Mini Documentary on “sampling”
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‘Music’ Articles
Download FranP Greyscale
Fran-P is an artist from Boston, MA of Dominican descent. His loves for music is rooted in the Latin rhythms that he grew up listening to and also his love for poetry. growing up in the inner city he was exposed to the Hip Hop culture and from a young age began to craft his own works. Believing that music is an extension of one self he approach’s it with passion and a desire to craft art with words. Fran-P wil be releasing his second project “GreyScale” in late November.
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Fran p , MFB , Tosh : Dillalude
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The Drone Trilogy: Prologue
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Skins & Needles: BACK BEAT SYMPHONY- Free Download!
Breaks, beats, scratches, turntables, live drums, Dj Zeph, Max MacVeety
http://www.divshare.com/download/11478177-2a4
Tags: Bay Area, Boston, Crown City Rockers, Oakland, Oakland Faders, Worldwide
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HIP-HOP IS DEAD (AND NAS KILLED IT?)
Okay, first, the header above is as misleading as it is eye-catching. Don’t get it twisted. McFly is a big Nasir Jones supporter. “Illmatic” is my all-time favorite record. It’s a damn masterpiece. Furthermore, hip-hop is like acidophilus, live cultures with millions of organisms, which by definition, is the opposite of dead and impossible to kill. This has nothing to do with his recent collab with Damien Marley or his infamously titled record from 2006. I’ll get to the theory momentarily but before I do, y’all need to get on that new Reflection Eternal “Revolutions Per Minute.” It’s a bonafied classic…
Admittedly, over the last decade, I’ve been more of a mixtape junkie. I’ve found it hard to get into full-length albums the way I used to in the 80’s and 90’s. For now, let’s call it consumer “attention deficit disorder,” which in a broader sense, seems to be a collective phenomenon for the new millennium. As technological innovations continue to colonize our lifestyle, our stimuli have become so “customizable” we have shortened our attention spans in exchange for a more synthesized program of entertainment. Playlists, mixtapes, filesharing, blogs (gulp), YouTube clips etc. have replaced the old paradigm of buying an LP, a cassette tape or CD, pressing play and digesting each track slowly and intently. To that end, rap has become almost entirely a mixtape medium. Count the number of producers that make up any new studio album from Jay-Z to Jeezy. The formula seems to be: find a hot producer, buy a beat, lay down lyrics, drop a mixtape, hit Hot 97 and Power 106; Funk Flex and Felli Fel will hype the sh*t out of it by screaming “brand new” and “sizzling hot”… and then…on to the next. Unfortunately, hype-men and tastemakers run the game. Forget digesting a whole album, radio deejays barely make it to the second verse of a track. And why bother? As long as the hook is catchy, listening to lyricism is inconsequential. Even young rappers understand their reign on top is short like leprechauns (plus, it’s a recession and we can barely afford to pay attention.) But to paraphrase Rhymefest, “a hot record is temporary because hot cools off, but a dope record is forever…” Think about all the dope records from the Golden Era: Wu-Tang, Gangstarr, Tribe, Black Moon, The Roots, Dr. Dre, Outkast, Common, The Fugees, Eric B & Rakim, De La Soul, Pete Rock & CL… you can go on and on and on… These were albums conceived through musical collaboration between the lyricists and beatmakers. And, in virtually every instance, the classics were produced by a single beatmason: RZA, Premier, Prince Paul, No ID, Wyclef…you get the point. Now, I know what you’re thinking. What about Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie?!? They are the best of the best. Their studio albums are classics and they all use multiple producers. I gotta big up my homie Trends on this one. (Check out his website www.djtrends.com and his incomparable podcast, One Drop Radio, available on iTunes.) As we pontificate such things, it is his theory that Nas’ “Illmatic” altered the course of hip-hop as we know it. Or, if you’re pessimistic, “Nas killed Hip-Hop.” (But this was no pre-meditated murder and it barely qualifies as involuntary manslaughter.)
Arguably, what made “Illmatic” so dope and innovative was its diversity of production. Nas was hip- hop’s first golden boy and “Illmatic’s” cache before it dropped was that every producer from Primo to Pete Rock couldn’t wait to collaborate with the 19-year old phenom from Queensbridge. Its release in 1994 marked the first time an album featured an all-star team of producers. A young Puff Daddy took notice while developing his own phenom and then “Ready to Die” was another multi-producer classic. By the time “Reasonable Doubt” dropped in 1996, the rap game had changed. Over the next ten years, the industry trended away from the single-producer album and this opened the door for every Tom, Dick and Harry with an MPC. Young Jeezy’s first studio album “Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101″ (2006) was 19 tracks with 12 different producer credits. Even Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3″ featured 9 producers. Gone are the days where the rapper(s) and the deejay/producer sit around and create their sound together. It is as if we can’t afford the time. That is until the return of Reflection Eternal…
“Revolutions Per Minute” is timelessly dope and entirely produced and conceived by Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek. Next, it is hi-time to recognize Hi-Tek as one of hip hop’s all-time great producers. Dig up his beats and listen (or re-listen) to the way he mixes multiple samples with original percussion. He is some kind of wonderful. And lyrically, Talib Kweli has a subterranean mentality with an uber-conscious mind. The album is packed with relevant activism without the disgruntled “backpacker” preachiness. So just this once, lengthen your attention spans, kick back, press play and digest the record slowly and intently. Trust me, it is chock-full of acidophilus.
Stay tuned…
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Tags: LIVE KULTURE REPORT
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Raashan Ahmad – FREE DOWNLOAD!
Some rarities from Raashan Ahmad. Featuring: Gift of Gab, Chali 2na, Aceyalone, and Lateef the Truth Speaker. Production by Headnodic, Descry, and Raashan Ahmad.
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LINK: http://www.mediafire.com/?mmvnyjyftmm
Tags: Bay Area, Crown City Rockers, Gift Of Gab, Raashan Ahmad
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THIS IS IN MEMORY OF…
“This is in memory of…” the great Keith Elam a.k.a Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal. As they say in Nawlins, Guru flew Home on April 19th after a long battle with cancer. Rest in Paradise, Gurizzy.
Simply put, Gangstarr defined the 1990’s Golden Era of hip-hop. And as Guru breaks bread with Teddy Pendergrass, the beef with Primo is bridgewater; the records are immortal. For further reflection, revisit FULL CLIP: A DECADE OF GANGSTARR (released in 1999) and if you are not acquainted, get familiar… Broken down and dissected, Gangstarr is hip-hop in its purest form: bass portly beats, samples mined from the dustiest of record bins, chorus-appropriate epithets sliced to perfection and that commanding, confident voice of Baldhead Slick, spitting bar after bar of fire. For my money, DJ Premier is the greatest producer of all-time (Dre and RZA are right there) but, now that we can encapsulate his career, it is somehow difficult to evaluate where Guru fits in the conversation of emcess. Since his passing, I have heard debates ranging from “greatest of all time” to “doesn’t sniff the top 15.” While most historians do not rank the self-proclaimed “King of Monotone” with lyrical deities like Jay-Z, Rakim, Eminem, Biggie, Tupac and Nas, Guru’s body of work is dazzling (also see the Jazzmatazz series and some of the collabs with Solar.) Then, we have the KRS-One, Black Thought, Big Daddy Kane echelon of emcees, all of which have G.O.A.T. supporters and valid arguments. Lyrically, Guru was blue collar in his approach, never frilly. He showered after work and always got the job done. Blessed with a smooth delivery and undeniable mic presence, he often waxed intellectual and profound, his metaphors were pointy and his punchlines connected… yet he was never the go-to lyricist to Chris’n'Snoop you with a hot-16 or just murder it on a guest appearance. During his era, he saw lyrical phenoms like Canibis and Xzibit blaze in and flame out; he saw Big L and Big Pun depart too soon, he watched potential Hall of Famers like Ice Cube and LL Cool J fade from hip-hop and emerge in Hollywood… all the while he honed his craft, spit his flames and represented his culture. Regardless of where he may place that all-time conversation, Guru was the emcee’s emcee and his impact on hip-hop was immeasurable. So spin some Gangstarr, put one in the air and give thanks for Gifted Unlimited…
Stay tuned…
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Tags: LIVE KULTURE REPORT
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