Hip Hop
s / s / s
01 year ago
Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, and Serengeti have teamed up to form s / s / s – an electronic, slow-rap spitting, sonic jam, indie group. On the first track from their upcoming Beak & Claw EP one can easily hear each artist’s contribution: Sufjan drops some auto-tuned hooks while Serengeti delivers the slow, off-kilter rhymes. And Son Lux fans will recognize the slow-building, arena sized beat that mounts and escalates until it has no other option than to dissolve into his repeated words: “I am recoloring”. The track is a big contradiction; the rhymes are dark and seep through the beat, while the hooks and choruses are high pitched and they ride on top of it. But you can tell that it all works together, as your head nods and your eyebrows furrow into a confused look: “I think I kinda like this.”
s / s / s – “Museum Day”
Beak & Claw is out 3/20 on Anticon and it will also feature My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden and Themselves rapper Doseone.
Jamie XX
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Jamie XX is an acclaimed producer/remix king hailing from the UK. HIs most accomplished work has come in the band ‘The XX’, although his solo stuff is worth a listen too. A friend of mine showed me a ‘new to me’ song a couple months back and ever since then I’ve been hooked. “Far Nearer” is the name of the song and its steel drum magic that should be enjoyed with a corona on a beach somewhere. “New York is Killing Me” is a darker remix of a Gil Scott-Heron song
from his final album “I’m New Here”.
Jamie XX – Far Nearer
Jamie XX – New York is Killing Me
FIST PUMP
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Just a quick drop off of some wicked hip-hop tunes I’ve got on repeat at the moment. Getting more and more stoked for the summer time and all the shenanigans that it surely will bring. Happy Saturday!
New York’s Gorilla Warfare Tactics – Temptations
Australia’s Drapht dropped this sick little diddy “Rapunzel”
Chiddy Bang – Too Much Soul
I love this city
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If you’ve been following world news, you’ve probably been made aware of the disgusting riots that went on in my hometown of Vancouver. After our ice hockey team lost the NHL’s top prize, a bunch of loser anarchists and complacent “fans” went on a rampage through the streets of Van-city. I’ve lived here all my life and I love my city, so to see it’s image as a stunning, peaceful place to live, be torn apart by a few hundred idiots, was hurtful.
If there is one good thing to come out of this, it would have to be all of the volunteers who took the time to clean up their city. It’s almost as if people forgot about the fact our team lost, and everyone went to the defense of our city. The backlash against the rioters is strong, and people have expressed their thoughts on the pieces of plywood covering up the smashed windows.
Anyways, I thought I’d share a few of my favourite Vancouver bands with you guys. If you haven’t had a chance to come visit this place, you should. It’s unreal.
much love from Van-City.
The New Pornographers – Moves
Mother Mother – Hayloft (I love these guys!)
Said The Whale – Camilo
Rascalz – Top of the world
Hello Saturday, let’s be friends…
01 year ago
Here we are, the long work week is over and its time for us to get back to what we do best, enjoying ourselves! I hope the sun is shining wherever you are, and that you have some spectacular plans for the rest of your weekend. Tonight, Jer and I will be heading out to see Yeasayer rock it out at the Commodore, and we are stupidly excited to go.
I’ve put together some tracks that have been playing frequently in my house over the last couple weeks which ought to help you get your Saturday started right.
Enjoy!
Breakbot – Shades of Black I always try to find an excuse to post new Breakbot 
DJ Falcon – Unplugged
Generationals – Greenleaf
Fly Union – Long Run
French Horn Rebellion – This Moment
Gramatik
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He hails from Slovenia, and in listening to this music, I get the same feeling as when I discovered RJD2‘s music… this is some really good stuff.
Gramatik uses a unique blend of hip-hop beats and samples of funk, soul, blues and jazz to create something that goes down smooth and leaves you feeling good.
What’s more, is that the is offering up some of his music for free on his website – and it’s definitely worth the listen.
Here are a few tracks to catch your ear…
Gramatik VS Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Hip-Hop Heaven The epic classic that our parents, and most of us have listened to on more than one occasion. It was actually my grad song – go figure.
Gramatik – Hit That Jive Jazz madness. End of story
Gramatik – I’m Free A real mellow track that builds into soulful, funky beat
Gramatik – What More Can I Say This main sample in this is also used for the song by Common – Invocation.
Facebook | Myspace | Official Website | Beatport
And now I’d like to introduce: DJ Shadow
22 years ago
If you haven’t heard of him, you have seriously been missing out.
I remember my first time hearing Shadow, his album Endtroducing, in the basement of my friend’s cousin, flipping out because we had found something completely new – turntablism. It was a huge discovery for us and evidently built the foundation for a lifetime love of electronic music. DJ Shadow has been a staple of my library for the last 14 years and it’d be safe to say that he is my favorite DJ of all time.
He has collaborated with tons of major artists over the years as his music has continually grown better and better. His record collection has also grown and grown to the point where it is rumored that he now stores all but a small selection of the 60,000 of them in storage units near his studio in a San Francisco suburb.
The music itself is downtempo mastery. At its heart is a hurricane of fantastic samples, scratching, very minimal amounts of vocals, and more often than not, strong drum beats that carry the song. We had the pleasure of seeing him live on his Outsider tour when he made a stop at the Commodore here in Vancouver, and let me tell you, it was something else. We had gone into the show somewhat worried that it would be a show of purely new music, but he did not disappoint. Every single one of his best tracks came out during that show and the crowd thanked him for it. It was truly an unbelievable experience.
Here’s a sampling of some of his best and brightest:
DJ Shadow – Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
DJ Shadow – Broken Levee Blues
DJ Shadow – In/Flux
DJ Shadow & Kid Koala – Third World Lover
DJ Shadow – You Can’t Go Home Again (One of the last surviving pieces of my vinyl collection)
And finally… Walkie Talkie. Hope you have enjoyed this trip down memory lane.
He’s a bad, bad, mothaf%^&n DJ…
Facebook | Myspace | Official Website
As R. Kelly would put it….
02 years ago
This is the remix.
Here are a few of the remixes I am loving at the moment. In no particular order here they are.
The Drums – Me And the Moon (Clock Opera Remix)
Mobb Deep – Give up the goods Remix
Robyn – I blame CoCo (Miike Snow remix)
That is sum durrrrty bass
enjoy!
Little People
02 years ago
It’s Sunday again…
It was a big week, and a great weekend. Now it’s time for some relaxation before the beginning of another week and downtime is the right time for downtempo!
Allow me to introduce Little People (Laurent Clerc), a London based instrumental hip-hop / downtempo electronic music producer.
The mainstay of the sound is the way he strings together amazing samples and in doing this, he pulls off a magnificent blend of DJ Shadow, RJD2 and Pretty Lights. Most of his work could easily be used in a movie score to set the mood, so why not set the mood in your life for a little Sunday downtime?
Sit back, relax, and let these sounds help you unwind. 
Little People – Basique
Little People – Moon
Little People – Fisticuffs at Dawn (Full Version)
Right now he is giving away some of his music if you check out his Facebook page! Also check out his website for further details.
Common
1Un-Common is more like it…
… because there are few people out there who are consistently putting out soulful and truly awesome hip hop.
Since December of 1996, Common has been a favorite emcee. Upon hearing his albums Resurrection and One Day It’ll All Make Sense while still in junior high, I discovered a whole new genre of hip hop – one with some soul. His beats were unique, and had a jazzy feel to them. I am only now learning that much of that sound was due to Common’s work with J Dilla on his album Like Water For Chocolate.
Enjoy these selections, and all of his other great work, these are a few of my favorites:
Common – The Light (Produced by J Dilla)
Common – Invocation
Common – The 6th Sense (Feat Bilal) (Produced by DJ Premier)
