Monday, March 15, 2004
Monday morning music report
OK, this may be strictly anecdotal but I've noticed I've been asked for money by people on the street more over the last month or so than I can ever remember in the past few years. And not necessarily by people who look "homeless" or like bums but by people who, if they didn't approach me, I wouldn't even give a second glance to because they looked like "regular working folks." The media continues to tout the economic recovery but it sure doesn't feel that way on the street.
As a rule I don't really go in (much) for conspiracy theory thinking and they haven't confirmed it one way or another, but evidence is increasingly pointing to Al-Qaeda involvement in the Madrid bombing last week, so is it weird in any way that the bombing occurred exactly 6 months after the anniversary of the September 11th 2001 US terrorist attacks? (Newsday)
Read Rolling Stone's article on the Bush Administration's evisceration of America's environmental laws. (via rebecca's pocket)
And can hip hop get out the vote? (WireTap)
Al Jourgensen of Ministry's letter to the board of Urban Outfitters re: their "Voting is for Old People" t-shirt. (via Punkvoter.com)
Here's those Spreewell "spinner" rims sneakers (the Dada Sprees) I mentioned a few weeks back finally revealed:
Image courtesy: Honda-tech.com
But is doing a deal with the NBA referees the best way to try and make these hot?! I think Dada needs a new marketing team. (ESPN.com)
Six monkeys, a Great Dane, a Chihuahua, two cats and a tarantula named Fang: Orlando Lopez still can't mess with my man Antoine Yates with the tiger and alligator in Harlem though. (CNN.com | Daily News)
Kool Cigarettes in New Flavors Draw Criticism: besides the issue of whether this is a product being marketed to teenagers, don't flavors like Caribbean Chill, Midnight Berry, Mocha Taboo and Mintrigue sound like they were designed to appeal to brothers? (New York Times)
Use condoms.
I heard DJ Enuff dropping this Kanye and Jin collabo "I Gota Love" last Thursday in his afternoon drive mixshow on Hot 97. Alas, Hiphopmusic.com's J-Smooth scooped me on blogging about it because I didn't know the name of the track, plus I was convinced that I'd heard the same sample in the track used on a Mobb Deep song and I spent a bunch of time going through old mixtapes trying to figure out which one (since it's not on the Murda Mixtape or Prodigy's H.N.I.C. album like I initially thought). (mp3 links courtesy: Holla-Front Forum)
However, this weekend the mystery over which Mobb Deep track might have used the sample was basically rendered moot. While at the record store on Saturday afternoon, I heard "Overnight Celebrity," the second single by Twista, done by Kanye and almost fell over in shock when I realized he had flipped the exact same sample to make virtually the same beat in "I Gota Love." To my ears this is way more a blatant and obvious a case of double-selling the same beat than in the Lil Jon Usher vs. Petey Pablo situation. "I Gota Love" is still very official and I think this could be the song that takes Jin over the top (although Kanye will likely get all the credit, which he probably should, in this case), but is anyone else gonna call him on this? He seems to be at way too early a stage in his producer career to be already doing this kind of lazy beat recycling, isn't he? (mp3 link courtesy: hiphopsite.com)
Also copped while at the Fulton Street Beat Street store on Saturday:
BTW, they also had a new R. Kelly single called "Happy People." It's a hot track but he sounds like he's going back to the well maybe one time too many by running the midwest Chicago steppas' soul formula he perfected on his Chocolate Factory album yet again for this track from the forthcoming album of the same title. I have no doubt that this will be huge though. BTW: imagine an R. Kelly-Kanye duet. That ish would be ridiculous: off the meat-rack, maximum Chicago soul guaranteed. I'd be shocked if there weren't plans for this to happen already.
Also being sweated by a lot of DJ's at the store: a new Lloyd Banks/G-Unit track titled "You" on white label that was sounding kind of official too but not like something I needed to spend my limited paper on.
And I caught some new mixtapes in Fulton Mall while I was at it too. All of the following are recommended:
Related:
- More on The Game (albeit slightly out of date) via MTVNews.com.
And while I was in record shopping mode, I decided to see what was new online at Turntable Lab and saw these gems:
Tweet
As a rule I don't really go in (much) for conspiracy theory thinking and they haven't confirmed it one way or another, but evidence is increasingly pointing to Al-Qaeda involvement in the Madrid bombing last week, so is it weird in any way that the bombing occurred exactly 6 months after the anniversary of the September 11th 2001 US terrorist attacks? (Newsday)
Read Rolling Stone's article on the Bush Administration's evisceration of America's environmental laws. (via rebecca's pocket)
And can hip hop get out the vote? (WireTap)
Al Jourgensen of Ministry's letter to the board of Urban Outfitters re: their "Voting is for Old People" t-shirt. (via Punkvoter.com)
Here's those Spreewell "spinner" rims sneakers (the Dada Sprees) I mentioned a few weeks back finally revealed:
Image courtesy: Honda-tech.com
But is doing a deal with the NBA referees the best way to try and make these hot?! I think Dada needs a new marketing team. (ESPN.com)
Six monkeys, a Great Dane, a Chihuahua, two cats and a tarantula named Fang: Orlando Lopez still can't mess with my man Antoine Yates with the tiger and alligator in Harlem though. (CNN.com | Daily News)
Kool Cigarettes in New Flavors Draw Criticism: besides the issue of whether this is a product being marketed to teenagers, don't flavors like Caribbean Chill, Midnight Berry, Mocha Taboo and Mintrigue sound like they were designed to appeal to brothers? (New York Times)
Use condoms.
I heard DJ Enuff dropping this Kanye and Jin collabo "I Gota Love" last Thursday in his afternoon drive mixshow on Hot 97. Alas, Hiphopmusic.com's J-Smooth scooped me on blogging about it because I didn't know the name of the track, plus I was convinced that I'd heard the same sample in the track used on a Mobb Deep song and I spent a bunch of time going through old mixtapes trying to figure out which one (since it's not on the Murda Mixtape or Prodigy's H.N.I.C. album like I initially thought). (mp3 links courtesy: Holla-Front Forum)
However, this weekend the mystery over which Mobb Deep track might have used the sample was basically rendered moot. While at the record store on Saturday afternoon, I heard "Overnight Celebrity," the second single by Twista, done by Kanye and almost fell over in shock when I realized he had flipped the exact same sample to make virtually the same beat in "I Gota Love." To my ears this is way more a blatant and obvious a case of double-selling the same beat than in the Lil Jon Usher vs. Petey Pablo situation. "I Gota Love" is still very official and I think this could be the song that takes Jin over the top (although Kanye will likely get all the credit, which he probably should, in this case), but is anyone else gonna call him on this? He seems to be at way too early a stage in his producer career to be already doing this kind of lazy beat recycling, isn't he? (mp3 link courtesy: hiphopsite.com)
Also copped while at the Fulton Street Beat Street store on Saturday:
- Marques Houston feat. Jermaine Dupri "Pop That Booty"both of which, contrary to how they sound, are not produced by R. Kelly but someone named Tony Scott (mp3 links courtesy: Sandbox Automatic) and, better late than never:
- B2K feat. Fabolous "Badaboom"
- Jaheim's soul masterpiece, the "Diamond in da Ruff" remix featuring Jada & Left Gunz (mp3 link courtesy: mp3raid.com) as well as a bunch of other old "Hot Ish" list entries like Rashad's "Sweet Misery" feat. Jadakiss & Sheek, Grafh's "I Don't Care," Usher's smash "Yeah" single and A Tribe Called Quest's incredible first album People's Instinctive Travels... which is now on double vinyl (I sold the original single wax version since it was basically useless for DJ-ing with plus I had a CD anyway). Good looking to my parents who gave me the Xmas gift certificate that paid for all those records.Unfortunately they were already sold out of Nina Sky (feat. Jabba) "Move Your Body" 12". That joint is gonna be a monster all this Spring and probably into Summer. The Lumidee of 2004, please believe it.
BTW, they also had a new R. Kelly single called "Happy People." It's a hot track but he sounds like he's going back to the well maybe one time too many by running the midwest Chicago steppas' soul formula he perfected on his Chocolate Factory album yet again for this track from the forthcoming album of the same title. I have no doubt that this will be huge though. BTW: imagine an R. Kelly-Kanye duet. That ish would be ridiculous: off the meat-rack, maximum Chicago soul guaranteed. I'd be shocked if there weren't plans for this to happen already.
Also being sweated by a lot of DJ's at the store: a new Lloyd Banks/G-Unit track titled "You" on white label that was sounding kind of official too but not like something I needed to spend my limited paper on.
And I caught some new mixtapes in Fulton Mall while I was at it too. All of the following are recommended:
- DJ Clue Thee American Idol: this one's been out a couple of weeks I think (which is an eternity in mixtape time) but this is still a heater if you haven't copped it yet. Features "Cross Country" connection, the track that (I think) set off the short-lived Game-Joe Budden beef.More detailed tape highlights later in the week if I can be bothered.
- DJ Big Mike Get The Money & Run - Part 3: features a non-album Kanye West cut titled "I'm Here Now."
- DJ Jay Faire (Best of) The Game: not quite as hot as I had expected as The Game recycles a lot of his "freestyle" rhymes from track to track and some of them have been featured on previous tapes, but this is still a good collection for those wondering what the hype is all about.
- DJ Kay Slay Addicted To Beef Part 2 - Gangster Music hosted by The Game on which he reveals himself to be a fan of Ma$e. Now that's gangsta!
Related:
- More on The Game (albeit slightly out of date) via MTVNews.com.
And while I was in record shopping mode, I decided to see what was new online at Turntable Lab and saw these gems:
- Ultramagentic MC's classic Critical Beatdown on double wax for the first time (as far as I'm aware). Holy smokes: that's so necessary, it's stoopid since I've never had "Ego Trippin'" on 12". (mp3 links courtesy: turntablelab)BTW while I was on Fulton Street copping the mixtapes, I saw clips from this DVD: Ghetto Brawls, "100% Ghetto" (and 100% ig'nant and an embarrassment to all people, never mind just Blacks, everywhere).
- New Too Short "Burn Rubber": this track is fya! Brand new Lil Jon heater guaranteed to be smashin' clubs this summer. (mp3 links courtesy: turntablelab)
- Notorious BIG "Dreams": the original was so hard to find, it was ridiculous. I'm only mad it's been reissued 'cos I paid an insane amount to get a copy on eBay.
- DJ Muggs: Muggs shows all those European mash-up producers how a real hip hop cat gets down with his bootleg mixes of "Top Billin'" (using The Doors "1 to 5" aka the sample from Hov's "The Takeover") and "Emotional Rescue" (interpolating Snoop Dogg lovely). (mp3 links courtesy: turntablelab | sandbox automatic)
