MIXTAPE EPISODE 37

I don’t think I need to say much about this episode. Happy mothers day to all of you, ask and hopefully at least one or two of you out there become mothers while listening to this episode.
Intro beat – Hold It Sucka by Alf-Alpha. Hot joint. Be on the lookout for more of his material on the upcoming beattape episode. You can hear the full version of this beat on his myspace.People Under The Stairs – Pass the 40. Off their new album, Stepfather. I slept on this record when it came in for a good week and a half, until the dude John told me to actually listen to it. The whole album is full of good tracks (add this to your pool party soundtrack, trust me), but in the end I just had to go with this one, if for no other reason than because there’s a sample of a kid asking to get a swig of the Mickey’s. Check them out at putsonline.co.uk.

PUTS fans take notice – we’ll be having an exclusive (exclusive! newshit newshit newshit) interview with Thes One of People Under the Stairs next week. Any questions you want asked, feel free to get at me with them in the comments section.

Click “more” to see the rest of this week’s playlist and show info.

Eulorhythmics – Blam. I didn’t know a whole lot about dudes previously, but Jennifer got at me with a couple joints off of their new album, Extended Play, and shit was hot. I’ve only heard maybe one or two of their other joints, but they were dope too – you should pick up the album maybe? Oh, I’d also like to take this opportunity to apologize for the Eurhythmics joke I made on the show. Sorry guys. You can check them out at allnaturalhiphop.com, along with their weird rambling bios that make it fairly clear that someone was smoking that all natural when they wrote them. Jokes aside though, hot shit. Listen.

Modill

- Next Single featuring Diverse. Diverse shouldn’t be a new name to you, but then again, if you’ve been paying attention to the show, neither should Modill. Again, this is another case of trying to pick out the best song on the album, which is sort of impossible here, so I just went with the one I’ve been listening to the most recently. Favorite part on this track – Diverse’s jump-in. K-kruz makes some motherfucking slick tracks, and Racecar is on that weird space shit for most of the album. Here, try this. Buy Midnight Green, listen to the first track. If you don’t like the first beat, you’re broken. modill.com.

Coppershot – Can You Believe. Here’s that project that Chester Copperpot and MC Longshot (coppershot! get it? lololokthxbai) have been talking about since like August. Chess (who, by the way, you all owe a lot of gratitude to seeing as how he gives your boy the hookup on all the EV Productions artists) sent me this record like three times because the shit kept getting lost in the mail or something. Speaking on the track, though, Longshot wasn’t lying when he said that Chess has gone on some next level shit for this record, and Shot himself – well, you already know what to expect from the kid. The record is called Issues, and (again), the whole album is solid. Cop up. evproductions.net.
Oh yes, I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank both K-Kruz and Longshot for forgetting to add your boy to the guestlist for that show at the Knitting Factory. I’m just fucking around, kids. No hard feelings.

Because, you know, money grows on trees for me and shit.

Tommy Danger – It’s A Rap. I have to say that my favorite Tom Danger material is shit like this, where he comes with that laid back, casual/humorous shit, cause he really does kinda have that R&B voice and that goes best with the sort of beat he’s got here. The beat, the flow, the whole vibe on this joint just goes. His Luther Vandross reference on this might be the best quote from this whole episode. Shit is bananas, which is funny, considering that this is off the Cherry Flavor mixtape (but I think he might have a Banana flavor one too). More info available on tommydanger.net – and if you’re in Harlem, catch his TV show. tommydanger.net.

Ghostface and MF Doom - Angeles. I’m going to be real with you. I have damn near zero idea what is going on in this song. I mean, I understand certain bits and pieces of it, but the whole thing is like watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon without subs after taking a half semester of Chinese – people walk in and they say hello and bow to each other and drink tea, then a bunch of gibberish and scribbles written on signs, and then all of a sudden people are flying around and kicking each other and doing flips and hitting each other in the face with baby crocodiles and shit and you just give up and enjoy the show because you don’t know what’s happening, but you still like it. Listening to this song is sort of like that, except, you know, without the Chinese people.

Like I said, though, it’s a good song. It’s off of Nature Sounds, which features a bunch of other somewhat unlikely but still dope pairings of rappers. Shouts to Dennis for making this one happen. More info on nature-sounds.net.

Suburb – Actually, I don’t know what this beat is called. And wrapping it up with the outro beat, we’ve got my man Suburb. If you haven’t heard of this kid, you pretty much need to start paying attention now because he kind of sons about 88% of producers out there. Then again, that’s just my opinion. Then again, we’ve got a special word for dex’s opinion here on the mixtape show, and that word is called “fact”. All of you wack-beat-having rappers that keep sending me demos, please do yourself and me a favor and get a Suburb beat and rap over that instead. I her he’s selling. Check him out on loudminoritymusic.com, and be on the lookout for his material popping up on the all-but-legendary and forthcoming beattape episode very soon.
Okay, I think that’s it for today’s episode of the mixtape show, the hottest motherfucking rap / hip-hop podcast on the internets, and if it isn’t, that’s too fucking bad, because I have to go do my radio show now. See you next week, and feel free to drop comments and let me know what’s good.

Oh, and don’t forget the freestyle hotline – 310 928 6876.

MIXTAPE SHOW EPISODE 28 – Exile, buy Slum V, ed RIP DILLA.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the only mixtape show / hip-hop podcast worth fucking with. I’m dex digital.

The hip-hop community has suffered a tragic loss recently. This show is not a “dedication”, or a “tribute”, but I’d like to take a moment here and on the show to show appreciation and gratitude for a man that has done so much for us.

On with the show.

Exile f/ Slum Village – Time Has Come. It’s weird, because when I started putting tracks together for this week’s episode, I had already set this aside for the opening track. Exile is on the beats here (you’ve heard him here before), and lest anyone forget what Dilla was capable of on the other side of the glass…Jon, good looking out on the hookup with this one. Check out soundincolor.com for more on Exile.

Diverse - Jus Biz. Not new by any stretch, but I remember finding this joint on a plain b&w 12″ with nothing other than the title written on it, and thinking it was pretty smooth. Turns out that (according to the liner notes) not only is it Prefuse 73 on the beats, but also the background vocals. I think Diverse also showed up on Longshot’s Civil War Pt. 2 mixtape. Definitely check out the rest of the One A.M. full length – definitely worth your time. Respect to Gwen at Chocolate Industries for making this one happen. Check out chocolateindustries.com for more.

Rebel’s Advocate – Panic in the Streets. This one came to me on a CDR with a paper cover, which I’m pretty sure is the reason that it got stuck in my CD player the first time I listened to this track. The rhodes/wurli tones beat on this is definitely my flavor, as is the subject matter. They’ve got another dope joint on their mini EP called “Bite”, which is pretty much 5 minutes of just that – classic beats included. Maybe if you all ask nicely enough, it’ll show up on the show in the near future…rebelsadvocate.com for more.

Captain Cook – Shining Hour. For some reason I kept thinking this kid’s name was Captain Commando. Isn’t Captain Commando a nintendo game? Either that or Sky Commando, or something like that. Anyway, this is one of a few joints that Cook of the Beat Locker shot me via email. I’m not sure who the MCs are on this, but they ain’t bad, and you have to appreciate anyone who has the balls to work their email address into a verse. The bassline and programming on this joint is what really caught me from the drop though. Cook, who are these people? Good work. Check myspace.com/thecaptaincook for more beats.

What follows is not a Dilla tribute, because I’d need about 5 hours to cover the basics. But I thought these few joints were appropriate.

J Dilla - Yesterday beat flip. The classic Dilla formula – some obscure record and brilliantly understated manipulation of the samples. This is unreleased as far as I know, so that’s about all I have for you. If there is an official track name, feel free to comment me and let me know.

J Dilla – Airworks. This one comes off of Dilla’s last release, Donuts. If you haven’t already copped it, do so. It’s pretty much the beat tape to end all beat tapes. I think maybe the sample here is Luther, but I don’t spend all day digging in fucking record crates so I wouldn’t know. Anyone more enlightened than me, feel free to ID this one.

J Dilla – Donuts (Intro). The appropriately-named last track of Dilla‘s most recent blessing. Better writers than I have already conveyed their emotions regarding the passing of this man, so I’ll keep my comments brief.

I remember finding this record sitting on my desk the day I got the news. I sat down and listened to it the whole way through, and this last cut, especially the last 8 seconds or so, were pretty powerful to me. The track speaks for itself – just listen.

And if you haven’t already picked up a copy of Donuts, please go out and do so now. The man was a genius, and he had people to support. stonesthrow.com.

R.I.P. Dilla.

**

And for those of you who ain’t noticed, there is now an official mixtapeshow.net hotline. Just ring up (310)-928-MTSN (the letters stand for MixTapeShowdotNet, asshole) and do your thing. You never know what will happen. I might pick up, my baby mama might pick up, hell, knowing me, your baby mama might pick up, but don’t expect her to be in any condition to hold a coherent conversation.

More likely though, you’ll be able to leave a message. Feel free to drop shoutouts, tell me what you think of the show, tell me why you wish Cheney had been shot instead of vice versa, leave a freestyle, leave a drop, leave your thoughts, whatever. Whatever you want. The interesting/funny/dope messages will be played on the show, so if you’re doing freestyles, make them good.

That’s it for this episode. Catch y’all next week.