On this track, Gil Scott-Heron and Nas drop what calls “Basically the opposite of "Empire State of Mind"". Now, keep in mind that this is a remix that Nas did of Gil’s track, but the result is something that has a strong juxtaposition. Scott-Heron’s gravely tone sounds pained and laboured, really convincingly sounding like he’s feeling burned out.
“Oh the doctor don’t know, but New York is Killing me”. – Gil Scott-Heron
Nas’ verses are intriguing. He focuses mainly on the fast-pace of NYC and the fact that the ladies of NY are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Without a doubt, Gil owns this track and his performance is incredible. But it’s nice to see his old-time style contrasted with Nas’ younger, faster flow. It’s a collabo that works nicely.
Omar Epps can somewhat rap. Who knew? The track below, titled Definition, was by a crew called Da Wolfpack. It’s a pretty 90’s name, but they do alright and the song is actually listenable. The rumor is that this group never dropped a full album, just released this single. But hey, they made a video for it so check it out below.
The Toronto Sun (one of the papers I rarely quote from) just highlighting K’Naan’s big win at the Junos. The Junos, for you non-Canadian readers, is an award show much like the Grammy’s and is designed to celebrate the best in Canadian music.
It’s not without it’s own controversy, of course, since some people just dismiss the Junos as being irrelevant. This year, I think they actually did a good job of awarding talent over album sales. After all, how else can you justify Justin Bieber?
But yes, K’Naan ran away with the Junos this year, being named Artist of the Year. That’s a huge achievement, and one that is absolutely well deserved. He also one two more Junos, for his single Wavin’ Flag. Listen to it now.
If you’re looking to get a little bit more K’Naan, then check out what we have for you below. The blog had run a timely post linking to an hour-long interview K’Naan did for Q TV. What a coincidence!
So here’s the full interview. Oddly enough, it starts off with a special version of Wavin’ Flag done live .
This guy has had an insanely difficult life. He grew up in war-torn Somalia, and managed to escape to the US and eventually to Canada. He arrived speaking little English, but has managed to become one of the most respected Canadian artists of the decade.
A little over a month ago, we reported that Guru had slipped into a coma. This awful news was followed up positively when claimed they had a source saying that Guru had successful surgery and was expected to make a full recovery.
Unfortunately that was not true. Apparently, Guru had been suffering from cancer for some time, and never made it out of the hospital. After two months, he passed away.
This is an unimaginable loss for hip hop. Guru was an inspiration to many and made some of the most fundamental hip hop tracks of all time. Him and Premier were, in my opinion, some of the biggest influences on why I got into hip hop. To lose Guru is a tragedy.
And yet, even something like this couldn’t happen simply. Guru’s business partner Solar has released a statement and a letter purportedly written by Guru. The statement reads:
“The world has lost one of the best MCs and hip-hop icons of all-time – my loyal best friend, partner, and brother, Guru. Guru has been battling cancer for well over a year and has lost his battle. This is a matter that Guru wanted private until he could beat it, but tragically, this did not happen. The cancer took him. Now the world has lost a great man and a true genius.”
So far, that seems okay. It’s grieving and sad, but pays tribute. However, is also reporting that there may be a darker side to things.
Solar went on to tend to the rapper as he fell ill, seemingly controlling the flow of information and access to Guru. Many of his family members complained that they were denied their right to see him.
That is a horrifying proposition, and one I hope is not true or at least was medically necessary. I couldn’t imagine being denied my right to see a loved one in their last days. For Solar’s sake, I hope this was exaggerated.
The letter Solar released a letter that he says was written by Guru has raised a considerable amount of controversy. Read the :
I, Guru, am writing this letter to my fans, friends and loved ones around the world. I have had a long battle with cancer and have succumbed to the disease. I have suffered with this illness for over a year. I have exhausted all medical options.
I have a non-profit organization called Each One Counts dedicated to carrying on my charitable work on behalf of abused and disadvantaged children from around the world and also to educate and research a cure for this terrible disease that took my life. I write this with tears in my eyes, not of sorrow but of joy for what a wonderful life I have enjoyed and how many great people I have had the pleasure of meeting.
My loyal best friend, partner and brother, Solar, has been at my side through it all and has been made my health proxy by myself on all matters relating to myself. He has been with me by my side on my many hospital stays, operations, doctors visits and stayed with me at my home and cared for me when I could not care for myself. Solar and his family is my family and I love them dearly and I expect my family, friends, and fans to respect that, regardless to anybody’s feelings on the matter. It is my wish that counts. This being said I am survived by the love of my life, my sun KC, who I trust will be looked after by Solar and his family as their own. Any awards or tributes should be accepted, organized approved by Solar on behalf myself and my son until he is of age to except on his own.
I do not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name likeness, events tributes etc. connected in anyway to my situation including any use of my name or circumstance for any reason and I have instructed my lawyers to enforce this. I had nothing to do with him in life for over 7 years and want nothing to do with him in death. Solar has my life story and is well informed on my family situation, as well as the real reason for separating from my ex-DJ. As the sole founder of GangStarr, I am very proud of what GangStarr has meant to the music world and fans. I equally am proud of my Jazzmatazz series and as the father of Hip-Hop/Jazz. I am most proud of my leadership and pioneering efforts on Jazzmatazz 4 for reinvigorating the Hip-Hop/Jazz genre in a time when music quality has reached an all time low. Solar and I have toured in places that I have never been before with GangStarr or Jazzmatatazz and we gained a reputation for being the best on the planet at Hip-Hop/Jazz, as well as the biggest and most influential Hip-Hop/Jazz record with Jazzmatazz 4 of the decade to now. The work I have done with Solar represents a legacy far beyond its time. And we as a team were not afraid to push the envelope. To me this is what true artists do! As men of honor we stood tall in the face of small mindedness, greed, and ignorance. As we fought for music and integrity at the cost of not earning millions and for this I will always be happy and proud, and would like to thank the million fans who have seen us perform over the years from all over the world. The work I have done with Solar represents a legacy far beyond its time and is my most creative and experimental to date. I hope that our music will receive the attention it deserves as it is some of the best work I have done and represents some of the best years of my life.
When I read this, I was honestly caught off guard. While I knew Guru and Premier hadn’t exactly been hanging out all the time, I never thought things had gone this far. Besides, it doesn’t exactly seem like something someone would write on their deathbed. I don’t see why, now, Guru would want to castigate Prem so publicly after having been silent. It just…seems weird.
Twitter is aflame with allegations of forgery. .
But he’s not the only one. ?uestlove’s suspicious as well.
Other seem to be feeling the same way, considering this tweet by MissInfo has been retweeted by more than 20 others.
It’s a horrific way to imagine the end of your life. Guru’s passing should be celebrated in the sense that we should mourn his passing but be ever so proud of his achievements and his contributions to hip hop. Between Jazzmatazz and Gang Starr, Guru was a tremendous influence and a talented wordsmith and artist.
To use his passing for personal gain, or to mar his passing with accusations does him a disservice. I want the truth to come out, but more importantly I want his family to know that at the minimum, I care that he passed. That he meant something to me, although I never met him.
R.I.P Guru. Here’s a track of you at the birth of your son.
Granted this is not a question most people would think about. And I guess it also must be acknowledged that since you’re reading this post on the internet, you’ve got a little bit of geek in you. Gizmodo (the gadget blog with a lack of hip hop credentials) has posted .
RZA, the techno-guru of the Wu-Tang Clan, is a hell of a talented producer. He did a whole electronic concept album as that was a definite departure from his previous work. In fact, back in May of 2008 we wrote about his intent to resurrect Bobby Digital for a new album.
The interview is in support of his new book, . It’s interesting that RZA so easily admits to being a geek, and claims to be one of the first hip hop geeks willing to admit it. I mean, looking at the tough and macho attitude the Wu exudes, you wouldn’t guess. But looking deeper, you have a bunch of dudes messing with old Kung Fu movies and RZA playing with tech to build beats for some of the most fundamental hip hop tracks of all time.
It’s one of the most unanticipated collaborations of 2010, the great Quincy Jones has decided to make a track with Akon. Titled Strawberry Letter 23, the track has a surprisingly beautiful video. Full of vibrant colours and a nicely funky beat, it’s actually tolerable.
I still have no love for Akon, but I have to admit that it makes me like him more to know that he’s got enough taste to do a track with QJ. I mean, if I was an artist and Quincy called me up, I would leap at the chance.
Our girl Erykah is back with a new album. This album, titled New Amerykah Part II: Return of the Ankh, is shaping up to be something quite promising. I’ve got my hesitations, mainly due to the fact that she has a collabo with Lil’ Wayne (called “Jump Up in the Air and Stay There”). Oddly enough, says that the Lil Wayne track is absent from the album. Either there was a last minute change, or the UK version of the disc is somehow different than the North American. I guess we’ll see once I get my hands on it.
[Update: is saying the following
that Badu would include a track called "Jump in the Air", which would feature a ton of guest rappers, including Lil Wayne and Andre 3000. But a Wayne-featured early version of the track leaked, and Badu has since eliminated it from the tracklist. Instead, a version of "Jump in the Air" with just Wayne and Bilal will appear as a web-only bonus track. Sad news for all of us who badly wanted to hear a Badu-helmed posse cut.
Guess that explains the difference.]
For those of you looking for the beats, this album definitely has you covered. With production (somehow) from J. Dilla, 9th Wonder, and Madlib, you are pretty much guaranteed to find something you like. In the video below, a track called “Window Seat”, you get to hear ?uestlove jamming on the drums .
If “Window Seat” is any indication, I think I’m going to be quite happy with this album.
For one week only, over on NPR, you can stream the entire new Gorillaz album called .
It’s a great opportunity to check it out and see if you love it. NPR has this to say about it
Plastic Beach unites Albarn and Hewlett with a huge list of guests, creating yet another well-crafted and dance-friendly set of songs. Here, Albarn and company’s songs demonstrate a genre-bending collection of glitchy club beats and hip-hop grooves, augmented by brass, glitzy synthesizers and Asian- and Arabic-tinged orchestral harmonies.
They’ve got a whole bunch of new collaborators on this one, including Snoop and Mos Def.
According to , Guru (one half of the legendary Gang Starr) collapsed after an apparent heart attack. He’s now in a coma in New York.
While it’s always an awful thing to hear, I find it especially tough because Guru (on the right in the picture at the top of this post) was a huge influence on my love for hip hop growing up. I can’t even count the number of times I listened to the Moment of Truth album on my discman. The news is saying that Guru’s to undergo surgery today, so keep your fingers crossed.
[UPDATE:]
Thank god. is reporting that Guru underwent surgery and is recovering. They say:
An unnamed source told that the rapper was doing “fine” and is expected to make a full recovery. “Guru is alive and recovering from his surgery. Doctors are expecting a full recovery luckily.”
So that Definitive Jux Records, the amazing indie hip hop label, is going on an indefinite “hiatus”. To make matters worse, El-P is stepping down.
While it’s true that they’re not exactly over, they’re also not planning on releasing any new music on physical media. Hopefully this still means some digital distribution, and may actually lower their operating costs a lot. However, it also means that a lot of dope hip hop will no longer be found on vinyl.
Despite assurances that Def Jux isn’t shutting down and is just changing, you can almost hear the sadness in the Pitchfork article. It reads more like a eulogy than a news piece, but I completely agree with the author.
Def Jux had a massive impact on the sound of indie rap. El-P’s squalid, discordant production, which in many ways defined the label’s sound, marked a huge departure from the dusky boom-bap of the label’s underground rap predecessors. You can hear its echoes in much of the past decade’s underground rap. And Def Jux was also the rare record label that had an identity beyond whatever artists happened to be signed to the label at any given time. The label’s records were elaborately designed and packaged, and its artists tended to group together on package tours. I’ve heard club crowds chant the label’s name, a true rarity for any record label in any genre. El’s statement could mark the end of an era.
It’s a sad day for the label that once brought us RJD2, Mr. Lif, Del, Aesop Rock, Chin Chin, and a pile of others.
Here’s hoping that something good comes of this, and no matter form they choose, as long as they put out killer hip hop, 4080 Records will keep supporting them.
The Toronto Sun (one of the papers I rarely quote from) just highlighting K’Naan’s big win at the Junos. The Junos, for you non-Canadian readers, is an award show much like the Grammy’s and is designed to celebrate the best in Canadian music.
