MIXTAPE 116 – PRIORITIES
Posted: February 16th, 2009 | Author: dex digital | Filed under: episodes | Tags: bambu, blu, co$$, dilla, episodes, flying lotus, illa j, kev brown, little brother, oddisee, pax and pry, phonte, primeridian, pugz atoms, rashid hadee, royce the 59, tor cesay | 20 Comments »;openPlay(119);)
Happy new year, happy new president, hope you bought yourself a new hoodie instead of blowing it on chocolates for some dude/female who aint appreciate you anyway. Been a minute.
For those of you who have been curled up in a ball in your room, in the dark, whispering silently to yourself “man, I wish dex would hurry up and talk about something he has no business even opening his mouth about for over 12 minutes in an outro”, this is your episode. For those of you who haven’t, it’s all good because you can just loop the tracks instead.
Priorities – we all have them.
Tracklist
Intro – Kev Brown - Keep On Instrumental. myspace.com/kevbrown
Co$$ - Angelic feat Blu. Both of these dudes are dope. I can’t support the Power Rangers reference (never liked them dude(ette)s from the start, Ninja Turtles reigns supreme son), but Blu’s “we in the field tryna kill demons” for some reason makes me want to go play Final Fantasy or something.myspace.com/paidthecoss
Bambu - Crooks and Rooks. From LA to..uh, LA. Really, relistening to this track again, probably all of that nonsense at the end shoulda just been left to a close ear bent at this joint. I know I’m a little late on this, but this joint, along with the video, is some of the best rap music I have heard in a minute, period. myspace.com/bambumusic
Primeridian - Money feat Rashid Hadee and Pugz Atoms. True story – I found this cut, unlabeled, in my iTunes the other day, and dug it. I sent an email to Suhburb to double check that this was okay to blast on the show, and got a “uh, I didn’t write that song, fam” mail back. Lol wut? So I dug through my gmail box and it turns out it’s a Primeridian cut. Make no mistake, being mistaken for a Suhburb production is a good thing (come on, the drum work – doesn’t this sound like 06 era Suhburbia?), but seriously people gotta start tagging their mp3s – this “final mixdown 080707.mp3″ business is getting old.www.myspace.com/primeridian
oh yeah, thanks to mamiko for this ep’s design.
Tor Cesay – The Perch feat Flying Lotus, Phonte, and Oddisee. I got this sampler from (I think) Giant Step and it was sort of great. I really wanted to put some of the more grimy tracks up, but I ended up going with this one. Anyone out there more up on this person, the proper pronunciation of her name? myspace.com/toruk
Royce - Shake This. I’m too tired to remember the original sample on this cut (help?), but I’m actually kinda into with it. The balance and intensity is pretty impressive. I like how the first verse is squeaky clean and then all of a sudden Royce flies into a flurry of curse words near the end of the second verse, and then it’s really all over. Also how his statement regarding his status with Primo is actually affirmed an appropriate sound effect. Seriously guys, Primo-style radio edits are so much better than album cuts.
Pax and Pry – Another group whose name I’m not quite sure how to pronounce. I forget who put me up on this group (they’re from NL, so maybe Ouxu? was this your doing?), but right now I am very thankful for their advice because they are sort of good. And, for anyone wondering how they might implement, sans bandcamp or any other outside party, some of the pushy “advice” given in this previous post aimed at independent rappidy rappers, their site is a good example. paxandpry.com
Outro Instrumental – King Most Yancey Boys Megamix (sliced, looped, etc).
Eskibeat Public Service Announcement – as you probably noticed, that was a cover of the old Wiley “Eskimo” beat as produced by yours truly with a few minutes of spare time and a Nintendo DS. I’m totally serious, I expect to see a hit track pop up from over there produced on a DS. Also sorry about the whole echo effect thing, somebody told me UK people liked that sort of stuff so I was just trying to do some outreach.
Actually, if anyone wants the raw version of that track I can post it up.
And that’s what it is. While I’m not really confident that I expressed myself properly (or concisely) in the outro, I am serious about being worried that people that just randomly support any minority (choose your own definition for that word) artist, just for the sake of “supporting” them, are taking away from and cheapening the efforts those artists within that same group that really are dope and truly do deserve respect for putting out good music.
So yeah, does anyone have any thoughts on that? I’m sort of interested in hearing what people think about this.
juss fell on dis my love!
keeip it oaan
shit i’m second!
anyway.. you’re back!!
thanks for dropping another gem.
btw – you got bambu’s myspace link wrong. it’s:
http://www.myspace.com/bambumusic
he’s been putting out some good music for a minute now.
werd – good looking out!
oux – i like how you always comment before you’ve actually even pushed the play button. Let’s see if I can stay quote unquote “back” this time…
mirateck – just when I was like “oh wait I need to hit dude back to thank him for hitting me with that track”, you’re already on it.
fixed the link. That’s what I get for trying to shortcut copypaste on some library computer. And yeah, Bambu is definitely doing his thing.
Good show man, You made your point at teh end and I (mostly) agree. Couldn’t quite tell if you were taking the piss with the 1xtra/grime thing but whatever. Cheers for the tunes.
TigerMendoza – Thanks, fam. And “mostly”? Feel free to elaborate (in Japan they what I’m doing here “selling a fight”) – I’m by no means set in some particular opinion, I just randomly felt like I wanted to express a concern I had. And really, looking back at it, I think this is sort of just an extension of episode 79, and a lot of the mail I got about quote unquote underground vs mainstream.
and on the 1xtra/grime thing, I was only partially kidding. I believe that it is totally possible that some kid could get his hands on a DS, have a moment of inspiration, and crank out some absolutely mad tune and then it’s just game over. And I would fully and wholeheartedly support that. Regardless of what anyone wants to say about the Gutenberg effect, I definitely look on the positive side of the possibilities there.
maine i havnt been on here ina hot minute xD srry bout that ive still been tunning in last episode i herd was the school one the one after skeeter is black (btw i was bangin the skeeter was black mixtape during black friday before i started fighting over a hdtv wich i got!)
how yah been mr digital ima bang this episode after i cath myself up just wanted to show love and say IM GLAD U HAVNT CHANGED and plz dont cut your hair >.>
Good music, good points made, good episode.
Glad you’re back Dex!
thas how i roll
Dex – To be honest I don’t know why mostly, it just fits. If there was a situation with where, hypothetically, there were 2 tracks which were both exactly as good as each other, you might give the boost to the underdog ya know? But yeah giving somebody a publicity for a bad track just BECAUSE they’re the underdog is stupid.
No worries about the DS thing man, I’m telling you MTV music generator got A LOT of people in to production (anyone say Dizee Rascal?). That there is Hip Hop with a punk spirit to use what’s at hand to make music. Glad to have you back – keep the tunes coming.
Austin – haha, HDTV fam? I’m over here working with this shadowed out TV I found in a parking lot…get caught up!
Erasumus – Thank you fam.
Oux – wheres that email you promised me?
TigerMendoza – Agreed – in an imaginary 2-tracks-equally-dope situation, I’d give the underdog the win and put that out there. And not only does pulling punches just for the sake of “adding diversity” not work right, but it gives already closed-minded people more fuel to say “wow, yeah, white/black/mexican/gay/mormon kids really can’t rap/make beats/do backflips.” And I am definitely all about getting the word out that black mormon kids can do backflips just like anyone else can, and I’m not about to let some punk that keeps landing on his head screw it up for the whole black mormon population.
Good to be quote unquote back. Hopefully I can get these next few episodes I have waiting in the wings out soon.
Which reminds me, I am currently accepting beats…
[...] Designed the episode cover for Dex’s Mixtape Show Episode #116 – Priorities. [...]
Pay Attention!! Glad your back Dex maaan I was fiendin’ for some new jams homeboy.
I wanna talk about your outro tho, it was long, it was worth it, and that’s why I dig your show (as I’ve said before). You educate! E-D-U-C-A-T-E. Now there’s this stigma in society that say certain people don’t do certain things because:
A. They don’t understand it
B. It’s not marketable to their people
C. It’s not normal or “hip” to be involved in it
I think it boils down to a sort of cultural myth that surrounds our world subconsciously.
Because I’m black I shouldn’t like Sci-fi movies, or read Tolstoy, or like sushi. It’s ridiculous! But, it’s funny people willfully succumb to this ignorance. I’m a comic book artist and my comics aren’t all African American themed. I don’t want to be stifled to one theme, I use all sorts of themes, people, and places to make my stories. Along with my music too. You have to be well rounded in this world or you’re cheating yourself. I don’t want to be judged by my works as an artist not by my race.
Secondly, lol to that gameboy beat, you can also get one of those old casio keyboards off ebay for cheap too. You’re crazy Dex.
Big ups to Mamiko I dig the cover!
And lastly whats up with the Co$$ track, why he say the Beatles robbed my people?
Can’t wait till da next ep
Seriously massive!! Where you find ya beats man, we need you in Australia!
hang’n out till the next one, keep work’n ya magic
P
The first and third tracks are amazing. That ambient production style is too good. How recent is this stuff and where can I see them live?
Downloaded that Co$$ & put “On Da Stro (Esemdee)” on rotation. It’d be nice if there was an extended version though.
Brer – yeah man, I can’t really say that I have a set in stone opinion about this (see above), but it has been something that has bugged me in the past and has been bothering me recently. So I figured I’d at least bring it up and take sort of a devils advocate approach, and if someone vehemently disagreed with me, I’d at least have a chance of getting a better handle on the issue from another angle.
Old school Casios are cool, but you can’t take one on the train! I’m still sticking with the DS.
And I think the Beatles comment was probably in a similar vein to the whole Elvis basically swagger jacking where Black music was at the time and presenting it to an audience that (the media people felt) wasn’t interested/ready for a Black performer. The royalties instead of reparations is sort of an interesting idea.
P and thanks to the magic of the Internet, I am in Australia! Ha. But yeah, as far as where I get my stuff, I’m lucky enough to have a bunch of people keeping me up to date and/or hitting me with their own projects.
SCJ18 – both those acts are still doing their thing, and both those tracks came out within the last couple months or so. Check their myspaces for touring info – I can personally vouch for Blu being dope live.
vince78 – been a minute, fam. And yeah, a lot of these dudes are putting out really short tracks – but in a way I sort of prefer that a lot of times.
It’s been a long wait.. thanx for dropping another gem.
Yeah, I was out on vacation. Took a trip to Camp Cupcake.
Yo, more props from down under! I Really dig the show man coz it’s hard to find dedicated (and educated) hip hop down here sometimes. I think P must have been on that vibe too.
And your comments about musical/artistic integrity being paramount at the end was great food for thought, and i totally agree. It’s a bit of a scourge of the local scene in Aus. Radio and people in general over-rep alot of wack artists just because they’re aussie hip hop and not acutally just straight up dope hip hop.
Im not a hater, but i believe in quality control.
The GS and not the BS