Soul Sides and the last thing I'll write about Kimya Dawson

www.soul-sides.com

Soul Sides is an audio blog by critic Oliver Wang that features a few mp3s a week of rare grooves, old soul, and all things dusty and funky. I’m starting to get into old soul, and Soul Sides is a great resource. Yesterday they posted a bunch of old rock by Howling Wolf. He also has links to other sites that post old stuff. Yes, three years too late I’m writing about audioblogs but fuck it, I’m old and it takes me a while to discover this stuff.


I also checked out Kimya Dawson’s site yesterday (she of Juno – remember?) and although I still dislike her music, I will no longer dis her. She’s the real deal, someone who is trying to do something sincere and real and positive, and I applaud her music and her approach to life. I’ve been a cynical fuck for so long that sometimes I have to remind myself that sometimes it pays to actually believe in something.

Now I’m gonna stop listening to the shitty rap I have to review and go listen to some old soul.

Kimya Dawson is Ok by me

After my rant about the juno soundtrack the other day, it dawned on me that I'm not the best person to be judging twee or kimya dawson's music. She isn't making stuff for cynical 30-something men. The women in my office and in my life love her, and her music makes them very happy. I say, great. If she rocks your world. awesome. Plus, she played at gilman street last night (legendary berkeley punk club that launched the careers of op ivy, green day, and blatz, to name three). So that's pretty awesome. Music criticism is dominated by male voices, and we aren't always right.

So as long as i don't have to listen to too much of her stuff, i'm all for kimya. go ms. dawson!!

(that's as nice as an asshole music snob like me gets on such matters, i'm afraid...)

Freestyle Fellowship

To Whom it May Concern..., Beats and Rhymes, 1991

Reposted from www.rapreviews.com

Obscurity automatically gives things an extra layer of reverence and respect. If no one has heard of an album, it must be incredible; after all, no one saying anything about an album means that no one is saying anything bad about it. The truth of the matter is that while a lot of great albums are slept on, there are also quite a few that deserve their obscurity.

So in which category does Freestyle Fellowship's "To Whom It May Concern..." fall? Is it a wrongfully ignored classic, or a merely adequate record that has gained undue notoriety due to how few copies of it were originally pressed (rumored to be less than 1,000)? To answer that question, I listened to this record while pretending that it was as lauded as "It Takes A Nation of Millions..." or "The Low-End Theory," a hands-down, no-brainer classic that should be in everyone's record collection. Even given those high standards, "To Whom It May Concern..." stands up. It sounds remarkably fresh and exciting today, 17 years after its release.

This album is the epitome of jazz rap, and not just because of the jazz samples the group uses. The Fellowship, comprised of Aceyalone, All in All, J. Sumbi, Mikay 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter, don't rap so much as flow, the words spewing out of their mouths like Charlie Parker licks, complex, intricate, and amazing. They were trained in the art of freestyling at the Goodlife Café, and all of that practice shows. Aceyalone's rhyme on "Fantasy" is a perfect example; his lyrics come out effortlessly and relentlessly, never going quite where you expect, but always sounding right on:

"Would you like to be a part of my fantasy?
Fantasy, insanity, vanity, family, Kennedy, can it be?
It'll be great we can break all laws of gravity
Make room, or fly to the moon on a boom
We can let it get better, get etiquette, adequate, that'll get sloppy
Ten-four, you copy?
Big jollopy I pop a seed, pop a floppy
Teenybopper, hoppy, hype, my squad's the gods of the mic
So play vanilla, hammer, shamma-lamma-ding-dong
Killer, slummer, plan a pop song, KA!
But I like breakbeats and beatin' on the walls of bathrooms
The b-boys b boys forever
Yo, punk- what's your function?
Robotics, planets, products, annex, got it
Mechanics or sonics, organic, exotic, narcotic
Bought it, forgot it
I jot it down 'til I'm hooked on phonics
So much to do with a touch of double dutch
Of dodge ball, the Taj Mahaj's right below us
Slow us down and show us the forest
Or a Brontosaurus
I'm a Taurus, poorest one of all
Born in back of a pool hall, a joker
My Pappy's a penny ante poker player
Who's a loser, screwser, booser
Livin' a life of anger
Had one, two, one too many Harvey Wall Bangers
So bungee jump off a bridge and soar
With a rubber baby elastic plastic
Band around your ankle
Fasten up, next stop Banana Republic"

The beats are a combination of jazz, funk, and psychadelica that are banging but never cliche. Even the skits and shorter songs offer an insight into the group's humor and philosophy. "Let's Start Over," which features the group listening to the Triggerman beat, is especially prescient given Southern rap's dominance in recent years; "We Will Not Tolerate" has the group declaring "We are not your O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y N-I-G-G-E-R-S;" "Dedications" has the group "livercating" the album to their fallen friends, saying "we must be strong, for the killing of ourselves must stop."

This was recorded around the same time as "De La Soul Is Dead" and it shares the edge and darkness of De La's sophomore debut. Gangsta rap was beginning to outshine the jazzier, more positive, more afro centric manifestations of the art form, and a lot of MCs were deeply disappointed by this turn towards the negative. Hip hop was turning into the same tired stereotypes. Why be smart when being gutter sells? Why aim for art when you can go gold rehashing gangster movies? The Freestyle Fellowship retaliated by being just as angry as their gangsta peers. On "Sunshine Men," they criticize fake gangsters who moved to L.A. from parts East to cash in on the latest negativity:

"Those without talents, but big drug profits
Rap becomes a tool often used in vein
Just like a gun
When they want out of the insane lifestyle
But they want the insane pay
So they pick up a mic, yet they have nothing to say
It's a damn shame, 'cause they form the pack
Of those who represent my spot, yet they lack
The skill to get raw with words and cold shoot 'em
Stuck in the past, puttin' raps to a drum computer
Not even worried that the songs not able
'Cause they got juice and hook ups at big labels
No unique-ness, no goals or dreams
No creativity's exactly how it seems
As a sunshine man, with plans and a pen in my hand
Recording thoughts and beats for the next man
Even those who live without a clue
I bring the truth to you, it's not new
To help my cause, the rise or inflation
The incline of western civilization
Words to enlighten and to direct
Brought to you live and correct
From Sunshine Men"

The Freestyle Fellowship didn't manage to dampen the popularity of gangsta rap, and their criticism on "Sunshine Men" resonates just as clearly today as it did when it was originally released. What they did succeed in doing was inspiring and being part of a community of MCs who shared the Fellowship's positive message, including the Jurassic 5, Pharcyde, and Lootpack. "To Whom It May Concern..." might be to hip hop what the Ramones' or Velvet Underground's first albums were to rock music: an album few people heard, but that inspired everyone who did hear it to start a band and make music of their own.

The only negative thing about the album is the fact that it was recorded on a shoestring budget, and the sound quality shows. The levels aren't level, it sounds muddy, and the whole experience is akin to listening to a twice-dubbed tape. The question is, would you rather listen to a piece of shallow garbage that sounds crisp and clear, or a genuine masterpiece that is less polished? Personally, I'll take "To Whom It May Concern..." over Soulja Boy any day of the week.

"To Whom It May Concern..." is an innovative, creative, challenging record, one that pushes boundaries and further blurs the distinction between jazz and rap. The MCs offer some dazzling verbal acrobatics, and a lot of insightful and clever lyrics. This deserves a place next to your De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest albums. Most importantly, it deserves to be listened to, and since it is now available for download on Itunes and Emusic, hopefully it will get a chance to be rediscovered by the legions of hip hop fans who weren't among the lucky 1,000 who copped it the first time around.

Music Vibes: 10 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 10 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 10 of 10

The Juno Soundtrack Makes Me Want to Kill

I saw Juno recently, and while I liked it, the soundtrack bugs the fuck out of me. Not the Belle and Sebastian or Sonic Youth, mind you; I'm talking specifically about the childish, inane, twee as fuck tracks by Kimya Dawson.

Now let me be clear: I've always hated twee, for the very fact that it was childish, inane, barfily cutesy, and just not very well made or fun to listen to. K Records? I'd rather wash my eyes out with soap. Manchild's with acoustic guitars and ukelele's? Grown women and men singing like slightly brain-damaged elementary school kids? um, pass. If i want endearingly childlike, i'll go with something more nuanced, complex, and interesting, like belle and sebastian or sufjan stevens. they fill the same role of other twee acts without sucking. If i want to listen to amatuerish, i'll listen to an indie rock or punk rock act that is at least acting a little bit their age.

The height of my hate of twee came at a dennis driscoll show at kimo's in SF in 2000. After an endless set of him singing about his bucket or how to make brownies, he said "I have a few more songs to do..." at this point the transvestite soundwo/man said, in a voice too deep for her leather skirt, "how about one more?" to which mr. driscoll had a fit, and said petulantly, "actually, i'm not going to do any more songs."

What bugged me about Dennis Driscoll, and twee in general, was how off it was. I understood people wanting to go back to the childhood innocence of their imaginary youth, but at 22, that just doesn't work. There was something really unhealthy and dysfunctional to me about watching adults act out their elementary school role-playing, going all kindergarten. it seemed like a dangerous regression, a way of ignoring the problems of the present by reverting back to childhood. It didn't seem like a healthy way to approach life. Also, the music was really shit.
so the juno soundtrack. It makes me more ornery than the indigo girls, dave matthews, and bob marley combined. I know it makes a lot of people very happy (my girlfriend included), but i can't help but think i'm right on this one.

Thank you and goodnight.

PS: I'm sorry to mr. driscoll for dissing him. check out http://www.dennisdriscoll.org/ and make your own opinion. He has a right to do what he does, and he'd be an idiot to try and appeal to my tastes. I wish him the best of luck on his endevours, and if he makes people happy, all the better.

PPs: my own method of facing the world, ie hiding behind a mask of cynicism and jadeness, doesn't strike me as particularly healthy either. If you learn of a more effective and functional way of dealing with life, please drop me a line. Being a jaded music snob is hard work.

PPPS: also check out www.krecs.com.

Vampire Weekend

On a recent Sound Opinions, critic Jim DeRogatis trashed Vampire Weekend's debut, essentially because they are a bunch of preppie fucks ripping off Paul Simon and singing about pretentious shit like Cape Cod and the Oxford Comma. He's only half right. Yes, they are pretentious preppie fucks, and yes, their lyrics can get too coy for their own good. And yes, they rip off Paul Simon and steal African rhythms in manner that is somewhat distasteful given their aforementioned preppie fuck status. I'll even throw in the additional criticism that they are incredibly over-hyped.

Still, Vampire Weekend are essentially the new Strokes: a group of talented, smarmy musicians that are getting obscene amounts of hype for music that blatantly shows its influences. They also share with the Strokes the fact that they are pretty good. If you ignore their preppie fuck status, their preppie fuck lyrics, and learn to love rather than hate their paul simon worship, you'll find that they are actually quite enjoyable. The album is fun, breezy, and short, the perfect soundtrack for drinking fruity drinks by a pool or making out with your girlfriend. Ignore the haters, and ignore the people giving this album excessive amounts of love: Vampire Weekend may not be the second coming of rock n' roll,k but they aren't half-bad.

Carbon/Silicone

www.carbonsiliconeinc.com

The Clash are one of my favorite bands ever. It’s hard to say how influential the Clash have been on my political and musical development. They got me to accept reggae, hip hop and disco as legitimate forms of music, and got me to expand my palette when all I was listening to was angry 1-2-fuck-you hardcore. Joe Strummer remains one of my heroes, and I love all of their albums (except cut the crap, which is, admittedly, a piece of steaming feces).

I haven’t been as in love with their post-clash work. Joe Strummer had a minor but interesting solo album in the late 80s, “Earthquake Weather,” which sold about 7,000 copies (!)(including mine). Mick Jones went on to do Big Audio Dynamite, mixing hip hop and punk into a pastiche that was interesting about half the time. He’s now formed “Carbon/Silicone” with former Sigue Sigue Sputnik bassist Tony James, and the two have been releasing songs on their website, www.carbonsiliconeinc.com. I love Mick’s voice, but his lyrics and songwriting are always hit and miss, and Carbon/Silicone is no exception. There are some clunky riffs and some clunky lines, but it still sounds great to hear his voice again. I also like the fact that he is doing this himself, and having a lot of fun with it. It’s kind of how I do this blog, only I totally half-ass this, and it sounds like Mick and Tony are actually trying.

(Legal) Free Shit

Here are some free downloads you should check out...

Re-Up Gang - We Got It For Cheap Vol. 3

A year after “Hell Hath No Fury,” the Clipse and Co. release a follow up to 2006’s excellent “We Got It For Cheap” Vol. 1 and 2.” Like those albums, Vol. 4 is more cold-as-ice crack rap over new and newly jacked beats. Unlike “Hell Hath No Fury,” the boys are reveling in their role of crack dealers without remorse, making it slightly unappetizing. It also suffers from the usual mixtape issues, ie too many sound effects and shoutouts.

Killer Mike “Ghetto Extraordinary” This album from Outkast protégée Killer Mike was shelved by Sony in 2005. It’s now being released for free, and is not bad. Killer Mike puts the Angry Black Man back into hip hop, picking up where Ice Cube and David Banner left off. Like those two rappers, Killer Mike is equal parts street poet, insightful critic, and hypocritical dick.

AmpLive – “RainyDayz remixes” In which Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” is remixed to include rhymes by Too Short and Del. After my (pretty lame) criticism of Radiohead last month, I gotta admit that In Rainbows may be worth checking out. This is melancholy and awesome, and avoids sounding like a mash up.

I didn’t include links. You know how to use google, so if you want to find this shit, find it your damn self.

Peaches

The Teaches of Peaches
Kitty Yo/XL Recordings, 2000/2002

(reposted from www.rapreviews.com)

One of hip hop's selling points is that it has retained the sense of danger that rock n' roll lost years ago. Hip hop is music to scare your parents, loud, angry, profane, and as frightening and unwelcoming as the neighborhoods that rappers claim to come from. One of the downsides of this is that hip hop is not the safest or most inviting place for a lot of people, particularly women. This is especially true for female MCs. How do you compete in an arena where you are categorically degraded and put down, where "bitch" is used so commonly it isn't even considered derogatory? Most female MCs have responded by either trying to be badder than the baddest boy, by being a vamped up sex machine, or both.

Enter Merril Nisker, aka Peaches, a Canadian artist who mashes up hip hop, electronica, and rock, and infuses it all with a healthy dose of estrogen. Her philosophy (and schtick) are clearly defined on her first single, "Fuck the Pain Away." Over a dirty Roland MC-505 beat that sounds straight out of "Push It," Peaches raps:

"Sucking on my titties like you wanted me
Calling me, all the time like Blondie
Check out my chrissy behind
It's fine all of the time
What else is in the teaches of peaches?
Like sex on the beaches - huh? What?"

All of this leads to a chorus of "Fuck the Pain Away." That is Peaches in a nutshell: rudimentary, crude, crass, and sexy. In 2001, this sounded like a revolution to a lot of women I knew. Peaches spoke to all of the women who were grounded in feminism but tired of feminism's perceived tendencies towards victimization and prudishness, and tired of not having a space to express their sexuality in ways that weren't tied to male fantasies. After years of addressing the painful and seemingly endless ways in which sex and sexuality are used to oppress women, there were a lot of ladies who wanted to fuck the pain away. Kathleen Hannah echoed the sentiment in Bikini Kill's "I Like Fucking": "Just cuz my world...is so fucking goddamn full of rape/ Does that mean my body must always be a source of pain?...I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure, babe."

Peaches addressed sex from a woman's perspective, steering clear of the jailbait image of singers like Britney and Cristina, or the porn star chic that was becoming all the rage. Peaches didn't care about getting the boys off; she was too busy worrying about herself. The result was lyrics that were sexy without tying women to being Barbie doll sexpots. Peaches may be on the plain side, but she is decidedly 100% natural. On "AA/XXX" she delivers an anthem for small-chested women:

"I like the innocent type
Deer in the headlight
Rocking me all night
Flexing his might
Doing it right
Keeping me tight
Taking a bite out of the peach tonight
[...]
I'm only double-A, but I'm thinking triple X"

Men remain a necessary evil in her music, and Peaches treats them with the respect that most rappers have for women. She orders them to go down on her ("Diddle My Skittle," "Suck and Let Go"), and on "Hot Rod," exclaims "Give me your rod/Show me what you got/Rub it against my thigh." "Teaches of Peaches" is clearly a woman's show, made for and by females sick of being relegated to the role of video ho, eye candy, or baby mama.

To be honest, Peaches isn't really a hip hop artist, and I don't think she considers herself a rapper. She is more a performance artist, mixing up styles as they suit her to create her own pastiche. Her later albums have seen her veer more towards electronica and cock rock, but "Teaches of Peaches" is firmly rooted in "Licensed to Ill"- era beats. She is as complicated musically as she is lyrically, which means that her beats have two modes: uptempo and dirty, and downtempo and dirty. In fact, all of the songs basically sound the same, which is to say awesome. I wish more artists would reference that old Def Jam sound in their beats. Of course, Peaches wouldn't be nearly as interesting if she were just another white hipster ironically flirting with hip hop. Trust this: Peaches ain't faking it. She's the real deal, as nasty as she wants to be, hardcore for the hardcore.

To me, "Teaches of Peaches" will always be the album that taught SF hipsters that it was ok to get their freak on, and allowed a lot of women I know the opportunity to tap into their inner horndog and feel good about it. When civilization gets you down, when you hear a rapper use "bitch" one too many times, when you are feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired, put on Peaches and be happy being dirty.

Music Vibes: 8 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8.5 of 10

"From Here We Go Sublime"

The Field
From Here We Go Sublime
Kompakt, 2007

One good thing about year-end best-of lists is that you can catch up on releases that would have otherwise slipped by you. "From Here We Go Sublime" made a lot of critic's lists, and I finally managed to track it down this week. The Field is a project by Axel Willner, a Swedish(?) electronica artist. The record is equal parts trance, downtempo house, and minimalist techno. Tracks like "Over The Ice" and "Good Things End" have a thumping drive that reference Euro techno without actually going there. "A Paw In My Face" goes towards a more New-Order-esque beautiful meloncholy; "The Little Heart Beats So Fast" has a farting house beat that reminds me of Daft Punk and Tosca. The whole album is subtle, layered, and pretty. It reminds me of some of the other German techno stuff I've heard (particularly on Miss Kittin's "Radio Caroline" mix), and there is even a little Aphex Twin. It could be the one electronica album you need to own this year. My only complaint is that it is impossible to find a digital copy of it.

Pimp C, Sipping that Syrup

The tox tests are back on Pimp C, and they reveal that he had taken a codeine and promethazine cough syrup before his death. That, combined with his sleep apnea, caused his death. Promethazine and codeine cough syrup is better known as syrup, purple drank, and lean, and is what all of the Houston rappers drink. It's also what killed DJ Screw, the pioneer of the slowed down "Screwed and Chopped" genre of hip hop. Syrup is nasty for you. Codeine is not something you want to be fucking with on a regular basis, especially with lots of booze. God knows the chemical concoctions those guys put into their bodies - between the lean, the hennessey, the ecstasy and the weed, they put Scottish ravers to shame.

The Unbearable Beach Boys

I detest the Beach Boys. I hate their vocal harmonies, I hate their icky bahamania vibe, i hate how hipsters faun over Pet Sounds, and mostly, i can never forgive them with making such god awful surf music that had very little to do with either surfing or music. i grew up a surfer (a class only slightly less snobby than music geeks)(of which I am one), and I was bludgeoned with the beach boys my whole life. "Surfin' Safari" is a dubious song at best, but on the 1,000,000th listen, it becomes unbearable. Add to this the fact that the beach boys WEREN'T SURFERS, and that their music has about as much to do with surfing as Vanilla Ice had to do with being a gangsta. Surfers don't even listen to the Beach Boys (although, to be fair, surfers have pretty crummy taste in music as a rule. They tend to like stuff like TSOL and Jack Johnson, neither of whom are a tremendous improvement from Pet Sounds).

So i can't stand the beach boys, i'm sick of them being the unofficial soundtrack to my state, and i hate that so many indie bands emulate their vocal harmonies and melodies. And yet i actually kind of like Panda Bear's Person Pitch, which in many ways riffs off of those very Beach Boy formulas. Panda Bear is one part of the Animal Collective, who as a group do their own fair share of Beach Boys worship. I haven't really listened to them, and it's only by chance that i came to check this out. the fact that pitchfork fawned over it shamelessly intrigued me a bit. It is a big, spacey album, full of vague lyrics and vague melodies. two of the songs sprawl over the 12 minute mark, and they are mostly drones, repeating the same hypnotic rhythms and melodies. It's "interesting" as well as enjoyable, which is a good thing. It's even made me want to put aside some of my hatred of the beach boys, although not enough to give Pet Sounds another spin.

Percee P "Perseverance: The Madlib Remix"

Reposted from www.rapreviews.com

I tend to see all remix albums as suspect, a ploy by labels to sell you the same set of songs twice. "Perseverance: The Madlib Remix" is even more suspect, because it is the same producer remixing his own work, so it can't even offer a radical reinterpretation of the songs. Should consumers pay money to hear a producer remix himself? Would you pay to hear the Neptunes remix "Hell Hath No Fury," Timbaland remix "Miss E…So Addictive" or Dr. Dre remix "The Chronic?"

Maybe you should. Far from feeling like a cash-in rip off, "The Remix" is actually an interesting reimagining of Percee's "Perserverance." What's great about this album is that it changes the relationship between producer and rapper. Since the days when Kool Herc was spinning block parties in the South Bronx, hip hop has been about MCs rapping over beats; in other words, the rappers are usually the ones riffing off of what the DJ is doing. On this album, Madlib gets the opportunity to riff off of the MC, which results in beats that sound more energized and engaged. Madlib is able to craft his beats and samples around Percee's rhymes, not the other way around.

This disc doesn't really feel like a remix album. Part of this has to do with the fact that Madlib plays it fairly safe here, offering another version of the song rather than totally deconstructing it or screwing and chopping it. That's fine with me, as I've always hated noisy, glitchy, seven-minute remixes. I personally am not that interested in listening to how bugged out a DJ can make a track sound, and much prefer the more straightforward approach Madlib takes.

"Put it on the Line" offers creeping guitar in place of the keyboards on the original; "No Time For Jokes" replaces hard boom bap with a jazzy flute loop; The funk breaks on "Legendary Lyricist" and "Last of the Greats" are replaced by electro beats. Some of the tracks are mirror images of the original, like "The Hand That Leads You," which offers a slightly different variation of the original beat. Some beats are more radical reworkings, like on "Throwback Drum Attack," in which Percee's "Throwback Rap Attack" is refigured over a drum fill. "The Remix" also offers a new track, the Soul II Soul inspired "Real Talk." The end result is 14 new Madlib beats, all of which are good, and none of which are merely recycled from his other production work.

Percee's vocal tracks stay intact throughout the disc, with Madlib weaving his way around Percee's bombastic flow. As with "Perseverance," Percee stays in overdrive, and Madlib attempts to chill P out with is beats. In some ways, "The Remix" does a better job of balancing Percee's single-minded flow than the original, and the result is a listening experience that is mellower and subtler than "Perseverance." I did miss the harder funk of "Perseverance," and I felt that in general there was more excitement on that disc than on these remixes. Still, "Perseverance: The Madlib Remix" is a solid album, and is as good as the original. Madlib's beats are always worth checking out, and longtime fans of his work won't be disappointed. People who slept on "Perseverance" should check out "The Remix," but if you weren't a fan of Percee's rapping on the original, there is nothing on here that is radical enough to make you change your mind. That said, either version of "Perseverance" is worth owning, and you might as well get both.

Music Vibes: 8 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8 of 10

Aussie Hip Hop, mate!

Reposted from www.rapreviews.com
Sceptic and Dseeva “Hip Hop Psykosis” Sub Conscious Records www.myspace.com/scepticanddseeva

Reviewed by Patrick Taylor

“Hip Hop Psykosis” is the debut album by Sceptic and Dseeva, part of Sydney, Australia’s KWITS crew. The album is totally Do-It-Yourself: Dseeva handles all the production, and they released it on their own label, Sub Conscious.

The most striking thing about the disc is Dseeva’s production. He forgoes the standard funk breaks for a colder, stripped-down electronic sound. It is a combination of Lil’ Jon’s aggro synths, El-P’s paranoid sci-fi beats, John Carpenter’s soundtrack work, and 80’s synth pop. The result is music that is ice-cold, unsettling, and a lot more interesting than your standard in-house production. “Beat Em Down” layers organ stabs over ticking hi-hats into something that is straight out of a horror movie; “Anxious” puts a dark twist on the G-funk synth whine; “Survivors Guilt” sounds like Depeche Mode by way of the Magnolia Projects. The overall effect is gritty hardcore rap meets Miami Vice. I’m thinking Rick Ross or the Clipse may want to use Dseeva on their next project, because his beats would be a perfect compliment to the 80s cocaine nostalgia of their rhymes.

Lyrically, the duo follow the mantra “write what you know.” They avoid trying to mimic American gangsta cliches, and instead give a distinctly Aussie spin to hip hop, both with their thick accents and their subject matter. They are all about getting drunk and rowdy, as songs like “Down For A Drink,” Every Man Bleeds,” Beat Em Down,” and “Fucking Oath Mate” demonstrate. I wasn’t that into Sceptic and Dseeva’s more aggro tracks, but then I’m not a fan of crunk, either.

I liked the duo the most when they would take it down a notch and showed a more mature side. On “Last Words,” Sceptic and Dseeva give heartfelt goodbyes to their families before being led off to an unexplained death. “Soul Traders” criticizes rappers who sell their soul to the majors, only to be pimped by their label. One of the best songs on the album is “Still Chilling,” in which the duo describes their relationship with hip hop:

“Out of all the strife in my life
Nothing has kept me sane more than grabbing a mic
It’s a habit I like
Instead of graffing at night
I release what I feel and I’m chilling through the magic of rhyme”

As MCs, Sceptic and Dseeva have a lot of passion, but are clearly still developing their craft. They sometimes cram too many syllables in their bars, and at points their flow is all over the beat. Sometimes this almost works, and they sound as crazily disconnected as Kool Keith. At other points it makes them sound amateurish and unpolished. It’s not the end of the world, but it is noticeable. In the end, I was impressed enough by what these guys were trying to do to forgive them their occasional clumsiness. They offer up an interesting and very Australian twist on their hip hop, and their love and respect for the music come through on every track.

Music Vibes: 7.5 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 6.5 of 10 Total Vibes: 7 of 10

Lil Wayne Pt. II

I got a question from a reader about my review - specifically about sound quality issues with "the leak" mixtape. This led me to do a little research, and I discovered something that should have been obvious. The Leak CD that I reviewed is a bootleg made up of leaked tracks from the Carter III sessions. Ergo quality issues. Wayne had been talking about releasing a mixtape of them himself, mid-2007, which is why i was confused. I thought that what he was talking about was the release i had purchased at streetlight for $6.98. He never did, and instead released an EP called "The Leak" on itunes this winter. Some of the tracks have also appeared on other mixtapes. which are mostly bootlegs as well. As to why he would release a Kanye-produced track for free? Well, he didn't mean to. So at least he understands financing.

BTW, he did just get busted for, what, coke and E? Weed? I dunno. In Yuma, AZ, where my uncle just moved. His bail was set for $10,000. Wayne could probably just give them part of one of his chains. Keep your nose clean, weezy!

From Reuters:

"

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Rapper Lil Wayne was arrested for felony drug possession early on Wednesday when his charter bus was stopped at a California-Arizona border checkpoint, authorities said.

Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., was arrested in southwestern Arizona on suspicion of possessing cocaine and ecstasy, as well as drug paraphernalia, authorities said. He was being held in Yuma County Jail on a $10,185 bond.

Two other passengers on the bus, Curtis Stewart and Harold Johnson, were arrested for marijuana possession, said Capt. Eben Bratcher, a Yuma County Sheriff's spokesman.

Border patrol agents stopped the bus at about 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday after a dog alerted them to possible drugs on board, Bratcher said.

The bus, with 12 people on board, had been traveling east from California.

A further inspection found 105 grams (3.7 ounces) of marijuana, 29 grams (1 ounce) of cocaine, 41 grams (1.45 ounces) of ecstasy and more than $22,000, agents said.

Also recovered was a .40 caliber pistol registered to Carter in Florida and authorities were checking to determine whether he broke any gun laws, said Ramona Sanchez, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman in Phoenix.

This is not the first brush with authorities for Carter, who comes from New Orleans and was proclaimed rapper of the year in August 2007 by The New Yorker magazine.

His previous legal trouble came in July, when he was arrested in New York after being found smoking marijuana and carrying a weapon.

(Reporting by David Schwartz, Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Stuart Grudgings)"

"Last Good Sleep" by Company Flow, from their out of print 1997 CD "Funcrusher Plus"

AKA my new favorite song

"Last Good Sleep is a brooding, sad song in which MC El-P rhymes about his abusive step father, and describes a particularly horrible incident. Over a slow, gloomy beat, El-P describes his own ignorance to the situation, and ponders what he should have done.

"At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers"

The song reaches its climax around the four minute mark, when El-P describes the incident:

So I sunk with the hope that hibernation would cure me
And slept my last sleep while I counted clone sheep
And dreamt about nothing for the last time ever
The ignorance was blissful just a recollection
Of the gift of innocent times from a merciful deception
Woke to hazy landscapes to find my world defied the laws my mind mandates
Patching jugulars with Band-aids
The turn on you laid well above my bed
Were here and only barely through the shock of what her broken face told me"

His conscious chimes in:

"(You should have known what happened)
I was young and oblivous
(He almost killed your mom)
If I knew I could have done something
(You'll never see him again)
Yeah but I see him every night
And cover my ears in tears as he beats his fucking wife"

It is an intense, emotional song that perfectly captures the trauma of domestic abuse, and the powerlessness and guilt that he must have felt for not being able to stop it. It's no the kind of thing you expect from hip hop or pop music in general. It's also horribly depressing, and is one of those songs that can bring you to tears. Goddamn.

Lil' Wayne "The Leak (Tha Carter III Official Mixtape)

Reposted from www.rapreviews.com
as reviewed by Patrick Taylor

I'll be honest - this CD confuses me. It's in a slim jewel case with no information about who released it. The cover has a picture of Lil' Wayne with "The Carter III" written on it, but when I put the disc in my computer, itunes called it "The Leak" (not to be confused with the EP of the same name released electronically in December). It isn't a mixtape, per se � where's the loud cover? Where are the DJ shout-outs? Where's Young Money's commentary? From what I can gather from the Internet, this is a collection of leaked material from the Carter III sessions that Wayne decided to release as a mixtape. What really confuses me is how this fits in with Wayne's other mixtape releases this year, or how these mixtapes work with his business plan in general. Who pays for his studio time? Who pays the producer? How do you make money when you pay Kanye for a beat and then release it on a mixtape? Most importantly, how does Universal, his record label, feel about all of this?

There is no question that Wayne is on the roll of a lifetime. He is going through an insanely prolific creative streak, even by hip hop's album-a-year standards. He has recorded and released a bajillion songs in 2007, and almost as many mixtapes. He has also been on practically every album released last year, offering his croaky voice to artists as diverse as Jay-Z and Little Brother. After labeling himself the Best Rapper Alive a few years ago, he is on a mission to prove it, and he has definitely built up a solid body of work to prove his claim.

Lil' Wayne reminds of the late writer Charles Bukowski. Both men produced mountains of work, and both men seemed to believe that almost anything they put down was worth publishing. Bukowski put out a million books and books of poetry that were all pretty much about him being a drunken asshole; Weezy, by comparison, has laid down hours of music in which he raps about money, jewels, weed, and bitches. From what I understand, he never writes his raps down, and instead free associates his rhymes while the tape is rolling. In the hands of a lesser talent, the end result wouldn't any good, but Wayne makes it work. He manages to make even the most dubious rhyme schemes and lyrics sound good. On "Kush" he raps:

"You can't find me 'cause I'm lost in the music
I'm runnin' this and I can jump the hurdles
I feel like I'm racing a bunch of little turtles
Keep a bandana like the Ninja Turtles
I'm like a turtle, when I sip the purple"

If any other rapper tried to rhyme "turtle" three times in a row it would irritate the hell out of me. With Wayne, it sounds right. While his subject matter may not push the limits, his rhyming does. Lil' Wayne is the master of one-liners and clever twists of phrase, which means that even when he's rapping about nothing it still sounds brilliant.

The centerpiece of the album is the psychedelic drug opus "I Feel Like Dying." The beat is an agonizingly slow reworking of indie-folk singer Karma's "Once," flipping her tale of addiction and codependence into a chorus of "Only when the drugs are gone/I feel like dying." Wayne is at his tripped-out best, croaking lines like:

"I can mingle with the stars & throw a party on Mars
I am a prisoner locked up behind Xanax bars
I have just boarded a plane without a pilot
And violets are blue
Roses are red
Daisies are yellow
The flowers are dead
Wish I can give you this feeling that I feel like buying
And if my dealer don't have no more, then (I feel like dying)"

Out of the 23 tracks on this disc, only a couple are less than stellar. By and large the beats are amazing, and Wayne is totally on point with his lyrics. "Diamonds and Girls" is an ode to jewelry built around a Prince sample; "Did It Before" features a soulful Kanye beat; "Money Ova Here" is pure Houston; and "Zoo" has a sparse and sinister beat, with Mack Maine and Wayne declaring "We just two niggas from the same hood/Fell from the same tree/Cut from the same wool/He the young lion and I'm the young bull/ Welcome to the zoo." Unlike most mixtapes, there is no DJ shouting bullshit over the tracks, and as near as I can tell the beats are almost all original. Because of this, "The Leak" is not only one of the best mixtapes of 2007, it is also one of the best ALBUMS of 2007. If these are Wayne's throw-aways, I can't wait to hear what makes it onto the official "Carter III."

Music Vibes: n/a of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8.5 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8.5 of 10

Crew54 "Aggressive Soul"

Reposted from rapreviews.com

There is a skit in the middle of "Aggressive Soul" called "Nothing On A Track." Over a generic synth beat, the Vocoder-filtered rappers repeat "I can make a million with nothing on a track." The skit showcases the Texan duo's sense of humor, and their sense of disgust at the state of mainstream hip hop. Their message is clear: hip hop better step its game up.

Crew54 don't waste a lot of time whining about the state of hip hop, though. They are too busy proving by their example that the genre is meant for bigger and better things than ringtones and dance fads. MCs G-Christ and Master Of Self got together with the goal of making feel-good music, and they succeed on "Aggressive Soul." The album name perfectly captures the mood of the disc – soulful and aggressive, banging and smooth.

Like Little Brother, Crew54 are a Southern duo who don't immediately sound like they are from the dirty south. There are no rhymes about grills, candy paint, syrup or hoes, and their beats don't rely on Triggerman or synths. Instead, their production is dripping in soul, with beats provided by King Verse, Remax, Qentic Storm, Zaire, Reeplay, Keelay, Derelict, Eska hines, Alpha 20/20, and Mike & Ike. The beats range from the seventies strings of "Dreams" and "Loyalty" to the mellow R & B of "The Way It Is" to more banging tracks like "Titan" and "Dirty Dirty."

Their lyrics balance out their Texas drawls with the kind of thoughtful lyricism that is more common in the Northeast than below the Mason-Dixon line. On "The Way It Is," G-Christ challenges the scapegoating of hip hop:

"You hear about my generation all the time
Talking to me like I started black-on-black crime
But we've been divided since slavery
Niggas in the house, niggas in the field
That's how it came to be
Our culture's been split down the middle
It's hard to unite when your foundation's brittle"

On "Back At It" M.O.S. gives some insights into the struggles of an aspiring rapper, along with an excellent dis to haters:

"We them brothers on the brink
We them niggas on the verge
A favorite rapper's favorite rapper
That nobody's heard
On a myspace page acting like we 'bout to blow
When it's hard as hell to even get somebody at a show
Dropped a classic on my own
Well, I thought it was a hit
And the twelve folks that downloaded it said it was the shit
Then I linked with G-Christ niggas thought we was crazy
When we banged them on the head with "Beaters and Babies"
When we started getting love, niggas started misbehaving
Acting like we played the game by cheating and point-shaving
Well it's ok, nigga, do what you do
If I was wack as fuck, I'd be mad at us too"

Throughout "Aggressive Soul," Crew54 displays humor, humility, and positivity, three traits that are all too rare in hip hop. They define their sound as "feel-good music," and it definitely makes you feel good. Both their beats and lyrics are hard-hitting and uplifting, combining a positive message with some classic boom-bap. This is a great album, and I'm looking forward to this duo's future projects.

Music Vibes: 8.5 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 8.5 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8.5 of 10

The Return of the Wu, sort of

This December, the Wu-Tang Clan released two highly anticipated albums. The first was Ghostface Killah’s seventh solo album, “Big Doe Rehab.” The second was the Wu’s fifth album, “8 Diagrams.” Even before “8 Diagrams” was released, Ghostface and Raekwon were publicly bitching about the RZA’s production. Turns out they were half right. “8 Diagrams” is a drab, humorless album. The beats are sparse, cinematic, and dark, but lack the bounce of earlier RZA work. This is a more morose, pensive RZA, and while the tracks are interesting, they aren’t necessarily a lot of fun to listen to.

The jazzy “Take It Back” is mellow but enjoyable, and “Wolves” is fairly funky. My favorite track is “Stick Me For My Riches,” which is an over-the-top R&B number. In between the good tracks, however, are filler like “Sunlight,” and the embarrassing misstep “The Heart Gently Weeps” which mangles the Beatles’ “My Guitar Gently Weeps,” mostly with the decision to have the Wu SING the chorus. Ugh.

Also, the crew sounds phoned in, which may have been the case. There are tracks where their vocal levels sound off, and it just never coalesces into a coherent product. It’s a bunch of (talented) mcs dropping unconnected rhymes over sparse beats. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t great, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t the last Wu album in a long time/forever.

“Bid Doe Rehab” is even more disappointing, and sees Ghostface ending the winning streak that began with Fishscale. Part of the problem is that this is the third album he has released in eighteen months, and he is running out of ideas. He goes for the same “crack tales over soul beats” formula that worked well on Fishscale when it was fresh. Here he just sounds like he is wigged out on too much of his own product, and the result is shrill, frantic, and annoying. The beats aren’t even that spectacular. It’s almost impossible to listen to all the way through without getting a splitting headache, and it feels very inessential. He needs to take some time off, go back to the drawing board, and come back fresh and refreshed.

Radiohead are boring and dumb

The first in a series of snarky music snobbery

For the past ten years critics have been creaming their jeans over Radiohead, and it’s reached a frenzy in the past two months with their seventh release, “In Rainbows.” I give Radiohead props for their unique distribution method, but I think it’s time people start admitting that they don’t actually like Radiohead.

People say they like Radiohead for one important reason: They don’t understand what Radiohead is doing, and therefore assume that it is smart and good (1). If any no-name band had tried to pull some Kid A type shenanigans on the public, they’d have been ignored to death (2). Sixty minutes of glitch that goes nowhere? Hell to the no. But because it’s Radiohead, it gets called Challenging and poor suckers the globe over are tricked into pretending they actually like it. It’s to the point that if Radiohead presented their slavish public with fifty minutes of Johnny Greenwod doing armpit farts while Thom Yorke whined about yellow dogs, all packaged in abstract paintings, people would be convinced it was some deep shit. “In Rainbows” was named one of the best records of the year, but how can you tell if it’s any good? I’ve listened to 2003’s “Hail To the Thief” 53 times and I still cannot hum one track from it.

Don’t believe the hype – just because it’s obtuse and annoying doesn’t mean it’s deep, and you don’t have to like it. I hereby give all of you the power to say that you don’t get Radiohead and not feel like a dumbass. Go spend your money and time on an artist who you actually enjoy, unless you actually enjoy Radiohead, and then you should get therapy.

(1) the fact that they are a pretty good band who are much more interesting than 90 percent of the bullshit released may also be a factor.

(2) I really like Kid A. No, really, although OK Computer is my favorite. I think the bends is overrated, and Pablo Honey is some serious bullshit, though.

My Bad

I've started getting some feedback on my writing both here and at www.rapreviews.com, so I thought I’d own up to some mistakes I’ve made.

The most major is that I attributed a the quote in Jay-Z’s “Success” to Jay, when he was lifting it from Eminem. That’s the damn problem with hip hop – it’s so self-referential that unless you have all the albums and know all the breaks, you end up looking like an asshole. That’s also the problem with reviewing mainstream music when you don’t listen to it. Whatever – I don’t like Eminem, and I’m not going to subject myself to him just so I can catch references other artists make about him.

Second, Godchaserz entertainment wrote some comments on this blog in reference to my Christian Rap Still Sucks post, about the Jovan album they released. I stand by my review, but in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have said it sucked. I feel kind of bad about that. The title of the post is a reference to the “Corporate rock still sucks” shirts that were big in the 90s.

I’ve made other fuckups, but those are two I was called out on.

Also, MF DOOM’s Viktor Vaughn album is pretty good, and Edan’s “Beauty and the Beat” may be the best record ever. It’s pretty much Sgt. Pepper’s meets Endtroducing meets Madlib. If it were a woman, I might want to marry it. It had me doing rap hands on my walk home from work, which is pretty embarrassing considering I’m a skinny white guy.