Rik Cordero, who seemingly directs every hip-hop video these days, is at it again. This time, he works with Kid Cudi and Consequence for Buggin’ Out ’09, the Tribe tribute that is part of J. Period’s ode to Q-Tip.
Category Archives: hip-hop
Public Enemy + The Roots: Bring the Noise
There’s really little that has to be said about this. Public Enemy and the Roots? Um, yes, please. Bravo to Jimmy Fallon.
Busdriver: Jhelli Beam tracklisting
Rarely am I ahead of the curve, but I did tell you back in February that the title of the forthcoming Busdriver album would be Jhelli Beam.
On Monday, Anti released the tracklisting, which includes guest spots from Islands’ Nick Thorburn, Deerhoof’s John Dietrich and Mikah 9 (!!).
Full tracklisting:
1. Split Seconds (Between Nannies and Swamis)
2. Me-Time (with The Pulmonary Palimpsets)
3. Handfuls Of Sky
4. Scoliosis Jones
5. Least Favorite Rapper (featuring Nocando)
6. Quebec And Back
7. Do The Wop
8. World Agape
9. Manchuria (featuring Mikah-9)
10. Unsafe Sextet/Gilded Hearts of Booklovers
11. Happy Insider (featuring Nick Thorburn)
12. I’ve Always Known
13. Fishy Face (featuring John Dietrich)
We eagerly await an mp3 …
In the meantime, you can read the story I wrote after interviewing the man himself.
Incoming: Del, April 11 + free album
In support of FunkMan, a free album he’s releasing on April 7, Del the Funky Homosapien is headlining the FunkMan tour, which stops at Marquee Theatre in Tempe on April 11. (I have yet to see any info on ticket prices.)
The bill includes Mike Relm, Bukue One and Serendipity Project. The tour also is stopping at Club Congress in Tucson on April 12 and the Green Room in Flagstaff on April 13.
While we wait for FunkMan’s free release, you can download two of Del’s Leak Packs here or listen to a track from FunkMan, Get it Right Now, at his MySpace.
New K-OS: 4 3 2 1 (video)
I had a lot of love for K-OS’ 2006 release Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, specifically for the catchy-as-hell single Sunday Morning. That was so long ago, he was spelling his name k-os … or maybe it was K-os. Hell, I can’t keep up.
The Canadian-based musician is returning with the full-length Yes!, due out March 31. The album’s first single is 4 3 2 1, a response of sorts to his friend Feist’s hit 1, 2, 3, 4. K-OS explains in the obligatory bio material: “I thought how interesting would it be to do a hip hop version of this song? It’s about the battle of the sexes, where I’m rapping ‘what are we fighting for?’ Is this gender war going to happen forever? It’s me saying I hope not.â€
The video is below (and you may recognize the loop as the same one from the Pharcyde’s Soul Flower.)
Tonight: DJ Z-Trip at Bar Smith
Bought my tickets on Tuesday for tonight’s Z-Trip outing at Bar Smith in downtown Phoenix. You can get ’em here if you haven’t already.
While we’re on the subject, Z-Trip is featured in comic-book form at BPM magazine with art by former AZ resident Jim Mahfood.
In more Z-Trip news, there’s a new video for the N.A.S.A. track The People Tree, featuring David Byrne, Chali 2na, the Gift of Gab and Z-Trip. Check it out below:
I Used to Love H.E.R.: Enoch of CYNE
The 40th 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 producer Enoch of Gainesville, Fla., hip-hop quartet CYNE, whose excellent 2005 album Evolution Fight was followed in ’08 by Pretty Dark Things (Hometapes).
Black Sheep
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (Mercury/PolyGram, 1991)
This is the first album that I ever knew word for word from front to back. Up to this point, I had been familiar with some hip hop records such as De La Soul, Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, mostly from my brother. But when a friend played me this album in 6th grade, it was over. Hip hop officially became the only thing I would listen to for many many years.
Black Sheep is such a fitting title for these guys, because in my eyes, they were just as talented as any of the other Native Tongue artists, but completely unappreciated. To this day, they still have the song that can spontaneously cause entire crowds to chant “Engine engine number 9, on the New York transatlantic line” but you would be hard pressed to find a lot of people in that same crowd who actually know what it is that they are listening to. This album has so many classic singles, such as Similak Child, Strobelite Honey, Flavor of the Month, and of course, The Choice is Yours, but the album cuts are just as great. Flawless production and amazing lyrics from Dres and Mista Lawnge.
Tha Alkaholiks
Coast II Coast (Loud/RCA Records, 1995)
So a couple years after I got hooked on hip hop, while I was more or less living at my friend’s house (the same one who turned me on to Black Sheep), we decided we were going to go see the Alkaholiks play. Now being that neither of us could drive and were not even remotely close to any sort of appropriate age for this sort of thing, his parents of course shut us down immediately. So we did what any self-involved teenagers would do: sneak out and catch a ride with an older kid. We get there and make our way to the front of the stage for the Alkaholiks set. Near the end, we look over and who do we see? My friend’s father, with steam coming out of his ears. He apparently figured out we snuck out and came to track us down. Now anyone who has seen the Alkaholiks play knows that the first few rows of the show can pretty much bank on getting covered in beer and all types of booze. So as if on cue, as soon as he starts walking toward us, all hell breaks loose and beer is being sprayed everywhere, including all over him. He drags us out, and on the way home while yelling at us, red and blue lights start flashing behind us. To make a long story short, my friend’s dad got pulled over and had to go through all kinds of sobriety tests to prove to the police that he wasn’t drinking and driving despite the fact he smelled like a keg party. Hilarious in retrospect. Oh, yeah, and this album is great.
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the 36 Chambers (Loud/RCA, 1993)
Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (Loud/RCA, 1995)
To me, the two best hip hop records ever, hands down. The reign of the Wu in the nineties is probably my favorite period of hip hop music, because it was just so incredible to hear what they would do next. They had so much style and substance and RZA was a machine with the production. Some of it was just so unorthodox at the time and it’s funny because 15 years later, you have producers like Just Blaze and Kanye who have used elements of the RZA formula to great success, which just goes to show how influential and timeless that style is.
Company Flow
Funcrusher Plus (Rawkus, 1997)
This is the record that made me get a sampler and start making beats. The whole DIY aesthetic that Co Flow brought to the table was very innovative for the time, because without a label, it was virtually impossible for most hip hop artists to be heard unless you lived in NYC or a major city, or were selling tapes out of your trunk like Too Short. So when indie labels like Rawkus, Fondle ‘Em, ABB and others started popping up, it was almost like a complete rebirth for hip hop in a sense. There was so much talent coming from the underground at that time that it was just incredible. Company Flow really spearheaded that in my eyes and it was their “Independent as Fuck” mantra that really gave me that push to pursue production.
(Note: This album will be reissued in May. More info here.)
J. Period & Q-Tip: The [Abstract] Best
As promised when he released the Excursions remix a couple weeks ago, producer J. Period has now unleashed his Q-Tip tribute The [Abstract] Best, a comprehensive and career-spanning mix that meshes an all-star lineup with classic Tribe clips and Q-Tip interviews.
Fair warning: The file unzips as 49 separate tracks and the artist tags reflect the many guests (one of my pet peeves), so unless you change the tags, you’ll want to order your iTunes library by album to listen to this in order.
On another note … while Q-Tip is undoubtedly one of my favorite artists in hip-hopmusic, this project reinforces something I’ve been thinking about lately: What is Phife’s legacy? There is a 30-second Respect to Phife Dawg interlude on the mix that almost seems forced. Granted, neither Phife nor Q-Tip will go down as technically sound MCs in the class of, say, Rakim or Nas, but it was their camaraderie and chemistry that made each other better. Just wondering: Are Phife’s contributions to A Tribe Called Quest being forgotten as the years pass?
[ZIP]: J. Period feat. Consequence and Kid Cudi | Buggin’ Out ’09
[ZIP]: J. Period feat. Talib Kweli, ?uestlove, Randy Watson | Youthful Expression ’09
Definitive Jux to reissue Funcrusher Plus
She probably didn’t know it at the time, but my wife got me one of the best gifts ever when she ordered Company Flow’s Funcrusher Plus for me in the first year or so of dating in 1997. Twelve years later, Definitive Jux, the label run by Co. Flow’s El-P, is reissuing what rightly should be considered an independent classic on May 5 in CD, vinyl and digital formats. The digital release will include the pre-1995 tracks Juvenile Techniques and Corners 94, as well as the last post-Funcrusher Plus songs Simple, DPA and Simian Drugs. The album, originally released on Rawkus (don’t ask El-P about that label) has been out of print since 2006; I still have my CD and I even kept the insert with questions you’re supposed to answer and mail back to the label.
At the time, in ’97, I’d been hung up and somewhat obsessed with the Native Tongues, Hieroglyphics and the like. Then Funcrusher Plus came along and pretty much rattled my brain, its desolate production and bleak verses pretty much living up to the album’s title. I’m still not sure I’ve completely wrapped my head around this album.
Check out Pitchfork for a great interview with El-P, Bigg Jus and Mr. Len about the news of the reissue.
N.A.S.A.: Hip Hop (video)
I’ve had the chance to give The Spirit of Apollo, set for release on Feb. 17, a couple listens, but I haven’t formed a full opinion on it just yet. The guest list is impressive, if not a little overwhelming.
While I think Samba Soul with Del and Q-Bert is one of the best tracks, Hip Hop is noteworthy for bringing together half of the Pharcyde (Slim Kid Tre and Fatlip) with KRS-One. (That said, I much prefer to spell hip-hop with the hyphen.)