If you’re tired of hearing Lupe rap over glossy electro/dubstep instrumentals (as you should be), this one’s for you. Over a beat full of dirty electric guitar riffs, Lupe links up with Twista and Houston rapper Killa Kyleon for a cut from Rap-A-Lot Records’ 25th Anniversary compilation album.
As nice as Lupe’s verse was, I couldn’t help from being thrown off when I heard him refer to himself as “trill” and rap about codeine. I’m not sure if he was attempting to ride the ASAP Rocky wave or just fitting in with the Houston vibe that Kyleon brought to the track. Regardless, this is nice. All three guys killed it. I know Twista’s developed a habit of using the same flow on every song he ever makes but I really don’t mind. It blows my mind every time.
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I’ll be honest: I can’t relate to the majority of the music I listen to. Somehow songs about gold chains and Paris nightclubs aren’t as relatable when they’re pumping through half-blown Goodwill speakers as I sit on a stained couch Craigslist fresh from the Craigslist free section. This song ‘Got No Money’ by Los Angeles punk group FIDLAR is a little more similar to my current situation. Shoot.
In the next logical step of Cee-Lo Green’s plan for taking over the world, he’s decided to get Goodie Mob back together. Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp, and Cee-Lo teamed up for this track plucked from the soundtrack of soon-to-be-released film The Obama Effect. The classic Goodie Mob sound is intact as smooth, soulful vocals give way to southern rap verses (it’s awesome to hear Cee-Lo rap again by the way). This gets me stoked for a new full-length Goodie Mob project. Hopefully those rumors materialize.
Just the other day I was thinking that we were about due for something new from J Cole, but I’d be lying if I said I was expecting anything like this. Actually, 15 minutes ago I hadn’t ever heard of Selah Sue and had no idea what the heck a raggamuffin was. Turns out Selah Sue is a pretty awesome Belgian singer who is getting ready to release her debut album in the US (the album was released in Belgium in 2011). I still have no idea what the heck a ragamuffin is.
I do know that I really like saying it, though. I also know that I really like this song. Hearing J. Cole verses over acoustic guitar is an interesting switch-up from his usual style and Selah Sue has a pretty cool style. She actually throws in a few raps of her own (kinda). I dig it. (Ok – I just looked up what ‘ragamuffin’ means. I can’t believe I didn’t know that. Thanks Internet!)
As obsessed as I am with finding innovative and progressive music, sometimes I just want to sit back and listen to an oldies station that plays nothing but timeless music that’ll never lose its appeal. Unfortunately, I’ve heard every Beatles song hundreds of times and old music just kinda gets…well…old. Fortunately, London band Mystery Jets have come to my rescue. They’ve got the whole ‘Britpop’ thing going on, calling to mind the British Invasion period of the 60s – which turned out to be a pretty wonderful period in music history. While they do draw from obvious classic rock influences, Mystery Jet’s new album Radlands (easily one of my favorite album titles of the year) is their fourth release, which has given them plenty of time to develop a sound of their own.
I’m pretty sure the album’s lead single “Greatest Hits” was written specifically for my ‘Summertime Driving Playlist’. It’s got enough “shalalala’s” and handclaps to last the Summer and I mean that in the best way possible. Download/stream that below, as well as a stream of Radlands in its entirety. It’s pretty rad. Sorry. I had to.
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I’ll be honest. When I saw this photo of Los Angeles band PAPA, I was prepared to post their music no matter how good or bad it was. The photo contains a level of “epic” that’s as discouraging as it is awe-inspiring. No matter how well my day goes, there’s no way it will ever reach a point as awesome as standing in front of a mounted Marlin with an American flag draped around my neck. It just won’t happen.
Still jealous of their photo, I clicked play on Ain’t It So, the opening track on PAPA’s debut EP A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. I was greeted with interestingly catchy lead vocals, crisp drums, and the perfect amount of “doo-doo-doos”. Shoot. These guys get to pose for epic photos AND they’re awesome at making music. Life isn’t fair. Watch a live performance of the track and stream/download the album version below.
We’re used to hearing hip-hop artists rhyme over indie-rock hits but it’s unusual to hear an indie-rock group cover a hip-hop song. Sure, Youtube is flooded with videos of guys in their bedrooms with guitars covering hip-hop songs in an ironic “look, I’m turning a silly hip-hop song into a REAL song!” kind of a way, but I can’t think of many rock groups giving a good faith effort to actually provide their own interpretation of a rap song.
Oberhofer decided that they were up to the challenge and reworked one of my favorite Kanye West tracks, Runaway. I think they succeeded. Kanye’s version put out a “I’m a crazy successful rapper who can get any woman I want but I’m not very good with them once I get ‘em” vibe, while Oberhofer’s version is a little more along the lines of “I’m an awkward teenager who rarely gets girls and when I do I screw it up horribly” even though both songs have identical lyrics. Funny how that works.
K’naan‘s last album Troubadour was released three years ago but I still manage to listen to it regularly. As long as that’s lasted, I’m definitely ready for some new material. Fortunately, his next project Country, God or the Girl will be here in a couple months (July) and he decided to put this single out to help build the hype a little. Expect the classic K’naan sound on this one: a smooth, catchy chorus and upbeat verses. Listen/download, then check out his performance of the track on The Tonight Show below.
“a girl made a video. i am mad about it. im going to spend all day online telling everyone how mad it makes me that a girl did a thing”
That was Kitty Pryde’s sarcastic response to the overwhelming reaction to her new song/video Okay Cupid. On the off chance you were outside actually contributing to society yesterday and missed out on this, we should probably take a quick step back… Yesterday morning, a teenager from Daytona Beach, Florida who goes by the name Kitty Pryde posted this music video to YouTube:
Within hours, it had made its way onto almost every major music blog and it seemed everybody had an opinion. Some were quick to call her the next big thing and others saw Kitty Pryde as the horrifying hipster spawn of Ke$ha and Rebecca Black. I’ll be honest, my initial reaction was closer to that second description than the first. As ridiculous and awful as it originally appeared, there was something captivating about it. I watched it like three more times and didn’t really know why.
Ok. This is where the story gets kinda weird.
Where was Kitty Pryde herself when the Internet was collectively freaking out over her video? Was she in a talent manager’s office somewhere fielding calls from record label suitors?
That’s when I realized how crazy all of this is. Kitty Pryde is just a normal pop culture-obsessed teenage girl who felt the natural need to emulate the stuff she’s so obsessed with. When I was in high school, I did the same thing. The TV show Jackass was popular, so my friends and I filmed ourselves doing stupid pranks. We filmed it, watched it once, then forgot about it. The difference for Kitty Pryde? She has the same tools available to her as the stars that she’s obsessed with. It’s come to the point where anyone can afford an HD camera, a laptop, and an internet connection. You don’t need the backing of a record label to release a polished product for millions to see.
I think that’s why so many people are freaking out about this. Kitty Pryde is the symbol of a dramatic, scary change in the way our culture works. A red-headed girl who works at Claire’s with no credible musical background made a music video that looks a lot like the stuff put out by multi-million-dollar corporations. Then she released it on the exact same platform as those multi-million-dollar corporations: YouTube. The playing field has been leveled. The old rules and standards of the entertainment industry are gone. We’re now being exposed to weird pockets of culture that we’ve never been exposed to before on this scale. Teenage girls used to be represented by ultra-manufactured icons like Miley Cyrus, dreamed up by old businessmen trying to sell products. In a weird way Kitty Pryde might be showing us what they’re actually like. That’s kind of awesome, isn’t it?
I’m still not sure how I feel about the video, but I love what it represents. Maybe I’m just being overly dramatic. I don’t know. Kitty Pryde’s response to all of this during an interview today?
“This is all hilarious. This entire thing is hilarious.”
Most of us know about Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q by now, but fellow Black Hippy member Ab-Soul released his album Control System today in hopes of building a little buzz himself. He holds his own but it wasn’t a huge surprise that the standout track is the last one – a posse cut featuring all four members of the crew (Kendrick, Schoolboy, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock) over brooding production by Willie B.
