Straight from the bowels of my external hard drive dungeon comes this Graham Massey interpretation of Bjork's Army Of Me. Official OG pre-millenium banger status.
It's been a very long while since we've been blessed with an officially released Bilal album. 9 years to be specific. Bilal was dropped from Interscope in 2003 and In late 2006 it was rumored that Interscope might have had something to do with the leak of Love For Sale, which was inteded to be his sophomre release. Bilal stopped recording for a year or so after this but was inspired by the response the leaked album received and got inspired again. In 2008 he started recording Airtight's Revenge. This album is honestly on another planet. He has some of if not the best range I've heard from a male vocalist. Not to mention his gift for crafting compelex yet memorable melodies. Let's all hope he doesn't stay away so long between this time. Music needs him.
I was exposed to Hip Hop in the mid to late eighties, we're talking Run DMC, Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, Salt N' Peppa, Etc, etc, etc. As I grew older, I watched as it took different avenues and grew and morphed into sub genres. One of those was a instrumental form of the music we seem akin to talk at length about here on YYY. DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Le Gooster were some of the forefathers of this form of music. Gooster was then on Shadow records and being a designer, I remember being drawn to the beautiful cardboard packaging that was so unique even then. Mind you, this is when CD's were in full swing and jewel cases where contained in these weird cages. I recently burned a bunch of discs laying around the studio and this one track needs more ears on it. The vocal samples, the bassline, classic.
Here's a lil bio on Mr.Goo aka le Gooster aka Dj Goo aka ...
Born in Geneva, Switzerland, GOO is a polymorphous artist ( architect, graffitti artist, breaker, graphist, musician, dj-producer, D.A. and label CEO ). Since the early 1980's he has been one of the very first breakdancers and graffitti artists in Switzerland. When it comes to music, GOO has achieved mixing live instruments, turntables and electronic devices, combining several musical styles as Soul, Hiphop, Funk, Africa, jazz, Brazil, House, Brknbeats since 1988. This innovative form of musical expression has since gained critical and public acclaim.
I've been both overwhelmed and yet underwhelmed by my music library recently and turned to one of my favorite radio stations, KCRW for a summer refresh. An Acapella came on that struck me, unbelievably beautiful, contemporary, familiar. It was Bon Iver. The track is Woods and it still gives me chills listening to it. Mr. Vernon, if you're out there and somehow read this, thank you for contributing what I think is some of the best music this decade has seen ( or heard )
If you are unfamiliar with Justin Vernon ( AKA Bon Iver ) we wrote about him here ( cough, cough ) in 2007. His bio can be found on Wikipedia, and of course there's his site and that Myspace thing.
We've heard the debut Versis LP iLLCANDESCENT and it is nothing short of a classic. You may remember us posting about Versis here, here and here. Yes Yes we heard something in his music then and it is rewarding to hear Versis putting his talent to work again here. You can buy the digital version via his Bandcamp page with a physical release coming later.
1. Thesis 2. iLLCANDESCENT 3. The Journey (4U)
4. Life Story (Story of My Life) 5. Dig This! 6. Spittin' in the Wind
7. Love is Love 8. Slow Down 9. Rain Rain Rain
10. In Your Dreams 11. The Need 12. Life After You
13. Travelin' Bonus Track. Gotta Love It
This is actually a Curren$y track featuring Mos Def and Jay Electronica but I couldn't help but highlight another one of the hottest verses I've heard Jay Spit. I can't stop listening even though my head and neck hurt from nodding 'em so DAMN hard. I'm not one to hand out a large amount of praise especially to someone who hasn't even released a proper album yet but I'm going on record right now saying hip-hop has never seen a rapper like Jay period. With every consistent verse he drops he raises anticipation for the day his album makes it's way to us. I'll wait as long as it takes.
Curren$y has just released what I believe to be his best album to date titled Pilot Talk.
http://yesyesyall.org/files/music/09_The_Day_Feat_Mos_Def__Jay_Electronica.mp3
That’s right if you haven’t been to google yet today.. almost impossible in these times, you can play a few rounds with our old homie Pac and his patna dem’s and celebrate his 30th BDay. Enjoy some Slim Thug Pac Man beats while you play too!
Every time Mobb Deep comes on, no matter how long it has been since I last heard them. They always sound good to me. I miss the thugged out rap from the nineties. This brings it all back, a certified classic.
Cold hearted gangsta shit.