The 47th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from Paul Edwards, author of How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, a 340-page book containing analysis, advice and guidance about, well, rapping, culled from interviews with more than 100 emcees. For his entry, Edwards picked five of his favorite tracks by emcees he interviewed for the book, which has a companion YouTube channel that features fascinating audio clips from his interviews.
How to Rap (Chicago Review Press) is available at bookstores and Amazon. Soak up the book’s website and read an interview with Edwards – who holds a master’s degree in postmodernism, literature and contemporary culture from the University of London – at the Amoeba blog.
Big Daddy Kane – Set It Off Kane is one of my favorite MCs and the first verse of Set It Off is probably my favorite verse of his. It’s a master class in MCing coupled with a great beat, so you can’t really go wrong. I think if you’re a student of MCing you could study this track alone and learn so much. Amazing rhythms, vocal projection, breath control, clever lines, the works.
It used to be standard on golden age Hip-Hop albums for an MC to just go on a rampage for at least one track, just showing off techniques, usually at a fast pace, too. Tracks like Set It Off, Kool G Rap’s Men at Work and Rakim’s Lyrics of Fury.
It would be dope if more newer MCs would try that – even just one track on the album where there’s no chorus, just relentless lyricism. I think it has to have a fast pace and really be crammed full of flows and witty lines with an energetic delivery to work though, otherwise it can just sound like a slow, lazy 500 bars worth of nothing!
Check out this clip where Kane talks about how he wrote Set It Off, mentioning that it’s his favorite of his own tracks. Also, if you weren’t up on the original meaning of “freestyle,” Kane explains that, too. So now you know!
Pharoahe Monch – Simon Says This is a great combination of beat, chorus, and verses – everything fits. I like that it’s in the guise of a big single with a big chorus, but he also slips in extra levels of complexity.
He does the “NY city-gritty-committee-pity” run of rhymes at the end of the chorus and the “some might even say this song is sexistest” part is both witty (commenting on his own chorus within the song) and intricate flow-wise at the same time. And all on a hit single!
One of the things I really miss from back in the day was that you could have hits with big choruses that also had hard beats and stellar MCing on them – songs like Simon Says, Hip-Hop Hooray and Night of the Living Baseheads come to mind. Wu-Tang’s Triumph was a hit and it didn’t even have a chorus. Today it feels like you either make a huge, simple club hit, or you stay underground and get complex. But it’s definitely possible to do both and I think that’s the ideal kind of Hip-Hop single.
Check out Pharoahe talking about writing the song:
Das EFX – Mic Checka This is another great example of a single that had complex flows and styles and was still a big track – it had a lot of clever references in there as well.
I think some of the punchlines in the track are similar to what is popular today, except Das EFX would flow rings around a lot of today’s popular rappers. I think many of the guys today underestimate the average fan’s ability to keep up with a complex flow and feel that they have to talk slowly over a track so that you’ll hear all the clever punchlines.
I don’t think you have to sacrifice interesting, intricate rhythms just so people can hear the line really clearly. I definitely know I appreciated hearing the mad styles Das EFX were kicking first of all and then I caught all the references on repeated listens—while some of the stuff today doesn’t grab me initially like that, so I’m not even bothered about checking out what they’re saying. Today’s guys have some very witty punchlines, I just wish they’d marry that to a high technical level of flow more often.
Check out how Dray from Das EFX keeps his flow interesting:
Royce da 5’9” – Boom Royce is one of the newer MCs who I think has a very strong grasp of flow, especially with making whole lines rhyme and keeping it tightly in the pocket. He doesn’t do crazy rhythms like a Tech N9ne or Das EFX, but he keeps it at a level of complexity where the flow is interesting and sophisticated. He sounds great over a Primo beat and I think he’s the kind of MC that up-and-coming artists would do well to study – he’s an MC first and foremost and he respects the craft and the pioneers.
Royce talks about today’s MCs and older MCs:
Tech N9ne – Welcome to the Midwest Tech N9ne is like a mad scientist of flow, and the first verse on this track is just insane. He’s got a lot of crazy verses and styles, but this track stands out to me in particular.
In this clip Tech explains his process for coming up with flows … it’s like a variation of Jazz scatting, but with the rhythms ramped up to a hundred.
I think by encouraging new MCs to study and find out about the different creative processes, MCing can keep expanding. I think the love for the art and the respect for what has been created and mastered so far is key, and I think Tech N9ne is an example of someone who has put in the work to gain mastery of the craft. Even with songs of his that I’m not crazy about, I can still hear the level of technique and mastery in his writing and delivery and I’d like to see more people with his talent pushed to the fore.
On his sophomore release, Everything Changed Nothing, up-and-coming L.A. rapper Trek Life reps his home city to the fullest, with at least three songs – one appropriately named So LA – serving as obvious odes to the City of Angels.
But Due West is a little different, a thoughtful narrative that steers away from cliched shout-outs and instead gives listeners “a good perspective on the black migration to Cali,” Trek says.
“I’ve always wanted to get into the history of Cali more and more since it seems like, from a rap perspective, Cali (LA specifically) only really goes as deep as the early 80’s.”
The chorus-less track rides a soulful horn loop – courtesy of Oddisee, who produced the album – as Trek reels off an inspiring verse that doubles as a history lesson.
Read more on Trek Life at the LA Times (natch) in a Q&A with Jeff Weiss, who turned me on to this great album.
The 46th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from Chris DeLine, the man behind the long-running and rather prolific (not to mention excellent) blog, Culture Bully. Chris shares with us “a few songs that helped shape my interest in hip hop.”
Maestro Fresh Wes – Let Your Backbone Slide
I don’t remember where or when I first heard it, I just remember that Let Your Backbone Slide has practically always been a part of my life. From what Wikipedia tells me the song was pretty popular state side as well as in Canada, but living north of the border for the majority of my life I can tell you that it stands as one of the few non-Tragically Hip songs that I can think of to be celebrated on such a level. Think Funky Cold Medina x Wild Thing in terms of its chances of being played at a party.
Coolio – Fantastic Voyage
Coolio came along at a time when I had practically zero interest in hip hop – for the most part I practically only listened to dance music; there were some exceptions like the Spin Doctors, Counting Crows & Aerosmith, but nine times out of 10 that’s what was in the cassette player. I was somewhere around 10 or 11 years old when Fantastic Voyage came along and at the time it was the playful (and sexy) music video which complemented the funky bounce of the song that really hooked me; something that was repeated on a similar level (sans sexy) with Coolio’s equally enjoyable 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New) in 1995. I remember that I kept this tape in the drawer of my desk rather than putting it on the self with my other music for fear that I’d somehow get in trouble if one of my parents saw the parental advisory sticker on the cover. Not that they were particularly interested in browsing through my music collection, but when you’re 10 and you have something that has a sticker on it explicitly warning parents about its contents, the item carries with it some sense of danger. Regardless of what kind of fame-whore, Juggalo wannabe Coolio’s evolved into, if it weren’t for tracks like Fantastic Voyage I would likely have never gained a similar ear for like-sounding rhymes and beats.
House Of Pain feat. Guru – Fed Up (remix) When I was in grade school I was on a competitive hockey team; I think I played for three or four seasons until my family had to move and I ended up quitting (I thought we moved for financial reasons … which we did, downsizing in many aspects of our life … so I told my parents I just didn’t want to play anymore. Years later this came up in discussion and apparently we weren’t hurting to the point where I had to quit. A shame in hindsight). One of the best memories I have was the team dynamic that was shared for a couple of seasons. While players moved up and down divisions based on their skill level, for at least two of those years I played with the same core group of kids. Never underestimate the power of winning to bring people together. Our warm-up music was made up of a selection dance music tapes … which in retrospect is absolutely ridiculous when you think about it … then again, acts like 2 Unlimited offered some pretty ill jock-jams back in the day. One of the favorites that came out of this was House of Pain’s Jump Around; or at least the edited version that we had on our K-Tel Dance Mix ‘93 tapes. A few years later I was becoming increasingly interested in music and finding out what else was out there. The local library had a scattered selection of CDs to browse through so I typically ended up just snatching a dozen or so at a time, regardless of whether or not I knew what they were, and taking them home for a listen. On one trip I picked up House of Pain’s last album, 1996’s Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again. Granted, most all of it went right over my head and to this day I couldn’t tell you what the record sounds like … with one exception, that is. The remix of Fed Up really hit a spot with me then, and remains one of my favorite House of Pain tracks to this day (though in all honesty, the list of my favorite House of Pain songs isn’t a lengthy one). The song was also my introduction to Guru.
Beastie Boys – Root Down (live at Tibetan Freedom Concert) In 1997 I wasn’t old enough to gain a knowledgeable understanding of what exactly was going on in Tibet, or why musicians were lobbying for Tibet to be free (whatever that meant), but I was old enough to recognize that the lineup on the three-disc Free Tibet collection was sick enough to pony up the cash for. In retrospect there are far more bands on the 36-track mix that I’m interested in now than I was then … for those who aren’t familiar I’d recommend checking it out as the lineup offers a great cross section of musicians from that period. Despite the laundry list of fantastic musicians on the comp., back in ‘97 I ended up spending quite a lot of time with Beasties & Root Down. The version might not be too different from the original, but the variation caught enough of my ear that it led me to spend a lot more time with the group. For a number of years Intergalactic was practically my favorite song, and strange enough, I might not have been so attracted to it had I never stood in a music store wondering what the hell Tibet was.
Funkmaster Flex & Wu-Tang Clan – Lay Your Hammer Down When I was in high school things weren’t really working for me: I didn’t particularly care about my grades, sports failed to hold my interest and the relationships I had with other kids were becoming increasingly superficial. I had heard about a program you could go into to work rather than take classes (essentially I’d go to school half the year, work the other half), and given my options I took that route. I went to work as a cook and for a couple years I met some ridiculous characters. That said, I was turned onto some great music along the way. Punk, rap & rave were key practically every day in the kitchen (oh, and James Brown… a lot of James Brown), and it was during this phase that I really latched on to Wu-Tang; I was familiar with the group before, but hadn’t really ever listened to any solo albums to that point. For the next couple years I remember Method Man being my favorite MC & Ol’ Dirty Bastard remains to this day one of the all-time greats in my book. While songs like Triumph and Protect Ya Neck are some of the best around and Bring The Pain was my favorite at the time, it was tracks like this Funkmaster collaboration that led me to dig a little deeper into the archives.
On a weekend road trip to Newport Beach in June, a friend and I made a well-timed stop in LA and caught the first show in almost a decade of the recently reunited Freestyle Fellowship, hip-hop icons and forebears of the art/jazz rap movement of the ’90s.
I’d seen Aceyalone back in the day, but never FF in full, and it turned out to be quite the show. With Nocando and Busdriver opening, the impact of Freestyle Fellowship’s 20 years in the game was readily apparent.
And judging by the reception, fans were eager to embrace the reunion of Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E. and Self Jupiter. I have yet to see a release date for the new album, The Promise, but the group released a single off it this week, On This Earth.
For as bleak as El-P’s music can be, there’s a strangely uplifting ending to this video for Time Won’t Tell, a track off the recently released Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3.
The official info tells us that the video “is inspired by a childhood memory of director Shan Nicholson, who grew up in the ‘Old New York’ during a time when necessity often bred creativity. This video depicts a young boy innocently finding a way to embrace his imagination amid an urban wasteland.”
At the risk of absolutely jinxing it, I’ve been exchanging emails recently with Zilla Rocca, working to extract him from Philly and introduce his talents to the Phoenix scene. If nothing else, I want to meet in person the man who can find it in his heart to name-check Toni Kukoc in a verse.
Until that day comes (late September maybe?), there’s plenty of Zilla’s material to familiarize yourself with, especially his work in 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers, the long-distance, rap noir collaboration between his rhymes and Douglas Martin’s on-point beats. (Fact: Even after releasing last year’s debut The Slow Twilight, the two have yet to meet face-to-face. Thanks, Internet, for making this possible.)
Earlier this year, the Shadowboxers unveiled Broken Clocks, an EP comprised of remixes and new cuts that’s been on heavy rotation around here.
One of the tracks, No Resolution 2 – featuring Has-Lo, Elucid and Nico the Beast – now has a 12 Angry Men-themed video companion.
If you’ll indulge me in a song I’ve posted about before – twice. But my wife and I spent most of Wednesday cleaning out what we call the “computer room,” our catch-all space where we keep everything from the primary computer to an elliptical machine to a bookshelf with my (unopened!) Michael Jordan Starting Lineup figure (this one).
It’s a room that was a comfortable mess – until it became an uncomfortable mess. It was the type of room in which you only remembered where something was in relation to the clutter around it: “Oh, that unused checkbook is in the same drawer as the three-hole punch!” (Why do we own a three-hole punch anyway?). There was just stuff everywhere – CDs, wires, papers, 45s. I’m not talking Hoarders-style mess, but it became overwhelming enough that we were inspired to purge. And it became readily apparent as we were cleaning that this room was an electronics graveyard, a dusty museum of dated technology. Long-dead hard drives and orphaned AC adapters finally met their maker. RIP.
Still, like anything, there’s a certain trepidation to letting go. Oh, sure, we hung on to our fair share of cables (“I’ll need this some day”, you tell yourself), but we finally took a stand, and god damn it we’re going to recycle those cell phones from 1998! Why, though, did I feel a certain loyalty to these inanimate objects? For the past month, I’d been cursing that good-for-nothing, motherfucking scroller ball in our Mac Mighty Mouse that absolutely refused to respond when I wanted to scroll down. (Strangely, it didn’t respond either when I slammed it on the desk two or three – or 10 – times.) But when it came time to, uh, pull the plug, something felt odd. You invest money and faith in this technology only to throw it away like an ATM receipt? I expected more, I guess.
All the while, I could only think of the Meanest Man Contest song, Throwing Away Broken Electronics, a fitting soundtrack for the day. And I remembered what emcee Eriksolo told me when I asked him about the inspiration for the track:
“I was cleaning out my house one day and I came across all this old gear that I used to make music on but was no longer really working right. It made me really nostalgic and sorta melancholy. But then it also felt really good to get rid of it.”
As I sit here, typing from the cleanest I’ve ever seen this desk, no truer words have ever been spoken.
It hardly seems fair, all this talent sprouting from Los Angeles’ fertile underground hip-hop scene. From Project Blowed to Low End Theory and spots in between, LA fosters original and progressive movements that are the envy of other cities.
One of the rising stars of the scene is Open Mike Eagle, a former third- and fourth-grade special-ed teacher and Project Blowed alum who in May released his debut full-length, Unapologetic Art Rap on Mush Records. In placing it fourth on his list of Best Rap Albums of the Half Year, embedded LA scribe Jeff Weiss describes UAR as “the rare contemporary rap record that rewards (and demands) repeat listening.” He’s right, of course. Open Mike Eagle raps with contextual depth and mature self-reflection. In other words, he makes you think … and stuff.
Check out I Rock above, a song that lays out the cruel realities of trying to make a living as a teacher by day and rapper by night. Neither seems a very financially solvent path, even when combined. So do yourself – and Open Mike Eagle – a favor and plop down $8 on Sunday at the Hidden House (607 W. Osborn in Phoenix) to see him open for Canadian emcee Moka Only on the Fake Four Summer Tour, brought to you buy Universatile Music.
For more on Mike Eagle, read Weiss’ Q&A with him at LA Weekly.
If you blinked, you might have missed Cut Chemist’s three-second cameo in the 2009 movie Up in the Air, which I finally saw a few days ago. But Cut is about to ramp up his visibility this year, starting with the July 27 release of a new mix, Sound of the Police.
Originally intended to be a one-time performance for the Mochilla Timeless series, Sound of the Police was created using just one turntable, a mixer, a loop pedal and original vinyl pressings.
“The music chosen for this mix goes quite a bit deeper into the crate than his other contributions. Driven by his passion for Ethiopian, Colombian, Sudanese and Afro-Brazilian sounds, this mix also features a few classic tunes you might recognize. Sound Of The Police puts it all in context to help the listener remember that hip-hop culture is indeed rooted in Africa.”
Harnessing the democratic power of the Internet, legendary hip-hop producer Prince Paul has unearthed a previously unreleased album – Horror City – to share some 15 years after its creation. Is 2010’s best hip-hop album actually from 1995?
Thanks to Twitter and Sendspace, a producer with one of the most impressive resumes in the game dusts off a gem that apparently was slept on (foolishly) by labels back in the day. And I’ll just echo what The Fader had to say: If this is material Prince Paul has been hanging onto all this time, can you imagine what else we haven’t heard?
The download for the 11-track album includes cover art and a brief history about the project from Prince Paul (copied without edits below):
This was a project that I wanted to put together with Amityville MC legend Superstar . as I thought about it more I wanted to recruit more Mcs we knew to make it diverse . Superstar already had the name “Horror City” so wen recorded under that name . This project was recorded right after the first Gravedigga album ” 6ft deep” in 1995 . I shopped the demo but unfortunately it got looked over and never got signed . I sat on this project for a while but it always had a dear place in my heart because I thought it was really good and the talent was there . I stripped some of the music from the demo and put it on ” a prince among thieves” and actually had a few of the guys perform on the ” Thieves ” album as well but to be honest I always liked these originals better . So now I have decided share these songs with all of you because holding on to them made no sense .. why not share great music . Hopefully you the listener will enjoy this project as much as I do . please share it , thats why I made this for free download . For more group info please log on to http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000981527022 for a proper bio of “Horror City “
Horror City tracklisting: 1. War Party Intro
2. Play it Close
3. Pain
4. You Got Flow
5. Take it How You Want it
6. Big Sha
7. Tattles Tale
8. Horror City Terrorists (freestyle)
9. MC Hustler (original)
10. Headbounty
11. War Party Outro
The 47th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from Paul Edwards, author of How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, a 340-page book containing analysis, advice and guidance about, well, rapping, culled from interviews with more than 100 emcees. For his entry, Edwards picked five of his favorite tracks by emcees he interviewed for the book, which has a companion YouTube channel that features fascinating audio clips from his interviews.
