I don't ball with none of y'all, I stay above the rims! A friend introduced me to C-Rayz back in highschool (SHOUTOUT KYLE G!) and I've loved this dude ever since. He's got some clever lines, I like the old school beat and I'm pretty sure it's a FRESH VIDEO, soooooo...
Check it out! (I'll post something other than rap songs soon, just in the MOOOOOOD!)
I know, I know. It's Wiz. But it's oldschool Wiz, which is 100% better than the newer Wiz you hear today. This beat is so tight and I've been listening to it non-stop in my car, because I love it so much. It's Friday, don't feel like writing a ton, PEACE!
Flying Lotus is one of the best producers ever in my opinion. He's a multi-genre producer and did a lot of the stuff for Adult Swim, which a lot of people don't know. This particular song is one of my favorites, the ambiance and the vibe are honestly unreal. It's so cool and almost... mystical feeling. I don't have too much else to say about this one, but it's good to chill to homework to.
Been a few days since I posted, I have been really busy with finals coming up and projects being due, but I finally found time to post something on here. Quasimoto is something else man, this album is really unique and I find that I can listen to The Unseen a million times and probably never get bored of it.
Awesome beats, original lyrics, and a style not unlike that of Madlib and J-Dilla, he goes pretty hard on this track and I love it.
Mayer Hawthorne is one rad dude. He has a throwback soul sound to his music and goes through record stores looking for those old school samples that some of the legendary 80s and 90s producers use. He plays a lot of instruments, does vocals, does it all. This is a cool video, which is the primary reason for choosing this song in particular, but I like pretty much everything he puts out. It's all really kind of in the same boat.
He's also on Stones Throw, which is where MF DOOM and some other pretty legendary underground rappers and producers have called home presently and in the past.
This song is really good. I've been listening to a lot of Morgan Page lately and I'm really starting to like it more and more, it's super dancey, but still kind of low key for the most part. Makes you feel really good somehow. If you like house music, you'll probably like it, or if you just like dancing. Who knows?
Tigran Mimosa, what do I even say? He is easily my favorite EDM producer to date. He makes these crazy but somehow super chill songs that just keep me hooked for DAYS. Every time I listen to a song from Mimosa I can't help but feel kind of badass, like I should be doing something really cool in a crazy movie.
I don't even care about all the technical crap that goes into this kind of music usually - I just listen according to how it makes me feel. But if I had to describe this, it's like a mix between a cool little video game song with a really simple, chill beat behind... and then add in a lonely soul trying to get out into the mix, that's about as heavily as I think about it. And this makes me feel badass.
Jaylib is a collab between J-Dilla and Madlib, a couple of legendary underground producers. Honestly, there's not even much I can say about it. Either you like this or you don't, basically. It's some heavier, darker production, but it's still dope.
If you know anything about producers, J-Dilla is one of the legendary Detroit dudes. People have been talking about Dilla for SO LONG, he died pretty recently, but he left a legacy for a lot of producers in the game today. I love this shit.
Just listen and judge, these guys are some of the best around.
I'm in a really good mood today. That means that I'm going to share a song that will put YOU in a good mood, too! I really love The Grouch. I was first introduced to him when he was a part of Living Legends (group based out of the Bay area of Cali), and I thought he was tight as hell.
His lyrics are always smart, poetic, witty and actually have meaning (gasp), he's one of my all-time favorite rappers. He's also one of the dopest people ever, has a wife, two kids, and still does his thing, slammin' hard all around the country on tour. If you were at Soundset last year you got a chance to listen to him with the Zion-I crew, and if you haven't heard of any of this, you're really missing out.
As the intro says, this sounds like some of that old school synthesized loveliness!
Anybody who knows anything about underground knows about MF DOOM. Madvillain is a collab between DOOM and Madlib, one of the best producers of all time. All chill ass beats, chill flows. This is one of the best collabs of all time, in my opinion. I can always go back to Madvillain and rock it out.
DOOM's lyrics have always been abstract and poetic, something that not a lot of rappers in the game these days like to do. It's different, and I find that this is one of the songs that most people like, because some of his other stuff is just a little bit too different for lots of people.
Either way, this is a sick song and I recommend even if you haven't ever heard of it, you should give it a listen.
If you haven't ever listened to The Weeknd, you're definitely missing out. I don't usually rock out this type of music, but something about this just makes me listen. I honestly first heard him when he was featured on a couple of other artists' songs and didn't think much of it.
The beat is chill, he's got a good voice, it's a good song if you're just chillin' out. To be fair, I'm pretty new to him myself and haven't listened to everything, and I doubt I will like all of it. It's some smooth R&B sound that is good for the right moment, but personally, I won't be listening to it all day and all night.
If you really listen to most of The Weeknd's stuff, it's in the same style of Drake's self-examination about how shallow wealth and fame are, but it's much darker. His songs are more along the lines of talking to the world about using booze and drugs to coerce girls into group sex and the like. So it might not be for everyone, but maybe it is.
This song is one of the more moderate of the bunch.
First of all, if you have ever been anywhere near me, you've probably heard Evidence. As one part of the Dilated Peoples crew, he was sick.
Solo, he's sick.
Now on Rhymesayers (an indie hip-hop Minnesota label, for those of you who don't know), his latest release delivers. This is one of my favorite tracks off the album and I'm glad that there's a music video for it too. It's simple and it's still really cool.
Evidence has one of the best flows ever, lyrics are solid and the beats are always sick. He won a Grammy with Kanye for his production on The Graduation. So you know he's good.
This is the second release from a band called Minus the Bear. It's kind of old, like 2005. If you're curious Menos el Oso also translates into "minus the bear" (oh, so clever). Anyways, they're in what I would classify as the range of indie bands.
However, even if you don't normally think that you like indie music, check this song out. I'm not always a huge fan myself, some of it is just too dark, boring, etc. But these guys have a crazy style that I like a lot more than most other bands in the genre.
You really have to give it a listen, the noodly guitar riffs, the relatively quiet vocals and the simple drums have a certain appeal to them. It's good music if you're just looking to chill out and do some homework.
When I first listened to them, I was only into a few of the songs, but it all grew on me. Next thing I knew I was trying desperately to find all that I could, which ended up being the previous release Highly Refined Pirates and the 2007 release after it called Planet of Ice. They also have one more new album titled Omni.
