Monthly Archives: January 2009

Music

Joaquin Phoenix launches hip-hop career

January 18, 2009 – 9:36 pm

Yes, you read that right: Joaquin Phoenix, the star of Hollywood blockbusters like Walk the Line and Gladiator, has decided to give up acting and pic up the mic.

According to one online source, Phoenix recently performed “three hip-hop tracks from his forthcoming album for a full house at nightclub LAVO in Sin City on Friday (16Jan09).”

Fortunately, someone in the crowd with a camera captured Phoenix’s (whose hip-hop name is as yet unknown) public debut as an emcee.  Check it out below:

And while he’s clearly no Common, dude is at least committed: “Are there people out there who think I’m a joke?,” he asked after the show.  ”I’m sure there will be. Are there people who think it’s going to suck? Probably, but I can’t worry about that.”

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Geek

New developments in hip hop technology

January 15, 2009 – 7:35 am

ucreatestuffWe don’t do too many tech articles over here at 4080, but I’m feeling it today.   Fu-quon and I have dabbled in some home recordings before, so I feel a soft spot for really ghetto recording studios.   It’s surprising what you can do with a laptop, CoolEdit, and a mic duct-taped to the top of a lamp.

But times are changing, and the products for home recording are getting higher and higher end.  These days, you can make a pretty dope sounding record in your mom’s basement and no one has to be the wiser.   If you just sold that double of Curtis Mayfield’s Curtis and have $40 laying around, what are you going to do with it?  Why not buy a gift for your little niece/nephew (or yourself, I guess).

For one, you can pick up Mattel’s upcoming UCreate Music (pictured at  the top right).  This little toy is super basic, but sometimes those are the best toys.  It lets you loop, record samples with a mic, and comes with a bunch of already recorded samples.  According to Gizmodo, you can actually share this stuff online through the UCreate site.  With a little ingenuity, I’m positive you can figure out a way to easily transfer tracks back and forth to this little device.  Either way, cheapo little faux-MPC for the kids who want to experiment.

And if you’re a step up, studio-wise, but still like to fool around entirely digitally, you can hit up Shure’s new USB mic adapter.  If you’ve already got a fancy-pants condenser mic from Shure you can just grab the X2u adapter.  Or, if you want to invest, you can get one of their high-end USB mics too.  Both of these run a little over $200 USD.  But man I bet your track would sound better with that thing.  Hell, you probably should avoid our lamp/mic stand idea and go for the real deal if you had one of these.

So get out there and find a copy of an audio program (Audacity, if you want something free) and start making beats and rhymes.  Send ‘em to us and we’ll post ‘em for you.

[Source: Gizmodo, Gizmodo]

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Music

Jaydiohead is nothing to laugh at

January 13, 2009 – 11:05 am

Minty Fresh Beats has put together the latest Jay-Z mashup and is currently blowing up all over the internet.

Who is it with, you may ask? Surely it would be nearly impossible to top Dangermouse’s The Grey Album! That one mixed Hova with the freakin Beatles.

Well, Minty Fresh Beats taken it a step further and created Jaydiohead, a mashup of Jay-Z with various big Radiohead songs.  This isn’t a two-album mashup, but instead is a product of many hours of work, putting Jay-Z vocals overtop of re-chopped Radiohead beats whever they fit.

Any of you who listen to Radiohead can probably attest to the fact that those cats are not known for keeping their beats steady, so it must have been a hell of a challenge to put this together.

It’s a free download, so go check it out.  Or if you want to sample it, you can stream it here.

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Music

Motown turns 50

January 12, 2009 – 8:12 pm
Motown turns 50

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Motown, the CBC has listed 13 of the legenary Detroit record label’s most memorable songs.  Among the hits on their list are:

 

- Money (That’s What I Want) by Barret Strong

- Stop! In The Name Of Love by The Supremes

- The Tracks Of My Tears by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

- I Want You Back by The Jackson 5

- Warr by Edwin Starr

- What’s Goin’ On by Marvin Gaye

- Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone by The Temptations

- Superstition by Stevie Wonder

- Brick House by the Commodores

- I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross

All classics for sure.   Although the Marvin Gaye track is my favourite on the list, there’s no denying the massive influence the rest of these tunes have had.  The scene from Platoon in which the main characters sing “The Tracks Of My Tears” is maybe the best part of that film (I did my best to find a clip but couldn’t come up with anything).  Many of the tracks have also been sampled to great effect, the most obvious example perhaps being Notorious B.I.G.’s use of “I’m Coming Out” on “Mo Money Mo Problems,” which, coincedentally, was turned into one of the best music videos ever (no joke):

The best part about this story, though, is that despite its age, Motown continues to produce good music.  With artists like India.Arie, Erykah Badu, Damian and Stephen Marley and Q-Tip on its roster, there’s no denying the label will remain an important force in American popular music for years to come.

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Art Music

Lupe Fiasco pretends to be British

January 12, 2009 – 6:06 am

insight-mar07-mailbox-sentrThe crew over at Pitchfork has given us a heads up about Lupe Fiasco’s latest effort.

Although he denies it, Fiasco’s been linked to Japanese Cartoon, the latest awful rap-rock hybrid beast.  And Lupe is the lead singer.  With a faux-British accent as his alter-ego Percival Fats.

That just seems hard to believe.

Although I’ve got mad love for Lupe (Food and Liquor was an amazing album), this band is not very good.  Frankly, I think his skills as a lyracist are better suited to hip hop than to rock.

But you can see for yourself by checking out the Japanese Cartoon MySpace here.

Check out Army, it is…something.  To be fair, Heirplanes isn’t that bad, but it’s really not great either.

[Source: Pitchfork]

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Art Hip-hop Film

The truth behind “Wild Style”

January 9, 2009 – 12:06 pm

Our boy fu-quon posted the full-length film Wild Style the other day, a pinnacle of hip hop film achievement.  If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, you totally should.  This classic movie has just hit the 25 year anniversary mark and the New York Times has run a little piece trying to analyze it’s impact.

Charlie Ahearn, the creator, was basically inspired to make this movie after talking to Fab 5 Freddy back in 1980.  Amazingly enough, the movie would never have happened without the financing of two European TV channels.  There just wasn’t any funding for the film in the States.

This is the nuttiest part, I think.

Mr. Ahearn was drawn to real people, rather than professional actors, for many of the roles. He enlisted three men hanging around one club where the production was shooting and gave them roles as stickup men. They took the roles, but not the prop starter pistol Mr. Ahearn gave one of them for the scene.

“I was excited because it had some weight,” Mr. Ahearn recalled. “I gave it to Pookie and he said he wouldn’t use the gun.” (Pookie actually said something most definitely not fit to print.)

“I was so crestfallen,” Mr. Ahearn said. “Then Pookie leaned back, and without even opening the door or looking, he popped the seat of his car. He reached in and dragged out the most raggedy looking sawed-off shotgun. My eyes were twinkling. I am a documentarian by aesthetic, after all.”

That became the weapon that Lee and Patti Astor encountered outside the club, along with the line uttered at the beginning of this post.

That was a REAL gun they were held up with in the film.  MAN!

Read the article, it’s a trip.

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Music Politics

Bhutto’s daughter gives her a rap tribute

January 7, 2009 – 9:49 pm

The daughter of slain former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto decided the best way to honour her memory was by releasing a YouTube rap video.

It’s getting some airplay over in Pakistan, and is actually kind of touching.  The BBC has a pretty detailed report about the whole video.

“Shot in the back of your ear, so young in 54th year, murdered with three kids left behind, a hopeless nation without you, you are in all their hearts,”

Some pretty intense lyrics, but fully worth a listen and the production value isn’t that terrible (at least in terms of the beat), though someone seriously needs to remaster the whole thing.

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Music

Playdough – Lonely Superstar

January 5, 2009 – 9:52 pm

Playdough is a completely underrated emcee.  For the most part, he’s dismissed because he’s got a pretty heavy Christian lean to his sound.  He runs with Deepspace 5, one of the predominant Christian hip hop crews around.

Lonely Superstar, the first album I heard from Playdough is actually a solid performance.  The religious tones are not obvious to the point of feeling suffocating, and his flow is both melodic and and creative.

The production value of Lonely Superstar is one of the things that draws me to it.  It doesn’t sound at all overproduced, and in fact there is a pretty diverse range of sounds.  With that being said, there are some consistent elements, including an emphasis on what sounds like short electric guitar samples.

If you’re in the mood to do some investigating, I strongly suggest Seeds of Abraham for it’s flow, and You Will Listen for the beat.  The whole album is a great performance and one that shouldn’t be ignored just because of the religious tint.

Here’s 5-Cent Needleheads from the album Lonely Superstar.

Just to give you a little taste, here is Saddle Up off his later album, Don’t Drink the Water.  Not my favourite, but it does show some progression in his style.

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Videos

Dogg Pound Old Freestyle Session

January 5, 2009 – 8:56 pm

Dre on the piano, and the Dogg Pound on the mic.

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Awareness Music

R.I.P Freddie Hubbard

January 1, 2009 – 1:49 am

Man alive, I feel like we’ve wished a rest-in-peace on so many people this year. But still, Freddie Hubbard deserves special recognition. He was one of the best jazz musicians of all time.

In fact, “Red Clay”, perhaps his most famous song, was even dearer to my heart because of the sample used in the A Tribe Called Quest Song “Sucka Nigga”.

He was one of the greatest, and most underrated musicians of our age and I think we should all pay some tribute to him.

Keep your eyes peeled, I think we’ll have some good stuff up soon in honour of him.

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