Several fluffy, candy-coated props to Rap Radar for uncovering this terrific look at hip-hop from 1981, when it was still “the new sound of the 80s”. Even the newsreader guy likes it!

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday May 21st, 2009 at 11:15 am

I heard this on Mark Ronson’s Authentic Shit show the other day, which I never remember to listen to unless my flatmate reminds me of its existence.

Mikey Rocks is one of the Cool Kids, but this is the first time I’ve encountered the other two. Dude Royal and Hollywood Holt sound like they might be interesting ones to watch on a post-Kanye, h*pster r*p tip, though - Dude Royal’s “Vader Ganchos” is worth a listen here, and Hollywood Holt’s MySpace shows he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday April 30th, 2009 at 10:27 am

Del The Funky Homosapien - whose real name I dearly wish was “Derek” - has rather a fine new album out called Funk Man (The Stimulus Package). I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the latter part of that title was probably added at the last minute, following recent economic events

The album’s available for free download, but just in case you’re thinking that must mean it’s a pile of unlistenable garbage, I can assure you that’s not the case. Just listen to “Land Of Funk”, below - it risks throwing too many things at the wall, but the end result is a vibrant, bouncy delight which will make you want to have a funky barbecue, whatever one of those is.

And… doesn’t it remind you of a certain Justin Timberlake song?

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Del The Funky Homosapien - Funk Man (Stimulus Package) free download

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday April 16th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

This is the original version of Kid Cudi’s recent hit “Day ‘N’ Nite”, which Crookers took and remixed into a club smash. The weird thing about that song was the video took little notice of the lyrics, which talk of a lonely stoner and aren’t necessarily all that happy-clappy. To see the song put alongside Nuts-style booby-babes was a bit odd, and reportedly didn’t please Kid Cudi too much.
The new video for the original version is more in keeping with the lyrical content, showing Mr. Cudi getting all confuzzled by animated beverages in the supermarket, presumably because he has been mashing his mind with DRUGZ.

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday February 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am

As 50 Cent and Rick Ross do their tiresome WWE-style back-and-forth beefing, it’s nice to see an overlooked talent get a bit of exposure as a by-product.
MURS has been going for a good 15 or so years in some form or another, but it might turn out that his biggest break comes as a result of being namechecked by Ross in one of his disses at Fiddy.
“I don’t know MURS,” Ross raps over a MURS beat. What might rile some folk up seems to delight the good-humoured MURS, who goes on to thank Ross for the namecheck on “Who’s The Boss?” - and I love the set-up in the video, which sees MURS go from his desk straight to the recording booth after watching the Ross vid.
Check it out after the jump.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday February 16th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Pretty much all I know about Cam’ron can be summed up by “Hey Ma” and “Oh Boy”, both of which were fun but pretty empty party hits a few years back.
As a result it means very little when I say “I Hate My Job” is the best thing I’ve heard Cam’ron do. But all the same I’d encourage you to give it a listen, as it’s a highly listenable state-of-the-world-today credit crunch lament.
With a different hook it would be the most depressing record ever, but it has a bizarrely upbeat piano line and “yeah yeah yeah”s sampled from somewhere that just make me want to listen to it over and over.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday February 3rd, 2009 at 11:50 am

I don’t know how many tracks there must have been over the years with the simplistic title “Hip-Hop”, but I’d wager this must be the best in a while.
From the eagerly-anticipated N.A.S.A project I mentioned a couple of weeks back, this track features KRS-One, Fatlip and Slim Kid Tre, and is a vibrant ode to simpler times when entering hip-hop was more than just a way to get your own branded sneaker.
Fortunately it does it in a way that actually illustrates how life-affirming hip-hop can be, and doesn’t degenerate into “when this were all fields”-style grumbling. It’s a party record, and no mistake.
Oh, and the video is brilliant as well. Witness the combination after the jump.

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday January 27th, 2009 at 10:35 am

Kid Cudi didn’t quite hit the number one spot yesterday - Lady GaGa held on for another week - but he did go in at number two with the Crookers remix of “Day ‘N’ Nite”, which is no mean feat.
He spoke to DJ Semtex about his pretty swift rise to success, and although he’s enjoying the exposure and the fact he’s about to sign a huge record deal, you can tell he’s a little ambivalent about the fact that it’s a dance remix that has taken him overground…

[semtextv]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Monday January 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pm

This is a hipster collaboration so cool it’s a wonder it didn’t end in a fight to the death over whose shades were colourfulest.
Fortunately, as well as being very of the moment, M.I.A, Santogold and Spank Rock are all very amazing, as this - sorry, there’s simply no other term for it - BOOMING BIZNESS illustrates.
If you’re wondering who N.A.S.A are, they’re Spike Jonze’s brother and a pro skateboarder. Of course. It couldn’t just be a couple of bedroom geeks, could it? They have an album due for release next month with a whole host of stellar buddies helping them out, including Tom Waits, Method Man, David Byrne and Karen O. See a full tracklist here.
With a cast list like that and beats like these… Click over to stream “Whatchadoin’?”

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Wednesday January 14th, 2009 at 11:50 am

This is pretty interesting, although I suspect the people who really care about finding out the samples/interpolations Kanye uses - i.e. trainspotter types - will have done so already. Also, ten minutes is quite a long time to spend watching minute clips of lots and lots of songs, even if there are informative annotations.
Maybe bookmark it and give it a look before the next pub quiz…

[video: lupEND88]
[via Urlesque]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Tuesday December 16th, 2008 at 10:15 am