Poncho featuring Mally and Gaines - Celebrate

Mally, fresh off of being named the "Next Up" artist at this year's Twin Cities Hip Hop Awards, teamed up with fellow Minnesota rappers Poncho and Gaines for Celebrate. This one's a little more club-friendly than what we're used to hearing from Mally, but he still comes correct on his verse. No, XXL still hasn't shown him love, but with two new albums scheduled for release this year, it'll be tough to overlook Mally in 2010.
3/04/2010 7:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 1 Comment

Gnawledge - A Hip Hop remake of Antonio Machin's El Manisero:



Gnawledge - El Manisero

This is something of a departure from the traditional hip hop sound that we tend to focus on here, but I have to give it up to my Boston College bredren Canyon Cody and Gnotes for coming up with an amazing take on the classic Cuban song El Manisero. The song is off the album Granada Doaba from Gnawledge, Cody and Gnotes' group, a flamenco hip hop album that was funded by Cody's Fulbright Scholar research grant. I could go on about how Antonio Machin's El Manisero ("The Peanut Vendor") is perhaps the most important song to ever come out of Cuba, with virtually every significant Cuban artist performing a remake of the song at some point in their careers, however Cody has already written a great analysis of the song.

Granada Doaba is available for free, so be sure to go cop it! And for comparison's sake, here's the original version of El Manisero:



Antonio Machin - El Manisero
3/01/2010 7:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 1 Comment

Black Sunn, 810 and Damu the Fudgemunk rap with Jimi Hendrix:
(Image: Black Sunn, 810 and Jimi Hendrix)
When I interviewed DJ Swindle a couple of years ago, I pitched an idea for his next mixtape: The Jim Jones Experience, a mashup album of Dipset and Jimi Hendrix. Swindle, perhaps feeling that Cam'ron beat him to it, took a pass on the suggestion, instead opting to mash Snoop Dogg with Curtis Mayfield on Snooperfly. That was probably for the best, as Snooperfly ended up being quite good, though I still maintain that Jimi Hendrix's catalog of work is one of the few largely untapped sources of mainstream material left for hip hop to sample. It seems like most producers can not hear Jimi!

The-breaks.com lists only a handful of Hendrix songs being used in hip hop. The Beastie Boys are perhaps the most prolific of Jimi samplers, using three of his songs for Jimmy James. However, Are You Experienced? is arguably the most famous of Hendrix's samples, having been used in both Cypress Hill's How I Could Just Kill A Man and Pharcyde's Passin' Me By.

All of this is a lead up to say that I was pleasantly surprised to hear the latest track from Black Sunn and 810, produced by Damu the Fudgemunk, which makes use of a Hendrix sample and audio of an interview with Jimi:

Black Sunn and 810 - Black Serenade



Black Serenade is off of Black Sunn's new EP, Sol Parables. Go cop that!

And here's one more track that 810 put together with Miami producer Mydus, for Ashley Outrageous' new mixtape The Playlist:

810 - Save Me Now (produced by Mydus)

2/28/2010 7:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 0 Comments

Reexamining P.M. Dawn (Defending the Indefensible?):
(Image: P.M. Dawn)
There was a period of about five years during the early- to mid-nineties when one could legitimately make the case that New Jersey was the dominant region in hip hop. From Poor Righteous Teachers, Naughty By Nature, Flavor Unit and Lords of the Underground to Redman, The Artifacts, Das Efx and The Fugees, Jersey rap was a major force in both the underground and mainstream scenes. One of the most successful NJ groups from that period seems to always get overlooked, though: P.M. Dawn. The popular revisionist view of the group is that they were perpetrators focused solely on crossing over, but that view simplifies their role in hip hop at the time and tends to overlook just how successful they were.

P.M. Dawn started out as a collaboration between brothers Attrell (Prince Be) and Jarrett Cordes (DJ Minutemix), the stepsons of Kool & The Gang's George Brown, after Prince Be made a name for himself as a dj in Jersey City. Working with Ben Cenac, a former member of Newcleus (the group that put out the electro song Jam On Revenge aka the "Wikki Wikki" song), P.M. Dawn put together their first single, Ode to a Forgetful Mind:


PM Dawn - Ode to a Forgetful Mind

Ode... has a significantly more traditional sound to it than what the Cordes brothers would put out a couple of years later, and it wasn't all that different from the sort of conscious rap that was becoming popular at the end of the 80's, a slightly more blissed out version of the Native Tongues sound. They were so similar to the Native Tongues, in fact, that when they approached Tommy Boy Records with their demo, they were rejected for sounding too similar to De La Soul. The song was eventually picked up by British label Gee Street Records, who released the song to some success overseas. With their new label connection, they began working with British producers and were strongly influenced by the European club culture of the time. Their next single, which would become the first song to earn the #1 Billboard spot through the new Nielsen Soundscan ratings, was an almost complete break from their American hip hop roots:



P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

The song, built around a sample from Spandau Ballet's True, not surprisingly didn't go over well with the true hip hop fans of the day and their embrace of pacifism and vague spiritualism, not to mention their neo-Hippie wardrobe of tie-dyed mumus and multi-colored glasses, did little to improve their standing among the more hardcore set. Yet P.M. Dawn certainly weren't the only group of the time to incorporate club and electronic production. Slick Rick, for example, hooked up with the famous House producer Mr. Lee for his 1991 album The Ruler's Back on the awful club track The Ruler. Whereas most other rappers' forays into house and electronica were forgiven or forgotten entirely, however, P.M. Dawn never managed to regain the trust of hip hop heads after Set Adrift... dropped. What set them apart seemed to be the fact that their crossover attempt ended up being rather successful, an almost universally unforgivable sin within hip hop.

Though the group moved further and further into pop territory with each subsequent release, they still had to deal with one of the major issues of the day in hip hop: sample clearance. On their second album, they sampled David Batiste & The Gladiators' Funky Soul on the song So On and So On and were slapped with a lawsuit as a result. The lawsuit was notable in that it was one of the rare instances of a rap group successfully defending themselves, with the court eventually ruling in favor of P.M. Dawn.

The point of no return for P.M. Dawn's acceptance within the hip hop community came at the end of 1992, when the duo were bumrushed by KRS-1 and the entire Boogie Down posse at a Sound Club Factory performance that was being filmed for an episode of Yo! MTV Raps. A few months earlier, Prince Be had called out the Blastmaster in an interview with Details magazine, saying, "KRS-One wants to be a teacher, but a teacher of what?" As P.M. Dawn took the stage, the entire BDP conglomerate ran onto the stage and commandeered the show in retaliation (as KRS would later say, "I answered his question. 'A teacher of what?' I'm a teacher of respect."), with Just Ice physically booting Prince Be off the stage. Prince Be, a committed pacifist to the end, refused to fight back, a decision that led to him being figuratively kicked out of hip hop once and for all as sure as Ice's foot literally kicked him out of the Sound Club. It's worth noting that, at least according to Kenny Parker, the majority of the Jersey hip hop community sided with KRS-1, as K-Def and Larry O, Naughty By Nature and Latifah were all in attendance and all apparently supported P.M. Dawn's removal.

There's not much need to dwell too much further on the incident, as unkut.com covered the event in-depth a few years ago through a series of interviews with various witnesses and participants. However, what often gets overlooked in just about every recap, including unkut's, is that P.M. Dawn eventually released a record responding to KRS-1 and the many critics who claimed that they weren't a part of hip hop. Though certainly not on the level of, say, a Common or Canibus diss, it was considerably more aggressive than any other song the group put out during their 15 year career and showed, however briefly, their ability to put out a more traditional rap song:

P.M. Dawn - Plastic (last.fm link)
The last.fm media player for some reason kept autostarting, so I've put the song after the jump. Just click the "Read the rest of this article" link at the end of the post to play it.

A few years ago Prince Be suffered a stroke and was left partially paralyzed. While still recovering from his stroke, he performed on NBC's Hit Me Baby One More Time, a game show that was essentially an American Idol clone for formerly famous musicians. Prince Be's brother, Minutemix, eventually left the group and was replaced by someone going by the name "Dr. Giggles". According to their website, P.M. Dawn is currently working on a new album, P.M. Dawn Loves You.

I'm certainly not going attempting to argue that P.M. Dawn didn't deserve some of the criticism they received, and you will never in your life catch me playing Set Adrift (outside of this post, anyway). What I will say, though, is that looking back some two decades later, it's hard to see what all the fuss was about.

Read the rest of the article...
2/23/2010 5:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 3 Comments

Dent - Sun Showers (Denver Hip Hop):

Dent - Sun Showers

It's 50 degrees and sunny out here in Jersey today and, despite the fact that the forecast calls for yet another snowstorm in the very near future, I'm finally starting to think this miserable winter might eventually come to an end. What better way to celebrate than with a song about Spring love?

I'm not well versed in Colorado hip hop, but I'm told that Denver rapper Dent has been holding down the Rocky Mountain scene for over a decade. He shot a second version of the video, filmed entirely in Denver, which you can see over here.
2/21/2010 5:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 2 Comments

8-bit Rap: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left (MAJA):

MAJA - Up Up Down Down Left Right Left

References to Toejam & Earl, boasts of Soul Caliber pwnage and censored curse words? Yeah, this is easily the corniest thing I've put up on the site since K-Fed back in the day, but any song that manages to work the Contra Code into its hook gets props from me. The song's from MAJA, and if you're looking for even more geeked out raps go check out his 2007 album The Amalgam Project.

To get some street cred back while still maintaining today's video game theme, here's the classic Super Mario Bros.' cut from Smif-N-Wessun:



Smif-N-Wessun featuring Mr. Cheeks - Super Brooklyn Brothers (remix)
2/18/2010 5:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 0 Comments

The Latest from Reef the Lost Cauze (Philly Hip Hop):
(Image: Reef the Lost Cauze)
Seeing as how I've got some spare bandwidth leftover after yesterday's mp3 blowout, I decided to roundup some of the latest material from one of my favorite emcees out right now, Philly's Reef the Lost Cauze. Shoutout to Benja Styles, J-Ronin and Coalmine Records for the following promos:

Bekay feat. M-Dot & Reef - Brain Tumors (Remix)



This song, from Bekay's upcoming Hunger Pains Remix EP, takes it back to the 90's with turntable scratches and vocal samples from Big L and a pre-Def Jux Cage. Reef drops one of the more memorable boasts with the line, "Lucifer was cast from heaven when he questioned me!"

Reef the Lost Cauze - Dark Forces (produced by Havoc)



Dark Forces is off of DJ Phillie Blunt's relatively new mixtape Tor'cha, released in conjunction with the Todd Craig novel of the same name. Those of you paying close attention will note that the hook ("Lord forgive him, he got the dark forces in him...") is the second reference Reef makes to Lucifer in as many songs. I'll leave it up to someone else to translate what I assume is a verse from the Quran at the opening of the track.

Spit Supreme feat. Akrobatik & Reef - Three of a Kind



J-Ronin sent in Three of a Kind, taken from the mixtape he recently put out with Spit Supreme, Quickstrike 2.

Rihanna feat. Reef - Hard (Benja Styles Remix)



This remix would have been better served with more Reef and less Rihanna, but nevertheless you can't go wrong with a Mary Jane sample.

Further Listening:
Reef the Lost Cauze on Myspace
Reef the Lost Cauze on 33Jones
2/17/2010 5:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 0 Comments

Free Music Roundup: Memph Bleek, Gza, Redman, Clipse, Obie Trice and Marco Polo:
(Image: Music Roundup)
There have been some (perhaps justified) grumblings from a few of you that I don't post as many mp3's as I used to. To rectify the situation, I've rounded up the best of the promos that Foundation Media has been sending me the past couple of months. Here you go:

Memphis Bleek - Still iLL



Despite the fact that Memph serves as the goto punchline for every blogger's weed carrier joke, I've always checked for his releases because he consistently has at least one great track per album. Still iLL doesn't quite qualify as "great," but it's good enough that it can stand on its own without a guest appearance from the Big Homie. I don't know about this beat, however, which seems to be confused as to whether it wants to duplicate the El Michels sound or if it wants to serve as the backdrop to a synth rap song.

Folk & Stress featuring GZA - New York Ginseng



Off of F&S's upcoming album The Box, the highlight here is GZA's verse which finds his liquid sword's still rza-razor sharp.

DJ Mad Habits and Spleen featuring Redman - Best To Do It



I have no idea how Redman hooked up with the French duo of DJ Mad Habits and Spleen, but the result of the Funk Doc's French Connection has a distinctly Jersey flavor to it.

Vinnie Paz featuring The Clipse - Street Wars



Is there much overlap between the fanbases of Vinnie Paz and the Clipse? Probably not, but the result of this unexpected teamup is one of the better songs that the Clipse have appeared on since Hell Hath No Fury.

Obie Trice and MoSS - Roughneck



This song was recorded over a decade ago, but was only recently released as part of Obie's latest album Special Reserve. Not a whole lot of people have been talking about the album, but there's a strong case to be made that the chemistry between MoSS and Obie is just as good as whatever Obie and Em had before he was dropped from Shady records.

Marco Polo & Ruste Juxx - Rearview



This is the first single off of MP and Juxx's upcoming album The eXXecution. Given this and his previous collaboration with Torae, Double Barrel, Canadian Marco Polo seems to be one of the few producers keeping that old New York sound alive.
2/16/2010 8:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 0 Comments

Hip Hop for President's Day (2010):
What better way to celebrate President's Day than with some hip hop?
















Eazy-E goes to the White House

Shout out to Commish for a couple of these links. And if you missed it, last year's President's Day Mix (featuring actual mp3s instead of youtube links!) is still available.
2/15/2010 8:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 0 Comments

Alex Ludovico and Douglas Martin Stay Winning/Losing:
(Image: Alex Ludovico - Winning/Losing promo)
When my man Kyle, then going by the name "Ill Eagle," sent me his first album back in 2007 I had two immediate reactions: (1) the kid had the sort of charisma, not to mention actual talent, that future superstars are made of but (2) hip hop fans weren't yet ready to hear the type of subject matter that Kyle was dealing with, nor ready to accept the type of beats that Kyle often rapped over. Framing his lyrics within the viewpoint of an outsider, using the music to deal with his own personal issues like depression, I initially referred to his brand of hip hop as "emo rap." It wasn't meant to be dismissive - from day one I've been a big fan of his - but simply that up to that point, well before the likes of Kid Cudi and Drake came along (two rappers that tread similar ground as Ludovico, though with significantly less panache or humor), there was nothing else to compare Kyle's music to. Fast forward to 2010, when a song like Day 'N Nite can get three Grammy nominations and significant attention from the mainstream, and the time might just be right for Kyle, now performing as "Alex Ludovico," to make some big moves with his career.

At some point later this month, Ludovico will be releasing his latest mixtape, Winning/Losing, with blogger/producer/5 O'Clock Shadowboxers member Blurry Drones aka Douglas Martin. The mixtape will feature a mix of original beats from Martin as well as some classic beats like Dilla's intro to Donuts:


Alex Ludovico - Donuts Freestyle

Here's one more freestyle from the mixtape:


Alex Ludovico - Liquid Swords Freestyle

Be sure to check Ludovico's site, The Comfort In Being Sad, for more updates on his upcoming mixtape Winning/Losing.

Further Listening:
Alex Ludovico - The Reawakening (Album)
Ill Eagle on 33Jones
2/10/2010 8:30:51 PM posted by Fresh | Full Article | 4 Comments