I’ve been anticipating this ever since Squadda sent the excellent cover you see above. I feel like the image they chose may be a sign of the group becoming more and more comfortable in their own strange niche, and that growing confidence is translating into both better presentation and better music. Hence a kind of polished feeling is prevalent throughout the mixtape, ‘polished’ not in the sense of them embracing a cleaner sound but in the sense of an improved more masterful execution of the dirty weird sound that attracted me to the group in the first place. Mild spoiler… the mixtape makes really good use of the old hidden track gimmick, I wont give away too much but lets say you’re actually getting approximately 1.7 mixtapes instead of 1.
An extra thought on the rectangular shape of the cover – it’s a small and possibly even unintentional detail but this idea has tons of potential for artists who release internet-only material; no cd/lp = no point in keeping the cover art square = lots of interesting artistic possibilities. I wanna see somebody send me a mixtape with a cover that’s a tetrahedron made of dragons and titties, let’s make that happen.
For years Jews have played the background while standing on their tippy toes just trying to get a glimpse. The Jewish acceptance in hip-hop has always been matched against ambivalence. Sure, years ago you had The Beasties or 3rd Bass’ MC Serch, but the reality really was being Jewish in hip-hop wasn’t exactly cool. Ras Kass once said on “Uni-4-Ormâ€â€œRecord industry rule numbers one, two, and three/Jews run it/Niggas run around in it/Believe me†and he couldn’t have been more accurate.
I would call OFWGKTA the flava of the week but it’s more like of the fucking year and rightfully so. The RZA of the clan Tyler produces the shit outta this Domo Genesis release. No Earl, but he will not be forgotten. Do your part and vote in the Best New Rapper tourney here, where Earl faces off Jay Electronica in the finals.
Also peep the latest Tyler interview done by our homies @ Coolehmag. –Philaflava
Rolling Papers
First Roll
Buzzin
Domier
Rolling Papers ft. Wolf Haley (Tyler)
Dreams
Cap n Crunch
Steamroller ft. Hodgy Beats
Kickin It
Super Market ft. Ace Creator (Tyler)
Drunk ft. Mike G
Clear Eyes
Basic Bitch ft. Hodgy Beats
Last Roll
Remarkable Mayor just make good rap with no predicates. No angle, no agenda, not trying to prove anything, not saving or eulogizing or embalming hiphop, no attempts to go back to the 80 or 90 jump ahead to 2030, no overt politics, no trapping, no anti-trapping, no trying to show these youngsters how rap is supposed to be (I believe they’re both in their early-mid 30s), none of that. They just rap well about everything and nothing in particular, and have a solid ear for beats, and they’re not pretentious dicks about it.
‘The Campaign’ as a whole is very consistent, I had a hard time picking out obvious standouts. So the songs below are more of a general sampling of the album than its highlight reel.
I keep a pimp cup
my thoughts are pimpish
my rides are pimpish
god damnit I will call myself a pimp
therefore…. we will pimp on
all my macs – enjoy
-Fiend
I’m not sure if this is new or old or what, but it’s new to me and its killer.
I need to transfer this from one computer to another via Divshare, so I figured I’d throw the link up here as well. This is a classic mixtape, a summer staple for me since it was released, imo slightly better than Waiting Our Turn and way better than the last few Devin outings. The Brothaz pretty much do god’s work for weed music here.
I’ve been obsessed with these 3 songs all day today. This kind of electro-space-funk (I’m trying to avoid the d-word on principle) always makes me want to engage in a slow motion battle with space pirates, possibly with the ghost of Giorgio Moroder as my wing man. Alternately, it makes me feel like Kenny in the ‘Major Boobage’ episode of South Park – flying through psychadelic space in a Trans-Am, cheezin my balls off. Either way this is powerful shit.
There is no explanation for this. The only reasonable punishment is that they all have to get fucked by Lexington Steele in front of their white fathers. Fair enough? –Philaflava
An excellent live rendition of my one of my favorite songs of 2009, looser and jammier than the album version. So good I had to rip the audio. According to this interview the group should have another album out in December, which is something to look forward to.
The visual accompaniment to the anthemic Somebody, directed by ST Trillsburge. Some context and commentary courtesy of Codie G:
This video was shot in the same neighborhood as Antione Dodson a few days before all his viral bonanza started. It’s great that it’s coming out after that because this is our version of what’s going down in Huntsville. We have highlighted over the years so much of what’s makes this city such as NASA, Redstone Arsenal, etc but this is the first time we dove into the gentrification going on in our city i.e. the Starshipz and Rocketz cover. Well this is the first video.
The contrast in this is the two schools shown and the two sets of housing projects. One we show the past, Boarded up schools and projects to a school that just closed down “For Sale†to a housing project on the chopping block for closure. The mural is from library satellite in another housing projects, Mason Court. The irony in this work of art is it’s hidden from the major thoroughfare running parallel to the library for the world to see. I call it hidden hope. With that said i give you the “Somebody†video
One detail about the video I want to point out – note that everyone is holding microphones. This is a clever touch that connects the dots between documentary and performance aspects of the video, underscoring the song’s compelling relationship of medium and message. Props to whoever came up with that idea.
