Hieroglyphics , the Wu, the Beatles and a little bit of Funk

Over 15 years ago, the Wu Tang Clan exploded onto the the rap scene like Mandingo in some white girls mouth. It's nice to see that the Wu, and Wu related projects are still in full effect. One of my favorite Wu related projects was released a year or two ago. Entitled "Enter the 37th Chamber," the E Michels Affair, a soul/funk instrumental group, devoted an entire album to covering Wu Tang beats. If you're a sample-junkie, fan of raw dirty soul, or just a Wu Tang fan, you will cream your pants listening to their rendition of C.R.E.A.M. Is it better than the sample by the Charmels? That's up for you to decide, but there is no doubt that C.R.E.A.M. by the El Michels Affair is fire. Just when I though things couldn't get any better, I somehow stumbled across the project "Enter the 38th Chamber." A joint venture between URB magazine, the now closed Fat Beats and the El Michels affair, this album took the instrumentals found on "Enter the 37th Chamber" and laid over some vocals by underground rappers. The project never got released, but that did not stop a few leaks from coming onto the blog scene.

Here is my favorite:

A-Plus, Knobody & the El Michels Affair - C.R.E.A.M.

Download it here: A-Plus, Knobody and the El Michels Affair - C.R.E.A.M.

Another Wu related project that this blog has been bumping a lot of lately is the Wu Tang vs. the Beatles: Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers mix released (

for free!) on Tea Sea Records. Here is one of my favorite songs off of this mix that DJ Grey Bush also included in his Hip Hop Mix: 7:

Wu Tang Clan vs. the Beatles: Baby I Got Your Money

Download it here: Wu Tang vs. the Beatles - Baby I Got Your Money

Since I am on this hip-hop journey right now and its my first post in months, I thought I'd add an extra song (not Wu related) just for good measure:

Chris Young the Rapper feat. Del tha Funky Homosapien - Stoned

Download: Chris Young the Rapper feat. Del tha Funky Homosapien - Stoned

If you like what you hear, please help me out with the following:

1) Download this shit; it's free!

2) Leave us a comment; even if it is just to tell us how handsome our profile picture is.

Jeffro

Upcoming Shows

Breaking these down by month.  Seems to make the most sense.

October

Uhhh not sure why you would pay $15 for this but if you are bored tonight and happen to be near the Independent why not go watch the Air Sex Championships?  Actually I can think of a lot of reasons why not to go, but I won't judge you if you do.  Tickets are available here.  I expect a full recap and re-enactment of the championship routine if you do in fact venture into that darkened dungeon of pelvic thrusting stage humping madness.

Lyrics Born, Chali 2na, and Rakaa of Dilated Peoples have a show at The Independent on Friday October 22.  Tickets are kind of money but that's a pretty solid trio of underground hip hop.  These guys meant a lot  to me back in the day.  Doors open at 8:30, the show starts at 9:00, and $25 tickets can be purchased here.

Murs, Moe Green, and J. Billion will be at the Shattuck Down Low on Saturday, October 23rd.  The show starts at 9:00 and $17 tickets can be found here.  Huge fan of Murs, one of my top emcees, witty, great delivery, and solid beats.  If you don't know about him you better axe somebody.   

The Best Coast will be at The Great American Music Hall on Tuesday, October 26.  Doors open at 7:00 and the show starts at 8:00.  $15 tickets can be purchased here.


 

DeerHunter will be at The Great American Music Hall on Friday, October 29th.  Doors open at 8:00, the show starts at 9:00.  Tickets are $17 and are available here.  If you can't make that show they will also be at Slim's on Saturday, October 30.  Doors open at 8:00, the show starts at 9:00.  Tickets are $17 and are available here.

November

Stars, who have the first song on this mix.  Have a show at the Fillmore on November 10th, which is a Wednesday.  Doors open at 8:00 and tickets are $39.50 once the extra fees have been slapped on.  Grab them here or save yourself $12 in fees by going to the actual box office.

Zion-I, Locksmith, Hold Up, Bayliens, and DJ Kevvy Kev will have a show at Slim's on Saturday November 20th.  Doors open at 8:00 for the 8:30 showtime and tickets are $20 advanced sales and $23 at the door.  Grab them here.  If you can't attend that one you can catch them the following night with Eligh and Scarub, Bang Data, Hold up, and The Oakland Faders, on Sunday, Nov 21st at the same venue, same showtime, and same price.  Pick your poison.  Tickets for that show can be found here. 

Souls of Mischief, Candlespit Collective, Broken Complex, Uephoric, and DJ Pause have a show at Slim's on Wednesday, November 24th.  Doors open at 8:00, the show starts at 9:00.  $21 tickets can be purchased here.  Local heroes, underground legends, Souls reps the Bay Area underground scene to the fullest.  This will be a real hip hop show that people shouldn't miss out on.

December

People Under The Stairs  or P.U.T.S., will be at Slim's on Friday, December 3rd.  Tickets are $19 and will be available here on Sunday, October 24th.  These dudes are some underground icons.  They have that golden age sound with beats constructed from actually digging for records, what!!!??  Who does that anymore.

The Grouch, Brother Ali, Eligh, and Los Rakas will be at the Independent on Wednesday, December 15th.  Doors will open at 7:30 with a showtime of 8:00.  Advance tickets are $20, $22 at the door.  They will be on sale on Friday here.

The Goods

Dilla Dounts goodies.  Might have to cop that vinyl, I am a sucker for clean packaging...plus it's Dilla. 

"Serato and Stones Throw have teamed with the J Dilla Estate for the official J Dilla Serato release, Donut Shop. This is 2 discs with six J Dilla tracks, 2 sides with Serato Control Tone (for use with Serato Scratch Live DJ software), and 2 donut slipmats in a package designed by Studio No.1. This will be released May 10th (the day after Mother’s day–what’s up Ma Dukes?). Pre-order is available now.

The J Dilla tracks consist of three previously unreleased instrumentals selected by J.Rocc from the Dilla archives – “Safety Dance”, “Sycamore”, “Bars & Twists” – and three unreleased instrumental versions of Dilla’s production for Mos Def, Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes, each remastered by Elysian Masters who mixed and mastered J Dilla’s Donuts, The Shining and Ruff Draft albums."





 
This is a nice little package of Hiero/Souls goodies from Carhartt in the UK.  That shirt is pretty clean.

"Introducing the Souls of Mischief x Carhartt Limited Edition Box-set. The package includes a copy of their 2010 album ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ repackaged in a special black foil embossed housing & 8 page booklet, a Spring / Summer 2010 Master Shirt in Leather with breast embroidery, a Chenille Varsity Patch in Carhartt Duck Brown and a selection of A6 size foil stickers.
This Box-set is an edition of only 200 worldwide which we are officially dropping Monday 15th March at The Carhartt Store, Neal Street. Souls of Mischief themselves will be in attendance for a signing session from 7pm. See you there!"
 http://www.thecarharttstore.co.uk/

I just got an email for the preview of the BarnStormers Group show at Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York.  "The Barnstormers are a collective of New York/Tokyo-based artists who create large-scale collaborative paintings, films and performances."   

The Barnstormers are:
Chulo, Che Jen, Daikon, David Ellis, Doze Green, Maya Hayuk, Kenji Hirata, Mike Houston, Che Jen, Kami, KR, Alex Lebedev, Madsaki, Martin Mazorra, Christian Mendoza, Mike Ming, Blust One, West One, Jose Parla, Stephen Powers, Rostarr, Sasu, Yuri Shimojo, South, Swoon, Chuck Webster, Kiku Yamaguchi, and documentarians Joey Garfield, Miyuki Pai Hirai, and Gion Yukio

It is a super legit collective of some really high ranking figures in the art world.  My favorites are Doze Green, David Ellis, Stephen Powers, Swoon, and Parla.

David Ellis does these dope ass "Sound Sculptures" in addition to his paintings.  One of them is featured on the cover of Verve remixed  vol 3 and can be seen at  his actual show in the picture below.  I thought that he did the one for volume 4 but I think that it might have been done by Mikal Hameed, based on the pieces he has in the group show.  I would totally cop that one from Verve 3, it's amazing, I would settle for a turntable tree though, I am not picky.  Some of the tracks from Verve remixed will be on the next old person mix and one will be on an upcoming soul mix, check out that series though if you haven't heard of them.  They get contemporary people to remix the old verve catalog, so if you ever wanted to hear a Postal Service remix of Billie Holiday, your wish has been granted.  The RJD2 remix of Astrud Gilberto's "Gentle Rain" is a head nodder, maybe I will post it later.

If you have a couple g's and need a new sound system why not go all out?  Here are the pieces from the current show.

























Barnstormers
Mikal Hameed - Bossanova
Fully functional sound sculpture
2010
$6,000

Mikal Hameed - Bon Vivant Soul
Fully functional sound sculpture
2010
$8,000

Not sure about the chair ones, I don't really agree with taking away the functionality of the object, chairs you can't sit in isn't really my thing but it's pretty I guess.

All of the show can be viewed here Barnstormers Group Show

And some concert news.


Maxwell and Jill Scott will embark on an arena tour starting in Cleveland on May 21. Announced today (Feb. 26), the tour will bring the neo-soul artists to 20 cities including New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington DC, with more dates to be announced through June.

Date and venue information for the LiveNation / Haymon Events tour will be released shortly. Currently, the tour is scheduled to stop in Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle, Oakland, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York.

Who's coming with me?