Party Boyz - The Bass, The Booty & The Cash (1992)

I've been posting a lot of serious metal records recently, so maybe you guys forgot that I like Miami bass. While Miami produced many impeccable singles such as "Tootsee Roll," "Face Down, Ass Up," and "Whoomp! (There It Is)," the full-length albums from these artists were surprisingly good as well. We've got a sort of Motorhead effect, where consistency and steadiness rule the day. Clearly, there is a Miami bass framework, and, if you just plug in clever and vulgar lyrics, you can create LP after LP of songs that I want to listen to.

The highlight of this record is obviously "give me hed til I'm ded." I too am the one who wants head until I'm dead.

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The Egyptian Lover - On the Nile (1984)

My friend Bria found this video of cool guys dancing to The Egyptian Lover's "My House (On the Nile)":

She asked me to find the song for her, and, rather than deal with the hell of social interaction, I decided to post the full album on my blog rather than meeting up with her or even sending her an e-mail. In the past, I've expressed love for the bizarre effects and minimalist song structures of 80s electro & hip-hop; The Egyptian Lover is the Holy Grail of this sound. These songs are slow and slightly unsettling, much like The Egyptian Lover's rapping. He whispers about sex with an unnerving tenacity, and this is something that I can really relate to. Why don't you come over to my house? Why don't you come over to my house? Brett Favre could use some lessons from this guy.

And man I can't believe how materialistic and shallow hip-hop is nowadays. I wish things would go back to how they were in the 80s when hip-hop actually had meaning and substance.

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Magnolia Slim - Dark Side (1995)

This Magnolia Slim aka Soulja Slim record starts with Method Man telling you he's gonna send your ass back to the dark side, which is awesome. This release fits loosely into the New Orleans bounce scene, which is beautifully documented over at Twankle & Glisten. However, as a big-brained ape like yourself might guess, this release tends a bit towards the darker side than any of the other stuff from New Orleans that I've heard. Actually, David Gilmour commissioned this recording after being inspired by "Dub Side of the Moon." Each of these songs is based upon a Pink Floyd lyric.

It has a bit of that eery, lo-fi feel that characterizes the stuff coming out a few miles north in Memphis. As is typical of these lo-fi recordings, vocals are muffled and the occasional double-tracking further pushes the voice into the "supplemental rhythmic instrument" category. Slim's delivery certainly has elements of the sing-song bounce style, as well as that peculiar, Thelonious-esque deviation from the beat. God I love that measured awkwardness. What matters though is that this has that stark, slightly melancholy feel that characterizes everything that I truly love. I want you to listen to this.

And hey, "The Dark Side" has the same sample as that Notorious BIG song. #RIPBIG And also #RIPSlim

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Originoo Gunn Clappaz - Da Storm (1996)

I looked at the "Boot Camp Clik" label over on the left there, and I was surprised to only see a little "1" in parentheses next to it. This is something that must change. ORIGINOO GUNN CLAPPAZ 2 DA RESKEW. Yeah with that gritty New York sound that I love.

Beatminerz provide stark, understated production. The arpeggios in "Gunn Clapp" take me to a better place, and "Danjer" reminds me of the dungeon music in some sort of Secret of Mana-ass video game. Oh yeah and notice the shared sample in "Da Storm" and the Dr. Octagon intro. Short post this week, so rest your eyes with some seltzer water and pumpernickel bread.

What's up what's up, what's up what's up what's up.

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Carmike - Comin at yo Azz (1994)

At this point, it should be pretty easy for you readers to guess my favorite genres of music: late 80s/early 90s metal, 60s pop, bossa nova, Prince, and early 90s hip-hop. And yeah, shit was fucking weird in Memphis in the early 90s. You may remember me talking about this before in the infancy of this blog in this Graveyard Productions post. If you never saw that post, you should probably spend some time reading through my archives because everything I post on here seriously rules.

This is another record whose sounds make me physically uncomfortable (see also: Godflesh - Streetcleaner, Whitehouse). The lo-fi, washed out production, and strangely affected vocal delivery and doubling create a total psychological immersion similar to the most primitive black metal. Hooks are barely intelligible, stuttering chopped up phrases with the moaning of the damned in the background. The vision required to create this sort of horrific sonic gestalt is astonishing.

Also, I usually skip the "Dedications" track, but I just noticed that he says "That solo tape gonna be hittin they ass in the face," which is really funny.

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Tha Alkaholiks - 21 & Over (1993)

Tha Alkaholiks, despite being a hip-hop group from the West Coast in the early 90s, have a lot more in common with EPMD & A Tribe Called Quest than the whiny, whiny, whiny, whiny synth tones of G-Funk. I've really been on the straight and narrow for several months, so I don't even know what these guys are talking about with all their "drinking lingo." That is ok though, because I think that we both like partying. I mean, I don't actually like partying or meeting people or anything like that, even though I occasionally like to try to convince myself that I do. What are you guys doing tonight I don't have work tomorrow.

Tha Lik's debut also accomplishes something appallingly uncommon in rap music: this record is concise and consistent. There aren't five hundred annoying skits. There aren't filler tracks. Ten bangers for your mouth. Who'd like a banger in the mouth?

So, there's more to my EPMD comparison than the Tyrone Thomas sample used for both "It's my Thing" and "Only When I'm Drunk." J-Ro and Tash (and sometimes E-Swift) trade bars in their verses much like Erick and Parrish were doing a few years before. And both groups rely on lazy flows, their laid-back delivery almost masking the extreme cleverness of their rhymes. Although, the patterns on 21 & Over remind me a lot of Phife Dawg...

OH YEAH! I bought this CD on tour and I was putting it out on the merch table as a "conversation piece" along with The Righteous Brothers and Moondog and whatever else I had accumulated. In Cleveland, this guy who was of course very drunk really wanted to buy it, and became incensed upon being informed that it was not for sale. His offers for the CD increased linearly with his drunkeness, and he got to the point of offering me $30. I told him that if he would give me $40 for the CD, I would give it to him. Not because I felt like I needed $40 for a Liks CD that I paid $6.99 for. Rather, a man willing to pay $40 for a used Liks CD really really likes the Liks, and would enjoy the CD much more than me. Unfortunately, he didn't like music that much. However, he did fall over several times in the moshing pit.

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Camp Lo - Uptown Saturday Night (1997)

I've been listening to "Pot Casts" of my brother Stephen C. Kane's radio show recently, which has been a really good experience for me. Motherfucker had a 90's hip-hop "Cast," which is as directly up my alley as one can really be. So come into this alley with me. I'm not lonely, but I do want some company.

On said "Cast," Joel played Camp Lo's Luchini and it really got me thinking. As a youth into rap music, I really only liked the super dark, raw production of RZA, Mobb Deep, Boot Camp Clik, etc. I was familiar with Camp Lo, but, like a true countercultural teen, I found them boring & mainstream. However, since I'm now a much more eclectic consumer of music, I was surprised by how much I really really liked that dang Camp Lo song.

This is a different type of post for me, since I'm posting about something that is relatively new to me. I haven't listened to this record dozens/scores/baker's dozens of times. In fact, I'm listening to it for the second time as I type this, and I'll probably have played it a total of three times when this post "goes live." As such, I can't really isolate my favorite moments of the record and dissect what's happening because, man, I don't even know what my favorite parts of the record are! This shit is new to me, dogg! I will say that the production is phenomenal, and at least a few lines made me smile. Listen to this BIG BANGER, love it, download the record, live my life for me.

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Z-Ro - Look What You Did to Me (1998)

If you couldn't tell from the title, this record is fucking hostile. Dedicated Primitive Future readers will already have good feelings towards Z-Ro from my Guerilla Maab post, or maybe you're already into the Screwed Up Click and depressed, angry rappers. (Please download that Guerilla Maab album if you didn't the first time. It is important. Thank you.) So yeah, throw in my UGK post, and you've got a few of the finest cuts and slices that Texas has to offer. And you're already listening to the Geto Boys and Scarface, right? Right?

Just so you understand what kind of cool guys we're talking about here, check out this insane story about the lifestyle of the DJ Screw and affiliates from one of the best blogs on the internet, Twankle and Glisten: "Once we get to the ground the doors open and we were all asleep in the elevator standing up."

Z-Ro raps really, really fast about one of my favorite emotions: melancholy. Death is embraced as a starting point for existence, with a nod to Biggie: I'm ready to kill, and I'm ready to die. Even as a suburban white growing up in safety and affluence, this concept was crucial to my maturation. Human notions of purpose have no relevance outside of our own minds, but the impetus to act still exists and must be embraced with the same fervor with which we fear our own impending demise. Todd Niefzsche.

Nobody loves me, but I prefer to keep it like that:

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Lil Rascal - Like a Grown As Man (1995)

Ok first, everyone check out how I hacked my layout for three columns. If you use Google Reader or whatever, click-through and feast your retinas. It took me like a few different searches to figure out how to do that. Also, it's come to my attention that some of my friends have been using the internet like regular caveman (usually this is cool, but not this time). Listen guys, go to http://reader.google.com/, and you can have all of the blogs you read in one nice little place. A truly efficient way to navigate the information superhighway!

Enjoy how Lil Rascal often raps in a nice swing (first song, One a Day, for a good example), accenting the same beats as the hi-hat in a typical blues shuffle (Here is a fruity guy teaching how to play a blues shuffle on the drums). Even though much of contemporary rock and hip-hop employs a straight quarter note hi-hat pattern during most backbeats, the shuffle feel is ubiquitous. Rather than using the hi-hat to provide the swing, the kick drum serves this purpose. This is particularly obvious in the sparse beats so prevalent in early 90s New York hip-hop. Let me think of a good example um um um: stab your brain with your nosebone. Then you start to realize that syncopated kick is just absolutely everywhere.

Anyway, this Lil Rascal album is a great slice of G-funk influenced Texas rap, and dude doesn't just hugely, massively bite 2Pac.

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Smif-N-Wessun - Dah Shinin' (1995)

How upsetting to parents is a rap group that misspells their gun-manufacturer referencing moniker? Shit I was hiding my Wu-Tang and Busta Rhymes cds, and my poor mother had a hard enough time with punk that sounded like "being electrocuted." Although I was allowed to own classic violent video game Doom after writing an impassioned fifth grade (?) letter detailing my maturity and desire to overstimulate my understimulated suburban senses.

Anyway, this is a record that, although heavy on the jazz samples favored by A Tribe Called Quest, et al, is fucking hard. Also, there's some great patois for all of the Erik and Dans of the world.

The minimalism of Da Beatminerz production on this record feels like being carbonized in a street while dust and debris starts to cake up on your lips. And the crackle of Hellucination evokes weed dreams of swimming in New York sewers discovering new forms of life. Dick ridahs endure a relentless tongue-lashing while I dive into manholes.

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OC - Word...Life (1994)

I feel like New York hip-hop has been under-represented on my blog here, especially because, along with astonishingly primitive black metal, it is my favorite thing. O.C. is part of the Diggin' in the Crates crew and Buckwild did a lot of production on this album, so if you're expecting some sort of jazzy, lyrical hip-hop, then your head is in the right place. Congratulations.

This isn't quite Illmatic or Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, but what is other than The Infamous or Ready to Die? This is squarely on that second tier, though, which is really saying a lot. But hold on, who wants to read my writing about categories, especially when I was going to ridicule people who like "hip-hop" but not "rap." I'm over it though, smooth brains can do what they will. That shit just isn't my dad.

O.C. is unapologetically more intelligent than his peers, and he has quiver full of little poison arrows for fake thugs and sell-outs:

What's-her-face told me you shot this kid last week in the park/That's a lie, you was in church with your moms

I'd rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect/It's the principal of it, I get a rush when I bust some dope lines oral, that maybe somebody'll quote/That's what I consider real, in this field of music

He also gets all high school existential for a minute, wondering why life is so damn short and all. Hint: it prob has something to do with the values of some fundamental constants.

This whole album is rooted in reality, and O.C. steers well wide of melodrama and irritating polemicism. Instead, the universal themes of struggle to earn your own place, proving haters wrong, existential melancholy, and alpha male bravado shine through. That's right, even if you live in the hills of New Guinea, you will relate to this record. You already slept on it once in 94, don't fuck up again.

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Group Home - Livin' Proof (1995)

As if the fact that this record is produced by goddamn DJ Premier weren't enough, the fact that the first non-intro song starts off with a sample of Nasty Nas declaring that he excels, then prevails* should give you a pretty good idea about what is going on here.

Premier is the unquestionable star here. Lil' Dap and Melachi the Nutcracker are certainly capable tale-weavers as they rap of inner city life with both the emotion and the charisma that was so prevalent in the early 90s New York hip-hop scene. It's hard to focus on the lyrical delivery here, though, as Premier paints cold cold warm cold synesthesic beats onto your consciousness. We're not dealing with melodies here, but rather, a sparse, echoing percussive structure filled in with the perfect vibration at the perfect time. Trying to discuss this is like looking at a drawing of a hypercube on a computer monitor; there are dimensions here that human intuition cannot quite grasp, and the breast is swelled with wonder.

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*Also, note the appalling rudeness of that Human Nature sample.

UGK - The Southern Way (1988)

My great internet friend Mario, who has turned livejournal into a beautiful thing, clued me into this life-altering interview with Bun B of UGK. Now, it is my duty to spread it to you guys who like my blog.

I'm posting UGK's The Southern Way tape, which is discussed in detail in the interview. The music is the exact type of gritty Southern rap you would expect from a UGK casette released in the late 80s. Tell me Something Good is pretty much the archetype for this style of hip-hop. Please only listen to it with poor posture. If your posture is actually really good, then drink cough syrup until your posture is bad.

What I really want to talk about though is the way the internet has affected music consumption. Pimp C and Bun B had very limited access to hip-hop, as they grew up an hour and a half outside of Houston in Port Arthur. However, on the weekends dudes would drive to Houston to go to rap shows. They would bring a boombox in the car and tape Houston hip-hop radio and listen to it all week. See, that's that same impulse that makes me think that it's a good idea to scour Soulseek for weird-ass black metal demos, but the two worlds are so far apart in just about every other way. Shit, I used to listen to 106 JAMS for hours hoping to tape Busta Rhymes and Wu-Tang songs back in junior high, but now my brain is so oversaturated with gigabytes and gigabytes of goofy shit. All these torrent sites and p2p networks take some of the fun out of it, but the music is worth it.

Really, you will love this interview: http://www.cocaineblunts.com/blunts/?p=1313

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Guerilla Maab - Rise (1999)

Is this the best intentional misspelling in a group name ever, or what? I want to know what neurons nu-metals, hardcore rappers & Prince share that turns their keyboards into some sort of dyslexic teenage girl text message paradise

These songs are brutally honest and emotionally raw. Time to take a stand: Emotion in music has come to mean an angst-ridden whinefest about not having social skills, but this is about the struggle of maintaining a life-affirming attitude in face of an oppressive society, and between doing what is necessary to survive and doing what one believes is right. The anger and melancholy that permeate Z-Ro's solo album Look What You Did to Me are here, as is the expected bravado. It seems almost trite to talk about the contradictions inherent in this type of recording, but I must point out that these contradictions exist because the songs are about life, not about ideology or not knowing how to talk to girls.

Also included is dudes being high quoting TMNT and The Simpsons, then making prank phone calls as Pinky in search of The Brain.

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EDIT: Hey look, the ANUS blog made basically the same post, except they are talking about AC/DC. Cool: http://www.anus.com/metal/about/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=59

Graveyard Productions - The Havoc

If you're like me, you've probably wondered what it would sound like if Lord Aäkon Këëtrëh made a hip-hop record. This right here is the answer. These beats are are completely eerie as hell. Many are the horror movie soundtracks typical of DJ Paul and the Memphis horrorcore scene from the mid 90s, but some move to an entirely different level. Consider Lay it Down. This is not just ominous, dissonant intervals, but rather a collection of disparate elements that coalesce into a schizophrenic journey through hell. Truly bizarre in a way that is difficult to put into words.

Vocal delivery is strange and full of triplet rhythms, off-key sing-song parts, and multiple unblended tracks. Clearly, the thought process was "hey that was a good take but what can we do to make me sound more like a demon who is high."

Great for Halloween, so bum out neighborhood parents by playing this instead of one of those "spooky noises" cds.

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PS: I found this record on Bottom of the Map.