Jay Rock – 30 Day Takeover (new mixtape)
For those who have been following Jay Rock since 2006, we know what we've come to expect: hard lines, hard beats, and tales from the streets from Compton, CA. However, with the recent release of his new mixtape 30 Day Takeover, The Game soundalike is making a name for himself on the West Coast scene.
Featuring 30 raw and hard tracks, Jay Rock has expanded his repitore and sharpened his delivery and wordplay while displaying a wider range of emotion than shown before. A solid album that can be played from front to back on the iPod or in the car - I give this album a 4.5 out of 5.
Some standout tracks include:
The Takeover - Jay Rock flexes his vocals here and sets the tone for the rest of the album
Plenty Money - A nice West Coast G-anthem
Mandatory - K-Dot and Jay Rock are becoming quite the West Coast duo, especially with standout tracks such as this one
What's my Name - I'm sure West Coast veterans will identity this iconic beat, and Jay Rock does this track justice
Download Jay Rock - 30 Day Takeover and let me know what you guys think of it.
Nipsey Hussle: Bullets Ain’t Got No Name Vol. 3
Say what you will about Gangsta Rap; sometimes it hits the spot, and nothing else kicks quite as hard as a menacing bass line over fast and furious bars recounting the countless drama filled nights of someone living on the streets of Compton as a soldier. Continuing from where former Compton street legends Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, and WC left off (and where The Game currently blazed a new trail for new school West Coast music) comes an artist that is generating quite a buzz on the West Coast: Nipsey Hussle.
Click for huge resolution picture of album art
His former two mixtapes, creatively named Bullets Ain't Got No Name Vol. 1 and 2, features copious amounts of gang banging, West Coast street dropping, and references to the wildness of the RSC (Rollin' 60 Crips) over meandering beats with just the right amount of synths. Delivery is on point, and one can imagine playing this album front to bank while riding in a drop top 67 Chevy Impala in the California sun. If you like his album, buy it! However, Nipsey Hussle did release it for free with the intent for his fans to listen to his new release:
Hidden gems found, thanks to online radio
I was sprinting to my car in the morning.
I know what the wrong side of the universe looks like - all alien beings must be late and hurried there. I was forced to skip breakfast and was already feeling the effects of my low blood sugar with each roar of my car's engine. As I was power-walking in the parking lot, I felt that my pocket was unusually light this morning.
My iPod is at home.
Luckily, with the trend of Web 2.0 everything, a delivered breakfast burrito and some interesting online radio choices fixed my morning right up.
Old school radio: demise forthcoming. Picture by Ian.
I will be frank and say that I believe 99% of the radio station out there sucks. I don't even think my car radio quite works correctly (one of the downsides of installing your own car audio system) - this is of little loss to me because the annoying commercials, low sound quality, and the fact that radio playlists never seem to play exactly what I want irritates me to no end. Don't even get me started on the songs they choose to play either.
My first taste of online radio was surprisingly great, and refreshing. I stumbled upon a radio station on Live365 that played extremely listenable and varied music, ranging from old school to Afrocentric to forgotten favorites. It felt like someone who knew what he was doing was playing the songs, as opposed to a media pawn or a statistics driven robot. Here is an example playlist:
A Tribe Called Quest - Like It Like That (great Afrocentric old school)
Fatlip - What's Up Fatlip (Fatlip, from the Pharcyde, released a solo album in 2005 that I had no idea about. )
Afu-Ra - God of Rap (very overlooked old school artist)
Grand Puba - Two Thousand, Amazing (see above)
Canibus - Second Round K.O. (one of the first, best battle rappers in the game)
Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (one of the Foundations of southern rap, for you Wayne/T.I. junkies out there)
The Fugees - Vocab (A marriage of reggae, hip-hop, and soul earning unadulterated mainstream and critical praise? Never before done!)
Kanye West - Get 'em High (a lost gem among Kanye's more popular songs, features Kanye, Common, and Talib Kweli going at it hard)
Rakim - Been a Long Time (old school legend)
DJ Honda - Straight Talk from NY (surprising find on a radio station)
Has anybody else had a good experience with online radio? Any suggestions?
Hip Hop Beats – favorites from the early 90s
Upon listening to my iPod today (what a great leap from the tape deck, isn't it?), I hit a string of songs in a row that all had a fantastic beat, and I couldn't help but start nodding my head like I was constantly agreeing with myself. This had a two-pronged effect: I got a few puzzled looks from my coworkers who probably don't need any help in thinking I'm weird, and it got me thinking about how important the beat is to a song. In a lot of ways, the beat is both overrated and underrated.
Beatmaking: the hidden science. Picture by ryan.valle.
It is overrated because some rappers can have whack songs on a hot beat, and they'll shoot straight up the charts - people often refer to these rappers as "ringtone rappers." I can't think of an honor more dubious than selling ten times more ringtones than albums. Nearly always, the casual listener will listen to and consider the beat first before anything else.
Beats are also underrated because, well, it IS in the background. Great producers are overlooked in favor of the artist rapping over the beats, and little is known about the art of production. Producers are often masters of several traditional instruments and can be considered geniuses who use a huge variety of sources to paint a melody on a musical canvas. It takes an enormous amount of knowledge about music to craft beats well, and only until Kanye West exploded onto the scene did producers start to get noticed.
Good beats beg you to hit the rewind (or replay, in this age) button just one more time. It implores you to reach for the volume knob because your poor ears have gotten used to where you turned it up before. And, it makes you snap your neck in your car, looking like a fool and not caring, because the bass hits so hard.
Here are three of my favorite beats - from the early 1990s.
Rapper: Nas
Album: Illmatic (1994)
Song: N.Y. State of Mind
Producer: DJ Premier
Listen to this song - the beat hits you as hard as a speeding train. DJ Premier's fledging career was defined by this song, and his artistic traits were on full display - a haunting piano loop from obscure jazz samples, a pounding bassline, and cutting spoken lyrics from other songs to form a chorus. The overall result? A gritty, dark beat fitting for the Big Apple. Executive producer MC Serch noted "Primo [DJ Premier] and Nas, they could have been separated at birth. It wasn't a situation where his beats fit their rhymes, they fit each other."
Rapper: The Pharcyde
Album: Labcabincalifornia (1995)
Song: Runnin'
Producer: J. Dilla (RIP)
One of the defining songs of The Pharcyde's popular run in the early 90s, Runnin' was one of J. Dilla's early masterpieces. J. Dilla always had a habit of having his curious style imparted onto every one of his beats, yet every beat he created was somehow drastically unique. Noteworthy aspects of the beat are the disjointed, almost dream-like guitar samples, mastery of turntable scratching, choice saxophone and maraca cuts, and the way J. Dilla artistically wove this haphazard tapestry together. Also, who could forget the ridiculous verse drop at 3:00 when the beat stops, for just a heartbeat?
Rapper: Notorious B.I.G.
Album: Ready to Die (1994)
Song: Things Done Changed
Producer: Dominic Owens, Kevin Scott
I love music that stirs the soul, like a movie soundtrack starring Denzel Washington. Those who listen carefully can hear a stirring, tinkling piano loop, a sinister bassline, and a steadily rising and falling cresendo rising throughout the song, culumating in muted trumpet blasts. Ironically, the iconic (and amazingly addictive) vocal sample comes from none other than Dr. Dre, a giant on the rival West Coast.
What are your favorite beats from the early 90s?