This week I’ll be reviewing six new projects that recently hit the ‘net/bloggerverse and/or will be landing on store shelves soon in the following order: Bambu “Paper Cuts EP”, D-Wirks (Beewirks & D. Schwartz) “Foot On The Gas”, Daedelus “Righteous Fists Of Harmony EP”, DJ Khaled “Victory”, Inspectah Deck “The Manifesto” and Mr. Dibiase “Cakeology EP”. For those of you new to this blog, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here’s how my patented “Cop It Or Not” ratings system breaks down below:
Opinions be damned. This particular project has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and should come with a Surgeon General’s warning and/or a biohazard sticker. It should only be handled by hazmat teams or bomb/demolition squads. To quote Common & Canibus, this album is your worst nightmare squared.
Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.
Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it’s in your lane or not.
Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops…’Nuff said.
Best Jawns: Paper Thin, Slow Down, Correctly Done, Rather Seen, The Queen Is Dead, Sondalo, Old Man Raps and Smog City’s Own
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: They just don’t make Hip Hop like this anymore. Conscious rap that you can bump in your car and ride too or rock to in your iPod/Zune. This EP is an enjoyable listen from beginning to end and you won’t regret spending your hard earned money on any Beatrock Music releases. After hearing tracks like “Paper Thin”, “Slow Down”, “The Queen Is Dead”, “Sondalo” or “Smog City’s Own” you’re gonna be looking for Bambu’s back catalog. I give “Paper Cuts” a mos def. Find it. Cop it (it’s on iTunes)
Best Jawns: Intro, Foot On The Gas, Make It, Power of Zeus, Training Day, Getaway (Interlude), Victory is Mine, Pegasus, Lucid Dreamer (Ambitions), Goin Thru Hip Hop and Outro
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: Download this or be lame. Beewirks & D. Schwartz just dropped off a free project that smacks fire out of the overwhelming majority of major label releases. They didn’t have an A&R save for themselves. No executives governing over the project. Somehow they managed to create a project that will have your head nodding from beginning to end. I can only give it a mos def, too.
Best Jawns: An Armada Approaches, Tidal Waves Uprising, The Open Hand Avows, Order Of The Golden Dawn, The Finishing Of A Thing, Succumbing To, Stampede Me and Fin de siècle
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: This project is dope (do people even still even say that? Fuck it, I do). My thing is that Daedelus’ music isn’t for everyone. If you’re a fan of the Dublab/Brainfeeder beat scene then you need to look into copping this when it finally drops on March 23rd.
If not, then you should seek out some mixes and podcasts with Daedelus’ previous work first to determine whether or not this might be your lane or not. I loved it but it was a bit on the short side (it’s an EP) so I’m going with a highly recommended maybe just shy of a mos def.
Best Jawns: All I Do Is Win (take that with a grain of salt), Fed Up, Victory (this song is actually all the way good) and Rep My City (Pitbull is tolerable)
Hot Garbage: Intro (Bad sign, right?), Bringing Real Rap Back (How can Rum do that? Fuck you, kid!) and On My Way (this posse jam is a string of horrible rappers doing terribad verses over a basura beat)
Dart’s Take: I almost plucked out my own eye on some Pei Mei shit just so I could experience another pain that could override the anguish I felt while listening to this piece of ass album. It comes out some time in March, what day exactly I don’t know because I don’t want to make a mental marker of such a horrific occasion.
This album was so bad I thought it was a parody of bad albums. How many wack verses can one person stand? It was like a bad cellphone commercial. No bars. In the album intro Khaled claims to have seen the “evilest hate ever that mankind has ever witnessed”, I guess he was referring to my my review of his last album. “Victory” was the wackness in album form. Eat a dick, Khaled. You da worst.
Best Jawns: Tombstone Intro, The Champion, This Is It, P.S.A, We Get Down, Serious Rappin’, 5 Star G and The Neverending Story (the hook is meh)
Meh: Born Survivor, Luv Letter, T.R.U.E, 9th Chamber, Really Real, Do What U Gotta, Crazy, Gotta Bang, The Bad Apple and Brothaz Respect
Hot Garbage: The Big Game (How do you completely fuck up a Raekwon feature? Here’s the answer!)
Dart’s Take: Inspectah Deck is one of my all time favorite emcees. He’s dropped several classic verses over his 17 year career. He’s dropped ill verses on recent releases as well but his last solid solo project was 2006′s “Resident Patient” LP. This project is a huge disappointment and I came in with low expectations (listen to his “Resident Patient 2″ mixalbum to know why). Even the jawns that were tolerable were boring and low energy. It seemed like he had trouble flowing on beat at times as well.
In conclusion, on March 23rd do not spend your money on “The Manifesto” when it drops. Just cop another Wu project that doesn’t suck where Deck drops a nice guest verse instead. I have no choice but to give “The Manifesto” an oh no.
Best Jawns: Atomic Slop, Keep On Runnin’, Brazilian Lady, Be Fly and Cosmo Boppin’
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: THIS. SHIT. IS. RIDICULOUS. Buy it now. Mos def. That is all.
I’ve known Stu Bangas since about 2005. Back then he was a producer grinding in the unforgiving Boston/New England Hip Hop scene where dudes front on buying beats but will instead cop a gang of weed thus ensuring that their mixtapes get pushed back more than Nic Cage’s hairline. Even back then, Stu had some heat. We used to build about the scene back on the now defunct BostonRap.com and RepDaBean.com boards.
When I began writing about Hip Hop on AllHipHop.com I made it a point to put people on to his production which would just induce me to make the scrunchface repeatedly. Stu started making moves and getting some eye opening placements as well. When I started Poisonous Paragraphs, I made it a point to showcase Stu Bangas beats in my first Producers You Need To Hear Right Now list back in ’07.
Since then, Stu has made heat for Slaine, J The S, Ras Kass, Devin The Dude, Reef The Lost Cauze, Doap Nixon, Nature, Infamous Mobb, Blaq Poet, Heltah Skeltah and Kool G Rap to spit on. Without any futher ado, I present to you an instrumental mixtape containing pure uncut liquid cocaine brutality for your ears, appropriately entitled “Grime Wave”. Enjoy:
1. Numerology 2. Little Bits (Expedyte, Radar, & Phakt) 3. Dollar Bills (Radar & Wordburglar) 4. True Love (Expedyte, Mischif, Nokes, & Spesh K) 5. Millipede (Spesh K & Jay Mayne) 6. Christmas Rain 7. Must Have Been (Sampson) 8. Oatmeal Lumps (Milla Thyme, Sampson, Lee Fitz, Shiest, Arlo Maverick, Markit, Jesse Dangerously, Johnny Hardcore & Radar) 9. Perfect Formula (Sean One & Monark)
East Coast Music Award-winning producer Hotbox has returned with a new 9-song EP “Number Theory”, a title suiting for this daytime high school math teacher. Known for his choppy soul sound, Hotbox has spent the past few years producing for numerous eastern Canadian hip-hop artists while holding down his day job in Moncton, NB.
One such recording that garnered recognition last year was Spesh K”s “The Main Event” from Spesh’s album of the same name. Spesh K and producer Hotbox both took home the 2009 ECMA for Hip Hop Recording of the Year. On his latest release, Hotbox is joined by some east coast Canadian heavyweights such as Spesh K, Phakt, Expedyte, Wordburglar, and Sheist.
Number Theory is not Hotbox’s first solo project. In 2008, he released the critically-acclaimed Boxploitation” EP online and last year he put out the 7” vinyl single “Knowledge Is Wealth”, which is currently nominated for Hip-Hop Recording Of The Year at this year’s ECMA’s. In 2007, he released the full-length “Frostbite” which featured Sean Price and MC Lyte.
Hotbox will stay busy in the lab this year. In addition to promoting the Number Theory EP, he has collaborative projects in the works with Fritz the Cat (OK Cobra), Spesh K and Sheist.
Trav’s Take: Hotbox has long been a WYDU favorite. Y’all should remember him from his late 2008 Artist Spotlight. ‘Box has the hot ish this time around and is evident from the get go. “Numerology,” is instrumental that is laced with funky horns and a G-funk sounding wail. All the beats are top notch. Some of the emcees work better than others, but all in all this is a great listen. I’m going to have to talk to Hotbox about doing an instrumental album.
1. Not Your Average Intro 01:10 2. Every Man 02:40 3. Bubblegum Tuna 03:31 4. Cali My Way feat. (Diz Gibran) 02:27 5. Im Gone 03:44 6. Trunk Rattle Remix feat. (Naledge, Freddie Gibbs & Mistah FAB) 05:11 7. Playing With Me 02:59 8. Pardon Me 03:46 9. From This Day feat. (Carlitta Durand) 03:57 10. Think About It feat. (Evidence) 03:14 11. $ Dont Make Me 04:30 12. Stoopid Dope Moves 03:29 13. Robert Downey Jr. 04:09 14. Catch Up (Bonus Track) 04:41
Trav’s Take: I’ve always liked Joe Scudda even though he’s got a bad knock by a few. I’m just getting through this right now and everything is straight, well worth the free look. Thoughts and prayers go out Joe, Big Dho, Big Pooh, Chaundon, Jozeemo after their near death miss with a semi-trailer after their tour van lost control on a Vermont freeway. From the twitter updates, everyone is okay, although Pooh was still in the hospital the last I heard.
The Audible Doctor is down with the whole Brown Bag Allstars movement, which I can never argue with the quality of their music. Audible Doctor is one of two producers (I believe, the other being J57) This mostly an instrumental jammy, and while I haven’t gotten all the way through it yet (listening while I work on this), so far so good. I always check out anything one of these BBA put something. Well worth checking out.
1. Dollars Make Change Introduction 2. Catching the Strange ft. C-Rayz Walz 3. King of the Jungle Remix ft. Blaq Poet, Jaysaun (Special Teamz), Termanology 4. Too Many Mc’s ft. El Da Sensei, Pacewon, Exposition 5. No Gentleman ft. Alex Minor 6. Al Bundy Remix ft. Intuition 7. Tape on Drugs Remix ft. Reason (Poorly Drawn People) 8. Hit That Shit Remix ft. thekeenone (Audio Hustlaz), B-Real (Cypress Hill), Reg Riddem, Ill Bill (La Coka Nostra) 9. Shallow and Hollow ft. Reef the Lost Cauze, Blak Madeen 10. Juice Barz Freestyle ft. Amadeus the Stampede 11. Hall of Game ft. C-Rayz Walz 12. Umbrella’s and Mac 10’s ft Dirty Hank 13. The Crush (Original) ft. Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox) 14. Designer Kids ft. Reason, Storm Davis (Poorly Drawn People) 15. Headlines ft. Reks 16. Say Your Prayers ft. Good Brother, Amadeus the Stampede 17. Educated Suicide ft. Rite Hook, C-Chan (Slow Suicide Stimulus) 18. What Rap Don’t Say ft. Stu Cat 19. Too Much ft. Slaine (La Coka Nostra/Special Teamz), Amadeus the Stampede
Falside’s latest free mixtape, “Dollars Make Change” is now available. The providence beatsmith has compiled an extensive display of his different varieties of production for the mixtape, including his recent collaborations with such wordsmiths as Reef the Lost Cauze, C-Rayz Walz, El Da Sensei, Pacewon, Reks, Poorly Drawn People, Vast Aire, Slaine (La Coka Nostra / Special Teamz), Intuition, C-Chan (Slow Suicide Stimulus) and more.This is 19 tracks worth of dope that can be appreciated by leaders of the new school and boom bap veterans alike. (This mixtape is presented by Poorly Drawn Recordings (Providence RI) and Leedz Edutainment (Boston MA). Enjoy. falside.com
Falside is that dude as it is, and then to tie in some of the dopest emcees doing it currently AND including my favorite slept on group, Poorly Drawn People (at least Reason and Storm Davis). Speaking of PDP, Falside just signed with the Poorly Drawn label, so expect bigger things in the future for this young beatsmith.
Here’s Sunday’s RIOC show as well as last week’s show (2/14) with DJ Premier on the wheels. You can catch Preem every Friday on his “Live From HeadQCourterz” show and me every Sunday on “Rap Is Outta Control” both on Hip Hop Nation Sirius XM from 10pm-12am.
Also, we are just over a week away from “The Halftime Show” 12th Anniversary (Wednesday, March 3rd). 3 producers, 1 DJ crew and a whole lotta emcees! Line up to be announced soon. You can listen live on Wednesday, March 3rd from 10:30pm-1:00am on 89.1FM in NYC or online at www.wnyu.org or iTunes>radio>college/university>wnyu.
“Rap Is Outta Control” 2/14/10 Playlist (w/DJ Premier)
1. Krs-One, Redman & MIMS–How To Be An Emcee 2. Nick Javas–Not A Game 3. Statik Selektah (f. Smif N Wessun)–Follow We 4. Ol’ Dirty Bastard (f. Free Murder, RZA, Shacrone)–Fort Green Projects 5. Joell Ortiz–Project Boy 6. Young Maylay–Mic It 7. Kid Capri–I Turn It
Out 8. O.C. & A.G.–Young With Style 9. Khaleel (f. Panchi of NYGz)–Rappin’ Exercise 10. Obie Trice–Stories 11. Reks(f. Freddie Gibbs)–God Damn 12. Freeway & Jake One–One Thing 13. Strong Arm Steady(f. Montage One, Evidence, Oh No, Roc C)–True Champs 14. Dogg Pound (f. Soopafly)–They Dont Want It 15. Bumpy Knuckles–The Truth (Remix) 16. DJ Skizz (f. Killa Sha, ZU)–Queens Kats 17. Sha Stimuli (f. Torae)–What’s Wrong 18. Actual Proof–Genius 19. Marv Won–Rite Back 20. Bekay (f. R.A. the Rugged Man)–Pipe Dreams 21. Statik Selektah (f. Lil Fame, Havoc, Kool G. Rap)–Do It To Death
– DJ Eclipse (La Coka Nostra • Uncle Howie • Fat Beats • Rock Steady Crew)
“The Halftime Show” • 89.1 FM WNYU • Wednesday Nights • 10:30 PM – 1:00 AM
“Rap Is Outta Control” • Sirius XM Radio • Hip Hop Nation Channel • Sunday Nights • 10:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Soundset 2009 was held on May 30th, and I’ve wanted to do a recap for quite some time. Since, I see they’ve announced Soundset 2010, I thought this would be a good time to let you know what it’s all about. You can check out the official site here: http://www.soundsetfestival.com/
First of all, I’d like to recommend that if you are in the Midwest, or can get here, and you remotely like hip-hop, get your ass to the Twin Cities Memorial Day Weekend.
Parking/Traffic – Traffic sucked heading out to Canterbury, so plan accordingly. There’s plenty of parking once you get there, but leaving, well, as I so eloquently stated before, sucks.
The Lineup/Cost – The lineup was sick. It doesn’t get too much better than this:
Atmosphere The Pharcyde Brother Ali DOOM Cunninlynguists P.O.S. Freeway Blueprint Immortal Technique Eyedea and Abilities Haiku d’etat Blue Scholars One.Be.Lo
Among others.
Tickets cost about 30 bucks, unless you get them through Ticketmaster, where you pay convenience fees, taxes and 2 more bucks for just being assholes (so, about 40 bucks).
The Setup – In 2008, the show was in Minneapolis in the Metrodome parking lot. The beer situation was a joke, as they had 2 lines for beer and the servers were extremely slow. I was convinced that it was some sort of conspiracy to keep people from drinking. It was a hip-hop show, we might start shooting the place up, right? Anyway, this year it was in the ‘burbs at Canterbury Park and they had a much better set up.
There were 2 stages with staggered start times, so if you want to see Blue Scholars and Brother Ali, you can at least catch part of both acts. All starting times were listed once you got in the venue. The B-boy/DJ tent was stationed in the middle of the action and it featured some top notch DJ’s, such as Prince Paul and DJ Nu-Mark. I actually spent a good half hour in the tent just watching Prince Paul, and I may have missed some stuff on the stage, but I was cool with watching a hip-hop icon do his thing.
The sound on these is crap, because it’s from my phone, but here are a couple videos of Prince Paul rocking the DJ/B-boy tent:
The interaction with the artists is one of the big pluses at Soundset. From the artist meet and greets to the merch booths, you have the opportunity to interact with some of your favorite MC’s and DJ’s. Generally, Atmosphere does an early meet and greet to entice fans to come early and catch a lot of the acts that people would normally skip to just come and see some of the headliners. Various other artists have meet and greets throughout the course of the day as well.
If I had to guess, I would say there were at least 50 different merch booths for fans to peruse. There were also merch booths for artists that weren’t even scheduled to perform. It’s a huge promotional tool for unknown artists, or artists that have new material coming out. A couple examples are the booths I saw for Keelay and Zaire and The Grouch and Eligh. Both duos had new music out, or on the horizon, but neither were actually performing. I can’t claim to know a lot about Keelay and Zaire, but I saw The Grouch at his respective merch booth, so it wasn’t like they sent some schmuck to peddle their wares, they were actually there. If you are someone that likes to speak with artists and shoot the breeze, then this is your place to do it. Myself, I’m unable to force conversation with anyone even remotely famous, so I watch from afar.
CunninLynguists performing “Lynguistics” on the second stage (crap sound again):
There were also a couple other attractions featuring skaters and pimped out cars. So, there are a couple alternative entertainment options, should you choose to do so. I checked out some of the skating stuff, which was cool to check out for a little while, but I’m not much of a car guy, so I didn’t really look at that stuff.
The only major con involves the food and drink booths. First of all, they use tickets, so you have to buy tickets for a dollar a piece and then you use your tickets to pay for food and drinks. You always end up with extra tickets, and they only let you buy tickets in increments of $10, so it never works out. I understand the concept of using tickets instead of paying cash and giving change, etc., but you should be able to buy any damn combination of tickets you want. I don’t care if it’s a pain in the ass for you to rip 1 ticket off. Or, if you want, let me cash in my tickets in on the way out.
Anyway, it was a hell of a show and you get good bang for your buck. I would suggest a little sunscreen and a crap load of water and not just pizza and beer, because you’ll get a tad dehydrated. Which may have happened to me.
Here’s a sample from the Soundset site from the stage that gives you an idea of the amount of people at the show:
Here are some clips from my phone from within the crowd. You can really see the amount of people.
This week I’ll be reviewing six new projects that recently hit the ‘net/bloggerverse and/or will be landing on store shelves soon in the following order: DJ Babu “The Beat Tape Vol. 2″, Georgia Anne Muldrow & Declaime “Someothaship”, Gorillaz “Plastic Beach”, LMNO “Push That Work”, Madlib “Medicine Show No. 2: Flight To Brazil” and Planet Asia & Gold Chain Military “Chain Of Command”. For those of you new to this blog, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here’s how my patented “Cop It Or Not” ratings system breaks down below:
Opinions be damned. This particular project has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and should come with a Surgeon General’s warning and/or a biohazard sticker. It should only be handled by hazmat teams or bomb/demolition squads. To quote Common & Canibus, this album is your worst nightmare squared.
Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.
Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it’s in your lane or not.
Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops…’Nuff said.
Best Jawns: Intro, I Dont C U, K Dub, 2024, Earthfire, No Secret, Sunshine Days, Mr. Lone Lee, Hold The Mark, Sillu, Forever, Here I Am, Nelson’s Cesar Salad, Takeova, Ready, Reneg, Canned E, Do Not Dispute, G Yeah, Strive to Be A Godfather, Ghost Romper Room, Lil Juanito, Shack of Soul, Who Can’t Hear, Blackfoot, Kallen Durr, Mortay, Manferd, What R U Doing, Funkydromedary, I Heart U For All, Finally, Elec Trick Sim Phone, Innernathional Thylee, Phlip The Trac and I’m Gonna Stay
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: DJ Babu of the World Famous Beat Junkies dropped off his first batch of instrumentals back in ’08 and it was ridiculous. In 2010, Babs hit us in the face with almost 40 ridiculous slaps. If you don’t hear these instrumentals and let at least one Ric Flair “Wooo!” go, chances are you’re either deaf, have laryngitis or a Wacka Flacka Flame fan (in which case I feel sorry for your mother). This gets an easy mos def. Cop it on February 23rd.
Best Jawns: Shine On, Connect Game, Heaven or Hell, Get Up GoGo, Endure, Mages Sages II, fOnk 4 U, Rain Down, Pad Kontrol, Boogie, Heaven or Hell (LD Remix) and Endure (Oh No Remix)
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: Georgia Anne Muldrow and Declaime (AKA Dudley Perkins)’s new project features production from Georgia and Dudley in addition to Black Milk, Oddisee, Flying Lotus and Oh No. Guest appearances from Kool G Rap, Rapper Big Pooh, MED & LMNO helped make this project even more ridiculous than I imagined it’d be based on previous releases by the duo before I even broke the cellophane on the CD packaging. That’s saying a lot given their track record. Mos def. Cop it now digitally on iTunes or physically on Feb 23rd.
Best Jawns: Empire Ants, On Melancholy Hill and Broken
Meh: Orchestral Intro, Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach, White Flag, Rhinestone Eyes, Stylo, Superfast Jellyfish, Glitter Freeze, Electric Shock, Sweepstakes, Cloud Of Unknowing and Pirate Jet
Hot Garbage: Plastic Beach and To Binge (for being 13 minutes long & mediocre)
Dart’s Take: I’ve never been into Gorillaz except for a handful of songs from their earlier days and this album hasn’t changed that any. I can honestly tell you that I feel like I just wasted 70 minutes of my life I could’ve easily spent shaving or doing laundry. I give “Plastic Beach” a well deserved oh no.
Best Jawns: Jump Start, Push That Work, Sound The Horns, Chi Girl, Cali Queen, I’m In, Make A Mark, Long Time Coming, Buzz Kill, It’s Time, Working, Recordmendation and On & On
Meh: Run It and Computer Crashes
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: LMNO is going to release 10 LP’s this year and he’s off to a damn good start already. Production by LD perfectly complemented LMNO’s bars and “Push That Work” is definitely a project you should consider copping if you’re an LMNO (or a Hip Hop) fan. I give “Push That Work” a recommended maybe.
Best Jawns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: Madlib did a blend of Brazilian Samba, Jazz & Funk that makes you want to go to your nearest aquarium, jump in the tank then attempt to German suplex a dolphin or a manatee real quick. I give this a mos def. Cop it provided you actually like music.
Best Jawns: At The End Of The Day, Riding For, GCM Meets ALC, Calzoni, Sadam’s Mansion, All Of The Above, It’s The Chain, Detention, Gold Chain War, Mad As Hell, Chocolate Honeys, Pleasure & Pain, Blood Lust, Organic Food, Back It Up, Chain Of Command and Future Shock
Meh: N/A
Hot Garbage: N/A
Dart’s Take: Planet Asia & his crew Gold Chain Military spit bars over production from big names like Large Professor, DJ Babu, Alchemist & Evidence but the majority of bangers were contributed by Masterkraftsmen. “Chain Of Command” is unfortunately going to end up yet another quality Hip Hop release that’ll get slept on in 2010 while people will line up to cop some wack ass album by some lame bastard. I give this project a recommended maybe in hopes you’ll check it out.
Yes, yes, I know it’s been a minute. Over the last two weeks the J-O-B has been pure, unfiltered drama with a little Villanova (was able to catch the Providence home game last Saturday as well as the unforeseen home loss to UConn last Monday evening) fun thrown into the mix for good measure. Needless to say, I’ve had next to no time to sit my ass down in front of the PC or Laptop for more than a few minutes at a clip. Yet, on the same token I’ve been able to catch up on more than a fair share of good music, and what’s even stranger is that I’ve really taken a strong liking to the more electronic/futuristic side of Hip Hop, artists such as Afta-1, Take, The Clonious and even to a certain extent the new Erik L & Illingsworth LP, takes the production of the LabTechs and pushes the envelope even furter. I must say, the Sene-assisted “Time Kills” which appears on “Northern Connection” is probably my favorite track nearly three months in to 2010.
So, if you will, try to follow along with me as this post will be more of a “THOUGHTS” meets “Most Played For The Week”. Enough rambling, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Read more…
Hip Hop is a funny animal. It’s the chameleon of the music world, changing it’s colors frequently. There is every kind of hip hop, I’m just waiting for someone come with a hip hop with a polka feel to it. Any more, I want to deal with “real” hip hop. Meaning music I can relate to. I don’t bang, I don’t have a fancy whip, and experienced a drive by in at least three weeks. So something with the daily crap throws at you, something about the numerous girl problems, and of course tossing back some cold ones. Intuition has all that in his music as well as more regular guy type of stuff.
He dropped an album in 2006, and while I don’t recall listening to it, his buzz caught me with the video for the track “Al Bundy,” a comical portrayal of a “morning after”. Since then I’ve been checking regularly for his music. When the album “Girls Like Me” dropped, it quickly become a regular in my rotation. It was only natural that we got him on the site for a conversation
WYDU: First off, you have to be the first hip hop artist to make it out of North Pole Alaska, the only other person I ever knew from there is the Green Bay Packers and former Boise St alum, Daryn Colledge. Being from a small ass town myself, I understand how it happens, but explain how a kid from the North Pole get into hip hop?
Intuition: Well I haven’t made it yet, but hopefully one day. But wow…holy shit, I had no idea that Daryn made it to the NFL. I used to play baseball with him. He was on my American Legion team. His mom is my mom’s insurance agent. That’s crazy. I don’t really keep up with sports or with too many folks back home so I either had no idea, or maybe I heard that before and forgot.
I got into hip hop as a kid just by watching TV and whatnot. I’m part of that very first generation that was born into a world where rap music was already THERE you know. It wasn’t like I just had some magic moment where I “discovered” it. I remember trying to learn to breakdance when i was five you know? By the time I was in 4th grade I had the words to multiple rap songs memorized, when I was in 7th grade I recorded my first song for a contest (it was a “Who can write the best anti-smoking rap” and I won two free meals at Wendy’s for the song under the guise EZ-Lee).
Due to the large presence of the military in Alaska, it’s actually a lot more diverse than most think, and we had kids from all over the country moving up there all the time, and there were definitely times during my youth where I was confused with my racial identity haha…there’s definitely something fishy about a 5th grader dressed from head to toe in African color schemes rocking Cross Colours, but it was the hot shit back then.
W: Let’s talk about moving from Alaska to LA, how much of a culture shock was that? How difficult was it getting your name out there? Did you ever have to get any waiter jobs or do the tour guide thing? haha
I: I’ve been living in SoCal for a while now (10 years), but I was bouncing around before I ended up in LA. Initially moving to California was just my means to escape Alaska, it was always just too small for me. I’ve been in LA almost 3 years now, but before that I was in Santa Barbara going to college and working, and when I FIRST moved to Cali I was living in Pomona going to school there. That’s where it really dawned on me like “Hey, being a white rapper is not so weird down here in California, and I could probably actually do this.” That was in like 2000. So moving to LA was not that big of a deal for me being that SB is only about an hour and a half away, and for the six years I was living there, I was playing shows in LA every other weekend for 3 of them.
I don’t really know how I got my name out, I’m just a very tenacious person, I hate hearing “no” for an answer, but at the same time, I’m generally a good dude and I’m good at making friends. I was never a nerdy dude, which I secretly think a lot of rappers are. I think a lot of dudes start rapping to try and earn respect, and try to get laid, and try to look cooler, but I just started taking rap seriously because I was really good at it. I already knew how to get laid and be cool, and that in turn helped me earn respect from other folks and get my name out I guess. I just learned early to never approach someone else on some “fanboy” shit, because you will never get taken seriously by that person. And basically, the respect I worked long and hard to earn helped me get shows, and shows helped introduce me to more people, and press and yadda yadda. In short, I’ve just been paying dues a really long time.
W: On the new album, “Girls Like Me”, you have a song titled, “I Love California”, I take you’ve settled in nicely…When did you start to think that you were going to make it in SoCal doing hip hop? Meaning, when was “The Coming” of Intuition in Cali and hip hop in general…
I: Well, like I said, I’ve been here doing this for a long time. I knew from the time I was 11 I was going to live in California because I used to visit my grandmother here and I loved it back then. I think I’ve been a “California” rapper since the moment I started taking it seriously. You know, up in AK I toyed around with it, changing words of rap songs around to be about me and my friends and stuff like that, but I moved to Cali when i was still a very young adult and it definitely molded me. I’ve been hoping I was going to make it since the first time I recorded a song, but I don’t know if I’ve really had my moment yet. Every time I put out a record I just hope that it will be the moment. I think, like most artists probably, I’m never satisfied, it never feels like you’ve done enough. I mean, I don’t even pay my rent with rap money yet, so I still think my “Coming” is coming.
W: How about the Hip Hop scene in LA, it seems like it’s getting better, but for awhile there, it seemed kinda cutthroat…..
I: I think it’s still very cut throat. Just in the recent months it’s started becoming a bit more united, but it’s still very cut throat. That’s simply because there’s such a large pool of people here, I would say “pool of talent” but there’s a lot of non-talent too. You gotta do what you can to try and rise to the top, and most people will even step on their homeys toes to do that, or forget about their homeys all together. I think the only way to make it in a business like this is to be cut throat though, now my friends and I have just decided to start being cut throat for each other as well.
W: You’re first album was “Stories About Nothing”, how did the album do compared to your expectations?
I: Well it was my baby at the time. I met Equalibrum (my main producer), and DJ Murj (the DJ i perform with) in 2003 and we all basically really learned to master our crafts together. I completely relearned recording with EQ, completely relearned a stage presence with Murj, and they both took it to the next level with me as well. We put a TON of work into that record, probably too much in hindsight, too nitpicky about details and such. I had this high concept of making a record where I never mentioned hip hop on it, no braggadocio, nothing like that. When we dropped it we thought it would be huge, but dropping a record is always anti-climactic and it never lives up to expectations. I will be honest, unlike most rappers, and say that that record only sold like 130 physical copies online. I mean it didn’t do SHIT. I moved the remainder of 1,000 hand to hand, but really, that record didn’t do anything for us monetarily, but in some small circles people love it, so it helped establish us as a team and helped get the name out as we discussed earlier.
W: There is quite the voice change from “Stories About Nothing” to “Girls Like Me”, why the drastic change?
I: Yeah I finished “Stories” like early ’06, but us learning all the right steps to getting a record out, and other assorted drama led to us not getting it out until ’07. About three months after I put it out, I was having a lot of tonsil problems. They used to almost touch in the back of my throat, so I got them removed. My voice changed big time. I listen to SAN now and cringe. Sounds like I recorded the whole thing with something stuck in my throat…pause. My voice is a lot more resonant now, and it affected the way that I rap to an extent as well. I feel like the voice change really helped me become the rapper I already thought I was.
W: You gained a little buzz on the net prior to the release of “Girls Like Me”, how important is the net these days for marketing and gaining new fans?
I: Well, I released an EP fittingly called “BUZZ” with the homey VerBS, over the summer. It happened really serendipitously, but at the same time I knew we were onto something, so I put my record writing process on hold for like 3 months while we did that, and that EP caught on way crazier than we expected. That really helped a lot with building up the buzz, and led to the blogs catching on to the solo project. I just happened to be the first of the two of us to put out a new solo record, but when VerBS drops the joint he’s working on now I’m sure it will get the same level of hype.
Internet marketing is damn near everything in gaining new fans nowadays. It’s the time of the 24 second news cycle. So if you’re not up on the net somewhere every day keeping people interested, you’re not going to make it. I’m trying to be better at being an early adopter with internet stuff, but in all honesty, I wish I had more help at it. The team I had helping me with this blog push was absolutely amazing though and i can’t thank them enough. Hopefully we just keep building from here.
W: Let’s talk about the new album then, “Girls Like Me”, what makes this album different from the run of the mill hip hop album out there these days?
I: Well….it’s really good. That’s the main thing. I am the first person to admit that I don’t think I am the BEST rapper. All my friends are better at freestyling than me, I don’t sit around trying to write the “hardest bars,” I don’t give a shit about how many “styles” someone has…I just like writing really good songs with really good hooks. And that’s what this album is.
In a way it’s a throwback album because it really is PURE rap musically…we’re not trying to make some crazy avante-garde record, we were just trying to make a really good rap record. And we didn’t try to pander to what labels and radio want as far as stacking all the good songs at the front of the record for listeners with short attention spans and Itunes shoppers. We made a record that makes sense from a song sequencing standpoint and if you put it on in your car or in your headphones, we don’t think you’ll skip a single song.
W: After seeing the first video, “Al Bundy”, I was expecting a lot more goofiness, but you’ve gotten a pretty good balance of seriousness, humor, and introspect. How difficult is it to balance all those things in an album?
I: I mean, I think that I have a good sense of humor about mys
elf, and I’m a real smartass in person, I think my visuals will probably always represent that to an extent. But yeah, the Al bundy video just kind of fell into place, and we did what we could with a $0 budget. When I hear the song I don’t think it’s a very humorous song, but the video is definitely meant to have that sort of smartass appeal.
As far as balancing all the elements, I think that’s what makes a good record. Just because I’m a class clown in public doesn’t mean I don’t think about things, or have interesting outlooks on serious subjects. So I wanted to bring a little bit of that to the table again, without being as serious as I was on SAN the whole time. I think good rap records are well rounded and can touch on multiple aspects of personality. Look at someone like Ghostface…he can write the most emo song and the most thugged out song and the most hilarious song all on one record.
W: Are you worried about getting the dreaded “emo rap” tag?
I: I used to be really scared of that honestly, but it doesn’t worry me at all. If you actually listen to my records you will see they are not emo records. If you call them that you ain’t listening. There are plenty of far more generic white-guy-that-shop-at-zumies rappers to tag that name on to. Most people that accuse me of being emo I could probably beat up.
W: The album is released on NoCanDo’s new label Hellfyre Club, how did you hook that up?
I: Well, I didn’t really hook that up. Nocan has been one of my best friends for a while now. We met in ’03 so I’ve just known him for a long time. He will be mad at me for saying this but, when he first told me about Hellfyre Club I wanted nothing to do with it because I’ve seen friends start labels dozens of times and then just fizzle away after one release, and it’s under the Alpha Pup umbrella and I wasn’t sure if they would really be into pushing a purely rap record. But he called me every day for like two weeks when the record was finished just listing reasons why I should sign, and eventually he convinced me.
We’re really hoping to turn this label into something. The old blueprint of how to make a successful indie rap label is obsolete, but we’ve paid enough attention over the years that we think we’ve learned from what they did right and learned from their missteps.
W: I’ve read in more than one place you have quite the live show, how important is a good stage show?
I: I think it’s very important. I think that whenever I’m in front of a crowd, whether I’m the headliner or the opening opening opening opener, you can tell that I know what I’m doing, and because of that you want to pay attention. How many wack groups have you seen perform? Because I’ve seen more than I can count, and I don’t remember any of their names. I just want to make sure that any time someone who doesn’t know me sees me onstage, they will remember my name. Thankfully I have a great DJ behind me in DJ Murj, we are close friends as well so we really concentrate on making our sets flow like a damn mixtape. We get onstage and we don’t really stop for a half hour…it’s just boom boom boom boom. That attitude really crossed over into the stage sets VerBS and I would do together as well…when you get TWO solid rap performers on stage together healthily competing with eachother….it’s trouble.
W: What’s on the horizon for Intuition?
I: Next up I have a side project dropping called “I Ruined These Songs For You.” It’s a collection of about 12 songs that I love that I decided to do “unauthorized collaborations” on. Each song regardless of the genre (indie rock, soul, RnB, blues, etc etc) has these natural loops in them that are just asking to be rapped over, and I did my best to change the songs as little as possible and just touch each one with a verse that is relevant to the song, so it sounds like i was in the studio collabing with them at the time. It’s basically like back in the day when you would make a mixtape of songs you like for a girl you liked, but then going “Oh by the way I rapped on all of them for you too.”
After that I think VerBS and I are going to do a follow up to the BUZZ EP sometime this year, and Equalibrum and I will begin working on the next Intuition album, but I haven’t even gotten an idea for that one yet, so we’ll see what happens.
Also touring this year. West coast tour in April/May, headed to SXSW in march, and really working to try and hop on as a supporting act for a bigger artist.
W: Any last words?
I: Sorry I’m so long winded…thank you for the interview, shoutout to all my Hellfyre Club affiliates: Nocando, Open Mike Eagle, Kail, and of course Equalibrum and DJ Murj. Go buy “Girls Like Me” (as in “they appreciate my company,” not “they are similar to”) on Itunes and help us build a really great record label.
SPOTLIGHT ON BLOGGERHOUSE: DJ ROB A(Great interview that covers three decades)
I’ve always had a rather serious admiration for the whole turntablist movement and traditional mixtape DJs. It’s something I have very little understanding of, but the way certain dudes can turn a turntable and a wax disc into an instrument is nothing short of amazing to me. Throw in a DJ that can make a traditional style hip hop mixtape with scratching and mixing and I’m won over. That’s exactly what John Doe of the world famous 1200 Hobos is all about.
Together with Mr. Dibbs and DJ Skip, John Doe has been a radio DJ, a battle DJ, and his latest inception as a mixtape DJ. My introduction to the 1200 Hobos was a rather memorable one. There used to be a little DJ/Mixtape place in Salt Lake City called The Hip Hop Shop. I used to go there and pick up Tony Touch tapes and the such. What started my mini fascination with turntablist like DJ Q-Bert, The X-Men (before they were forced to to changed their names to the X-Ecutioners) was a particular visit when I picked up DJ Q-Bert’s “Hot Sauce In Your Dickhole” (which I still have somewhere) and the 1200 Hobos “Evolution” (which I lost over time). I played both tapes a ton on my little Sony boombox sitting in my room. At one time I could play the “air turntable” (closely related to the air guitar) almost on cue with the scratches. Therefore, I’ve always watched what the Hobos would do. Of course Dibbs keeps in the limelight, being a road DJ for Atmosphere for awhile and making his own mixtapes, but the one that I hadn’t heard from in awhile was John Doe. That was until the cat it me up about doing some kind of post on his latest release, “The Last Amateur (One Hour Photo)”. After listening to the project, I knew putting a turntablist up on a Spotlight was a MUST. So of course, here we are…..
Read Spotlight After Jump
John Doe -The Last of the First (Download Link) FROM:The Last Amateur (One Hour Photo)
WYDU: What’s good man, how about a quick introduction of who you are and who/what you are representing’?
John Doe: My name is John Doe and I represent the 1200 HobosDJ crew out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Third member of the crew after Mr. Dibbs and DJ Skip.
W: You are definitely no new comer, as the 1200 Hobos have been around since the mid 90′s. I remember a DJ buddy of mine introduced me to the crew as I picked up and Q-Bert’s “Evolution” “Hot Sauce In Your Dickhole” from a hip hop shop in Salt Lake City of all places. Can you drop a brief history of how you came into the Hobos with Dibbs and Skip?
JD: I already knew the basics of just scratching before I met Dibbs through a mutual friend named Rubox. The first time he saw me scratch, he was pretty impressed, I guess. He made me a Hobo after that. Dibbs and I DJ’ed together on the B-Boys Underground radio show in Cincinnati for about 2 or 3 years.
W: Originally, you were known more as a battle DJ, competing in showcases and the such. Why the progression from battle DJ to more of a mixtape DJ?
JD: As time went on, I had less and less time to practice for battles and not a whole lot of opportunities to battle. But I always had ideas. So what I ended up doing was taking those ideas, extrapolating them and using them as the basis for my mixtapes.
Also, I was extremely disappointed with a majority of mixtapes that I heard around that time. A lot of them weren’t worth listening to again. I would listen to other DJs’ mixtapes and think to myself, ‘If this was my tape, I would have cut this instead,’ or ‘I would have totally scratched this instead of that.’ As the saying goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” So I did.
W: The term “mixtape” has obviously changed over the past 5-10 years. How do you view the traditional mixtape (with scratching, songs, and the good stuff) scene these days. How has it changed in your view?
JD: I don’t know how many DJs are doing traditional mixtapes nowadays. What people call “mixtapes” today are either compilations or “street albums.” My work doesn’t really fall into either of those categories. They’re totally different things from what I do, so it doesn’t really affect how I put my mixtapes together.
W: On your mixtapes, you still keep the DJ essence alive with plenty of “trickery” and to quote yourself, “vinyl manipulation”. When listening to your latest project “The Last Amateur,” it’s a real listening experience, the whole thing just flows for a good 60 minutes. To you, what makes a good mixt
ape project?
JD: Whatever format (CD, mp3, etc) it is, a good mixtape should flow just like a cassette tape. It also needs to be more than just a collection of songs. A good mixtape should showcase your skills as well as what you’re really about. That being said, there should also be a concept behind it to help bring everything together so it makes sense.
W: Explain the whole concept of “The Last Amateur”. What can listeners come to expect from it?
JD: The main levels to the concept:
1) The packaging. For something amateurish, you would probably expect a CD-R with the title written in a Sharpie in a slim case. “The Last Amateur” is in a standard clear/clear CD case with a full color 4 panel insert and a pressed CD.
2) Method of recording. I used all vinyl for the beats and scratches, and recorded everything on a Tascam 688, a cassette 8-track. I didn’t use any kind of digital DJing program or software to record because I don’t own them. I don’t even have a computer in my studio.
3) Me. I’m technically an amateur DJ, since environmental chemistry is my profession.
What can listeners expect? A lot of breaks, samples, 90s hip-hop cut up, and tons of scratching. Expect to hear an hour’s worth of songs reconstructed and/or deconstructed into its sample elements. There’s also a lot of turntable wordplay and actual mixing! There are no less than 90 songs used in the 60 minutes, so it’s packed pretty densely.
W: How much time did it take to make “The Last Amateur”? I’m assuming it probably wasn’t a one take thing that you did in the afternoon. Do you have to do “practice runs”?
JD: It took about a total of a year’s time to compose and record everything. There was a lot of planning and mapping out involved. Composition books, legal pads, and Post-It notes were all over the studio!
W: How do you choose what songs to cut up and manipulate? Are these personal favorites, or do you go with the general hip hop consensus of the classics? How important is it to pick the right song for the mood/feel you are looking for?
JD: Songs with a lot of samples in them are fun to work with, and if there are great lines in there, that’s a plus. I’ll start with one thing and kind of run with it. I try to stay away from the classics, but sometimes, those are great to take apart and put back together, especially if they’re based on great samples – then you can go either this way or that way with it.
As far as going for a particular mood or feel, I just go with what makes sense to me. I don’t know if it’s my scientific background that makes me do that, but the flow of “The Last Amateur” is completely linear. There’s nothing random. Every beat, every scratch, every insert is in there for a reason.
W: What else do you got on the burners for the upcoming future?
JD: There are plans for another CD in the vein of “The Last Amateur,” but in the meantime, I will be dropping some short turntable-based tracks here and there. The tracks will be posted on myspace.com/johndoe1200hobos and/or johndoe1200hobos.blogspot.com.
W: Who are some classic “traditional” DJs in your opinion, who do you view as some of the best in the biz? What makes a good DJ?
JD: Good DJs are the ones that inspired me: Mr. Mixx (2 Live Crew), DJ Man, Mike Fresh & DJ Toomp, Mix Master Ice (UTFO), Cash Money, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, QBert, Mr. Dibbs, DJ Noize, Cut Chemist, and Kid Koala.
W: Any last words for the loyal readers/listeners/followers?
JD: I’d like to give a big thank you to all the people who have checked out my material, appreciated it, and understood it.
