1) "Awesome" - The Bloody Beetroots feat. The Cool Kids, from OK in Art
The Bloody Beetroots are awesome. They have a name that sounds like it belongs to either some arty indie band or some sort of early '80s comedy-punk outfit, but they're actually an Italian house duo. They wear Venom masks when they perform, and they're doing work with The Cool Kids, who, as everyone knows, can do very little wrong by me.
"Awesome" is a great mix of creepy horror movie distortions, glammy glittering synths and laid back rhymes. I feel like a cooler person for having heard this song.
2) "Don't Trust Me" - 3Oh!3 (Acid Girls Erotic Braille Dub), from Discodust
There was a time not too long ago where I actively shunned all things Top 40. I was that guy, where if a band that I already like suddenly "had a hit," I would stop listening to them.
Thankfully, I've mellowed with age, and every so often, I let a little stupid, Kiss FM-type pop in my life. Right now, that stupid pop is taking the form of 3Oh!3, a charming but not-overly-talented synthpop outfit from Denver. You've probably heard their moderately misogynistic hit "Don't Trust Me" coming playing over the loud speakers at Urban Behaviour. I can't help but like this song. It's really catchy.
When re-imagined by LA-based bloggers-turned-producers Acid Girls, though, "Don't Trust Me" mutates. It stops being cheery throwaway pop and turns into the bastard child of Giorgio Moroder and The Prodigy circa "Out of Space."
Forget summer picnics and beers on the beach, this version of the song makes me want to go somewhere dark and sweaty to take drugs and dance.
3) "Smart Niggas" - Big Twins feat. Krondon, from Nah Right
Sweet mother of shit this song is heavy.
Straight '90s-style New York shit, complete with beats by Alchemist. The main MC on this song sounds like he spent the day swallowing razor blades. I actually got a little nervous while listening to this.
If you wanted something that would make hip-hop a threat again, or something that would make M.O.P look like Soulja Boy, this is for you.
So, my pal and former partner in DJ-crime Vivian -- aka DJ Aunt Viv -- has been asking for song suggestions for an old-school hip-hop night she's doing in Busan, South Korea. (That's right, my homegirl's gone global.)
This inspired me to do a post of some of my favourite classic hip-hop tracks. Now, I realize that these songs aren't "old-school" hip-hop. In fact, they are part of hip-hop's "Golden Era," and were referred to as "new-school" hip-hop at the time. I'd also like to point out that if you're getting all uptight about the use of the term "old-school" to refer to hop-hop of the post Def Jam-era, you need to learn to relax.
1) "Spellbound" - K-Solo (1990)
K-Solo came to prominence as part of The Hit Squad, the crew of EPMD protegés that included Keith Murray, Das EFX, and most notably, Redman.
He had two moderate hit albums between 1990 and '92, then largely dropped off the face of the Earth for about six years. In 1998, DMX inadvertently forced him out of retirement.
At some point in the late '80s, the Darkman and K-Solo did time together. While in jail, they both battled each other and rhymed together. According to DMX, he gave K-Solo the idea of putting spelling into his rhymes while they were doing time together. Solo got out first, and recorded "Spellbound." Four years later, X released a song of the same title. In 1998, X had his first hit, "Get at Me Dog," where he told K-Solo to "suck [his] dick" for biting his idea. Solo responded with an mixtape track called "The Answer Back," DMX's big-label backing meant that Darkman effectively had the last word.
2) "Come Clean" - Jeru the Damaja (1994)
Jeru the Damaja is one of my favourite rappers of the Golden Era. His first two albums are sheer genius. If you haven't heard The Sun Rises in the East or Wrath of the Math, do yourself a favour and get a hold of both of those albums now.
Like K-Solo, Jeru came up by riding the coattails of an established hip-hop act, in this case Gang Starr. Gang Starr's DJ Premier did most of the production work on his first two albums, including "Come Clean," where Primo sampled the sound of a leaking faucet, then distorted it to make the sound you hear in the song.
At his best, Jeru managed to seamlessly blend anti-gangsta conscious-rap, Five Percenter theology -- although Jeru identifies himself not as a Five Percenter, but as a member of the Ausar Auset Society -- and straight stream of consciousness.
Later in his career, Jeru would part ways with Gang Starr, and the quality of his work would diminish as a result. (2003's Divine Design was straight-up mediocre.) But his first two albums have stood the test of time, and his performance at 2004's Toronto Hip-Hop Peace and Unity Festival was one of the best live hip-hop shows I've ever seen.
3) "Passin' Me By" - The Pharcyde (1992)
This song stands on its own. I'm just going to shut up.
So, I skipped Old Shit Sunday this week because I was in London -- the dull one, not the good one -- interacting with the in-laws. Sorry about that.
1) "Kiss of Life" - Friendly Fires, from Bigstereo
If I ever meet DJ A-Trak, I'll have to thank him for introducing me to half of the new music I've gotten into over the last six months. DiskJokke, who was in this blog last week, DJ Gant-Man and The Friendly Fires were all introduced to me through the two mix CDs A-Trak released earlier this year, Infinity + 1 and Fabriclive .45. If you haven't heard either mix, I suggest you make changing that a priority.
I was aware of The Fires before, but wrote them off as some sort of wanky hipster band without ever really listening to them. That was a huge mistake. It goes to show that you shouldn't pre-judge music, because you could wind up missing some really great stuff.
The Friendly Fires are like the dance-rock band that irony forgot, which is great. As much as I like all that DFA disco-punk stuff, it occasionally felt like some of the bands in that scene were too interested in being cool, rather than filling dance floors. The Fires, on the other hand, are all about getting on the floor and going hard. "Kiss of Life" is the first single on their as-of-yet unreleased second album,
2) "URgencia" - Manusa and Prince Abraham for CIAfrica, from Dutty Artz
CIAfrica is a new French-based label that specializes in urban music from Cote D'Ivoire. I don't know much about Manusa and Prince Abraham, but "URgencia" is a terrifying, anxiety-inducing chunk of Africanized post-grime. It's the sort of song that, as a some-time DJ, I'd love to play in a club, but at the same time, I'd be terrified to play it in front of a crowd of any size for fear people would start punching each other in the face.
Take Lethal B's famous 2004 fight-starting anthem "Pow," then feed it a metric tonne of meth. "URgencia" is that crazy.
2Horsemen are Brazilian, which is almost enough for me. I can't think of a Brazilian band that I don't like: CSS, Bonde do Role, Ratos de Porão, Black Alien and Speed, all excellent outfits. If Brazil is good at one thing, it's making music. That and soccer.
"Momen7um" is a tight electro-house number, with oddly Black-era APop EBM overtones. It's funky enough to pack dancefloors, but dark enough to keep things interesting. A guaranteed winner.
