'Unexpected Friends' - DOOM (review)

What’s there to say? One CD-shaped collection of DOOM’s bestest featurings and collaborations. These sorts of things, aimed at the fans, always seem a little redundant – you’ll probably have most of the tracks, but then it’s a DOOM release and you need it for your collection.

‘Unexpected Guests’ is a gathering of tracks that illustrate why DOOM gets these gigs – he sounds so good on guest verses! Commencing with the great ‘Rock Co. Kane Flow’ off of De La’s ‘The Grind Date’ (and produced by Jake One who crops up a few more times) the album brims with that real Hip Hop that is above all amazingly entertaining in the ‘I can’t believe he thinks of and says these things’ kind of a way.

I really enjoyed this mix CD and with Dilla beats, Wu-Tang verses and other appearances from folk like Kweli (who is back on point on ‘Fly That Knot’) it should make sense to you, the discerning Hip Hop head. Good stuff.

It’s out now on the Gold Dust label and is available at the places where you buy your Hip Hop.

‘You Know What Love Is’ – J Dilla & VA – Mixed by DJ Spin Doctor (album review)

Tupac. Biggie. Now J Dilla. Posthumous releases in the form of tributes are the order of the day 3 years after Jay Dee’s untimely death. London’s Doctors Orders mainstay Spin Doctor is the latest to pay homage to the Detroit based producer.

Now I’ve got to admit, during his life, I was ignorant of his work. Since his death I’ve realised a few of my favourite tracks were produced by him, for example, ‘Dynamite!’ by The Roots (one of my all time favourite songs). I don’t know how many other people share my experience of unawareness but for me, J Dilla’s legacy is similar to that of art world greats.

The good thing about Spin Doctor’s mix (apart from all the Dilla bangers) is that ALL of the proceeds will go to the Yancey family and Lupus UK. Over both discs Spin Doctor steers clear of the better known productions and instead offers up remixes, original breaks and lesser known tracks, making his mix a little different to the others.

With healthy doses of golden age favourites such as Busta, Q-Tip, Tribe and De La and equally hearty portions of Motor Town artists like Slum Village and Phat Kat the instrumentals and original sample sources all meld together perfectly. If you didn’t know what Dilla sounded like before, this mix will ensure your ears are attuned to some of the most headnod provoking Hip Hop instrumentals ever made.

All J Dilla fans, there must be many out there, need this mix. 2 hours of the late, great Jay Dee and your hard earned dollar/pound/euro/yen going to a worthy cause. Realness. Get it at Phonica.

'Sounds Like The 90s' - VA (3 free downloads)

If, like me, you find trawling through amounts of modern Hip Hop just to find something good is boring, you need to get over to the T.R.O.Y. blog to download some of their 'Sounds Like The 90's' compilations. They do exactly what they say on the tin: sound like the 90's. They've sorted the wheat from the chaff and selected prime cuts of retro-sounding-but-modern Hip Hop and stuck them all in one download with artwork to boot.

There are currently 3 volumes to download and they feature artists such as The P Brothers, Showbiz & AG, De La Soul, J-Live, Reks, Saigon, Cormega, Raekwon, Focus, The Roots and loads more, most of whom are quality, established artists.

Volume 1 tracklist and download link.

Volume 2 tracklist and download link.

Volume 3 tracklist and download link.

'The Golden Age' - Spin Doctor (free download)

Do you love the 90's? 90's Hip Hop that is Well if you do you needs to get your mitts on Spin Doctors 'The Golden Age' mix.

It's packed full of goodness from the likes of Brand Nubian, The Pharcyde, The Fugees, The Roots, Common, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Busta Rhymes... man the list goes on. But really, it speaks for itself so I'll continue: Black Moon, KRS One, Junior Mafia (unfortunately, can't stand em), Big L, Showbiz & AG, Lord Finesse, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Keith Murray, Das EFX, Sadat X, Mobb Deep, Rawcotics, Nas and Africa Islam (wipes sweat off brow and fingers).

'The Golden Age' is expertly mixed by an expert and is bound to be many folks cup of tea, or even coffee - the Americans will love it too! Whatsmore, you can get it for free! If you go to The Doctors Orders webpage, then you'll find this free to download as one fat track. If you want a hard copy with the artwork and everything then track it down at Sounds Of The Universe, Revival Records, Wyld Pitch, Sister Ray or Phonica.

Whilst you're there, there are loads of other mixes to download - cool!

'Rewind DJ' ft. De La Soul - Eslam Jawaad (single review)

Defying the usual country-based pigeon holing Eslaam Jawaad represents the UK, US and Lebanon. With past work with Wu affiliate Cilvaringz, UK Apache, Asian Dub Foundation and Damon Albarn’s latest band The Good, The Bad, and the Queen Mr. Jawaad has been busy. And the less we mention about mafia connections the better.

His new single ‘Rewind DJ’, whilst sounding a little clichéd is classic stuff. Firstly, it features De La Soul who deliver the goods with some thoughtful and sometimes scatterbrained vocals. The chorus is robbed (almost) straight from Aliyah’s ‘Try Again’ and outlines Eslam’s intentions of reviving Hip Hop or at least not letting it die again. The production is bouncy and full of replayability and has some welcome scratching incorporated.

The B-side ‘Hip-Hop Sucks’ laments (as many have done) that Hip Hop has “no message, no essence, no soul”. It’s a good track so many MCs have touched this subject that it’s kinda tedious although the brassy lively production gives it a real lift.

‘Rewind DJ’ is out on 26th January 2009 on Eslamaphobic. Eslam Jawaad’s album ‘The Mammoth Tusk’ which features The Rza, Damon Albarn and Dre-associate Focus will be out in the spring. 'Rewind DJ' can be heard on his myspace page.

Talib Kweli on Ghost Weed

You remember those skits on De La Souls 'AOI: Mosaic Thump'? You know the ones where the MC's at a cypher smoke the 'Ghost Weed' and their voices gradually morph into that of a real famous rapper? No? OK, maybe just me and the select few then. Anyway, Talib must be on that particular brand of the leaf. I can't be the only one who has noticed that his already kinda high and mildly squeaky voice has ascended into Q Tip heights. Just check out this selection of mp3's in chronological order and you'll see what I mean. Incidentally, this collection of tracks is actually a really nice Kweli play list:

Black Star - 'Definition' - Released in 1999, it's almost certain that this is Kweli's best song, Mos Def kills it too...all sing along: "One, two, tree, Mos Def and Talib Kweliiiiii".

Reflection Eternal - 'This Means You' ft. Mos Def - Released in 2000, probably my favourite sequence of consecutive songs ever is on Kweli and Hi-Tek's 'Train of Thought' set. This is preceded by 'Move Somethin', 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and 'The Blast' (so good I named my Uni Hip Hop night after it) and they are all such great tracks. What many don't know is that if you fold the CD inlay in a different way you get much better cover art, we all know the proper cover is whackedy whack.

Hi-Tek - 'Can We Go Back' ft. Ayak & Talib Kweli - Released in 2006 and we hear Kweli's voice on the up along side London's Ayak (who I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, check her).

Strong Arm Steady - 'One Step' ft. Talib Kweli - Released in 2007 and, yup, his voice is up one more notch on the voice-higness-meter. A great track with a great crew, I gots to check some more music by this collective.

Talib Kweli - 'Follow the Leader' ft. Busta Rhymes - Released this year on Kweli's new mixtape 'The MCEO Mixtape' (Yes, that is a cross between MC and CEO, bet Jay-Z is gutted he didn't think of that one for himself). Talib is positively chipmunk-like here and must have just inhaled a great deal of Ghost Weed smoke. This is an awesome track over Eric B's 'Follow the Leader', flawless production that seems to have got stronger over time too. As usual, Mr. Rhymes's guest spot is hungry and entertaining.

Get that Mixtape for yourself by clicking here, or here, or here, or here. No excuses now eh?

Also, here are the De La tracks with the ghost weed skits at the end:

De La Soul -'Oooh' ft. Redman (Ghost Weed skit features Pharoahe Monch)

De La Soul - 'Set The Mood' ft. Indeed (Ghost Weed skit features Phife)

De La Soul - 'With Me' (Ghost Weed Skit features (a woman doing) Black Thought)

Get all tracks in ther body bag, zipped up here

And finally, much love to Tunji for emailing me all the promo stuff for this mixtape, check him out at http://inversehiphop.wordpress.com/.

HHC Top 100 rap singles 40-31

#37 & 31 - NWA

*Please, please, please use the zshare links or else I won't be able to post properly once my bandwidth is used up on fileden.*

The tunes are getting bigger now yet there are probably still a few that you don’t have. I’ve been wondering what purpose this top 100 has been serving for people. Has it been a trip down memory lane? Has it been an opportunity for you to fill in gaps in your collection? Has it been an educational experience? Drop me a comment so I can understand more about my visitors. Today’s selection is particularly good:

40. Big Daddy Kane – Ain’t no Half Steppin’ (zshare) – 1988 – Long Live the Kane (buy album here)
In 88 this must have sounded a couple of years ahead of the game. A very laid back track with numerous samples, the strangest one being the serial killer with a knife sound effect.

39. Gang Starr – Mass Appeal (zshare) – 1994 – Full Clip (buy album here)
DJ Premier is one of those producers who will never be accused of whackness. He’s consistent on the whole and even when he makes a weak track the strength of his back catalogue holds him up. Him and Guru were a perfect pair, this track embodies the character of their music.

38. Eminem – Stan (zshare) – 2000 – The Marshall Mathers LP (buy album here or borrow it from your sister)
This is the track that sadly, you are most likely to have heard. Yes it is great, flipping Dido and kick starting her career was a great move and served its purpose well. I grudgingly accept that in fact, this does deserve to be here.

37. NWA – Express yourself (zshare) – 1989 – Straight Outta Compton (buy album here)
Ahhh, the first NWA track I heard and nothing but positive vibes from the boys. The critics of the time obviously overlooked this when they labelled NWA as troublesome, angry, vile and unsuitable.

36. Public Enemy - Public Enemy #1 (zshare) – 1987 – Yo! Bum rush the Show (buy album here)
A brilliant intro here, mimicked by Karl Hinds on ‘You don’ Know’ and the forerunner of tracks like ‘Super Sharp Darts’. Chuck’s distant vocals hit hard as usual.

35. Ultramagnetic MC’s – Watch Me Now (zshare) – 1988 – Critical Beatdown (buy album here)
‘Watch me now’ seems to sum up everything that Hip Hop had become in the late eighties. Funk samples and breaks, fast tempos and boastful rhymes.

34. Ice Cube – It was a good day (zshare) – 1993 – The Predator (buy album here)
This is another tune for a sunny day, perfectly mellow and uplifting, suited for a BBQ in the yard.

33. Public Enemy – Welcome to the Terrordome (zshare) – 1990 – Fear of a Black Planet (buy album here)
Wooooooo! This is music to go wild to! Contains the immortal line ‘Hear the drummer get wicked’.

32. De La Soul – Plug Tunin’ (zshare) – 1988 – Three Feet High and Rising (buy album here)
Why wasn’t this on the greatest hits? Weird.

31. NWA – F*** the Police (zshare) – 1989 – Straight Outta Compton (buy album here)
Ooof. Now that’s why those critics, politicians and anyone with white skin were scared of NWA, now that’s attitude.

Right, I'm off camping now so pray the sun shines for me.

HHC Top 100 rap singles 60-51

#53&55 - De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

I know you’re all salivating at the mouth (and all manner of other body parts) for this next selection of rap tunes, well here it is in all its uncut glory: numbers 60 – 51.

60. Rammellzee vs. K-Rob – Beat Bop – 1983
Thanks to Aaron @ Canned Thinking for this one - the last track I needed. I can’t believe I haven’t heard it before because it is amazing! (Only available on fileden!)

59. Marley Marl – Marley Marl Scratch ft. MC Shan (zshare) – 1985
A classic DJ/MC set up, yes, it did used to be that way around. DJ’s were more important back then.

58. JVC Force - Strong Island (zshare) – 1988 *fixed link*
An instantly recognisable intro heralds ‘Justified by Virtue of Creativity For All Reasons Concerning Entertainment’s biggest hit. Pick up any Hip Hop compilation and chances are this is on there - good work boys.

57. LL Cool J - I’m Bad (zshare) – 1987 – ‘Bigger and Deffer’ (buy here)

56. Gang Starr – DWYCK ft. Nice & Smooth (zshare) – 1992 – ‘Hard to earn’ (buy here)

55. De La Soul – Buddy (zshare) – 1990 - ‘Three Feet High and Rising’ (buy here)
Big fat posse cut here – Jungle Bro’s, ATCQ & De La (that’s 6 MCs), if positive Hip Hop from the 90’s is your thing (and it should be) then this is essential.

54. Gang Starr – You know my Steez (zshare) – 1997 – ‘The Moment of Truth’ (buy here)

53. De La Soul – Eye Know (zshare) – 1989 – ‘Three Feet High and Rising’ (buy here)
How big was ‘Three Feet…’? It must have been huge at the time, I really wish I hadn’t been 5 at the time but at least time goes forwards and not backwards; now we can all still enjoy these tracks that still sound fresh.

52. Jurassic 5 – Concrete Schoolyard (zshare) – 1997 – ‘Jurassic 5 LP’ (buy here)
One of my favourite tunes of all time, from the “We were just sitting out on the step you know” to the “I represent the real from the beginning to the end of it” it’s just a straight up classic. Seeing them doing this live was a dream come true.

51. Craig Mack – Flava In Your Ear (zshare) – 1994 – ‘Project: Funk the World’ (buy here)
If you can understand what Craigy boy is saying here then you must be a skilled multi-linguist. It doesn’t matter though ‘cause the beat is cool enough and his cadence matches it well.

Half way house homeslice! I’m audi.

p.s. As a big fan of Harry Potter I urge you to watch the new film, read the new book and go here to find out all about Wizard Rock. There are some great tracks there and 'Where's your hood at?' is an amazing title for a song by a Dementor!

HHC Top 100 rap singles 100-91

#95 - Dilated Peoples - The Platform

O.K. – We’ll kick off the Top 100 Rap singles in reverse order. There are, as it stands, 2 songs missing and I do apologise for this. Hopefully I’ll get them as we go along.

100. Big Daddy Kane - Wrath of Kane.mp3 – 1988 – from ‘It’s a Big Daddy Thing’(buy here)

99. Public Enemy - Dont Believe the Hype.mp3 – 1988 – from ‘It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back’ (buy here)

My first taste of PE courtesy of ‘Best Hip Hop Anthems…Ever’. (Does anyone have this that they don’t want? It was my little brothers and I think one of my mates nicked it and now we can’t find a copy, it must be the best Hip Hop compilation…ever.)

98. Mos Def - Universal Magnetic.mp3 – 1997 – from ‘Soundbombing' (buy here)

Grrr. Really wish I hadn’t sold this 12”. I never appreciated it before but now I love it. A B-Boy throwback type classic.

97. De La Soul - The Magic Number.mp3 – 1989 – from ‘Three Feet High and Rising’ (buy here)

Has rap ever been more widely accepted than this track? Flippin’ ‘eck, even Julian Clary uses it on his weird BBC 7 radio show where he phones people up and helps them with problems such as their wives liking the Chippendales too much.

96. Just-Ice - Cold Gettin' Dumb.mp3 – 1987

95. Dilated Peoples - The Platform.mp3 – 2000 – from ‘The Platform’ (buy here)

I’m somewhat sceptical about the inclusion of this. I love Dilated, I have all their albums apart from that whack one that had Kanye Cheesemeister on it, but I think this got in here because of its success at the time. A personal favourite track and album though.

94. Public Enemy - Bring the Noise.mp3 – 1988 – from ‘It takes a Massive LP Title to Annoy Rap Writers’ (buy here)

Only to be played loud. Chuck D rages and Flav adds those usual mental ad libs.

93. Lords of the Underground - Cheif Rocka.mp3 – 1994 – from ‘Here Comes the Lords’ (buy here)

Head nodding Hip Hop with a dusty bass and echoey snare/clap that should get you dancing as well as excercising your neck. Good lyric: “…no it’s the shoes // The shoes? // It’s gotta be the shoes”.

92. Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray.mp3 – 1993 – from ‘Ninety Naughty Three’ (buy here)

Hip Hops anthem. Straight up, more nod inducing fare with THE most sing-a-long-able chorus ever, no exaggeration. NbN walk the fine line between mainstream and hardcore with precision.

91. Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph.mp3 – 1997 – from ‘Wu-Tang Forever’ (buy here)

One of the RZA’s tighter productions, a delicious mono bass tone resonates whilst strings punctuate the tension. The Clan take it in turn to drop lyrically supreme rhymes that serve to highlight how many weak wordsmiths there are around in this mixtape obsessed culture where anyone and their rims can be rap stars.

Give and thou shalt receive

“I love charity shops. You can give money but get something for yourself too.”

I found myself uttering these words, without thinking, on a recent visit to an Oxfam in Woodseats near Sheffield. It really is true, and I don’t mean to sound selfish. One mans rubbish truly is another mans treasure and pleasure. I take any opportunity to browse through smelly old boxes of vinyl usually comprising of Val Doonican, Cliff Richard best ofs, Simon and Garfunkels Greatest hits, Singles by Erasure and the Eurythmics and flippin’ Frankie goes to Hollywood. The amount of times I’ve flipped through almost generically sleeved compilation LP’s of James Last could only be rivalled by the amount of said records available in any one town. Over the last two weeks I have had a minature spree and have harvested the following slices of vinyl delight from the fields of unwanted 12’s and 7 inches.

In no particular order other than the one in which they are piled on my desk next to me:

The Pink Panther Theme (and Baby Elephant walk) (7”)

There comes a time in the life of every man when he desires to hear that tune off the hilariously calamitous film about a pseudo French spy (although rare, this condition also occurs in some females). There are many times, often in one day, when aforementioned man has the urge to whistle that tune. I am now privileged enough, courtesy of the ‘Strings for pleasure’ and EMI, to own on 45 a copy of this beautiful recording complete with a drawing on the back to colour with ‘crayons or paints!’.

The Jam – David Watts b/w “A” bomb in Wardour Street (7”)

Basically, any teeny bopper who claims to love ‘punk (pop)’ music, should listen to songs such as these. Back in the day they knew how to do it, before music became too confined by a label, too defined by a genre and too refined for today’s sickly sweet pop charts, music made with guitars was enjoyable to listen too. All those fall out boys and girls, get a The Jam best of, it’ll be about a fiver, listen and actually enjoy music. And as a previous owner has penned on the sleeve, ‘Long live rock ‘n’ roll’.

Marvin Gaye – I heard it through the grapevine b/w Can I get a Witness? (7”)

What is there to be said? The best male solo artist Motown gave the world? One of the most well known songs from the label/genre? Yes, probably would suffice as an answer to those two questions. The first question was rhetorical and even if it wasn’t, it was answered by the ensuing queries.

Bruce Willis – Respect Yourself (7”)

I want to quote some lyrics here just to give you some idea of the gold that is contained within that beautiful sleeve… I’m finding it hard to decide…with gems of advice such as these it’s a tough choice:

“You keep talking about the president wont stop air pollution//Put your hand over your mouth when you cough that’ll help the solution”

Nice one Brucey, but how?! Maybe he’s implying that the talk of the “gentleman” he’s crooning about is contaminated or toxic. Really you need to get your hands on this, grab something hard to drink, put the needle in the groove and then sit back and listen whilst reading the lyrics on the back of the sleeve, seriously this will improve your life.
P.S. How did he get a deal with Motown?

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/b/brucewillis10481/respectyourself338756.html - Check out the lyrics in full here!

The Clash – Should I stay or I go (7”)

Any respectable, and indeed any disrespectable, rock/alternative/indie (or whatever they call it now) night will play this tune, and it sounds good at home too. Let’s put on our classics and ‘ave a little dance shall we?

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (7”)

Not a fan in general, but I couldn’t not have this. I’ll probably never sit down and listen to it as I could probably sing the whole damn thing to myself, but it may come in useful when I’m playing around mixing tunes together.

Vanilla Ice – Play that funky music (7”)

Imagine my delight at finding this jewel. Imagine my dismay when I got it home, fitted the 45 RPM adaptor, threw it on the platter and discovered that it was actually ‘The morning after (song from The Poseidon Adventure)’. Imagine my relief when I realised perhaps it wasn’t so bad after all. It’s nice to have that beautiful cover artwork though.

Fat Boys – Wipeout! Feat. The Beach Boys (7”)

The Fat Boys had a gimmick, they were boys who were fat. Along with this their collaborations on gimmicky tracks such as ‘Do the twist’ feat. Chubby Checker (see what they did there?) they did alright for themselves. Combining the Beach Boys summery harmonies with Rick Rubin’s drum kit and that surfing guitar tone they created a timeless masterpiece, although this listener is finding it a little hard to imagine their portly figures carving up the waves and wooing all the girlies. Flip this beauty over and you will find ‘Crush’n’; this time Dracula plays his organ over Rick Rubin’s drum kit AND crunchy guitar. Sounding like a sinister LL in his early days the boys come correct and display their tag team tactic rhymes, you gotta love them.

De La Soul – Say no go (7”)

Ahhhhhhhhh – that’s my sigh of relief just knowing that such a nice piece of hip hop exists. Amongst all the trash released under the guise of hip hop nowadays we can all be safe in the knowledge that De La Soul created such fun, unoffensive (although trend bucking) rap tunes. Go buy the best of if not the separate albums.

Run DMC – Raising Hell (12” LP)

If you’re like me, you may inwardly, secretly groan at the thought of listening to a whole album of Run DMC tracks. Now before you click on outlook express and let your fingers send a malicious masterpiece my way, listen to what I have to say. I recognise the importance of acts such as Run DMC and producers like Rick Rubin in the creation of this thing we call rap but it’s kinda unmusical and samey. Hmm, that didn’t help did it? Well, I honestly love this album and would hate for this album to not exist. The playlist goes ‘Peter Piper’, ‘It’s Tricky’, ‘My Adidas’, ‘Walk this way’…and well if you love it you’ll know it. Anyway, this has changed my opinion and I apologise for the heinous comments.

Afrika Bambaataa – Feeling Irie (12”)

'Oooh', I thought, 'founder of Zulu nation, there at the birth of hip hop in NYC, gotta be good'. No, it’s not. It’s utter crap. Boring 90’s dance remixes. Don’t ever buy or listen.

So having spent the princely sum of eight pounds and fifty pence (that’s £8.50 for those who can’t read words) I have procured a nice selection of music to enhance my life. I pray I will have played my part in enhancing the life of somebody less fortunate than myself too.

As an afterthought, a word of warning to the wise; Oxfam are overpriced.