A brief tribute here to New Orleans musical legacy as the city slides into the sea. I don’t mean for this to be tasteless, I was planning on posting about it for a minute so now’s as good a time as any I suppose.

The Cash Money Baller Blockin’ soundtrack is probably most well known for the “Project Bitch” single, with its bouncing horn melody and weirdo bubble-pop backdrop courtesy Mannie Fresh, obviously. I’ve never seen the movie this ‘soundtrack’ accompanied, but its got a cool variety of music in addition to the Cash Money regulars – great contributions from 8ball and MJG, UGK, Mack 10, and mediocre contributions from the Bravehearts (ugh). It’s mostly a good album, uneven but the highlights can be jaw dropping – for every dramatic-by-numbers beat Mannie throws down (the title track) he hits on some bleepy future-bounce like “Rover Truck.”

The two best tracks are pretty unstoppable. Mannie’s best work is probably on the Big Tymers’ “Let Us Stunt” which has woozy vibe instrumentation and features Mannie rapping about his brand new space shuttle. The beat has the neat effect of sounding non-generic thanks to the weird tonal smudging going on during the chorus, contributing directly to that woozy, distorted feeling, softening out the edges of the standard Mannie production.

My favorite cut though is B.G.’s “Thugged Out,” which finds Mannie dropping little double-time string plucks like some cartoon bounce imitation of Sicilian mafioso music, the N.O. version of Nas’ “The Message.” B.G.’s message isn’t lyrical the same way it is for Nas; his lyrics on this cut sound like straight ahead bragging without the musical context, just cliche’d boasts on paper or lyrics websites, but thank god rap isn’t just words on internet pages. B.G.’s ‘message’ is in the performance, surfacing through B.G.’s creaking vocals, that aged, vodka-soaked strung-out croak, full of grim certainty and confidence with self-doubt, the simultaneous desperation and ruthlessness channelled through experience and shuddering honesty, only in his late teens or early 20s when this was recorded, but he sounds much older.

I gotta get it how I live and
in these bloody streets that I live on it’s real
So I gotta play it raw, cause only the strong survive
So it’s a must I sell them first, and grab them things and ride
If I don’t, nigga gonna jump in they shit and smash out
Trynna catch me slippin’ and leave Geezy ass out
But it ain’t gone happen cause believe I know how to think
I’ma shoot a hole in yo boat first, before mine sank …

B.G. – Thugged Out

vs

My producer-extraordinaire dude (and soon-to-be-roommate) Scott Matelic has a remix of Radiohead’s “I Will” on Coke Machine Glow for download. Like everything Scott does, it’s great: calculated, somewhat brooding and melancholy, powerful with it’s understated simplicity. Scott also doesn’t push the issue and force the song to be some epic that it’s not (he lets it clock in at under 3 minutes). Great stuff.

Direct link here.

But Blacks loot. Oh you got to love the “liberal” media. all of these are from yahoo news

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)

But when it’s blacks they are thieves.

“A woman walks through chest-deep water as she heads to loot a grocery store in New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, as floodwaters continue to rise after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)”

“Looters make their way into a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, as floodwaters continue to rise after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Peep this free mix from DJ Mark 7

Tracklist:

1. Only Wear My White T’s Once – The Federation
2. Da Dummy – E40
3. Do The On One – Kinsmoke
4. Turf 2 The Club – Ya Boy
5. Guess Who’s Back – B-Legit & E40
6. Right Here – Balance
7. Show Me U Nasty – The Team
8. Take U Down – Furious feat E40
9. Super Hyphy (remix) – Various
10. It’s Gettin Hot (remix) – Oakland All-Stars
11. The Bay Is In The Area – San Quinn
12. The Bay (remix) – Zion I feat The Team, Turf Talk & Casual
13. Call Me Stevie – PSD
14. I Got Grapes – Nump feat The Federation & E40
15. Gimme Dat – Sean T
16. Get Stupid (remix) – Thizz All-Stars
17. The Resume – Ea-Ski feat Too Short
18. Bounce Shake Wiggle – Killa Keise feat Cellski
19. Fuck Yo Couch – Bailey

bayview liquors always makes the perfect background for any photoshoot

88 mane, so yeah awhile back my homie Marz rolls through and hooks me up with some new Eddie K. I burned it real quick so I don’t know what the fuck the album is called or even the names of the songs on it. For those that don’t know Eddie K is down with the Bulletproof Space Travlers, straight out of San Franpistol but reppin that GurpCity Chico connection. If you’re not up on Bulletproof then you need to get your turntablism game up.

Track 1

Opening track on the album that starts off with some dusty horns that I think are from some spaghetti western but I’m not sure. They sounds like some Ennio Morricone type steez but don’t hold me to that I’m just guessing here. It’s like a fucking call to arms, Eddie K come strapped with a dope verse and bottle of E&J.

Throw That West ft Young Bruno

This is probably my favorite track on the album and happens to be the only title that I know on the album. The beat is pretty stripped down, some deep drums, that sweeping synth, some handclaps and then those church bells dropping in for that extra touch of darkness. Eddie K doing it up for all the gurped out kids from the bay to the central valley. No fancy bullshit just straight rapping and repping that west till the mic bleeds. It’s fucking great.

Another Anthem

I don’t know if this song is actually called that but fuck it lets just run with that. Eddie K coming with that dramatic club joint. Great for getting drunk and just wildin out, fuck those softhanded motherfuckers breaking out the cristal trying to get cute at the club. Eddie K is rapping for the dudes that drink on the cheap and get fucked up off that cisco hobo wine.

Track 2

Speeding up the rap over that low budget electronic beat, just a few stutters away from being on some pop and glitch shit. Calling out all the retardo rappers who sound like Nelly Fertado, thank god, I hate that dumb bitch.

The album is 11 tracks deep and man I think it’s fucking dope. I hope someone picks this up because it really needs to be heard. There are some banging cuts that I didn’t post because the sound quality was shitty. The cd I got wasn’t properly mixed down so I held off on that. There is one cut that I assume is called The Bay that is cute as fuck. Someone needs to get Eddie K some radio play. Shit at the very least get his ass on some mixtapes. He’s got more style than a lot of these motherfuckers in the spotlight right now.

SCION FUCKING SUCKS!

The pussies over at scion are afraid of Bavu Blakes because they a bunch of fucking idiots. Peep houstonsoreal for info on what went down. I posted up my own thoughts over on my site. Anyways the deal is Scion loves to pretend they really really like hiphop but when it comes time to actually like hiphop they turn into a bunch of weaksauce bitches and run. Marketing campaigns fucking suck, what else is new.

Apparently when you drive to scribble jam they play this song on the radio the whole time. But since you suck at internetting you have to constantly IM me with bullshit like PURPLE DRANK! Even though I have never heard this song till yesterday. This probably doesn’t matter to most of you people but I think Mac lethal is dumb and lazy. Seriously, why the fuck did this dude make that stupid bamboo lounge song?

Paul Wall – Got Dat Drank ft Frayser Boy & Mike Jones

I guess this song is a single or someshit, I’m assuming off Frayser boy’s shit since he goes first and this is obviously a 3-6 beat. I’m not sure so who knows it may show up on pauls album too but don’t count on that because I could and probably am wrong as fuck. This mp3 is off the Kool Kid and Paul Wall mixtape – Sitting Sidewayz. I’m sure you can cop that shit at any mixtape spot.

The song is pretty cute. If you can’t tell from the title or the obvious lyrics this shit is about sippin lean. I’ve never sipped lean and I don’t really want too. Being disoriented and dizzy just doesn’t sound fun to me. I drink beer because it’s reliable. I know where I’m headed and I know when I’m going to fall down. I don’t need to drank to make passing out seem really slow, but Texas loves them drugs. I don’t think I’ve ever met more drug addicts then when I was in Texas. Well except for Arizona meth heads. I guess the humidity and cheap bricks of weed at the border will do that to you.

Oh and here is C Rayz rapping about how he wants to be white BUT WITH PUPPETS!

Skull Duggery – Where You From (feat. Silkk and Master P) – Skull Duggery might have only been like the eleventh best rapper in the post-Richmond No Limit camp, but he was the only one to be named after a Steppenwolf album. That has to count for something. Seriously though, Noz at Cocaine Blunts has been killin it with the early-to-mid No Limit for the past week. I was waiting out to see if he’d post this one, my favorite non-Mystikal, non-Mia X, non-”Bout It, Bout It” No Limit track. There’s hardly anything exemplary about this song, aside from its uncharacteristic crunk-ness, just everybody doing what they do best: KLC bringing heat on the boards, Skull bringing that fat-man terroristic tone, Silkk being unobtrusive, and P bringing his familiar, welcome platitudes (the bout it/rowdy “rhyme,”for instance). And the hook, or rather, hooks. Each of the song’s three hooks, all handled by Percy, could have (and probably have) been the driving force for a lesser, if otherwise good, track. Javon, one of my high school friends, used to bark, alternatingly, “I’m a (fill in Louisville neighborhood) nigga so fuck y’all niggas” and “Bitch get awwfmeh, Bitch get awwfmeh” every day in Ms. Hall’s Chemistry class. That was actually kinda annoying. But it was testament to the infectiousness of this combination of hooks.

This song is off Skull’s second album, These Wicked Streets, which is pretty horrible. But, as I recall, his first one had its moments.

Robyn – Konichiwa Bitches – Not much to say about this. I just felt that I needed something to balance out the ferociousness of the last track. You’ll appreciate a Swedish pop star with a Neneh Cherry/JJ FAD/L’Trimm flow doing brag/sex raps over a thumping electro beat. Or maybe you won’t. My opinion: this shit bangs!

To me, the brazenness is endearing, not off-putting

Kanye West – We Major w/ Nas & Really Doe (full version) (mp3) – Yo! This shit bangs! At least for the first four minutes. The last three were more fit for a seperate track called “We Major (Reprise)” but then nobody would hear the “egomaniac” sharing the spotlight with Jon Brion and the other studio musicians. I’ve always suspected that Brion was brought into the fold, not so much to craft music, but to do Diddy to Kanye’s schmaltz, bombast, and understatement knobs, EQ them just right to produce something wholly fresh and signifying in a way that “the soul” and chipmunk voices couldn’t. They won! This one’s all layer upon dissonant layer. The lyrics are all “triumph” but the melody is all “regrets.” The drums are powerful and you feel you’ve heard them before… but never mixed this nearly this low. Funny how a loop can somehow meander. Kanye starts off ostensibly celebrating a litany of intoxications then sobers up real quick talking about the scrippers (again), the hoods all fucked up, and young black nouveau riche ain’t got no direction. Nas admits that he had no idea how to write to this beat. Should it be about the hos or the ice? [...] Rap about big paper or the black man plight? See, these guys are two of the most successful around. But the hook needs reassurance that they are, in fact, major. And if they’re not, is anyone? Wow.

I’m sure everybody else will post about the Paul Wall track (it’s dope!) and the Common track (it’s dope too but isn’t an extensive Gil Scott sample on a Common song like wearing your own band’s shirt to the show?). And the Cam’ron song too (dope but how long will Consequence eat off the genuinely talented’s good will?). But I’m going to listen to “We Major” a few more times before I listen to the rest of Late Registration.

Over at the Siccness they got this San Quinn Interview where he claims that the reason the bay isn’t blowing up like the south is that the south isn’t as technology friendly as the bay. Apparently San Quinn isn’t selling like Mike Jones because people in the oh so intelligent bay know how to use cd burners. Never mind the fact that southern dudes are always fucking complaining about bootleggers. Fuck, I thought San Quinn was smarter than that. I like the dude’s music but that’s just backward as fuck.

I got some more thoughts on this shit but I got to go to work so that will have to wait.