Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Reminisce Over You... Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne Hubbard
(April 7, 1938 - December 29, 2008)
Rest In Peace
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Blender <3 HHIR
Rising Down
That's right! One of our sample sets is the 24th best album of 2008!
P/S to Nation for the link!
Queens Get The Money
The first and best song from Nas's 9th album receives the video treatment, courtesy of Vimeo user Encyclopedia. Everything about the video is striking and beautifully composed. The montage of images corresponds to Nas's lyrics closely, providing fascinating juxtapositions; as Nas raps "Let us make man in our image, spit it", the viewer sees MC Serch with the 3rd Bass logo shaved into the back of his head. Questions of cultural appropriation were raised when 3rd Bass came onto the scene, but MC Serch also discovered Nas and executive produced Illmatic. You catch fleeting glimpses of African-American icons as Nas raps: James Brown, Huey Newton, Al Sharpton, Ice T, Slick Rick.
More than anything else, this fan-made video demonstrates the narrative capacity of montage film that's been enabled by the rise of video sharing websites like YouTube. If this video had been made around the time of Illmatic, for example, Encyclopedia would have had to commit these images to videotape and splice them together, or take them from DVDs or CD-roms. Not only that, the audience for the music video would be restricted to the art gallery crowd. Now the most popular hip hop blog posts it on the front page and I can share it with as many people as I want within seconds. More than simply a montage of Nas photos on YouTube, Encyclopedia's video provides a perfect visual accompaniment to the song, complementing its Jay Electronica association in turn (Jay produced the song); check the Muhammad Ali interview at the very end, then listen to the Ali samples on a number of at. Brandon Soderberg points to Jay's mix of "high" and "low" culture as his hook; In the video, you see both James Baldwin and Arsenio Hall. Encyclopedia is channeling the composite aesthetic used in Jay Electronica's own homemade music videos posted on his YouTube channel.
Ivan posted the entirety of the James Baldwin interview used for the beginning of the music video a few days ago. I urge you to watch it.
More than anything else, this fan-made video demonstrates the narrative capacity of montage film that's been enabled by the rise of video sharing websites like YouTube. If this video had been made around the time of Illmatic, for example, Encyclopedia would have had to commit these images to videotape and splice them together, or take them from DVDs or CD-roms. Not only that, the audience for the music video would be restricted to the art gallery crowd. Now the most popular hip hop blog posts it on the front page and I can share it with as many people as I want within seconds. More than simply a montage of Nas photos on YouTube, Encyclopedia's video provides a perfect visual accompaniment to the song, complementing its Jay Electronica association in turn (Jay produced the song); check the Muhammad Ali interview at the very end, then listen to the Ali samples on a number of at. Brandon Soderberg points to Jay's mix of "high" and "low" culture as his hook; In the video, you see both James Baldwin and Arsenio Hall. Encyclopedia is channeling the composite aesthetic used in Jay Electronica's own homemade music videos posted on his YouTube channel.
Ivan posted the entirety of the James Baldwin interview used for the beginning of the music video a few days ago. I urge you to watch it.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
I Break A Bean, But I'm Not From Boston © Common
What's really good Dart?
Howdya like your lump of coal? :D
"You better watch out, I'm tellin' you why/
[Showtime's back and we're] breaking, marks dooooooooown/"
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Inverse - So True (feat. Deacon of CunninLynguists) [MP3]
DOWNLOAD:
"So True" by Inverse & Deacon
It's that Inverse... hip hop... that California, underground hip hop!!!
Kenneth Clark Interviews James Baldwin (1963)
What white people have to do is try to find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a nigger in the first place. Because I am not a nigger; I am a man. But if you think I'm a nigger, it means you need it. And the question you've got to ask yourself -- the white population of this country has got to ask itself -- north and south, because it's one country, and for a negro there is no difference between the north and south; it's just a difference in the way they castrate you, but the fact of the castration is the American fact. If I'm not a nigger here and you, the white people invented him, then you've got to find otu why. And the future of the country depends on that. Whether or not it's able to ask that question.
Thanks to Google Books, you can read the full transcript of this interview.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Hip Hop Insomniacs Club: Adam Sandler - The Chanukah Song
For all the hip hoppers of the Heeb' persuasion!
'07 Flashback: Insomniacs Club with Pimp C [R.I.P. Edition]
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Hip Hop Insomniacs Club: "Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto"
"Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto" by Snoop Dogg
featuring Nate Dogg, Dat Nigga Daz, Tray Deee & Bad A$$
(Appears on Christmas On Death Row)
[Lyrics Courtesy of the Original Hip Hop Lyrics Archive]
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Hip Hop Insomniacs Club: Run-D.M.C. - 'Dumb Girl'
"Dumb Girl" by Run-D.M.C.
Here's another entry from our "Samples of the Year" edition of The Tape Deck, coming soon...
P.S. Who's "J.C."?
Hip Hop Insomniacs Club: Masta Ace Inc. - 'Jeep Ass Niguh'
Masta Ace Incorporated - "Jeep Ass Niguh"
This track will be featured on our "Samples of the Year" edition of The Tape Deck. I'm offering my props and a virtual high-five to the first person who recognizes the portion on "Jeep Ass Niguh" that was used in a popular '08 track. 
P.S. On Jay Leno, Scarlett Johansson combined Christmas and Chanukah as "Chronicah". And then she said "no, wait, that's a Dr. Dre holiday". She's awesome. <3
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sample Sets: Frequently Asked Question #1
Note: This post is a continuation of “'Can Ya Dig It'? ... No, Seriously: Can You?”, an article I wrote several months ago in which I made a promise to refrain from posting sample sets to underground artists’ albums. Due to recent developments, I’m elaborating on this point a bit further. Feedback is appreciated. Dig:
If I had a nickel for every time I was asked to compile a sample set for an independent and/or underground album, I’d probably have about $3.85. Baaaaaallllliiiiiiiiin’!
Seriously though, the question comes up here and there, from time and to time. “Hey, can you make a set for Black Milk’s album? How about Little Brother? Reks? Brother Ali? Jake One? Statik Selektah? Atmosphere?” On and on and on… I get it! I understand! These albums have some of the slickest production, often times more so than their mainstream counterparts, especially when it comes to sample-usage. But let’s discuss the potential harm in releasing a sample set for these kinds of albums.
Back in the day, the great hip hop albums thrived off of samples. Lots of them. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to find an album with a total number of samples that reached the triple-digits. But times have changed and the industry has cracked down on this practice. Because sample clearances are so expensive, what ends up happening is major-label artists spend a lot of money on only a handful of samples. But these labels can afford to do so because they Scan and pull in big bucks. But what about the independent/non-mainstream emcees and producers who can’t afford to shell out thousands and thousands of dollars for these samples? When a guy like Lil Wayne gets hit with a huge fee for that song that might have sampled The Rolling Stones, he’s gotta pay a lot of money, but let’s face it: he’s not hurting. The recession means a lot less to him than artists who are really hustling on a day-to-day grind. Weezy could probably wipe his ass with that cash anyways. For an independent/underground artist, on the other hand, if their samples are disclosed to the folks who hold the copyright, the clearance fees these artists would have to pay might put throw them into bankruptcy! This would then force these artists to completely forfeit the tradition of sampling in hip hop. And we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?
As some of you might know, I’m currently compiling a “Samples of the Year” edition to The Tape Deck. So far, I’ve got about fifteen songs, many – but not all – of which have appeared on my sample sets from earlier this year. Initially, I wanted to include the samples to all of my favorite songs of the year – if they had any samples to begin with – but I recognized that doing so would breach my promise of not disclosing the samples used by indie artists.
Some of my favorite tracks from 2008 include the East Coast Avengers’ “Kill Bill O’Reilly”, Jake One’s “The Truth” (featuring Freeway and Brother Ali), and Statik Selektah’s “To the Top (Stick 2 the Script)” (featuring Cassidy, Saigon and Termanology), all of which contain samples. I was able to find the soul track used for Jake One’s “The Truth” by scouring the web, but I couldn’t find anything for the other two songs. So I reached out to the producers! I sent my request/question to DC the Midi Alien, and he replied the next day with the answer! I also sent a message to Statik Selektah, who provided me with the sample info as well; but he also had a bit of a request of his own. We had a (very) brief back-and-forth, which I’ve taken a screenshot of and posted below:
As you can see, I’ve blurred or covered some content from those messages. You can probably imagine why. Not only will I respect Statik’s request to keep the sample info “on the low”, I’m gonna do the same for the other two tracks. I’m not just doing it to comply with Stat’s request; I’m doing this because his response helped me to better understand another dimension to this so-called sample set controversy. To hear this kind of response from the producer himself puts it all into a better perspective: If the sample for one track can break an artist’s wallet, imagine what an album-full of samples would do! Have you seen the light now? With all that being said, my “Samples of the Year” edition of The Tape Deck will not be complete, nor will it be an authoritative compilation of all of ‘08’s samples. But at least I can rest assured that it won’t cripple the backbone of independent hip hop.
So to conclude, please think twice before requesting a sample set for an underground album released from an independent label. I know you wanna hear that Jay-Z sample just as much as the track that Jake One flipped. But underground sample sets are simply out of the question, officially, from now on. Feel free to submit your complaints to the comment section. Thank you!
If I had a nickel for every time I was asked to compile a sample set for an independent and/or underground album, I’d probably have about $3.85. Baaaaaallllliiiiiiiiin’!
Seriously though, the question comes up here and there, from time and to time. “Hey, can you make a set for Black Milk’s album? How about Little Brother? Reks? Brother Ali? Jake One? Statik Selektah? Atmosphere?” On and on and on… I get it! I understand! These albums have some of the slickest production, often times more so than their mainstream counterparts, especially when it comes to sample-usage. But let’s discuss the potential harm in releasing a sample set for these kinds of albums.
Back in the day, the great hip hop albums thrived off of samples. Lots of them. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to find an album with a total number of samples that reached the triple-digits. But times have changed and the industry has cracked down on this practice. Because sample clearances are so expensive, what ends up happening is major-label artists spend a lot of money on only a handful of samples. But these labels can afford to do so because they Scan and pull in big bucks. But what about the independent/non-mainstream emcees and producers who can’t afford to shell out thousands and thousands of dollars for these samples? When a guy like Lil Wayne gets hit with a huge fee for that song that might have sampled The Rolling Stones, he’s gotta pay a lot of money, but let’s face it: he’s not hurting. The recession means a lot less to him than artists who are really hustling on a day-to-day grind. Weezy could probably wipe his ass with that cash anyways. For an independent/underground artist, on the other hand, if their samples are disclosed to the folks who hold the copyright, the clearance fees these artists would have to pay might put throw them into bankruptcy! This would then force these artists to completely forfeit the tradition of sampling in hip hop. And we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?
As some of you might know, I’m currently compiling a “Samples of the Year” edition to The Tape Deck. So far, I’ve got about fifteen songs, many – but not all – of which have appeared on my sample sets from earlier this year. Initially, I wanted to include the samples to all of my favorite songs of the year – if they had any samples to begin with – but I recognized that doing so would breach my promise of not disclosing the samples used by indie artists.
Some of my favorite tracks from 2008 include the East Coast Avengers’ “Kill Bill O’Reilly”, Jake One’s “The Truth” (featuring Freeway and Brother Ali), and Statik Selektah’s “To the Top (Stick 2 the Script)” (featuring Cassidy, Saigon and Termanology), all of which contain samples. I was able to find the soul track used for Jake One’s “The Truth” by scouring the web, but I couldn’t find anything for the other two songs. So I reached out to the producers! I sent my request/question to DC the Midi Alien, and he replied the next day with the answer! I also sent a message to Statik Selektah, who provided me with the sample info as well; but he also had a bit of a request of his own. We had a (very) brief back-and-forth, which I’ve taken a screenshot of and posted below:
As you can see, I’ve blurred or covered some content from those messages. You can probably imagine why. Not only will I respect Statik’s request to keep the sample info “on the low”, I’m gonna do the same for the other two tracks. I’m not just doing it to comply with Stat’s request; I’m doing this because his response helped me to better understand another dimension to this so-called sample set controversy. To hear this kind of response from the producer himself puts it all into a better perspective: If the sample for one track can break an artist’s wallet, imagine what an album-full of samples would do! Have you seen the light now? With all that being said, my “Samples of the Year” edition of The Tape Deck will not be complete, nor will it be an authoritative compilation of all of ‘08’s samples. But at least I can rest assured that it won’t cripple the backbone of independent hip hop.
So to conclude, please think twice before requesting a sample set for an underground album released from an independent label. I know you wanna hear that Jay-Z sample just as much as the track that Jake One flipped. But underground sample sets are simply out of the question, officially, from now on. Feel free to submit your complaints to the comment section. Thank you!
Download: Mick Boogie & Adele - 1988
Leave it to Mick Boogie to come up with an original idea like this. Bringing along some of blog hop's finest (6th Sense, Naledge, Remot, Big Pooh and others), The Commissioner hooks us up with yet another one of his A-grade mixtapes. This one of course features the divine vocals of LDN's own Adele, who released her debut album 19 earlier this year. It's an odd premise for a mixtape, but as you'll soon find out, it works quite well. Check it out:
01. Chasing 1988: The Intro (f/ 6th Sense)
02. Daydreams (nVMe Remix)
03. Tired (6th Sense Remix)
04. First Love (Remot Remix f/ Naledge)
05. My Same (Garbs Remix)
06. Melt My Heart To Stone (Kickdrums Remix f/ Big Pooh)
07. Cold Shoulder (Garbs Infinite Remix)
08. Right As Rain (nVMe Remix)
09. Make You Feel My Love (Remot Remix)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Perfect Timing: A Review of Donny Goines' 'Minute After Midnight'
Donny Goines is an up-and-coming emcee who has earned a fair share of love and support from the online community. His motto is “if you don’t know my name I’m not working hard enough”. Rightfully so, Goines is often considered one of the hardest working, self-promoting emcees in the game. In the past, I’ve expressed my respect for his strong will and hustle. Well, Donny recently hit me up to pass me a copy of his new album, Minute After Midnight, to preview it. I’ve listened to the album several times over, and I must say that I’m very impressed with what I hear. Minute After Midnight is definitely a step in the right direction for Goines, improving on his lyricism from past mixtapes and his series of Bars segments. Here’s my track-by-track synopsis of the album:Blackbird: A Racist(?) Web Browser
You couldn't make this stuff up. Oh wait, they did. Web developers have recently unveiled Blackbird, a new web browser that caters to the African American community. Using a FUBU (For Us, By Us) model "Blackbird was developed by a team of African Americans to allow you to connect to what's going on in the African American community." At first glance, I was immediately struck with a cognitive dissonance of epic proportions. On the one hand, I empathize with and understand the development team's ambition: to create an accommodating experience for African American web users. But on the other hand, WHAT... THE... FUCK!?!?
Here are a few of my reactions to Blackbird, the (potentially) racist web browser:
#1: Even web browsers are segregated now? I can already imagine the racial undertones in advertising: "Try Blackbird. It's faster". Oh, wait, they've got these already:
Y'hear that? Yes we can... Get Blackbird? Oh my... Stereotyping at its finest.
#2: Isn't this browser a bit insulting to African Americans? It's as if to say that they can't surf the web like other people. Like somehow they need some additional help to search the internet. And to the African Americans who do lack the skills -- like many members of other communities -- to search the net, won't this browser only make them dependent on Blackbird? What happens if they need to use the internet at work, a library, or anywhere else? I can already imagine some cracka-ass KKK members deeming this new browser "web-affirmative action" or a form of "web-welfare".
#3: Blackbird offers a tool they call "Black Search" which essentially brings up search results that "tailor to African American interests". I installed the browser to test out this feature and the results are quite astounding. I typed in the following in the search box: "Bruce Springsteen". I figured "Hmm... How much 'whiter' can it get?" The second search result was the YouTube link to a Springsteen song titled "Dancing in the Dark". I suppose any search with the word "dark" gets bumped up in the results list. Next, I tried a search for "President Bush". I'm not kidding you here; the first result I got was for a video clip of "President Black Bush", a hilarious skit from Chappelle's Show. Finally, I did a search on "Karl Marx". I was astonished to find that none of my results had anything to do with "Karl Malone". But aside from that, the results weren't too reassuring. Amongst the top results, I found (1) a forum post on AllHipHop.com (very helpful...), (2) a link to a book being sold on Amazon.com which claims that Karl Marx was a racist (if you're wondering, the title of the book is simply "Karl Marx, racist"), and (3) an article titled "Barack Obama, Black Liberation Theology and Karl Marx". I was amused to say the least. Hey, Black Search, I've got some web-slang just for you: FAIL!!1!
#4: I can assure you that as time goes on, just like everything else that African Americans create, White people will latch on to it and claim it as their own. Just wait and see, soon enough a majority of Blackbird's users will be comprised of the "white teenager" demographic. Soon enough.
#5: The BK MC wasn't jokin'! I think he might even be a prophet! Blackbird puts a whole new spin on a particular bar from Talib Kweli's "Supreme, Supreme": "Getting information from the nigga-net/". :P
#6: What's next? Web browsers for Asians, Hispanics? What about a web browser for White people? Oh, wait, that's been taken care of at WhiteBirdBrowser.com, clearly a spoof of Blackbird. The best part about White Bird is that it redirects you to Apple's Safari. lolz
I suppose we can all sleep soundly at night knowing that they didn't name it something like "Brozilla" instead.
Here are a few of my reactions to Blackbird, the (potentially) racist web browser:
#1: Even web browsers are segregated now? I can already imagine the racial undertones in advertising: "Try Blackbird. It's faster". Oh, wait, they've got these already:
Y'hear that? Yes we can... Get Blackbird? Oh my... Stereotyping at its finest.
#2: Isn't this browser a bit insulting to African Americans? It's as if to say that they can't surf the web like other people. Like somehow they need some additional help to search the internet. And to the African Americans who do lack the skills -- like many members of other communities -- to search the net, won't this browser only make them dependent on Blackbird? What happens if they need to use the internet at work, a library, or anywhere else? I can already imagine some cracka-ass KKK members deeming this new browser "web-affirmative action" or a form of "web-welfare".
#3: Blackbird offers a tool they call "Black Search" which essentially brings up search results that "tailor to African American interests". I installed the browser to test out this feature and the results are quite astounding. I typed in the following in the search box: "Bruce Springsteen". I figured "Hmm... How much 'whiter' can it get?" The second search result was the YouTube link to a Springsteen song titled "Dancing in the Dark". I suppose any search with the word "dark" gets bumped up in the results list. Next, I tried a search for "President Bush". I'm not kidding you here; the first result I got was for a video clip of "President Black Bush", a hilarious skit from Chappelle's Show. Finally, I did a search on "Karl Marx". I was astonished to find that none of my results had anything to do with "Karl Malone". But aside from that, the results weren't too reassuring. Amongst the top results, I found (1) a forum post on AllHipHop.com (very helpful...), (2) a link to a book being sold on Amazon.com which claims that Karl Marx was a racist (if you're wondering, the title of the book is simply "Karl Marx, racist"), and (3) an article titled "Barack Obama, Black Liberation Theology and Karl Marx". I was amused to say the least. Hey, Black Search, I've got some web-slang just for you: FAIL!!1!
#4: I can assure you that as time goes on, just like everything else that African Americans create, White people will latch on to it and claim it as their own. Just wait and see, soon enough a majority of Blackbird's users will be comprised of the "white teenager" demographic. Soon enough.
#5: The BK MC wasn't jokin'! I think he might even be a prophet! Blackbird puts a whole new spin on a particular bar from Talib Kweli's "Supreme, Supreme": "Getting information from the nigga-net/". :P
#6: What's next? Web browsers for Asians, Hispanics? What about a web browser for White people? Oh, wait, that's been taken care of at WhiteBirdBrowser.com, clearly a spoof of Blackbird. The best part about White Bird is that it redirects you to Apple's Safari. lolz
I suppose we can all sleep soundly at night knowing that they didn't name it something like "Brozilla" instead.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Support Legendary Emcee Paris! Get Him on MTV!
Beginning today, Paris, the revolutionary emcee who brought you classic albums like The Devil Made Me Do It and Sleeping With the Enemy will face off in a voting competition to earn a spot on MTV's rotation. Truth be told, I haven't watched MTV in years (I kid you not) because they hardly ever play any music, and the little music they do play... well, it's not... that... good. But Paris makes the kind of music that people need to hear, and it'd be wonderful to get his face up on MTV. Kinda like a big "fuck you" to all the corporate heads; feel me? Paris and Guerilla Funk need your support in this effort! Again, here's the 4-1-1:
From December 15th 'til December 26th, you can vote for Paris at Freshmen.MTVu.com. Like Al Capone would say, "Vote early and vote often". Not only that, spread the word and get your friends to vote as well. If Paris wins, this is a big win for good hip hop.
VOTE!
Ah, remember the good ol' days...
From December 15th 'til December 26th, you can vote for Paris at Freshmen.MTVu.com. Like Al Capone would say, "Vote early and vote often". Not only that, spread the word and get your friends to vote as well. If Paris wins, this is a big win for good hip hop.
Ah, remember the good ol' days...
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Nas & Large Professor - Extra Nasty
As we continue on... Back in '07, I hit you with the first installment of our emcee/producer collabo compilations, featuring the work of Jay-Z and Nas with the production of DJ Premier. A few months later, Aaron joined the site and spearheaded Soul Brothers, the work of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth post-breakup (with rarities, b-sides and remixes included). But Aaron wasn't done. Nooo, he put together all the collabs between KRS-One and DJ Premier and later introduced a best-of release for emcee O.C. and beatsmith Buckwild. After that excellent lineup, we put together some nice emcee/emcee tag-team compilations, collecting the works of Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip, as well as Nas and AZ. How's that for a lineup?
Well, Aaron has outdone himself once again! A while back, he hit me up with this novel idea: collecting all the collaborations between emcee Nas and producer/sometimes-emcee Large Professor. Brilliant. Many people know about Large Pro's soundboard wizardry on Illmatic: "One Time 4 Your Mind", "Halftime", and "It Ain't Hard to Tell". Well, did you know that these weren't the first tracks that Extra P provided for Nas?We've Aaron dug in the crates and found some Nas/LP stuff from the early '90's. We're talkin' '91, '92. And no, we're not just lookin' at "Live at the Barbeque", a track many hip-hoppers consider their initiation into the world of the "rebel to America". We've got a pair of tracks from Nas' demo tape. The tracks are mad dusty - just the way we like 'em! You ever heard of "Déjà Vu" or "I'm a Villain"? These are some real gems, so pay heed.
To complete the set, we also included all Nas and Extra P's post-Illmatic work, most notably on albums such as Large Pro's The LP, and Nas' Stillmatic. Every track on this compilation is straight-up vintage shit you must have in your collection. I'm pretty sure none of y'all got every single one of these tracks. Kudos to the heads that do! As far as we know, a promo release titled "Chizzled" from 2005 is the last known Nas track featuring Pro production. It's been too long, we need some more! 'til then, enjoy what history has given us thus far. Peep game (and turn it up!!):
The cover art for this HHIR release was made using Wordle.net's great software. I suggest y'all check it out!
Well, Aaron has outdone himself once again! A while back, he hit me up with this novel idea: collecting all the collaborations between emcee Nas and producer/sometimes-emcee Large Professor. Brilliant. Many people know about Large Pro's soundboard wizardry on Illmatic: "One Time 4 Your Mind", "Halftime", and "It Ain't Hard to Tell". Well, did you know that these weren't the first tracks that Extra P provided for Nas?
To complete the set, we also included all Nas and Extra P's post-Illmatic work, most notably on albums such as Large Pro's The LP, and Nas' Stillmatic. Every track on this compilation is straight-up vintage shit you must have in your collection. I'm pretty sure none of y'all got every single one of these tracks. Kudos to the heads that do! As far as we know, a promo release titled "Chizzled" from 2005 is the last known Nas track featuring Pro production. It's been too long, we need some more! 'til then, enjoy what history has given us thus far. Peep game (and turn it up!!):
The cover art for this HHIR release was made using Wordle.net's great software. I suggest y'all check it out!
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