My loyal listeners may be alarmed to see that I’m posting a playlist, and wondering how they could have missed a show. Well I had to fill in for the Deep Cuts show on Tuesday night, and I had a little bit of late notice, so I wasn’t able to post a warning. You missed out, but don’t worry, cuz I’ll be back on tonight! 2 Hip-Hop Hours 1 week. Lovely.
Blu & Exile- “My World Is…”: I finally got around to listening to Below the Heavens, and look what happened. The rest of the album isn’t quite as good as this, but Blu is fucking sick. Seriously, this guy puts the rest of his ‘up and coming’ peers to shame. Also, something about this beat keeps making me thinking of Ghostface, anyone know why?
Kid Cudi- “Is There Any Love? (ft. Wale)”: Kid Cudi and Wale are pretty nice, but playing this after “My World Is…” made me realize how far above these two dudes Blu is. Yeah, I’m in one of those phases right now.
Nas- “What Goes Around”: Nas wants you to name his baby. Make sure you listen to the end of Stillmatic, because if you don’t you’ll miss this track, and I think it’s better than it’s given credit for.
Ghostface Killah- “Daytona 500 (ft. Raekwon & Cappadonna)”: This beat is awesome. I thought this or “Apollo Kids” might be the source of that familiar feeling I got when listening to Blu’s track, but I don’t think it’s either. Oh yeah, this is on Iron Man.
Pacewon & Mr. Green- “Who I Am”: I had never heard of these guys until HipHopDX called their album The Only Color that Matters is Green one of the most slept on from 2008. They were right, it’s good. Not only is this track naturally clean, but it nicely captures an era of hip-hop I never experienced (sigh).
Common- “Drivin’ Me Wild (ft. Lily Allen)”: Harry can probably tell you more about Lily Allen than I can, but she does this hook all right. Finding Forever.
Murs- “Road Is My Religion”: How do I feel about Murs For President after having listened to about 1/3 the album throughout the semester? Meh, which is about the way I feel about his whole career. As far as neo-alternative west coast hip-hop goes, Blu is killing Murs at his own game.
Mikkey Halsted- “Can’t Tell Us Nothing (ft. Ken Rock & K.T.)”: I forgot how good this song is. MC Chris Barnes can tell you how I feel about the original version (arguably the best beat on Graduation, and definitely the best overall song), and these younger Chicago dudes do it justice. I really need to get my iPod up and running again, because that Uncrowned King mixtape really deserves a few more listens.
Lupe Fiasco- “Gotta Eat”: Whoever was Music Director when The Cool came out listed this as the first recommended track. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s okay.
Hi-Tek- “Where It Started At (NY) (ft. Dion, Jadakiss, Papoose, Talib Kweli, & Raekwon)”: How about that line-up? Jadakiss just put out a new album the other day, and it’s getting mixed reviews.
Slaughterhouse- “Fight Club”: Finally got me a Slaughterhouse track in the studio. It’s not their best, but its also not 8 minutes long like most of the others. Does anyone else wish they’d kick Royce da 5’9” out of the group and replace him with someone interesting?
Jay-Z- “I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me) (ft. Pharell)”: I can’t believe he wasted this track on Dynasty: Roc La Familia. What do you, my 2 readers, think is Jay-Z’s better party track: I.Z.Z.O. or this? (write in answers are okay).
Nappy Roots- “Awnaw (ft. Jazze Pha)”: I like this song.
eMC- “EMC (What It Stands For)”: I’ve been mentioning these guys every time I play that Masta Ace song in the studio, so I finally got some songs to play for you. This one is off The Show, and does one of those things where they take an acronym and rap three words that could make it up after saying it.
The Pharcyde- “Ya Mama”: Do hipsters over-hype anything more than mid-90s non-gangsta rap? No offense to The Pharcyde or ATCQ, because they’re both good, but seriously…
Outkast- “So Fresh, So Clean”: One might even throw Outkast into the discussion from the previous song. Though it seems to me the real over-hype is coming from the hip-hop website commentators who love to put Andre 3o00 in their top 10. Stankonia.
Killer Mike- “Can You Hear Me?”: Still can’t get over this song.
Lil Wayne- “3 Peat”: Look at all this dirty south shit! And you thought I didn’t know shit about them southern boys (I don’t).
Notorious B.I.G.- “Juicy”: I played a new music liner before this song. Psyche!
Kidz in the Hall- “Snob Hop (ft. Camp Lo)”: I’ve been loving this song since last summer (which is the perfect time for it), mostly because the second verse promises “oral spasms.” Very Nice.
Jake One- “The Truth (ft. Freeway & Brother Ali)”: I could honestly listen to just this beat all day long. My god is that soulful.
Rhymefest- “Dynomite (Going Postal)”: Haven’t played any Rhymefest in a while. He just put out a new mixtape (I wasn’t impressed), but this is from Blue Collar.
Skyzoo- “Stop Fooling Yourself”: I always forget that I like Skyzoo a lot because his laid-back flows never really grab you. Don’t overlook him though, he’s got some great lines. The Three Day High.
Grand Buffet- “We’re Into This”: Ira or Clint should tell you the story about these guys, but I don’t have any problems with them. Especially when they make catchy songs like this one. Pittsburgh Hearts EP.
Big L & Jay-Z- “’95 Freestyle”: Go find this track on the internet and download it. 7 minutes of Big L and Jay-Z spitting rhymes you’ve never heard before??? Yeah, it’s that good. I’m pretty sure this happened either just before, or just after they put their debuts out, which means that this is as much a historical document as it is a freestyle.
Mobb Deep- “Front Lines (Hell On Earth)”: This is a single we have in the studio. Not bad.
Sage Francis- “Water Line”: I needed a short song to fill up 2 minutes, and this is a good one. For some reason Chris hates all of Human the Death Dance, even though this is probably the most emotionally affecting and scathing political rant Sage has ever written. Is that too much praise for the song? Maybe a touch.
Johnson & Jonson- “Bonus Track”: Yeah, I’m playing Blu again, get over it. Cool sample of a John Lennon song, and for some reason this track just speaks to me (you will only get that joke if you’ve heard the song (the sample is “hold on John”) (get it?))). This is sort of like that Skyzoo thing I was talking about earlier. It’s lazy to write off songs like this as ‘boring,’ because it probably means that you didn’t listen to it as closely as you should.
The Hip-Hop Hour 