Forcing myself to think about what's going on in the world (for this blog, or otherwise) has been an exceptionally depressing exercise lately. Here are a few examples of the underlying meaning behind the phrase "no news is good news"...
Flying on commercial airlines is still at least as dangerous as hunting quails with Dick Cheney, especially if terrorists are really planning to use Pantene to blow us off the map. Guess there's no need to worry, though---our ingenious government has equipped us with these hilarious instructions for surviving a terrorist attack. I feel safer already.
Conditions in the Middle East continue to be colossally fucked up...
George Bush remains relatively oblivious to situations unfolding across the globe, except when he sees an opportunity to instill fear.
The death toll is still rising in China in the aftermath of Typhoon Saomai.
45, 000 people displaced in the Philippines due to Mayon volcano.
U.S. gasoline prices hit a record high---again.
Damn---enough already...
We both know that there are billions of other problems/disasters also happening at this moment in the history of the universe. However, in the interest of not appearing to be an incurable pessimist, I have to admit that a few things happened recently that actually made me crack a smile...
The most amusing celebrity beef of all time---Geraldo Rivera and Bill O'Reilly vs. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Kanye West has gotten engaged. Marriage may be a good look for Kanye, particularly if it helps to dispel those ugly rumors that he's secretly in love with one of these two. Sorry 'Ye, but this means it's time to go through your closet and take a few of those pastel sweaters out of rotation. Maybe those guys from "Queer Eye For the Straight Guy" can help you toughen up your image a little bit ;)
"Weeds" is blizzack in the building.
I might be happy about a couple of other things, too, but if I don't start posting the rest of your linkage, my granny's gonna make me go to bed before I get finished...
Download "After the Dance" by Marvin Gaye by way of Looking at Them.
An impressive selection of old school hip hop mp3s has been posted at You Can Call Me Betty. Download tracks by Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash, Funky Four Plus One, The Furious Five, Eric B & Rakim, Treacherous Three & Kool Moe Dee, and more.
Spike Lee's upcoming HBO documentary on Hurricane Katrina will be entitled "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts".
The Smudge of Ashen Fluff is featuring a few neo-soulish songs by Stephanie McKay. If you've never heard of her before, give her a try. She has a gorgeous voice, and being accompanied by the likes of Roy Hargrove and Dj Spinna doesn't hurt her material either.
Most people who are familiar with the legendary Bob James already know the enormous impact he's had on hip-hop producers over the years. His track "Nautilus" (available via Analog Giant) is a prime example. It's been used as the foundation for joints by Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Ultramagnetic MC's, Tim Dog, Pete Rock, Organized Confusion, Mary J Blige, Keith Murray, EPMD, Ghostface, Camp Lo, ATCQ, Geto Boys, Large Professor, etc.
Also in the spirit of samplemania, Fletch at Rebel To America posted a ton of tracks that have been sampled in joints by Nas. Download songs by Earth, Wind, & Fire, Mandrill, Lyn Collins, The Persuaders, Mary Jane Girls, Eddie Kendricks, The Emotions, and many more.
The good people at Dilated Choonz have also been putting up some posts with original songs and the hip-hop joints that followed. Jefferson Airplane's "Today" was sampled on Black Sheep's (cult?) classic track "Similak Child". Furthermore, "Today" was covered by saxophonist/composer Tom Scott about a year after JA released it on their most widely celebrated LP, Surrealistic Pillow. Scott's version of the song was later sampled on Pete Rock's hip-hop masterpiece, "T.R.O.Y.".
"Fortune Teller" by Bettye LaVette and "Rolling Down a Mountainside" by Isaac Hayes are both available courtesy of The Stepfather of Soul.
Jean Carne is undoubtedly one of the great sisters of soul. Download "Don't Let It Go to Your Head" via The Number One Songs In Heaven. This song laid the foundation for Brand Nubian's track with the same title.
Cop quite a decent collection of Timbaland instrumentals at Spliff Huxtable.
Download "What's Going On" by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (ft. Chuck D) at The Broke BBoys.
Visit The Record Robot to acquire "Fed Up with the Blues" by OV Wright.
Fans of Dan the Automator should definitely head over to los amigos de durutti. There you will find a couple of tracks from his 2K7 project---"Don't Hate the Player" (ft.Hieroglyphics), as well as the already overblogged"2K007" (w/Ghostface and AG). Two mp3s from his collabo w/ DJ Shadow, 1999's Bombay the Hard Way are also included.
Sneakmove recently featured "Adventures in the Land of Music" by Dynasty, in addition to a couple of tracks that feature it as a sample---Angie Stone's "Lovers' Ghetto" and "Luchini" by Camp Lo. Also, be sure to check out Sequence's "Funk You Up".
Finally, the new Madvillain joint "Monkey Suite" leaked onto the internets this week, only to be taken down from most of the blogs/sites where it was posted. As of this writing, the track is still available by way of the scattermish bloooog, along with some other random MF Doom and Madlib mp3s.
Don't blink---these files are gonna expire quicker than you can say Joe Lieberman
4 comments:
Es-Won---
I had a link up for your site a while ago, but I removed it because I thought you quit blogging. I like the stuff you've been posting lately. I'll definitely link Jungle Mission in an upcoming post.
Keep on keepin' on...
great post as ususal!
I've been slower in the uptake, mostly because i have a hard time keeping up.
meanwhile, it's great that bush is keeping up his psuedo macho frat boy shenanigans. as the world goes to hell.
looking forward to some heavy hitting stuff from spike, perhaps it'll be just the nudge we need to change the zeitgeist.
I never heard of jean carn before- excellent stuff!
firpo
Firpo---if I'm being honest, your comments are in the top ten reasons why I keep doing this blog.
I'm glad you liked Jean's song "Don't Let it Go to Your Head". When I contributed those posts at MWAT earlier this summer, I had every intention of posting that song, as well as the Brand Nubian track with the same title. That never came to fruition, so I had to make mention when the song popped up elsewhere on the internets.
I'm also looking forward to Spike's doc, and hope it will reveal some "truthiness" that needs to be exposed. I'm somewhat doubtful, however, that the idiots who ought to see this will pay it any mind.
s-
can't worry too much about the real idiots. as we well know, they have too much at stake in their idiocy.
it's the well intentioned people on the wrong side of the fence who could be coaxed.
come to think of it, americans aren't that bad a bunch- i mean it only took the majority 6 years to figure out that bush is bad for our country and was fooling with us about the iraq war.
what's the expression? fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice... we won't get fooled again!?
firpo
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