The Mudkids were a group of out of Indianapolis that consisted of cHoc Sorreal and DJ Elp Mass. Apparently they came together in 1993 but their first release, 4trackmind, didn’t drop until 1998. I forget why I brought the album, it was 98 and there was all kind of indie shit dropping. I remember on fridays I would ditch class and head down to the record store to cop all kinds of cds I barely knew anything about. As long as they were in the rap section I was willing to peep.

The cover is pretty fucking lowbudget and overall just looks like total shit but whatever. cHoc Sorreal has this low voice but he raps with a lot of vocal fluctuations. You can totally tell that he has been heavily influenced by Freestyle Fellowship. The album has a very laid back feel to it, at moments it sounds like they’ve borrowed some sounds from the Roots’ “Do You Want More?” album, specifically the track Mash It Up. A majority of their topics are on the whole third eye awarness of hiphop spirituality shit, which in 98 wasn’t played out as fuck yet.

The Mudkids followed up 4trackmind with “Upwards.” I never listened to their second album though. The title just sounded to Jesus rap to me and I wasn’t about to chance it. 4trackmind has some “spiritual” tones to it but I can deal with it.

Rap Can Do

Serpents Inna Mi Garden feat Arrange & Kontent

Water To Earth

The reason I posted this is because in 1998 I really like this album but I lost it some years back. Only reason I got to thinking about it again was because I came across it on soulseek and decided to download since I hadn’t heard it in a while. It has been like 5 years since I’ve played the album and its cool but its not anything special. Well not special to me anymore. The sound and style has been done to death and I don’t really give a fuck about rapping about third eyes anymore. 98 doesn’t feel as though it was that long ago but when I go back and actually think about what I was doing and listening to then it seems ancient times. Back then I was still trying to hold on to the 4 elements true hiphop bullshit ideology. Goddamn you KrsOne, your preaching still haunted me even then. It pisses me off that I bought into that shit because it made my waste my goddamn time and money listening to fucking crap ass artists like LMNO because they were “real hiphop.”

oh well, fuck this bullshit.

Get this shit here. Or at some other site, who cares.

Hosted by Slim Thugggggaaaaaa its better than his album I guess but not as good as I was hoping. Slim drops some great verses, some average verses over the hottest beats of the year, plus a couple remixes, an inexplicable Shaq traq, and some hot cuts from this year’s hot albums.

3. Make Way For The Boss – DJ Smallz & Slim Thug

Hot opening, Slim Thug sounds really genuinely happy to be where he’s at; everything’s starting to pay off. I’m gonna guess this is Serg’s favorite Houston rapper and this song makes it sorta easy to see why.

7. Easy To Scare (The Lil’ Flip Beef Explained) – T.I.

“I’m finna show ya the meaning of game’s over when me and this flame throwa will aim at ya range rover/ ya friends turn their faces and playin’ like they don’t know ya.”

T.I. comes hard yet again at Lil Flip and I’d be sort of annoyed at how its like beating a dead horse at this point, but … god damn he really came hard at Flip and as long as it keeps him creative and then I guess I’m cool with it. “You’re career be as long as the rest of this song” BLAM. But seriously like every fucking T.I. song on mixtapes could have (T.I. Dissin’ Lil Flip) as a part of the title.

8. Supa Man (Remix) – Bone Crusher & Shaquille O’Neal

Why? But seriously, he’s better than Ron Artest.

11. I Don’t Give A Fuck – David Banner & Busta Rhymes

Busta Rhymes is here for some reason but its a great song despite this, and he pretty much does the hook. Cool marching band-like David Banner beat (I think) but David Banner’s verse is pretty fucking killer. Its too bad they seriously fucked up the timing between releasing his two albums, but his timing may have been pretty good afterall because he’s not gonna be all overexposed like Lil Jon. Although not being a caricature probably helps too.

14. Do The Damn Thing – Fabolous & Young Jeezy

“Yeah I made crack grams but ain’t a damn thing funny/ I keep a pocket full of do-the-damn-thang money.” This song is kinda good.

16. Fuckin’ Around – Trick Daddy Feat. T.I. & Young Jeezy

One of the best songs on one of the best albums of the year what more can I sayyyyy. Oh yeah, T.I. disses flip again.

23. 26′s – Chingy & Lil’ Wayne

dlk talks about this song here but I don’t really like it. The beat is annoying and it has an absurd chorus, bad absurd not Cam’ron lyrics absurd. And Lil Wayne does a great job mixing his newish flow with the classic lil wayne sing-song thing but crap this song is gonna be a hit isn’t it?

26. Anything (Remix) – Devin The Dude Feat. Rick James

I like the original but I thought it was an odd choice for a single. This version is fucking ace though. I’m not really overly familiar w/ Rick James but I assume this was a sample that couldn’t be cleared for the album so it was used here. Or maybe he was dropping mixtape exclusives right before he died. Whatever this song is fucking great.

27. Spend Some Time – Stat Quo Feat. Eminem & 50 Cent

This song is too rock’n'roll for me with a standard blah Eminem goth-beat. Stat Quo has a goofy verse. One of the better 50 verses this year – it sounds all conversational and as usual he doesn’t really sound particularly invested in it, hiding his feelings behind an aura of cool. Lots of people hate “Disco Inferno” but to me its just pleasently treading water, a cool track with a pretty nice beat. Eminem’s singing is fucking annoying.

29. Package Of Power – Lil’ Flip & Pharrell

When does the moratorium on Pharrell hooks start? Getting the Neptunes is such a money thing now, like you get your label deal, you get your chain, then you call up Chad and Pharell, then you buy some new fronts…. As anyone who’s heard the Slim Thug album knows, the less Pharrell in H-Town the better.

31. So Incredible – Slim Thug Feat. Jazze Pha & Cee-lo

Best Slim Thug verse on this whole mixtape (more clever lines than any of the others anyway, “You can catch me in the shopping mall, ridiculous bags/ check my restroom trash, all I do is pop tags/…/slim shows and tells so these hoes know me well/ i been closing candy doors since pac was in jail”) over classic-sounding Jazze Pha beat with organs and blues-y guitar licks and a hot chorus. Such an incredibly feelin, in this past year I done made me a million.

33. Doin’ It – King Terra & Young Bleed

um this beat is fucking great. Random-ass No Limit inclusion (Young Bleed is from No Limit and his voice is the second verse, slow, slurred and grainy sounding.) I assume this beat is by Kenoe? I have no fucking clue. Whatever this beat is hot. Oh and I don’t know much about King Terra except that he has a website and his verse seems decent enough.





Other tracks. How weird is it to hear Doug E. Fresh on a southern smoke mixtape? There’s also a Pac track from Loyal to the Game, a bunch of tracks from Crunk Juice…this was sort of average on the whole. Why didn’t slim thugga get a “Like a Boss” remix or something on this? The verses on “Texas Stomp!” weren’t as good as I was hoping, bun-b on autopilot (although he’s had enough great veteren verses this year to fill up an entire mixtape of his own), Mike Jones reminds us about his phone number, etc. Anyway I spent way too much time typing about one of the more average Southern Smoke releases, go get the one w/ Chamillionaire or Bubba Sparxxx.

Go here and check out streams of Grand Wizard Theodore, Cash Money, Jazzy Jeff and DJ Premier spinning records live in the UK. Hot shit.

————–

At 21 son was readin’ him, mesmerized, respect, not jockin’ him…

I know Gov’t Names is like a “group blog” but it seems like its turned into dlk’s blog – with all respect due to Al – because that kid is just killing shit day in day out. I mean, me and the guys here like to talk about songs we like, say shit like “this song is dope” and just try to highlight stuff most people don’t talk about (its kinda ironic that I’m posting this along with a Premier mix but whatever fuck you) but I have a lot of respect for dlk, who has become one of my favorite hip-hop writers. Not to ride his jock but he knows what he’s talking about and more importantly – cuz fuck authenticity – he knows how to translate his enthusiasm through his writing better than I ever have. I mean, I’m all excited about Lil Weavah now and I haven’t even heard him yet.

All that said and done you know the shrimp is still number one.

Talk about manufactured hype! This kid’s album is not even coming out until… Shit, I’m not even sure when this kid’s album is coming out. But he’s already got all kinds of features in magazines and on MTV.com (where I snagged this gay looking photo – put a shirt on, bitch!), hell, he’s even got his own cell phone commericial with my two other favorite rappers right now, Kanye West and Ludacris. I’ll admit his first single is pretty dope, but would it have been any less dope if it was Bol featuring Dr. Dre and 50 Cent? I’m not saying the dude’s completely untalented, I’m just saying.

(C) 2004 PenceFo Industries. All Rights Reserved.

The Rap Music = Misogyny, Homophobia, Racism, Anti-Semitism, Meanness, Cheating, etc. debate just refuses to die. This exo kid is working that whole, “I’m from the ghetto, damnit!” thing a bit too hard, no? I mean, who gives a shit.

(C) 2004 PenceFo Industries. All rights reserved.

For those of you hitting us up for the first time cuz of the East Bay Express article, you can still check Emil’s fancy west coast mix right herrr. Once you’re done with that, get your fat ass back to the shrimp, we have a bunch of hot shit up right now.

Yeah I’m pretty clueless when it comes to this grime stuff. David sends me some random shit sometimes. I got these tracks from Matt over at damage control and he wants me to post them online so that’s what I’m doing. Government Names has that dude Sean Downes who posts up about Roll Deep and a bunch of other UK fools I know nothing about. Sometimes I peep that shit but really I’m only vaguely familiar with any of this shit. The only artist I know out of these songs is Dizzie Rascal and that’s only because magazines thought he was going to blow up but then they found out that kids in the US weren’t shitting their pants like they had anticipated.

Fuck New York

Some song about how these rappers in the UK hate Yanks. I think its cute that dude is trying to act hard while telling you he’s not a Fud. If you’re going to use soft terminology just go soft all the way and just say fuddy duddy. Whatever though, this song is like the UK version of Rodney O and Joe Cooley. Homeboy also calls Tony Blair a homosexual.

Sway & Wonder – Call My Name

“Try and understand it even if you’re too short to understand it at all.” Yeah ok, I don’t know who the fuck these guys are either. Actually the guy Sway was in the first song I posted. The song is about a dark dark place with a dark dark man. Maybe its about molesting or something, you never know with these Europeans but the Madonna sample makes me smile.

Dizzee Rascal – Arms House

If you can’t tell by now I don’t really know shit about any of this music. I’ve heard like 3 Dizzee Rascal songs, ever. My girlfriend has some two-step and garage records so I kind of understand the sound. Actually that’s fucking bullshit, I don’t know fuck about any of this weirdo British rap dance shit. Although I do know I’d rather hear them rap like this than copying generic ass NYC accents.

Dizzee Rascal – Respect Us

Another Dizzee Rascal song. About respect and stuff, you know the standard shit rap songs are made of. There are gun shots in the beat and that’s pretty hard. I should probably listen to the song again and actually try and figure out just what in the fuck he’s rapping about but I’m going to be lazy and not. Oh by the way I was just informed that this is a Bone/Tupac beat but since I think Bone Thugs fucking sucks ass and I don’t really give a fuck about Tupac I didn’t know that, so yeah there you go.

Clickity Clack this shit and if that one doesn’t work try this Link

I didn’t really get a chance to listen to much of the show because I was busy getting drunk and watching Trailer Park Boys. But yeah Matt couldn’t make the show so you get 3 hours of non stop DJ Chill. Excuse the first ten minutes, its just some dude talking about saying hi to Midge, but yeah download that shit fool.

I couldn’t make much sense of this article, but then I only have a bachelors degree. Seriously, try reading it. It’s like hieroglyphics.

(C) 2004 PenceFo Industries. All rights reserved.

Bling Dawg – Yeah, Yeah (Bubble Up Riddim)

Pretty new riddim from lenky marsden (of diwali fame) and it could easily be the next diwali or coolie here in the states. And if they use this hot fucking voicing from Bling Dawg they won’t even need Sean Paul or Nina Sky this time. The Elephant Man and Chico voicings are also pretty great – the riddims are changed up a bunch for each dj – but Bling Dawg’s is definitely my favorite. Fast riddim, smooth keys and trombone-like bass grumbles over handclap bounce. Get this shit right now. (thanks to Dave Stelfox on Dissensus and my real-world jamaica connect Q for keeping me up on this shit – this riddim is just bananas.)