Wu always had the best posse cuts, naturally. This is the best one I have heard in a while.
Jun 012009
Jun 012009
Is it just me, or does B-Real just get better with time? Making music with La Coka Nostra must have made him sharpen his swords. The Chef sounds hungry, so they blend together nicely, just like Wu and Cypress did on Temple Of Boom (which in my opinion still ranks among the most solid rap albums ever).
Raekwon feat. B-Real – The Masters
Cypress Hill feat. RZA & U-God – Killa Hill Niggaz (prod. by RZA)
And here is my favorite track from Freddie Foxxx’s underground classic Industry Shakedown (and some bonus collabos).
Freddie Foxxx feat. M.O.P. – The Mastas
May 282009
The Wu stretches far and wide, its disciples numerous.
Pop Da Brown Hornet from GP Wu is one of the lesser known swordbearers. You need his Tha Undaground Emperor if you like Wu and feel like listening to some more of that golden age boom music. It reminds me of Lord Finesse, the flow and clever punchlines and the dusty beats (courtsey of RNS, known for producing Shyheim’s first classic album), but with a distinctive Shaolin twist. Among Wu-bangers such as Follow Me Up, Endangered Species, and the excellent relationship-song Wantz & Needs, we find one of the deepest tracks ever recorded in this genre. Black On Black Crime is his S.K.I.T.S, reality rap at its best, with the saddest violin ever sampled and poetic lyrics painting the everyday madness – and a hope for better days.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpcZpi9ttaw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
May 052009
After the holy trinity Dre and Primo and RZA, I put The Bomb Squad. Their wall-of-noise aesthetics, their approach to sampling, and their energy and aggression level (as well as their diversity) is as important a leap forward in boom bap research as the discoveries of Kurtis Mantronik or Marley Marl. Their sonic portrayal of the chaotic urban landscape is very much missed in rap music these days.
Although they surely have influenced almost all producers working within hiphop, their sound gave even stronger echoes in other genres. Groups like The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers – matter of fact all that big beat, breakbeat, hardcore, jungle, drum n’ bass noise – would have been impossible, or at least would have sounded very different without Public Enemy‘s second and third album.
Among other guest productions, they went on to lay the sonic landscape for Ice Cube’s brilliant first solo album, helping him to make a political record rivaling PE’s efforts. And on the Juice soundtrack they helped Rakim make one of his best songs ever (“I’m a put it on a bullet… and put it in your brain!“)
As you can read in the Unkut interview, The Bomb Squad started as a soundsystem, and these days they, like many others, have continued their musical explorations into the realms of dubstep. Rockthedub has paid attention to this, and offers us two of their live mixes.
Sep 232008
Well, a song that sends chills up your spine like Dead Man Walking 2, Right Up My Alley, or perhaps I Just Wanna Die… been a while since I heard one of those.
(from Unkut.com)
Jul 182008
Where did LL Cool J get his hard flow? Through hard work, I guess.
“(…) at the time LL used to amaze me, ‘cos you go in his room – the dude would literally have twenty garbage bags in his room and they were all full of rhymes! He would just write and write and not stop! He was the most prolific dude that I had ever met, I couldn’t believe how many rhymes the dude would write! For every one you would say, he would have thirty rhymes to say!”
Jul 182008
K-Rino. He’s releasing a triple CD, just like MF Grimm did… they are both pretentious in a good way, which is rare in rap (or in any field, I guess).
Like K-Rino, Grimm is a special MC, very serious, very creative, very original… and the man is in a wheelchair since 1994! Wikipedia adds:
“Facing narcotics and conspiracy charges, Grimm was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000. He paid a one-day bail of $100,000, recording The
Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera in those twenty-four hours.[7] During his stay
in jail, Grimm studied law. After filing many counter-suits, he was able to
reduce his sentence to three years and he was released in 2003.”
Jun 272008
It feels very unlikely that this new Nas track is as good as it is… futuristic, political, a rock beat that isn’t complete trash.
Someone once wrote on the Internets that Vordul Mega only writes about smoking trees, the struggle, and smoking trees in order to cope with the struggle. All his verse are the same… and still dope. His new video got a mid-90s kind of feel; black and white, basketball courts, ciphers. It is getting more and more appearent that he was the best MC in Cannibal OX (well, first, let us see if Vast Aires new album really is any good).
Cormega has now a video available for Live Ya Life. This is as close as someone ever will get to Keep Your Head Up.
Jan 062008
R.A. The Rugged Man’s vers på Jedi Mind Tricks senaste är något av det bästa historieberättandet jag hört i hiphop. Hans 200 rader av Vietnam-trauma är bättre än både Rakim’s Casualties Of War och Immortal Technique’s Bin Ladin.
Att avnjuta ett sådant mästerligt handlag med orden får mig att återbesöka hans katalog där en hel del halvklassiskt material går att finna. Man kan bara instämma i Rockthedub‘s utnämnande av honom till en av underjordens osjungna hjältar. Lyssna på Renessaince Remix, Lessons, Chains, Poor People, Black And White, och Uncommon Valor med Jedi Mind Tricks. Läs sen den här intervjun.
Sep 192007
Det är sällan Ill Bill ger in för den enkelhet som råder i mycket av dagens rap-musik. Hans texter representerar flera delar av en mans tankeverksamhet, och när han blir politisk rör han sig bort från slagord och moralism, och uttrycker sig som folk i allmänhet tänker och talar, men samtidigt mer tillspetsat, slagkraftigt.
Nu är det första gången sen P.O.W.’s som han tar itu med rasism, fördomar och sin egen judendom, och som vanligt blandar han personliga erfarenheter med skarp analytisk förmåga på ett sätt som får det hål som Ice-T och KRS-1 lämnade efter sig att kännas litet mindre.
I den självproducerade White Nigger berättar Ill Bill om de etniska motsättningarna i New Yorks slum på åttiotalet, hur han som en av de få vita fick slåss varje dag för respekt, och när han bussades till de vita skolorna kom han inte heller (med sina trasiga gympadojor) överens något vidare med de rika ungdomarna där. Han talar också om en militant, oorganiserad anti-fascism, om puerto ricanska skins som knivskar de nazi-skins som vågade visa sig vid den legendariska hardcore-klubben L’Amours, och han rundar av med att dissa de som fortfarande tycker att “Hitler was right“, de Ku Klux Klan-anhängare som “still exist undercover / and Mel Gibson never liked Danny Glover / another piece of shit called out in the paper / if we was there me and my peoples would have beat the fuckin shit outta Kramer / if this song offends you, you’re a hater / take a look within yourself and figure out what the fuck you’re afraid of“.
Här hittar du en mp3, och här har du texten.
Om du tycker produktionen låter märklig, så lyssna igen – lita på mig när jag säger att det här beatet växer med varje lyssning. Som vanligt med Bill finns det mer här än vad första intrycket ger dig.
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Här hittas en ny intervju med Necro där han snackar David Axelrod, LL Cool J och annat viktigt. Han nämner bl a att han har hundratals thug-låtar lagrade som bara väntar på att bli utgivna, vilket är käckt eftersom Necro som välkänt gör sig allra bäst när han låter obduktionsskalpellerna vila några låtar och förser lyssnaren med den där gamla oförfalskade gatusmutsen (se exempelvis hans vers på Pigmartyr).
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Ken Ring har uppenbarligen producerat merparten av Smif-N-Wessuns nya skiva.
Ken är orättvist hatad och underskattad. Låtarna han har på Youtube är riktigt jävla bra, tillsammans med Gubbs Respekt och The Latin Kings alla klassiker är det den bästa svenska hiphopen.