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While I’m posting new hip hop stuff, here’s another dude who’s gonna be big soon. Along the same sorta lines as The Cool Kids or Wale and that kinda style. This guy goes by the name of Kid Cudi, and this be his debut mixtape “A Kid called Cudi”. Enjoy.
Just come across this video, from new rapper NY Oil.
It’s one of the only music videos to ever be banned from Youtube. This is the animated version. If anybody has the link to the original, throw it my way.
Pretty good song and concept. This, for me, is proper hip hop music - not the Lil Wayne/50 Cent shit. And this is the kind of stuff that I’m hoping for on the new Nas album.
Earlier in the week I talked about Wale, who was pretty much an overnight sensation in hip hop. Well, maybe sensation is a bit strong, but he sure blew up pretty quickly. He’s been referred to as “the second coming” and whatnot, but he’s not the only one to seemingly come out of nowhere at the start of ‘08.
The Cool Kids, a hip hop duo from Chicago and Detroit, are enjoying a pretty successful year thus far. Antoine “Mikey Rocks” Reed (out of Matteson, Illinois) and Evan “Chuck Inglish” Ingersoll (Mount Clements, Michigan) make up the myspace phenomenon.
The group got together back in’ 05 when “Mikey Rocks” Reed found a beat on the net that “Chuck Inglish” Ingersoll had produced. They met and discussed the sale of the beat, but ended up spending the day recording material, and the next thing you know The Cool Kids were formed.
Their “Totally Flossed Out” EP has taken the net by storm, and they were one of the stand out hip hop acts at the SXSW festival. Collaborations with Lil Wayne, touring with M.I.A. and appearances on Entourage, NBA Live ‘08 and in Rolling Stone have helped propell them to the forefront of forthcoming hip hop acts.
The group have used their Myspace page to devastating effect since they started recording. Almost all of their material has been released in some form through the social networking site, and they also used it to announce that their debut studio album, “When Fish Ride Bicycles”, will come out in the Fall of this year. Before then though, they will use their Myspace to put out a second EP, “The Bake Sale” on May 20th.
Just like Wale, who I said was playing the fashion tip to come around, The Cool Kids are becoming known for their crisp fashion sense. But its unique. They’re still immersed in the hip hop of the ’80s, as they claim in their single ‘88, so they still rock thick gold rope chains and Gazelle glasses, because as they put it they’re “bringing ‘88 back”.
The rhymes too are littered with stylistic references. From name dropping their favourite brands and limited-edition sneakers to their pimped-out BMXs (just check out the Black Mags video). The duo are fascinated with trends.
Ingersoll produces everything for the duo, and he has a strictly no sample approach which is sort of unique in today’s market. Speaking to Time Out Chicago he states this is simply because they can’t afford it, but it has earnt the Kids a signature style. The beats aren’t too complex ala Timbaland, as I’ll show below they’re slow in the vein of the South with slowed down hooks that sound like they’ve been chopped and screwed.
Expect the Kids to be all over the back end of 2008 when they put out their debut album. For now though, check out some of their material below and familiarise yourself with one of the most unique groups in hip hop right now.
Video for their breakthrough single, “Black Mags”:
Other tight tracks:
+ “Gold and a Pager”
+ “88″
This week I will mostly be blogging about music (and football, of course).
I’ve had a stash of music waiting to go on my iPod in the past few weeks and one of these is an artist by the name of Wale. That’s pronounced “Wah-lay” rather than “Whale”. I thought naming yourself after a sea mammal might be a little bit of a weird choice for a rapper, but then again Papoose’s moniker is actually what eskimoes use to carry their eskimo kids in and Saigon’s is the former capital of Vietnam. So, in actual fact, I guess it wouldn’t have been that weird after all.
ANYWAY… Wale, whose real name is Olubowale Folarin, is a 23 year old rapper out of Washington DC, a city not really reknowned for its hip hop output. He studied at seven different high schools before finally graduating and heading to Virginia State University, but dude dropped out to pursue his love of music.
His big break came in ‘05 when DC radio station DJ Alizay started playing Wale’s track “Rhyme of the Century” and a feature in The Source’s Unsigned Hype section followed shortly. Since then he’s hooked up with Mark Ronson, he’s scored promotion deals with XXL and Remy Martin and has performed singles at the 2007 MTV Music Video Awards.
His track “Nike Boots” blew up on the net last year, and was even hailed as iTunes’ single of the week in November of last year. Then, before you know it, Lil Wayne got on the remix and you know how the Weezy fans be… next thing you know its “Yo, you heard of this kid Wale from DC?”
As for high praise, Entertainment Weekly listed Wale as one of the 8 people to watch out for in ‘08. That list also included stunning actress Rachel McAdams and not-so-stunning British actor Simon Pegg.
As for the music itself, the sound is east coast (of course, DC is east after all) mixed with a bit of a southern style, although there’s no referenes to sizzurp and its not slow enough to ‘chop and screw’. The southern influences are evident as his major features so far include Weezy (New Orleans), Bun B (Houston) and Pusha T of the Clipse (VA). The lyrics are along the lines of Lil Wayne, Kanye West, etc. Wale has fun with his rhymes - no politics I’m afraid.
And just like Kanye, Wale is playing the fashion tip too. There are plenty of references to him dressing ‘fresh to def’ throughout his mixtape. Infact, the whole start of the W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. joint he talks about tight jeans, bright trainers and people trying to copy his look after ripping him for it. If you liked Kanye for being ‘fresh’, then you’re going to love Wale too.
His debut album is coming soon via Interscope. He signed a deal with them a month or two back, and the word in the hip hop industry is Wale is going to be big.
Here’s the mixtape that got things going, “100 Miles and Running”, mixed by Nick Catchdubs. Check out “W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.” and “Let’s Ride” (listed below) for sure, but the whole mixtape is a good listen.
Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.
Wale - Let’s Ride
Video for WALEDANCE, ala Justice - Dance, is coming soon. Look out for that.
DJ Premier knows his shit. So when he sets up his own record label to release music you know it’s going to be decent hip hop. Here is the first album to be released on the aforementioned ‘Year Round’ record imprint. And Premo produces a fair few joints on the LP. This is “Welcome to G-Dom” from the very unknown NYG’z.
Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/60313338/NYGz-.rar
NYG’z stands for New York Giants, but obviously due to the NFL team of the same name they can’t use that name to sell records. That’s about all I can tell you about the NYG’z really. Metal Lungies.com wrote a pretty decent review about this album over on their blog, so go read that too.
Every time I’ve been involved with the Utopia FM broadcasts there’s always been one song that the whole world seems completely oblivious to that we play all the time. Last year it was the Tiger Picks “Disco Punk Electro Funk”, which was an awesome repetitive dance song walking the fine line between annoying and superb ever-so-well.
This year it’s a summery, European sounding record from Liverpool’s Sonny J. I don’t know much about Sonny J but they/he/she/whoever is somehow involved with MF Doom/DangerDoom - and that’s only ever a good thing… and as I don’t know much I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Here’s the video for their song “Can’t Stop Moving” which we (Utopia FM) are playing all the time, and it will definitely go down as my anthem of this broadcast:
Check some of Sonny J’s other songs out on their myspace page, www.myspace.com/sonnyjmusic.
www.themosaics.net / www.myspace.com/mosaicmusic1
This band are the bollocks. I wrote a little bit about them in my round up of Utopia Live a few months back. I’m not going to fill you with info on them, I reckon all I need to do is show you the video for “Runner” and you should be hooked. So here it is:
I hate love songs, and songs about love, but “Runner” is just so, so good. They’ve a debut album out now - which I’m yet to get my hands on - but having heard a bit of their stuff from playing it on the radio I can safely say it’s all worth a listen.
www.thehoosiers.co.uk / www.myspace.com/thehoosiers
This week’s new artist of the week is London-based up tempo indie/pop trio The Hoosiers.
You may have hummed along to their first single “Worried about Ray” on the radio with little or no idea of who was behind it. I know I didn’t, and I didn’t even question it.
Stumbling across their myspace page I recognised a song or two instantly and was hooked by the other songs they’ve done. I can safely say I was a fan straight away. They’ve a front man with a lot of vocal presence along with well polished instrumentation - which leads me to think it’s only a matter of time before The Hoosiers ‘get big’.
They’re touring the UK for the next two months (on and off). The dates are on their myspace page (top of this post). They’re playing pretty much everywhere. If you like their stuff go along, I imagine they’d be pretty good live because their music is pretty energetic.
Anyway, here’s “Worried about Ray”, “Goodbye Mr A”, “Worst Case Scenario” and “A Sadness Runs Through Him”. Enjoy!
The Hoosiers - Worried about Ray
www.newcassettes.co.uk / www.myspace.com/newcassettes
I’m not going to lie, I’ve not looked at many new bands this week. So when I say this is the best offering this week, that’s not necessarily true, it’s just that I’ve been too busy to sieve through the hoards of shit to find something worth listening to. That being said, that doesn’t mean I’ve picked a gash band this week - maybe not as strong as previous artists - but a decent band nonetheless. This week’s new artist of the week is The New Cassettes.
Drawn instantly, as I’m sure you will be, to the first 10 seconds of pretty much every song (especially “Our Hearts Don’t Beat”) I found myself tapping my feet throughout but never quite as absorbed as the first flashes had promised.
New Cassettes are a indie/pop band (as everybody seems to be these days) who hail from the midlands, and consist of Dan Battison (bass/vocals), Tom Stubbs (vocals), Owen Reed (guitar/vocals), Nik Gray (guitar/vocals) and Tommy Francis (drums).
They’ll be performing at Glastonbury this week, so I guess they have more potential than this post suggests! They definitely have the ability to write melodies because I find myself humming/singing along to most of their choruses, but whether they can hook you in for any longer is something I’m sure will come as the band progresses. They seem like a young set of lads (peep the picture) and I’m sure their music will only get better.
But I’ll let you judge for yourself, here’s “Our Hearts Don’t Beat”, “You Won’t Stop”, “Lighthouse”, “RecoverRetreat” and “Sore Eyes”. I recommend “Our Hearts Don’t Beat”:
New Cassettes - Our Hearts Don’t Beat
New Cassettes - You Won’t Stop
www.myspace.com/leadingbyexample
“You can’t rap my friend. You’re white and you’re from Fulham.” - Example had me from that line.
It’s hard to identify hip hop acts on Myspace because unlike rock or other forms of music when people get into the industry they make their sound through their own instruments. With hip hop and rap music you’ve got to rely on your producer’s beats. And when you don’t have a record deal you’re gonna get some garbage beats because you can’t afford better, and the best producers don’t just work with anybody, right?
So I’m always pleasantly surprised if I stumble across one of Myspace’s better hip hop offerings. I found Example when I was looking through the friends list of Mike Skinner, who’ll you know better as The Streets. Example is signed to Mike Skinner’s “The Beats” record label which also houses The Mitchell Brothers and some lesser known individuals such as Professor Green (who is a very skinny white man).
What you need to know about Example is that despite being a London rapper he’s not like the Kano’s or the Dizzee Rascal’s, he’s definitely more towards The Streets’ market. He raps about rain, girls with bad breath and white boys who can’t rap - there’s no guns, no drugs and no cars - and that’s always refreshing. Indeed, Example is more than just a pop rapper because some of his songs, while comical also have a fair amount of substance to them.
I believe he’s very much at the start of his career and the better production is still to come. With better beats and some guidance from Mike Skinner and such, Example could be an immensely talented rapper.
Here’s a little biography from Example’s myspace page:
Born 20th June 1982 (same Birthday as Lionel Ritchie and Brian Wilson watch out fellas!) at West London hospital in Hammersmith. At age 2, visited the white cliffs of Dover with parents and my dad nearly (accidentally) dropped me over the edge. Only survived due to a strong grip for a toddler. Same strong grip would later be used to hold microphones and female arses tightly. Attended All Saints Primary School in Fulham High St and was good at Maths, Art and Poetry. Some people took the piss out of my big lips. Who’s laughing now you supermarket trolley attendant fuckfaces!? After buying Snoop Doggs Doggystyle album I penned my first rap verse aged 11. I’ll slaughter your daughter and knife your wife. My mum looked worried but embraced me still. Attended ADT College, Wandsworth. More peeps took the piss out of my lips (and teeth). Who’s laughing now you drug-pushing stolen-Golf GTI-driving wastemen! Wait that aint a bad lifestyle is it. Anyways. Aged 15 entered a rap battle at a house party in Shepherds Bush. Completely destroyed a useless wanker and a fight broke out so I sprinted home. You get me. Year 2000: attended Royal Holloway University Of London to study film directing. Started Garage MCing to make some money. Didn’t make much. Banged many trim ladies. Met Rusher. Thought he was a tosser. He thought I was a tosser. Despite this we made a concept album in the Film Departments audio booth. 2001: went to New York City and in an expensive restaurant I shook hands with Stevie Wonder in the mens toilets. Not in a George Michael sorta way. I told him he was very talented. He told me I was gonna be BIG. Graduated. Moved to Australia by myself for a year. Did lots of landscape gardening and work on scaffolding. Met bare idiots with mullets and learnt a lot about myself and BBQs. Grew my hair. Learnt to surf on my last day in the country. Moved back to London, decided I wanted to be a professional rapper. Released 3 singles all by myself. Pete Tong played my song on Radio 1. Mike Skinner heard my shit. Achieved desired career. Darsh.
And with that, that’s pretty much all you need to know about Example. Now for the music!
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