Chief Keef

The introduction of this track is one of Chief Keef's best. And it should be because Chief Keef is finally rich. Young Chop on the beat as always.

Co La--Egyptian Peaches

Matt Papich has thrown out his guitar and his former performance name of Ecstatic Sunshine. Since then he has replaced the six string with a Mac book, Ableton live software, and the new performance name of Co La.  Now I've seen Co La plenty of times around Baltimore venues, but I didn't really start "getting in" to his music until I picked up a copy of Daydream Repeater on vinyl. This debut LP from Papich is simply "rich" sounding, with wonderfully mixed samples, for example on wanna say faux, (video below) the timing of samples are simply outstanding. Enjoy! and if you get a chance see him around Baltimore!
                                                        Wanna Say Faux

                                                             Egyptian Peaches

New Knife album in April

In April one of my favorite bands is coming out with a new album. The track list was just released, check it out! I'm stoked.

Giving him something he can feel

I was visiting a good old friend up at his respective college in Pennsylvania, so naturally as a college student by the end of the night we had consumed a large amount alcohol. Anyways my friends and I were on a large soul music kick...and still are today. So when it came time to crash naturally as kids in the 21st century we turned on the Television to fall asleep. What we found though was an infomercial called "Body and Soul" a collection of great soul songs. This kept us up for a while before falling asleep. The very next day I obtained the Body and Soul collection, and it brought some great great Great tracks to my ears. One great example was Aretha Franklin's Giving him something he can feel. A purely magnificent soul song, with Mrs. Franklin singing her heart and soul out. Now I really enjoy hearing this song after a couple spirits in me, but it would be great to play for your significant other. My favorite line from the song has to be,
"Well, I'm
Livin in a world of ghetto life
Everyone Seems is so uptight
Nothin's wrong, it's alright, my man
I like the way we carry on
His love will send me on and on
with my man
People out there can you understand?"

Charanjit Singh 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat

Charanjit Singh's, 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat was recently reissued by a Dutch record company and I still need to get my hands on that vinyl! For now though, I'll have to settle with the mp3 version of the album. The amazing thing about this album was how ahead of its time it was. Released in 1982, Charanjit was creating acid house music a couple years before it really took off. This is a great piece of early electronic music and a very important one. It's hard to find online and has been taken down a couple of times, so I'm not going to bother with a link. I will post the first track from the album though and a really good article about the album and how it was made.

Article about the album

Recent interview with Charanjit in 2010

 

Original artwork

Strange overtones In the music you are playing

I'm really feeling like an idiot right now. I've had so much Brian Eno material that I never listened to...ever! Well that all changed today, because of strange overtones. The album to your left is the second collaboration between Brian Eno and David Byrne, called "Everything that happens will happen today" and wow its impressive. Recorded in both Brian's and David's home studios the album has themes of humanity vs. versus technology. The song I'll put up was originally released for free as the single from the album, its called "strange overtones." Hope you enjoy!

Strange overtones.

She gone be there fo dah Kid no matter wut

I feel like Nas may have been right when he said "Hip Hop is Dead" back in 2006. It just seems like anyone can get on a mic and come up with a stupid yet clever hook over some good production. Now do that a couple times while blowing blunts and pour some lean in a double cup, now you have a mixtape. You don't even need a good voice anymore with all this auto-tune business, but surprisingly this has created some "good" and undeniably hilarious tracks and albums. For example Future, a former drug dealer, is now perusing a full rap career with great success. After releasing a few mixtapes with some hits like "Tony Montana" and "Racks" Future then released his debut album Pluto. The bizarre thing was Pluto was really really good, it was a complete album with hit songs like "Turn on the Lights" and "Same Damn Time." Today I'll be putting his free mixtape up called Astronaut Status. The best song off the mixtape as well as my personal favorite is called "No Matter What." It's Future's best work overall with heavy auto-tune vocals and hard to understand lyrics. Once you look up the lyrics though, it becomes very easy to understand what this Atlanta rapper is trying to deliver, here is a link for the lyrics. Some of the great lines future comes up with while he's leaning hard include,

 " Anytime we spend time, we spend more than benjamins"...

"What the fuck this high siddity girl want to do with an astronaut kid"

 and finally

"You gotta live and learn to make mistakes to be the man."

  Future is asking the questions of why this particular girl wants to waste time with an air head like him. And I agree he is an air head rapper, yet talent can come from the most surprising people, and I do have an interest in entertaining rappers.
      I think Nas had a point to say about hip hop being dead. Coming from one of the most talented and celebrated MC's to ever get on the mic, I would be upset that people like this are becoming successful without putting in as much time and effort into lyrics as well as the general flow that hip hop requires. But then again Nas came back 6 years after that statement with a great hip hop album entitled "Life is Good." and it is.

Astronaut Status