Category Archives: hip-hop

People Under the Stairs: The Om Years

I really need to pay better attention to the weekly Tuesday release lists because it’s inevitable I’ll miss something like the jam-packed goodness of People Under the Stairs’ The Om Years collection, which came out this past week.

Granted, “the Om Years” lasted for just three records and various singles. But great records they are from Double K and Thes One, who are planning to release their sixth album, Fun DMC, in September on Gold Dust Media.

Of course, I’m never sure what to make of best-of collections – a throwaway contract obligation usually is my first thought. “Hey, here’s all the songs you already have plus one more! Buy it again, won’t you?” Weak. At least PUTS’ The Om Years (available on eMusic) comes with a second disc full of B-sides and rarities. Emusic even separates the discs into separate album downloads so you can just snag the second disc if you already own the released goods (I do).

And if you don’t own anything by People Under the Stairs, this is a fine way to introduce yourself. These guys are the epitome of California cool – laid-back beats and verses that celebrate the mellow side of West Coast living and obsessive crate digging.

Stream the The Om Years collection here.

  • People Under the Stairs | Big Daddy Brown

(From B-sides/rarities side)

  • People Under the Stairs | Youth Explosion

(From first disc and originally from Question in the Form of an Answer)

Public Enemy: Rebel Without a Pause at Pitchfork

I feel a little less peeved about not being able to make it to Chicago this year for the Pitchfork Festival now that the blossoming media conglomerate is offering high-quality videos taken from its live feed of the event.

Man, I wish Public Enemy, performing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, would take this show on the road … um, well, not that they’d really want to ever come back to Arizona.

This looks just awesome, even if Flavor Flav is just a caricature of himself … whatever that self used to be.

New Murs and 9th Wonder: Sweet Lord

URB drops the news of an upcoming (free?) Murs and 9th Wonder record called Sweet Lord.

That’s some smart marketing by Murs, whose major-label debut, Murs for President, drops (allegedly) in late September. Judging on a few of the comments after I posted the lead single off that album, y’all might be happier with this 9th Wonder collab.

Murs keeps it real for all you gearheads: “I hear you talkin’, I hear you fools / ’cause we left Cool Edit and switched to Pro Tools.

UPDATE: Get the full album for free at mursand9thwonder.com (Thanks, Chris).

  • Murs and 9th Wonder | Sweet Lord (the intro)

Sundays with A Tribe Called Quest: Vol. 4

A lot of folks were buzzing about the news that Lil Wayne copped a sample by A Tribe Called Quest from a fairly unknown remix album for new song A Milli.

This YouTube video attempts to explain it all:

The Tribe track comes off a remix album called Revised Quest for the Seasoned Traveller. It’s not as rare as the YouTuber makes it out to be (I have it on CD and vinyl). It was released on Jive in 1992 so the tracklisting contains early Tribe material, including a remix of If the Papes Come (never released on a proper Tribe album). The album is worth tracking down if only for the “Hootie Mix” of Bonita Applebum.

Anyway, the song in question is I Left My Wallet in El Segundo (Vampire Mix), which contains one of the more intriguing credits on the album: “Remixed by Norman Cook.” Yeah, that Norman Cook.

My guess is that if Lil Wayne robbed the sample without clearance, he probably has the cash to cover the costs.

(Thanks to Eric for the heads up.)

The Pharcyde: Runnin’ (Philippians remix)

One of the Pharcyde’s best songs gets the remix treatment as part of Delicious Vinyl’s RMXXOLOGY series (eMusic), which also includes mixes of Bust a Move, Wild Thing and Slaughtahouse, among others.

I honestly don’t know much about the Philippians, but I feel like they treated this coming-of-age track with the proper respect it deserves by not butchering the original flow of the verses, which, frankly, are some of the most fluid the Pharcyde have done. Fatlip’s opening verse is top notch.

Yameen: Never Knows Best (sampler mixtape)

Back in, oooh, 1995 or so, I spent a lot of my free time (and not-so-free time) on what would soon become known as “the Internet.” Specifically, I went to my college’s computer lab and logged on to hieroglyphics.com obsessively. More specifically, the Hiero Hoopla message board. I traded so many tapes it’s insane. I have some great mixes and freestyles and unreleased sh*t from those days, I really should be digitizing all that.

The site’s Webmaster was known simply as Stinke. I never thought I’d think of his name again until we exchanged emails in the past year about SupremeEx, his collaboration with Tajai of Souls of Mischief. (He also reminded me of some horribly written Hiero concert “reviews” I once posted to the message board. Yeah, thanks for that.)

Now, he’s got his own project under the name Yameen. The record is called Never Knows Best (Ropeadope), and it’s got a stellar cast of guest spots: Casual, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Shock G (SHOCK G! … if you don’t know), among others.

I haven’t listened to it in full, but it’s available everywhere, including eMusic.

In the meantime, you can download for free an album sampler mixtape by DJ Statik.

edIT: The Game is Not Over (feat. J Dilla, Phat Kat and Dabrye)

Head over to Rcrd Lbl to download the latest from Los Angeles-based DJ/producer edIT, who was previously featured for a Grouch remix on this site here.

On that note, edIt and his Glitch Mob crew are comin’ to town: Aug. 28 at Club Red for a set at the long-running weekly spot the Blunt Club.

The Q-Tip news does not stop

Between my Sundays with Tribe posts and this new Q-Tip song, I’m getting pretty amped for this new record The Renaissance.

If there was any question that this album would ever surface, we have some more tangible proof that it will in the form of this Los Angeles Times interview with Q-Tip.

Chills: “The verdict: ‘The Renaissance’ marks a return to form that rivals Q-Tip’s best work on Tribe’s beloved 1993 album, ‘Midnight Marauders.’

Read the story here. Then check out a Times blog post about Tip working with … Nigel Godrich?

(Thanks to Weiss for letting us know that Mark Ronson did this beat and for that photo.)

Sundays with A Tribe Called Quest: Vol. 3

Thanks to The Meaning of Dope for this one.

Youthful Expression comes off Tribe’s debut, People’s Instinctive Travels and Paths of Rhythm (1990). And judging by the garb and props – is Phife twirling a didgeridoo? – this definitely shows Tribe’s early Afrocentric leanings.

And I can’t be sure of this, but Youthful Expression has to be one of the few tracks in which one of the group’s MCs doesn’t have a verse. (Sorry, Phife.)

azcentral.com: Hieroglyphics preview

As promised, my preview story on the Hieroglyphics show for July 15 is published at azcentral.com.

My interview with Tajai, who pretty much serves as the head of the Hiero Imperium label, was very enlightening – not only did it sound like he was entertaining his daughter in the background, but he was pretty forward about the ups and downs of operating a self-sustained label. I appreciated his honesty and frankness about it all.

One of my favorite quotes from the interview:

“I hope fans bear with us. It’s got to be frustrating being a Hiero fan. I just wish people could understand the time and effort and hard work that go into any endeavor, but especially one as serious as a record label. It’s really no joke. It’s a lot of work.”

Buy your tickets ($17) for the show at Ticket Web.

  • Hieroglyphics | Classic