Mid-week Monchables*: Pharoahe x Talib x Amsterdam

DJ JS-1 ft. O.C. & Pharoahe Monch “Ridiculous“

Just throwing this up to connect some dots. You’d think from the song title that it might be another Gucci Mane song but it’s not (though I wonder if it’s trying to make a comment on Gucci at all). It’s just a dope battle track from long-time rap friends O.C. and Pharoahe. As usual, Pharoahe kills it and does so with a bunch of ‘M’ alliteration. Bonus points for classic literary devices. The track comes off DJ JS-1′s upcoming album, No Sellout, due next week and boasting a long list of dope guest rappers.

If the beat sounds at all familiar, that’s probably because you remember the same sample being used on Talib Kweli’s “This Means You (ft. Mos Def)” off the Reflection Eternal LP. Well, come to find out that the original (I think?) goes back a few years before that even. The Amsterdamian (or Amsterdamanian, Amsterdamman?) rap group above released that song in 1999 and if the amount of Youtube comments is to be believed, it looks like it was kind of a big deal. Someone let me know if this is definitely the right sample.

via Steady Bloggin, my current favorite rap blog simply because they have great taste.

UPDATE: DJ Tanner Shantanu comes through with the O.G. sample, illustrating my ignorance regarding all things Indian Native-American. Redbone was an all Native-American band from the 1970′s. “Clouds In My Sunshine” comes from their 1974 album, Wovoka.

*You didn’t think I could alliterate Pharoahe Monch’s name in the middle of the week, huh? I guess I’m just a classical rap thesaurus addict like that (……).

Kweli Sounds Happy Again

The last time I heard an interview with Kweli where he sounded this happy and chill was on The Wake Up Show before he had even dropped “Get By” (making that early 2002). For awhile, he started getting real bitter as he was going through a sort of “conscious” rap identity crisis, old fans turning sour, politics of the game, not feeling like he’d gotten his just due. And for the past year, I just straight up had to tune him out because all he’d ever do in interviews is name-drop his vanity label. I’ll tell you right now: Blacksmith is not the movement and hearing that it is calls to mind John Brown’s “ghetto revival” nonsense.

But here, he chills with the self-promotion (they barely even mention the new record they’re working on), actually shows some personality, and drops some knowledge, which is good to hear again. It’s interesting when he talks about his fanbase changing from young adult white males to something more diverse. It’s like he finally saw the irony in spitting about black consciousness and revolution to a bunch of white suburban college kids and flips his style to be able to engage with his own people. Pretty good look, especially in comparison to, say, Little Brother, who at one point has wondered if black people were smart enough for them.

Also, that factoid about Eazy-E donating to the Republican Party is hilarious and it’s the sort of rap nerdism that his original backpack fanbase should relish.

Via Nahright.