Posts tagged hip hop
Posts tagged hip hop
This is Wiki and he’s nuts. He’s 18, half Irish, half Puerto Rican and sounds a little a young Em I guess, but really he just sounds New York as fuck. (Check that link for a nice interview with Wiki in Complex.)
I’m planning on putting up a rundown of the New New York scene soon, so consider this a little appetizer. For now I just want to point out that this video was posted last year and Wiki and his crew, Ratking, are now signed on XL. They’re right there between Radiohead and Sigur Rós. Nuts, man.
These cats are The Underachievers and their very first mixtape, Indigoism, has been garnering heavy rotation on my internal radio. I’d even go so far as to say it’s a classic — every time I listen to it, it gets better and better.
UA’s lyrics have this strange blend of heavy use of psychedelics, western eastern spirituality, consciousness. Maybe that sounds a little strange but their beats are pretty spaced out, like in the above “Herb Shuttles”. It also helps that these guys — Issa Dash and AK — can really, really rap. Here’s AK’s punchline from his first verse on the jazzy “Land of Lords”:
I know you peep the steez, golden like I’m chosen
Jays leave em Z, way before the Barclay center open
You hoping, I crash this plane, never man
I’m in the legendary lane, hiting Jane like Tarzan
That’s just plain hilarious.
Here’s a really exciting track from Joey Bada$$. The 18 year old is associated with the “Beast Coast” movement out of Brooklyn — a bunch of other young hip hop acts including A$AP Rocky, Pro Era (of which Joey is a member), The Underachievers, Smoke DZA, etc.
Joey goes hard over an MF DOOM instrumental which samples from, of all things, the Fat Albert Halloween Special. Incredible.
It’s a beautiful Sunday here in SF. Here’s some Nate Dogg & Warren G to celebrate.
I don’t know much about this except:
1) This guy is called Mr. Tape
2) He is from the USSR
3) He plays two tape machines like turntables
Do we really need to know more?
Happy Birthday to Cam’ron. Here’s “Bout It, Bout It… part 3” from Cam’s crew The Diplomats.
Martin Rand III, CNN:
Along with [Columbia University Professor Christopher] Emdin, Wu-Tang member GZA and the founders of the hip-hop lyrics website Rap Genius will announce a program that utilizes hip-hop to teach science in 10 New York City public schools. […]
Science has been one of the harder subjects to teach to black and Latino students, who make up 70% of the city’s rolls, according to New York’s Independent Budget Office. The 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress said only 4% of African-American seniors were proficient in sciences, compared with 27% of whites. […]
The process is simple, Emdin said. After learning the material, students will have to create rap songs relaying the material back to the teacher. This can be done individually or in groups known as cyphers, where people stand in a circle and take turns rapping.
This is a supremely fantastic idea. I really hope it works well.
The (as of this writing still) anonymous rapper Captain Murphy has put out his first mixtape. Murphy’s debut was earlier this year on Flying Lotus’s “Between Friends” alongside with Earl Sweatshirt and Murphy seems to be sticking more with the latter than the former — “Immaculation” features Azizi Gibson and Jeremiah Jae both of whom are signed to FlyLo’s Brainfeeder label.
Regardless of identity or affiliation, Murphys new mixtape, “Duality” is really quite good. Additionally it has been released in an innovative way: the entire mixtape, all 35 minutes of it, has been made into a single video by French director Xavier Magot. In fact, so far at least it’s the only way to even hear the mixtape.
You may click through above to watch it but let the clicker be warned: the video contains NSFW images.
Lately I’ve been getting into Houston rap, specifically DJ Screw. Screw is the originator of the “Chopped & Screwed” style characterized by slowed vocals with chopped up beats. Here’s a 35 minute (!) freestyle from DJ Screw’s crew, the Screwed Up Click. The beat is a remix of Kris Kross’s Da Streets Aint Right in Screw’s signature style.
This is New Zealand hip hop group Organized Rhyme. (Unrelated to the early 90s Tom Green project.) I found this on YouTube while browsing around for, of all things, New Zealand rap. (Hey, I was just curious.)
This track, “We Bak”, is actually pretty good. The production is really cheesy but I enjoy their flows a lot, and man that hook is great. They have a couple of other videos and they’re worth checking out but I think this one is probably the strongest.
