to Camp Lo's "Sparkle," one of the smoothest cuts off the still-slept-on Uptown Saturday Night album and obviously, one that borrows heavily from "Leyte." Given the throwback, '70s steez of Camp Lo, they sound perfect over this track (even if their lyrics could be more obtusely stream of consciousness than Ghostface's). By the way, be sure to track down the "Mr. Midnight" mix of "Sparkle" which is basically an acapella set over the "Sparkle" beat but filtered to a ghostly wisp of the original. Mega-minimalist and surprisingly effective.
As it was, by sheer coincidence, in my iTunes playlist, "Leyte" was followed by "Brainstorm" and the two songs were perfect for one another given that this obscure 45 King track also uses vibes on it. I still have to thank Unkut.com's Robbie E. for swapping this EP with me, plus Cold Rock Da Spot gets love for their recent 45 King-themed post. Had this been on a commercial single, it would have easily been up there with the best of Latee's Wild Pitch catalog not to mention 45 King at his best.
Lastly, I recently got a copy of this Maurice Smith single from rapper/producer/game show playerThes One who knew I was a fan of BeeGee material (the local, Los Angeles, Scientologist-funded label), especially since he thought keyboardist Shelton Kirby was playing the Rhodes on here (and I love me some Rhodes). As a vocalist, Smith's style sounds initially too old-fashined for the song - there's a time warp effect - but as the song builds, it all melts together better and Smith ends up reminding me of Eugene McDaniels; this song, sound-wise, would have fit nicely onto something like Headless Heroes. I love how the song builds slowly, and the arrangement takes these small, but significant turns after each bridge. Lovely indeed.
Strangely, I have never posted up any Grand Puba songs on Soul Sides despite the fact that some of my favorite songs of the '90s bore his name (namely "I Like It" and the insanely dope "360 Degrees" remix) but I was listening to DeBarge's "I Like It" the other day and realized it was time.Ok, so I actually have done a Puba post before but I was listening to DeBarge's "I Like It" and though a revisit was in order.
Puba's "I Like It" saved my life. Sort of. This was back in the mid-90s and I was driving 580 through the Bay Area, tired as hell and nodding off on the freeway. Not good. I decided to flip to the radio and somewhere in the mix, some DJ threw this on and even from the opening cymbal tap, I knew what was coming and I was suddenly invigorated and no longer drowsy. True tales.
He's made far harder songs but I love "I Like It" precisely for its light touch. For goodness sake - it's a rap song built off of a Cal Tjader cover of the Association's "Never My Love." That's like soft-batch twice over (though I love the original "Never My Love") yet the song clicks the same way, say, the best Tribe Called Quest songs did. It's the small things that work best here: the snippet of "and you say New York City," that little "bah baaadah" cry, and of course, the DeBarge sample of "oooooooh, and I like it." Yeah, we do it.
The remix, by Buckwild, is also compelling, not the least of which is because this song reunited Sadat X and Puba together, squashing rumors that the former Brand Nubian bandmates had beef with one another ("the Grand Puba is a great friend of mine" isn't the slickest line but it is direct). It's also classic Buckwild for that era - dude flipped vibes like Pete Rock flipped horns. In this case, Buckwild took a surprisingly mellow and funky cut from Henry Mancini's Return of the Pink Panther soundtrack and puts it to great use. "Here's Looking At You, Kid" is an aberration on that soundtrack - nothing else remotes sounds like it but I'm happy that it's the odd track out given how nice a listen it is.
I did a quick and dirty edit of the original Puba song with the remix (I used to do it a bit more artfully in the mix but it was simpler here to just cut in and out). Both songs are readily "available" in their original forms in case you absolutely need them that way. Otherwise, enjoy this trio.
Cut Chemist + DJ Shadow: Hard Sell @ Hollywood Bowl, 6/24/07
posted by O.W.
It's been a long, strange journey.
I've been following the 7" trail left by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist for over seven years now[1]. Brainfreeze was enough of a phenomenon to begin with but it's hard to imagine that some 8 years after that first show at Club 550 in S.F., Cut and Shadow would bring the same concept to the Hollywood Bowl, only this time, in front of a crowd of at least 12,000, under a perfect Los Angeles June night sky. When they first took stage, it was staggering to think about that evolution. It's not like the two haven't played big venues before but if you've never been to the Bowl, the sheer size of it is humbling and again, we're talking about a performance centered around playing 45s.
This thought obviously crossed their minds too since the Hard Sell show opened with a short, humorous "instructional video" as to what people were about to witness during the evening, effectively, "yes, we're playing records" but why such an endeavor would be artistically and musically worthwhile of the Bowl's attention. For DJ-educated types, such an explanation was unnecessary but for those who think, "wait, they still press vinyl?" such an intro was likely quite useful in setting the stage for what was about to happen.
But here's the thing: even for those who cling tightly to their original copies of Brainfreeze and Product Placement, it was clear early on that this was NOT going to be a predictable part tres in that series. Unlike the previous two performances, built specifically around funk 45s, Hard Sell was far more ambitious and eclectic. Now the two DJs split eight turntables between them plus effects processors which allowed them new options in creating and sustaining tones and loops. It was an entirely different kind of performance, less oriented on playing dozens of obscure records in a row and more about building a series of conceptual sets - all made using records, but less about the actual records and more about what one could make with them.
That's why it's a little pointless to run down the playlist for you - it's hard to communicate the overall feel of the night by noting, "oh yeah, and at one point, they went from "Passin' Me By" to "Made U Look"" since that snippet can't represent the whole. Suffice to say though, there were a few sets that were built around records - i.e. identifiable pieces of music - but there were just as many that involved long passages of sound interspersed by drums or scratching, but were more like pieces of musical composition (John Cage meets David Axelrod meets Grandwizard Theodore...). In that respect, Hard Sell seemed closer to DJ Shadow's Private Press shows than what I've seen of Cut Chemist in the past but then again, Cut's recent works have become more compositional and conceptual as well.
So there were a variety of different moments (two of which I discuss in greater detail below), including a short segment of "world percussion" where African drums became blended in with a samba line or these long, almost prog rock-like passages of noise and tone. In the background, a VJ executed a compelling set of background videos and images in synch with the music's rhythms and themes (looks like the same team that worked on Shadow's shows), including a Transformer Jukebox that shoots 7"s (that I'm guessing is not in the upcoming Michael Bay adaptation).
But let's get to the point: Creative? Definitely. Experimental? No doubt. Entertaining? Well...ear of the beholder. Personally, I liked it. I thought the attempt to transcend the themes of Brainfreeze and Product Placement was interesting and daring, I liked the attempt at simply doing "more" with the concept of playing 7"s. But I also think it was fair to say that the overall performance was significantly less coherent and cohesive. It felt more like a scattered set of pieces that hinted at a larger picture but it wasn't clear what that image was meant to be. And maybe that was the whole point but no doubt, folks expecting another session full of funky 45s were left wondering, "wait, what was that?" And maybe that was part of the point too.
By the way, closing the evening was Kim Fowley. Crazy random. I met him at the afterparty and he's a trip. But more on that another time.
One last thing: there were moments where the sets had small glitches - drums doubling up, missed cues - and I actually liked seeing/hearing those, not only because it reminded you "this is live" but it's suggestive of how improvisational and challenging this new set is and frankly, I doubt most in the audience caught them anyways. I do know Shadow was chuckling about it during the afterparty and assuming him and Cut take this on the road (which I think they are), I imagine these will all get ironed out in due time.
Two personal highlights from the show:
The opening set was, from what I could tell, an attempt to speak to the event itself: a summer time concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and what spilled forth was what could be best described as an homage to the days of jukebox joints, East L.A. sweet soul and oldies AM radio. It had some strange moments, including some electro cover of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock Tonight" as well as - I kid you not - another eccentric cover of "Eye of the Tiger" but then they dropped the Flamingos' great romantic ballad, "I Only Have Eyes For You", complete with spinning disco balls when the verse, "are the stars out tonight?" came on.
The next song was this:
Eddie Holman and the Larks: This Can't Be True From 7" (Parkway, 1965). Also on This Can't Be True.
Sure, Holman wasn't from L.A. and didn't record his single there but this is some straight, East L.A., Impalaville sweet soul. I. Love. This. Song. And it really captured the moment of where everyone was - relaxing in the cool summer air of Hollywood.
However, it didn't give any clues as to what would happen next and that would be par for the course for the evening. The next set was more hip-hop focused, including drops of "Passin' Me By," "Made U Look," "Dwyck" and then...they went into a short mini-set of original De La Soul breaks from the 3 Ft. High and Rising era. My mind was blown for a few reasons, including, 1) this was such "my sh--" and 2) I would have been impressed if even 5% of the crowd had a clue what was going on. Seriously, when they were re-creating "Plug Tunin," who would have followed?
The moment I was waiting for - and which was delivered - was this song:
For those old enough to even remember "Jenifa," this is the 45 that powered the main loop. I could swear this is a variation on Jr. Walker and the All-Stars' "Shotgun" but regardless, it's a great mid-60s cooker that makes me hungry for more songs in this vein. (Thanks to Jared at Big City for putting me onto this).
As for whether Hard Sell will make it onto CD/DVD...my guess (and this is purely a guess) is "yes" though I'd be curious to hear how this plays as purely recorded performance. As for whether or not this is the last chapter in the Cut/Shadow 7" Saga? We'll have to see how that plays out later.
Just for the sake of cataloging: I missed the very first show in San Francisco where Brainfreeze was introduced but I was on-hand to see the last show on the tour, at the El Rey in Los Angeles, having written a preview of it for the LA Weekly (this is still one of my favorite pieces I ever wrote). I also did coverage on Product Placement for the first issue of Waxpoetics and if that wasn't enough, I also interviewed the two DJs for the DVD version of Freeze.
Summer Songs: Robbie Ettelson from Unkut.com
posted by O.W.
Editor's Note: For a writer who's not even in this hemisphere, Australia's Robbie Ettelson puts a lot of rap journalists in America to shame with his interviews. Maybe it's just that he actually transcribes and publishes what he raps with these rappers about but even that provides some much-needed candor and illumination.
He ran his interview with KRS-One last week and it actually addresses several of the conversations that came up in my recent KRS post. In particular, Robbie asks him if KRS was going at Jeff Chang with "I Was There" and KRS talks a bit about Can't Stop Won't Stop and what he sees as a failing in "doing your homework" (though notably, KRS says Jeff worked at Def Jam which is completely untrue so it looks like lack of homework isn't just limited to hip-hop scholar/writers). By the way, Jeff addresses some of this on his site.
That said though, I was very much impressed by KRS's self-reflexive comments on any number of different topics and think Robbie, in particular, is really distinguishing himself as one of the best interviewers I've seen in the game.
But since it's actually winter in Australia right now, I thought it'd be fun to have him muse on his summer songs while he's freezing his arse off. For Robbie, his post finds himself waiting on that glorious sun:
It's tough to write about Summer Songs while my fingers are left froze like that "heron[sic] in your nose", and after spending an hour or so flipping through my shelves - all the while trying to punch through the fog of drunken afternoons at the beach with a mini "jam box" - I was still without a definitive collection of wax. Given that I'm less inclined to sentimentality these days anyhow, I decided to flip it into a dissection of four winning selections involving the sun (note to Ghostface fanboys: "The Sun" has already been given ample *cough* shine here at Soul Sides, having appeared at least twice to my knowledge).
Special K: Sun Is Up From the Treacherous Three's Old School Flava (Wrap!, 1994)
As one of the of the very few moments of T3's painful comeback album that didn't induce bile in the back of the throat (the other being LA Sunshine's Last Poet-channeled solo shot), K strolls through brother T La Rock's fractured, hazy backdrop that recalls the way your head might feel after a lazy afternoon spent consuming cheap cask wine while absorbing some blistering rays.
Pete Rock & CL Smooth: Sun Won't Come Out From The Main Ingredient (Elektra, 1994)
Despite being weighed-down by sappy "smoove" jams, the songs from the Vernon duo's second full-length that actually hit the mark proved to be effin' jaw-dropping. To hear the way that Pete combines a Deep Funk vocal hook with ethereal chimes, razor-sharp snares and a cock-sure bassline is to witness a genius at the height of his powers, while Corey Love feeds of the chemistry and delivers one of his better "wise intelligent" performances. To cap things off, the beat skit on the outro is guaranteed to conjure warm-weather flashbacks, as Bob James meets the Fender Rhodes in fine fashion.
Large Professor feat. Q-Tip: In The Sun From 1st Class (Matador, 2002)
OK's mans Xtreme laces The Live Guy With Glasses with some Gregorian chant material for this bright spot on his otherwise frustrating solo debut. The Abstract delivers a rambling assessment of societies woes ("little kids are gettin' warped from computer thwarps"?!?), but we appreciate the fact that he actually turned-up to the session if the stories about "The LP" are to be believed. Large offers a little more clarity - bringing a sombre feel to his musings but still managing to keep his chin up - but this is best appreciated on some vibe-out shit. Don't waste too much time trying to analyse this one.
Organized Konfusion: Walk Into The Sun From Organized Konfusion (Hollywood BASIC, 1991)
If you can forgive the borderline corny intro of this joint, there's plenty of "light-hearted" era Pharoahe and Prince Po antics to be enjoyed. While I generally avoided "zany" rap like the plague when this album came out, there was enough mind-boggling lyrics and hardcore breaks to keep me along for the ride, and this song has enough enthusiasm to win over even the most mean-spirited among us, while there's no shortage of vivid imagery covering the humid months. It just goes to shows that in the right hands, a potentially cheesy track can still be a heater.
Ultimate Force: I'm Not Playin' + Revolution of the Mind From I'm Not Playin' (Strong City, 1990)
The first time I ever "heard" an Ultimate Force song was when Diamond D, on his debut solo album, "took a breakbeat and broke it," that is - he took a snippet from "I'm Not Playin'" and plugged it into "Check, One Two." That little slice (itself taken from Albert King's funky blues great "Cold Feet") was intriguing just by itself but it wouldn't be until later that I learned: ah, this is from "I'm Not Playin'", one of the only singles Ultimate Force ever put out, back in the day (by the way, there was also a Ultimate Supreme Force that recorded on Nia I believe but that's not the same group).
Spin back 20 years: Ultimate Force was the pairing of MC Master Rob and DJ Diamond D - friends from Forest Projects - and they were down with the great Jazzy Jay who put their song on his Cold Chillin' In the Studio compilation. That lead to an album which, though recorded, never got released - one of the countless victims of poor record label insight and business execution.
Normally, the story would end there. Even "I'm Not Playin'" ending up on the excellent Ego Trip's The Big Playback comp wasn't enough to get things moving but somehow, someway, this year, the Ultimate Force album finally came out. And hey, it only took some 17 years!
What you'll find is that a young Diamond D still knew how to produce his off of (and having Jazzy Jay to help doesn't hurt) and Master Rob is one of those MCs who deserved to have recorded more given his sharp vocal touch and rhyme skills. Would this album have taken its place amongst the classics of the era? Probably not on some AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted level but it would have been up there with, say, Grand Daddy I.U.'s Smooth Assassin or D-Nice's Call Me D-Nice. *sigh* I feel old right now.
I'll say this much: "I'm Not Playin'" is still one of my favorite cuts from the late '90s - the sh-- just hits so hard. Apparently, Rob wasn't a fan of the track at first but clearly, Diamond knew what he was doing in hooking this up. By the way, they also reissued this song on 12" which is cool though if you want to be a real head about it, cop the OG on the blue Strong City label.
As for "Revolution of the Mind" - the song makes me hella nostalgic for the early '90s. Let's be real: that's about the only time a song like this could have gone over with its political/conscious lyrics and a beat that sounds better tied into Kwame than DITC). Ah, takes me back to the days of rap cassettes, Cross Colours tees and trips to Leopold's... (Speaking of which, will someone please reissue this album already?). P.S. Speaking of The Coup - you read this and 1) you realize why Boots Riley stays as committed as he does and 2) it's just another reminder of why the police's public reputation seems to ever-plunging.
P.P.S. While we're on the hip-hop tip, can I just say something? I like Common. Always have. He's always been a pleasure to interview and is one of the few artists who've shown some maturity, especially in going from a pretty virulent homophobe to someone who seems more at peace with himself and others. I didn't think Be was an instant classic, still don't understand why folks were so enthusiastic about it even though it surely wasn't a bad album. I did have a chance to listen to Finding Forever (read my Vibe review when they drop it, suckas) and thought it was, altogether, a considerably stronger album, song for song. But then I see this and I sigh. I mean...seriously, this is just bad. It makes Lupe Fiasco's cover look like this cover. Also, that hoodie he's rocking (from The Gap?) looks unfortunately like the late Rick James' beaded coif. Altogether, not a good look.
KRS-One + Marley Marl: He Was There!
posted by O.W.
KRS-One and Marley Marl: I Was There From Hip Hop Lives (Koch, 2007)
Question: Has there been another hip-hop legend who has done more damage to his own legacy - by insisting we acknowledge his legacy - than KRS-One?
Sometimes I want to forget he made Criminal Minded or By All Means Necessary because then I have to acknowledge that he was once one of the greatest MCs ever. Now he's making songs that sound like parodies of a comedian recording a "KRS-One song." It's a little depressing.
By the way, in terms of why KRS would be so remarkably defensive sounding against "rap historians" - I'm going to take a long shot and guess it has something to do with this. Back in the day, I thought hip-hop would never die...
Da Youngsta's: Crews Pop From The Aftermath (East West, 1993)
Da Youngsta's: Grim Reaper From No Mercy (East West, 1994)
Da Youngsta's Illy Funkstaz: I'll Make You Famous From I'll Make U Famous (Pop Art, 1995)
I mentioned earlier about having a few posts on the back burner and I have to admit...one of them was above this trio of kiddie rappers from Philadelphia: Da Youngsta's.
First, I want to know why they have an apostrophe in their name...shoudn't it be "Da Youngatas"? "Da Youngsta's" is technically possessive but what is being possessed?
Second, I realize that many of you are either asking, 1) who the f--- were Da Youngsta's and/or 2) why is O-Dub dedicating a post to them, of all the various hip-hop groups I could have?
Fair questions. The thing is - I never found the group to be that compelling BITD - they were unabashedly a gimmick group from jump, capitalizing on, presumably the same wave that produced Kris Kross, pre-Infamous Mobb Deep, Chi Ali, etc. With each album, you could tell how derivative their style was based on who they were jacking at the time. Their second album was arguably the worst case offender with styles - visually and lyrically - that seemed straight bit off any number of NY-area artists, especially Naughty by Nature and Onyx.
Yet, despite all this, they put out four albums, three of which on majors. Sure, for the early '90s, that probably wasn't that rare but you have to admit that it wasn't like an everyday thing. Even more notable are the producers they got to work with: The Beatnuts, Marley Marl, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, etc. As such, all of their four albums still managed to produce a few songs that are worth a listen, just for kicks if nothing else (and here at Soul Sides, we're all about "just for kicks").
Some questions you should all consider:
1) How does a group that isn't even old enough to have reached puberty going to cut a song called "Reminiss"? 2) What's with the name "Da Younsta's Illy Funkstaz"? 3) Did they really have it like that, as they claim on "I'll Make You Famous"? 4) When they did a collabo with Mobb Deep, do you wonder if both crews looked at one another and thought, "toys"?
Sample hounds should enjoy this post but really, my inspiration was just enjoying how great a tune Melvin and the Blue Notes' "Hope We Can Be Together Soon" is, both in terms of the musical arrangement as well as the vocal duet on the track between Sharon Paige and Melvin (with a little cameo shot by Teddy P). I believe the highly descriptive "mad soulful" would be quite apropos here. Seriously, beautiful tune.
Turrentine's take on it is...well, I'll be honest...a little cheesy (sorry, but sax jazz in that era was very hard to take serious), but what I enjoy about it is its interpolation of that distinctive opening on the original but flipped with different instrumentation for a funkier sound.
Fans of Chi Ali will no doubt recognize Turrentine's version since it was liberally sampled to craft "Age Ain't Nothin' But a #" but more casual hip-hop fans may not have heard INI's "Krossroads" before since it appeared on their then-unreleased album, Center of Attention from the mid-90s (that album had so many killer Pete Rock productions, seriously). I thought it be nice to give those folks a chance to peep how Melvin's original was put to use.
UGK feat. Outkast: International Players Anthem From U.G.K. (forthcoming 2007)
At this point in time, it's more than clear that Three Six Mafia's DJ Paul and Juicy J looooooove them some Willie Hutch. Actually, who doesn't love them some Willie Hutch? But in the case of Three Six, they found Hutch so twice, they used him thrice...
That new UGK song feat. Outkast is basically a straight loop from Hutch's "I Choose You," one of the songs from the The Mack soundtrack and if folks thought it sounded familiar at all, it's because Project Pat used the same exact loop (minus the drum programs on UGK's version) for his 2002 song, "Choose U." Three Six basically resurrected the track for UGK (and they appear on "Players Anthem" which is the earlier version of "Int'l Players Anthem" except with Three Six appearing on there instead of Outkast).
No complaints here - I don't care what version the song appears in: Hutch's original, Project Pat's or UGK's tracks - they all sound amazing which really bespeaks how gifted an arranger and producer Hutch was. "I Choose You" has this enormous sound to it that it's easy to get caught up in its swelling vocals and strings. (Somewhere, Kanye is wondering why he didn't f--- with this first).
In general, I think it's a very good idea for more rappers to rhyme over Hutch beats. Just sayin'.
Oh, and before I forget, I'm not 100% sure what Andre 3000 says at the beginning of "International Players Anthem," but just he way he says a phrase like, "project your heart, three stacks" makes his talk of dippin' spaceships and uncertain trips to the altar sound like something you really should know about, whatever he actually is saying. It's just good to hear Dre rhyming more. (See Devin the Dude's "What a Job" for another example). Consider this a lame mea culpa: when I originally posted this, I was rushing to knock it out before I left town and had only sat with the song a few times thru. Then, I was listening to "Int'l Players Anthem" on the subway, running somewhere between Manhattan and Brooklyn and suddenly, Andre's verses made ridiculously clear sense, so much so, I feel pretty $^#&^ stupid for making it sound like he was on some superciphertifical level before when really, his verse isn't that complex...it's just incredibly well-written. Provided, I probably wouldn't have figured out the three stacks bit without either help or more time, and I thought "spaceship" referred to something more astral than being, you know, a car, but all said, it's a brilliant verse of love, regret and caution that is neither Mims-plistic (yeah, that just happened) nor Kool Kethian but just great songwriting. Did I already mention how great it is to hear 3000 rhyming more? By the way, for anyone in New York City this weekend, I highly recommend you check out Bumpshop. At the very least, yours truly will be loitering around there that eve.
Downloaded "You Call This Love," this off the innanet and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much from it on the onset - the Alkaholiks' last effort was rather underwhelming and a J-Ro solo album didn't encourage me to raise expectations. However, I was really taken with this...times have come a long way when a hip-hop love (or anti-love) song meant something as syrupy as LL Cool J's "I Need Love." I hope it's a trend that continues to improve, not just because it offers a topical alternative, but it's nice to hear rappers speaking on something emotional. The cameo rapper is ****
"That's Likwit" comes off J-Ro's 818 Antics mixtape and hell, you know the Diamond D fan in me can never pass up a time to plug a song dropped over "Freestyle (Yo, That's That Shit!)"
I'm in the midst of tax hell so I probably won't have a chance to get up a longer post this week but I wanted to quickly break folks off with these two mixtape songs I've been enjoying of late.
The Biggie/Lil Wayne duet is off of Mick Boogie and Terry Urban's excellent Unbelievable mix-CD they put out to commemorate the 10th anniversary of B.I.G.'s death. "If You See" was produced by Garbs Infinite , and up-and-coming producer out of Cleveland who just straight up kills it with this flip on Dionne Warwick's "Walk On By." I love how he turns it into a chilling threat: "if you see me walking down the street...start to cry." Brilliant. I hope this beat sees life in the future as a legit single somewhere. This and that Lil Wayne/Devin/Bun B remix from a few weeks back are some of my favorite tracks right now.
...as is this new Jean Grae...wait - O-Dub plugging a Jean Grae song? Yeah folks - f--- a beef; I'm still down to plug good music and this upcoming track from Grae's Prom Night album is the kind of anti-love song that Grae excels at. Hip-hop and break-up music rarely go together that well but armed with Ski's melancholy piano loop, it nails the right, bluesy tone. This comes off of Ski's Beatz, Rhymes and Samples, a mix between a breaks tape and beat tape that's designed to remind people just who the hell Ski is (hint: think one of hip-hop's most underrated producers of the last 10 years). Get familiar.
Note: both of the mixtapes these come off of are currently available for free download so get with 'em while they're still up. In other news...Amy Winehouse became the highest debuting British singer on U.S. charts ever...until Joss Stone trumped her this week.
It's been a good few weeks for white British women who sing soul.
Ann Powers tackles Stone's career and new album for the L.A. Times and makes a point to especially discuss the question of race, appropriation and accountability - issues that, as we've seen, apply just as much to Winehouse as well.
People were quick to argue that Winehouse is an amazing songwriter and hence, this is the root of her success but I've rarely heard the same said of Stone (it's usually her voice that's lauded, not her songwriting).
I'd like to see the same people who want to discount age and race in Winehouse's case take a swing at explaining Stone's appeal. Still think there's no double standard at play?
God bless YouTube. I'm an insane De La Soul fan - they are the #1 reason I got into hip-hop - but even I didn't know about the existence of this 3 Ft. High and Rising video press-kit until now.
If you want to know just what makes audioblogging the unique medium it is, Wake Your Daughter Up presents Exhibit A: a breakdown of Nas' "Where Are They Now" that includes histories on the various artists Nas shouts-out PLUS links to their songs. Bonkers.
Round 1 includes MC Shan, Kool Moe Dee, Sha Rock, and UTFO.
Biggie: Biggie Got That Hype Sh-- Demo version (~1992) Courtesy Spine Magazine).
Biggie: Machine Gun Funk (DJ Premier Mix) Unreleased remix (1993) Courtesy The Low End Theory.
First off, yeah, I know, I'm a few days late to properly commemorate the 10 year anniversary of Biggie's death[1]. It's hard - seriously hard - to believe it's been 10 years. 1997 feels like a lifetime ago which probably isn't too far off the mark; a lot changes in 10 years but seriously - it feels like it was just the other week.
Damn.
For starters, I pulled (well, "borrowed" to be more exact) two "lost tapes"-style songs from the Biggie archive. "Biggie Got That Hype Sh--" is something which I had never heard before until Spine Magazine threw it up the other day (make sure you visit them to cop a few other rare Biggie joints). Even though the sound quality is terrible - man, this song is sick. I love how Biggie flowed; it wasn't the most stylized but he had an uncanny sense of timing and vocal flair that made his best songs a joy to listen to.
"Machine Gun Funk" - the LP version - was probably my favorite non-single cut off Ready to Die (though "Gimme the Loot" is pretty hard to deny too) but I had never heard this unreleased DJ Premier mix before until The Low End Theory put it up about a year ago or so. I have - I'm glad to hear it, for history's sake if nothing else - but much as I'm a fan of Primo's stuff from this era, the Easy Mo Bee album production can't be faded.
This all said: here's the question to get heads buzzing... Can Biggie really be considered the G.O.A.T. if he only had two albums and a sprinkling of cameos to build that consensus from? (I know I'm not the first to raise the question but whatever). Or do we lionize Biggie because his untimely death meant that we never had to wait to watch him fall off (assuming he would have). After all, if Big Daddy Kane had died after his second album, imagine how different his legacy would look. Or what if Run DMC had disbanded and stopped recording after Raising Hell.
I've never denied Biggie his props (he's not #1 to me but Top 5? Sure.), but I also thought Life After Death didn't deserve the intense praise it got (like most double albums, it was just too long with a lot of tracks I'll never ever care to listen to again) but obviously, coming out post-death, it was treated like the best-thing-ever. Had he lived, I have the feeling that Life After Death would have been seen as a smart commercial effort but I imagine Biggie could/would have surpassed it later. It also imagine, easily, he would have dropped some mediocre material later too: it's impossible to think he would have escaped a fate that even his most talented peers: Jay-Z, Nas, Snoop, etc. have fallen victim to at some point.
So yeah, my question is: do we give Biggie too much credit because his catalog was unnaturally frozen in time? Is he like the Robert Johnson of hip-hop?
Lastly, can I just say how absurd it is that the murders of Biggie, Tupac and Jam Master Jay still remain unsolved? Maybe you can blame it on the "stop snitchin'" ethos amongst the rap community or maybe it's police disinterest at dead Black men. Or maybe both. It's shameless, regardless. [1] The whole "Notorious B.I.G." name never sat with me. The only reason Biggie wasn't "Biggie" was on some legal bullsh--, same reason Diamond D. had to go by Diamond and why Common Sense was Common. To me, Biggie will always be Biggie, period.
Another random trio of tunes for you, this time from the hip-hop side of things. Vibe-wise, they actually go together kind of nicely despite spanning over 10 years of history.
The Camp Lo original demo version of "Feelin' It" comes courtesy the folks down with Ski aka Ski Beatz. For those who recall, Ski's the producer most famously connected with Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt CD but he also helped shepherd All City (remember them?) as well as producing Camp Lo's funkalistically fly Uptown Saturday Night. Originally, he hooked up the beat for "Feelin' It" for Camp Lo but Jay-Z heard the song on their demo tape and immediately asked Ski to lace him with it instead. One less song for Camp Lo, one more song for Reasonable Doubt - it's a cold world but that's how things go down sometimes. It's really great to hear this OG version - Camp Lo sound great over it.
Speaking of lost demo-type tracks, I was recently listening to the unreleased Smif N Wessun album that was supposed to come out on Rawkus; not a life-changing album by any means but it includes "The Tools of the Trade" which I had always liked when I first heard in on 12" in 2002. Seemed like a good time to bring it back into the air since I doubt that many folks really get hip to it back when it first dropped. Not that I condone gun violence but there's something almost nerdy about cataloging your weaponry in the way the Bucktown duo handle it.
Lastly, bringing things up to current, I include a two minute snippet from a new Cormega song that I like quite a bit; it's off of the new underground compilation, Sound Chronicles which Baltimore's Goldrocc helped put together. 'Mega may forever be stuck as a QB second string player but that doesn't mean he doesn't have some good moments to shine once in a while, especially when Ayatollah is blessing him with the beat. Sound Chronicles also includes new joints by Masta Ace, Smif N Wessun (as it were), Styles of Beyond, Planet Asia, Imam Thug and Sean Price. Peep.
Mobb Deep: The Infamous Prelude From The Infamous (Loud, 1995) When The Infamous first dropped, I never paid much attention to this intro...not the least of which is because it just seemed highly unlikely that the same dudes who cut, "Hit It From the Back," would suddenly turn out to be the grimiest rappers in history. But whenever I go back and listen to The Infamous nowadays, I sometimes just put this on repeat. Whether Prodigy's thug pose is truly convincing or not is for the listener to decide but his own sense of conviction is highly entertaining in its own right. P drops enough gems to fill a royal crown:
"When you see me at the show, on stage, or in the street, I definitely got the gat on me." "I used to be in the clubs, the Muse, the Tunnel, whatever the f---." "You ain't got to waste your time, or your money, or your hospital bills." "There's a good chance your ass might get shot, stabbed or knuckled down - one out of the three."
...and the grand finale:
"To all them rap ass n------ with your half assed rhymes talking about how much you get high, how much weed you smoke, and that crazy space sh-- that don't even make no sense, don't ever speak to me when you see me. Know what I'm saying? Word. I might have to get on some ol high school s---, start punching n------ in the face just for living."
With the possible exception of De La Soul, no other hip-hop artist has aged out of the '80s as gracefully and impressively as Masta Ace. He's like rap's Sixth Man, never quite a superstar but while bigger acts flamed out years ago (hint: everyone else in the Juice Crew), Ace has stuck in there, carved out a career that's featured its share of ups and downs but after nearly twenty years, he's still making quality music and has become a veteran that you can cheer on without being patronizing about it.
Back in 1993, it was hard to initially gauge where Ace was going to fall. The rest of the Juice Crew was barely limping by, a faint memory about to get further crushed by the impending Wu-Tang stomp. And in the midst of this, Ace reinvents himself, eschews the House of Hits formulas and begins producing his own stuff (remember his cameo on Gang Starr's "Aight, Chill" skit?) and drops what was one of the first, major backlash rap albums before the indie hip-hoppers picked up the baton (and then promptly wore it to a dull nub). Sure, maybe Ace and company just sounded mad in a post-Chronic era but to me, Slaughtahouse was on the better side of the divide between critical and must plain bitter.
The song itself was a compelling blend of two different tracks - the first parodied the gangsta rap movement, clearly taking aim at N.W.A. ("strictly Raiders and Kings gear" and of course, sampling Eazy E's "what the f--- are they yelling?" off of "Gangsta, Gangsta") and dropping one of the funniest set of verses this side of Black Sheep's "U Mean I'm Not." Then the song transforms midway, bringing in Ace who just crushes the rest of track over the classic Baby Huey "Hard Times" bassline. Here's the original song off Youtube.
The remix versions of "Slaughtahouse" originally appeared on a Delicious Vinyl 12" - each half of the original is separated and extended with extra verses added. Tasty. I went through and mixed the two halves back together (and shortened it to boot).
I've always liked the L.A. Jay remix of "Saturday Night" (which brings on the entire Inc. for a posse cut) which appeared on DV's promo-only "Summa' Madness" remix EP. I was never a huge fan of the original and even though Gang Starr had already put the same loop to work a few years earlier, it's never a bad look to flip "Les Fleur" as L.A. Jay does for the remix. (I will say, for the life of me, I've always had a tricky time mixing it. (I want to say it jumps half a bar at the beginning).
The Grand Masta collection is great in assembling a solid set of rarities (including the infamous "Top 10 List" plus two remixes of "Jeep Ass N****," two of of "Saturday Night Live" and both "Slaughtahouse" mixes). (I sure hope this is legit and Ace is getting paid off it).
DJ Benzi shot this through - a new remix for Devin The Dude's "Lil Girl Gone" feat. Weezy and Bun B. I thought the original was cool but this remix really takes tings far, far forward with a beaut of a soul loop. Weezy, especially, benefits from the new groove as his lead-off verses just float into the new track. Not sure who Mr. J Pat is but hey, nice work.
As my man over at The Rap Up would say, "beef has evolved." It wasn't enough for Cam and 50 to get into it on Hot 97. It wasn't enough for both men to record what ordinarily would have been some kind of mixtape cut. In a Youtube age, both 50 and Cam went out and recorded instant videos for their new songs.
Diss videos. It's come to this.
Mind you, I'm not complaining per se even though neither man really does himself huge favors with some hastily assembled shots and scenes. 50's faux-Cribs+F.E.D.S. scenes goes up against Cam ghostriding a Camry but no question, 50 Cent wins in the flosstacular category. I suspect he's been taking tips from the White Rapper Show's video contest.
Anyways, welcome to the next level of the game.
50 Cent: Funeral Music
Cam'ron: Curtis!
(Psss...50's got money long as train smoke but Cam wins this round).
Instant Message received from friend after watching Cam's video: "I wonder if 50 has beef with the UPS guy now too."
I don't have a fancier post to commemorate Jay Dee's death (though I hope to god, one day, my NPR piece on Jay Dee will see the light, or, er, radio waves of day)...like most, I've just been listening to his legacy constantly since he passed a year ago (it really doesn't feel that long ago). In that sense, it's like he never left so though I mourn his far too untimely passing, the distance hasn't felt as real yet given all the various music he left behind to keep us company.
These two are taken from a slew of instrumental tracks, some presumably from the Donuts sessions given the similarities in style. Namely, these songs have that, "I'm just playing with ideas" feeling to them, what I described as capturing Jay's ideas in mid-motion. I loved that quality of Donuts, that they weren't incomplete but they weren't polished either; it really gave you a sense of how Dilla thought about sound and rhythm.
The "names" on these are purely arbitrary...though, in the case of "5/8" it's possible that was Jay Dee's owning choice of title but who really knows? "This is Dilla's World" is my own invention (title-wise) given that it flips James Brown's "This Is a Man's World" and does so quite lovely. "5/8" derives its name from the beat signature and it's one of those beats that repeatedly smashes you on the crown and you love every instant, especially when he chops up the guitar and horns.
Anyways, there's so many great Dilla songs for ya'll to appreciate this week. Wind up a few, sit back, absorb and pour some out for him.
Featuring (in order...we think): Grandmaster Caz, MC Shan, Raheem, Doctor Ice, Kangol, Kool Moe Dee, Sha Rock, Tito, Linque, Dana Dane, Pebblee Poo, Just Ice... ...Redhead Kingpin, The Original Spinderella, Rob Base, Father MC, Monie Love, Mike G, EST, Positive K, Das EFX, Lords of the Underground, Dres... ...Breeze, Kam, King Tee, Candyman, Threat, Ice T, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Conscious Daughters (with Bobcat on the cut).
At this point, anyone who reads any of the usualsuspects for rap blogs have already caught one, two or all three of these incredible remixes of Nas' "Where Are They Now?" Whatever you think of the quality of the cameos themselves, what makes them incredible is simply the coordination involved in getting everyone together to make these. (Of course, it's not like most of them were busy with their defunct rap careers but still...)
Nonetheless, for an old rap dude like me, this kind of thing brings a tear to my nostalgic eye. Seriously, it's bonkers, especially the West Coast remix which is probably the best executed in the bunch.
In any case, you can find the original songs on those other sites but I went and did a simple edit to put all three together into one long mega-mix. 25+ years of hip-hop history distilled into 15 minutes.
Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, MC Shan: A Cold Chillin' Christmas From Winter Warnerland (Warner Bros, 1988)
SS Exclusive: O Tannenbaum From (ssssshhhhh)
I've been laid up with grading 70+ papers so alas, I haven't had time to do up a more extensive holiday post but I've been meaning to at least put these two songs out there.
The "Cold Chillin Christmas" originally (and only) came out on a holiday album (2xLP actually) put out by Warner Bros. who distributed Marley Marl's Cold Chillin label. It's not quite "The Symphony - Holiday Edition" but three out of the entire stable isn't bad, especially with a double shot of verses from Kane when Kane was still the sickest rapper around. What I think is funny is that the sample here, Booker T and MG's "Hip Hug Her" would also become the basis for a later posse cut by Heavy D, Q-Tip and others: "Don't Curse." In any case, a nice bonus cut from the Cold Chillin stables.
As for the mystery cut - I got this LP from Cool Chris at the Groove Merchant several years back and I've been waiting to put out a "kitchen sink" mixtape of just weird/wonderful tunes from wherever. This one definitely qualifies - an unexpectedly spacey/funky version of "O Tannenbaum" (better known to Americans as the melody for "O Christmas Tree") off an album of Christmas music done by European artists. Still gonna keep this under the Santa hat for a while but I thought it was high time to finally share it with folks.
In terms of one of the all-time greatest Xmas songs though, no question, it's this. Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here" is basically a childhood's worth of nostalgia distilled into 3 minutes. Even if you heard the song for the first time, it just sounds like something you would have grown up with. The veritable definition of timeless.
Soul Sides is going to be laid up with grading and holiday/family responsibilities for the next week or so. We may not get another post until the new year and if so, thanks to all for your support and encouragement. See you in 2007.
(Editor's Note: As many of you should know, The Coup are one of my favorite groups. They're one of the last few honest rap artists out there which makes grinding out a career that much tougher on the independent tip. Right now, the group needs the help of fans following a terrible accident that luckily didn't kill anyone but has left the group in difficult straits).
So, we got on the bus after doing a show at The House of Blues San Diego as part of The Coup/Mr. Lif tour. As the bus took off, I thought that I would go lay in my bunk, listen to my Ipod, and write. But then Zhara, Mr. Lif’s friend and the tour’s merchandise seller, announced that she had “Anchorman” on DVD. Oh Shit. Will Ferrell or writing? Hot 16s would have to wait tonight…Good Night San Diego! So I stayed up in the front lounge of the bus and, even though I’ve seen this movie twice, commenced to laugh my ass off. Almost literally, because of what happened next. Shortly after the acapella singing of “Afternoon Delight” by Ferrell et al., a big bump, then another, then plummeting down as we tipped over to the left. I was sitting in the diner-like booth that many of these buses have in the front. I held on to the table with one hand and tried to guard my head with the other, all the while thinking that I was probably about to die. I don’t remember seeing everyone flying and flipping around me as it was happening, but Carter’s (the road manager) and Wiz’s face were covered in blood, and everybody seemed to be laying around hurt. The bus was on it’s side, with the entrance door up. I called for people to say there names so we could get a head count of who was conscious or not. Silk E, Q (drums), Riccol (bass), and Metro (Lif’s hype man) were trapped in the back lounge because the doors connecting the front and back lounges to the bunks were electrically powered and didn’t move with no power on. They ended up ripping and squeezing their way out of a tiny little window and jumped down off the bus as the rest of us got out the front. If anyone had been sleeping in the bunks, they would not have been able to get out. I was the third person to jump off the front of the bus, as I hung down to make the jump shorter, I saw that the front of the bus was on fire. I yelled to everyone, saying to get off the bus immediately because the bus was on fire and it could blow up. We all did. No one was killed. The bus was totally engulfed in flames. For a while no one stopped to help, supposedly because the thought we were “illegal aliens” crossing the border. Eventually some great folks stopped and helped. Silk E has two broken ribs and a punctured lung. Wiz has a broken nose, two deep lacerations to the head, and a shattered knee. Zhara has injuries to her hand and had to undergo surgery. Carter had to get stitches to his head and lip. The driver, Glenn, has a broken jaw. All the first three will be in need of follow-up treatments. We all have aching backs, legs, heads etc. Many of us are on pain killers.
We lost everything in that crash and fire. We were packed to live and do shows on that bus for a month. Most of us had every stitch of clothing we owned on there. We lost clothes, computers, recording equipment, cameras, IDs, phones, keys to cars and homes. We lost cash.We lost all our damn instruments and equipment to perform with. We were and are happy to walk away with our lives. But now we’re home. Most of the band touring with The Coup has kids, rent that won’t quit, bills, and holiday expenses coming. We need money, because like I said the band doesn’t have the tools that they make a living with. Not only did we lose cash and material things on the bus, but we also were depending on this tour for money to make it through. It may take a year for us to see any money from the insurance company.
I have set up a Paypal account so people can make donations for The Coup. The money will be split between Me (Boots Riley), Silk E, Q, Steve Wyreman (guitar), and Riccol. Mr. Lif is setting one up on his site and when I have that info, we’ll let you know.
To make a donation, hit button in the “about” section on the front page of this profile, right below the paragraph and above the “We Are The Ones” video. This allows you to donate even without a paypal account.
If you have an account, ours is thecoupbuscrash@gmail.com. Thank you in advance to anyone who does this, this is a really crazy situation. I never thought I would would be doing something like this. I also never thought that we would almost die like like that. We’re grateful for anything you can do. Thank you, Boots Riley
P.S. Thank you for the messages of love and warmth we’ve been receiving. It makes a difference.
Nas: Where Are They Now? From Hip Hop Is Dead (Def Jam, 2006)
Nas: Represent (O.G. Mix) (1994)
Under most other circumstances, a song like "Where Are They Now?" would probably be thought of as another sign that aging rappers are so nostalgia-ridden that they can just rattle off a list of defunct, forgotten rappers and that qualifies as a song. And hey, if people want to lay into it for being just that, it's a fair critique but for aging, nostalgia-ridden rap listeners like me, I find something endearing about Nas' elder statesmen posturing and attempt at reminding us of those who've come and gone in hip-hop's relentless celebration of the Now and amnesia towards anything older than a few years old. Besides, Masta Ace can't have all the fun.
And since we're on a throwback tip, I threw in an early, pre-Illmatic mix of Nas' "Represent." On this note, supposedly, there's a demo of Nas out there (presumably the one that got shopped to Sony/Columbia) but rumor says that only Eric B. has it. Forget about "Eric B. for President," you need to emancipate the precedent!
Chi-Lites: That's How Long From Toby (Brunswick, 1974)
Goodbye to the game/all the spoils/the adreneline rush. Your blood boils/you in a spot knowing cops could rush. And you in a drop/you so easy to touch, No two days are alike/except the first and fifteenth pretty much. And "trust" is a word/you seldom hear from us. Hustlers we don't sleep/we rest one eye up. And the drought can define a man when the well dries up, You learn to work the water without workin'/thirst 'til you die (yup!) And n_____ get tied up for product, And little brothers ring fingers get cut up/to show mothers they really got em. And this was the stress I lived with/until I decided/to try this rap shit for a living, I Pray I'm forgiven/for every bad decision i made/every sister I played, Cause I'm still paranoid to this day. And it's nobody fault I made the decisions I made, This is the life I chose/or rather the life that chose me.
Sharon Cash: Fever From He Lives Within My Soul (Mothers, 1974)
(Bonus) Ghostface Killah: Outta Town Sh-- From More Fish (Def Jam, 2006)
????: ???? From ???? (????, 1976). Also available on Dusty Fingers Vol. 12
I know I give people who post here a hard time on occasion when all they seem to do is play "spot that sample." Contrary to some assumptions, our raison d'etre is not, in fact, dropping sample sources. If that's what you're after, please...
However, we also aim to please so I'm not above indulging people's interest in mo' samples. To wit: this post plugs two of the more obscure songs that Ghost's producers have flipped for the Wallabee champ.
The George Jackson is, to me, a strange tune (though apparently, Jackson's biggest hit for Hi) if only because it's a dedication tune to a living artist. I'm trying to imagine what Aretha Franklin would have thought, listening to this. Nice song though, especially with that opening piano and string combo (so well adapted for "Child's Play" off of Supreme Clientele).
As for the Sharon Cash...this explosive cover of "Fever" comes off what I assume is her first album (she had a more popular 2nd album released on Playboy Records a few years down the line). I had higher hopes for the He Lives Within My Soul LP since it was arranged by H.B. Barnum and appears on Mothers, the sample label and arranger who put out Spanky Wilson's incredible Doin It album but Cash's album turned out to be a bit of one-tracker. That said: great one-tracker. Just Blaze did a phenomenal job interpolating this for "The Champ" off of Fishscale.
As a bonus, I put up "Outta Town Sh--," a new song off Ghost's new mix-CD album, More Fish, one of the few solo cuts he's on (it's in the tradition of "Shakey Dog" though not quite as narrative). It's too bad the entire album isn't more like this but I'm not remotely mad. Listening to Ghost just let loose reminds you why he's The Truth for the faithful. The beat comes off a European library series - think Hanged Man for those who know the deal. I would have listed the info but last time I did that with "Kilos," a lot of whiners came out the woodwork so I figured I'd avoid the saline this time around. Good stuff though, regardless.
Clipse + Lee Fields: Mr. Me Too (Z.A.K. Remix) (2006)
Especially since I find all the Clipse haters to be high comedy (see the comments in the previous post for examples of what I mean), it seemed tremendously apropos that I should get sent a remix of their "Mr. Me Too" that combines the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) of both worlds: a little soulfulness + a little crackfulness. The result = a blend of the Clipse over Lee Fields' "Honey Dove." Thanks to Z.A.K. for the remix.
You can hate it now. Proceed.
By the way, what I find particularly funny about the people sniping at the Clipse CD is that, inevitably, one piece of "evidence" offered up for its weakness is the fact that bloggers like it. This makes a remarkable set of assumptions about who bloggers are...which I think it's pretty f***ing funny since, not to long ago, bloggers were basically making similar remarks about "writers" (i.e. dudes in print journalism), as if anything writers liked was suspect. Yet now, bloggers are the new (well, not so new) standard for poor (or at least, overhyped) taste, to such an extent that commentors (who basically are bloggers in small scale form. Think about that) will seemingly go out of their way to scrutinize something that too many of the wrong people seem to like.
C'mon people...who the f--- cares what bloggers (or anyone) has to say about it? Anytime you have to open up a post by saying, "I'm not buying into the hype" (or some variation on that), you're, in essence, jumping on a different bandwagon but it's still petty groupthink. Hating the Clipse is the new loving the Clipse.
And note: I don't care if you like the group or not. There are many valid reasons to dislike the Clipse. Other people liking them is not one of those reasons however.
By the way, I found the following on a message board and it's probably one of the most impressive pieces of music criticism I've seen yet on the Clipse (or any rap album) this year. On a message board. The game done changed.
Written by "James"
"I picked this up yesterday (full price, suckers—s’nothin’), and I think dudes trying to graft onto this record some overarching concept or some moral underpinning are reaching. I can appreciate the impulse, because for many reasons (reasons, it should be noted, that are being missed by many of the over-literal smart-dumb vivisectors around here who have mistaken all the hubbub for something having to do with originality or message or subject-verb agreement or some similarly irrelevant shit) this record doesn’t feel like just another record, but, I mean, come on now: When every expression of paranoia or regret is a single pea under mattress after mattress of coke, money, lifestyle, and coke-money lifestyle, reading it as a moral tale takes an unseemly amount of princeliness.
I think this insistence on the album’s progress or movement (from victim to victimizer, from underdog to top dog, from braggadocio to remorse, etc.) rings false because part of what’s really hitting me is the brilliant static quality of this record. Nothing on here goes anywhere. Every single song on this thing traces a very small circle--sell crack, get money, spend money, feel vague regret, but then get back to business--but traces it repeatedly, deeper every time, and with perfect focus. And it’s this repetition, this relentlessness, this inescapable acting-out of the same sequence and following the same circuit track after track after track that gives the whole thing its hypnotic gravity.
It makes no sense at all to hold up individual lyrics and say, “See, these guys are smart because they know that the crack game is destructive, they know that wealth has made them paranoid and incapable of love, and I know that they know because they say it once in this one song and again in this other and….” Please miss me with that shit. Whatever this record accomplishes, it does so not by talking about it, but by feeling like it. Just like Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” succeeds not because it says “Man, heroin sure is fucked” but because it feels magnetic and horrifying, or just like There’s A Riot Goin’ On succeeds not because it says “Fuck you, hippies—shit is real” but because it feels dystopian and personal and cauterized and utterly non-communal.
Hell Hath No Fury succeeds not by pointing out the traps of the crack game, but by feeling, on every conceivable level, trapped. Everything that happens in these songs feels like it's already happened--no real history, no important future, just...done. Time is flat. Everything just is. For all the references to jets and Europe and globe-trotting hither and yon, I hear no exterior at all in this record—it’s all driver’s seats and cockpits and showrooms and hotel rooms and front rooms and VIP rooms and rooms with walls that seem to be closing in because they are. It's the airtight coffin that won't let the body decompose, yunno? You won’t get that listening to one cut or quoting one verse; it's all in the accumulation. They keep piling on detail after detail because, after all, what else can they do? Shit just keeps coming, but their circle isn't getting any bigger.
And the music knows this, too. All the beats are big, but not one of them sounds open to me. Just like the lyrics, they all sound both inescapable and incapable of escaping themselves, just evil and broke-dick, grindstone after grindstone. No whole drums anywhere—those that are shiny are broken (the clipped cymbal fills in "Dirty Money"), and those that are healthy are obscured (the massive rolls buried alive under "Hello New World"). There’s all these bits of hand percussion beating cloven hooves under everything, and from the wheezing squeezebox in “Mama I’m So Sorry” to the muzzy keyboard nag in “Dirty Money” to the unintelligible spoken-word particulate that clogs some distant filter in the deep background of “Trill,” the whole thing just sounds enormous and syphilitic. As a setting for the above, it couldn’t be more perfect. I don’t expect to hear a record this good for quite a while."
Clipse: Ride Around Shining From Hell Hath No Fury (Jive/Zomba, 2006)
Clipse: Diana Ross From The Funeral (Elektra, unreleased, ~ 1997)
The new Clipse album is quite good. Even though it's not nearly as good as this, compared to this or this, it comes off a lot stronger. "Ride Around Shining" is one of the best tracks off a scant 12 songs and it begs the question: if the Neptunes are still capable of dropping beats like this, what happened on Pharrell's album? Just asking.
Speaking of the Clipse...I was listening to this earlier today and what came home like a ton of bricks (pick whattype) is not a new observation but one that bears repeating : the old model was someone like Jay-Z bragging about going from the crack game to the rap game and that his ability to master both is a sign of his ultimate hustler status. However, post-Clipse (and exemplified by Young Jeezy, Juelz Santana, et. al.), the new standard is that real hustlers never left the kitchen. Forget platinum plaques or gold records - it's all about Pyrex and baking soda. The real rappers don't see themselves as rappers - it's a remarkable pose.
Quick (and admittedly undercooked) thoughts: Is hip-hop the only lyric-based genre (in other words, excluding jazz or classical but including rock, blues, etc.) that calls attention to its own linguistic aesthetic? It's not like jazz divas shout themselves out by claiming, "check my range" or "step to my melisma and get bodied" Nor do blues singers moan about how their songwriting creativity is more morose than the next person's. It seems that hip-hop is inherently self-referential but maybe the fact that rappers have now moved away from wanting to focus on the fact that they're, you know, rapping, is actually pushing it closer in line with most of popular music. Chew on that and holler back.
In any case, I also put up a song from the Clipse's first (and unreleased) album for Eleketra: "Diana Ross." Interesting example of early Neptunes production and the Clipse's nascent attempts at craft their crack rap persona but believe me when I say that by the time they got to Lord Willin, it definitely came together better.
Here is some Real Talk™ about Nas, spotted over at Soul Strut:
"i don't understand why we keep expecting anything good from nas... the same s--- just keeps happening over and over again... nas is like a high schoool girlfriend that you associate all these good times with (illmatic), then you go off to college and s--- is still ok, but kind of weird (it was written), then you run into her during the holidays and it's great to see her (nas is like) so you decide to hang out (i am...) and you're like "i don't even know this person"... it keeps happening, every few years you run into each other (the jay-z beef, ether, made you look), and you think there could still be some sparks there (because there was that one time (god's son) you ran into each other at that bar had pretty good sex - even though it didn't quite have the same magic it once did, it was still good), so you hang out again (stillmatic, street's disciple, hip hop is dead), but it will just never be the same... at some point you just have to move on, and i think this is that point for me and nasir...
unless he puts out a really good single in a couple of years.
It is rather true...hip-hoppers of a certain generation (*cough cough* mine) keep a candle burning for Nas, waiting for...for...actually, I'm not sure what we're waiting for. Maybe we just want to stop being disappointed.
With that said...I'm not really mad at these two songs from Nas' upcoming album that have leaked so far. I won't say anything at length about either - you can listen and decide for yourself - but here's one thing I have to let off: "Hip Hop Is Dead," is produced by Will.I.Am and it uses, prominently, "In a Gadda Da Vida." "Thief's Theme," which came out two years ago, produced by Salaam Remi, also uses, prominently, "In a Gadda Da Vida." Notably, the two songs sample different versions of the original but, and let me just state this clearly...
IT'S THE SAME BASIC SAMPLE, ergo, the two songs sound like variations of one another.
I don't get it. Why is Nas (or Will or whoever) recycling the same song just two years later? It's not like they put a new spin on, say, "Halftime." Again, I don't get it.
Makeba and Scratch: Mama Feelgood From Mental Fitness (Nuff Said, 1991)
Look - I swear to god I'll stop updating stuff related to Jay-Z and what not, but I couldn't help but put this one up since I had just linked to this. Besides, I doubt too many of you have ever heard much from Makeba and Scratch (save you random rap fiends) and the minute this dropped over my speakers, I started laughing to myself. All this "who bit who" chatter needs to chill. Rap recycles - that's how it do. Question becomes who does the best with the materials at hand.
Whatever you may think of Barack Obama as a potential president, it's undeniable that his candidacy has spurred a reaction from the hip-hop community the likes that I haven't seen in a generation. I don't want to go off on the typical "rap these days is so apolitical, blah blah" routine but let's be honest about this - for the last eight years, in one of the most divisive political climates we've seen since the Vietnam War era, the amount of political content in hip-hop has been stagnant at best, regressive at worst. You can blame that on apathy (or equally/more likely - media consolidation that's cut off avenues of dissent in mainstream music) but whatever the case, it's only in the last few months that I've really seen a major change and that's largely because of Obama. 
