2008 In Review: Old Music I Heard

List season continues, for better or for worse (no Pharcyde).

One of the better things that blogging has done for me is that it’s motivated me to go school myself on older music. I got into hip-hop, like REALLY into hip-hop, not a hell of a long time ago (shouts to my sister’s boyfriend, who used to slang bootleg rap CDs on the side and remains freestyle champion of Woodcrest Clairemont) and ever since, I’ve been playing catch up so I could stop fronting like I know everything and well, actually know everything. It’s an arduous journey, wrought with furious Megaupload waiting, intense message board skimming, gut-wrenching removal notices, and long hours in the blistering lukewarm of my bedroom. But what can I say? I’m a soldier.

Here’s some great, older-than-’08 hip-hop that I discovered for the first time this year that I think I’ll carry with me in 2009. It’s very South- and Bay-centric, which is a testament to how vibrant those regions are musically but is also an indication of unhealthy levels of CBrap worship. My apologies for flooding your playlist even more than it probably already is around this season, if you frequent any of the other umpteen blogs that are putting together year-end lists. Again, in no particular order, except by memory. Because trying to impose order on life is meaningless I’m lazy. Kris Kross’ll make you ……

2008 in Review: Albums Good Enough To Buy

It’s about that time. I remember last year, I struggled epicly to listen to a bunch of albums that were supposed to be any good to crank out a definitive “Best of” list that wasn’t at all definitive because I tried jamming like 20 new albums into my brain in the span of a couple weeks and it resulted in me melting my face off. And it wasn’t really worth it because as time went on, I realized I really only held on to a few of those records this next year. So in the interest of conciseness and honesty, I haven’t compiled a Top Ten for either songs or albums. These are merely some great albums from 2008 that I’m confident I’ll be bumping well into 2009. In no particular order, except as I remember them, which I guess is a loose order for how memorable they are. Unveiling after the jump ……

Scarface The Rapper Did More Than Scarface The Movie To Me

And opposite the atrocities spawning from G.O.O.D Music, Scarface stays producing music that’s actually good. His new album, Emeritus, is to be the last in a long and illustrious career, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to it. As opposed to, say, Jay-Z’s Black Album, he doesn’t spend the majority of the album beating you over the head with the fact that it’s his last album and the fact that he’s changed the game and that he’s the greatest that ever did it. Instead, Scarface gives us another very unassuming Scarface album, another 14 tracks of the same ghetto philosophy and moral anguish wrapped in an exterior of gangsta rap posturing that got him to where he’s at now. He doesn’t spend much time telling you he’s the shit because he’s too busy showing you what makes him the shit.

Chopped And Auto-Tuned

DOWNLOAD: Bun B ft. a bunch of Houston rappers “Chopped & Screwed (H-Town remix)“

I heard thought I heard this track on Big Boy’s Neighborhood on Z90 and kinda geeked to think they were playing Trae and Z-Ro in any capacity. Come to find out, it was just the regular-ass T-Pain joint. Despite the title, this is unfortunately not at all screwed. This is undeniably a pop song with T-Pain crooning and a Snuggle bear soft beat. But the beat still rolls along extra slow, even by R&B standards, and it’s chopped, giving it a sorta-Screw feel. Plus the fact that T-Pain would sneak a DJ Screw tribute onto radio outside of Texas gives it extra points. Hell, it made me do some Youtube research on Screw so at least one head has benefited from it. Good enough for me.

Check out one piece of a longer documentary/biography of DJ Screw (all upped on Youtube), in which they talk about the origins of the screwed-up style and the beginnings of the Screwed Up Click. On the pharcyde ……

Beat Drop: Pimp C @ Metal Lungies

I hesitated at first to participate in Metal Lungies’ Beat Drop for Pimp C because well, what the hell do I know about UGK? Since buhizzle was brave enough to admit it though, I’ll disclose fully: I didn’t start listening to UGK until their last album came out and all the blogs went kinda gaga over it. Further, I didn’t become a huge fan until earlier this year. I swapped hard drives with a friend at the radio station during my internship and jacked the UGK discography just to see what all the hype was about. Of course, when I randomly threw Ridin’ Dirty onto my mp3 player, I was floored. In the end, I kinda compromised and chose only two songs to talk about for the piece. Head to Metal Lungies for even more gushing over Pimp C:

UGK “Murder”
It’s generally pretty hard for me to talk about Pimp C beats because you can’t just say “Here’s the sample, here’s how he flipped it” like usual. Pimp C is a masterful composer who consistently turns out layers of lush, rolling funk that requires some semblance of knowledge of music theory to talk about that I don’t have. But then even in “Murder”, one of the closer things you’ll get to a traditional hip-hop loop from Pimp C, you still have to marvel at the subtlety of his composition. This mean bassline no doubt anchors the song, but it’s really everything that he lays around it–”oohs” and “aahs”, whistles, incoherent posse chanting–that make the song. These elements are so quiet that they’re almost not there but they are, so it creates this hollow, kinda haunting feeling. Even the scratched sample for the hook is incoherently fuzzy and you can only guess that it should be saying “Murder” but who can be sure. So it’s there but sorta not there in a sense and adds to this chilling ghostliness that you feel in your gut. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Bun rips this beat apart either.

R.i.P. Chad Butler. I fully intend to go across the street for St. Ides tonight to share some with Pimp. Seriously.

Genesis of Trae

I’m not sure if this is yet another Rap-A-Lot release that fell beneath the rap bloggerverse radar or if bloggers are aware but are trying to show some respect for Trae by NOT promoting it, considering that Trae may have recently left Rap-A-Lot Records (can anyone confirm this?). If it is the latter, my apologies for feeding the hand that may have punched you in the face, Trae.

I wish I had some semblance of expertise regarding Trae’s career because, with a title like “The Beginning”, I know some perspective would help.

Now we sip champagne when we thirsty!

Alright, not champagne, because that’s for sissies, but we drankin gully-ass St. Ides 40s tonight, son! If only to recall a simpler time when hip-hop was still innocent and pure:

And now, a birthday wishlist/life bucket list, in no particular order, with some rambling after the jump.

Jockin’ UGK

Speaking of Rap-A-Lot, I just listened to Ridin’ Dirty for the first time a few weeks ago. And really, I ….. let me just say that listening to new music is like picking up a chick at the bar. If you’re a lame-ass like me, you probably end up having to talk to the fat friend and get to know her and peel away her layers of flab to reveal her “inner beauty” and shit. Hearing UGK’s Ridin’ Dirty is like the rare time when a girl walks in without the safeguard of a fat friend and/or boyfriend and you actually get to talk to her and she’s into shit like The Office and video games and you nerd out and catch feelings and want to wife her instantly, at least until the alcohol wears off but still, she’s really dope. Basically, I finally get what all the hype around UGK is about.

I’m gonna do the track-by-track method, kinda like Bol, except I’m gonna be jocking this hard (that’s what she said) instead of hating. On the flip …..