MIXTAPE 126 – THE GOLDEN CARTRIDGE LEVEL 2

Okay, now I said this in the intro of the show itself, but just in case – you’re going to have to listen to part one, or this episode is going to make absolutely no sense.

This is a continuation of Level 1 in the Gold Cartridge saga. As you’ll remember, our hero managed to scrape through Level 1 with two lives left – will he make it to the end of this world? How long is this game, anyway? What’s with the weird Department of Defense references? And is it just me or is the amount of video game themed tracks increasing exponentially recently?

Some of these answers and more – all in today’s episode.

Random – Intro (Epilogue). While this record is sort of hit-and-miss for me, anyone with the nerve to put together an entire concept album on Mega Man earns respect from me. m/random215.

Random – Robot City feat YTCracker [short edit]. I actually got put up on YTC by someone who listened to the original Nintendo Mixtape forever ago, and I can’t lie, he’s not bad. There is an entire genre of this ‘nerdrap’ stuff, and most of it is unfortunately pretty terrible – but YTC is both an originator in the field and actually has flows. Dig the upper middle class whining about ‘posers’ – classic.

Harmonic313 – From The D feat Guilty Simpson. Really, really old cut, but still goes hard. harmonic313.com.

Theme from Werewolf (NES)
Theme from when you turn into a bunny in the Dark World on Legend of Zelda 3 (SNES)

Clipse – Virginia (Team Teamwork Lost Woods Remix). This cut is seriously just too hard. Shouts to nxt for linking me on this. Concept, execution – brilliant. teamteamwork.bandcamp.com.

D-Lo – Coppers feat Sleepy. Okay, so first this beat just really slaps hard. Things are fine left at that, but add on top of that the fact that this is a sample of the first three seconds of Metroid. Oddly enough, a Japanese rapper, Big J.O.E. used this same sample earlier, but this song totally sons that one, no question. Metroid, though. Did anyone ever even beat that game? m/mrnohoe

Airborn Audio – Now I Lay Me Down. Probably better known as two thirds (H. Prizm and M Sayid) of Antipop Consortium. They only put out one record, and I think it really went over people’s heads, which is unfortunate because this really was sort of a dope album. Note the potential ambiguous Final Fantasy loop – which is probably actually just wishful thinking on my part. m/airbornaudio.

People Under The Stairs – Gamin’ On Ya. This song is totally ridiculous – first, the samples they’re running predate anything else on here by at least five years – and then there’s got to be at least one game reference in every single bar, many of which I’ve never even played. That Karnov reference is ridiculous. m/peopleunderthestairs

Ghostface – Computer Love Remix. This cut is really old, you’ve probably all heard it, and there’s really not much to say here except that I know you’re glad I put it in anyway.

Animal Style – Living Distance. Shouts to Aaron for the heads up on this one. m/animalstyle.

…and that’s what it is this time around. holler at a scholar.

MIXTAPE 120 – THE BREAKUP JOINT

See, a promise is a promise.

Anyway, this week, as the title suggests, is the breakup joint. Partially based on real life, partially based on the bizarre phenomenon in which when you’re depressed, you want to listen to even more depressing music, and partially based on that urge to just get something off your chest. That said, let’s get into the:

introlude – Mos Def – Brown Sugar.

Ta’raach – Hey. You know, this is like that part where you’re all “man, forget her, I’m good.” You know that phase. Trackwise, I don’t know, I’ve just been meaning to get this one on forever. A lot of the stuff dude says in this track is just really mean-spirited, which makes me like it even more. myspace.com/taraach.

Super Chron Flight Brothers – Once We Were Kings. And then you start to think back. This record kinda reminds me of Airborn Audio. Weird, paranoid subject matter over weird, paranoid beats. Apparently they holed themselves up in a Yogyakarta hotel during the production process, and their weed/skurry noises type antics resulted in an unwritten ban on Black patrons at that establishment. Not sure how I’m supposed to feel about that. myspace.com/flightbrothers.

Malcolm Kipe – My Room Remix. Negativity. Really it was the instro that got me on this one. mk on lastfm.

RJD2 – June (Remix). Aaaand here comes the “why me why me” phase. After the first verse you think it’s just going to be a rant on the state of rap music, until the second one comes in. Just too heavy. myspace.com/rjd2

Jay Electronica – Girlfriend. You think about calling her… remember? That always used to work. Not much to say here. It’s Jay. myspace.com/jayelect

Albe Back – Without You (dex digi Bohemian Rhapsody Edit). No, she said don’t call. It’s already over. Give it up, famo, you’re just making yourself look bad. Don’t lose your cool. Seriously, three bars in I realized I’d heard this chord progression before. You can hate me for doing this, but really my only motivation was that I couldn’t stand the original hook. myspace.com/albemusic.

Jay-Z vs Coldplay – What If We Cry? prod Remot. Which gives you more time to think. And now you can finally be a little more honest with yourself. Trying to “keep your cool” was what got you here in the first place. I don’t own any Coldplay albums, but I hear from very reliable sources that lots of white people like them. This cut is even more depressing this time around. myspace.com/remotmusic.

People Under The Stairs – More Than You Know. Congratulations, you’re now officially “in touch with your emotions”. What, you want a medal or something fam? I keep forgetting how dope this group is. myspace.com/peopleunderthestairs.

O.D.B - No More (Wasted Time). But hey, at least you can respect yourself a little more now, right? Right? At least, that’s what this cut seems to be called. I know, it’s really lo-fi, but this is the only version I’m aware of. A cry for help, man, just too late.

DJ Lt Dan and Jay Z – Interlude b/w Living Proof. … I don’t know, this just seemed to fit.

And that’s what it is for this week. Bonus points for anyone who can identify the original image I bootlegged to make this week’s episode cover.

MIXTAPE SHOW 39 – Thes One Interview

Happy goddamn memorial day. Maybe this year they’ll remember to stop sending motherfuckers to go die in the desert.

This week, as promised back in episode #37 (seriously, go check that one or you’re missing out), I’ve got an exclusive (exclusive!!!) interview with Thes One of People Under The Stairs. Basically the interview speaks for itself, but you can expect to hear Thes breaking it down on the new album, his approach to beatmaking on Stepfather, how ridiculous all them punk-ass kids running round calling themselves CEOs and A&Rs really are, and what he thinks about bootlegging.

If you’re one of those people that tried to download the new PUTS joint online in April and instead got a recording of Thes reading the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, you might want to listen to this to see why you got that.

And as a special bonus, I threw in a bunch of questions posed to Thes by members of the PUTS Online forum.

As usual, these joints aren’t possible without the support of probably five extra people, so shouts and thanks go to Thes One himself and Paul of Basement Records for helping coordinate schedules and shit. Thanks as well to the community at putsonline.co.uk.

All beats in this show are off of the new Stepfather album, so if you like what you hear, you can go cop the record maybe – which, incidentally, if you’re planning on throwing or attending any kind of outdoor kickback this summer, you can’t really afford to be without. Instant summer pool party soundtrack.

More info available at putsonline.co.uk, and also basementhiphop.com.

MIXTAPE EPISODE 37

I don’t think I need to say much about this episode. Happy mothers day to all of you, 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.