REPLACE THESE STARS WITH HOMEPAGE SUMMARY<-->
So, I was at a party this weekend and a friend of mine used the phrase "it ain't hard to tell". Naturally, I busted out the first few lines of the Nas song, and surprisingly I was met with confusion from the two females I was talking with. They'll remain nameless, but both of their names start with the letter C, one of them had a short-lived stint as a contributor to this blog, and the other DJs a country night at Spiderhaus on Sundays.
Anyway, I think both would consider themselves hip-hop fans, but didn't know this definition-of-a-classic. So I thought, HEY, TIME FOR A SPECIAL EDITION
I feel like It Was Written is a really overlooked album, but let's be honest, Illmatic is clearly the reason anybody still pays Nas any attention.
I once read a really apt quote that nailed Illmatic's importance. It asserted that if the genre of hip-hop was wiped clean and disappeared from history, you could reconstruct everything from Illmatic. There aren't many albums you can say that about.
Nas - It Ain't Hard to Tell (divshare)
BONUS:
This remix was released on an EP of Danger Mouse's early mash-up material. He puts Nas over a sinister Portishead sample and it sounds great.
Nas - It Ain't Hard to Tell (Danger Mouse Remix) (divshare)
DOUBLE BONUS:
A nice little remix of One Love, goes over well in loungey hip-hop sets.
Nas - One Love (Dimension Ball Remix) (divshare)
(divshare)
TRIPLE BONUS:
Recommended reading- the lyrics to Ain't Hard to Tell are after the jump.
REPLACE THESE STARS WITH FULL POST<-->
So, I was at a party this weekend and a friend of mine used the phrase "it ain't hard to tell". Naturally, I busted out the first few lines of the Nas song, but was met with confusion from the two females I was talking with. They'll remain nameless, but both of their names start with the letter C, one of them had a short-lived stint as a contributor to this blog, and the other DJs a country night at Spiderhaus on Sundays.
Anyway, I think both would consider themselves hip-hop fans, but didn't know this definition-of-a-classic. So I thought, HEY, TIME FOR A SPECIAL EDITION
I feel like It Was Written is a really overlooked album, but let's be honest, Illmatic is clearly the reason anybody still pays Nas any attention.
I once read a really apt quote that nailed Illmatic's importance. It asserted that if all of hip-hop disappeared, if the genre was wiped clean, you could reconstruct everything from Illmatic. There aren't many albums you can say that about.
Nas - It Ain't Hard to Tell
(divshare)
BONUS:
Nas - It Ain't Hard to Tell (Danger Mouse Remix)
(divshare)
This remix was released on an EP of Danger Mouse's early mash-up material. He puts Nas over that sinister Portishead sample and it sounds great.
DOUBLE BONUS:
A nice little remix of One Love, goes over well in loungey hip-hop sets.
Nas - One Love (Dimension Ball Remix)
(divshare)
"It Ain't Hard To Tell"
It ain't hard to tell, I excel, then prevail
The mic is contacted, I attract clientele
My mic check is life or death, breathin a sniper's breath
I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps
Deep like The Shinin', sparkle like a diamond
Sneak a uzi on the island in my army jacket linin
Hit the Earth like a comet, invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin
Cause in my physical, I can express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drank Moet with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain't hard to tell
The buddha monk's in your trunk, turn the bass up
Not stories by Aesop, place your loot up, parties I shoot up
Nas, I analyze, drop a jew-el, inhale from the L
School a fool well, you feel it like braille
It ain't hard to tell, I kick a skill like Shaquille holds a pill
Vocabulary spills I'm +Ill+
plus +Matic+, I freak beats slam it like Iron Shiek
Jam like a tech with correct techniques
So analyze me, surprise me, but can't magmatize me
Scannin while you're plannin ways to sabotage me
I leave em froze like her-on in your nose
Nas'll rock well, it ain't hard to tell
This rhythmatic explosion, is what your frame of mind has chosen
I'll leave your brain stimulated, niggaz is frozen
Speak with criminal slang, begin like a violin
End like Leviathan, it's deep well let me try again
Wisdom be leakin out my grapefruit troop
I dominate break loops, givin mics men-e-straul cycles
Street's disciple, I rock beats that's mega trifle
And groovy but smoother than moves by Villanova
You're still a soldier, I'm like Sly Stone in Cobra
Packin like a rasta in the weed spot
Vocals'll squeeze glocks, MC's eavesdrop
Though they need not to sneak
My poetry's deep, I never fell
Nas's raps should be locked in a cell
It ain't hard to tell
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Favorite Song Special Edition
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
LazySong Wednesday
I realized a minute ago that HEY, IT'S WEDNESDAY.
I was jolted to this realization as I was picking out some songs for this queer night at Airport Bar tonight and I stumbled upon my favorite song. It's the dance version of December 63!
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - December 63 (Dance Version)
(divshare)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Favorite Song Wednesday: The Return of Sam Cooke
I had been giving Sam Cooke a little rest for a few months, but it's hard to put down the man's records.
The live recording from the Copa is an interesting counterpoint to the more popular Harlem Square Live recording. While that one is like a great ball of fire chasing you down a narrow corridor, the Copa performance is a cozy fireplace in your living room.
The story goes that the Copa Cabana in New York was the venue that Sam Cooke most wanted to succeed at. Early in his career he played there, and self-admittedly bombed. This recording is from his second try, where he undeniably knocks'em dead.
I've posted three tracks from the performance. The first is a medley of For Sentimental Reasons, You Send Me, and Otis Redding's Try a Little Tenderness. The second is a beautiful ballad that I hadn't heard before. Lastly, I've included the Bob Dylan cover Blowin in the Wind, a song that Sam apparently admired and wished he had written.
Sam Cooke - Medley (Live at the Copa)
(divshare)
Sam Cooke - When I Fall in Love (Live at the Copa)
(divshare)
Sam Cooke - Blowin in the Wind (Live at the Copa)
(divshare)
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Favorite Song Wednesday Late Edition
Today's late edition of Favorite Song Wednesday is dedicated to The Whispers.
Dear The Whispers,
Would you like to play my birthday party?
"It's a Love Thing" is the tune that caught my ear, then I realized they've got a pretty smoking catalog of singles and two decades of chart-topping longevity.
The Whispers - It's a Love Thing (divshare)
BONUS:
The Whispers - Rock Steady
DOUBLE BONUS:
The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On...
(This track hit #1 on the U.S. charts and #2 in the U.K. in 1979.)
TRIPLE BONUS:
Will Smith sampled The Whispers for Caribbean-flavored smoker Miami.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Favorite Song Wednesday
All week I had been thinking that my favorite song was "Love Has Come Around" by Donald Byrd, but American Athlete went and stole my thunder and posted it yesterday. In an effort to not looking like a piggyback blogger, I am revising my favorite song for the week. Go download the Donald Byrd track from American Athlete, it is amazing.
So since my favorite song was co-opted by another blog, I thought back to what my favorite song was when I was in sixth grade. It was Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. I used to jam this song over and over in my discman, along with other popular singles "Spoonman" and "Fell on Black Days".
This version is a reworking by French producer/remixer Pilooski. He has been killing it for a few years now. I first caught wind of his edits when his remix of Franki Valli's Beggin' hit big last year. He flips some of the oddest sources (Amon Duul II, Alan Parsons Project, Cat Stevens) to make really catchy dance tracks. This isn't a dance track, but it might make you waltz. The version makes you realize the excessively formal tone of the lyrics. I don't want to say anymore and ruin the surprise. Stream it!
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun (Pilooski Version)
BONUS:
Pilooski's two latest remixes:
Elvis Presley - Crawfish (Pilooski Edit)
Findlay Brown - Promised Land (Pilooski Edit)
DOUBLE BONUS:
The Black Hole Sun video is weird as hell.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Favorite Song Wednesday
Last week I was so caught up in election hoop-la that I forgot to post a new favorite song. Well, this is it. The big one. Nothing better. This is my favorite song.
Cerrone - Give Me Love
Jean-Marc Cerrone has some real serious jams. From Love in C Minor to Supernature, he produced some of the most foot-stomping disco of the late 70's and early 80's. Give Me Love is my favorite song of his to play out. Starting with a double-time stereo bongo beat, the song builds with a phaser/wah-wah guitar and slap and pop bassline. The horns and orchestral stabs keep things moving along, while a synthesizer solos in the background. It builds for about 3 minutes before hitting you with the songs vocals. The female singers croon in sexy whimpers. While the bass-line might be what keeps hips shaking, the vocals are what get the ladies on the dance-floor.
BONUS:
My second favorite Cerrone song, Africanism, was actually done under the short-lived Kongas moniker. It is a cover of the classic "Gimme Some Loving".
Kongas - Africanism (Original Mix)
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Favorite Song Wednesday
Joubert Singers - Stand on the World (Larry Levan Mix)
I'm not sure the true story of the track, there are several different versions. Discogs credits disco remix pioneer Walter Gibbons (and his early 80's religious conversion) with it's discovery. A Youtube clip of the song lists it as released in 1982, as opposed to Discogs 1985 listing for both the original and Tony Humphries remix releases. Also, French electro group Keedz recently released a version of the track that's gotten some play on Annie Mac's BBC show. This is Larry Levan's mix, which I originally found on some blog and then rediscovered on the Unabombers "Electric Chair Rip", an excellent disco edit single.
Okay, I'm done being nerdy. This song is just undeniable. It begins with a rippling piano line and from there it just builds and builds. The drums are typical Levan, punchy and succinct, with some monstrously extended hand claps. A slap bass line is almost joking around it's so wild, with some wicked vibrato and really strange rhythmic accents. The instrumentation is perfect, but the real draw is the choir.
You can hear the vocals begin to build at the around the 30 second mark and they explode into actual lyrics a little after one minute in. The refrain is triumphant, the mixing of male and female voices is particularly poignant, the gender of the vocal timbre weaves in and out gracefully and effectively. My favorite part has got to be when the female voice is isolated and sings, "We don't know how, we don't know when." It has the flair of a show-tune.
Also, be sure to listen to the whole track because the last 30 seconds is when it atually hits the "Stand on the World" part, and although it fades out rather quickly, it is a great culmination of the rest of the song.
BONUS:
Alternative version of Stand On the World, this one listed as released in 1982. More electro-funked out, but lacking the grace of the Levan mix.
Version by Keedz released in 1982. The high synth stabs on this are nearly identical to Justice's D.A.N.C.E, the bass sound is awful, and it sounds like they're exploiting the original vocal recording. Really not very good.
.
DOUBLE BONUS:
And lastly another MP3 from that Unabombers single, this a mix of Daniel Wang's "Like Some Dream (I Can't Stop Dreaming), which was featured on the James Murphy/Pat Mahoney Fabric Live mix last year. It's the heat.
Daniel Wang - Like Some Dream (I Can't Stop Dreaming)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Favorite Song Wednesday
Okay, for the last two weeks I haven't really had a favorite song. I've been man-crushing all over Arthur Russell since I downloaded the new compilation and I've had little time for thinking about much else.
Kraftwerk - Computer Love
But tonight I remembered that "Computer Love" by Kraftwerk is probably my favorite song. I had a nice little drive from Colorado to Austin earlier this summer in which I listened to the entire Kraftwerk discography in one sitting (minus the album they did for the Tour de France a few years ago). Ralf and Florian is their most beautiful tonal work, and Radioactivity might have been the most forward thinking, but Computer World is my favorite just because it is so damn nerdy.
Tonight I played it at Clementine and a customer asked me if the sounds were music we were playing or if some equipment was malfunctioning. Sandwiched between Home Computer (who sampled this? it isn't Missy, that was Cybotron) and Computer World 2's stuttering drums, Computer Love is Kraftwerk's attempt at robotic romantic ennui.
Boy do they succeed. The melody trades between a watery synth and high pitched bell sound, while the cheapest sounding drum machine 1981 could buy rattles out a driving hi-hat pattern and clipped snare shots. What really gets me though is the vocals. Lyrically it's incredibly sad and it vaguely alludes to prostitution, but I'd like to think that the Kraftwerk boys just stayed in with their computers instead of scheduling a downtown date with a mistress of the night.
BONUS:
Italo-disco revivalists Glass Candy sex it up a notch with this cover.
Glass Candy - Computer Love
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Favoritesong Wednesday #3
Ok, so maybe that Otis song isn't my favorite song. It's great and all, but half of what I enjoy about it is projecting Otis's legacy onto a cross-table discussion between two imaginary figures. There's a lot of me filling in blanks on that one.
Brian Eno - The Big Ship
Another Green World (1975)
This song is probably my favorite song for real. My Brian Eno obsession is well documented. I have a copy of his diary that he published from 1995 by my bedside. I have had a data CD of his pop records in heavy rotation in my car for the past 3 years and I can now sing pretty much every guitar or synth solo. I work at least 2 oblique strategies from this delightful Mac widget into my life every day. I threw a remarkably uncomfortable listening party for Another Green World in the basement of ol' Casa Vista. I forced 35 minutes of bell studies he did for a clock that's supposed to run for 10,000 years onto the unprepared Clementine customers last week until someone complained. I almost even downloaded the new Coldplay album because he produced it.
Nerdiness aside, this song is some epic shit. It's like men building a pyramid. Rolling snares and rimshots keep a marching 6/8 pace as layer after layer of synthesizer and sustained guitar tones spiral into the clouds. Halfway through the track scalpel sharp hi-notes carve into the dense and drawn out bed of textures, but the most beautiful thing about the song is that it never explodes in climax or crumbles into a ruins, it fucking fades out. As if the pyramid workers were pretty close to finishing the damn thing but then were struck with a sudden sense of tranquility and just walked slowly into the desert and forgot about the whole project.
BONUS MATERIAL:
I took a few videos while driving to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado this summer. Aforementioned Eno data disc was in the CD player. They're a bit shaky, but I was operating a motor vehicle at the time of filming.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Favoritesong Wednesday #2
How soon the week rolls back around. Here we are, hello Wednesday. Last weeks track was a killer, but on closer reflection I'm not sure it is really my favorite song. I was just really excited about it at the time. I felt like big dancin' on the floor.
Otis Redding - Cigarettes and Coffee
(from the Soul Album, 1966)
This is maybe my favorite song. It probably ranks in my top 5 listened to songs ever. I wrote a paper about it for Clifford Antone's class on the blues that talked about how Dock of the Bay is a natural lyrical progression from songs like this one. I've posted the paper here on this new blog. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning the Casa V, a blogger just needs some room to stretch out you know what I'm saying.
But back to the task at hand. Cigarettes and Coffee. Lyrically this is closer to Sam Cooke's work than your average Otis Redding song, Otis generally doesn't sing about specific scenes as often, his style is more conversational than Cooke's. This plays to his strength on Cigarettes and Coffee, he can focus lyrically on setting a vivid late-night scene and the listener can easily imagine the content of the conversations between Otis and his lover based on the colloquial tone of most of Otis's other writing.
BONUS:
Awe inspiring video from the Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967. Otis starts by dedicating it to all the mini-skirts out there, and then you're treated to 3 minutes of the most beautifully happy women the late 60's had to offer. At 3:08 it cuts to Otis for a fiery as hell finale, complete with a fake stage-exit.
(I've realized that this is the second time I've posted this Monterrey Pop video. Relive an old post about me singing the song at a karaoke bar in Boulder here.)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Favoritesong Wednesday
It's been awhile since I've blogged. Oh, I can feel it coming back. The solipsism, the inflated sense of purpose, the imaginary audience. Oh yeah, that's the spot, right there.
So in an effort to post more tracks, this is the inaugural post of Favoritesong Wednesday.
Bounce Camp - Big Dancin'
I thought I couldn't really handle club tracks anymore. I went through a nice Baltimore phase a year and a half ago, just couldn't get enough of that break and fast fast shit. Call me jaded but now it seems like every fucking wanna-bee with Tittsworth's zip-file of drum break's throws together a remix every five minutes and blogs just lose their semen all over it.
Bounce Camp is from Berlin, don't know much else about him or them or whatnot. This song makes me want to enjoy dance-club culture. Giant piano chords (clean as cake), a hip-hop stab just about to scream out what it's sampled from but I can't place it, Rob Base's ubiquotious "whoooo", and enough bass drum to keep yr ass shaking. Really I think it's something about the vocals that really get me though, so simple and triumphant, not the least bit of irony or self-consciousness, even with lyrics like "folks strippin' on the floor", it just sounds natural.
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