Tag Archive for Hip Hop

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Arrested Development – People Everyday

This is simply joyous and one of my all time favourite hip hop tunes and certainly one of the sunniest I have encountered. It is taken from the spectacular 3 years, 5 months and 2 days in the life of… which features several highlights but this is probably my favourite. It borrows heavily from Sly and the Family Stone but I think turning it into something even better.

They are also a great live act. I saw them about 10 years ago (how can it have been that long?) in Dublin and they blew me away. It would still be one of the top 3 or 4 gigs I have been to. I found this pretty funny video while doing some research for this post. Check out the two stiffs in the middle of the studio. Unfortunately I don’t believe they are permanent members of the band!

RjK

17th November

K-Os – Crucial

This is taken from Canadian rapper K-Os’ album Joyful Rebellion, which was one of my favourite hip hop albums of (relatively) recent times along with The Gift of Gab’s 4th dimensional rocket ships going up and Common’s Be. They are all clever, conscious and funky and this is a perfect example.

I don’t want to change the world, I only wanna stop pretending…

RjK

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Common featuring Joy Denalane – Go!

This is taken from one of my favourite hip hop albums of recent years, Common’s Be. This is a remix of the most prominent single off the album and features the German singer Joy Denalane. The song is smooth and funky.

Common is rapper who has made a lot of music I like. He tends to have something clever and interesting to say (even if that isn’t all that obvious here) on records which are full of great beats.

RjK

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Warren G featuring Nate Dogg – Regulate

This is pure cheese, but great at the same time. It features an awesome, random sample for a gangster rapper to have used! G-Funk meets blue-eyed soul.

I have wanted to post it for a while since being reminded of it by a bouncer while waiting in a long line to get into a club in Camden. My peeps and I were wavering about whether to persevere or try another club so we decided to consult him:

Me: What kind of music are they playing tonight guv?
Bouncer: All sorts
Me: Such as?
Bouncer: Old School hip hop. Y’know Nate Dogg – Regulate, tings like dat. Who wouldn’t want to listen to that?
Me: Say no more

He really went bold on that one. Luckily for him he judged his crowd perfectly.

In other news, I had a big night. Tom Ravenscroft, my DJ hero (from whom I have mined many tracks for this very blog) name checked me and played a song I had sent in on his show tonight. I nearly fainted when I heard it!

RjK

Check from 49:45 onwards – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b015tz1l

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Dr.Carter – Lil’ Wayne (Jimmy T guest post)

Hello out there in cyberspace. I am Jim Tracey; Australian, debonair, late twenties living in London, friend of RJ and lucky guest contributer to “sounds of science” or whatever Robbie likes to call his mental (in a good way) blog. I wouldn’t be as vain to describe my taste in music because as my old school teacher Danny Hasler used to say ‘you should never put anyone in a box’. He was brother of famous rugby player Des Hasler, the first words I ever heard him say were “2 bucks for one of my brothers’ autographs, one for me and one for my brother” and also “where’s my pen?” it was lost in his crazy birds nest of hair, he was truly a “child of time” (from album: Deep Purple in Rock)

I like music that reminds me of a time and a place. Q-tips “Amplified” was one of the first cd’s that I bought, and the first hip-hop album, marking a musical evolution away from bands like Offspring and Presidents of the USA who are far too angry and silly (respectively) for me at the moment. It also takes me back to when I was 17, and had my first taste of independence, back then I looked to the future and thought “anything is possible” and looking back I can certainly say that the possibilities have been realised, but not in any way that I could have then imagined back then.

I like this song for two reasons: the tribute to coffee which is my favorite drink. The following quote beautifully sums up a day in the life of me (if you were wondering).

Doctor: “Where’s my coffee?”
Nurse: “It’s going to be a long day”
Doctor: ”Another one?”.

And I also like the beat, old school, along the lines of Q-tip’s “let’s ride” (you gotta post this song Robbie!) You just can’t go past jazz loops and live jazz drumming (syncopated) to hip-hop rhyming.

Summary: Dr. Carter is a life saver, so you have to tip your coffee mug to him.

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Skinnyman – Love’s gone from the streets

Skinnyman is a rapper who hails from my current neighbourhood, Finsbury Park. This track is taken from Council estate of mind, which a good friend had rightly lauded to me what seems like a lifetime ago in 2004.

I like how the gritty and clever lyrics contrast the smooth (and apt) sample.

This post is the last from me for a few days as I am off to Munich to enjoy Oktoberfest and a good friend’s stag party. Don’t fret however as I have lined up some guest bloggers in my absence so you will still get your daily dose of music. They all have influenced my taste in music and fueled my musical meanderings so I thought it would be cool for them to have a say too.

Speak to you in a week. RJ

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Oddisee – Hip hop’s cool again

 

 
Oddisee (not to be confused with Odyssey) is a hip hip producer from Washington DC. I first came across him in Austin, TX at the South by southwest festival when I was there last year.

I had been thinking about posting this track for a while but then fate pointed me at it tonight as Oddisee is a guest on my favourite radio show (and big source of music for me). I can’t fight that. I love the sample, simple and catchy.

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Atmosphere – Say Shhh

This is languid. Cool and laid back, it always makes me feel relaxed when I hear it. It is full of wit and self depreciating humour (a rarity in rap) including also has one of my favourite lines in all of hip hop (see below).

But, I couldn’t figure out much to brag about. Um, Prince lives here, we got 10,000 lakes…

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Dead Prez vs. Grizzly Bear – Two weeks of hip hop

This just works, it probably shouldn’t, but it just does. A real meeting of two starkly different genres but I like it. Grizzly Bear are NYC hipsters and Dead Prez are angry, conscious rappers with something interesting to say. It’s great when a mash up enhances rather than detract from 2 good songs, which is my normal experience of them.

You would rather have a Lexus or justice? A dream or some substance? A Beamer, a necklace or FREEDOM?

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Ghostface Killah – Save me dear

I was talking to friend at the weekend and he told me he thought that hip hop was under represented on the blog so far, given my affection for the genre. On reflection I have to agree.

My trouble is that even though hip hop changed the way I view music irrevocably I feel conflicted about it. I am a sucker for beats, and hip hop is full of them. However, it can also be full of intollerance and profanity (which I am less keen on). Ultimately though I am just a sucker for a great hook.

Ghostface is a favourite. He writes clever rhymes full of wit and humour. He is an alumni of Staten Island’s finest, the Wu Tang Clan. This particular track samples an awesome tune that I have already posted.