Summer Songs: Ed. I feat DJ NuMark and Chali Tuna

Was jamming on Mark Farina's Mushroom Jazz Vol. IV this morning and honestly forget that this track was featured on the first half of the CD.

Enjoy.........

Comin Thru:

RIP "Roc Raida"

Anthony Williams, aka "Roc Raida" of the X-Ecutioners crew from Brooklyn NY passed away suddenly this weekend. His is a tragic loss in the world of Hip-Hop and underground music.

Here he is tearing it up at the DMC Competition way back in 1995.



The X-Ecutioners rose to prominence in the early 2000s and one of their great cross-over jams was a collaberative effort between them, Wayne Static of Static X, and Linkin Park.



The musical world surely is losing some of it's great masters this year.

The Video Jam

Take metal ideology, neo-hip-hop lyrics, and some MAJOR pioneers of NYC turntablism and you have a fucking AWESOME track.

Wayne Static from Static X, The Executioners, and Lincoln Park.

Fucking amazing.

Hip Hop vs. The Drugged Dentist Kid

Now This Is Hip Hop

This is awesome.

Cradle Orchestra, a live-band hip-hop group includes two DJs, a pianist, guitarist, flutist and a violinist; compose a mellow beat which complements Black Thought’s vocals almost too perfectly. The arrangement starts out simple with just the guitar, keyboard, background vocals, a beat machine and Black Thought’s vocals. Slowly each element begins accelerating until violins are introduced to fill out the sonic landscape. Fortunately Black Thought’s lyrical talent does not get lost in this percussion of instruments. This single is definitely worth the listen.

From Air America

Wednesday Hip Hop featuring The Beastie Boys

Paul Revere

Tuesday Beats featuring MF Doom and Dangermouse

Sofa King

Wednesday Hip Hop featuring Blackstarr

Astronomy

Monday Afternoon Music featuring The Beastie Boys

Takin it back with some early 90s Beasties.

So Whatcha Want

Monday Afternoon Tracks featuring DJ Shadow

Shadow's set at Bonnaroo 2007 was absolutely mind-blowing. He was still going after dawn and staff had to make him stop. If you ever get the chance to see him live --- do it.


The Organ Donor

Thursday Afternoon Hip Hop feat Dr. Octagon

NAS Steps Up And Takes It To Fox, Literally

In one of the first pieces on this blog, I talked about how "rap" has been maligned with hip-hop, how some rap-artists that were once great started to become more "corporate minded" and NAS seems to be moving back to what had made him great in the past.

On NAS' new album, he has a cut called "Sly Fox". Guess who it's about?

Here's the video:



Recently, NAS delivered a petition with over 600,00 signatures on it that demands that Fox"News" stop its "racist" attacks on black America.



NAS even stopped by The Colbert Report to talk.

I'm certain we'll be hearing from O'Reilly on all this very soon.

Sunday Evening Hip Hop Vibes : DJ Jazzy Jeff

Doing that piece on Nas and Bill O'Reilly earlier got me thinking about Hip Hop, what it means, and who is still alive within that culture. One of the first names that popped up in my head was Jazzy Jeff.

Most of us were first exposed to him as that other guy on the Fresh Prince albums. He even had a regular character on the Fresh Prince TV show. But, the bulk of the people that watched that program or listened to the Fresh Prince tapes and CDs from back-in-the-day didn't give much thought to Jeff - and that's sad.

Here's a man that has contributed far more to Hip-Hop than any Master P, or Lil Wayne, or a thousand other record-label creations that have little ( if anything ) to do with Hip-Hop.

NAS vs. Fox"News"

Though the world of hip-hop and rap are often maligned as one-and-the-same, it is apparent that both of these are fantastic 'boogie-men' for Fox"News" and the conservative-right.

I'm not a very big fan of NAS, though some of his older material is quite powerful in it's own right.

From a report by Reuters' Hillary Crosley:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Seated in a quiet corner of New York restaurant the Spotted Pig, Nas is drinking a glass of rose. He's dressed comfortably in jeans, Velcro-fastened sneakers and a white T-shirt featuring the image of a poster from Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier's "Thrilla in Manilla" fight. His black Rolls Royce is parked outside and he's awaiting a few cigars from his driver.

In here, the noise surrounding the rapper's new Def Jam album, formerly known as "N--ger," has faded, but Nas is still happy to discuss the grand implications of it all.

NAS drew fire from Fox's own thuggish-ruggish superstar, Bill O'Reilly, when it was announced that he would perform at Virginia Tech at a benefit the following semster after the shooting there in 2007.

Now, it's no shock to anyone that has listened to 'gansta' rap that it can and is quite violent. Some people would argue that this is the root cause of violence in urban society while others would indicated that it is the main factor in the degredation of women in society. While everyone on all sides would love to have a tangible person(s) to pin the blame on, it is important to realize that NAS, and many "artists" like him are no longer the powerful street poets that they once were.

Long gone are the days when NAS, or Jay-Z, or 50 Cent were considered untainted by the corporate system. They are no longer individual voices that speak for the common man. They are, by and large, marketable facets of the music industry. They are compensated well for there violent imagry. They no longer are part of what HIp-Hop is about. They are traded as easily as Vivendi stock - nothing more than another 0 before the decimal in "L.A." Reid's bank account. But, despite the fact that so much of their creative soul has been syphoned away, they occassionally have moments where that fleeting creative flame burns as bright as day one.

"Sly Fox" from NAS' re-titled ablum "Untitled"




Update:

It appears that some people are insisting that this piece is somehow a slight against NAS. They are only partially right, as it would be nice to see that the above clip is indicative of NAS returning to his roots with his records, not trying to conform to a stereotype that the record companies are trying to perpetuate, being cutting-edge rather than cut-and-paste.

Friday Afternoon Hip Hop Hysteria

The Beastie Boys