You read that headline correctly. has gone ahead and made his own kind of . Urban has mashed up Jay-Z and Coldplay into an album he has titled Viva La Hova.
I was totally taken aback because I never would have thought of matching those two artists, but I guess that actually might be why this idea sort of works.
I’ve got something of a weak spot for mashups, more for the idea than the result. In general, I sort of like the idea of putting two incongruous artists together into something new. It either really adds something to an artist or abruptly forces you to rethink why you liked the artist in the first place. This album does both of those things. Listen to the Life of Clocks and you’ll get what I mean. Coldplay’s mellow beats honestly overwhelm Hova’s rhymes, and it seems like it sort of exposes Jay’s lyrics as being just absurd. On the other hand, a track like Science is Ignorant works a little bit better.
But yes, the end result (as with most mashups) is that it entertains you for a few minutes and then you sort of get bored of it. But it’s worth looking at. You can download the album .
In a with MTV, Timbaland announced he is leaving hip-hop. , he’s switching genres to satisfy his fans, most of whom are more likely to listen to Madonna or John Mayer than Nas or Jay-Z. As he explained to MTV:
“After my last album, I know where my bread and butter is at. I know 75 percent [of the people who buy my album] are women who love Timbaland and most are the women who watch ‘Desperate Housewives’ and all those others. I did this research. It’s the women who watch ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘Desperate Housewives’ — all the real go-to-the-bar women like Timbaland, and mostly European women. It lets me know that my fanbase is mostly women and they are from all cultures. So it’s not a person who loves mostly hip-hop. It’s a person who loves everything besides hip-hop.”
At least he’s being honest. Plus, Timbaland’s been churning out radio-friendly pop jams for a minute now, so I doubt his musical transition will be a radical one.
Anyways, to commemorate his departure, here’s Wale freestyling over a Timbaland beat, courtesty of :
The project is getting mad press these days, so we thought we’d update our last post and bring it back to all you loyal readers. As you know, the concept is that the Black Keys (a rock band) have collaborated with 11 hip hop/R&B artists. They’ve done stuff with the RZA, Mos Def, Ludacris, Pharoahe Monche, and Q-Tip.
Now, I haven’t been a big fan of these type of collaborations before. I mean, quite honestly, Mos Def’s affinity for this (remember The New Danger?) style has been the most to me, but even that didn’t win me over. Still, BlakRoc does a decent job of blending this all together in a way that sounds dope.
Below is their collaboration with our man, the mighty Mos Def to give you a little taste.
Big ups to the HVW8 project (heavyweight, get it?) for doing something dope and classy at the same time. From the sounds of it, the guys over at HVW8 had a homeless guy beatboxing in the parking lot behind their gallery, and he was pretty . This guy, named Red, had originally come to LA as an aspiring hip hop artist back in the 1990s. Things hadn’t worked out the way he wanted them to, and he was out struggling to make ends meet.
Encouraged by his raw skills and talent, HVW8 got Red into Computer Jay’s Echo Park studio for a couple recording sessions before he was prematurely incarcerated on a parole violation. Only able to record one complete take in the studio, and after his re-arrest, HVW8’s Tyler Gibney and Addison Liu reached out to CHOPS and Dam-Funk to apply their world class talents.
CHOPS, who has produced for Jeezy, Game and Bun B to name a few, heard a sound along the lines of Roger, but with a new hardcore West Coast style; he was up for the challenge of working on the track without Red’s presence in the studio. Meanwhile, Peanut Butter Wolf of Stones Throw Records was also excited about what he heard and had their resident funk maestro Dam-Funk busy at work lacing the track into a new West Coast funk classic.
So dang, this guy went from homeless to dropping a release on Stones Throw Records. And he’s definitely not bad. It’s a really interesting sound, one that’s totally human-powered. It’s got a throwback vibe for sure, and quite honestly it’s just nice to see someone’s dream coming true after all these years.
Here’s a little sample of Red’s work:
Here’s the official trailer for his studio release.
Not too many people remember all of 2Pac’s acting endeavours. Those that do focus mainly on Juice and Poetic Justice. The lesser known movies are pretty numerous, but one of my favourites is Gridlock’d. A quick little tidbit is that the Gridlock’d soundtrack was actually one of the first CDs I purchased.
The movie itself was…mediocre, but the soundtrack is actually really pretty good. It had actually completely slipped my mind until the track below popped up on shuffle the other day.
Something about it just appeals to me, and I can’t tell you why. I know it’s not the dopest track we’ve posted this week, and some of you may even beef with the choice of posting anything by 2Pac. But it’s worth bringing some attention to his lesser known work.
Holy dopeness. This is one new hip hop album I’m truly excited about. Souls of Mischief have just dropped their newest album titled Montezuma’s Revenge.
The album is shaping up to be great Tour Stories is one of the best tracks I’ve heard. Not even just this year. It’s an unbelievable effort from some aging hip hop legends. I’m not even going to bother giving you a hip hop history lesson for the Souls of Mischief, because if you don’t know who they are then you and I may just straight up have a problem.
Just playing. The Souls of MIschief are a strong contingent of emcees who also run with the Hieroglyphics crew. A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai gave us the ever-so-classic ‘93 til infinity, the memorable track that has to be in my top ten songs of all time. This effort, their 5th album to date, is no slouch of an effort. The sound of this new album is pretty consistent with what they’ve been doing. It’s co-produced by Prince Paul & Domino, so you know it’s going to be full of pretty strong piano samples and mellow hooks.
I haven’t had the chance to hear the entire album in detail yet, so I won’t spoil it for you by posting half-finished thoughts. But I do want to encourage you to check it out.
It’s a strong effort to be sure, and I’ve hooked you up with some youtube goodness below to check it out.
Here’s Proper Aim off the same album. A very different vibe, but shows how diverse they can be.
It’s hard to compete with a bio like this. Despite the fact that hip hop is replete with heart wrenching stories of growth and struggle, gritty determination and oddball success, it’s somehow even more persuasive when it comes from a place like Iran. Perhaps it’s the stereotype of it being “exotic”, or perhaps it’s because I feel like I understand the North American experience more than I do growing up there. No matter what, has a story that is bound to tug on you a little bit.
Born In 1982 – Tehran, YAS first began to listen to rap music at the age of 16, when his father would return from his business trips in Germany and bring him the latest Tupac CD and other hip hop music. After the sudden and untimely death of his father, YAS was faced with the responsibility of becoming the primary care taker of his household. With his father’s debts mounting and barely being able to make ends meet to live and feed the family, YAS at the age of 18 was forced to leave his college ambitions behind and begin to work and support his entire family (his mother, younger brother and triplet sisters). It was at this time that he began to write poetry which soon turned into text lyrics for his music. It was also his way of staying close to his father’s memory.
Now it’s a bit tougher to appreciate for the mere fact that it’s not done in English. But that hasn’t stopped us before and it’s not going to start now. In fact, Yas doesn’t even speak English, at least not yet. And sadly, this is one of the few times I’ll openly cite the , because their World Music Corner is actually a decent read. I mean, it still comes from a fairly liberal viewpoint, but it’s not overtly partisan or anything of the sort.
In fact, HuffPo did a pretty admirable job on the article, though I guess it originally came from . It’s interesting how they draw an ancient example, saying that Persian culture has a long history of esteemed poets. They almost seem to suggest that Persians (or I guess Iranians, in this context) are somehow predisposed to rapping because of this.
This may be looking up for the state of hip hop, even if it happened almost a year ago. Back in Dec of 2008, Chingy, the awful excuse for a rapper that brought you such classics as Right Thurr (below), was dropped from his label. Why? Well he had a little tiff with his partner, Ludacris.
It may sound ridiculous, but I have to say I’m kind of happy about this developed. If you ignore the obvious schadenfreude in a post like this, I think the overall sentiment is that removing rappers like this from view is a step in the right direction. It cleans up the landscape a little, and I have to say I’m happy not to hear how Chingy thinks you look in ‘dem jeans.
Chingy is alleging that Luda and the label cheated him out of cash. I don’t know for sure what happened, but I’d say someone who’s been in the game as long as Ludacris probably isn’t too worried about jacking some meagre album sales.
Check out his video below, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
