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

Hip Hop Mix 8

I think the hip hop mixes are just barely more popular than my country mixes.  Meaning two people grabbed the hip hop ones and one person got the country.  So with that in mind who wants some new hip hop?


Mac Miller has some skill, he has two songs on the mix.  How throwback does this video sound?  Well done child, well done.




Tracklist and download link behind the jump.

Upcomings Shows

Some of the shows from this Upcoming Show post are still in play. It's not too late!!!

January

The Pharcyde are having an unreasonably priced show at the Shattuck Down Low on Saturday, January 8th.  $23 tickets are on sale now.  Not really sure what I would pay for the Pharcyde, but I know that I won't pay $23.  If you are in serious need of some nostalgia then this show is all you.  I saw them back in college and that's probably good enough for the rest of my life.  Not that they sucked, but shieeet it's not like they are Tribe.

 Mac Miller who impressed me with a couple tracks off of his K.I.D.S. mixtape will be at Slim's on Thursday, January 20th.  Doors open at 8:00, show starts at 9:00 and $17 tickets are on sale now here.  Look for two tracks from him on the next hip hop mix.  He has that nice old school sound, with a nice flow.

 I love Zion-I and this is right in my neighborhood.  They will be at the New Parish on Friday, January 21st.  Tickets are $23 and located here.  I know these guys are worth $23.  See them if you haven't or even if you have, they don't disappoint. 

 The weirdos from Deerhoof are having an album release party at The Great American Music Hall on Friday, January 28th.  Get your $19 tickets here.  They are a little too weird for me, but if the subject of a Panda ever comes up I automatically sing the Deerhoof refrain, Panda, panda...


 Black Thought, leader of the infamous Roots crew will be solo for an upcoming show at the New Parish.  The show is on Wednesday, January 26th and it starts at 8:30.  Tickets are about $28 and can be found here.  I love Black Thought, but I love The Roots as a collective unit more.  I think if I went I might just be sad that Questlove wasn't there.  I know he can get down though, so I am sure the show will be solid.

February

If you like seriously depressing music, or earnest song writing with seductive female vocals do I have a show for you.  Cat Power is performing at the Fillmore on Friday, February 4th.  Doors open at 9:00.  Not sure how much the tickets are because they are not up for grabs yet.  They will be available on Sunday, January 9th.  Here.

If you require your emcees to have an ivy league pedigree and reference Foucault in their rhymes, then...I kind of hate you.  I don't really hate these guys though.  Das Racist, the jewels of the hipster hip hop scene, do they count as jewels if I just made that scene up?  Either way, they will be at The Independent on Wednesday, February 2nd.  The show starts at 8:00 and you can purchase $15 tickets here.  I like his hat...and his beard.

I have heard that Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone.  I forget who told me that though and it's completely unrelated to KRS One having a show in Berkeley I just thought it sounded like a nice segway.  This man was literally born across the street from the park that birthed hip hop.  His credentials are bona fide.  He will be at The Shattuck Down Low on Friday, February 18th.  $16 tickets are available here.    

April

Cults, whom I had the pleasure of seeing open for The Morning Benders are playing at the Independent on Thursday, April 14th.  Tickets are not available yet, but they will be $13 and for sale here on Friday, Jan 7th.  Really solid group and I think their star has been rising with their song, "Go Outside," which was previously featured on the last Indie Mix.  I base this theory on the fact that I saw a friend post their video on his Facebook, they're HUGE I tell ya.

Make It Whistle

I hope everyone had a magical Christmas.  I come bearing belated goodies for everyone. 

I enjoy me some whistling.  I saw a pbs special on dogs and the Shepard had a crazy number of different whistles to communicate with the dog.  He even had a whistle that meant turn back you missed one of the sheep.  It made me realize that my fondness for whistling may perhaps just be a sub-human primitive response to past animalistic instincts.  I also just saw something on tv and the gang on the show used a whistle to notify the other members of their position when separated in the dark.  Crazy, anyway I guess I still like whistling, it's the caveman in me.

Advertisers know this as well.  There was two commercials in a row and they both had whistling.  The first one came on and I thought wow that's a coincidence I am making a whistling mix.  Then the second one came on and I realized the advertisers had my number.  So I immediately bought some Gerber Baby food and a Subaru Legacy.  You won this round corporate consumption.  Your sweet whistle was like a Siren's song.  It's like that number 23 movie where once you notice it, it seems to be everywhere.  Not sure why that was a bad thing, because I never saw the movie and it's just a number but that's ok, you freak the fuck out about it Jim Carey.

So to celebrate this addiction I made a mix of songs that all feature whistling.  During my "research" (shout out to google) I found that many people feel the same way and were way ahead of me in terms of compiling lists and asking questions like what is more gimmicky whistling or children's choirs?  Most of them had similar songs, so I had to research even further (scroll down farther) and try and find some less famous whistling songs. 


I also googled whistling to find a picture for this post and the dude above came up.  Apparently it's a still from a documentary about a whistling competition in North Carolina.  Sounds like a scenario for a Christopher Guest film.  I am kind of interested in seeing it now.  Especially since it's called, "Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling." 

Download the mix behind the jump.

Hip Hop Mix 7

Do you think he is listening to hip hop?  He looks like a Westside Connection type of guy to me.  I can see him C-walking all over another bird's impala.  This nice little childlike slice of artistic goodness comes from Drake Brodahl and is up for grabs on his etsy.


Damn when I saw this video titled, "Double Dream Hands," posted as choreography to, "Planet Rock" I was praying to Zeus that it was the Afrikaa Bambaattaa song. I am sure someone has remixed it by now but the original is pretty noteworthy in its own right. "Now rock out, hand bursts, shoulder, shoulder, chin." It's a pretty amazing video. I just wish it related to the point of this post, hip hop music. How could I not share this though?

Sean Price is hip hop. If a song has a feature from the man formerly known as Ruck from Heltah Skeltah and Camp Lo, I pay attention. Dude drops gems on the regular and has been doing so for a long ass time. He appeals to both the underground heads and the crack rap fans. With street level stories presented in a perceptive intellectual Brownsville vernacular. Sean P's talent as an emcee is legendary. Here he is rocking Slim's in San Francisco at the Duckdown 15 anniversary show that I should have gone to.

Sean Price | LIVE in San Francisco 11.20.10 from Bosse Media on Vimeo.
"P!!" Here is a video promoting his 2007 mixtape, "Master P."

Last but not least, here is his video for, "Figure Four." This was supposedly on his "Kimbo Price" mixtape from 2009, but I can't find it on my track list. P has undeniable flow and his lyrics are refreshingly stripped of materialist braggadocio, "These are the words of a thousandaire," is kind of as real as it gets.  He will have a solid feature on one of the tracks on the mix. Grab that and the whole thing behind the jump.

I Hate Chrismas Music

It's true you can call me a Grinch or a Scrooge if you want to. I really don't care. I have nothing against the commercialization of the holiday, that's actually my favorite part. Here is why I don't like Christmas music, I just take issue with songs that suck. Simple as that, I don't hate Christmas, just shitty songs, and at what time of year do radio stations play non-stop shitty songs? The correct answer is all year, but what I mean is when do they play extra shitty songs? That's right during Christmas.

You can not tell me that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a good song. You can say it's a sentimental song, that it's tied back to your youth and reminds you of your sugary sweet childhood and your Eddie Bauer turtlenecks, but you can't say that it's a good song. It's corny, it's maaaad corny. Fuck Frosty, Grandma got ran over by a reindeer? Seriously? Who needs to hear that bullshit? It's gross, not in subject matter but just in general.

I used to work in a mall, they played Christmas music during the holidays.  Kind of expected, I can deal with that. Most of the songs irritated me, some infuriated me. This one sticks out as one of the worst songs I have ever heard, Christmas themed or otherwise.

You want an alien for Christmas? I hate you.  Good news though, this song still gets played because regardless of whether or not a song sucks, if you mention snow, some jackass will put it on a, "Now That's What I Call shitty Christmas Music vol. 68."  Other honorable mentions for worst Christmas music, The New Kids On The Block and the entire, "Funky, Funky Christmas" album and Bob Dylan with his weird holiday album.  Do we really need to hear Bob growling about Santa Claus?

Now with all that being said, I would be remiss to not acknowledge that .02 percent of Christmas music that doesn't entirely suck.  Someone would yell at me if I didn't mention, "All I Want For Christmas Is You," by Mariah Carey.  It doesn't suck Jingle Bells sized balls, and I acknowledge it as a well executed Christmas song.  But I am more of a Dean Martin, "Baby It's Cold Outside" kind of guy.  Nat King Cole can sing about whatever he wants too, chestnuts on fires.  Hmm, sounds like a horrible idea for a song, but Nat will make it work.  The, "Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack is also extremely well done.  I am a sucker for Vince Guaraldi.  I am also a fan of Mayer Hawthorne.  You might be able to tell with his mention in every other post.  Anyway, two of the things that I like; Vince and Mayer are united on this song, "Christmas Time Is Here."  Mayer just posted it yesterday and, shieet even I can't be mad at it.  Merry Christmas. *Adjusts turtleneck*

Here's what Mayer had to say, "All the best Christmas songs were written by Jews, and Chanukah songs suck. This is my favorite Christmas tune, sung over the Vince Guaraldi instrumental."
Mayer Hawthorne - Christmas Time Is Here by Mayer Hawthorne

Eye Candy

Does anyone remember when theme songs used to be awesome?  I loved the whole Disney afternoon's lineup and their accompanying theme songs.  It seems like they don't even try anymore.  I appreciate a cheesy ass jingle or a well manufactured theme song, it's sort of a lost art.  Ducktales a woo hooo!!  Ohh Wee ohh, ohh wee ehhh, spin it, when you spin it and a something, something, Talespin!!  Although I was admittedly the target demographic for these shows, these theme songs kept me company in the afternoons before my parents got home, at which point I had to run downstairs and act like I was doing my homework.  Gummi Bears had one of the best theme songs ever.  I remember in college telling my friend who was in a band that he should cover it during his live performances.  I think he was in a rock band but R&B interpretations work just as well.  



Uhhh awesome?  What else can I say about this clip?  The site I stole it from does a nice summation.

"It’s just three young dudes rocking what appears to be some approximation of hip-hop dancing to what sounds like Christian rock’s approximation of hip-hop music. It is positively HYPNOTIC. And just when I thought it was a looped video of the same moves that would never end, they actually dance out a pantomime of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection (see the 2:20 mark). I bet those dudes get mad trim to abstain from. Via"


It kind of reminded me of the, "Christian Side Hug" video, which I added below.  They are rough ridaaas, so give them that Christian side hug!!  Myself, I always go for the pussy hug, since I am Buddhist and Murs taught me that term on one of our retreats.  This is like those PSA's where the parents rap to their kids about STD's or something.  The way to get your message across is not to bastardize another culture and drench it with cheese.  Although that shit is kind of stuck in my head now. 


Apparently people do this.  They slice up movies and make songs with just the sound effects and music that can be found in the film.  This guy Pogo seems to be the master of it, but I just found out about this whole practice the other day so I am not the authority on whatever this is called.

Here are three dance videos two of them are related.  The first one is by Daniel Cloud Campos and is called, "Welcome Home."  Julie Zhan does her own "remix" of it fittingly titled, "Welcome Home remix."  She's a crafty one that Julie. The third video is from B-Boy City Hawaii and features, 8 year old Angelo "Lil Demon" Baligad, getting down with some really impressive power moves. 

Blue Scholars out of Seattle are a hip hop group that I don't hate.  They made this when it snowed in Seattle back in Dec of 08.  Since it just snowed again, they decided to make a sequel.  I liked the first one better so that's the one posted below, but to see the other one you can head to where this popped onto my radar, Angryasianman.com.