Posts Tagged ‘hip-hop’

We must destroy Hidden Beach “Unwrapped” jazz thingy.

smfhDid you know Hidden Beach, record label to Jill Scott plus a bunch of other artists, was still releasing those atrocious Unwrapped “jazz” compilations? If not, I’m here to fuck your day up: They are. A long long time ago, “jazz” renditions of popular Hip-Hop songs seemed like a novel idea, but as Hip-Hop becomes more grotesque, what we need less of is multiple versions of played-out, shitty songs.

 

Unwrapped Vol. 6: A Tribute To Lil’ Wayne Give The Drummer Some features a 24-year-old drummer named Tony Royster, Jr., who is too young to be sucked into this Old People Fail. Who decides, at 24, that they’re gonna totally fuck up the crappy songs their peers love by oldifying them? Also, this album is mostly a bunch of songs we got sick of until they became parodies of themselves: “Best I Ever Had”, “Every Girl”, “Turnin’ Me On”, “Single Ladies”, etc, with a couple tracks by De La Soul and Craig Mack tossed in for ornery Hip-Hop elitists such as myself. Whatever, Hidden Beach!

 

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9 songs I’m feeling right now (and where to get them).

Every now and then someone will ever so gently remind me that I have tastemaking duties to uphold, since when I’m not bagging on rappers I actually listen to–and even often buy–music. With that in mind, I’ve decided that I’ll regularly point you to 9 joints that have the full support of my iPod, starting with

 

1. Diamond District: “Something For Y’all”

In The Ruff easily merks higher profile rap releases in 2009, and I’m not just saying that because Diamond District hails from DC like Yours Truly. No no no. Some bad Hip-Hop has come out of DC and will continue to, but there’s also a contingent of acts that actually know what they’re doing and consistently produce quality shit, namely those of the Low Budget crew. Kev Brown, who never fails to rep DC with his cadence and jargon, produces and guests on “Something For Ya’ll”, a new track off the official release of In The Ruff. It’s the perfect bonus track to what was already a refreshing release.


 

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Tweet for the cause: #RapperSpeakTranslated

huh?Ever sit through an interview on WorldStar Hip-Hop and think to yourself “Oh my gee! What does this hip, foolish rap person really mean?” If your confusion has ever lead to countless sleepless nights trying to decipher convoluted rap-speak, then look no further than the clever and immensely useful #rapperspeaktranslated trend on Twitter. Below is a list of favorites:

 

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cantstopbkcoverI suppose there’s no accounting for taste. “Has hip-hop grown up? Duh. It always has because we always do. Every time the ex-kids who feel like they reinvented it get a little older, the new kids behind them start turning it into something else. How do the older ones react? They holler about ‘Hip-hop is dead’—the first time someone said hip-hop was dead was in 1979, the year ‘Rapper’s Delight’ came out. Meanwhile, the shorties have new clothes, new slang, new dances, new styles, new art, new music. Hip-hop still ages gracefully—we see you Erykah, Ghostface—and remains indecipherable to 30+somethings—whose knees never jerk the way they’re supposed to. The rest is just a small, if hot, argument across a mini-generation gap.” “The Small, Hot Argument Across Hip-Hop’s Mini-Generation Gap” Jeff Chang / The Root

 

 

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