In this issue of samples I just picked up on even though I’ve listened to both songs a million times…
Rza - A Day to God is 1000 Years
Nina Simone - I Loves You Porgy (I assume this specific recording of this song)
It’s subtle I guess, but my mind is blown!
I’m late on this, but there are too many low-quality copies of this on the Internet for me to stand idly by.
Whatnauts - Message From a Black Man
Recently sampled by Saleem Remi on Nas’ “Untitled” album (Track: You Can’t Stop Us Now) and the Rza on Digi-Snacks (Track: You Can’t Stop Me Now) and a million times before that. Classic.
I’m going to be really upset with Past Dolapo for not buying new soap before leaving the country for Nigeria. I’ll really want a proper shower and be upset that he was okay with using up all the soap and then leaving. What an asshole.
Before I get back, I’m going to be upset with him for not bringing: an extra camera battery, more pants, a pair of shorts, more socks, some traditional yoruba garb, a bigger suitcase to bring things back in. Rookie mistakes really.
One of my favorite samples is now playing on iTunes. Kanye West - The Glory samples Laura Nyro - Save The Country, among other things, I love both of these songs.
A random hip-hop post where I ultimately decide that I don’t yet like Wale as much as I want to.
It’s been a good couple of weeks in terms of backpacker/alternative/”hipster” rap releases. I’m not listening to any of them right now though, instead overdosing on the latest Cut/Copy album. It was on at Barrio Chino last night and has been on repeat since.
Back on topic.
First up, Kidz in the Hall, the rapper/producer duo that met while at school (UPenn), with The In Crowd. Yay for ivy-league grads/rappers! Yay for rap album release parties sponsored by wineries! The pairing (teehee) works well and Double-O (the producer one) is versatile enough to carry a whole album. Naledge (the rapper one) is… Naledge is technically good. His flow’s generally interesting, and he’ll drop a clever rhyme from time to time. Where this falls apart: Naledge is not all that likable, in fact he can be kind of annoying. Not because he’s not good, he just doesn’t seem to have much of a personality. It’s like he tries to be parts of Pusha T or Kanye, but comes off a little corny. The album is saved by the production, hordes of guest appearances (including the aforementioned Pusha), and the occasional gem from Naledge.
[Driving down the block] bass kickin man, sorta like Fred A-do. And I’m looking blessed, like I said A-choo. I’m so damn clean, polo rugby and Jordan 16s. While I’m [Driving down the block] wifey feeling intimate. Park up at the lake and turn the car into a cigarette.
Second. The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale. “What it is what it is come check the noise. it’s the new black version of the beastie boys.” They get points for the inspiration even though they weren’t alive during that era. You’d think rapping about bikes and clothes would get old, but the album is only 30 minutes long and we’ve heard most of the tracks before. The production is really minimalist… and I’ve had to stop myself a few times from dancing on the subway.
So I’m sitting on the couch holding the remote. Flipping channels, I’m a rebel eating a bowl of them fruity pebbles, fruity pebbles, fruity pebbles. How gangsta is that. Not gangsta at all. Are you judging me dog? Please, you shop at the mall. Me, I shop at boutiques, limited quantity sneaks…
I hate the terms “hipster-hop” and “hipster-hop” but Yay hipsters!
Watch a video
Watch another one, since this is such a brilliant idea for a beat.
Finally. Wale - The Mixtape about Nothing (Free for download here). An entire mixtape inspired by Seinfeld, including a guest appearance by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. On paper, I should really like Wale - clever multi-syllabic rhymes, obscure references, Nigerian! He’s ridiculous though, to the point where it takes multiple listens to catch everything he’s rapping about. On The Chicago Falcon Remix, Mark Ronson interrupts the track to ask him to slow it down and explain what’s going on:
Counting my bread. My account like a brunch at a synagogue. Get it y’all, that’s a whole lot of bagels… I get seinfeld with these rhyme skills, I’m Larry David. Give me my paper. It’s a cosmo like Jerry Sein’s neighor. My co-stanzas stand like Phantoms or Maybachs. You won’t get a lane if you came wack. I hate rap like Kramer hates blacks…
There’s just too much going on there, and the problem is that it can be boring. It’s like:
Yeah, I’m crazy. Hopping off the wall like Vega. They vaguely, decipher my language. Out of my mind, come and chase me. Picture off of grammar like I’m managing Frasier. Cheers. Psycho. Maestro. Orchestrate the life with the right flow. Write flows down and they might go nice. A low life’s plight. I give off my light like an interracial couple with a child. Or fucking Paramount. I hope they understand that. Light overheads means i’m right where their head is. Pause. Epiphany.
is that what he’s saying on that song? Maybe? Crazy. It’s hard to make that actually sound good. I kinda want him to stop trying to do so much and just work on his flow or something. Take a lesson from Lil’ Wayne who can spit absolute nonsense and still make it sound good. The mixtape is still pretty good though, and with Ronson producing his debut that should probably be good as well. Yay Seinfeld!
Watch a video
Nas feat Jay-Z - Black Republican (Prague Philharmonic - Marcia Religiosa).
Recalled while rewatching The Godfather II earlier today. Black Republican, from Nas’ Hip-Hop is Dead, noteworthy for being the first post-feud Nas/Jay-Z collaboration.
I know, I know, I don’t need to remind you… it’s already on your calendar, etc etc, but Zombie Strippers comes out today. Guaranteed to be trash. Take one for the team, tell us how bad it really is.
My typical reaction to mashups these days is usually to curse danger mouse’s name for making them so mainstream. As of late, they’ve been rather… uninspiring, predictable. With that said, I’m really liking this Fela Kuti + Jay Z mashup track more than I was expecting to.
Six months or so ago my primary hard drive crashed. Wounds still fresh I enacted a rigorous reliability policy - Mirrored RAID for all drives and “offsite backups” for my media. My old school offsite backup policy is to bring an external drive to work and leave it there for a month. I suppose I could use S3 or something but I’m not that l33t. Given that I never remember to refresh this backup monthly I have to figure out all the commands again, so let’s document them here for future use. I suppose I could use google notebook or something but that would make kushal too happy (also I can never remember the damn URL).
rsync -av --delete --ignore-errors /Volumes/Salvation/ /Volumes/TI\ Pimpin. --delete and --ignore-errors are important so that files I’ve deleted locally get cleaned up and there’s space for new files. Yes, I have a drive named ‘TI Pimpin’.cp -r ~/Music/iTunes /Volumes/TI\ Pimpin/At the “destination site” it’s easy enough to use this iTunes library. Convenient for having backups as well as replicated music at work.
sed s/Salvation/TI%20Pimpin/g iTunes\ Music\ Library.xml > new_lib.xmlmv new_lib.xml iTunes\ Music\ Library.xmlcat /dev/null > iTunes\ Libraryoption key when starting iTunes. It’ll recreate the binary file from the xml file.sleep 30d and repeat.
There’s an early scene in Children of Men where Theo is driving about London (possibly The Mall). The accompanying music is a haunting song by progressive rock pioneers King Crimson. Anyway, here’s a link to the track: King Crimson - The Court of the Crimson King.
I find Microsoft’s Wii plugging a little strange. Enemy of my enemy motivations aside, why assume that folks have $600 to spend on consoles. Market research be damned - though I will admit that I’m going to be one of those guys who has a 360, a Wii, and no PS3.
In other news, kushal seems to be really happy about google notebook launching. Congrats! Maybe this is what I needed to switch back to firefox from camino.
The Gnarls Barkley album is really good. I wasn’t a big fan of Perfect Imperfections (yes, yes, I still play ‘closet freak’ to this day) but this is really growing on me. It probably helps that I’ve liked the last couple of Danger Mouse albums though.