Aesop Rock* – Odessa featuring Dose One (NAT)
2012 has been a year where my affection for hip hop has undergone a big rennaisance. If I am honest I had just about given up on the genre. So it has been very refreshing to stumble across several artists which have gotten me excited.
Aesop Rock is a NYC rapper currently based in San Francisco, and this is taken from his deubt EP Appleseed which was released in 1999.
RjK
*Artist #504
Outkast – Da art of storytellin’ featuring Slick Rick
This is a favourite from Aquemini, Outkast’s third album. It is really great and in my eyes one of the best rap albums ever made. It was from before Ms.Jackson catapulted them into the global stars they are today. And perhaps, one might argue, before they got just a touch too big for their boots.
I said what you wanna be, she said “Alive”. It made me think for a minute, then I looked in her eyes. I coulda died. Time went on, I got grown, rhyme got strong, mind got blown, I came back home to find lil Sasha was gone…
De La Soul – Oooh. featuring Redman
As I have written before De La Soul are a band that profoundly influenced the way I thought about music and are perhaps the single most influential band on my musical taste.
This is the song that began it all. I can still remember hearing it for the first time on Giles Peterson’s worldwide radio show in the summer of 2000. The hook here was like nothing I had ever heard before and I have been hooked on Hip Hop ever since.
Additionally, I love the video here. Typically of De La it is both playful and fun. Let’s just say you don’t really see the Wizard of Oz as a motif in rap videos very often! But I kinda like it.
Party people, your dreams have now been fulfilled. Get your ass up and let’s get ill…
In other news what an amazing day at the olympics! There is something pure about the appeal of track and field that I just can’t get enough of.
RjK
Nas* – Memory Lane (sittin’ in da park)
I love this.
Can’t believe I hadn’t gotten around to posting Nas yet. Illmatic, the album this is taken from, was one of the first rap albums that really made me sit up and take notice. It’s also a pretty awesome album title.
I still count the sample here as one of my all time favourites. I’m just speechless when I try to work out how how they got from here to there. It still sounds so fresh nearly 20 years later.
In other news here is some further proof that Boris Johnson has a way with words. It certainly raised a chuckle, particularly #19.
RjK
*Artist #498
KRS One* – MC’s act like they don’t know
I’m just back from a wedding at the very scenic Castle Leslie. Big day! Fun times even if I am starting to feel a little bit of wedding fatigue.
A good friend sent me this track earlier in the week as a reminder of the times when we both discovered and shared lots of hip hop together. He titled his email “One of the greatest hip hop tunes ever (lyrically anyway)”. I don’t know if I can put it any better than that. It also features beats from the excellent DJ Premier, which is always a treat.
One last interesting thing about this track is that my buddy and I first heard it on a KRS One retrospective compilation that I received one Christmas from my Dad which was both an awesome and unlikely present in just about equal measures!
RjK
*Artist #491
Eve featuring Gwen Stefani* – Let me blow ya mind (GPF)
/RjK
Feel good party tune from Oakland agitators The Coup. Radical politics isn’t necessarily something I associate too often with Hip Hop but these guys certainly have an agenda and (sometimes) interesting, articulate things to say.
However, I like them best, as here, when they just concentrate on dialling up the funk. The base here is just relentless making it a perfect Saturday night anthem. Also, I’m not sure I’ve heard a better DJ name than Pam the funkstress.
/RjK
MC Solaar* – Les temps changent
MC Solaar is a French rapper and this track is taken from the 1997 album Paradisiaque. I try not to be too esoteric in my choices and I am aware that this might seem to be a little far out. It was the first song that really made me realise that for me a strong hook (in this case I think it is spectacular) is as important as finding meaning in lyrics (not a clue, my GCSE French can’t quite cope!)
Les temps changent…
Tramshed was excellent last night. The food was simple but full of flavour. Very hip decor and a great space (see below).
RjK
*Artist #470
Skinnyman – Hayden
Skinnyman is a London rapper who grew up in the same neighbourhood as I currently reside. This is taken from his 2004 gem of an album Council estate of mind (good name too), from which I have already posted another track.
This track also has a wonderful balance between a smooth, almost pleading hook and gritty lyrics delivered in an effusive, rapid fire style. The motif of using soundbites from a movie, which appear throughout the album, really works well too.
We’re out on the streets tryna make our possession. The manor that we’re from has turned like a spaghetti western. With itchy fingers on the triggers ready for the pressin’ and its pure depression. I’m standin’ at the crossroads thinking ‘bout all the other children of the lost souls…
RjK
Oddisee – Paralyzed