Only the first one gets a pic this time

DJ QUIK AND KURUPT—BlaQKout (Mad Science)
This was the year of the “temporary” rap duo, as declining record sales and other factors led everyone from EDO.G and Masta Ace to Buckshot and KRS-One to pool their resources into one-off collaborative albums. BlaQKout was easily the most revelatory of these releases, a decidedly un-gangsta, throw-everything-in-the-kitchen-sink type party album that works from start to finish. Kurupt sounded reinvigorated in his role as hype man and pinch hitter while Quik continued to quietly elevate his production and mic game, almost 20 years in. Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t planning on writing a “Best Of” list this year, seeing as no one asked me to (What’s up with that?) Fine, I’ve never been all that interested in these things anyway. But as I’ve read list after list these past few weeks, I noticed that few of the albums that impressed me this year were being acknowledged by other folks. Since I don’t get to write about other music styles as much as I get to write about rap, I thought I’d throw together a list of my favorite albums without any rapping on them. I’m not saying these are the best records of the year, in this order: they’re just the ones I listened to and enjoyed on a regular basis. I wouldn’t want to altogether leave hip-hop out of the discussion so I’ll be back with a shorter, all-rap list shortly. (Click on album titles to stream music)

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE—S/T (Honest Jon’s)

Hypnotic, the world’s best post-hip-hop family brass band, has had a number of full-length, slim-case CDs for sale for years, but, until now, they’d never made a proper album. Recorded in several days for Damon Albarn’s Honest Jon’s label (Hypnotic are said to be featured musicians on Albarn’s next Gorillaz LP), this 11-song LP finally captures the majesty of their remarkable live performances on record. With the group having reportedly put their street performance career to bed, it’s a much-needed document. Read the rest of this entry »

I interviewed Rakim about The Seventh Seal in the new XXL. Also spoke to “Back in the Day” rapper Ahmad about his new life as a Stanford undergrad, and wrote about Dana Dane’s passing of the torch to his son Dana Jr., aka Young Dane.

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Back in March, I took a birthday trip out to LA to visit my baby brother. It was right around the time that New Boyz’s “You’re A Jerk” was first breaking onto Cali radio and, when I got back, I pitched and wrote this story. In the time that’s elapsed, “You’re A Jerk” became a national hit, then went its way. Is this piece still relevant after six months on the backburner? I don’t know. I’m not sure if jerkin’ has legs, but it already has produced one more national radio hit then hyphy did. (Meanwhile, Pink Dollaz , the most talented and intriguing of the jerkin’ acts I’ve come across, are reportedly nearing a deal). And, beyond all expectations, the New Boyz’s Skinny Jeans and A Mic, which dropped last week, is actually somewhat of a treat. Had it been allowed to stand as, say, an eight-song EP (a chunk of inorganic reaches for radio close out the album, as if tacked on last-minute by the label), it might have been a blueprint for harnessing singles-oriented regional sounds into long-form releases.

Red (a.k.a. Red The Man Without the Machine), the homeless, raspy-throated beatboxer whose performance of a song called “I Should Tell Ya Momma on You” in the alley behind LA’s HVW8 Gallery made him a viral video sensation and led to the release of a record on Stones Throw (and HVW8’s own label), might be the music story of the year. Not because of the homeless-to-Youtube-to-Stones-Throw-arc so much as the fact that “I Should Tell Ya Momma on You” is so damn brilliant. With all due respect to Rahzel intermissions at Roots shows, you’d have to go back to the heydays of Doug and Biz to find an act of beatboxing as fresh as Red’s take on the long outmoded science. Read the rest of this entry »

I spoke with Dam-Funk in January for what was supposed to be a very short piece in XLR8R but dude was such a good interview we turned it into an eight-page spread, which ran in their May issue. Since then, Dam’s Toeachizown has blown up—from a regular old debut album to a 2.5-hour, five-LP package that’s being teased via digital releases of the five volumes—and so has he. Certainly his remix of “Summertime Clothes” by my old college roommate Noah’s group, Animal something or other has raised his profile. Read the rest of this entry »

With all apologies to Snoop, DJ Quik is having the most entertaining career evolution of any ’90s G-Funk holdover. (Not that too many of these guys are having third acts). While the general perception out there might be that he’s “washed up,” Compton’s finest ghostwriter-less MC/producer has been making great music throughout the current decade, from his oddball freelance production work (“Addictive,” that genius ‘02 track wasted on one of the world’s worst singers, Truth Hurts, yet saved by the brilliant Rakim cameo; The Black Album’s “Justify My Thug”) to his intensely personal, criminally overlooked ‘05 LP, Trauma. Read the rest of this entry »

Apologies for another post drought. Here’s links to some work I’ve published recently:

Review of Bronx hip-hop pioneer Disco Wiz’s autobiography, It’s Just Begun, in this week’s Time Out

Review of Cam’s Crime Pays in last week’s Time Out

Profile on Dam-Funk in the May issue of XLR8R

Q&A with U.K. Afro-club producers Radioclit in the May issue of XLR8R

Review of Tanya Morgan’s Brooklynati from May 7 issue of Time Out

Random travel article on New Haven, CT that I wrote for Time Out Read the rest of this entry »