Lil Wayne croaked “Where the fuck is Erykah Badu at?” at the end of “A Milli,” a snippet that eventually became Miss On and On’s intro music and presumably led to this Weezy guest spot on “Jump in the Air (Stay There),” the bonus Web-only track from New Amerykah Part 2. Lifting her hook from Funkadelic’s “Hydraulic Pump,” that Clintonian dusted haze is clearly Badu’s intent and there’s a certain jangled paranoia inherent in the track’s stabbing synths and snapping drums. Weezy recycles his usual tricks and brings a dull eccentricity, but Badu is the main attraction, layering alien and angelic harmonies over a beat that sounds like something off the back half of Stankonia. Call it UFO R&B: incandescent, willfully bizarre, and obviously involving people who are very very high.
I hate to succumb to the Internet bad habit of posting something without listening to it first, but this seems as obvious as a Bill Cartwright elbow to the head. Plus, it’s bound to be an improvement on the last well-known Chicago tribute that involved the guy from Coldplay mewling about the shores of Lake Michigan. After all, this involves a team-up between the ruthlessly consistent Numero Group and Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson, for a three hour mix spanning Windy city music from 1908 through 1980, including Muddy Waters, Jelly Roll Morton, and Willie Dixon. It promises to be better than Bundy.
If you’ve ever stumbled into the Low End Theory, you know Nocando. Every Wednesday, the night’s lone rhyming resident incinerates beats that would leave lesser rappers like nudists searching for a spot to store their wallets: exposed and futilely searching for a pocket. The Project Blowed veteran raps over beats that should be un-rappable, freestyling with an obscene velocity and wit expected from a dude who won the 2007 Scribble Jam. Of course, the transition from battle rap champ to legit album artist is notoriously difficult. If you disagree, there are mountains of bargain bin Supernatural CD’s as countervailing evidence.
With production from Nosaj Thing, Daedelus and Nobody and guest spots from Busdriver and Nick Thorburn of Islands, Jimmy the Lockranks among the most pure distillations of the Low End Theory aesthetic. Think Acelayone of the Balls Don’t Bounce-era crossed with an early Del, had his main influence been E-40. The story is at LA Weekly. I also discuss the second wave of Low End Theory talent. If I didn’t have ocular proof, I’d call myself a homer.
If you are still unsold, battle videos below the jump.
Clearly, Harry Belafonte has seen better days, judging by the Fester-like countenance the Day-O don sports with ex-Aftermath refugee, Bishop Lamont. But a half-century ago, when he ran the Catskill Resort circuit, Belafonte wooed my grandmother, who was reportedly once quite “a dish.” The story goes that the efforts were unsuccessful — thanks to my great-grandfather — who was having none of his youngest daughter running off with an unsavory entertainer. However, in spite of this, the Calypso king reportedly bestowed her with a massive fruit basket and a note divulging his hotel particulars. There are so many puns that I want to make invoking the lyrics to “Day-O,” but I will exercise restraint — for once.
But this post is not about Harry Belafonte, it is about Bishop Lamont, who I interviewed for the Times about leaving Aftermath, his plans for the future, and why labels sign West Coast rappers and give them less playing time than El-P Brian Scalabrine. Should you run into me in a bar anytime over the next year , I might be willing to paraphrase the unexpurgated transcript if you’re buying. Suffice to say, I do not expect Detox in stores anytime soon. I do expect to see more music from Bishop, who really is one of the rap game’s good guys: generous, witty, and exceptionally gifted. Like Rakim, Rae, Joell, and all the rest, he did not deserve Aftermath excommunication, but I’m excited to see what he’ll do next. For those unfamiliar with the head of the Diocese, the mixtapes below should provide an ample introduction. Church.
Edan the DJ make Fast-Rap and Funky Drummer mixtapes. Edan the rapper make Prince Paul, LL Cool, and The Hollies play nice. Jewish critical cabal say, “Beauty and The Beat better than The Go-Gos.” Edan release Echo Party. We Like Very Much. Edan talk to Passion of the Weiss from Brooklyn Flea Market. Edan purchase Gold Label pressing of “Forever Changes.” Edan have good taste.
How did you link up with the people at Traffic Records to make Echo Party?
A long time ago, when I lived in Boston, I used to make these old cassette hip-hop mixes, you know with whatever was cool at the time, Nas, Gangstarr, etc. I put my phone number on the mixes for some networking shit. So one day this guy Matt Welch called me to tell me that he liked it and we ended up becoming friends and roommates. I indirectly got him a job at LandSpeed, the company that became Traffic. Landspeed didn’t exactly have the best reputation, but they eventually got it together, shuffled around some staff and became Traffic. Now they’re a lot more reputable and a more formal business that distributes records all over the world.
Traffic was getting this new label off the ground called 5 day weekend. They started with a Peanut Butter Wolf project called 45 Live, which was all mixes of 7-inches. Then they approached me about maybe doing a mix of stuff that they had in their back catalogue. It wasn’t supposed to be as elaborate as it ended up being, but I’m a passionate artist and I ended up giving them more, cutting up doubles of “Smoking Cheeba Cheeba” and all kinds of stuff like that. I haven’t done anything in a while and I sort of view this as an interim project, but I put all my life into it. Life is too precious and art is too precious to fuck around and half-ass it, so I went all-out.
How was your approach different from the Fast Rap and Funky Drummer tapes?
Those were almost more of documentarian type things; this was more of an artistic project. It’s more than a mix to me. Really, if you’re calling it a mix you’re underselling it. The precedent is those old classic Hollywood disco mixes, those old cut up records. I don’t know. It seems unique to some degree, at least I hope it does.
Sach O only posts music that he likes so don’t flood him with wack demos, only high quality shit.
Sometimes, good music finds you. Last week I received a chance PM from a local Montreal producer asking if I’d consider his tunes blog worthy. There’s a lot of musicians in this city and I’ve turned down quite a few “opportunities” to post people’s stuff but these beats were a cut above your average Myspace producer’s and the wonky/bass aesthetic jibes nicely with what we’re doing here at the Passion so I’m pleased to present the Wonky beats of Matthew Hiscock.
The most immediately striking thing about Waves and Shake Yer’ Whatever is the attention and care put into the mixing. The highs are crisp and the sub-bass rumbles with an intensity sadly absent from most of the free tunes flooding the internet. Clocking in around 110BPM with a heavy boom-bap thump and squelchy bass lines, the tracks hit hard in the headphones but really come to life when blaring out a sub: the mark of a good mix and a serious producer. The high end is equally interesting with both tracks merging the aforementioned bump to layers of melodic synths and processed samples that build and collapse as proper songs should. I’ve heard a few too many beats recently that just ride a loop past its breaking point before calling it a day so it’s nice to see proper composition for a change. The contrast between the Hip-Hop drums and more electronic oriented melodies is equally interesting, delivering the power of the former and the sophistication of the later which is immensely more appealing to me divorced from your standard 4-4 pulse. What can I say, I’ll be a Hip-Hop head till I die. All in all, good tunes that’ll appeal to left-of-center rap heads and techno-show thugs without alienating one or the other. Incidentally, if anyone knows where I can find the elusive techno-show thug, tell him to holler.
Born Agains. I envy them. I can barely choose between breakfast cereals, and they’re absolutely sold on all questions pertaining to eschatology and eternal salvation. I don’t envy their musical options though. This is the party of Michael W. Smith, Plus One, and “You’ve Got to Serve Somebody.” They even turned Dylan insufferable, a water-to-wine worthy feat (the blizzards of cocaine probably did not help). After all, Pat Robertson’s meteorological interpretations aside, Christian fanaticism isn’t known for its fostering a vibrant creative community. Good God! Born Again Funk, the latest release from the Numero Group, is the exception.
Following Soul Messages From Dimonaand Good God: A Gospel Funk Hymnal, the third in the Good God Series gathers gospel acts from the greater Chicago area, united by their flush-faced fervor, angelic harmonies, and absolute funkiness. This is closer to visitations with the Reverend Cleophus James than the pasty-faced morlocks that haunt Sunday morning programming. Despite the ecclesiastical obsession, even Richard Dawkins and his sidekick Hitch couldn’t help but find an enduring beauty in these songs. They’re more affirmations and appreciations of the intangible rhythms that exist in your head on your better days. Existing at the crossroads between funk and soul, disco and gospel, the obscurities gathered here come from amateurs blessed with absurd ability, people who worked regular jobs and got together on the weekends to cut music that could hang with the most angel dust-addled Spaceship-riding funk gods. I imagine these people were insufferably dull to talk to — luckily, they knew how to sing.
One album conspicuously left off Sach’s list is the latest from the mushroom-gobbling mathematician formerly known as Manitoba. “Odessa,” the lead single leaked from Caribou’s forthcoming Swim might make a titular reference to a Ukranian port city, but its sonics augur a stark shift from the frail and fractured psychedelia of Andorra to a thumping disco-groove closer to Hot Chip or The Junior Boys on Zoloft. Clearly, the decision to record his fifth effort with Jeremy Greenspan of the Junior’s paid dividends, because this is the most danceable and instantly catchy thing he’s ever released — something that plants his sound firmly within the zeitgeist but stays singular, the logical results of an evolution from Psilocybin to swimming with blue dolphins.
Sach O doesn’t feel the need to write a vaguely predictive intro to this piece. Here’s 10 full-length releases he’s fiendin’ to hear in 2010. No particular order.
The Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Every 5 years, Damon Albarn does alternative hip-pop with a Gorillaz release. Easily taken as a lark, the original album’s dubwise slackerisms were one of the few instances where the sounds and attitudes of backpacker hip-hop made an impact on the pop music landscape. Conversely, Demon Days served as a showcase for psych-rock devotee Danger Mouse and the best set of songs Albarn had written since Blur’s untimely demise. Seizing on the desperation felt during Bush’s second term, lead single “Feel Good INC” captured the fractured chaos of the mid 00’s as well as anything, taking the project in a more serious direction that stood in contrast to the era’s New Wave fetishism. Though Albarn hasn’t mentioned a co-producer for Plastic Beach, the track list looks like one hell of a party with three appearances each (!!!) by De La Soul and Mos Def, along with one-off’s by a who’s-who of cool. PlasticBeach could match its predecessors off its guest list alone but judging by first single Stylo however, it won’t have to.
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Vol 2: Return of The Ankh
New Amerykah volume 1 wasn’t just a classic, it was a game changing release that forced listeners to reevaluate everything they knew about the artist who made it. Sure, Badu’s neo-soul debut and its more adventurous sequel were great records, but they still clung to a contemporary R&B framework, leading many to believe Erykah would follow the same adult-contemporary path as say, India Arie. Instead, she unleashed a torrent of sassed-up funk, Hip-Hop, soul and political rage, delivering the Hip-Hop record of the year while most rappers were trying to get a Ne-Yo hook. A complete statement combining its numerous tracks into one paranoid, righteous whole, it still feels remarkably original, sounding like neither the activist soul of the 60’s nor the masculine rap that followed but a perfectly balanced equation. Volume 2 promises to be more organic and romantically themed than its predecessor, but with multiple Biggie tributes and beats by Dilla and Madlib, it also promises to be just as exciting and the cause of numerous cases of stage-4 Baduizm.
It’s a sad day in New Jerusalem with the passing of Apache, who will surely be posthumously lionized as the rapper who put the Flava in the unit, rather than an early 90s one-hit wonder who knew how to properly rock a red flannel (take note, No Age). But “Gangsta Bitch” was not just any hit — the prototype for “I Need a Ryde or Die Bitch” was a veritable manifesto, which along with Positive K’s “I Got A Man” instructed the youth of America on proper dating etiquette. Granted, in suburban 6th grade classrooms, gangsta bitches were in short supply, but that did not stop the youth from trying to find their own machete-wielding females. Hopefully, this Valentine’s Day in Heaven, Anthony Peaks will find a gangsta bitch to perform stick-ups with.
Download:
MP3: Apache - “Gangsta Bitch”
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