Tag Archives: blu

MIXTAPE 132 – CASSETTE JAWNS

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MIXTAPE 132 – CASSETTE JAWNS

So yeah, gonorrhea I’m not dead. As I mentioned in the intro, this is a quick throwback to how a lot of us used to make mixtapes, complete with pause edits, bits of the song bleeding through five seconds early because of the source tape deteriorating, radio static, questionable sound quality, and so on.

Oh yeah, and this episode is composed entirely of tapes I found in a bargain bin at a Wherehouse when they went out of business in like 2003, and never listened to until last month. A lot of these groups/acts aren’t really around anymore, hence the lack of links.

Shoutout to anyone still actually listening to the show.

Tracklist

instrolude: Norse Horse – Hidden Place. Beatflip by me, whatever.

Busta Rhymes + Phife – Freestyles. 1996, off of DJ Cash Money Presents WKIS: Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. This isn’t exactly Busta Rhymes’ most skillful performance ever, but he gets points for managing to somehow screw up the most famous line of the most famous opera ever. Also for referencing Zack the Lego Maniac. Then Phife comes on and starts talking about Shaq being on the Orlando Magic, and starts seriously hating on MC Hammer, which is pretty hilarious in 2010. Then again I can sort of understand, because I seem to remember him showing up in a music video in a zebra print speedo on some total seriousness.

Also, yes, I cut out Q-tip’s freestyle, because it was boring. Also the Roots, because it was boring, and Bahamadia’s, because it was boring, and Biz Markie, because I just couldn’t fit it. It’s pretty hilarious, though – worth hearing.

Dana Barros – Check It. Yes, Dana Barros the basketball player. This comes from the infamous 1994 compilation B-Ball’s Best Kept Secret, which also brought us Shaq’s awful ‘Mic Check 1-2′, which was basically Ill All Skratch interrupting Shaq’s rhymes in mid-verse in an attempt to save him from embarrassing himself. Seriously, though, why is Barros’ song so good? He’s got a sort of scary amount of skill on the mic considering this is just a sidebar for him, and looking through the liners, dude actually wrote his own lyrics. Listening to his shoutouts, he also has pretty good taste in music. I don’t know anything about the guy basketballwise, but man, he probably could have had a decent underground career if he felt like it.

Critical Madnez – Sumthin’ Sumthin’. The compilation – or at least I think it’s a compilation – this came off is sort of weird. It’s got 4 tracks from 4 artists, and none of the selections are very good, except this one. Of course, the sample probably helps, but I genuinely dig this one.

Brotha Lynch Hung – West Coast Parlae feat D. Dubb. You know, I never really listened to Brotha Lynch Hung, but this is pretty great. The cover to this compilation, however, is seriously laughably terrible, and the inset picture is some dude in a hospital gown or something. Of all of the tapes I raided for this episode, however, this was probably the most consistently listenable.

Blu – Hide & Go Get It feat E-40. Note that this isn’t the Blu from LA. But okay seriously E-40 totally ruins this song so hard that he actually makes it better. I found this on a caseless compilation called “Whoop Ass”. Seriously, though, the R&B part makes zero sense, and the E-40 part makes negative sense.

B-Boy K – Funkin’ Up The Scene. 1994 Bay Area slaps, from a record label that was apparently right down the way from where my moms grew up. The rest of the tape itself isn’t that great, but this one just slaps way too hard. It’s mainly comprised of various Parliament/George Clinton samples, which is always good – and the rhyming just goes hard.

Ghetto Twinz – Sho No Luv. 1995. The only real bounce tune on this album, and easily my favorite. It’s sort of weird though – I’m pretty sure that these two can sing, but the singing they do on the hook is pretty bad. This is also the most brutal song in this episode.

That’s it for this time – hollerrr

MIXTAPE 118 – CHANGE OF DIRECTION

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MIXTAPE 118 – CHANGE OF DIRECTION

note: if you accidentally got ep 11 instead of 118 in your iTunes, hospital my bad. Things are fixed now. Try hitting the “update” button in your iTunes or podcast client. Sorry about that.
注意：間違って１１８回の代わりに１１回をもらった購読者がいらっしゃったそうなんですが、まことに申し訳ないです。 iTunes又は常用のポッドキャストアプリで「更新」のボタンを押せば直ります。

So I’ve been recently getting a little jealous of the popularity of the Soultronica Series on my own site. I’m not really sure how they do it, discount but somehow Digi (the 2109 version) and Brotherton manage to consistently make tapes that rival, or maybe exceed, my stuff. Even though it’s been over a year since there’s been a proper update to the Saga, I still get mail about it.

I mean, they’re 100 years in the future so I guess it makes sense that they’re more advanced than me, but still. So I figured I’d try my hand at something different, but still kept it 2009 with it. Hope you dig.

通常はラップばかりのMixtape Showなんだけど、今週は敢えて新しい方向へチャレンジしたいと思ってソウル・R＆B系へと向かった。イントロではあまり話さないけど、まあ、僕の声が聴きたくてこのサイトに来てくれたわけでもないだろう。

Tracklist

introlude: Ratatat - Nostrand

The Foreign Exchange - Daykeeper feat Muhsinah. Not really the way that I normally start things out, but I dig this one. Shouts to Aimee, by the way.

本当ならこんな風に回を始めないけど、こんな曲が好き。Aimeeに感謝。 myspace.com/theforeignexchange.

Dwele – Untitled. At least, it didn’t have a title when I got it from Sweeney Kovar like a year ago.

ドゥエレ（だと思われる歌手）からの無題の曲。まあ、Sweeney Kovarからもらったとき、タイトルはなかったけど。myspace.com/dwele.

J*Davey -You Are. This one probably has a proper title by now, but this was the track name when I got it Got a title. Thanks Niels.
今となってはこの曲はきっとちゃんとしたタイトルを持ってるけど、もらったときは単に「untitled 2」だった。　やっぱちゃんとしたタイトルはあったよね。 ありたとう、Niels.myspace.com/jdaveybaby.

Full Crate - She Was Fly feat Mar. Space out, man. The video for this is sort of cool, sort of scary.

なんか超現象的。　この曲のPVはカッコイイつーか、怖いつーか。myspace.com/fullcrate.

Dwele – Workin’ On It. This hits like 4 classics in the space of about a minute and a half.

やばい。　１分半のあいだに４曲のディラーによる古典にも触れる。

Innosphere – Gotta Be Me. Brand new group formed by Mixtape Show alumni Kenny Keys and a new name (to me), Nina Rae. Sort of raw on the mastering process, but I dig this one. I was actually about to put an old Z’hane remix Kenny had sent me on this, but I got this and changed my mind. Looks like they have a site up here.

かつてこのMixtape Showにも素晴らしいビート力を見せてくれたケニー・キーズと（僕の中で）新人のニナ・レーからなる新しいウイニット、インノスフィーア。　録音物としてはちょっと生っぽいけど、好き。　実はケニー・キーズによるZhaneのリミックスを入れようと思ってたけど、この曲をもらって気が変わった。　

Jimmie Reign – 3 The Game. See, if I wouldn’t have pulled this out, I could have almost passed this off as something Brothertron put together. Couldn’t help it though. Also, everybody take this opportunity to make sure that you’re being real with your significant others people in general.
これさえ流さなければ、これをブラザートロンが作ったミックスとして掴ますこともできただろう。　あと、いまのうちに、みんな、彼氏とか彼女とかに、自分に素直でいれてるか確認しよう。
myspace.com/jimmiereign1.

L.A.U.S.D. - iFeel feat Curly Tops and Nautica Jackets. Okay seriously these two need to stop with extra names. Generally the acceptable limit is 6ish official names plus 37 throwaways used in rap lyrics only ala Wu-Tang, but these two are about to get their alias privileges revoked just off the ridiculousity of their first picks. I’m not sure which is which, but Jack of J*Davey and Blu are both on here. Also L.A.U.S.D. as in the producers, not as in the system that screwed up countless friends (shout outs to the San Bernardino system too though). The more I listen to this the more I like it. Even though it’s sort of corny.
普段、原則として、（ウータンクランのように）正式な別芸名は６つで、歌詞だけに使われるもの。使い捨て用のあだ名は37までは許容範囲だけど、これはやりすぎだ。それはさておき、この曲は聞く程好きになる。ちょっと甘いといえば甘いけど。
myspace.com/curlytopsandnauticajackets.

Suhburb - Gone Away feat Aniyia.
I’m running out of things to say about this guy. If you don’t get it, maybe you just don’t get it. わかる？

この番組を熱心に聴いてくれてる方の馴染みのサバーブ。いつもながらとんでもない作曲ぶりをみせてくれる。こいつやっぱすごいね。ところで、まだ元ネタがわかならないのなら、T.I.のWhat You Know About Thatを聴いてからこれを聴き直してね。myspace.com/suhburb.

So that’s what it is. And yeah, no outro on this one, but after the last couple joints, I’m sure nobody’s exactly complaining.

Holler.

MIXTAPE 116 – PRIORITIES

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MIXTAPE 116 – PRIORITIES

Tracklist

Happy new year, view happy new president, diagnosis 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, malady 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.

MIXTAPE 113 – SKEETER WAS BLACK

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MIXTAPE 113 – SKEETER WAS BLACK

I was originally going to talk about something else here, illness but all of a sudden I like felt the holy ghost or something and was inspired to talk about this. Seriously everyone, contagion this is an important issue that I feel strongly about. I’ve actually had serious conversations about this.

Tracklist

Intro: Copywrite – Fuck A Soundcheck (prod RJD2)

Busta Rhymes – Packin Them Things (prod Kev Brown). This is just sort of a given. And even Busta Rhymes voted for Obama. You know where to find Busta, so go check out myspace.com/kevbrown.

Blu and Mainframe – Hold On John. Off of the Johnson and Jonson record, which you’ve been hearing bits of for the last couple years or so. Apparently the joint is actually out now, and it’s highly recommended. I don’t think there’s a single cut on this record that I don’t like. I’ve said enough about this record before, so I’ll leave it at that. Shouts to Steve for this one. myspace.com/jandjbabyproducts.

I mean, think about it. The only dude who seemed to be able to dance. He could beatbox. He wore rappidy-rap style clothing – well, comparatively. Oddly enough, I never felt like this was stereotyping – I just naturally internalized that Skeeter was Black. I seriously can’t wrap my head around the fact that some people don’t get it. To my white friends – I like you all a lot, but sometimes you miss things. Very important things. Like which cartoon characters are which race.

Stanza – Do. As heard previously on your favorite rap podcast, this is another selection off of Name This Album. The lyricism is sort of bizarrely great (trying to imagine the hand contortions in the beginning is alternately funny and amazing) and as with the rest of the cuts on here, there’s actually a message in here. And as I mentioned in the outro, Stanza has inexplicably put this entire record up online for free download – inexplicably because it’s easily worth the money. The record is dope. Go get it here, and check out the rest of the site at mqrt.com.

MF Doom – Rapp Snitch Knishes feat Mr Fantastic. Does anyone actually know anything about Mr Fantastic? I mean, I could google the dude, I guess, but after listening to this, I’m realizing that I haven’t heard much of anything from the dude.myspace.com/mfdoom.

This of course, is all based on when the show was on Nickelodeon. I quit watching when Disney took over. Actually I think at that point in my life I was a little busy to be watching cartoons (okay, it was just on at an inconvenient time. I definitely used run late for school because I wanted to catch the end of Pokemon).

Q-Tip – Gettin’ Up. On the Dilla rework – you might have heard this one, but for those who haven’t – dope. This really is a proper rework. myspace.com/qtip.

Marlena Shaw – California Soul (Diplo remix). For real, when I read the track title before actually listening to it, I was both excited and worried to hear what sort of destruction Diplo would wreak on this classic – but it’s oddly restrained. It’s good. myspace.com/officialmarlenashaw.

Outro: Qwel and Kip Killagain – Heliocentric (Instrumental). I actually like Qwel.

So, really. Doug was clearly white, Skeeter was obviously Black. The logic doesn’t really run across color lines, however – I mean, what about Bee Bee? She’s blue too, but I never got “Black vibes” from her, if that’s an appropriate word. And reversewise, come to think of it, Patti was sort of ambiguous – mixed ancestry, perhaps? She was sort of dark. Connie was Asian. I’m fairly confident about that one.

Am I overthinking this? Any other theories are welcome.

Oh yeah, and thoughts on the music. You know.