Breaks: Ernie K-Doe

Add Comment

Something of a one hit wonder, Ernie K-Doe issued “Mother in Law” during the early sixties spending the rest of the decade as well as the one following it attempting to regain the status he only shortly appreciated.

Just after the RnB which led to rock and roll – all that fifties stuff that Ike Turner had a hand in and its cohort – there was a splinter group of white folks dabbling in the trade. But singers rooted in the tradition of vocal groups still persisted and even turned in a few albums that sold briskly, even if only for a short time.

Read more >

Cosmo Baker Loves Mixtapes

Add Comment

Philly deejay Cosmo Baker has been busy of late; compiling mixes, dj’ing parties and touring.  That first activity seems to be taking up an ever greater amount of the performer’s time. That, though, only means Baker has been listening to a lot of music and wants to make folks dance to what’s in his head.

Each of these two mixes XXXplosive and Love Break are drastically different in concept, scope and purpose. The first has been compiled with the assistance of Pase Rock and Spankrock (so far all of these deejay names are kinda lame, but that doesn’t portend bad music).  XXXplosive is less concerned with atmosphere or overall cohesiveness. The mix, however, is made up of four tracks consisting of a number of disparate tunes mashed together to create a rather lackluster hip-hop outing.

Read more >

Breaks: Isaac Hayes

1 Comment

Well, out of the millions of album covers out there, newly wrapped in cellophane or sitting around in bargain bins, this disc by Isaac Hayes easily sports one of the most intriguing covers.

In addition to the startling imagery and title, though, the disc even opens up into a cross formation with Hayes looking like he’s ready to bless listeners. Maybe he was. And maybe this was perceived as semi-sacrilegious. If it was, though, that understanding of the disc didn’t hurt sales or the appreciation the album’s received over the last forty years.

Read more >

Breaks: Hot Chocolate

Add Comment

This is a weird one.

Held up by collectors for its scarcity and uniform approach to funk and soul music, Cleveland’s Hot Chocolate didn’t make it big. And neither did its front-man and guitarist, Lou Ragland – although he did tour with the Ink Spots for a short time during the eighties.

Hearing the self titled album – its only one – from Hot Chocoloate its curious that the same landscape gave birth to S.O.U.L. as well as a handful of relatively important punk groups. None of these acts share a tremendously apparent sound. But an artist, and we’ll assume that musicians count as artists, is charged with rendering his or her time and place in whatever medium is chosen. The difference between Hot Chocolate and S.O.U.L. is minimal – but those punk bands?

Read more >

Mobb Deep and Early Nineties' Gangsters...

Add Comment

Extricating the gangster influence from hip hop isn’t going to happen. And even if someone proclaimed that that was a goal, it’d be a futile one. It’s a part of the music. So, despite various button down types decrying improper imagery and glorification of a questionable lifestyle, it’ll continue on as before. But honestly, that’s probably good for the music.

When Prodigy and Havoc were eighteen years old in 1993, the duo released the first record in a career weighted down with albums. Juvenile Hell, though, isn’t considered the group’s highlight. And that’s true. The duo’s next album The Infamous is solid, start to finish. And sure, it retains the tough guy image that Prod and Havoc posited on its first album. It’s an amazingly consistent disc. Complaining just doesn’t make sense.

Read more >

Exile: Beats Made For (College) Radio

Add Comment

The title of Exile’s latest long player is at once a throw back to early days as well as a proclamation of new fangled music distribution.

Named Radio AM/FM it’d be easy to simply understand the Los Angeles based producer to be commenting on the state of radio – past and present. The medium at one point worked as a child’s imagination, spitting out song after song by unseen performers. Anyone could be behind those notes, those harmonies and progressions. And with the expansion of FM radio in the seventies, there should have been an even greater wealth of music to discover. Of course, radio’s wound up being nothing but nonsense. And really, who wants to hear a pre-determined playlist, re-spun every few hours.

Read more >

DOOM - "Beef Rapp" (Live Video)

Add Comment

"Every week it's mystery meat..." He's right. Everything's an unknown. But as DOOM so effortlessly displays, his talent isn't obscured by anything other than his mask. Any emcee who can fit the word 'halal' and then talk about skipping bail deserves a quick listen.

MHz: A Columbus Supa-Group

Add Comment

Hearing Columbus dudes get air time around the turn of the millennium was truly amazing. It’d been the better part of a decade since Bone, Thugs ‘n Harmony did anything that folks paid attention to outside of Cleveland. And Columbus hadn’t exactly been churning out hits in the ensuing times. So, for MHz to gain a bit of momentum, RJD2 to get a record deal with a prestigious label, Copywrite head in the same direction and Camu Tao as well was all kind of inspiring. And while the expansion of the internet has been touted as giving random people the belief that their work, of whatever variety, to be heard. For me, it was this stuff. I hadn’t ever even entertained the notion of working out hip hop stuff (I still don’t), but in my life time there hadn’t ever been any sort of spotlight shined on the state I hailed from.

Along with all of this, illogic and Blueprint were kicking around. Heady times.

Read more >

Baths: IDM and Pop Musics out of LA

Add Comment

Mothers. Fathers. Gather ‘round. If your kid has some weird tendencies, distract him by purchasing a musical instrument, or three, of his or her liking. You know what? Even if your kid isn’t a psycho in training, dollop musical gear throughout your home. It’ll make that oh so adorable offspring of yours something more than a drone in ensuing years. Really.

Read more >

Camu Tao: Beats Cudi...In Time

Add Comment

Enough of the ‘ahead of its time’ crap. That’s impossible. Music, art and literature are created as a result of current societal, social and whatever other pressures are floating around. There’s no such thing as a time machine, so artists capped with the ‘ahead of its time’ thing is all hyperbole without a way to substantiate any of the claims.

Read more >