Proving once again the irresistible allure of Barack Obama, Twitter has announced they will scrap the 140-character tweet limit for the President’s upcoming .
Now let’s see if he can use that mojo to raise a more important limit: the .
DJ Maseo, of De La fame, recently posted some new tunes to his . To be honest, I’m not feeling all of them. But this track, “Billy’s Ark”, has a nice vibe to it, and I like the smooth cadence of the first verse, which drips lazily across the beat.
If this song doesn’t get you in the mood for the weekend, I don’t know what will.
The Cleveland-based Dazz Band was one of the more popular funk groups of the early ’80s. Bobby Harris formed the group in the late ’70s, merging two Cleveland funk bands, Bell Telefunk and Mother Braintree.* After myriad lineup changes, the end result was an eight-piece band featuring Harris, Skip Martin III, Pierre DeMudd on horns and vocals, guitarist Eric Fearman, bassist Michael Wiley, drummer Isaac Wiley, keyboardist Kevin Frederick, and percussionist Kenny Pettus. Harris and lead songwriter/guitarist Mike Calhoun’s concept for the group was “danceable jazz”; he shortened the description to “dazz” and called the group Kinsman Dazz. Under that name, the group had two small hits in the U.S.A. during 1978 and 1979. After Calhoun left they changed their name to the Dazz Band in 1980 and signed to Motown. …
“Let It Whip,” taken from their second album (1982), reached number five and won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by an R&B Vocal Duo or Group.
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*Proof that funk has the best band names of any genre.
This track, from an upcoming mixtape called , sounds like the music would make if Ugly Duckling woke up tomorrow as a posse of hardcore rappers. The bouncy beat, the humorous references to the good ‘ol days (“Everything I’ve heard in the last decade/Got me begging for change like kids in arcades/Flavor meant something you could actually taste”), it’s all there.
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To be fair, the real story behind this project is interesting, too. Produced entirely on Mister Jason’s MPC-2000 – “the iconic drum machine of choice for 90s legends like Pete Rock and DJ Premier” – the mixtape includes a posse cut featuring 26 (!) rappers each spitting four lines, with each rapper representing one letter of the alphabet. Sounds amazing.
I’ve never heard the original, unfortunately, but I’d be impressed if it’s as good as this remix. Capturing the crunchy drums and jazzy essence of much of Doom’s work (thanks mostly to Madlib, I’m guessing), Equal’s version of “My Favorite Ladies” is impressive. Doom’s verses are surprisingly coherent, too, and possess a rare emotional salience: “Every time I see you / It’s like the first time I meet you”.
This beat is driving me nuts. It’s almost too mellow. But I like it mostly because it uses a drum break I flipped for one of my very first productions, way back in like 2004 or something. Beautiful:
When looking at the great soul music geographies of the past quarter century, perhaps the most criminally overlooked is Ohio, the breeding ground for a generation of hot funk acts that came into their own in the 70s and early 80s, including the Ohio Players, , Zapp, , Midnight Star and Dayton. One of the premiere Ohio groups of this era was Slave. Formed in Dayton in 1975, Slave originally consisted of bass guitarist Mark Adams, trumpter Steve Washington, drummer Tim Dozier, guitarist Mark Hicks, sax players Orion Wilhoite and Tom Lockett, trombone player Floyd Miller, keyboardist Carter Bradley and vocalist Danny Webster.
The group signed with Cotillion Records for their self-titled debut album and immediately scored with the blazing funk track, “Slide,” which hit #1 on the Soul charts and earned Slave a Grammy nomination for best new artist.
-Chris Rizik at
(Also, RIP Slave bassist Mark Adams, who passed away this March, and guitarist , who passed away in June.
From The Cool Kids’ upcoming album , “Swimsuits” is anchored by an irresistible drum break, hints of , and a saccharine hook courtesy of Mayer Hawthorne.
This mixtape by North Carolina rapper is getting mad love on Twitter. With production by 9th Wonder and Khrysis (among others), and blazing guest appearances by Phonte, Mac Miller, Jean Grae, MURS and Raekwon (!), Thank H.E.R. Now may be one of the finest free albums I’ve heard in a long time.
Rapsody, a relative newcomer, is absolutely brilliant on the mic, dropping intricate and emotional rhymes on a range of tracks – from smoothed out, down tempo jams to minimalist, East Coast boom bap. Such easy versatility is rare among young rappers. Combined with Rapsody’s evident passion for her music, it’s impressive to behold. And the guest spots, all of which are solid, make every verse worth listening to.
Beat wise, the mixtape is blistering. Ninth comes correct, as usual, but so do the other producers. Nearly every track is well crafted, with the exception of “Out Tha Trunk”, which has an errant snare in the hook. But that’s a minor critique; the album otherwise glides smoothly across a nice mix of East Coast and 9th Wonder-ish beats, giving it a professional polish sorely lacking on most mixtapes.
Overall, Thank H.E.R. Now is a seriously impressive effort, and definitely worth a download. And if you don’t trust me, believe Tribe’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who . Here’s further proof:
Rapsody – Star Warz ft. Murs and Sundown ()
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This smooth, jazzy new track by J. Rawls is niiiiiiiiiice. It perfectly captures that late night, laid back vibe, and Casual delivers a couple of clever verses (“What’s better than this? We manifest elegant bliss”). The video is dope, too.
