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Is this the arrival of the next "name" producer? There's Preme, Pete Rock, Timbaland, Jay Dee, Dr. Dre, and now. . . Kanye West? Gotta say I like a lot of his stuff and if he sampled Lauryn off Unplugged and chopped it into loveliness, I'm real impressed.

Another Timbo production: Ms. Jade "Gangsta".

Boombox.net comes highly recommended. It's a streaming audio site coming out of somewhere in mainland Europe (Switzerland I think). Check the mix section for an unparalleled archive of next level break shit: London Electricity, Craze, Lootpack, Krust, Skitz, Attica Blues, Planet Asia, Kemi & Storm, EPMD, Jeru, Red Rat, Tha Liks, etceteron, etceteron, etceteron! Right now I'm listening to the DJ Premier live: I didn't even know dude did mix gigs anymore. . . ohhhhh, how sweet the Preme megamix is. As much as every producer and hip hop kid on the block respects him, I don't think Preme's influence will be fully understood until 20 years from now. There's a quote that to the effect that 'not too many people saw the Velvet Underground play, but everyone that did started their own band.' The direct parallel's not there, but I'll bet a lot of Gang Starr fans over the years have tried their hands at beats. I wonder if Tim and the Neptunes would be lacing commercial radio with their chopped, stutter-y shit if D&D's Finest hadn't done it first.

Warning: avoid this if you don't want to spend your time ogling shit you don't need. It's the Air Max 95 and Jordan libraries.

Cody ChestnuTT interview - haven't heard enough of dude yet to be sold on him, but check "Bitch I'm Broke" for something catchy. ?uesto of the Roots thinks he's "Beck meets Tracy Chapman on acid".

Players are collaborating on building an 88 Keys (aka Mr. Thieves in the Night) discography. I had no idea he produced Beanie Sigel "Watch Your Bitches". . .

Thinking today about how ubiquitous hip hop has become in the past few years. Those of us in our early 20s are still old enough to remember when you NEVER heard hip hop on mainstream radio (outside of Hammer, Vanilla Ice, and Maestro). At the gym the other day it was Ed McMahon on the top 40 biggin up Ja Rule, Rakim (on the Truth Hurts), Fabolous, Nelly, Eminem, etc. Think about the hip hop influence in every new steez of music of the last decade: drum'n'bass, bounce, broken beat, 2 step, ghettotech. There are so many independent designers doing "4 elements" and BK-related tees that both subjects are kinda played. Noreaga is prolly better-known than ol pineapple faced Noriega. And DMX is worshipped like Jesus and Mary in Nigeria.

Now that we have the attention of the world, what are we going to say?

Rumblings that Giant Step are going to release Kaidi Tatham's "Feed the Cat" in North America next year. Here's a taste.

Inspirational throwback of the moment: Spacek "Eve" Jay Dee remix. Just a disorienting, otherworldly piece of music. Only Jay dilla would open a song with "let me fuck with it", then fuck with it. . .

Great ?uestlove article at Urb.com (follow the links). I love hearing that his boys are verbifying producers like "Primo-tize that shit", "Pharrell that shit" cause you know that we do that too :-) Apparently duke has a new BBE compilation out as well, more on that I'm sure when I come across it.

From Coldcut:

"On Solid Steel this Monday the 26th we have a very special show - a two hour look and listen at the careers of Double Dee and Steinski, the legendary creators of The Lessons cut-up mix series. The show forgoes the usual format and weaves a sonic tapestry through their intitial success in the 80's through to today, filling in the gaps and having a laugh along the way. Amongst the many audio delights we'll have curios from their archives including a reconstructed edit of their unfinished Lesson 4 and we'll be previewing chunks of Steinski's forthcoming 'Nothing to Fear' mix, created special for Solid Steel and 2 years in the making! If you only listen to one Solid Steel show this year make it this one - these guys practically wrote the rulebook on cut-ups. Tune in and prepare to be schooled."

Tune in live on BBC Radio London Midnight-2am UK time.

Discussion of greatest album cover art of all-time on Okayplayer is interesting reading. Midnight Marauders rates highly with a lot of peoples, of course. . . raises the question: what makes an album cover tight? An enduring image that matches the music, perhaps. . .

Philadelphia Experiment Remixed looks interesting: James Poyser (yes!), King Britt, Vikter Duplaix, Madddddlib, and Charlie Dark as well (I think he's dude out of Attica Blues). Ropeadope is coming out with a bunch of niceness these days.

By Geoffrey Isaacs and the RZA: "Atari 2600". "Fuck Goldeneye, y'knuh, play Pong!". . . actually it's Phonte of Little Brother produced by 9th Wonder, and it had me rolling :-)

Caught the Royal Tenenbaums on the wknd. Feeling the cool colours, cool shots, and the indeterminate place/time that always looks like New York in the 70s setting. I couldn't really get with the characters, though, and left feeling a little bit dissatisfied. I guess my favourite movies are either pants-rippingly funny or tell me something about people and why they do things, and Tenenbaums didn't do that.

Great OKP discussion of how intelligent hip hop music and culture really are. . .

You know from reading V&V that I feel some of what the Neptunes do. From the opening beat box, this Gilles Peterson BBC interview is entertaining. More of the pseudo-deep 'No one Ever Really Dies' talk: "think limitlessly". Discussing the merits of the bands America and Stereolab, to Nirvana/Curtis megamixes. . . Actually, half the thing is just them beatboxing, singing, and talking shit. The most fun interview I've heard in a while.

New Gang Starr piece is once again an updated sound fresh for a new album. Gotta let it marinate before I pass judgement, but I'm smiling right now. Gracias T-Dub.

Big Up Cal and the Tales from the Crates crew. Fun, but the highlight was Cal dropping Resident Alien, one of only a couple projects on Prince Paul's Dew Doo Man records. Prince Paul always brings the original sound, gotta track that one down. Circa 91 with Dres on a cut!

#1 on the list of things I wish I'd caught: CBC-TV's Buried Treasures, a collection of performances by pre-eminent black American performers from back when they were prevented from appearing on American TV. We're talking the 50s and 60s here, so there are performances by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis Jr., etceteron. I just realized I missed the whole thang - had to make due with 30 seconds of Duke up on the site. If anyone caught it on tape, let me know.

Myself, I'm off to play some records on Cal & Selectah J's show on CHUO. The "theme-developed-while-grabbing-records" is nice album cuts that kinda fell through the cracks of big records - no one talks about em. . . talking Slum, Cenobites, Busta. . . Peace.

PS Back from the last major expedition of the summer, so back to more frequent updates for the next while.

News on the next Roni Size. In The Mode had its moments (e.g., Snapshot and Rahzel's jammy), but didn't match the man's potential. Roni's been around for a hot minute now and he has the connection to the black music of years past as well. I think what we saw with the last joint was less the fall-off of a one-album hip hop wonder than the jazz cat who puts out a few weaker pieces in his heavyweight catalogue.


After his successful albums with Reprazent on Talkin' Loud, Mercury Award Winner Roni Size is set for a new album on Full Cycle with 'Roni Size Touching Down'. The vinyl version of the album will come in a series of 12"s, with the CD version being a 16 track mix by the man himself. Here is a look at the first four 12"s from the album to drop, and I'm sure like me you can't wait to get your hands on all of these:

Quotes begin:

'Roni Size Touching Down' LP
Artist: Roni Size
Label: Full Cycle

Roni Size - 'Sound Advice' / 'Keep Strong'
Release Date: September 2002

Roni Size - 'Playtime' / 'Eat My Shorts'
Release Date: October 2002

Roni Size - 'Scrambled Eggs' / 'Swings & Roundabouts'
Release Date: November 2002

Roni Size - 'Serious Intentions' / 'Move Up'
Release Date: December 2002


Quotes end.
Big up OKP bassndaplace for this.

Don't neglect to check for Dane's show up on CKCU FM tomorrow. Noon-2 EST, Lunch Break, all Canadian hip hop. To tell the truth, the bredren's show didn't used to warm my skillet so much, but as the North coast has heated up over the last few years, so has the show. The anthem? Ol' Time Killin remix. Required listening for me, anyways. Listen live.

Call me late-comer- I'm liking Premier's style change-up on the Lina re-rub.

Todd Mac on being traded back to the Sixers: "I'm glad for all those thousands of kids who had Todd MacCulloch jerseys. Now they can pull them out and wear them again." He's the Chris Rock of red-headed seven-footers.

This Globe piece talks about the importance of civic literacy. I've always thought that it's a must to get involved in your local surroundings - this puts a little structure into the concept. For real, it's easy to say that "society" is to blame for the kid that get no breaks and winds up stuck. I blame the ones in the society who spend all their time watching Friends, pushing SUVs, and not thinking too damn much. They're not racist, but you know they never hang out at the park and talk to the people.

Slum and Jazzy Jeff snippets are out. Enjoy.

Generation Rice drops a great interview with Staple Design dude Jeff Ng, the man behind hot t-shirts (check Digital Gravel) and The Fader's design. Inspiration for all those stuck in shitty situations who want to DO shit. The Staple site is beautiful as well, especially the follow-up interviews to their homeless fashion ads.

Wonder why I'm jawing on so much about net radio? I've had the opportunity to throw on music at the 9 to 5 lately, been taking advantage of the great net connection. The jawn of the week is Nuwaveradio with d'n'b, broken beat, and hip hop shows. It's game over 'cause Marc Mac (4Hero) has a show of broken (and everything else) up in here. Hip hop show is nice too.

Country vs. Funk: More Similarities than Differences. Please note they're talkin about the tight old country, like pre-1980. In the same way that jazz is all over-produced and wack now, so is country.

I'm listening snippets off the new Ms. Jade. Who else has consistently brought new blueprints to hip hop as long as Timbo? New tempos, completely new kinds of rhythm, thick vocal production, and still a signature sound that's instantly recognizable. Dayum, I am salivating over this joint. Lovin the tabla-style drum-rolls of Big Head, the Nelly Furtado update on Ching Ching, and the
Big adaptation on Dreams.

Also worth checking while it's still on newstands - the new Complex magazine. This is another eye-candy mag that has even less content that the Fader, but there's always some new stuff you never saw before. Also continues in the Rosario Dawson tradition with a photospread of Mya.

Just got back from a trip up north (Ontario) and managed to catch a few spots on the way. No big finds beyond some Bernard Purdie records, but I came across a lot of cousins to hot shit - you know, the thrift records that make you think "that guy had some better stuff too". I will follow up with a real expedition.

Hot live mix of broken/dancehall from I.G. Culture. Beautiful brazilian stuff, guntalk stuff, and I can't wait to find out what comes beyond the first 45 minutes.