LISTEN: Yesterdays New Quintet - Julani

This has been my theme song for the past few days. It's something of a departure to hear a hip-hop producer try his hand at jazz, but this is the King of the Wigflip, the Bad kid, Mr. Beat Konducta himself, Madlib. Try this on for size, hot dog.

Listen.

LISTEN: Shaun Boothe feat. Kim Davis - Do It for You

Toronto-based artists Nineteen85 and Kim Davis deserve something for the beat alone. 
A bottle of beer on the patio at summertime maybe. Or possibly a good solid 3 minutes of your time to listen to one of the better examples of female singing with a hip-hop track. I gave 'em my ears, and it was while driving at night, listening to Flow 93.5 (our quote-unquote "urban" radio station in Toronto [it sucks]). I never listen to the radio, but, like, you know that feeling when a song comes on, and you simply have to find it?
Davis gets all 80's-diva (think-NY-jean-jacket-voice-type shit) with her voice, and I think is the real reason this song is tied together so finely. The flow of vocals between her and Toronto MC Shaun Boothe flipping about his ventures into a rap career; standard coming-of-age subject within raps outer edges, gets culled in a throwback beat boasting to hum-worthy melodies. The opening verse alone piques interest and is both a humbling self-reflexive and a playful poke at rap's rougher edges.
In short, this is one of those songs you come across, show to people, and is instantly recognized as the "other" side of hip-hop, where you forget all aspects of bullshit (or, even worse, auto-tune), in exchange for honesty of expression and stream-of-consciousness rapping. Boothe definitely deserves credit for that. The powerful vocals of Davis and the high-quality background of Ninteteen85, though, are reason enough for this one worth throwing on "shuffle", y'all. 
Listen.

LISTEN: Soul Clap - Sex in the Kitchen

Sometimes on our travels through the vast, engulfing world of internet music, we come across little gems of songs from artists we've heard nothing about, and are instantly enthralled. I love when that happens; it's a very dumbed-down version of crate digging, thumbing through LPs without more than the graphic on the cover and hearsay from friends to go by the quality of the music within. Shamefully, this is an experience that is becoming more and more extinct, transferred away from some music asshole's record shop and over to torrent lists and iTunes. Thankfully, that magic that we feel when we discover a song that turns you on to the artist's entire musical discography still occurs, and boy is it great when it happens.

I loved house music a lot when I was a kid. Daft Punk's Discovery was one of the first albums I ever downloaded on Napster, at the ripe young age of 10 no less, and it was a major catalyst for a huge jump into techno music and EDM in general. While it didn't have the major musical staying power hip-hop did on my tastes, I can definitely appreciate a groovy song like this. 

Soul Clap is a fantastic DJ-duo from Boston that has a really awesome website consisting of some podcast mixes, mixtapes, and full releases available to stream. I spent an entire afternoon taking in some of the more interesting-sounding tracks on there, and if you like what you hear, it's definitely worth checking out. 

"Sex in the Kitchen" manages to be all at once something you would hear at the club at 2:00 a.m., and something you could flip on at 2:00 p.m. while driving through a rainy afternoon before work. It's a tightrope few of the noisier dance conductors ever manage to balance on, and it's pretty much nonexistent on the dance-mix radio stations, but does it ever work here. The smooth R&B vocals fit perfectly in the second movement of the song without sounding intrusive, or even sampled for that matter. It's a great, mellow, full, chilled out banger, and Soul Clap is one of those artists worth having on your iPod, even if it's just for that kinda mood. Awwwwh yeahh.

Listen.

Tyler the Creator - Yonkers

A few different musical styles owe themselves to a track this clean sounding, with Tyler the Creator's song "Yonkers" blending a harsh bassline over a beat more fitting for a genre like house.  This MC from Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA. [Yep.])  shows some real uniqueness with the beat alone, but his cypher and style of music video help to really set the pace for a thematic, executed kind of "conceptual" funk; not pop-like at all. That's pretty exceptional, giving the rap collective's personalities, as seen on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a couple nights ago. Something like that hardly happens (seriously, watch the clip).

This track polishes off a dark take on vibes reminiscent of more recent musical likings hip-hop is used to, with clear influence from underground rap's simplistic style of beat, and a real taste of freshness and relatable to radio even. However, given the song's dark tone, I'd be surprised to hear it when I'm driving.   Tyler the Creator's gaining significant attention, with XL Recordings, of acts like Radiohead and The White Stripes, signing a one-album release with him for his debut, Goblin. Getting that kind of attention is well deserved; this is good music, and I'm hoping to hear more.

LISTEN: Binary Star - Glen Close

What can be said about Binary Star, the short lived duo of One Be Lo (formerly OneManArmy) and Senim Silla that hasn't already been said? A huge staple of the underground hip-hop scene in the early 2000's, these guys had the foresight to see the teetering balance of mainstream ("see now there's hip-hop, then there's hip-pop, hip POP, youknowhatimsayin?") in rap long before anyone even noticed 50 Cent holding an iPod in a music video.

With "Glen Close" off the excellent Masters of the Universe album, we are literally served flowing storytelling rap over one of the smoothest double bass licks grooves ever sampled. The high calibre of One Be Lo's inter-verse rhyming is incredibly evident when the beat jangles into a longing fervour of piano whirlwinds, as he states: "After we parted that's when trouble started/ Patty was actin' all retarded/ I tried to disregard it, but she keep playin' on my phone, and blowin' up my pager/ I wonder, hoe she keep gettin my number?/ But I find out later Patty was a good friend of Brenda, the operator". 


This song could be an a capella slam poem, delivered in the late weeknight of an underground speakeasy and still resonate it's message clearly, but the instantly classic beat not only pulls it into the realm of "d-dat' ol' real", it renders this song a defining staple among the underground rap of yesterdecade. Give this song your ears, recognize, and discover the most complimentary tag-team rap duo since Black Star.

Listen.

LISTEN: MF Grimm - The Original

My musical tastes from '90-'99 are a bit hazy, what with the whole "I was born then became a kid" thing, but I still remember going over to a friend's house to listen to Eminem's Slim Shady LP, and being consumed by the punch-lines, funny lyrical imagery, and surreal swear words. "I Just Don't Give a Fuck" was my favourite song for a couple years back then, and I could rap the entire thing to kids in the playground, without even knowing of half the things the song was saying. I bleached my hair a year later, and no I'm not showing you a picture.

I first heard MF Grimm (born Percy Carey) on the track "Tick, Tick..." off MF Doom's Operation: Doomsday album, a fine example of New York rap from the late 90's. That track exemplifies the pure rawness of Grimm's style; though it's there, it isn't about the quantity of rhymes (ironically, considering he released the fantastic triple album American Hunger, a first for hip-hop), but rather their quality.

With "The Original", off the hugely slept on MF EP, Grimm delivers; "rhymes so crazy, Son of Sam did half my tracks." There are volleys of completely outrageous claims thrown from every direction in this innercity block-spitting example of underground battle-rhyming, as Grimm reveals "the world is too little, Grimm reaper run the f'kin solar system." This is imaginative swordplay in the purest form. The beat's an effective, simple drum loop from the depths of the underground, acting as a canvas for Grimm to paint you right into his trap, engulfing your ears with a little glimmer into the heart of Percy Carey. 

Surviving a murder attempt that left him paralyzed from the waist down, putting up a one-day bail before a life sentence to record an entire album, countering the sentence to be commutated down to four years, all while delivering this calibre of hip-hop demands recognition. He even wrote a frickin' comic book. Please, take a moment and recognize.

Listen.

LISTEN: The Slackers - Yes It's True

Following in the footsteps of a friend's tumblr, I've decided to post more music that you should know all about and love. If you don't, that's okay (you've probably never heard of them, it's mostly obscue pseudo post-underground electronica doo wop rock), because I'll offer you a brief background!

New York City slickers The Slackers have been a staple in my natural progression as a teenager with a love for all things reggae. I mentioned before that I absolutely adore ska and reggae music, and these guys were a consistent addition to every burn I did on my Sony MiniDisc, all the way back in 2001. 

With "Yes It's True" off their 1998 album The Question, the maturity these guys show with such a fun-loving, happy genre of music is especially striking. This is, at heart, a sad song, but feel the mood of it. Swinging melodys and upbeat horn toots go on as Vic Ruggiero and Glen Pine harmonize perfectly, with a dense progression. The bridge with the flange echoes memories of being a teenager, fondly discovering the opposite sex, while being completely terrified of them. All at once this song made the 12-year-old me feel like a longing ex-lover and a man with a master plan, cruising the morning pavement to grade school.

Listen.

LISTEN: J Dilla - So Far to Go (feat. Common and D'angelo)

Biking to school this morning, I noticed the perfect autumn weather. The sun gives off a great feeling of warmth to the otherwise brisk weather. Perfect for some classic beats from my favorite hip-hop producer, J Dilla. Here's a track that I really love; the beat is just perfect, as always, the hook really shines at the latter half of this song, and Common remains always on point. Definitely one for the headphones, kids.

LISTEN: DJ Babu

I thought I would present some footage of one of the world's best jugglers to ever hit the 'tables. If there isn't some deep-rooted desire to start break dancing after watching this man scratch, man, you seriously need to check your head.

Check it.

LISTEN: The Arsonists - "The Session"

Now this is one for the headphones. Back in the early 90s, there was an absolute surge of underground hip-hop in the Big Apple (obviously) and you can still find some sick groups from the renaissance that sound absolutely fresh off the oven if you take the time to dig at your local record store. The Arsonists collaborated with the World Famous Beat Junkies, and this song was featured on their Volume uno, mixed by DJ Babu, one of the sickest DJs out there, who you might remember from Jurassic 5 and Swollen Members!

Check it.