Beautiful Skin Mix

I made a mix for a girl (who we will from here on out refer to simply as Girl) for her birthday because I’m a sucker like that. I won’t exactly be sharing it with you because yknow, it’s a gift for her and not you. But I did take some time picking out the songs and sequencing them and I thought I did a pretty good job. This isn’t saying much but this is my best mix yet (thanks also in large part to Audacity, which I’m finally beginning to learn how to use). Here’s what I included in the mix and some explanation of why. It’s mostly love/girls’ songs because I generally don’t give girls enough credit to be down with hard-assed gangster rap (except Monique, who is a 5-star chick like that) and also shottas don’t make for good hollas. But it’s still generally good rappity rap regardless.

1. Ryan Leslie – How It Was Supposed To Be

Well, except for this. I don’t listen to enough R&B to be a good judge but Ryan Leslie’s album is one of the best R&B albums I’ve heard in years. And this song has been stuck in my head for months, causing me to involuntarily sing it aloud throughout the day, sometimes rocking the harmony, betraying my high school choir roots (poorly at that …… our choir really sucked). I realize throwing this in first sounds cocky like “This is how a mixtape is supposed to be done.” But it’s just that this is the only straight-up R&B joint and I didn’t know how to fit that into the mix. I decided to tack it onto either the beginning or the end. I chose the beginning because it’s upbeat and I want to start off upbeat or fun for the mix.

2. Method Man & Redman – Mrs. International

These first four songs are all songs with fun concepts. It’s no surprise that two of them are from members of the Wu-Tang, which is prone to coming up with great concepts for girl songs (e.g. “Ice Cream,” “Killa Lipstick” come to mind). “Mrs. International” fits right into that mold with a great hook and hilarity from Redman (“Weren’t you on Maury?”). The concept fits the Girl really well too because she loves travelling the globe, is very interested in world politics, and seems to value bougie worldliness in general.

3. Atmosphere – Domestic Dog

The Girl also loves Slug from Atmosphere so I wanted to work him in. This joint off Atmosphere’s very good Strictly Leakage mixtape finds Slug extolling the virtues of picking up chicks at the grocery store. He’s usually really emo so when he gets a chance to be an asshole, it’s refreshing. Great hook too. The song reminds me of my pick up lines, which Girl really enjoys when I use them to fake hit-on her.

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 ……

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 ……

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.