Special Dance

Young Ace ft Lon Don - Juke N Pimp 2005

There's a certain single that's popular with the Kid Cudi crowd right now that may or may not have taken a few hints from this popular street single from five years ago. Maybe the group I'm talking about never even heard this, but as hard as they rep Chicago it would be questionable if they hadn't. Make judgments of authenticity on your own time, but simply put I would much rather listen to this on any given day. I'm not really a purist but the process of making juke "accessible" hasn't really worked out so well to these ears. Baltimore club's range of popularity makes sense because of its tempo, but why is it that whenever somebody tries to make an "internet hit" out of this stuff it results in something that sounds completely sucked dry of the energy that permeates the local phenomenon? Can we at least get a Watagatapitusberry? I sense the force in plenty of European records, but a few miles from it's birthplace it completely misses the point. The genre is by no means dead locally or elsewhere (rather the opposite), but a lot of the wrong people are at the forefront of it's success, and seem interchangeable with any other localized "ghetto genre". If it were D.C. you likely hear them talking about go go and so on. I guess kids just can't seem to shake backpack rap for whatever reason.

Trying hard not to call anybody out...just saying.

Nederreggeton

It's often hard to find something so lyrically driven as hip-hop interesting when you don't speak the language, but Immorales found solutions. Comprised of six rappers and producers part of the Dutch Antilles diaspora who's music could be accurately described as Nederreggaeton, they are by all means unashamed of where they come from and you could say they "put it on for their cities". Performances taking place during frequent trips to Curacao on family visits are spoken in Papiamento, while the Netherlands rap game is Dutch. Their love for reggaeton results in songs sung in Spanish as "Los Immorales" when the audience is right, in part due to member I $ Ki's maternal Venezuelan roots. Talk about reading the crowd, these guys will speak to you in your mother tongue and even change their name to make you feel comfortable. Similar to the K-Liber bubbling in a rub-a-dub style philosophy, these guys pull together all aspects of culture within their scattered diaspora to form a comprehensible international hip-hop group. "People here can not relate to this music because they have not grown up with it" says member Pimpi, but we know that this is nether fact or fiction around these parts.

Read an article about them here if you can speak Dutch or use Google Translator.

Like April and May

I'm not really championing this new Juve track as being something great, but there are some nice benefits to the video. Namely the Mardi Gras Indians/Jazz Funeral band, his absurdly shiny fake diamond t-shirt, and the fact that he's holding what looks like a King Cobra 40oz in one shot. My broke-ass poison of choice. Dude is on some serious grown man shit in a few shots too, looking like Common or something. This one provided a little relief after watching the new Devandra Banhart video in which he has a newly aquired Zappa stache. Two of my least favorite people combined.

Nobody Likes A Quitter

Esclav - Go Ghetta 2010

While musically it's a totally different world than Go Go, the way bouyon bands emulate hip-hop isn't far off. The live synths and drum machines speaking the language of a cooped up producer dragged from his solidarity and into Carnival. This almost isn't even a cover, but often is the case that the hook is the only thing borrowed leaving the empty space open for discussion more closely related to the Caribbean. It's like Soca for the more outdoorsy types.

Viben

K-Liber - Liber Nan So ke Kome

These guys are my favorite non-U.S. Hip-Hop group for a number of reasons. The first being that I have become a slave to Bubbling/Bubbeling/Bobbeling. The second being how successful they are able to mesh it with their craft, like DJ Moortje was their DJ Screw. And it's not just rap in another language too lost in translation for me to fully understand, but really in its own league of "rapping" in the same way Dancehall and Reggaeton are well, sort of Hip-Hop. Curacao is a different island, and while it was bitten by the raggamuffin bug along with the rest of the Caribbean it comes with its own set of rules. This is why K-Liber are able to place on pop charts in the Netherlands, and in this case able to pull off straight up Tambu as a reminder of where they come from. A pop group making references to the root, modern national pride not far off from certain Jamaicans trying to link Daggering to Kumina. A further investigation into the idea that "it's all hip-hop" to quote Toy Selectah, and to me both strengthening the legitimacy of non-U.S. hip-hop as well as further distancing it from such.

Crawling Similar To An Ant

I.D. and Baobinga - Still Tippin (Hush Up Riddim) (From Bass Music Sessions 2010)

A lot of bassentric rap remixes tend to go in the wrong directions, often so far into the deep end that the low end loses its original purpose. That, and there's almost no point to a lazer bass version of a Gucci track when he's already rapping over such. On paper, these feats might seem like a perfect match for Hip-Hop in this decade, but in reality it's pretty much always bad. Which is why this is at risk of being in the wrong hands especially due to the monumental importance of Still Tippin to the communities that would go on to make such remixes, the people who learned about Houston in 2005. It was a big track to me no doubt, having been collecting Screw tapes for only some time before the single got it's northern exposure. The Hush Up Riddim fits like a glove, and I might be able to picture this outside of a club and inside somebody's car on vogues. Still very much a DJ track, but it retains the original twang without having to use words like "syrupy" or "lean soaked" that are rarely avoided when any Texas references are made. No over the top cut-up techniques exercised here ether, with or without the Paul Wall verse. Lots and lots of delay though. Part of the Bass Music Sessions album, a free release out March 1st that you can read more about here.

Welcome to Swagtard Hell

Based God Metal t-shirt. Here.

Any fashion post will be done a la Kayne. Hah.

We Can Pop Xanex

Three Six Mafia - Stomach 2010

Oh man, this song is fucked up.

Drop Bombs Like Hiroshima

Reflex DJ - Death Row Bubbling Battle Mix

While were still on the subject...

Weird The Club Up

Unknown DJ - Bubbling Battle Loop Mix

Bubbling battle tracks can be a scary swamp to trudge through, and you will step in plenty of shit along the way. Cramming 10 songs into 5 minutes while pulling them up and down like taffy is no easy task. The hardest part is making them not sound ridiculously corny, and tracks are often full of lame sound effects, muscle flexing, and sometimes even fucking South Park samples (I have a great track that's ruined by just that). A bad taste similar to the one Breakcore always leaves in my mouth. Yet sometimes, it all falls into the right place. This is one of those miniature DJ mixes that makes my obsession worth it and I can forget about all the incredibly dated turntable masturbation that I've put me ears through. A perfect battle track and like the best, an incredibly weird one too. Tiny guitars and a ghost organ lead into DJ Class' Tear The Club Up(!!!) and we are happy. From what I can tell, Baltimore Club isn't so rare in these parts and as strange a phenomenon as Bubbling is to begin with I'm not even surprised. There might be some kid in Suriname baking up some Juke for all I know (I can dream can't I? I mean they fuck with Paul Johnson). It's all one big mutated diaspora due to Dutch Slavery that has it's roots planted in Turkish raves, Jamaican cartoon chase footwork competitions, and the Mad Decent Website.

Edit: The DJ says his name at the end but I can't make it out very well. Maybe you can.

Only Time I'm Ever Posting a Trip-Hop Track

Audio Sports - Return to 1 More (from Era of Glittering Gas 1992)

Getting into Boredoms back in high school was when music got really fun for me. Me and Yamatsuka Eye go back like car seats, and this Audio Sports record is kind of a hidden gem. Maybe not in Japan in the early 90s, but I'm impressed by how good it still sounds 20 years later. I mean it's Trip-Hop for Christ's sake, and not in the same way that say Fabo is Trip-Hop. Heavy on the weed, I imagine Eye's dreadlocks wrapped up in a studio kinda cloudy listening to Buju Banton and Main Source. I dig the rapping throughout the album, but their re-version of this riddim (whose name slips my mind right now) is my favorite moment.

Circle Jerkin

DJ Nate aka Baka - You're A Jerk (from Bakastine the Halloween Mixtape vol 1 2009)

Chicago vs Panama vs Nigeria. Panama still wins but I couldn't resist. Nate sounds pretty keyed in the intro/outro.

My Dance Moves Science Fiction

Fabo - Gik Tales Mixtape 2010

I don't know if it makes up for his long absence, but it's pretty damned nice.

Like Two Bad Nurses.

Bun B - Adrenaline Rush Freetyle (from No Mixtape 2010)

It's obligatory that I post Bun spitting over one of my most cherished Hip-Hop beats ever.

Haiti Part I

T Man - Jump Up (From Ayiti Diasporap 4 Life vol 1 2008)

I'm not exactly helping out with the situation much, but I feel the least I can do is put up some Haitian tunes. That's all that's going to be posted here for a bit, and if you feel like contributing something, feel free to email me. Also, please show up to Dutty Artz Tropical Relief this Saturday if you happen to be near NYC.

First up we have a Hip-Hop track from a compilation my friend picked up for me when she was in Haiti last summer. I think you might be able to buy this somewhere, and it's worth hearing. Not much out of the ordinary as far as Haitian Rap goes, which to me sometimes sounds like Southern States Hip-Hop with Kompa influenced beats.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

DJ Slugo - Respect My Grine vol 1,2,3

Slugo was kind enough to give away his previous volumes of his Respect My Grine mixtape series while he's finishing volume 4 up. For those of you that don't know, the series covers local Chicago talent, much of the time shedding light onto the young artists making music in the city. Generally comprised of local rappers, you will find the likes of Tha Pope, DJ Nate, and sometimes people I know (what's up Khallee?). Definitely for those interested in following what the kids are doing Hip-Hop wise in the city today.

Llet Ot Tog Ev'i, Yrots Elttil A S'ereh Won

Pappawheeli - Paul Revealed (Paul Revere Instrumental Backwards Un-masking)

Maybe it's my love for a lot of things Music Concret, perhaps it's just hanging around DJs but I can be a sucker for music sped up, slowed down, and even backwards. If this wasn't already obvious then I'll admit listening to Rihanna backmasked quite a few times. Miami Bass historian Pappawheeli flipped the Beastie's Paul Revere to unveil proto-Miami Bass from 1986 in the form of reversed white boy Rap, a bit different than how I remember hearing one of my first Hip-Hop songs. Played forwards it's already got the silence gaps and stop-and-start patterns that a lot of Electro tracks since Afrika Bambataa tended to have, but reversed it has even more hiss to the cymbals. That year was a pretty big one for the genre's predecessors, and this wasn't even able to influence those without the mechanism to play it at the speed that secret messages can be heard and therefore maybe a bit irrelevant and mostly for novelty enjoyment. I mean I'd be pretty psyched if a song played backwards sparked a highly influential musical movement, but hey we're in a new decade that will give us the Easy-Bake-Oven of screwed and chopped and backmasking machines via iPhone apps.

Buckets

While I'm not willing to give up, this is probably the closest Juke will ever come to Go-Go.

Acres of Jamaica in Decatur

Kollosus ft Milla - Want No More (from Kollosal Activity 2009)

Rap music from Atlanta via Jamaica. Both Kollosus and Milla hail from the Caribbean but grew up in Decatur so their accents sound southern with a Kingston twang. I like how much of each side shines in their music, and I like this Kieth Hudsonesque beat quite a bit. Good for hanging out on couches, not so much for essay material but the semi-resistance to assimilate is interesting none the less.

Stanky Decale

If your like me and have been enjoying Boima's African By The Bay EP, you will dig this too. Nays is the truth, and he fucks with pretty much every major form of African dance music from Zouk to Funana. Not totally uncommon to do that, but dude's got finesse.