Category Archives: hip-hop

hip-hop, i used to love h.e.r.

I Used to Love H.E.R.: Man Man

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The 25th 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 (read intro), comes from Man Man drummer Pow Pow, who was cool enough to put this together before the band headed out on an extensive tour in support of its new album Rabbit Habits.

Man Man plays the Brickhouse in Phoenix on Sunday with Yeasayer. (Buy tickets.)

3 feet high and risingDe La Soul
3 Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy, 1989)
It’d be best to start with this record. 3 Feet High and Rising was the first record that made me want to be in a “band” and make a record. The record was way ahead of its time. It has a constant fun & positive vibe to the entire record. There’s interludes and funny skits. There’s AMAZING beats and rhymes. It wasn’t just one MC. It was a group. It has a free “do whatever you want” kinda attitude about it without coming off as too too artsy or too abstract. It made me understand the importance of putting together a cohesive record that jumps around in styles and direction and NEVER once takes itself too seriously. It’s well thought out. It sounds like a collaboration. AND…..

Then there’s the cherry on top….. The album cover.

This record cover was the start of my obsession with fluorescent colors. I started wearing these types of colors when this record came out. Fluorescent yellow. Fluorescent pink. Fluorescent orange. I remember drawing them raw looking hippie flowers all over my schoolbooks.

[VIDEO]: 3 Feet High and Rising press kit.

push itSalt-n-Pepa
Push It (single, 1986)

This single was probably the 1st song that made me start playing music. The keyboard/synth lines in this song are so unbelievably catchy !!!!

Hearing it over and over again on the radio made me want to play an instrument. Period. It got me hooked on beats and melodies.

I bought a Casio SK-1 so I could learn how to play this on a keyboard. I would play back the song over and over and over and over again until I learned the melodies front to back. This was most likely when I realized I could easily teach myself how to play an instrument.

The lyrics are great, straightforward party lyrics !! I was really young when i first heard this, so it made me feel cool listening to it cause they were talking about SEXXX !!!

Salt-N-Pepa. YESSSSSS !!!!

arrhythmiaAntipop Consortium
Arrhythmia (Warp Records, 2002)
This record is oozing creativity everywhere.

The beats on this ???!? The beats sound like nothing before it. A pleasant awkwardness. Brilliant, fun, colorful verses. A fresh new take on hip hop.

Another record that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet is totally successful in seeking and destroying. This record has the perfect mix of glitched out beats, creative verses, catchy keyboard lines & tough ass bubbling bass.

It’s too bad they split up because this is by far one of my most listened to records and they were one of my favorite bands at the time. AMAZINGLY huge influence !!!!!

  • Antipop Consortium | Ping Pong
hip-hop, video

Yo! MTV Raps 20th anniversary

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I’ve been pretty absorbed the past couple days with MTV’s online presence celebrating the 20th anniversary of Yo! MTV Raps. And on Tuesday night, I saw an interview on MTV’s Sucker Free with De La Soul.

It’s always a tad hazardous to reminisce about hip-hop’s “golden age” of the late 80s/early 90s because it’s easy to overlook some of the great artists of today. But I certainly feel lucky to have developed a taste for hip-hop in that time. And there’s no doubt watching hours of Yo! MTV Raps can be thanked for that. (I feel sorry for you if you’ve never seen the Ed Lover Dance.) And I think you’ll notice a lot of the entries in the I Used to Love H.E.R. series reflect the importance of the time.

Without launching into some thesis on the Importance of Yo! (MTV has that handled), it’s fair to say that the show gave rap/hip-hop the mainstream outlet it deserved and offered suburban white kids (me) a bit of a voyeuristic view into the culture.

I’d highly recommend delving into the classic music videos page MTV has offered as a primer.

Below is one of my favorites, Buddy by De La Soul (and friends).

hip-hop, interview

Interview with Blueprint

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I had a chance at last year’s Paid Dues Festival to chat with Blueprint, a solo emcee from Columbus, Ohio, and the man who teams with RJD2 to form Soul Position. (So I’m posting it only eight months later!)

Blueprint’s last solo record, 1988, was released on Rhymesayers in 2005. He says he’ll be shopping around his next release, titled Adventures in Counter Culture (at least that was the name of it in August). In the meantime, he’s offering a free mix called The Best of Blueprint, a collection of singles he’s put out through the years solo and with Soul Position.

  • Blueprint | Lo-Fi Funk

[ZIP]: Blueprint | The Best of Blueprint

Q: Any guests on the new record?
A: “None. Zero. I’m going for self, man.”

Q: What about production?
A: “I’m doing everything. Every single note. There’s no samples on it, so I wrote the whole album musically. Then I’m going back and adding live musicians to replay the melodies. I sample them out, chop them up and put ’em back in and make it sound more hip-hop. There’s no samples. It’s all original music. It’s got way stronger songwriting than what I’ve usually done. That’s my goal. To be the best songwriter.”

Q: Are you going to work with RJ again?
A: “The way we do albums is Soul Position, RJ solo, Blueprint solo. So it’s my turn. So as soon as I get mine out the way we’ll come back. … By time I finish my record, I’ll start writing the next Soul Position.”

Q: RJ took a lot of heat for his new record (The Third Hand). What are your thoughts?
A: “I think RJ is an amazing artist because he’s got balls a lot of artists don’t have. A lot of artists are afraid. They put out the same record every time. I think that’s what’s wrong with underground hip-hop and music in general. All of us, all of us – I’m not picking on anybody – are content with making an underground rap record. And that’s good enough. At some point we need to understand that underground records only appeal to underground rap fans.

“I feel like RJ was one of the first dudes in the genre who was like, you know what, obviously, my catalog shows that I know more than that. And he did something that was so far outside the box, that some people who were looking for an underground rap record might not fuck with it. But I think what he gained, the perception or being viewed as an artist, is worth more than doing another cliché rap record, or underground instrumental record in his case.

“Nobody wants to do another Endtroducing. Endtroducing’s been done. He could never go back to it. He could never do it. Shadow can’t. RJ can’t. … Underground hip-hop, it’s on the backs of the artists who want to push it forward. There’s always someone who does a record that sounds just like the last record.

“Why are we not making music that encompasses our influences as opposed to rejecting it … for the sake of underground hip-hop, which is like, ‘Keep it grimy, keep it real.’ Man, fuck that.”

Q: It’s like a safe zone.
A: “Right, it’s fucking safe. I see it now and I’m not gonna be safe anymore. My next record is going to be unsafe. It’s gonna be really out there. Not because I want to be different but because I am an eclectic person. It’s about time me and all of our peers embrace our eclecticism – is that a word? – we embrace that shit and say … instead of feeling ashamed to like Talking Heads … why are we not making music that encompasses our influences as opposed to rejecting it … for the sake of underground hip-hop, which is like, ‘Keep it grimy, keep it real.’ Man, fuck that. Write a great song. And everything else will take care of itself.”

Q: Would you like to collaborate with some of these guys (on Paid Dues tour)?
A: “The Legends. Grouch, he’s one of my favorites. Hearing the Legends every night I got a bigger appreciation for their catalog and how they rhyme and how dope they are.”

Q: Indie hip-hop always seems to be on the fringe of some of those major festivals. How cool is it to have your own traveling tour, just hip-hop?
A: “It’s cool, but you have pluses and minuses. … The good thing about a hip-hop group at Lollapalooza is there’s Arcade Fire and Panic at the Disco fans who are open-minded. They may not know underground hip-hop is Blueprint or Brother Ali. But if they hear us in that setting they get it.

“The difference with this, the negative, there’ s not people who like another genre. Let’s get all the Legends, all Rhymesayers fans in one building. We reinforce what we already have. We’re not gaining new ground. I think it’s a plus, but that’s the biggest negative.

“My last two tours have not been with hip-hop groups. I toured with Islands. I met new fans by just touring with them.”

Q: Do you listen to a lot of indie rock?
A: “I’d say the last indie-rock record I bought and liked was Peter Bjorn and John. It’s a much better album than I thought it would be. I thought it would just be the single. But the album sounds almost better than single. It’s got a lot more edge to it.”

hip-hop, video

Incoming: Erykah Badu with the Roots, June 14

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How did I miss this? Thanks to Jose for the tip.

Frankly, I’m a little shocked that the Roots aren’t the headliners for this show, June 14 at Mesa Amphitheatre. But the tour is called the “New Amerykah Tour”: Erykah Badu with the Roots. Tickets ($33 prices not announced) go on sale Saturday via Ticketmaster.

Ah, but nothing beats an outdoor show in the middle of summer in Arizona. For the Roots, I’d do just about anything. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them live – back when they were big enough only for clubs. Their “Hip-Hop 101” portion of their live shows should not be missed.

They are on tour in support of Rising Down, due out April 29.

Here’s the video for 75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction). (And, yes, I’m totally biased in terms of who I want to see at this show):

general, hip-hop

N.E.R.D.: Everyone Nose

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nerd.jpg

I know I’ve been squeezing out a few posts on the news of this Kanye West show in June in Glendale, but I’m getting myself pretty geared up for it. I mean, I haven’t been to a big arena show in a really long time, and the money I spent Thursday on pre-sale tickets for the show is just … sigh … let’s just say I’m selling the naming rights to my first born to afford it. (Yes, Wells Fargo Murphy makes a great name, I think.)

Seeing N.E.R.D. is no doubt one of the highlights for the show. It’s odd, but I’ve been waking up recently singing the group’s Rock Star for some reason. (But then, I had a dream yesterday morning that the National were playing Phoenix and Lenny Kravitz opened … what … the … hell?)

Check out a new track, Everyone Nose, from the group’s forthcoming LP Seeing Sounds.

  • N.E.R.D. | Everyone Nose
hip-hop, video

The Nonce: Mix Tapes

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After it was announced that Kanye West would be coming to Glendale, I spent some time on his blog, an odd blend of videos, fashion, furniture and shoes.

It warmed my mid-90s hip-hop heart to see him post the video for the Nonce jam Mix Tapes, which I posted about in December 2005.

This is, without question, one of the top 10 hip-hop joints of the ’90s.

“And those were the dues / without makin’ papes / damn I should go back / to sellin’ mix tapes.”

hip-hop, i used to love h.e.r.

I Used to Love H.E.R.: RJD2

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I’m really excited to say that the 24th 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 (read intro), comes from acclaimed DJ/producer RJD2, the man behind three solo records and one-half of Soul Position.

RJ, who returns to the Clubhouse in Tempe on April 7 (tickets), answered my questions via e-mail (note: I’ve left non-capitalization as-is). He is the third artist (The Weather Underground and Pigeon John are the others) to choose De La Soul Is Dead.

de la soul is deadDe La Soul
De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy, 1991)

When did you first listen to it?
“maybe 1992 or 3?”

In what ways did it influence you?
“it was psychedelic, crammed with sounds, cool topics, it was slow, fast – just all over the place. it kind of was my conceptual template for a while, as far as what an album should traverse.”

Do you still listen to it?
“not really. once i’ve digested a record as much as something like that – 100’s of listens – i dont go back to em too often, unless for nostalgia’s sake. generally speaking, i just move on and let it be what it was to me at that time. records can sound very different at different times. there are a lot of movies i only watch once because they were so mindblowing the first time, and i dont want to soil the experience that it was.”

What about the record makes it stand up to other great hip-hop records?
“really what i said above, but i think most of all, there’s just a consistent level of passion on it, from the production to the writing to the execution. i guess the bottom line is that the execution of it is just so well done. the more i listen to music, and do it, the more i think that stylistic leanings aren’t what make a record interesting, it’s the ability of an artist to really tap in to their own personal voice, or way of doing things that no one else can imitate, or appropriate. in a word: execution.”

  • De La Soul | A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”

    • BONUS:

  • De La Soul | A Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays” (Ladies Nite Decision)

(From Roller Skating Jam CD single.)

Related:
10 questions (via e-mail) with RJD2.

hip-hop

The Gray Kid: Willoughby album sampler

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It looks like the Gray Kid, one of the artists who sees a lot of ink on this site, is nearing a release to follow up his excellent 2006 record … 5, 6, 7, 8.

He’s offering a free download of a 12-minute mix by DJ Benzi that features songs both old and new. According to a one-sheet that comes with the download, Willoughby will be mixed by Danny Kalb (Beck, They Might Be Giants, Rilo Kiley) and, I hope, features the Kid’s new band Spirit Animal.

And if you’re new to this site and/or the Gray Kid, this is must-see viewing. And this.

[ZIP]: The Gray Kid | Willoughby album sampler (mixed by DJ Benzi)