A Nightmare On Elm Street rap, part 5

(Youtube version is here.)

Driving From Hollywood To Biz Markie

(Youtube version is here.)

New Music By Spyder-D, Mikey D, Sparky D, and More?

After dabbling with mp3s, Spyder-D's label Newtroit Records has put out it's first physical release... well, technically since "Big Apple Rappin'" in 1980.  But Spyder's last album was in 2000 on Mecca Records, another label he was affiliated with.  So we'll call it eleven years.

But this isn't a new Spyder-D album, it's a compilation album showcasing the acts on his label, entitled Heat Seekers volume 1.  There's a lot of new names you won't recognize on here, but also several old school legends you most certainly will.  It's not a mixCD; none of the songs are blended together or incomplete, but the album is hosted by DJ Red Alert.  In this case, what that means is that he introduces every song, telling us who it's by - handy, because there are a lot of unknowns in the line-up, and you don't want to have to keep looking back at the back of the CD case every 3 minutes.

It opens with one of the strongest tracks, actually by one of the new artists: "Don't Worry About It" by Bobby Seals a.k.a. Doughnuts.  The production and hook - both also by Seals - are upbeat and catchy.  Seals has a lot of energy and he's even making a good point about celebrity gossip and other junk information we assail ourselves with.  Good shit.

Unfortunately, the whole album doesn't reach that high bar.  There's a lot of songs on here (22), and a lot are just boring.  Also, because it's showcasing everyone on his label, and he has a wide variety of acts, the album is kind of all over the place: straight R&B songs, street rap, pop stuff, songs which feel like they're chasing fads.  "My Crush" feels like the slower sequel to that Rebecca Black video that's all over Youtube, several of the artists here crank the autotune up to 11 and one of the female rappers on here sounds like a Kreayshawn knock-off.

But that's why God made the Skip Forward button, and no one is forcing you to include all these songs when you rip this and upload it to your ipod, so let's just talk about the interesting stuff.

Most of the other unknowns are kinda generic, so we'll skip right to the established old school artists (the whole reason any of will be buying this CD, anyway) right after this one last, interesting guy: Blaclite.  Have you ever had the perverse notion to blend horrorcore with Christian rap just to see what you'd get?  Me either, but this guy has and the results are indeed pretty bugged.  His voice and flow would sound completely natural alongside The Flatlinerz and The Headless Horsemen, and the production (by Blaclite himself) consists of strained, high-pitched organ notes over a break.  His hook is half-sung, half-deranged like ODB, but the lyrics, instead of demons killing you, is about demons being burned by his faith in Jesus.

Okay, now let's get to the artists we know...  there's a song on here by Sparky D called "Holla At Ya Girl."  This one features the girl I mentioned before, who I said sounds like a Kreayshawn knock-off (who also has her own song on here).  So, try to imagine Sparky and Kreayshawn doing a song together.  And since she's an evangelist now, Sparky also gives her lyrics a Christian bent: "to my ladies in stilettos, diamonds and pearls, as we walk through the mall, they be like, 'go on, girl!' My bible make my swagger swerve, quotin' scripture, readin' words. Go and buy a bottle of 'Holla At Your Girls!'"  It's... well, it's interesting.

Spyder's got a pretty cool song on here called "Heads Be Noddin."  Surprisingly, it's the only song produced by Spyder himself.  The go-to producer for the bulk of this album is actually Grand Creator K-Wiz, Sparky's DJ from back in the day.  Very cool to see him still around, but - focus! - this track's by Spyder, and it's cool and dark.  He's got a hook sung by Shady Grady of Parliament Funkadelic.  His lyrics are hard, his voice is that classic deep voice he's always had... I like this one.

But while Spyder sounds as good as ever, unfortunately, Mikey D fits the stereotype of an older MC today... sounding slower and tired.  "Dramacide" is a message song, which is cool in a way (I certainly don't disagree that street violence is bad), but it also seems like a que for a lower energy flow and melodramatic production.  It's okay for Mikey D completists, but everyone else can sleep at night knowing they're not missing out if they don't get this.

Of the R&B songs on here, easily the best is the one by Oran "Juice" Jones (though there's also an acapella song by a group called Kazual that shows some noticeable talent).  It's called "I'm a Pimp," and as Red Alert says, "the song you're about to here is self explanatory."  Fun stuff.

This next song must've been on deck for a while, since he passed in 2008, but there's a cool track by MC Breed and someone named Absolute Truth.  Breed sounds dope as ever.  Truth is a little corny, but at least he's enthusiastic.  Breed fans will like it, although they'd probably have preferred a Breed solo song.

Money B (yes, the Digital Underground one) has a new group out called M.A.S.K. and a song on here called "Is U Down," with a hook by Ne-Yo.  It's cool, and the production is nice, though I'd've preferred more of Money B and less of the other guys.

And that about raps up most of the album...  Trey Songz makes a cameo, and there are a couple other forgettable songs by new artists.  The album ends on a high note, however, with the "Heat Seekers Cipher," where all the rappers on this album - and a couple others who weren't on it, including the original Kidd Creole and somebody who sounds like Snaggapuss - get down on a massive, 8 1/2 minute posse cut.  Creole and Sparky come the strongest.

Ultimately, there's some cool stuff on here, but nothing great.  And even the good material gets drowned out by the mediocre stuff surrounding it.  Most people will pass this one by, and they'll be making the right decision for themselves.  I can really only recommend this CD for someone like me, who's a big enough fan of some of these old school artists that just their contributions make this a must-have.  If that's you, though, you won't be disappointed.  This isn't one of those "old school rapper makes hideously awful comeback attempt that's embarrassing to listen to" situations.  It's a respectable outing.

The 50 Ways of MC Shan

I was just trawling through some old Hip-Hop Isn't Dead reviews and learned about an MC Shan song I never knew about before!  It's hard to believe, after all this time, that can still happen, but it just did.  :)  It's from 1993, and granted, once you hear what it is (and the image already gave it away, after all), your enthusiasm might wane a bit... The CD version of Snow's album, 12 Inches of Snow, has two bonus tracks including one with another MC Shan appearance called "50 Ways."

Now, Snow is not untalented.  His record's corny, and while I did enjoy "Informer" in an upbeat, no-brainer kinda way, I wouldn't otherwise listen to his stuff.  But he was cool on "Pee-Nile Reunion" and all, so I don't come out of the box hating on Snow.  There's potential for this.

Like the rest of Snow's album, it's produced by Shan... but while, by 1993, he had put down the pop music style for the more quality hip-hop styles of "Hip-Hop Roughneck" and "Don't Call It a Comeback," he was producing for a big, commercial act.  So it's more pop, yeah.  Like Kool Moe Dee's "50 Ways" before this, and Eminem's "50 Ways" just last month, the hook is a variation of Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover," but where Moe Dee - and in a more altered way, Emzy - used Simon's break, too; this song just borrows the phrase for the hook.

The beat is actually pretty decent, though nothing you'll get excited about.  It's about them flexing their styles, which are a little unusual, because that's the concept - they have 50 ways to change their style.  They don't do fifty or anything, but Shan does do a different, slightly reggae-tinged style than I've heard him do on any of his own records.

Ultimately, and predictably, it's just mediocre.  But for serious MC Shan fans, hey, it's another Shan song, and he does get kinda nice here.  It's not as nearly as bad as I was prepared for it to be, or as boringly similar to other "50 Ways" (Newcleus also did a "50 Ways To Get Funky;" there've been a couple other rappers taking stabs at it as well).  It's respectably decent... for completists..

Mr. Circus Goes To Washington

(Youtube version is here.)

The Organized Konfusion With the Bonus Tracks

Back in the NY indie heyday of the late 90's/early 2000's, when great vinyl was getting pressed up and sold by the boatload over the internet, I remember Sandbox selling a double LP version of Organized Konfusion's self-titled debut with a whole bunch of bonus tracks on it.  I never bought it at the time, and it's always been sort of sitting in the back of my mind as a minor regret, until just recently when I picked it up from discogs.

Now, even outside of this release (which, by the way, I'm pretty sure is a bootleg, not a legit release... it certainly looks dodgy - that's not a bad scan, the labels are actually much harder to read in real life), there are already several versions of Organized Konfusion.  The original album on Hollywood BASIC was 14 songs spread over a single LP, so already it's a nice upgrade to get this album spread out onto a double LP.  If you got the CD version, it was 15 songs, because it included the original version of "Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken?" from the single as a bonus track.  Interestingly, while this double LP has a whopping 23 songs on it, it does not include that other version of "Who Stole..."  And furthermore, it makes the curious decision to drop the skit "Jiminez Criqueta."  No big deal, because it's just a skit, but still.

So that means this version has 10 unique songs to it, not found on the other legit or illegitimate pressings.  They are as follows:

1) Freestyle Reality - This is actually not a freestyle, but a discussion on the art of freestyling, by OK and none other than the great Grandmaster Caz.  It's cool, though ultimately really just a skit.

2) Pharoahe Monch Freestyle - Just like the title says... a little short, but long enough for Monch to kill it acapella.

3) Prince Poetry (Written Freestyle) - Also acapella and also nice.

4) Organized Freestyle - A tight radio freestyle session.

5) O.K. Moodswing - This was an exclusive B-side to the "Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken?" 12".

6) Stray Bullet - This is an odd inclusion, since it's a song off their second album. And this version isn't any different than the one on there. It just makes you wonder what it's doing here... but hey, it's a great song, so why not I guess?

7) Walk Into The Sun (Remix) - This is the remix from the "Walk Into the Sun" 12".

8) Drumstick (Bonus Beats) - The bonus beats from the "Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken?" 12".  Odd they included this and not the original version.

9) Tender Verses - This is the Organized Konfusion Remix of "Tender" by Attica Blues that was released as a single in 1997 on Mo' Wax.  Good shit, and saves you the trouble of buying an otherwise crappy and expensive import release.

10) Intro Part II aka The Outro - a short instrumental sequel to "The Intro."  This is not the same beat as the "Intro," and I'm not sure where this one came from (maybe a genuine little treat from their unreleased vaults?) or why it wasn't included on past versions.  Still, it is just a short instrumental, so don't get too excited.

Ultimately, this is like a great Traffic reissue long before there were Traffic reissues.  Spreading the album over a proper double LP alone makes it a worthy upgrade over the original vinyl, and the bonus tracks just make it awesome.  Granted, there's no whole new, unheard songs... just freestyles and other rare tracks, but it's still pretty neat.  It is a shame, though, that they decided to leave off the skit and the other "Who Stole," since it kind of prevents this from being 100% definitive.  But really, neither are any great loss, and I imagine they used every inch of space they could get to squeeze all the exclusive bonus tracks, which are preferable.  I mean, if I was in charge of the project, I would've left off "Stray Bullet" to make room for those two songs, since it's readily and naturally available on their second album.  And I would've left off the Bonus Beats to to make room for the remix of "Fudge Pudge."  But, regardless of how I might've made this project even better, this is still the best version of Organized Konfusion, an already great album.

Kool G Rap & Nas "Holla Back" - The Protoype?

I've done a pair of pretty thorough posts on the many, variant tracks left off the commercial release of Kool G Rap's Giancana Story on Koch Records, here and here. But, you know, there's always another little piece of the puzzle to be found. And today's bone fragment that I've linked to the giant, Tyrannosaurus skeleton (really, Giancana Story's a great album if you gather up all the pieces besides what you just get on the 2003 CD) is a neat white label 12" featuring an alternate version of "Holla Back" featuring Nas.

Now, before you cut me off and tell me you already know about the "Holla Back" version with Nas, allow me to point out that this is another version featuring just Nas. Now, I've already talked about the more well-known, unreleased version of "Holla Back" and how it differed from the one on the final Koch album. Here's the break-down of those two versions:

11) "Holla Back" with Nas, Nawz & AZ - Yeah, this was featured on the album. But the leaked version had Nas kicking the first verse instead of Tito of, believe it or not, The Fearless Four. Nas seriously came off with one of his tightest, illest verses, too ("Throw niggas off yachts, hold niggas with shots, my bitches ran 'cause I'm stupid - I put the shit on digital cam. Light up an ounce, let my bitches watch it on television, hella relentless. Fifty a pop, sell it like Menace. When I sleep, all I see is a white skeleton image. It's telling me something... I opened up Shakespeare's tomb, stole his remains, grinded his bones and got in the game"); so it's a real loss. This version was only featured on the leak. The Koch version also remixed the beat adding a few extra samples and bits. None of it makes up for the loss of Nas.

But there's also this white label 12", which features its own, unique version of "Holla Back." The main difference? No AZ or Nawz, and no Tito either. This is strictly a duet, making it a more fitting follow-up to "Fast Life," going right from Nas's killer verse to G Rap's. Now I'm not mad at the other guest verses (especially AZ's) so it's not a "yay! they're gone" situation; but it does turn a sort of awkward posse cut that takes too long to get to G Rap's part into a concise heater with just the two greatest verses from any version of the song.

But that's not the only difference. Where the original version and the Koch version feature someone (I think Nawz?) doing a spoken intro starting out, "yo, it's 2G" etc, this one has its a different intro. This version starts with Nas explaining how Kool G Rap inspired him. Then G Rap gets on to tell us to check out these tracks, and then we're right into Nas's verse. I actually think maybe this intro was recorded specifically for the 12" (which also furthers my suspicion that this white label was a promo release from Rawkus and not a bootleg), but it is blended into the song.

And this 12" has some nice bonuses as well. It features three freestyles which decidedly don't sound like radio or mixtape rips. The sound is clean and professional and I'm guessing they were recorded for this 12". Two feature Ma Barker (natch) and one features him going over the "It's a Demo" instrumental. All three are pretty nice - G Rap kills it on all of them. My favorite is the one titled simply "Unreleased."

Then, the B-side features the Jagged Edge song "Ride On," which features Kool G Rap. Produced by The Trackmasterz, it features them singing over pretty much the same instrumental The Arsonists used for "Venom," so it's pretty hot. Like the more official 12" Rawkus put out of this song, it features Clean, Dirty and Instrumental versions. But only the other, separate "Ride On" 12" has the acapella.

All in all, this is a pretty sweet 12" with a lot of value, considering it has "Ride On" and the three exclusive freestyles. And for me, this is probably the ideal version of "Holla Back" with just the absolute tightest verses on it. But even if you decide you'd rather have the version with the extra AZ and Nawz verses on it (I can't imagine anyone deciding they'd rather have the Koch version which excises one of Nas's illest appearances), this is still an interesting historical artifact. If you see it, pick it up.

Think Of This as a Master Ace and Asher Roth Album Produced Entirely By DJ Premier

So, if you've read some of my recent write-ups on albums by One Block Radius and Pissed Off Wild, you're probably thinking you can anticipate my thoughts on 13 & God's brand new album, Own Your Ghost.  Werner just hates rappers joining forces with bands!  And honestly, that's not a bad rule of thumb.

After all, let's face it: you're a rap producer, digging for samples or playing around in pro-tools, and it occurs to you, "hey, my little brother plays drums!  That fan I met at my show said he plays guitar!  Why am I sitting here making beats this way when I can have my own, live musical ensemble?"  But here's the thing - is your fan really going to come up with a loop tighter "Nautilus?"  Is your little brother gonna bash out out something tighter than "Funky Drummer?"  Probably not.  Instead, you're probably going to wind up rhyming with a half-assed garage band that wouldn't even be getting gigs at your local bar without your hip-hop co-sign.  There's a bajillion mediocre to terrible rappers out there, so when we find one with some real talent and stand-out quality, it's exciting... and disappointing when they keep passing the microphone back to some inferior collaborator for half their songs.  I'd probably love a dope MC rhyming with The J.B.'s, but most rappers seem to be going for the bands in shortest reach, not auditioning for the best in the world.

And I said all that just to say, I actually don't feel that way about 13 & God.  This is one of those instances where the band and the MC are both talented and interesting enough to deserve our attention, and the music of The Notwist (the part of 13 & God that isn't Themselves) are a really good fit for Dose.  This doesn't feel like Dose compromised or "find the good Dose contributions amid a sea of substandard music."  This is original and compelling work from the whole crew (the fact that Jel is still involves has to be a large part of how it all manages to work, I'm sure).

But, unfortunately, there is one large caveat.  Marcus Archer, the lead singer of Fog and the other vocalist of 13 & God.  I admit, when they've all got the lyrics, the music and the groove working 100% just right, like on the chorus to "Men Of Station," he can sound fine.  But otherwise, I'm not trying to make the guy feel bad or anything, but I just don't think he should be singing.  He works in that one instance where literally anybody - your grandmother, even - would sound good singing that segment, and that's it.  He's not even a good hook man, let alone somebody who should be singing whole verses and taking songs on solo.

As such, and as will always be the case I suppose with 13 & God releases, you're going to find yourself skipping the Marcus parts.  And, unfortunately, the Marcus-to-Dose ratio is pretty heavy on the Marcus this time around.  So if you're not in a situation where you can easily skip around songs and parts of songs while listening to your music, you'll just wind up having to listen to something else.  Which is a shame, because when they're cooking, like on "Sure As Debt" or "Death Major," they kick ass.

The vinyl presentation is pretty kick ass, too.  It's a single LP, but that's alright since it's kind of a short album anyway, and comes in a cool picture cover.  It comes with a fold-out insert with all the lyrics and some additional artwork (printed lyrics are always welcome, but especially on any project that Dose One raps on!), and also a download card for a free mp3 version of this album.  Anticon continues to get that right.  =)

So, think of this as a Master Ace and Asher Roth album produced entirely by DJ Premier.  The one MC is great, and the musical backing is safely on point.  Does the other vocalist keep you away?  Your answer to that question will determine whether or not this album is for you.  If it helps you decide, there are one or two songs which are essentially Dose solo songs.  For my part, I'm quite happy with the purchase.

The Dopplegangaz

I just caught on to The Dopplegangaz, thanks to a well-placed Youtube link... though in retrospect, I realized Robbie included them on his Unkut mixtape; so I should've started following them last year.  Oh well; better late than never.  Coming out of New York, it's a two man team of Matter ov Fact (MC) and EP (MC and producer), and I timed my discovery pretty well, because I was able to pre-order their latest album, Lone Sharks just a few days before it dropped, and here they are already in today's mail.

The Dopplegangaz remind me of The Beatnuts, in the best possible sense.  At first, they might seem a bit silly and gimmicky - they wear hooded robes and the titles to some of their songs sound like straight-up horrorcore tracks.  But just like The Beatnuts, no matter how tempted you might be to just write them off, you can't because, while they're not the best lyricists in the game, their rhymes are pretty smart and their beats are beyond reproach.  The juvenile subject matter and robust sounds of "Like What Like Me," for example, is a seriously bugged combination.  They might not crack the mainstream market, but heads who appreciate the real talent will have to give it up.

Heck, let me just throw up that Youtube vid real quick.  They actually have a bunch of good videos, so go ahead and dig around their channel after this; but this is the one that led me to them earlier in the week:

And while I was scoring Lone Sharks, I also picked up their first album*, Beats for Brothels vol. 1.  Like its title suggests, it's essentially an instrumental album, with the only words being a handful of well-chosen vocal samples over the beats.  It actually takes me back to my old days listening to Dynamix II tapes (Holy cow! Was this my first Dynamix II reference on this blog?  Yee-ha!  And it only took me four years!  hehe).  Some of the tracks are pretty dope, and others are great!  "Chants" is a killer, at times reminding me of Mr. Green's "Children Sing" but without getting too similar that it feels derivative.

And it's not strictly an instrumental endeavor, which is great if you're like me and are quickly bored with hip-hop instrumental releases.  The album rounds out with two fully-fleshed out songs with vocals and all, "Digging" and "Dopplegang Affiliation."  This album's a great collection of instrumental production that aficionados with an ear for hot beats and samples will definitely want to check for.  But honestly, I pretty much just bought it for these two songs... and I was not disappointed.  By the way, the instrumental versions of both of these songs are included here, too.

My only complaint is probably one most of their fans will share, considering who their target audience must surely consist largely of diggers and purists - no vinyl.  Both their albums are CD only, though you have to expect that from up and coming artists who're just breaking and putting out their music themselves.  But, maybe if they're reading this, I could tempt them on the idea of a limited run EP of their best six or so tracks?  Because, as you've probably noticed, I love all kinds of hip-hop... but this is really the kind of gritty, sample-driven stuff you want to have on vinyl.  I love my Madball & Uzi albums; but honestly, the CDs are enough for me.  But this stuff would sound heavy on wax.

In the meantime, though, I urge you all to check them out online and support their new CD release.

*I say "first," but they do have a pair of previous, mp3-only releases that you can download for free from their website, thedopplegangaz.com (that's where you can order their albums from, too), and another mp3-only instrumental compilation called Rhyme Over Beats, which you can still download if you google around a bit.

Pissed Off Mild

In 2004, Josh Martinez debuted the title track to his upcoming, self-titled album with his new live band, Pissed Off Wild.  And just seven years later, as off like a week ago, the album's finally come out.

The initial "Pissed Off Wild" appearance was on a label compilation album called New Recruits, and the band consisted of Josh on vocals, Peter Schmitt on bass and Kenten Loewen on drums.  In a 2009 interview with AWMusic, Josh concisely explained the impetus and concept behind this new group, "A live band that wasn’t like a cheesy Roots knock-off, that had it’s own sound and really widened my ability to tour and gain more festivals or bigger venues and play with rock bands. I just wanted to be able to have more looks and I listen to a lot more music than underground hip hop and that’s what was inspiring me. Having a live band was important to me to show I was really musically inclined and not just a rapper, it was a personal thing to not be pigeon holed because I could see that the window was narrowing."

Well, so like I said, that original "Pissed Off Wild" song does appear as the title track to this, their 2011 self-titled album, though some things have changed since then.

Firstly, the band is now a 4-man ensemble, with guitarist Jesse Waldman added to the mix.  And second, the band is actually no longer an ensemble at all anymore.  As the liner notes inform us, "By the time the Pissed Off Wild record was done, so was the band. Jimmy quit. Joey got married."  Yup, Pissed Off Wild is finished, and this album is their legacy.

Oh, and one more thing has changed since New Recruits - the song itself.  Lyrically, it's the same, but musically it's been quite revamped.  The original had that live band feel, sure, but it was smooth and laid back.  Here it's rocking, and all the good and bad things that term entails, with grinding guitars and Martinez shouting into a distorted microphone.

The song "Outlaws" that they recorded for the 2006 compilation album, Hue and Laugh and Cry is also on here.  But, curiously, the song from Camobear's 2007 label sampler, "The Pirhana" is absent.

Anyway, I don't know much I even like this album... it's another in an increasingly long list of cases where a talented, noteworthy MC reaches out to other indie artists who aren't nearly so outstanding to band together and for an uneven, mediocre project with more crossover appeal.  It's like Buck 65's last album, or those Z-Man albums I just reviewed a couple weeks ago...  Hell, Josh has even done this before with his other group, The Chicarones.  Yeah, Josh and Sleep have made some decent songs together; but you know who makes better ones?  Josh without Sleep.

So yeah, this is all kinds of garage band rockish.  It mostly sounds noisy and kind of annoying, and while Josh can still be a compelling writer/vocalist, you really have to strain to appreciate the good in a lot of these songs.  He also uses this album to experiment a lot, which sometimes results in some interesting twists on his vocal styles, and sometimes it just sounds like somebody who can't sing taking over the karaoke mic at your local bar.  Some songs are better than others, but at the end of the day, I just wanna hear Josh over some dope beats by Moves and Jel and those guys.

This album isn't terrible.  And if you're a serious Josh Martinez fan and you go in with tempered expectations that this won't be the next Buck Up Princess or World Famous Sex Buffet, you won't be disappointed.  But it was really more comforting than sad to read that this album is the closing of a chapter and not the beginning of one.  I know Josh said he wanted to branch out in ways like this to have more looks, but this... just isn't a good look.

Return Of the Funky Cassette

(Youtube version is here.)