You Know What I Just Realized?

These record covers bare a striking resemblance...



...on some "hang 'em on the wall next to each other"-type sheeit, right?

• Nas - "Just a Moment" b/w "These Are Our Heroes" 12" (2005) [Discogs]
• Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II LP (2009) [Discogs]

Just sayin'...

#randomthoughts

The Tape Deck '10: Volume #68








The Tape Deck '10: Volume #67








The Tape Deck '10: Volume #66








The Tape Deck '10: Volume #65








The Tape Deck '10: Volume #64








The Tape Deck '10: Volume #63








Rap Round Table, Week Ending 8/27/2010


"Pencil Vs Camera - 32" by Ben Heine

Music Analysis & Reporting:

Letting the Record Skip: How You Killed Your Favorite Record Store by Craig Jenkins

I Wonder If Heaven Got A Fat Beats? by Dart Adams

Rest In Fat Beats – 5 Other Things Got Til’ It’s Gone by WULU

What Will You Remember Most About Fat Beats? by Rob Markman

Fat Beats Closes Its Doors by C-Dubb

KRS-One Recalls Making Of Criminal Minded by Shaheem Reid

Details revealed of Tupac Shakur biopic by Jeff Weiss

The Return of The Shelved Albums (Knucklehedz “Stricktly Savage”, Large Professor “The LP” & INI “Center Of Attention”) by Dart Adams

The Return of The Shelved Album (Young Zee - Musical Meltdown) by Eric

The Return of The Shelved Album (Crustified Dibbs) by Eric

The Return of The Shelved Album (Omniscience) by Travis

The Return of The Shelved Album (Jemini The Gifted One) by Eric

The Return of the Shelved Albums (Hi-Tech) by Travis

How Kanye West's Twitter Killed Music Magazines by Zach Baron

The Rap Legacy Of “Friends And Strangers” by David D.

A Brief History Of The Cash Grab Verse by Dom P

Around the World in a Day by Zilla Rocca

The 90s Loved… The 90s? by Danj!

The Unkut Guide To Rap Battles That Never Happened by Robbie

Top 6 Best Rap Songs by Athletes by Drew Tewksbury

Hey Nasir! Liberate that shit!!! by HL

I Used to Love H.E.R.: Chris DeLine (Culture Bully) by Chris DeLine

The Art of Biting by C-Dubb

Eminem: I Get Confused [Recovery's Mix-Ups] by Insanul Ahmed

Sniff that Soulja Boy by Byron Crawford

5 Reasons Not To Judge Keith Murray by Jerry Barrow

Should Beatmakers Audit "Club" Music? by Amir Said

6 MCs DJ Muggs Needs to Collaborate With ASAP by 'XXL Staff'

Noodles!!! by HL

Who Has the Best Shot at Making Hip-Hop’s Next Classic LP? by Rob Markman

Hiero vs Hobo: Who really won? PAUSE!!! by HL

The ‘Lo-End Theory In Real Life by Dallas Penn

Ball Caps, Beats, & Backpacks: Rock the Bells by Jeff Weiss

Live review: Rock the Bells still tolls for 1993 by Jeff Weiss

Album Sales Hit Record Lows. Again. by Caitlin Kenney

Album Reviews:

Camu Tao - King of Hearts by Jeff Weiss

Slum Village - Villa Manifesto Francisco McCurry

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs by Brandon Rae

Kero One - Kinetic World by Justin Boland

Young Jeezy - 1,000 Grams Vol. 1 by Tom Breihan

Gucci Mane - Jewelry Selection by David Drake

Mogwai - Special Moves by Stuart Berman

Usher - Versus by Jeff Weiss

Dâm-Funk - Hood Pass Intact by Tal Rosenberg

Paper Tiger - Made Like Us by Nicholas Candiotto

Klaxons - Surfing the Void by Ian Cohen

Electric Wire Hustle - Electric Wire Hustle by Zach Cole

8thw1 & 2 Hungry Bros - No Room For Dessert by Ali Elabbady

Profiles & Interviews:

R.I.P. Scott La Rock - Remembering the BDP Legend 23 Years Later by Noah Callahan-Bever

Tame One by Damian Ghigliotty

Metallungies Hollers @ Pete Rock, Interview by knobbzXL

Hip-Hop Star Lupe Fiasco Reacts to the Ground Zero Mosque Controversy by amir shaw

Bloggerhouse Interview: Shawn Jackson by Travis

Purely About the Journey: An Interview With Andreya Triana by Zach Cole

Shyne Interviews XXL’s EIC, Pt. 1 by Vanessa Satten

Lola Monroe Got Big Things Poppin’ by Rondell Conway

WTF/Comedy:

Parenting Ain’t Easy: The 10 Worst Dad Decisions In Sports History by David D.

$60 never went so far by Byron Crawford

Politics:

Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama by Jane Mayer

How Fox Betrayed Petraeus by Frank Rich

Martin Luther King would have been on Glenn Beck's chalkboard by Ben Dimiero



Sample Set #6


Rap Round Table, Week Ending 8/20/2010


"And What shall I Write" by Tom Swift

Music Analysis & Reporting:

Camron’s repression and the G.O.P. by Dische

Are Weak Hooks Ruining Rap? by Robbie

Turn me off by Byron Crawford

Ayyyyyyy, Yo! by Danj!

The Ten Most Exploitative Posthumous Rap Projects by Phillip Mlynar

Bloggerhouse Presents: The Return of The Shelved Album (Dilated Peoples) by Travis

Bloggerhouse presents: The Return of The Shelved Album (World Renown) by Eric

Bloggerhouse Presents: The Return of The Shelved Album (Resident Alien) by Travis

Bloggerhouse presents: The Return of The Shelved Album (Pudgee-King Of New York) by Eric

5-10-15-20: Ezra Koenig by Tom Breihan

Raekwon-”Travel Places” by Jeff Weiss

The In Crowd: Understanding Hip Hop Through Drake's Homecoming by Mina Jasarevic

Trae Tha Truth Is Banned in Texas USA, But Why? by Brooklyne Gipson

El-P — “Time Won’t Tell” by Jeff Weiss

Russell Simmons: The next Biggie and 2Pac? by Byron Crawford

The 25 Greatest Definitive Jux Songs Of All Time by Ben Westhoff

What Dr. Dre does all day by Byron Crawford

Ten Hip-Hop Home-Improvement Companies by Nick Marino & Jeff Vrabel

Should 50 Cent give up on acting? by Byron Crawford

Forget Spotify, MOG is the future of Music by Stone (a.k.a. Winston Ford)

Album Reviews:

Camu Tao - King of Hearts by The Company Man

Rick Ross - Teflon Don by Craig Jenkins

Wale - More About Nothing by Ian Cohen

Ahmad - The Death of Me by Kevin S. Gary

Krayzie Bone - Lyrical Paraphernalia, Volume 3 by The Company Man

El-P - Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 by Paul Christiansen

Mike Posner - 31 Minutes To Takeoff by Amanda Bassa

Los Campesinos! - All's Well That Ends EP by Marc Hogan

Miniature Tigers - Fortress by Marzelle Addy

The Budos Band - The Budos Band III by Nate Patrin

Boris & Ian Astbury - BXI by Andrew Martin

School of Seven Bells - Disconnected from Desire by Erik Stabile

The Books - The Way Out by Brian Hodge

Natural Self - My Heart Beats: Remixes And Versions by Zach Cole

Autolux - Transit Transit by Andrew Martin

Profiles & Interviews:

Ed Lover, Still Hustlin’ 15 Years After “Yo! MTV Raps” by XXL Staff

The Benefits of Being a Black Hippy by Jeff Weiss

Tech N9ne: Someone To Believe In by Jake Paine

Politics:

Pras Explains to Vulture Why He’s Not Voting for Wyclef by Amos Barshad

Culture:

Everything Old Is Hip Again by Philip B. Corbett

Haiti postpones ruling on Wyclef Jean's candidacy by Tamara Lush

Wyclef Jean reportedly ineligible to run for president of Haiti by Jeff Weiss

WTF/Comedy:

Run and tell THAT, homeboy by Byron Crawford

Obituary:

Fat Beats Announces Closing Of New York And Los Angeles Retail Stores

Breaking News: Fat Beats Closes Remaining Locations by Elan Mancini

Fat Beats Memories: Marco Polo by Robbie

NEWS: R.I.P Fat Beats by TiRon

Fat Beats Closes Stores, Rendering Percee P Homeless by Anger Falcon

R.I.P. Fat Beats Stores by Woody Black

Fat Beats Memories: Repping Behind The Counter by Max Angeles

Fat Beats to close its remaining Los Angeles and New York locations by Jeff Weiss

The Long, Drawn-Out Death of Fat Beats… by Dallas Penn


Taking Over the Internets: PNC Radio in Full Effect


Word to Xzibit, I'm sorry I'm away so much... I've been occupying most of my time with work and my newly-revamped Tumblr site - specializing in dime pieces and jazz mp3s. Good times. Feel free to follow. Anyways, I thought I'd swoop in to remind you that The Combat Jack Radio Show is officially the shit. The shit? The shit! Every week, Combat Jack, Dallas Penn and Co. offer you that uncut raw, and what do you know? This week, Combat Jack gave Hip Hop Is Read a(nother) shout-out! Listennnnnnnnn:

MP3: Combat Jack's HHIR Shout-Out

...Dallas Penn's a fool for that one. Okay, now that I've (hopefully) got your attention, make sure to download the show in its entirety, bootlegged by yours truly:

MP3: The Combat Jack Radio Show (8/20/2010)

#SaveFatBeats #SaveFatBeatsLA #SaveFatBeatsNY


So I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Fat Beats is closing up shop. While their label and online store will still be as active as ever, it pains me to see these landmark sites vanish into the history books. While I’ve never stepped foot into the New York location – and sadly, I never will – I can attest to warm feelings and good memories at Fat Beats LA’s Melrose shop. The worst part of this, for me, is that I live walking distance from Melrose and Curson. I was there just recently this past Sunday. After Tower and Virgin closed down their Sunset locations, now all we’ve got is Amoeba Records. It won’t be the same.

What pains me most about the death of the record store is the fact that we’re constantly bombarded with news of vinyl’s resurgence amongst the youth and pop culture. Maybe. If so, it appears that hip hop is the exception to the rule – as it’s often proven to be.

It saddens me that major label artists, truthfully, couldn’t give two fucks worth about the closing down of independent record shops. What do they care? As long as they can break into iTunes’ top 10 list(s), they’re living comfortably, relatively speaking, in unison with the company/ies they work for. Record stores like Fat Beats offered independent and underground artists a battleground – a venue to display, perform and yes, to sell their music. Is it too late for a #SaveFatBeats campaign? I hope not.

Physical > Digital

GZA's "Wu-Tang Revealed" | Movie Trailer



Looks good... [via The Playlist]

Cenk Uygur's Mosque "Rant"



^ troof ^

Michael Franco - Sophia


You might remember Nawlins-bred producer Michael Franco (a.k.a. Franco the Fool) from The Beat Tape, Volume 1, in which we featured two tracks ("Honey" & "Springtime") from his 3 Weeks in February project. Since then, he's still been cranking out amazing beats, releasing Fool's Gold a couple months back and, most recently, Sophia. Inspired by the film Vanilla Sky (I think), Sophia's got a pleasant summer vibe. I particularly enjoy track 8, "Turn", which features a sample from one of my favorite records of all time - Gil Scott-Heron's Pieces of a Man. Enjoy... and turn it up!!

Michael Franco - Sophia

<a href="http://michaelfranco.bandcamp.com/album/sophia">Every (A Quiet Thing) by Michael Franco</a>

Rap Round Table, Week Ending 8/13/2010


"Imperial Manual Typewriter" by Dominique James

Music Analysis & Reporting:

The Dotted Line: What do record labels do now? by Sasha Frere-Jones

17 Days © Prince by Dart Adams

The 2 Live Crew and my childhood by Blockhead

Gravediggaz: The 16th Anniversary That Hip-Hop Forgot by Matt Barone

As Rappers Turn Gray... by Manifesto

In Salute of El-P… by Matt Barone

Can We the Fans Be Blamed for an Artist’s Actions? by C-Dub

Bloggerhouse presents 75 Backpack Bangers (1994-2000) (Eric’s Last (?) 25) by Eric

Bloggerhouse presents 75 Backpack Bangers (1994-2000) (Dart’s Last (?) 25) by Dart Adams

Bloggerhouse Presents 75 Backpack Bangers (The Third of the Trio Finale: The Trav Edition Vol. 4) by Travis

Why These Young’ns Don’t Respect Us by C-Dub

Crooked I reignites Hip Hop Weekly with a tribute to Gang Starr by Jeff Weiss

Bun B Fires Back At Source Rating Critics... Including Ours by Henry Adaso

The summer belongs to Rawse by Byron Crawford

Jerry Wexler, How Quiet the Loudest Drummers Go by Amir Said

Cypress Hill and Guerilla Union announce the return of the Cypress Hill Smokeout by Jeff Weiss

What's the Source of Energy In Your Beats? Let the Rhythm Be Your Guide by Amir Said

Worthy of 5 Mics? by C-Dub

The Source And Pitchfork Both Give Bun B's New Album A "5" by Dave Bry

Album Reviews:

Freddie Gibbs - Str8 Killa EP by Jeff Weiss

Freddie Gibbs - Str8 Killa EP by Henry Adaso

Freddie Gibbs - Str8 Killa EP by The Company Man

Freddie Gibbs - Str8 Killa No Filla by Jeff Weiss

Bun B - Trill O.G. by Tom Breihan

Bun B - Trill O.G. by Henry Adaso

Bun B - Trill O.G. by Slava Kuperstein

Bun B - Trill O.G. by Zilla

Snoop Dogg Presents... My #1 Priority by Jake Paine

Slum Village - Villa Manifesto by Emerson Dameron

Rakaa - Crown of Thorns by Ali Elabbady

Curren$y - Pilot Talk by Francisco McCurry

Wale - More About Nothing by Henry Adaso

El-P - Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 by Daniel Levin Becker

Street Sweeper Social Club - The Ghetto Blaster EP by Andres Vasquez

Pastor Troy - King of All Kings by Adam Figman

Juvenile - Beast Mode by Craig Jenkins

Ron Browz - Etherlibrium by Amanda Bassa

Shawn Jackson - Brand New Old Me by Zach Cole

The Budos Band - The Budos Band III by Bill Meyer

Wavves - King of the Beach by Brandon Rae

Various Artists - Brownswood Electric by Andrew Martin

Forest Swords - Dagger Paths by Craig Jenkins

Best Coast - Crazy for You by Arika Dean

Profiles & Interviews:

Who Does Wyclef Jean Think He Is? by Rob Tannenbaum

Dusty Fingers: My Vinyl Weighs A Ton by Chris Thomas

Audible Treats: Buzz-Builders, Press Agents, Music Marketing Strategists by Daniel Sieling

Chocolate-Covered Bacon is Delicious: An Interview With Moe Pope by Zach Cole

Double J - The Unkut Interview by Robbie

Politics:

Wyclef for president? by Charlie Hinton

Robert Gibbs attacks the fringe losers of the left by Glenn Greenwald

Special Comment: On Robert Gibbs and the "Professional Left" by Nicole Belle

Culture:

Meme Warfare (Scaling Ayer's Rock) by Chris Byrne

WTF/Comedy:

Snoop Dogg gets viral, sends messages to Britney Spears, Al Gore, 'Weird Al' Yankovic and Justin Bieber by Jeff Weiss

What’s Brian Pumper got to do with it? by Byron Crawford

Listicle Without Commentary: 31 of BET Uncut's One-Hit Wonders (in Order of NSFW-Ness) by Jeff Rosenthal

Sample Set #23



GibbStarr


Kwan Lee - I Warned You EP & Sample Set (#159)


Nas - One Love (L.G. Mix) | Insomniacs Club



A taste of things to come...

Scarface - Hand of the Dead Body (feat. Ice Cube & Devin the Dude) | Insomniacs Club



"If you don't dig me then n**** you can sue me/
'Cause the shit that I be sayin ain't worse than no Western movie/"

Random Shit That Pisses Me Off (a.k.a. All I Need is One Paragraph)



"In the bullshit department..." © George Carlin

What's up with all these rap blogs joining the Complex "network." It's bad enough I've got a problem with all those annoying bars on the bottom of websites, but this shit? Nah. I still fux with The Smoking Section and a few other sites that are down with Uproxx. And for what it's worth, Compex is a decent site - though their "click on our site 50 times to view our 'Top 50 _____' list" schtick is beyond abhorrent. Really doe, other than maximizing web stats - which apparently is the life blood for some of these folks/sites - what's up with dillz-riding Complex? Even worse, it pisses me off to no end when said rap blogs dedicate entire posts to Complex articles. No shots? Yes shots! Whateva Man © Redman. That shit's almost as flagrant as dedicating entire posts to Kanye West's brief appearance on Ustream a few days back - something nearly every rap blog did. How lame is that? As if this cat's ego didn't need to be inflamed some more... About a week ago, I went to see this flick Dinner for Schmucks. Steve Carell knocked it out the park, as expected. But one of the funniest characters in the film was this guy Kieran played by Jemaine Clement. Watch Dinner for Schmucks. Kanye West is the rap version of Kieran, I swear. In the film, Kieran's got these ridiculously tacky, animalized, overtly sexual self-portraits - a practice in narcissism. This character immediately made me think of Kanye, which is ironic and damn near prescient since just a few days later, 'Ye released his 'Portrait of Power.' Kanye's self-worshipping pseudo-artsiness is unacceptable at this point. But I guess anything can pass as art these days right? How about The Source handing Bun B the coveted 5 Mic rating? Ain't that some shit? Lemme get this straight: according to The Sauce, Trill O.G. and The Naked Truth are the best rap albums of the past nine years? C'mon, son. iFuxwit Bun B, but on the real, Trill O.G. isn't even the best album in the Trill-ogy. Do you understand what this means? Gucci Mane, Trey Songz and Yo Gotti are on a 5 Mic album. Fall the fuck back! Best believe 'Pac's rolling in his grave Cuba right now. Even Pimp C's up in hip hop heaven right now, getting blown by a trio of angels and shaking his head at this nutfuckery. And what's with Raekwon re-releasing Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...II? Now here's a sad state of affairs. This record's only been out for a year? Gold Edition? More like fool's gold. Who's gonna shell out some cash for a record they bought a year ago, now featuring a shitty cover that, as Bosnaud would put it, looks like someone just learned about the emboss effect on Photoshop. If this isn't a lame attempt at turning a little - emphasis on little - profit, then what is? I've gotta say, I miss the old Raekwon. You know, the kind of Raekwon that wouldn't be all on Twitter all day long, hyping his and CNN's projects on some Don King shit. Twitter killed the mystique I had about Rae. Featured artists on OB4CLII² include Travis Barker and Game. I give up. I'm not buying this shit. Literally. But of course, the biggest sack of bullshit that hit the news this week was Wyclef Jean's decision to run for president. Word? Homie can't even keep The Fugees together, how the fuck is he gonna maintain one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world. 'Clef is in way over his head. The PWNage dealt to him by Sean Penn just about sums it up. Hitotsu.

Young Legend Freddie Gibbs in the Booth


The 'Pac incarnate himself gives us a sneak peek at a studio session for his track "4681 Broadway"... via Vimeo

The Tape Deck '10: Volume #62