June 10th, 2009
It’s a shame that the executive producer scandal surrounding the Nick Riviera of rap, Charles Hamilton, has siphoned off the attention that should have been accorded Jay Stay Paid. Granted, my extreme effusiveness might be partially due to affirmative action for the deceased–I essentially say as much in my Times review–but this and Born Like This are neck and neck for the best rap records of the year.
Other than Douglas Martin’s, Jay Stay Paid day, and Nate Patrin’s outstanding Pitchfork review, I haven’t seen the raves you’d expect from something this good. Maybe the relatively muted reaction is a backlash towards carpetbag Dilla stannery, or maybe I just love it because it cured me of a migraine last week (along with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ice Cream bar). But really, Jay Stay Paid is an achievement–one that establishes a new benchmark for posthumous rap releases, and an effort worth purchasing to ensure his mom stays paid too.
LA Times: J Dilla-Jay Stay Paid
Download:
MP3: J Dilla ft. Black Thought-”Reality TV”
Jay Stay Paid Bonus Track
MP3: J Dilla ft. Bun B & Termanology-”Make It Fast”
Posted in LA Times | 5 Comments »
June 5th, 2009
I typically avoid the show recommendation route, but Dam-Funk with Gaslamp Killer at the Natural History Museum tonight, looks like a safe bet. If you don’t know Dam-Funk, he’s the former MC Eight and Westside Connection keyboardist, turned DJ deity, turned Stones Throw recording artist. You might also know him as the guy who remixed Animal Collective’s “Summertime Clothes.”
My interview with him is up now at the Times. There will have to be a wholly separate talk where we discuss the making of “The Gangsta’, The Killa, and the Dope Dealer.”
LA Times: Dam-Funk talks boogie, modern funk and working with Animal Collective
Download:
MP3: Dam-Funk-”Let’s Take Off”
MP3: Dam-Funk-Dam-Funk Mix from BBC’s Mary Anne Hobbs Experimental Show
MP3: Animal Collective-”Summertime Clothes (Dam-Funk Remix)”
Posted in LA Times | 3 Comments »
June 3rd, 2009
Remember yesterday when I made a vaguely cryptic comment about watching Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and Mack 10 carouse with a crew of video hos on a beach in Malibu? Right. Anyhow, the story is currently up and running at the Times’ Pop and Hiss blog. There are a dozen photos below the jump, visual evidence of one of the more bizarre Mondays of my existence: Jai alai, badminton, and blunt rollers galore.
In case you were wondering, I possess video tape of the proceedings, thanks to the work of my good friend, Jeff Cowan (the man behind said photos). Should I ever emerge from the soul-crushing spate of deadline pressures, expect a Passion of the Weiss expose illuminating the wardrobe choices and innermost thoughts of the greatest rotund entertainer since Fatty Arbuckle. BAWSE.
LA Times: On the video set of Mack 10’s ‘So Dirty’: Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Dancing girls and Jai Alai
Download:
MP3: Mack 10-”Foe Life”
MP3: Mack 10-”On Them Thangs”
MP3: Mack 10 ft. Fat Joe & Big Pun-”Let the Games Begin”
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Posted in LA Times | 2 Comments »
May 28th, 2009
My interview with that infamous drinker of aquariums is up at Pop and Hiss now. We talk the blues, the stubborn persistence of Southern regionalism, and juke joint drinking etiquette. I’ll be at the reading tonight. If you don’t know what I look like, I’ll be the guy in need of a haircut, drinking 60 ounces of beer out of a paper cup. If I pass out, be so kind as to offer me a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and a number for a cab company.
In honor of the festivities, today is officially, Obscure Sight-Impaired Southern Blues Day here at Passion of the Weiss.
LA Times-Justin “Aquarium Drunkard” Visits ‘The Blues,’ and Lives to Write About It
Download:
MP3: Blind Joe Taggart-”The Storm is Passing Over”
MP3: Blind Mamie Forehand-”Wouldn’t Mind Dying”
MP3: Blind Willie Johnson-”Dark was the Night”
Posted in LA Times | 1 Comment »
May 22nd, 2009
I suppose it’s own fault. “Don’t Touch Me (Throw ‘Da Water on Em) was so vintage Busta that I figured that he had another The Coming/When Disaster Strikes in him–or at least another Anarchy. Wrong. There’s nothing “bad” about “Back on My B.S”–Busta’s talented and likeable enough to carry most tepid tracks.* But his 8th studio jaunt is so compartmentalized and focus-grouped that you’d think it was conceived by the marketing gurus who brought you Poochie. Major label hip-hop albums have gotten so risk-averse that you’d think they were being produced by actuaries.
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Posted in LA Times | 4 Comments »
May 21st, 2009
In an ideal world, the Maybach Music and Toyota Tercel rhymes of Rick Ross’ Deeper than Rap would’ve been exchanged with Crime Pays’, “Ross Dress for Less” Beats and Bergdorf Goodman raps. If you’re scratching your head at the clunkiness of the mixed metaphor, that’s the point–it’s Killa, the man calling out for a James Toback documentary, the man who brought you “no homo,” the man who brought you “He Tried to Play Me,” and its sequel, “Bottom of the Pussy Hole.”His albums are the auditory equivalent of The Phantom Tollboth (no Milo).
Let’s discard the Cam=Rene Magritte meme disseminated by the usual suspects. He’s a skilled if not ultimately minor rapper who thrives on excess. Sans Blaze, Kanye, Heatmakerz, and the rest of Dipset, Cam might as well rock faux mink, ersatz gators, and drive a Mitsubishi Eclipse. This is Econo-Cam–bargain bin beats salvaged by surprisingly strong rhymes. Apparently–like journalism–crime doesn’t pay enough.
LA Times: Cam’ron-Crime Pays
Download:
MP3: Cam’ron-”My Job”
MP3: Cam’ron-”Get it in Ohio”
Posted in LA Times | 1 Comment »
May 18th, 2009
There’s something sad about watching a once-great group sing old songs because nobody wants to hear the new ones. Except The Pharcyde don’t have new ones, even though they’ve been “reunited” since last year’s Rock the Bells–which means that their performance at at the Santa Monica Pier last Friday was solely to cash a check. How do I know? Because it was for an event called The Coors Light Cold Front Jam–the only other option is that they were paid in kegs.
Still, I could listen to “Passing Me By,” “Ya Mama,” “Runnin,” “What’s up Fatlip?” “Drop” et. al, performed until I have a glass eye with a fish in it–even though the quartet was rapping next a stand that sold mackerel bait. I spoke with Imani and Slimkid3 for the Times, about everything from the inspiration for “Passing Me By,” to their love of Korn (?), to the amount of hallucinogenics they ingested in the early Clinton years. As usual, the B-Sides are after the jump.
LA Times: A Reunited Pharcyde Discuss Breakups, Makeups and J Dilla
MP3: Pharcyde-”Westside 242″
MP3: Pharcyde-”Y (Be Like that?) (Jay Dee Remix)
MP3: Pharcyde-”Passin’ Me By (Fly as Pie Remix)”
MP3: Fatlip-”What’s Up, Fatlip?”
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Posted in Interviews, LA Times | 5 Comments »
May 15th, 2009
Admittedly, you’re taking a recommendation from someone who missed Exile’s set at Fat Beats last Saturday, to see The Grateful Dead. So maybe the MPC mastery of Aleksandr Manfredi is the hip-hop equivalent of the drum circle–meaning I’m the prime demographic. Still, between Fly Lo, Exile, Nosaj Thing, Gaslamp Killer, and, of course, the venerable Otis Jackson Jr., Los Angeles beatmaking is at a 21st century zenith.
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Posted in LA Times, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 4 Comments »
May 13th, 2009
In my quest to redeem that last lost post, let me invoke the name of half-Kenyan, half-American benga band, Extra Golden. Among the premier practioners of contemporary afro-beat, they’re living proof that the American legacy of Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and D.O. Misiani, isn’t entirely the province of a bunch of pencil-necked geeks rocking Lacoste and loafers.
In advance of their show tonight at the Echo, I spoke with guitarist Alex Minoff about the band’s alternately uplifting and tragic history, African music, and the difficulty of getting an American visa. If you’re still looking for tickets, Duke at You Set the Scene still has a pair to give away. Extra Golden will be playing alongside reggae legends, The Meditations. If you don’t want to go, you deserve to watch comical cat videos for the duration of your existence.
LA Times: Extra Golden on African Music, Obstacles, and Obama
Download:
MP3: Extra Golden-”Anyango”
MP3: Extra Golden-”Ok-Oyot System” (Left-Click)
MP3: The Meditations-”There Must be a First Time”
Posted in African Music, LA Times | 1 Comment »
May 11th, 2009
Too young and initially obsessed with hip-hop to have seen The Dead when they were still Grateful, my communion with the skull and roses is primarily a personal one. The first Damuscus Moment tape: a battered bootleg temporarily loaned by an ex-girlfriend, but hoarded as break-up spoils–dubbed off a radio station in Provo, Utah. Studded with Dylan covers and a broken-down but beatific Jerry–vocals sounding like a man who’d just spent a decade in a desert, guitars glowing and gliding like a shooting star. A type of diseased soul music, simultaneously spiritually nourishing and entrancingly vacant.
This was in my early 20s, right at the moment that Andrew Gaerig once described as, “when [you] become secure enough with [your] music tastes to start buying albums that the kids [you] hated in high school enjoyed.” I never hated hippies–I just didn’t get the appeal beyond the shallow triumph of cheap drugs and a pre-packaged lifestyle. Just because you liked The Dead didn’t mean you had to like Phish and Dave Matthews, and that metal-mouthed kid with dreads who sold oregano to 8th graders and really liked whippets…
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Posted in LA Times | 2 Comments »
