Live show experiences of Nosaj Thing vs. Waka Flocka Flame

Insomnia triumphs again. Anyways, so I was thinking about making it up to LA tomorrow night (or tonight, I guess, Wednesday night) to check out this Low End Theory glitch-hop scene for the first time. But thankfully, I checked it out on Youtube first. And wow, that shit looks boring.

It just made me think how ridiculous it is that “intelligent” music listeners might be down for this glitch-hop style, or at least they respect glitch-hop dudes like Nosaj Thing and Flying Lotus as real artistes. But then someone like Waka Flocka Flame is unequivocably denied any sort of serious artistic consideration.

Misc. Nocando raps

Wow, so it just clicked in my head that I saw Nocando battle at school once. There was a freestyle battle contest at UCLA during my third year. It was supposed to be open only to students but dude heading it up kinda realized the student rappers were really, really crap. So he brought in some rappers he knew from Project Blowed, including Nocando and Dumbfoundead. The whole thing still ended up being pretty bogus, albeit funny. Dumbfoundead eked out a victory in the final round against this hilariously wack, enormously fat chick who literally spit “It’s murder, you just a chicken nugget, I want a hamburger, I’ll eat you.” Before that, Nocando went up against this Korean preacher rapper rapping about wanting to save Nocan through Jesus. And he lost because the Korean dude brought half his congregation of big-eyed anime-looking fanatical Christian girls with balloons and flowers and shit to cheer for him.

As an apology to Nocando for the wackness of that experience, I’ll just become a bigger fan. The clip above is notable for using socio-political commentary like 9/11 racial profiling in the context of a battle rhyme. After the jump, a video of a random cipher in which Nocan brags about being broke and getting rejected by a girl. And then a music video with more dope raps about being broke (you’ll just have to deal with the bad lip-synching for that one).

Quik links

DJ Quik’s and Kurupt’s collaboration album, BlaQKout, came out today. I’ll go ahead and say it’s a contender for Album Of The Year. Go ahead and cop that as soon as you get a chance. I better warn though that it might take some effort. Being released independently on Quik’s imprint, Mad Science Recordings, the album’s distribution is a little less widespread. My local Target didn’t order any copies, just to give you an idea.

Anyway, some links:

• My review of the album is up @ Examiner. Let me know what you think here, I guess, since Examiner recently switched up their comments section to only allow 1000 characters max in your comments. Pretty soon, you’ll only be able to comment through Twitter. Discourse FAIL.
• Matthew Africa made an excellent ‘Best of DJ Quik’ mix. It’s been looping in my car the whole weekend.
• DubCNN got to chill with the duo over a game of pool.

After the jump, proof of purchase. Because it’s not everyday that I recommend you buy rap and then heed my own words. And yes, this CD comes with fold-out liner notes.

Dilla sharks Oh No?

I realize I’m late to the J Dilla Jay Stay Paid party. At this point, it looks like the only way to get some dip for my chips is by scraping it off the bellybutton of the obligatory drunken, “Let’s do KEGSTAAAAANDS!” Asher Roth stan asleep in his own filth in the bread aisle underneath the drinks table. But enough autobiography.

I finally got around to listening to Jay Stay Paid for the first time today, a full two days (GASP!) after its release in stores and something like two weeks after it got leaked to the Internest. I might get around to reviewing it at some point, though it’d only be for the sake of writing exercise as anyone reading this probably already owns a “Dilla Gave Me Mouth-To-Mouth CPR” shirt or something to that effect (mine’s in the mail). So why preach to the choir, yknow?

Anyway, I came through only to mention that the track, “In The Night/While You Slept (I Crept),” sounds very familiar. More than just the title describing my extracurricular activities perfectly, I thought it sounded a lot like another track by Dilla’s Stones Throw brethren, Oh No (bka Madlib’s little brother, sadly [dude's got beats, don't sleep!]). Both the Dilla joint and Oh No’s “The Ride” have similar “Terminator”-type feels to them (to use Brandon’s term) and also, something about their key changes sound the same. I’m not trying to call either out for biting the other. I’m just saying …… one of them had to have bit the other, if they’re coming from the same camp. Oh No takes production credit for “The Ride” and I assume Dilla does for his too (no proper CD or liner notes yet, but it’s payday tomorrow!). Anyway, judge for yourself. Then go buy Jay Stay Paid and possibly help his moms out financially.

DOWNLOAD:
Oh No “The Ride“
J Dilla “In The Night/While You Slept (I Crept)“

Busdriver can chop

I remember these two homies from school, super backpack dudes, would always tell me to get up on Busdriver. I think I finally checked out some tracks from Fear of a Black Tangent at some point but I couldn’t understand him so I abandoned it. Well recently, I saw him on that Good Life documentary that came out a few weeks ago. And of course, once I realized he was a Project Blowedian, he gained hella points in my book and piqued my interest again.

I found this music video after browsing Youtube, yknow where hip-hop lives. I still can’t understand much anything he’s saying but still, the fact that he can flow with the flute like that is straight bonkers. It reminds me of this one bit from the documentary when fellow Blowedian Mikah 9(sp?) was discussing the art of “chopping,” which is basically just rapping really ridiculously fast. Before I’d think that fast rap is cool but if you can’t understand what’s being said, what’s the point? But Mikah broke it down to be like this abstract, musical thing. It’s like what jazz musicians are doing in their solos, taking a chord and going through every single …… sequence/path (word choice?) possible within that. So chopping lets rappers explore different rhythms in the same way. Or something like that.

After the jump, I posted the sample source, Bach’s Suite No. 2-7 “Bandinerie.” Also, I threw up Busdriver’s “Nagging Nimbus,” in which he does the same thing of rhyming on top of some high art piece that they teach you about in school. It’s less immediately impressive but he is spitting pretty ably to 5/4 time. Can you name the jazz standard he hops on? …… Because I can’t for the life of me and it’s annoying my fragile ego.

Murs Watches Ugly Betty

Murs discusses the Asian fashion takeover (I see you, all you Air Forced out Filipinos!) and advises the youth to watch Ugly Betty to stay off the streets. Stuff like this makes me really, really wish that Murs For President turned out good.

One part of a series at White Men Can Blog (who inexplicably have a show on Power 106). Via Straight Bangin’.

Exile @ Access Hip-Hop

Exile, Angeles-based producer behind independent underground hit Below The Heavens with rapper Blu, will be dropping by backpack haven Access Hip-Hop in Pacific Beach this Friday in promotion of his new instrumental album, Radio. The new record, which just dropped last week, sounds kinda wack upon first listen but I’ll let you know if I change my mind. But regardless, seeing him at Access would be a good look if he decides to perform, in which case you’ll get to check out some really cool button-pushing. Plus, he might bring someone tight like Oh No or Blame One with him (on the other hand, he might bring Aloe Blacc with him, euyghck). Exile shows SD a lot of love so you should reciprocate if you’re in the area.

More button-mashing after the jump. Does anyone else think that MPC’s are basically old, unused King of Fighters arcade cabinets converted into sound toys?

Filipinos Do Dirt Too

I remember back in school when the Filipino student org, Samahang, would throw any event ever, they would almost always book either Bambu or Kiwi (or both as Native Guns) to come through to rock a set. And I remember thinking, “Damn, the presence of these motherfuckers is weakening the case for affirmative action.” But I dig this song. It’s got a nice soul sample, sparsely chopped verses, screwed hook, a bridge, if you can believe it, and yknow Filipinos. I’ll take it. Though I admit, it would’ve stayed in the sidebar if I didn’t know so many Wowoweezers.

Swiped from Grandgood.