"As a Blogger, You Suck"

The past three or four weeks have been a complete blur.

I have had clients in town, new projects to launch, and deals to close. It's all insane.

I just got home about 20 minutes ago (1 20 am) after an extremely long day that just kept getting longer and longer. It was great, though, and now, I am too wired to sleep.

I have not been listening to much music (the more I talk about music, the less time I have to listen). Last week, I listened to 30 songs. 30!

All day, I have had one song going through my head:

Big Boi ft Purple Ribbon Allstars, Kryptonite.

This has been a favorite song for a while. It's a great club song -- incredibly catchy. As I drove from meeting to meeting, or walked from parking garage to wherever, Kryptonite kept playing in my head, over and over.

Listen: Big Boi ft Purple Ribbon Allstars, Kryptonite.

Buy: Big Boi Presents ... Got Purp?, Vol. 2.

Re-Release Therapy

Idolator has a link to a Mashup of Ludacris's Release Therapy with the Jackson 5 by 5G Productions, originally posted on The Rap Up.

SoMuchSilence: I Used to Love H.E.R. - Low End Theory

I have been really enjoying the So Much Silence series I Used to Love H.E.R.

Today's installment was the drummer from Palomar reflecting on one of my favorite album's A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory.

New UGK featuring OutKast

Notes from a Different Kitchen has a new UGK track featuring OutKast "International Players Anthem" from UGK's upcoming Underground Kingz.

Not sure I will be buying this album. I am still holding a bit of a grudge from the drama back in 02 or 03. If it weren't for the presence of Big Boi and André 3000, I wouldn't have played it at all.

The mini-Screw part is odd. I always wonder if people outside this region are familiar enough with Screw to not think something's wrong with the track.

Still it's a good club song, and I have the feeling I am going to be hearing it all summer.

"Peace, Togetherness, and Revolution" - Public Enemy at SXSW

Tonight, I went with B to see Public Enemy at Auditorium Shores, an amphitheater on the shore of Town Lake, which is known as the Colorado River elsewhere.

It's a beautiful location with downtown as the backdrop:

There were tens of thousands of people there. I am terrible at estimating crowd size, but it was a remarkable number of people. We were nowhere near the stage and there were 2 or 3 hundred feet worth of people behind us.

The show was decent. Chuck D, Flava Flav, Professor Griff were all there, and they had a live band. The sound was not great. We were over past the speakers, but it just wasn't very loud.

The set didn't last more than 90 minutes. They jumped around a bit, mostly old stuff, a couple of new songs. Everything hung together well. There was a little too much Flava Flav for my taste. It was his birthday, so there were at least three separate mentions of it. There was some great political stuff.

Overall, it wasn't great. It wasn't the group though. It was the audience. The audience sucked. Hard. We have a problem of bad audiences here in town. People go to shows and stand in front of the band and talk. It's incredibly rude and infuriating.

There were plenty of people talking throughout the entire show. Not, "I love this song!" and then shutting up, but "I loved Flavor of Love!" "My camera's not working" "Where are we going when this is done." The whining! I was absolutely appalled.

I wanted to punch them very hard. I moved as far away as I could, but it was dark and packed and there was only so far I could wander from B to get away from the talking.

How people can be so rude is just beyond me. It's disrespectful to the audience and it's disrespectful to everyone around them who are trying to enjoy the show.

Oh Word on Devin the Dude and the "Blogger Kiss of Death"

Oh Word has an great article about Devin the Dude and the impact of bloggers and blog buzz on "creative rappers."

I am excited about Devin the Dude's new album and it should bring him a much larger audience. Of course, I thought that for his last album that was written up in the Times, etc. In support of that album, we saw him perform some afternoon show in a park here in Austin with maybe 100 people in attendance.

He was great, as was that album, but it just went nowhere for him. I hope that this one will be different for him. He's a tremendous talent and appears well-liked in Houston among all the different battling factions.

The Pharcyde - An Appreciation

Definitely check out The Passion of the Weiss for an excellent appreciation of one of my all-time favorite albums The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde.

Andre 3000 - Rapping!

We've been OutKast fans since the very beginning. We own every single album. (Yes,even Idlewild, of which I really enjoyed half, typical of most OutKast albums.)

So I was very disappointed last week when A announced that he was "over" Andre 3000 because of all the singing.

Happily, I told him that Andre 3000 had been rapping on other people's projects.

While I haven't convinced him yet to reconsider, you should definitely check out the three songs below.

Devin the Dude featuring Snoop Dogg and Andre 3000, What a Job.
Originally from Spine Magazine.

Rich Boy featuring Lil Flip, Andre 3000, Jim Jones, Murphy Lee & The Game, Throw Some D's (remix).
Originally from Notes from a Different Kitchen.

Unk featuring Andre 3000 and Jim Jones, Walk It Out (Remix).
From Baller Status.

Wynton Marsalis on the Daily Show

Wynton Marsalis's appeared on the Daily Show last night.

I have not always been a fan of Wynton Marsalis's music, but I have a great appreciation for his ardent defense of jazz. A met him one night at the Elephant Room and they had an interesting talk. (A even told him why he stopped playing.)




I don't disagree with his opinion about rap (i.e., going from a drummer to a drum machine). From a jazz musician's perspective, the musicality of (most commercial) rap is frankly offensive. Not for lyrical content, so much as lack of musicianship. I had high hopes a few years ago that rap, even Houston rap, could succeed with tracks based on actual music. We did a couple of experiments, which failed. Of course.

Most commercial rap is club music -- the kind of songs we used to dance to until the wee hours when my friends were all single and hitting Fez regularly. Club music needs to be catchy with a propulsive beat. You can easily accomplish that with a keyboard and drum machine.

Digital Underground - Underrated

Passion of the Weiss had a great post today about Digital Underground, whose great funky songs are largely forgotten by those who did not happen to be in high school or college when they came out in 1990.

One of the members had the only decent hip-hop radio show available where we grew up, and we used to listen to it to hear something, anything in hip-hop. Ah, a childhood in the provinces.

Anyway, Passion of the Weiss has "The Humpty Dance," "Freaks of the Industry," and "Doowhutchyalike."

My favorite has always been I Get Around, which features a young 2Pac.

Click below for an mp3 and buy Digital Underground on Amazon and iTunes.

Mp3: Digital Underground, I Get Around.

Black History Month - Oh Word

Oh Word is way more ambitious and comprehensive than I could ever hope to be.

Today's t.w.i.b has all the Black History Month goodness you could ever want.

Black History Month - And It Don't Stop

VH1 is taking a break from reruns of the Hulk Hogan show to re-air the documentary And It Don't Stop.

A is sick, and I am editing so basically, we're all in bed watching it. Again.

If you've never seen it, what the hell is wrong with you?!!! it's fairly comprehensive, and it has great interviews with artists and with cultural historians like Nelson George, and Kelefa Sanneh, the music reviewer for the Times.

When I started scribbling this down, we were back in the midst of East Coast-West Coast and the murders of Tupac and Biggie. Because we're in our 30s, we remember vividly Tupac's murder, the days he languished in the hospital before succumbing to his injuries. I know, now, it must seem as relevant as my mother describing when Kennedy was assissinated, but it is a moment that is so present.

Now, the episode has moved on to the rise of regional rap with the Geto Boys, OutKast, etc.

Hearing the artists in their own words now and in the past is really powerful.

Watch it.

Cadence Weapon to World: "Stop Biting"

In Sharks, Cadence Weapon throws down the gauntlet and lives up to his name.

The track is minimal and bleep-y. His rhymes are clever and unhurried, spliting words from one bar to the next with surgical precision. The overall sound is underground and grimy.

Hailing from Edmonton, Cadence Weapon released this album back in 2005 and it got love and nominations in 2006. It is being released in the US on Epitaph March 13th and you need to buy it.

Cadence Weapon is performing at sxsw in a couple of weeks, so check him out.

You can stream it below and buy it in a couple of weeks.

New Hip Hop - Ohene

I listen to a ton of new hip hop. Finding a fresh new voice that I want to keep on loop is extremely rare.

That's Ohene, who I found on cdfuse.com. He was their top download, so I figured I would give him a listen.

Stupid Minded is my favorite track. The track opens with what sounds like an old soul vinyl record, complete with needle hiss and scratches. His flow reminds me a bit of Jay-Z (though I hate playing that game). His flow is playful dancing across the music. The track has a tinkly piano, a drum beat, and a horn section interspersed with the hissy soul sample.

cdfuse.com has two other free downloads available for 3rd Bar Invention and Hello Stranger.

Buy it on cdfuse.com or iTunes.

dead prez - March 1st at Emo's

I sent an email out to my friends today letting them know that dead prez, one of my favorite rap groups, would be playing in Austin next Thursday.

Surprisingly, I received this response from C, who typically shares my love of hip hop (and soul, funk, and jazz): "who's that?"

C, you disappoint me.

dead prez is only the most awesome hip hop group of the past 7 years.

Okay, maybe that's an overstatement, but not by much.

According to A, "they're black, they're angry, they're socially conscious."

Here, I wrote that:

dead prez is far from mainstream. Any music this angry and militant can never be mainstream. The group has gone to great lengths to maintain their separation from the cd-buying, iTunes downloading, LimeWire stealing white audiences that embrace most of hip hop. My favorite song is still Hip Hop and it's one of the only two ringtones I have ever had on my phone. (The other: Miles Davis, So What.)

We own two of their albums. I only realized we missed one when I checked their wikipedia.

You can buy Hip Hop on iTunes and their albums on Amazon.


Stream it here:

Covers - Acoustic Hip-Hop Covers

When singers cover hip-hop songs, it's usually a little intentionally goofy, like, hey look how cool I am. Which makes it extremely uncool.

The most notorious of these was Unholy Trio's cover of Bring the Noise. Someone sent it to me years ago, thinking I would like it. I've kept it because it annoys me so much.

Here are a few better ones:

Tali, 21 Questions (50 cent cover).

I hate 50 cent and the rest of the G-Unit. They are terrible rappers, their lyrics are awful, and I don't like their tracks. However, after catching this live performance of 21 Questions, I admit I kinda like the song . . . as long as it's being performed by Tali with piano accompanyment.

Buy the song on iTunes here.

Ben Folds, Bitches Ain't Shit (Dr. Dre cover).

I am not a big Ben Folds fans, but I do love the song "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You," which is like my personal theme song. This is straight-forward studio cover.

You can buy this song on iTunes here.

Willy Mason, The Message (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five cover).

Willy Mason is a 19 year old artist with a couple of albums out, but this song is my first exposure to him. His performance of the song gives, well, the message an immediacy and makes it very contemporary. It appears to have been recorded live on a radio show, but I think it's been misidentified as BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

Buy Willy Mason on iTunes here.

Hip Hop Goodness from Oh Word

Hip Hop blog Oh Word has been posting mp3s zip style all week in their "50 Incredible Rap Songs You Need To Hear . . . Right Now" series.

Today, they posted a complete 50 song zip, with a 20 song bonus.

Check out Oh Word and enjoy the tasty goodness.

Hearing a well-curated mix is the best way to find new music.

I still treasure the mix cd my friend DC sent me a few years ago hipping me to all the great NY stuff from the mid 90s that he felt had escaped my attention. He was right.

A last year made a mix cd for friends at Home Slice entitled A's History of Hip Hop, which started with "The Message" and took the listener on a sonic journey through time and place (east coast, west coast, dirty dirty, Texas, etc.).

Here are a few gems from A's mix:

Mp3: DJ DMD f. Lil' Keke & Fat Pat, 25 Lighters.
Buy it here on iTunes.

Mp3: Goodie Mob f. OutKast, Cell Therapy.
Buy it here on iTunes.

Mp3: The Pharcyde, Passin' Me By.
Buy it here on iTunes.

Mike Jones Mike Jones Mike Jones Mike Jones

Paper Thin Walls Bullhorn posted this headline this morning:

VIDEO: "Mr. Jones" is the long-awaited return of Mike Jones. Our comments board hopefully is not the long-dreaded return of insufferable indie-rock douches making fun of how often he says his name.

Rarely does anything in my reader make me laugh, but I could not help but remember sitting in the studio when he was recording in 2002(?) and how no one could go 15 minutes without saying "Mike Jones Mike Jones Mike Jones Mike Jones."

His stuff was catchy, but I never thought it would catch on nationally the way it did. I was later shocked when I heard the song on the radio and he rapped his real phone number.

Mike Jones Mike Jones Mike Jones Mike Jones, indeed.

(I was going to post a link to "Welcome to Texas" but it's not in my rebuilt library.)

HAWK - It's a Small World After All

HAWK was murdered in Houston last May.

That is still a terribly hard sentence to type.

HAWK was a giant in Houston. An original member of the Screwed Up Click, he was largely responsible for ensuring the continuation of the group after DJ Screw's death in 2000.

HAWK's murder devastated his friends and peers completely. When it happened, our friends went on the radio to try to cope with their grief and devastation, and frankly, they have not yet fully recovered.

Months later, I was with some Houston rappers watching music dvds. Between the videos, dogfights, and bumfights, etc., each artist, no matter who they were with, took time to express disbelief and grief.

Thanks to a google alert, I noticed that Polish blog strasznachoroba posted Cold in the Game today. (Originally posted on HoustonSoReal.)

So, they listen to HAWK in Poland?

Gym Class Heroes - Your New Favorite Hip Hop Group

I get turned on to a lot of music by my friend Sal Silva at cdfuse.com. (My only gift back to him was Beirut, but that's a fine gift.)

Some of it I will tell you about here; some of it I am going to keep close to my vest for now.

Sal and his business partner Erik run cdfuse.com, which is a distributor of independent music (through cds and iTunes) and merchandise. They run a great business and they have great taste in music.

Sal had suggested I check out some samples of a new Austin band in which he was interested. As usual, it's a great freaking band no one is talking about. Yet.

Then I just started trolling around the site and I found Gym Class Heroes. Wow, what a great group.

I like all of their songs, which I have been listening to for the past few weeks. Apparently, I am not alone since they are currently the top download on cdfuse.

Get it. Now.

Link: Gym Class Heroes