elmattic

Yeah, we all liked Cuban Linx 2 and Born Like This (even Time magazine and the New Yorker showed them love, for Christ’s sake). But there was a lot of other freshness this year you might have slept on.  There’s many styles in hip hop these days…lotta fingers but it’s all one fist.  So many, it’s maybe three or four fists.  Punching you!  Right in the fucking piehole!

Scott Rinse Receipt - Iller Than Theirs / Runnin’ Wild - Dead Prez & DJ Green Lantern / High Hater - Super Chron Flight Brothers / Supermagic - Mos Def / D-Up - Hail Mary Mallon (Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz) / Habitat of the Gasmask - La Coka Nostra (feat. Vinnie Paz) / When The Sun Goes Down - Stoupe (feat. Saigon) / Welcome To Chicago - Qwel & Maker / The Preacher - Brother Ali / Reach In - Khingz / Let’s Start (Messengers Remix) - J.Period & K’Naan / So & So - Jern Eye (feat. Guilty Simpson) / Outta Control - John Robinson (feat. DJ Rhettmatic) / Strictly the Bizness - Joell Ortiz / I Be Fresh - Project Pat / Pride and Glory - Black Tobacco / Luck vs Skill - Breez Evahflowin (feat. Swave Sevah & Ike P.) / Survival Skills - KRS-ONE & Buckshot (feat. DJ Revolution) / Train Tussle - U-God (feat. Ghostface & Scotty Wotty) / Say G&E! - The Grouch & Eligh / The Natural - Sadat X / Iron Tongue - Advanced Placement / Get Smokes - P.O.S. (feat. Jessey Greene) / Good Night - The Narcicyst

Best Albums Of The Year (De Gustibus, Bitch):

DJ Signify :: Of Cities

PSY/OPSogist :: Kings of Sleep [free]

Super Chron Flight Brothers :: Indonesia / Deleted Scenes [free]

dalek :: Gutter Tactics

Other people’s best-of lists: Passion of the Weiss, Cocaine Blunts, The Mechies, AllMusic, Philaflava, Jump the Turnstyle, Metal Lungies 1 & 2, Hold The Throne and The Message.  Check the diversity and how much you missed–I know I did, and I listened to about two hundred new albums this year. If hip hop is dead, we’re being overrun by zombies out there.

The size of these lists is kinda astounding…50 best songs of the year? You couldn’t pare it down a little, ese? 100 best albums of the decade? Pre-iPod/Rapidshare era, that’d set you back about fifteen hundred bucks. Also got me thinking, if you did this twenty years ago? The 25 best albums of the year would’ve been about…all of them. To paraphrase Matt Cook, it was pretty easy to make the greatest hip-hop album when there were only about fifty hip-hop albums.

Catch you across 2010th Street…

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DJ Spooky, a.k.a. That Subliminal Kid, has got his own iPhone app:

“JG Ballard once said ‘history is a stage that needs to be swept clean.’ I agree. When I first heard Grand Master Flash’s ‘Adventures on the Wheels of Steel’ from 1981, I was blown away. Afrika Bambaata’s ‘Death Mix’ was cool, but Flash took things in a whole different direction…Through the prism of my new album “The Secret Song” and the app on my cell phone, I just wanted to show how you can rock a party using material from your iTunes library and mix it with your record collection…Check it and enjoy - remember - it’s from a cell phone, and records mixed!!!

Talk about clearing the stage, eh!? With mobile media, there is NO stage, it’s basically about creativity, on the spot, anywhere, anytime… Check the frequencies!!! You can download the mix from HERE …And you can download the App from HERE

No word on whether the app also allows you to GPS-locate grad school girls who get wet down there when you mention Flash and JG Ballard in the same sentence.

The mix has some good shit on it; it’s a lot better than Spooky’s latest, The Secret Song, which is not-so-secretly ass.  Spooky’s problem increasingly is he’s all:

“it isnʼt really an album: itʼs a manifesto about the place of history in our modern collaged, scrambled, sampla-delic to the core, mega info overloaded digital culture. With references stretching from Thorstein Veblenʼs “Theory of the Leisure Class” and John Maynard Keynes classic in the field of economics “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money” over to hip hopʼs relationship to psychoanalysis and a la Edward Bernayʼs concept of the “manufacture of consent”…

…and he keeps going on and on, and on, and on.  People listen to music because it sounds good, not because you’ve got pomo game. Spooky: I got love for you, but when I’m checking your tracks, my man, I can’t hear the fucking footnotes.

Not to over dis.  Spooky’s made some great records, and he’s got two books out which look pretty interesting…though I’m always a sucker for academic hip hop tomes, even though they’re usually lame (Michael Eric Dyson, your three names can’t save you.)

Anyway, in 2010 I predict we’ll see additional hip-hop iPhone apps, like:

1. MF DOOM LYRIC GENERATOR: Randomly uses a wifi rhyming dictionary, Little Rascals dialogue, and key words like ‘meter maid’, ‘pancake,’ ‘catsup’, and ‘hoogly-moogly’ to create authentic-sounding Doom lyrics.  If it ain’t incomprehensible, it ain’t Doom!
2. WU-PHONE: Only Built 4 3GS…the first smartphone designed by the Wu-Tang Clan. Features Weed Carrier Locator app, iPinky Ring, VirtualDirtyBastard, Raekwon the Chef restaurant locator, and MicrosoftGZA for Wu-Phone.  Fully compatible with Bobby Digital.
3. iBEEF: Tracks the latest meaningless rapper beefs from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace feeds.  Get alerts on who’s calling who a crying little bitch, instantly!
4. SCARPHACE: Did you know that there’s 6.7 seconds of Scarface dialogue that hasn’t been sampled yet? Find it and drop it into your latest track! (Pacino 2.1 or higher required)
5. TWIGGA: This is what Busta Rhymes calls his Twitter followers.  Seriously.

Ten years in the waiting, The Seventh Seal has dropped…

…and goddamn, that is one bad record.  Really awful.  I guess every single top-shelf producer and same-weight-class-MC was in Barbados or Minnetonka that week, so he had to settle for a bunch of cats he found at the bus station or some shit.  It’s like Marlon Brando making his big return to acting by guest starring on Everybody Loves Raymond.

So instead, just get yourself ‘Holy Are You’, cool out to some more unreleased cuts and remixes, and let us never speak of it again.

Eric B. For President (DJ Showtime Remix) / Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em (DJ Ayres Remix) / Hypnotic / Addictive (Remix) - w/Truth Hurts / Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em (Omega One Remix) / Take the Train / New York London Paris - w/Art of Noise & Spleen / Buffalo Gals (Back To Skool) / Once Upon A Time in Japan (Remix) / Shades of Black / Living For The City (Remix) / Cold Feeling / Man With A Gun / We All Got Plans (Original Mix) / I Know You Got Soul (Z-Trip Remix) / The Saga Begins (Desert Eagle Discs-You Scare Me Remix)

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I read this thing saying smartphones have created a race of cyborgs by making the internet extensions of our bodies, even though it’s not sewn on.

My question is: if I want to smack people who diddle their iPhones all the time, does that make me a racist?

This is Robots Will Fuck Your Shit Up, v3.0.

Exit Multi Mode - Jel / Farewell To The Flesh - Jedi Mind Tricks / Untitled #17 & 18 - Mr. Dibbs / Error Data - Powell / Robot Reality - Taborshell / Do It Like A Robot (Hell Rocks The Equalizer Remix) - Princess Superstar / Cyborg - DJ Quest / We Can Build You - Techno Animal (feat. El-P & Vast Aire) / Cyborg Dread - Techno Animal (feat. Dr. Israel) / Les Petits Yeux Métalliques - Brain Damage / Deshominisation (I) - Alain Goraguer / Robots Forever - Lil B / She Scanned - Four Tet / T-electronique - Faust & Dälek / 0101001011001101011 - Attacks The Darkness / Man Or Machine - K-The-I??? (feat. Mestizo)

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The word robot was coined by Karel Capek in his 1920 play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Know what it’s about?  Robots rise up and kill the whole human race, that’s what.  Y’all been warned.

This is Robots Will Fuck Your Shit Up, v2.0

Straight Outta Skynet / Stupid Robot - Company Flow / African Robotics - Super Chron Flight Brothers / Dirty Robots - Exile / Bladerunners - Mike Ladd (feat. Company Flow) / Blood of the Robot - Rick Rude, Phree Wil, Jewels Hunter, DJ WD4D & DJ Able / Mechanical Advantage - Deepspace 5 / Fuckin’ Robots - Sick Symphonies / War With Robots (feat. PW Singer) / Please Disperse Immediately - Nephlim Modulation Systems / Annihilator Robot - DJ T-Rock / Digital War Lessons - Rouh & Qrazsirs / Humanity Vs Technology - Orko The Sycotik Alien / Programmed To Hunt - Jel / At War With Robots - Solaris Earth Pipeline / Attaque Des Robots - Alain Goraguer / Dominant Species (Instrumental) - Rheturik / Y’all Been Warned - The RZA

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It’s been 90 years since the word robot was coined, and they’re firmly embedded in our culture, art and subconscious…and they still don’t exist yet.

Most robot stories have the theme of empathy–of bridging the uncanny valley.  Either the robots are more empathetic than us, and we treat them like slaves, or they’re less empathetic metal killing machines.  Robots represent the idea of our highest achievement, to create something better than ourselves, but also reflect our worse failings–cruelty, xenophobia, hubris, exploitation.

This is Robots Will Fuck Your Shit Up, v1.0.

‘…In Love With Another Robot…’ - Jel / The Mechanikal Man (Scratch Robot) - DJ Grazzhoppa / Bboy Robot - Rouh & Qrazsirs / Robot - Marc D & JRAY; Fourward; KRS-ONE & Buckshot / Robot Love (Medicine 8 Remix) - Popular Tyre / Do It Like A Robot - Princess Superstar / From Tragedy - DJ Krush (feat. Tragedy) / Robot - Proe / Robots - Clokworx / Do The Robot In Cyberspace - Giant Panda / Robot - Dockta Valkus / Anything You Can Do My Robot Can Do Better - Close My Eyes / Vote Robot Remix - Climax Golden Twins / Do Androids Dream of Electric Boogaloo? / Theme From Automatons / Sympathy For The Database / The Robot Has Got the Blues - Worm Is Green

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Just like the first one, this is some funky shit, on a suiting-up-montage tip and some climactic-fight-scene-ripping-through-all-the-bad-guys-like-butter type of grooves, finishing up with some says-something-sassy-and-cool-like-’Always bet on black’-and-drives-off-before-the-credits-roll beats.  Ya feel me?  It’s cinelmattic beatsploitation.

Mr. Holland’s Intro - Rob Swift & Richard Dreyfus / Rip Rip - David Holmes / I’ve Never Seen… & Boing Boing (Instrumentals) - The RZA / Killing In The Name Of - The Apples / Baseball Furies Chase - Barry de Vorzon / Troglodyte (Cave Man) - Jimmy Castor Bunch / The Stretch - Detroit Sex Machines / Get Up & Get Down - The Dramatics / Know How (Solid Steel Mix) - Young MC / Jimmy James (Original Original Version) - Beastie Boys / Nite Stalker - Afrika ‘Baby Bam’ / If I Had Wings - DJ Frane / Claim To Fame (Instro) - Oddisee / North By Northwest - Blue Scholars / Collie Stuff - The Chosen Few / Bonus Bill Beat - EarDrumz / Blowin’ Up The Spot (Instrumental) - DJ Premier / Key Master - High & Mighty / House of Rising Funk - Afrique / Double Dog Dare You - Beat Rabbi / Aural Pleasure (Instrumental) - Blackalicious / Cold Blooded (Instrumental) - Common & The Soulquarians

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My boy MZW hooked me up with this link: “Jay-Z vs. The Game: Lessons for the American Primacy Debate“, in which this think tank type of guy supposedly explains what other foreign policy think tank cats could learn from rap beefs. Or something like that, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense except to run down the history of beefs.

But it’s another mind-blowing session of hip-hop’s 2k meta-ness (see also: DOOM sampling Charles Bukowski), especially because in the comments Lynch’s colleagues turn out to also be pretty knowledgable hip hop heads. Although they do say things like:

“That may be the modern realist’s advice, but I’d imagine that Kissingerian Realist would advise Jay-Z to identify and strengthen potential third-party agents against The Game. That way, if a conflict becomes necessary, it can be a proxy conflict, thus limiting Jay-Z’s vulnerability. And given Jay-Z’s hegemonic role in the hip-hop world, there are plenty of talented rappers who’d happily take up his battles in return for his eventual favor.”

Uh…yeah…word to the deuce fuck the one, my nephew.

But it creates this week’s hip hop blogging match-up game…

If Rappers Were Countries (Strictly From A Foreign Policy Viewpoint, Nahmean), What Country Would They Be?

Jay-Z = America (according to Lynch)

The Game = Bolivia (according to Lynch, I think, I got confused)

Wu-Tang = China (highly populated, centrally controlled, dangerous economic superpower)

Ol’ Dirty Bastard = North Korea (insane, eccentric, ally of China/Wu-Tang, danger to itself and others)

Eminem = Germany (Aryan powerhouse whose influence is on the wane)

Public Enemy = Cuba (once championed and highly controversial and reviled by the right wing, totally ignored now but still clinging to their ideals, even as it drags them into poverty, and either maligned or celebrated for this depending on your politics)

Flavor Flav = Turkmenistan (crazy, comical and geopolitically isolated)

Canibus = Panama (ill-advisedly directly challenged the hegemony of the US (in 1989 = LL Cool J), smacked down and now generally ignored/irrelevant)

Gucci Mane = Spain (looming deflation due to declining industrial infrastructure)

Beastie Boys = New Zealand (because I got more rhymes than New Zealand got…zealands)

Goodie Mob = Finland (just go with me on this one)

OK, so you get the idea…c’mon you Risk-playing hip-hop heads, what else ya got?

In honor of The Seventh Seal dropping-any-minute-now-really-honestly-really-it’s-coming-out-this-time, here’s some remixes and rare cuts.

What’s the deal with Rakim?  Greatest MC of all time to anyone not fucked in the head.  Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. Originator of spiritual MCing and the internal rhyme scheme.  And no new album in ten years.

Reading the few interviews around, all I can tell is: the death of his father really messed him up; he’s enjoying raising his kids; and Dre really jerked him around.  I’d bet he also has a really, really bad manager, probably his goofy brother-in-law or something.  I mean, what label is gonna turn down The God Himself?!

So I’m wondering how come the album is late.  Maybe he’s giving us time to get the last six straight.

The Coronation of Rakhnaten (Opening Ceremony) / I Know You Got Soul (Dub) / Put Your Hands Together (Parkside Mix) / As the Rhyme Goes On (Pumpin’ the Turbo - Chad Jay In Effect) / Follow The Leader (RJD2 Remix) / Complicatem (Pass The Hand Grenade Pt 2) / You Don’t Fool Me / Bring It (Turn It Up) / Casualties Of War (Jazz Version) / Don’t Sweat The Technique (Original) / Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em (Brixton Upso Mix) / Heat It Up / Run (Freestyle) / Last Resort (a.k.a. Paid Off) / When I Be Flowin (King Tech Remix) / After U Die (feat. Truth Hurts) / Guess Who’s Back (Buckwild Remix) / I’m Back (feat. Lil Fame) / Let The Rhythm Hit Em (Z-Trip Remix) / Microphone Fiend (Rage Mix) / The Coronation of Rakhnaten (Closing Ceremony)

Peep out Rap Dungeon and Hip Hop Is Read for more.

New single ‘Holy Are You’ just dropped; you can check it at The Message or here.

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Nas has released 10 albums in 15 years, but everyone pisses and moans because 9 of them weren’t Illmatic. That’s like hating on George Washington Carver for not inventing something better than peanut butter.

Compared to a lot of MCs, Nas is still dropping steady heat (Exhibit A: “Queens Get The Money”).  But really though, every album has some weak tracks–and not just the horrible, horrible radio singles.  Nas’ problem has always been beats.

A solo rapper lacks the consistency a DJ brings to the sound and keeps the ego in check–the strength has always been in the triumvirate (Run-DMC, Cypress Hill) or the duo (Gang Starr, Eric B. & Rakim) or the everyone-into-the-phone-booth-thing (The Roots, Wu-Tang). Relying on beats-for-hire has made Nas’ direction waver all over the place; it’s that lack of a defined sound that makes people hate. Every Cypress Hill record is pretty much the same (just in ever-decreasing quality); every Nas record is different. To me, that’s a strength.  It’s just too bad he didn’t hook up with the right DJ early on and drop steady solid.  When he does pick a good beat, it’s fire.  When he doesn’t…that’s when the remixers step up.

So here we got an hour’s worth of Nas remixes, freestyles and unreleased cuts. Peep it.

Hope (Kenzo Digital Remix) / Sucker MCs 2007 / Made You Look (#900 Remix) / Stillmatic (Paid In Full Mix) / DJ Clue Freestyle / The Foulness / Talk Of New York (Hard To Earn Mix) / NY State Of Mind Pt. 2 (Meaning of the Name Mix) / Made U Look (DJ ABD Run Remix) / Got Ur Self… (MIDIMarc Remix) / No Idea’s Original (Kenzo Digital Remix) / Thief’s Theme (Q-Fish Remix) / Streets Disciple (Original Version) / The Setup (Q-Fish Remix) / Affirmative Action (Man Mantis Remix) / One Love (MF Doom Remix) / Every Ghetto (Goodwill Projects’ Minority Report Remix) / Ghetto (feat. Joell Ortiz) (DJ Green Lantern Remix) / Life’s A Bitch (DJ ABD C.R.E.A.M. Remix) / The Game (Dirty Harry’s Biggie Remix) / Silent Murder / Get Down (Nick James Remix)

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Here we got some Biggie remixes, mostly from other mixtapes. If that’s too meta for you, get with the times.

Why do we celebrate Biggie on the day he died instead of today, his birthday? It’s that gangsta cult of death. Ask yourself: When Big was in that car, broken glass in his lap, bleeding out, do you think he was ready to die? Or did all that gat-poppin’ nihilism fly away and he would’ve given anything to keep breathing?

Mishima wrote: “Human life is limited, but I would like to live forever.” Big didn’t leave behind a huge body of work (just a huge body). But every time it gets remixed, flipped around over a new beat, the lyrics become new again. They even become more iconic, like words cut in stone. And Biggie lives again.

Microphone Murderer / Where Brooklyn At? (Live From Madison Square Garden) / C.R.E.A.M. Freestyle / Things Done Changed (vs. Wu-Tang) - DJ Semi & DJ KG / Party & Bullshit (vs. LOTUG) - DJ Semi & DJ KG / Party & Bullshit (vs. Nas) - DJ Vlad & Dirty Harry / Party & Bullshit (vs. Jimi Hendrix) - DJ Doc Rok / Party & Bullshit (vs. David Bowie) - DJ Muggs / Hypnotize (vs. Joan Jett) - TRVS DJAM / Frank White - DJ Sane720 & Dantana / Going Back to Cali - Se7en Productions / Everyday Struggle (vs. Dr. Dre) – Filth / Real Niggaz (Original West Coast Version) / If I Should Die (vs. 50 Cent) - Dirty Harry / Victory - DJ Rukiz / Young G’s (Remix) - Astronote / Things Done Changed - Golddragon / Can’t Knock The Hustle - MIDIMarc / Ten Crack Commandments – Kenzo Digital / Hypnotize (vs. Frank Sinatra) - DJ Cappel & Smitty / Kick In The Door - DJ Sane720 & Dantana / Hypnotize (vs. Boogie Down Productions) / Nasty Girl (vs. Big Daddy Kane) - Mick Boogie & Terry Urban / Everyday Struggle - DJ Lennox / Dead Wrong (Stop Schemin Remix) - Renegade / Sleepwalkers - Cooking Soul / Things Done Changed (vs. El-P) / A Dream (vs. MF Doom) - DJ LivingDead / You’re Nobody Till Somebody Kills You (Original Version) / Juicy (vs. Aphex Twin) - Spin Doctor Zaeus

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…something something something, broke my sacroiliac.  Which means ‘ass-bone’. Only time an MC’s used proper medical terminology.  Kinda surprising since there’s so many ‘doctors’ (Dre, Ice, Octagon, etc.). But I guess nothing rhymes with things like ‘pancreas.’   Except…blancreas.

Really though, “The Message” is the well from where all conscious hip hop flows. 27 years later the beat is still tight. The lyrics drop some serious poetical gems. It’s real art and therefore eternal.

The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five / Hard Times - Run-D.M.C., Vordul Mega, Onra, Baby Huey / In The Ghetto - Eric B. & Rakim / Ghetto Misfortune’s Wealth - The 24 Carat Black / Dead Homiez - Ice Cube / I Been There - KRS-One / Streetlamp Confessions - WindNbreeze, Cryptic One & Alaska / Minimum Wage - Redshield / Rent Control - Super Chron Flight Brothers / A Tribute to Melle Mel - Breez Evahflowin / The Message - Nas / The Message (Remix Suite) - Roots Manuva, Cutting Edge, Ice Cube, Richie Rich, El-P, Mobb Deep, Willy Mason

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Fetus - Nas / Birth - Ice Cube (feat. Khalid Abdul Muhammad) / The Birth - The RZA / Children of Children - The Black Market Militia (feat. Oscar Brown Jr.) / Wear Clean Draws - The Coup / Snoop Interlude / Grew Up Hard - Trife Da God & Solomon Childs / Young Man Grown - The Narcicyst / Message To Young People - Double Dee & Steinski / The Product - Ice Cube / Concrete Jungles - The Psycho Realm (feat. Crow) / Finger Painting - K-The-I??? / Home Work - Themselves / It’s Just A Playground - Dday One / Little Child Running Wild - Curtis Mayfield / Children’s Story - Slick Rick

[Update]

Really dope re-telling of ‘A Children’s Story’ by Hell Razah & Killah Priest here.

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Reminiscing of another time: Parkside Ave and a bottle of wine…

Rain Dance - Arrowax / Make It Rain - Ultramagnetic MCs / Rain Drops - Jojo Pellegrino / Rain men - Deep Puddle Dynamics / Rain men (Remix instrumental) - Deep Puddle Dynamics / Rain Edit Interlude - Prefuse 73 / Rainy Dayz - Raekwon (feat. Ghostface Killah & Blue Rasberry) / Stormy Weather - Billy Woods / This Is It (Ain’t Gonna Rain) - Schoolly D / Rain - RJD2 / The Name of Every Raindrop - Tracy Jones / Rain - Autolect / The Levees Broke - Jay Electronica / A Sudden Rain Storm / Flood The Block (Instrumental) - Havoc

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Last piece in the bucket moves from head-nodding to nodding out to head-scratching tracks.

Super Chicken Meets Ice Cube Uptown / PLO Styles (Odd Nosdam Mix) - Method Man (feat. Carlton Fisk) / 9 Hip-Hop Samurai - Kode 9 vs. Dead Prez / Hip Hop (DFRNT Dubmix) - Dead Prez / Skank In The Air - Chinese Man / Poison Dart - The Bug & Warrior Queen / Stone - Spectre / Easy Way Out - Strangebrew / Close to the Fire - Teledubgnosis / Always Late - Booka B / Genetic Weapon - Brain Damage (feat. Tena Stelin) / Eyupsultan (King Fader Mix) - Systemwide / Seeing n=0 - Mormon Freegan / Upsetter - Odd Nosdam

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This one’s all instrumental, whacked-out sneakergazing dubstep, illbient, electronic dub type of shit.  Goes perfect with an opium-dipped joint and a big pack of Frito Lays.

There’s that thing in Neuromancer where a bunch of Rastas in the future are living in space, and this supercomputer convinces them to help…I forget, do a space rescue or some shit…by cooking them up a dub mix.  It would probably sound like this.

Super Chicken Crosses The Road / Gun Too Hot - Dub Syndicate / Headmash - V-Neck / In Heaven, A Devil - Teledubgnosis / Hospital, Come In!  - Labº / Going Around Dub - Kobe / Spiritunational Remix - Vibronics / Balalaika Dub - Manuela Krause & Pole / Crusher Dub - Vex’d / Freak Freak - The Bug / At War - DJ Wally / J Dub - Boxcutter / Pre-emptive Psychosis (in Dub) - Alter Echo / Ice - Brain Damage / Anansi Abstrakt - DJ Spooky

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Revenge of Super Chicken / On Mission (Super Chicken Version) - Talib Kweli vs. Niney the Observer / Skanky Panky - Kid Koala / The Damn Number - Toots & The Maytals vs. Killah Priest / Lucifer (Paul Nice Remix) - Jay-Z / Hardcore Freestyle - DJ Cam (feat. Otis) / No No No - Ghostface Killah / Black Survivors - Bob Marley & Chuck D / Justice - Belief (feat. Vordul Mega & C-Rayz Walz) / Concrete Jungle - Bob Marley & Rakim / Just To Get A Rep (Super Chicken Version) - Gang Starr vs. The Upsetters / Forest Whitiker (Instrumental) - A.N.T. / MPE (Mr. Wyse Remix) - Public Enemy / International Broadcaster - Lee “Scratch” Perry (feat. Roots Manuva & L.S.K.) / Mr. Brown (Globemallow Spike Remix) - Bob Marley & The Upsetters

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Biggie & Meth vs. Niney The Observer.

So Notorious is out.  It looks pretty boring.  Not to hate, but biopics are all the same, blah blah childhood blah blah first big break, blah blah oh shit I’m so famous now, and in the background you get different decades’ lamps and news clips and shit.

Someday we’ll get a hip-hop film that’s as interesting visually/narratively as the music is sonically/lyrically: Krush Groove meets I’m Not There or 8 Mile meets Natural Born Killers.  Or Wild Style meets Naked Lunch.  Or Juice meets I Am Cuba, that would be the shit.  In the meantime we’ll have to settle for Mephistophididdy’s latest cash-in.

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This one goes out to MZW, holding down the BKK/Lexico/Thaitaly axis.

Kool Herc brought the islands to the Bronx to invent hip-hop.  This mix brings it back around again.

Super Chicken Lays A Dub / Champion (Remix) - Brother Ali / Niggas (BDP Remix) - Notorious B.I.G. / Clientele Kids (Reggae Remix) - Raekwon, Ghostface Killah & Inspectah Deck / Chains - R.A. The Rugged Man (feat. Masta Killa & Killah Priest) / Shining Interlude (feat. Mumia) / Telegram (Parts 1 & 3) (Catchdubs Remix) - Saul Williams / Badder Than - Sibot (feat. Teba) / Scalp Dem - Super Cat Vs Method Man / Progression Vers Sion - Djins / Jackals & Vipers, Part 9 - Sixtoo / Babylon Rhythm Exorcism - Musaics (DJ Sole) / Killa Instinkt - Sub Dub / Mr. Brown - Styles Of Beyond / Mr. Brown (Spahn Ranch Remix) - Bob Marley & The Upsetters

Also peep these out:

Perfecta - Reggae Reggae Wu

Mista D’s Music Blog: Hip-Hop Inna Reggae Stylee

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