Thursday Throwback: Pete Rock & Nas

Since the news that Pete Rock and Nas are working together again dropped earlier this week, I've had this joint in my head somethin' heavy. If you don't already know, get familiar with one of the greatest songs (rap or otherwise) of all time:



"The World Is Yours" off the classic, Illmatic.

Bonus: While Nas is getting back together, everyone cross your fingers that he'll hit up Q-Tip for another track as well. Off the same album, "One Love" is another classic:

ATTN Bedroom Beatmakers: Looking for something to do this weekend?

How 'bout working on a beat that could get you free tickets to this year's Paid Dues Festival, along with a bunch of other cool swag? Warner Bros., Loud.com, and Zune are sponsoring a contest to remix "Everything" off of Murs' major label debut, Murs for President. How do you get on? Simple. Hit up Murs' website for a download of the a capella, then get to work. Once you've got your version ready to go, create a producer profile at Loud, then upload it!

Good luck, and here's the man himself performing "Everything" in Columbus, OH @ The Basement:

Throwback Thursday - From the Future to the Past

Since I posted about Atlanta's future yesterday, here's a blast from its past with the title track from Outkast's 1996 offering, ATLiens:


And even further back from their first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, in honor of my job interview in an hour, "Git Up, Git Git Out":

Since the new GTA IV expansion reminded me of him...

...here's a B.O.B. video drop. A crime-drama video game focusing on an outlaw motorcycle club isn't the first place I'd think to hear Bobby Ray's ode to everyone's favorite audio plug-in, but Statik Selektah's in game radio show has "Autotune" in its rotation:



Here's B.O.B. on his new millennium ATLien ish, "Generation Lost" one of my favorite joints from his upcoming debut:

Throwback Thursday: Wu-Tang vs. The Abbott

The full post for Wu-Tang vs. The Abbott has been postponed until tomorrow due to technical difficulties, but I didn't want to leave y'all with nothing, so I thought I'd devote a video drop to the whole concept of a Wu-Tang album without RZA behind the boards. On the mixtape itself I'll feature joints by producers that've already worked with the Wu, producers who aren't too far removed from working with the Wu, and producers who I wish the Wu would take notice of. This edition of the Throwback is dedicated to the first, producers already in the Wu's wheelhouse.


"Mighty Healthy" produced by Mathematics on Ghostface's Supreme Clientele


"General Principles" produced by DJ Muggs on his collaborative effort with GZA Grandmasters.


"American Cream Team Line Up" produced by DJ Scratch on Funkmaster Flex's The Mix Tape Volume III - 60 Minutes of Funk

Tomorrow: Wu-Tang vs. The Abbott

F'real.

I promise.

Busy Day, So Have a Dilla Drop

Out and about, so instead of proper content, we're going to continue to pay tribute to one of the best to ever do it, J. Dilla.


Won't Do from The Shining


Nothing Like This from Ruff Draft


Detroit Loves Dilla

Happy Birthday, Dilla

Today would've been the 35th birthday of one of the greatest Hip Hop producers of our generation, James Dewitt Yancy. If you know anything at all about his legacy beyond being a master beatmaker, you probably know about the mess that his estate has been in following his death. Vibe magazine recently published an article about the trouble that his mother and family have had attempting to straighten things out. Artist and clothing designer Parra has collaborated with Stones Throw Records (label home of Dilla for his swansong Donuts) for a t-shirt, with its proceeds going to Dilla's mother, as she's currently battling the same disease that took her son's life.

Click the shirt for more info on it, and where to go cop it either online or at a shop near you. Below, I've included some of my favorite joints that Dilla's touched us with since his passing. Bump these, and any of your other favorite Dilla gems to honor him today.


Busta Rhymes feat. Q-Tip - Can't Hold The Torch


J-Dilla feat. Blu - Sun On My Face



Q-Tip - Move

Throwback Thursday - More Shine Edition

Yesterday I dropped some Count Bass D tour dates on y'all after mentioning that he gets overlooked quite a bit when conversations of great artists in Hip Hop come up. Today for the Throwback I thought I'd hit up videos from other cats who I thought deserved more props than they were afforded, whether they're still out there doing their thing or have dropped off the face of the earth. I'll start things off with some early Count Bass:


From Begborrowsteal (Amazon | iTunes), "Down Easy"


From A Constipated Monkey (Amazon | iTunes | Reissure from Amalgam Digital w/Bonus Tracks), "I'm Kurious" by Kurious. He's also got a new single out on Amalgam that you can check out here.


His 1994 single, "Listen Up". He released a video for a new joint last year called "Listen to My Demo" that you can peep here.

This'll do for now, but there's tons more I could pull out and I just might before the night's done.

Count Bass D on Tour

One of the artists that I dig a lot but doesn't get nearly enough shine in my humble opinion is Count Bass D. I'll certainly attest to Dwight Spitz still being in my car, long after its release. He's touring right now, and he just released his upcoming dates in the Midwest at his blog, which you can peep right here. I can't make it out, but I know I've got fam in the Chicago and St. Louis areas that need good music in their lives, so don't miss him when he comes through.

Here's a video for "What I Do" from his new joint, L7 which you can purchase at iTunes at the link provided.

Music for a Monday - "If I could I'd buy records everyday of the week..."

Off to the record store, probably going to pick up these joints:


"Radio" by Exile, click here to cop it from iTunes.


Little Dragon's self-titled debut. Click here for the iTunes link.



"The Renaissance" by Q-Tip. Cop it from Amazon, right here.

If my haul changes, I'll let you know when I return.

Throwback Thursday - By the Time I Get to Arizona

We have indeed come a long way. As of this week we have a black man in the White House, but as sure as I've had more than one person tell me "Well he's only half-black," we definitely still have quite a ways to go. Public Enemy's incindiary response to Arizona's refusal to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth date as a holiday serves to remind me that we aren't that far from a time where Obama's presidency was unfathomable. Just because Obama's our president doesn't mean we need to lose the capacity for the type of fire that Chuck D carried in his words. The events of Tuesday were only possible through the years of effort and sacrifices by great people like the one we honored the day before.

Throwback Thursday Bonus: What They Do

Just as I hit 'Publish' on the last post, I realized I probably should've put this joint from The Legendary Roots Crew in there, as it clowned every one of the prevalent Hip Hop video cliches of the day. From 1996's Illadelph Halflife, it's "What They Do":

Throwback Thursday: Concepts

This kinda overlaps with the Rappers Are Nerds Too throwback I did last month, but some of my favorite Hip Hop videos are ones where there's more than a performance, or just the rappers running around their hood mugging at cameras.

First up, "Tru Master" off of the 1997 Pete Rock's solo debut, Soul Survivor. It features the Chocolate Boy Wonder himself along with Inspectah Deck and Kurupt as stock car racers, complete with customized vehicles (I want Deck's Wu branded ride) and driver statistics. It's like a live-action version of the "Daytona 500" clip from Ghostface, and I definitely approve:

Next up, take a trip through basic cable with your boy Reggie Noble, better known as Redman with "I'll Bee Dat" from Doc's Da Name 2000. Redman offers his skewed take on cliched video models, TV commercials and one of the most cringe/laughworthy pratfalls in Hip Hop video history.

Defari and the Likwit Crew are MMA fighters (with Tash as their besuited promoter/manager) in this clip for "Likwit Connection" from Defari's Focused Daily. Forgive the DJ Ron drops at the beginning and end, but it's the best copy of the video I could find without sketchy audio editing.


To close this up, another Xzibit appearance, where a trip to the store for his lady turns out to be more eventful than you'd think. From 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz, it's "What You See Is What You Get":

Lord help me, I miss Carbondale

More accurately, I'm missing the guys and gals I ran with during my time at WIDB in Carbondale. I won't get long-winded about it but I met some fine people that are lingering in my mind this evening, so I'm dropping a couple of joints that got a fair amount of burn back then.


Serengeti - Dirty Flamingo
From the album of the same name, Dirty Flamingo (after being made to ask by my co-host during an interview, I was assured that the term doesn't really mean anything) was damn near anthemic amongst the Hip Hop heads at SIUC. The only thing that topped it? 'Geti's in character ode to Chi-town, "Dennehy" or its sequel "Ozzie Guillen" which are both on the album the album Dennehy. The former tore down Hangar 9 (the bar where most of the Hip Hop shows in town went down) whenever it was performed. One of my best memories of it was on the night the White Sox won the World Series in '05. Even though I was one of the few people in the place that wasn't a native of Chicago, it was hard not to feel like an honorary Southside resident.


Seel Fresh - Starving
I got this joint via one of the first pieces of vinyl that F5 Records (a label started in St. Louis by SIUC scene alums) ever sent to me. You can actually still cop it from their website. While not my absolute favorite joint out of my time in the 'Dale, I always felt this one pretty tough just 'cause of the earnestness of the lyrics and how so many cats were in the same place with what they were trying to do at the time, be it the music or some other grind. A line about how Seel will finally manage once he has his time in the spotlight when it comes always makes me grin when I hear it: "And I won't be nervous like I'm hidin' a bomb/I'll be ear-to-ear smilin', wavin' high to my mom." I often wondered what became of him, so back in October before I got this blog off the ground it did my heart good to see him pop up on Rock the Dub with a series of sanctioned leaks for his most recent album Street Famous. Cop it via the link at Amazon and support some dope indie Chicago Hip Hop.

Bonus - The video for "Dennehy" from Serengeti:

Links for the Shut-In

I'm sick, so while I'm laid up I'll share what I've been entertaining myself with.

New Fat Albert in the Hood from your boys at WhackPiktures & PikahssOvision:


The episode itself still doesn't top Episode 2 for me, but they've included the in-between show bumpers and a commercial that is CLASSIC.

Videos, as per usual, save the day when it comes to being ill. If you like JRPGs at all and you own an Xbox 360, you need Lost Odysseyin your life right this minute. Old school combat with characters that buck a lot of the Japanese RPG stereotypes combines to make a pretty satisfying experience. Here's that TV spot they did for it a while back with Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" as the soundtrack:


MTV Jams has been indulging in videos from around '98 or so all day, I suppose in an effort to remind you of just how quickly mainstream Hip Hop has declined over the years. I'd kill to hear the sort of stuff I clowned back then on the radio now. Oh how we taunted and jeered at Silk the Shocker's feature on the remix to Cam'ron's "Horse and Carriage" but if only we had known how good we had it back in high school.


Now I'm off to eat something and in all likelihood pass out in front of the terebi...oh dear. They've gone even further back:


Truly, this is a banner day.

Throwback Thursday: Auditory Civil Disobedience

Keeping the train from yesterday rolling. If you haven't already, hit up Racewire to see what you can do to get involved in getting the word out about Oscar Grant. This week's edition of the Throwback comes to you from the Blastmaster himself, KRS-One's "Sound of Da Police" from 1993's Return Of The Boom Bap:


Bonus: One of my favorite anti-police brutality joints from college, "Kill Me First" from Blueprint's album, 1998. Cop it from Blueprint's own store on vinyl or CD at the link provided.

Fat Albert in the Hood

I was a pretty big fan of what I heard from P.P.T., with their 2007 album Tres Monos In Love having more than few cuts that made for my traveling music playlist. They managed to mesh 70s, the parts of black R&B in the 80s that I actually enjoyed (see: Cameo, The Time, etc.) and funk with Hip Hop into a final product that came off more sincere and organic than it had any right to.

Ever since then, I'd been looking out for anything that they were up to and a few weeks ago I stumbled upon their latest hijinks:


That's right. Clips from old episodes of Fat Albert, redubbed with new VO and music courtesy of Dilla. Keep your fingers crossed that Cosby doesn't get wind of these, 'cause they're foul-mouthed and wild ig'nant, but damned if they're not funny. Here's episode two, entitled Who's the Baby Daddy, which features a track from AwkQuarius at about 1:15.


AwkQuarius is the new group from the P and T in P.P.T., Pikahsso and Tahiti. The joint's called "Let's Hit the Town" and been in my head on a constant loop ever since I saw the episode. You can cop it fromAmazon or Itunes for just 99 cents.

Head on over to Pikahsso's blog to show your appreciation for the hilarity him and Tahiti are bringing and keep an eye out for more new music from AwkQuarius.

Bonus: Here's the video for one of my favorite P.P.T. joints "When We Was Kool." A slice of 80s/early 90s nostalgia that I've got no problem endorsing.

Joe Budden drops Knowledge

Continuing on with this week's theme of doing new, better shit in '09, we've got another angle of the Joe Budden vs. Ransom beef that Jay Smooth spoke on. An integral part of the whole thing was DJ Vlad, a mixtape DJ who's been more famous recently for perpetuating beef and spotlighting reprehensible behavior via his YouTube videos than any outstanding tapes he's put out. He actually put up the video of Ransom's crew assaulting a guy that was tangentially related to the whole mess. Here, courtesy of 2dopeboyz is Budden on Angela Yee's Shade 45 radio show confronting DJ Vlad about the journalistic merit in videotaping rappers and their hangers-on slapping innocent people.



There's a lot of truth in what Joe Budden's saying there. Vlad's not "putting certain information out in the world" that people really need. He's getting pageviews by sensationalism. It's his right, certainly, but that doesn't mean we should be helping him along. I've never been a big Joe Budden fan, but between his coalition of the illing in the underground supergroup Slaughterhouse and insightful commentary like this, he's definitely got my respect.

To make up for the renunciation of ignorance (and missing a post yesterday), I'll be posting something wildly inappropriate and hilarious later on today. Do you remember Fat Albert? I guarantee you'll never seen him and the gang the same way after my next post.

Jay Smooth (as usual) Drops Knowledge

I don't do a lot of commenting on blogs or forums, and Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine fame illustrates why perfectly in this video drop. After Just Blaze posted the video of Jay Smooth's commentary on the Joe Budden vs. Ransom beef (seen here), one of the regulars at Just's site decided to comment on Jay Smooth's decision to speak on rappers beefing while the situation in Gaza is going on. His words:

This Jay Smooth guy is ignorance at its finest.

Firstly, He’s Isreali, and has the ability/opportunity to educate ppl and influence their views. Half the ppl in AMERICA dont know shit about Gaza. But instead, he uses his effort to discuss how ‘beef’ used to be good for hiphop, but now isnt. GTFOH.

Jay Smooth's retort:


This whole situation is my biggest problem with the internets. People talking out turn, or rather, speaking as though they're infinitely informed on subject where they have little to no proper knowledge. Between that and the self-righteousness that comes from people who feel as though the platform the internet affords them equals infallibility, I've wanted to give up on using the internet as a social tool altogether on more than a few occasions.

With this being my first post of the new year, I think I'm going to use Jay Smooth's video as a call for a new movement. I originally gravitated to the internet because along with all the information I had access to, it allowed me to communicate with and befriend a lot of different people who probably wouldn't think to strike up a convo with me away from the keyboard and vice versa. Along the way though, I've definitely found that this ease of use has a flipside and a lot of folks have a tendency to go from zero to asshole in the speed of a keystroke.

We called for change in '08 and got it. I figure for the new year, let's call for civility on the internet. It's a long shot, I know, but we pulled off something crazy before.

Christmas Eve Throwback

Since the Holidays fall on this week I'm going to be light on posting unless something that I just can't resist pops up, so I'm going to leave you with a couple of Christmas themed Hip Hop joints.


Run-DMC - Christmas in Hollis: I HAD to post this one. It doesn't feel like Christmas if I don't hear this at least once.


Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' (Live @ Top of the Pops)

Finally, even though it's not strictly Hip Hop, I had to let this one breath. Since Chanukah is this week as well, I dug up one of my favorite Beck joints for the season, his Chanukah flipped version of the Little Drummer Boy, "Little Drum Machine Boy":


Have a happy and safe Holiday, everybody.