New Operations

So me and Soft Money have teamed up and are now gonna be working from a new site, Space Age Hustle. County Bounce will still be around, and I'll still be making posts here occassionally, but most of my regular updating will be going on over there. Adjust yourselves.

Phred Diamond- Do It B.I.G.

Just had this show up in my inbox. DC-area rappers Phred Diamond (not sure about that name...) go off on this track "Do It B.I.G.". The beat goes hard, a real slow-burner. Looking forward to hearing more. Mixtape Nowalaters due June 4th.

Phred Diamond- "Do It B.I.G."

Dominique Young Unique- Show My Ass

High BPM hipster club rap + an 18 year old Trina soundalike from Tampa= pretty good shit

April 23rd

I see you folks from North Carolina coming to County Bounce. You should be here on Friday.

Inkrowd- Southern Funk

Inkrowd- Southern Funk

New one just sent over tonight from the Don of Huntsville, Codie G. This is from Birmingham, AL rap duo Inkrowd, with what is presumably a Block Beattaz production (EDIT: Codie G informs me the production was done by Inkrowd themselves!). The beat is classic Block Beattaz in sound: hitting a perfect sweet spot between futuristic, electronic synths and country rap tunes. Great late night smoker's music. Inkrowd come correct themselves. Enjoy.

Something New, Something Old, Something Extra

Something new...

Kristmas- Kristmas International (over S-X's "Woooooo Riddim")

Kristmas goes innnnnn over this grime riddim from the UK. Seriously, he kills it. There aren't many rappers in America that would bother to even try to rhyme over a grime track, much less do it so well. This is the third great track the SMS/UK connection has produced ("Can't Outwork Em" and "Get It" being the other two), and it is exciting as hell...

Something old...



Dizzee Rascal feat. Bun B- Where Da G's

I think Bun B is the only other US rapper I've ever actually heard rhyme over a grime beat, guesting on this Dizzee Rascal track from 2007's Maths + English (edit: the album mix includes a Pimp C verse, which I had forgotten about). He was pretty nice on that, knocking out some great double-time raps similar to what Kristmas pulls here. Dizzee returned the favor on 2007's Underground Kingz, on the track "Two Types of Bitches".

Something Extra...



Pimp C feat. Bun B and Mike Jones- "Pourin' Up"

This is just some straight up great Texas shit from UGK and Mike Jones, off of the Pimp's return album, 2006's Pimpilation. I stumbled across it yesterday and had totally forgotten what a fucking banger it was.

Songz Is My Name

My good friend Jade just reminded me of how much I love this Trey Songz version of "Paper Planes". Arguably the finest moment for both Songz and "Paper Planes". It's the only version of the song I still really listen to.

Quarterly Wrap-Up

The best shit you oughta have listened to from the first quarter. Starlito could have taken up at least 3 spots on the albums list and probably 50% of the songs list, fyi. I decided not to order these, these are just 10 albums/tapes and 25 tracks I thought were the best and most essential shit from the first quarter of 2010.

Albums/Mixtapes

Starlito- Tenn-a-Keyan 3.5
Starlito and DJ Burn One- Rennaissance Gangster
Big K.R.I.T.- The Last King
Yelawolf- Trunk Muzik
Davinci- The Day the Turf Stood Still
Davey Boy Smith Presents...Era of the Six
Ben Frost - By the Throat
Alley Boy- Definition of Fuck Shit
Dirty South Joe & Flufftronix- Luvstep
Supa Villain- Antwan Swisher

Tracks

Mr. 706 feat. Lil Bruh- Da Hell Wid Chy'll
G-Side feat. Chris Lee- Money In the Sky
G-Side feat. PT- Dreamz
DB49- Ready to Go
Big K.R.I.T.- Hometown Hero
The-Dream feat. Young Jeezy- Love King (Remix)
Curren$y feat. Stalley- Address
Freddie Gibbs- Crushin' Feelin's
Alley Boy feat. Young Dro- Tall
Trae feat. Lil Wayne and Rick Ross- Inkredible
Z-Ro and Killa Kyleon- Swang Real Wide
Starlito- What Was I Thinkin'
Yelawolf- Pop the Trunk
Gaslight Anthem- American Slang
DJ Paul- Hi Way (I'm Gone)
Wochee feat. Lil Boosie- Rear View
Po- Make It
Big K.R.I.T- King
Ben Frost- Killshot
Proton- Fuck the Economy
Trash Bag Gang- When We Come Around
Big K.R.I.T.- Dat All
Yo Gotti- Touch Down!!!
X.O.- How Does It Feel?
E-40- The Server

Loose Joints 2

I'm breaking that one big post into 3 smaller posts.



Big K.R.I.T- Children of the World

K.R.I.T and Creative Control continue their winning partnership with this video, which is a bit more ~metaphorical~ than the last couple, but which still fills the screen with all the deep soulfulness that the K.R.I.T. track is imbued with. K.R.I.T. Wuz Here was supposed to be released April 5th, but apparently it's been pushed back to May 3rd, which kinda sucks.

DJ Ayres feat. GLC- Got Me Gone

This is kind of a weird partnership, with hipster DJ extraordinaire Ayres teaming up with Kanye-associated rapper GLC (remember him from "Spaceship") for a single on Ayres' T&A label. The beat is sampled from Omni Trio's mid-90s hit "Renegade Snares", which is far and away the best drum and bass track ever made, and GLC's raps are basically really nice pimp talk, which sorta positions this track pretty close to Jackie Chain's deathless anthem "Rollin". I'm diggin' it.

DJ Eleven- Eleven and the Dude (right click to download)

Speaking of DJs, one of Ayres' partners in the mobile party unit The Rub, Eleven, has just released this AMAZING mix of some of Devin the Dude's career highlights, framed in a concept parelleling Devin with another famous Dude, Jeffrey Lebowski from The Big Lebowski. Don't sleep. This mix has me real excited for Devin's upcoming concert in Boston.

Nate B feat. 6 Tre G, M.A., Kristmas, Play Cousans, Bentley, Swagg Buddies, DJ Cunta, Slash, Jackie Chain, ST 2 Lettaz, J. Griff- Huntsville StarZ Anthem

So, yeah, this is Huntsville's Massive Mixtape Posse Cut, and it's pretty good. Interestingly, the script gets sort of flip in that a run-of-the-mill mixtape beat is used here instead of a gleaming Blockbeattaz style production in order to show off the skills of the MCs. S.L.A.S.H. is really starting to get notice from me, she's got the best verse on this track. That whole "no answer/same answer" couplet is kinda retardedly great.

Untamed- Country

Another new one from the Huntsville camp. It's cool to hear Blockbeattaz take on country rap tunes so effortlessly when they want to. Everyone obsesses a bit too much over their trance-rap sound, I think.

Das Racist- Shut Up, Dude

This really should be terrible on paper, and maybe it is, but shit, this mixtape sounds so loose and fun that I can't help to vibe to it. I feel like I will be bumpin this shit a lot during the summer. The dudes are witty and funny and sometimes overly clever in the way that you might expect Brooklyn-based hipsters from Wesleyan would be, but at the core of it all this horribly-named mixtape is driven by an authentic love for rap music. The final product is something pretty unique and engaging. Also, I'm glad someone finally realized the onomatopoeic glory that the word "telenovela" is, and that they made a song saluting the greatness of Arizona Iced Tea ("One Dollar Can").

Here's "Nutmeg" from it.

Trae feat. Rick Ross and Lil Wayne- Inkredible



I'm not really sure how I missed this the first time around when it was released in January, but the video was released a couple days ago and just, holy shit. This probably wins for the hardest beat to come out in the last 6 months. Shit is just so schizophrenic, with an utterly massive bass drop. Trae, Wayne, and even Ross all come strong here too, each playing to their strengths (nimble double-time monotone rap, super-blunted free association raps, and corporate thuggin', respectively). Check this shit.

Cam'Ron feat. Vado- Ric Flair

Pardon me Juelz, but I think Vado might be what the NY rap game's been missing.

It's Been a Long Time...Live Shows

So yeah, sorry I've been so absent on this shit for the last few weeks. Real life been gettin in the way. Anyway, live shit that happened/will be happening:

A) checked the Yelawolf/Wiz Khalifa show up here a couple weeks back. Met up with the homie DJ Burn One and Will Power with Yela before the show and talked a bit with them, cool dudes. Yela killed it as you might expect, but I was really surprised with Wiz as well. I was not a big fan of his coming in, and didn't know much of his material, but he has a legit rock star presence onstage. It also helps he has a DIEHARD core of young fans, some of whom were obnoxious in their fandom (shouts to the Becky that hit me in the face before Yela came on when I refused to let her in front of me because I literally had nowhere else to move). However, dude is nice live. Noz had a pretty accurate write-up of the show in DC. Also check Will Power's pics he took to see just how insane this tour was. They sold out nearly every venue they played, from what I understand.

B) I'll be headed down to Greensboro, NC with my homie Nate next weekend to check this Huntsville show at Guilford, featuring G-Side, G-Mane, Kristmas, Bentley, and Jackie Chain. I am beyond psyched for it. Nate's a super dope photographer and hopefully I'll be returning from it with a bunch of great pictures and ridiculous stories to share.

Edit: I made this long ass post 3 smaller posts for easier digestion.

G-Side feat. Chris Lee - Money In The Sky (prod. Basmo Family)

"Walkmasterflex told me watch who I hang with."

They got me workin 50+ hours this week and I really haven't had a chance to sit down, but I'm egotistical so I had to post this. Great track from G-Side working with Norwegian production team Basmo Family this time. Plus they shouted me out, so I'm geekin a little.

EDIT: the single is now available for download.



G-Side feat. Chris Lee- Money In the Sky (prod. by the Basmo Family)

Regularly Scheduled Programming

I swear I'll be updating this again soon. I'm working on a quarterly report (a la Tom Breihan) of my favorite tracks and albums from the first quarter, hopefully will be done by the end of this week. Bear with me homies

G-Side at SXSW

Sorry I've been absent for the last week, I just started a new job and I've been training all weekend for it. Posts may end up becoming more irregular. Or not. We'll see. Anyway here's video and audio from G-Side's amazing performance at NPR's showcase at SXSW last week. The video's of the track they opened with, "Huntsville International", and the audio's GREAT quality of the full show. Really inspiring stuff to listen to. Take a half-hour and listen to it today. It'll make you feel good. I can't wait to see these dudes live someday.

Audio:
NPR Showcase- G-Side

EDIT: Video of them performing "Youth of the Ghetto" got posted up while I was at work:



And here's "Speed of Sound":



EDIT 2: OKAY, one more thing from G-Side and the whole Huntsville crew at SXSW. The homies, 2 Lettaz, Bentley, and Kristmas (aka DB49) went innnnnnnn on a street freestyle with a homeless drummer supplying the beat. This is fun as shit:

BRAND NEW: DB49- Club Pictures

(artwork by John Turner Jr.)

Brand New shit from Huntsville, Alabama supergroup DB49 (Drunk Before Nine), featuring 2 Lettaz (from G-Side), Kristmas, Slash, Bentley, and G-Mane. This track's called "Club Pictures" and it's produced by ATX. Shit is major, I can't wait for Happy Hour. Also below is the other recent track from DB49, "Ready to Go", which is one of my favorite tracks released this year.

DB49- Club Pictures
DB49- Ready to Go

What Is the Soundtrack for Urban Renewal?

DaVinci - "What You Finna Do" (Music Video) from Sweetbreads Creative Collective on Vimeo.

I was just about to condemn Davinci to the internet buzz cycle. This video is a well-filmed little slice of Bay Area life in noir et blanche, but the track was very bland to me. Very low-key, with some thoughtful dialogue interspersed with hustle raps. It's pretty insane how fast this dude moved from anonymous rapper dude 3 days ago to having Noz post this video up on Cocaine Blunts and having BlvdSt.com and Maurice Garland, among others, cosigning the fuck outta him. I honestly was skeptical, but shit. This. Album. Goes. Hard.

A couple posts ago I wrote up about "Southern reality rap" as a new thematic movement in rap coming up in 2010. However, I think dropping the "Southern" out of it might be a good idea, if Davinci (and Lil B, though his reality is not a reality being experience by anyone except Martians) are any indication. The Day the Turf Stood Still is a GREAT example of "reality rap", and it's also unlike any rap album I've heard in some time. Beatwise, the album sounds like a hybrid of well-worn East Coast soul sample beats and thumping Bay Area slaps. Like I wrote in the reality rap post, the producers behind this album seemed to have worked pretty closely with Davinci, creating an album where the lyrics, voice, and beat have a deep and complex interplay, to the point it's hard to imagine another rapper working as well as Davinci does over these instrumentals.

The real draw, and something I haven't heard in a minute from the Bay Area, is a completely different style lyricist and MC that Davinci embodies. While E-40 continues to do his thing, Lil B spins further into the collective Internet consciousness, and the Livewire gang makes us all remember what it means to be an 80s baby, Davinci is drawing from truly gritty East Coast and Southern styles, but filtering it through his life in a rapidly-gentrifying Bay Area. The last 5 or 6 years in rap since the hyphy movement exploded and then the whole scene had it's post-thizz comedown, it seems like most critics have either lauded (or written off) the entire region as "weird", and dudes like E-40 and Lil B have more or less supported that notion. What has been totally missed in all that is that it's still ground zero for a lot of class and political struggle, as well as everyday struggle for people there. Davinci is a gifted MC: crafting an album full of verses like

The corner up the street used to be the spot/
till they replaced all the liquor stores with coffee shops/
I ain't sayin' it's a bad thing/
but where am I supposed to hustle at?

and not sound like a PHd candidate masking as a street corner hustler is not easy, but he manages. Davinci wants to show you this street scene all around him in the Bay Area, and he films it in IMAX with his words.

Don't say I didn't tell you: REALITY RAP IS THE MOVEMENT IN 2010!

Below is the link for The Day the Turf Stood Still, which you can download for free or buy.

Davinci- The Day the Turf Stood Still

Yelawolf in NYC

Back in Boston from a ridiculous long weekend in New York. Big ups to the homie J Dirrt from Baller's Eve for taking the time out to say what up and give me some free beer. Also checked out this Yelawolf show last night at Brooklyn Bowl, then followed that crew over to a bar where Wolf put on a secret show. Dude's a monster performer. If the fact that I don't know how I got home, waking up still totally wasted at 2 pm, and the broken knuckle on my hand are any indication, it must have been a pretty sick night.

Below's video of Yelawolf performing "Pop the Trunk" from the show last night. Ignore me shouting the hook into the microphone. Also thanks Wolf for giving me my hat back:

Loose Joints

Here's some new-ish shit I've been enjoying recently.

Mr. 706 feat. Lil Bruh- Da Hell Wid Ch'yall

Heard this track earlier this week and finally got the mp3 last night (big ups to the homie J Dirrt at Baller's Eve). Track's pretty sick, it's got a mid 00's ATL rap vibe with a real nice hook on it. I really can't stop listening to this.

Big K.R.I.T. & L.E.$- Grippin' Grain

Here's another one that just dropped the other day, another new one from rap's last King, Big K.R.I.T., feat. Houston up and comer L.E.$. L.E.$ is pretty inoffensive on it, K.R.I.T. comes hard as usual, and the beat was produced by pre-Block Beataz Huntsville producer Arkitek under the alias Kash Kartel, and it go hard.

Curren$y feat. Stalley- Address

I haven't really gotten into Curren$y's superblunted hipster rap style since his Cash Money days. Some dudes tried to turn me on to How Fly, his mixtape from last year with Wiz Khalifa, but outside of a couple songs it just didn't do it for me. However, he really finds a nice groove on this luxurious beat. It's a really nice laid back, summery track. Nothing on this track is different from what Curren$y's been doing since he broke with CM, but it's the best example of his style so far I think. It's got a pretty cool video too. Stalley remains notable only for his beard.

Z-Ro & Lil C- Barre Kelly

My dude MAYNHOLUP! hooked me up with this joint last night, and it's amazing. While 7 of the 9 minutes features Lil C, who rhymes solidly over the "Rapper's Delight" beat, the first two minutes belong solely to Z-Ro, who murders this. Between this and the epic "Mo City Don" freestyle, I think we need a mixtape of Z-Ro freestyling over 80s NY rap beats.

Wochee feat. Lil Boosie- Rear View

This track's been out for a while I think but was just brought to my attention by Noz a few weeks ago. I can't quit jammin this one either. Wochee's from Carenco, LA, population 6,120. The beat's a bit reminiscent of Plies' "Plenty Money", but Wochee throws a nice hook on it, and Boosie comes through with some pretty ridiculous lines like "Breakin records like that Jamaican when I'm racin' for money". Recommended for sure.

Freddie Gibbs- Slammin'

Str8 Killa No Filla coming soon.

All Star & DJ Burn One- Renaissance Gangster

I haven't listened to this yet but I expect great things. Apparently it's just Starlito and Burn One on this street album. We need to hear more of that. 11 songs, that's it. Quality > Quantity, or as I like to call it, the Illmatic model. Go buy it off iTunes for $7.99. It's the least you could do to support two of the best doing it in the rap game right now.

Davey Boy Smith Presents Era of the Six

Davey Boy Smith from over at Southern Hospitality put together an amazing mix of early Three 6/Memphis rap shit. Definitely worth checking out, as is Southern Hospitality's recent split mixtape with Governed by Loyalty, Southern Loyalty.

Big K.R.I.T. and Southern Reality Rap

Big K.R.I.T. - King from Creative Control on Vimeo.

BIG K.R.I.T. HOMETOWN HERO from Creative Control on Vimeo.

So as I wrote up here last week, I was traveling through the Northeast U.S. and Eastern Canada all last week. Before I left I uploaded a bunch of new music to iPod, including some tapes and albums I'd been ignoring. One of those was the Big K.R.I.T. tape from December that David Drake wrote up over at So Many Shrimp, The Last King. Drake's generally a great writer, but I have to say his review, while glowing, didn't exactly appeal to me, and I don't really know why. So I listened to the little Youtube freestyle posted there, didn't feel it, and then forgot about him until a couple weeks ago, when the "King" video dropped. It's impeccably shot, with a grimy, claustrophobic feel normally reserved for Motion Family videos (props to Creative Control for their amazing filming). But even moreso than the wellshot video was the track, a hookless, urgently spit track about hard times and grandiose dreams that caused me to sit up and immediately notice. After replaying the video 5 or 6 more times I finally grabbed the tape for my trip.

It turns out that tape was the thing I listened to the most on my trip, listening to the whole thing at least 7 or 8 times and several times since then. K.R.I.T. would like you to think he's a King, and he makes a damn good case for being one. The dude rhymes with such a ferocity and hunger it'd almost be cliche if he didn't sound so damn sincere about it. "King" is K.R.I.T.'s style in a nutshell: he talks a lot about growing up in hard times in Meridian, Mississippi, but also spits about his almost obsessive plans to get rich and feed his family. He also has a lot of time to throw around tracks about riding through his city feeling good, jamming screw tapes, and hanging out with his people. It's a 360 degree worldview; not just about hard times but also celebrating bits and pieces of the world around him.



Production-wise, the K.R.I.T. tape is impeccably mixed by DJ Break 'Em Off: the sequencing is great, and unlike a lot of mixtapes he doesn't let any idea run for too long. Check "Get Money", which runs the hook through 3 or 4 different iterations of the beat, never letting it settle or rest. According to K.R.I.T. on twitter, he produced "most of the tracks" on the tape, and he's an amazing beatsmith. He's also uses samples to great effect: the sample of dialogue from "Friday Night Lights" is incredibly effective on the above track, "Hometown Hero".

K.R.I.T. is the latest rapper to advance a growing thematic movement I've noticed (God that's pretentious), at least amongst my favorite rappers out of the South, in the last couple of years. Along with Playboy Tre, All Star, and a whole slew of Alabama rappers led by G-Side and Yelawolf, K.R.I.T. has been moving forth with, for a lack of a better term, something I'm calling "Southern reality rap". Over the last decade or so, it seems that a lot of southern rap has been more or less been drawn up in the blueprints of niche rap styles, so much so that you could virtually play Mad Libs with figuring out the latest rap trends simply by putting random words in front of "rap" (trap, snap, swag, bass, club, street, gangsta, etc). Of course, there are a few rappers that have refused to be comfortably pidgeon-holed by a singular style: the Dungeon Family's entire discography, Killer Mike's slept on albums, as well as the first Kanye West album immediately spring to mind. But more often than not, the best known and most successful rappers out of the South have been more than content to work a single sound or subject.


Not to discredit those styles, as dudes like Gucci Mane and Jeezy have made a lot of great music essentially by talking about the same subjects, but I'm really starting to prefer these observational, genuine storytellers that not only document what's going on around them, but then also forcefully place their own philosophies and ideas into the mix (i.e. G-Side's W-2 Boy movement). So often rappers easily avoid taking responsibility for their own music by saying "I'm just writing about what I see". It's encouraging to hear dudes say "I'm telling you what I see AND telling you what I'm doing to change that situation". You have to be a much better writer than Dorrough or Hurricane Chris to write about yourself and your values and not come across as preachy.

More often than not, as well, many rappers consciously keep a distance between themselves and the listener by refusing to place themselves into their music. Except, of course, on the token "conscious"/autobiographical track that seems to appear on every mixtape or album, which a lot of rappers seem to record only to throw out as a bit credit to say "yeah I really CAN rap about REAL LIFE" (seriously, how many bloggers have you heard defend Gucci Mane by citing "Worst Enemy" or "Neva Had Shit" to show HE REALLY CAN WRITE ABOUT THINGS BESIDES DRUGS?) But dudes like Playboy Tre never hesitate to put themselves right in the mix, freely offering up their own shortcomings along with pressing forward with the unmistakable swagger you need to be a rapper. I have no idea if the Liquor Store Mascot character Tre's built is truly reminiscent of the ~real Tre~, but the character is consistent and compelling as Kanye West was back when he was trying to figure out his own identity on College Dropout.

Real life is hardly ever the way music tells us it is. No matter where you live or what you listen to, that's almost always the case. Taylor Swift might sing about teenage boys and girls falling in like with each other, to the point that it might seem that ALL white middle class teenagers are doing in this country are lusting after each other from their bedroom windows, but that's almost certainly not the case. While it's a large part of growing up, it's certainly not the only part. Similarly, living in the hood is not all about selling dope or riding around in tricked out cars. There's a whole lot more going on there, and a whole lot of people that have never done either of those things. The dudes I've mentioned above are trying to broaden their scope to a cinematic level, showing us all people, from the D-Boys to the dudes hustling in school or college, to give us the image of life AS A WHOLE, not simply as a part to be fetishized and obsessed over. That's why I think it's appropriate to call it all "reality rap".


In a few songs this reality rap style can masterfully combine pieces of all those other styles together into one song, but this style is really better suited for albums or mixtapes in which the artist exerts a large amount of control over the tracks selected and the sequencing (DJ Burn One's concept of the "street album" in lieu of the mixtape is great for this style). K.R.I.T. has the extra advantage of being able to craft his own beats to fit his style, but G-Side's production team Block Beataz and All Star's collaborations with Burn One have also yielded great results. At any rate, it's clear that for such a mature and complex writing style to work over the course of an album, the producers and the artists need to have a pretty tight working relationship. Albums by these guys aren't DRASTICALLY different from the blueprint many other artists use: they have their club songs, their for-the-ladies jams, and their introspective jams. Weaving all of these styles together into a cohesive unit that actually tells us something about the artists behind those songs though, is something entirely different.

Below I've got links for tapes from Big K.R.I.T., G-Side, All Star, G-Mane, and Playboy Tre that I think best exemplify this style:

Big K.R.I.T.- The Last King
G-Side- Huntsville International
All Star- Live From the Back of the Class
G-Mane- Sunday on Da Porch
Playboy Tre- Liquor Store Mascot and Goodbye America

The NonRap Return

So I'm extending my break a little longer, as I'm about to actually move to Boston next week, and thus am packing/moving most of this week. But I'll give a quick post about three things I'm listening to in the non-rap world. 2 albums, 1 mix.

Ben Frost- By The Throat



This album, from experimental/avant-garde composer Ben Frost, is one of the most thrilling, terrifying, and expertly produced albums I've heard in a long while. Dude needs to be crafting horror movie soundtracks right now. Opener "Killshot" is a monster, with it's deep bass thuds and screaming sheets of black metal guitar feedback. "O God Protect Me" sounds like something from a really scary 80s thriller set in a hospital. The way he plays with juxtaposed noises and shifts the dynamics is incredible. If this floats your boat, you should also check out his previous album, Theory of Machines.

Ben Frost- "Killshot"



The xx- The xx

This was my favorite non-rap album released last year, and I've been bumping it a lot again recently, in large part to this AT&T commercial which features Apolo Anton Ohno speed skating to "Intro". In some ways, it's pretty easy to believe that the band behind this is four 20-year olds from London: they sing about sex and love on virtually every song in a way that's pretty understandable to someone like me in their early 20s. On another level though, there's a stunning level of maturity at work in these songs. It's fascinating the way they play with space and atmospherics; nearly every song uses the same minimal sounds, but they are endless recombined and made unique via some very deft songwriting. This is perfect late-night traveling music.

The xx- Stars



Dirty South Joe and Flufftronix- Luvstep Mix


I have been looking forward to this mix forever, and DSJ and Flufftronix have done a pretty good job hyping it up and marketing it. I can't remember the last free mix released that had its own website. However, for all the hype surrounding it, it's an INCREDIBLE mix of dubstep. The whole concept behind it was more romantic dubstep tracks mixed together, and it does a great job of mood setting. It's only February and it's definitely a strong competitor for mix of the year, in my mind. I definitely don't think they'll be a better dubstep release this year, at the least.

Luvstep Teaser Promo:

Luvstep Teaser from flufftronix on Vimeo.

Break

Forgot to tell y'all, I'm in Boston/Canada until next Thursday, so I'm on break. If yr that one dude that checks County Bounce for anything, put me off until then. However, I am working on putting together a mix as well as a couple special posts for y'all, so stay wit me.

DGK Stevie Presents: Baller's Eve's DJ Dirrty, Vol. 1

This is major! The homie DJ Dirrty from over at Baller's Eve was commissioned to do a mixtape for DGK, and based on the shit I've heard, it's definitely gonna bang. Also, if you're not already listening to Baller's Eve on East Village Radio at 10pm on Wednesday nights, you should just kill yrself.

SIDE A
-ST 2 LETTAZ - HEART N' SOUL
-FREDDIE GIBBS FEAT. PILL - DO WRONG
-KD - BETTER THAN MINE
-PO - RESPECT MY PIMPIN
-LOWE FEAT. CLOVA - FLINSTONES
-GRIP PLYAZ FEAT. TUKI CARTER - WHAT DA HELL ARE DOZE
-G-SIDE - DREAMZ

SIDE B
-SHAWTY FATT - YEAH
-BENTLEY FEAT. KRISTMAS - ALL OVA
-JACKIE CHAIN FEAT. ST 2 LETTAZ & CEE CEE - MIDDLE OF DA CLUB
-MARC DECOCA - WILD DOG
-LIL HOT FEAT. ALLEY BOY - GRAMS UP
-UNTAMED FEAT. JHI-ALI - GANGSTA

DGK Stevie Presents: Baller's Eve's DJ Dirrty, Vol. 1 (Side A, Side B)

Alley Boy feat. Young Dro- Tall (Prod. by JT)

The lead single off of Alley Boy's forthcoming album Definition of Fuck Shit is out today and it is FIRE. I honestly haven't really been checking for Alley Boy but everything I've heard from him has been dope. However this is definitely the best thing I've heard by some measure. Dro is finally off his stupid-fruity-crazy-swag shit and back to comparing his cars to food and colors. On a scale of 10 this track is a 14 from everyone involved. CHECK THIS SHIT OUT.

Alley Boy feat. Young Dro- Tall (from Definition of Fuck Shit) (via the homies DirtyGloveBastard)

The Box: A Personal Retrospective

Literally the only image I could find of The Box logo

Noz' post today about Common included the video for "One-Nine-Nine-Nine", one of my favorite videos and songs from my childhood. That song still has a strong resonance with me, remaining one of the only Common songs I've ever really liked, and one of the few tracks from the Rawkus discography I listen to with any regularity. There is a frustratingly scattershot revue of rap songs I remember playing a formative role in my childhood, and which I still cherish to this day, all of which came via the holy grail of bootleg television channels, The Box.

When I was growing up, up until my freshmen year of high school, I did not have cable television in my house. We were a strictly network TV family, which means I had access to CBS, ABC, NBC, two PBS channels, Fox, and sometimes UPN. The only real access I had to MTV or BET was when I was hanging out at a friend's house or something like that. Instead, most of the music I heard outside of the radio came from channel 14, the scratchy, grainy, might-have-been-pirated channel known as The Box. Except for maybe The Simpsons, The Box is the favorite thing I remember from my childhood experience with television.

According to its Wikipedia page, The Box started in 1985 as a byproduct of the Miami Bass scene, and by the early 90s has spread to a number of different locales around the country. The "catch" about The Box, which I still think is a great look, is that they offered a constantly rotating list of videos which were like a really good radio playlist that were tailored to the region each channel was broadcasting in, which meant it was possible to see huge hit videos and obscure local videos. Richmond's list was almost entirely (though as you'll see in a second, not completely) rap; the only other Box channel I ever experienced was the in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and the playlist for that was virtually all nu-metal bands- I distinctly remember seeing videos for Good Charlotte and Kittie on there (it was also vastly clearer than The Box in Richmond, which was sometimes unable to be picked up by my TV).

On top of that, viewers could call in, and for 99 cents a pop, choose whichever video they wanted to see on the channel. This was kind of a gift and a curse for a small network. On the one hand, viewers had almost total control over the programming for the channel; it was possible to watch the "Can I Get A..." video 50 times in a row if you wanted to. However, The Box was a small channel, and at least in Richmond it would sometimes sit desolate for hours. However, there were at least a few other people watching, as I never called in since I was like 10 and had no credit rating, and videos were playing on there at least semi-regularly.

Given the grainy video I was watching constantly, which was oftentimes punctuated by the surreal, low budget violence and sex so often seen in low-budget rap videos from the 90s, The Box has left me with a Videodrome-esque memory of a lot of rap music: many images and melodies etched into my brain, which I sometimes recall for no reason at all, but are often mostly lost to me. I distinctly remember loving a video by the Okayplayer-associated French duo Les Nubianes, but I don't remember anything about it other than I thought they were really attractive sisters (were they sisters?). There was also a commercial that aired for a Richmond-area rapper (I think) that was sepia-toned that included the lyric "try to find the key so I can open up the door", but that's all I can recall about it.

However, there were many, many videos which I was first exposed to there which I have come to love and cherish. Common feat. Talib Kweli and Sadat X- "One-Nine-Nine-Nine" was definitely one of them. I remember Common sitting in the wicker chair with the staff, as well as DJ Babu randomly showing up:



There were a lot of Cash Money videos that appeared on there, but the two that I remember the most were, obviously, Juvenile's "Ha" and, less obviously, Tear Da Club Up Thugs feat. the Hot Boys- "Playa Why U Hatin'":





Two of the craziest and weirdest rap videos ever, Wu-Tang's "Triumph" and Missy Elliott's "The Rain" (which has disabled embedding but you can see here):



Three random stray shots: JT Money's "Who Dat", E-40's "Earl, That's Yo Life" and Craig Mack's "Jockin' My Style"







Remember how I said there were a couple videos that were non-rap? I definitely remember Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff" inexplicably being in heavy rotation:



These two were probably two of my favorites on the channel, and the two which sparked a casual interest in backpack rap around the turn of the milennium- Jurassic 5's "Quality Control", and Dilated People's "Worse Comes to Worst" (again, embedding disabled but available here):



The two best East Coast videos I remember, Gang Starr's "Full Clip" and Nas' "Nas Is Like":





Finally, the two videos which really unknowingly got me into Texas rap, as I would remember these songs the most after The Box was absorbed by MTV2 in 2001, DJ DMD's deathless "25 Lighters" and UGK's "Wood Wheel":






There are about a hundred more videos I could put up here, but I'm gonna stop here for now.

Marc Decoca feat. Stuey Rock- Booty (Video)

Another great video from Marc Decoca, dude that made one of my favorite videos/songs from last year, "My Trigga". Dude's so strange, and it really works for him. KE on the track so you know it's good. Below is the video to "My Trigga".

NO JOKE STAND UP OR ROLL OVER

This is next level hood DVDing. Thank god for random grime MCs from England.

Hint: Watch the whole thing.

Killa Gorilla!

Run It!

Killa Kyleon feat. Z-Ro- Swang Real Wide (via Traps n Trunks, 2010)
Killa Kyleon- Badge On My Neck (off Serve and Collect, 2006)
Killa Kyleon- Flow (off Purple Punch, 2006)

Killa Kyleon just put out a new song with Z-Ro entitled "Swang Real Wide", and it's probably one of the best songs released this year so far. The beat's a classic Texas country rap tune that you might find on a Z-Ro album, all chunky basslines and lugubrious string samples. Z-Ro goes about as hard as you'd expect, and anyone that knows Killa Ky should expect his greatness on the track. But not many outside of Texas know Kyleon, and that's a problem.

I've been aware of Kyleon's existence ever since I got into Houston rap around 2004, but I didn't really pay him much mind until a couple years later. As I suspect is the case with a lot of other people outside of Houston, I just assumed he was a Slim Thug weed carrier, or at most the OJ to Thugga's Gucci. This is probably because he seems to pretty much have fallen comfortably into the role as the lieutenant of the Boss Hogg Outlawz crew. This position, however, belies his talent. Kyleon is probably the best lyricist of that crew, even better than Slim Thug, and he's definitely one of the best punchline rappers out of Texas, something pretty apparent on his solo cut from the 2nd BHO album, "Badge On My Neck" ("Rubberband banks, pockets full of dead honkeys"). That album, Serve and Collect, is the best compilation album of the 2000s and probably deserves its own post, but that's really when I first started checking for Killa on a more consistent basis.

He's also got a really great voice for Screw tapes, and his mixtape Purple Punch, is great to ride out to. I hope he starts getting more shine from "Swang Real Wide", and he's able to put together some more successful tracks like it. He definitely deserves it.

Waka Flocka Talks about his Robbery

I'm not usually into this sorta thing but Waka Flocka tells the story about how he was recently shot during an armed robbery attempt at a gas station in Atlanta. Pretty interesting story. Glad he's alright. (via Miss Info):

MTV Shows

Edo is Grimy

Richmond got slammed with a ton of snow yesterday, so naturally I've been listening to a lot of Cold Weather Rapps recently. The XO tape has been in constant rotation, along with Ed O.G.'s album with Pete Rock from 2004, My Own Worst Enemy. I honestly don't know a whole lot about Edo or his place in rap history, as I don't really check for much East Coast/boom-bap rap anymore, but it seems to me that Ed has been a severely overlooked part of that history. He's been around since the early 90s and has quietly been doing his thing since then. I don't really know why he's not part of the Great Canon of East Coast rap, probably because he's from Boston and has more of a bruising delivery style. He sounds a lot like Redman if Redman was less wordy and a member of M.O.P. Still, dude does what he does really well, and has an excellent ear for beats. My Own Worst Enemy is a really overlooked album from last decade, in my opinion. Very solid.

The above video, "Ei8ht Is Enough", is from a few months ago and is apparently from a forthcoming collaboration album between Ed O.G. and Masta Ace entitled Arts and Entertainment. This video is so great in its simplicity, two dudes staring straight at the camera and rapping hard for three and a half minutes in one take. No frills, no gimmicks. Probably what hip-hop purists really think rap should be. I don't give a shit about that one way or the other, but it's cool to see these two rap veterans going at it so hard 20 years after they came into the game.

Formspringin'

Yeah, only a week in and I'm already neglecting this shit. I've been making real life moves though so I'll use that as an excuse. Also it's snowing this weekend here so I'll try to put up at least 2 or 3 posts.

Anyway in the meantime I made a Formspring. Have you ever been interested in learning more about a young, unemployed author of a tiny blog? Ask away.

DJ Montay, DJ Jelly, and MC Assault- Shut Da Club Down Vol. 1

Man. This is some brutal, knockdown, drag out, crunk shit from 2001. The tracks are roughly divided between 1/3 Tennessee Crunk shit, 1/3 Oomp Camp, and 1/3 Cash Money. A great mix from two of the best DJs most people are probably aware of but have never heard (I'm not sure what MC Assault does here). It catches two separate movements at two incredible tipping points: Cash Money at the time when it was in its transition from a Bounce label to more mainstream rap offerings and the Crunk movement before it broke into the mainstream. This shit BANGS. I'll put a tracklist up but I don't know how much it matters, since my version has 35 tracks and the tracklist only has 32 listed. I miss seeing "New Turk" listed anywhere.

01.Intro
02.Bia Bia - Lil John & Baby D
03.Who Run It - Triple 6 Mafia
04.Eastside Vs. Westside - Baby D
05.9mm - 8Ball & MJG
06.Back Up Remix - Baby D
07.'Bout That - Master P & Silk
08.Everytime You See Me - Oomp Camp
09.Hard To Kill - Gangsta Boo
10.Put Your Hood Up - Lil John & the Eastside Boyz
12.No Playin GA - Pastor Troy
13.It's In Me/Drag 'Em In the River - Turk
14.If You Ain't From My Hood - Project Pat
15.Set It Off - Juvenile
16.Rikey Smiley Interlude
17.Shine - Lil Wayne
18.Bye Bye Hater - Tela
19.400 Degrees - Juvenile
20.Jump'N Down On'm - Baby D
21.New Turk
22.Raise Up - Peter Pablo
23.DUI Remix - Intoxicated
24.Roll With The Big Boys - Sammy Sam
25.Deez & Vogues - Superb
26.Block Burner - Hot Boys
27.On The Grind - 917 Family
28.Smoked Out Records Pt.11
29.Keep It In Step - Drama
30.Real Nigga - Kaos
31.We Too Deep - Baby D
32.Kuts Friends - Camo Flouge

Anyone have anything to add to this tracklist?

DJ Montay, DJ Jelly, and MC Assault- Shut Da Club Down Vol. 1

Paul Shirley Game Sick

You are misshapen.


Have you ever wondered why indie rock critics and 3rd string EuroLeague players have such a high regard of Kid Cudi and a terrible appreciation for Gucci Mane? Well, shit, I have the answer!

Two ends of the rap spectrum by Paul Shirley

African by the Bay

The video and beat off for the lead single for E-40's new Sweat/Suit-style fake double album, Revenue Retrievin' (coming out March 30th), are pretty fucking great. So's Earl's rapping, but I'm not interested in talking about that in this post. Rick Rock's beat on "The Server" is a menacing slab of industrial stomp and well placed percussion, where maracas and woodblocks and deep synth bumps sit right alongside each other. It immediately reminds me of what would have happened if DJ Quik had combined the best aspects of "9x Outta 10" and "Moroccan Blues" off BlaQKout. The video makes this combination even more apparent, where dudes in prison shank each other with turkey bones while wearing war paint, and women in the same facepaint and grass skirts shake it while dudes in bongos sit near them in the middle of some Bay Area projects. It's a pretty thrilling track and video, and 40's wordplay, twisting and sliding off and on beat, is as compelling as ever (okay so maybe I did talk about his rapping a little bit).

All of this made me wonder if Rick Rock, E-40 ,or even the director of the video have heard Chief Boima's new EP, African by the Bay. Boima's a Bay Area producer that specializes in making dance music and remixes based on African electronic music from all over the map. I copped the EP about a month ago, and while occasionally it misses the mark, it's interesting to hear how well he incorporates the bounce and synths commonly found in African electronic music genre's like Kuduro and Kwaito into rap, particularly the post-hyphy sound being produced by rappers like The Jacka and J. Stalin these days. In fact, perhaps the best remix on the album is that of The Jacka track "Fabulous Lifestyle". It's amazing how natural the extra percussion sounds within the original, adding a whole bunch of small, moving parts to the fluttery beat of the original. In fact, the one original track on the EP, "Shake Them Dreads", features a lot of the same parts found in a typical track from someone like Rick Rock or Droop-E, just arranged differently and set to a different BPM. Interesting stuff.


I wonder if Timbaland ever feels like he peaked early. At this point, some of the most unique and refreshing production is coming out of the roots of the work he did in the early 00s. I don't think anyone finds that to be a shocking statement. But it would have been interesting to see where he would have gone had he not ended up teaming with Nelly Furtado and OneRepublic, or spending an unhealthy amount of time in the gym and receiving packages from BALCO. One of the few areas of the world Timbaland never seemed to consciously promote or draw influence from was sub-Saharan Africa (to my knowledge, if any readers can point me to some of his work that does I'd love to hear it). In addition to Chief Boima, who is drawing obvious connections between Timbaland synth gurgles (I see you, Tom Breihan) that Rick Rock and Droop-E are the standard bearers of now, and African electronic music, there's also Amon Tobin's Two Fingers project. Released last year, it also works in that area of fantasy that imagines "What if Timbaland ever visited Luanda?", something Noz wrote about a lot better than me a couple months back. Truth be told I can't get into this album fully, but the instrumental "Keman Rhythm" off the album is a monster, full of buzzing synths and djembes (you really need to listen to this on a system that can handle bass, but I would hope you already knew that if you listen to rap). I'd love to hear someone like 40 or Turf Talk rap over a track like this, though I guess "The Server" is a pretty good prototype of that right now.

Below are some MP3s of the tracks mentioned, as well as another highlight off the Chief Boima album, his remix of "Money to Blow" and the newly released video for my favorite E-40 associated track from last year, D-Lo's "No Hoe (Remix)":



The Jacka feat. Andre Nickatina- Fabulous Lifestyle (Original)
The Jacka feat. Andre Nickatina- Fabulous Lifestyle (Chief Boima Remix)
Chief Boima- Shake Them Dreads
Birdman feat. Drake and Lil Wayne- Money to Blow (Chief Boima Remix)
Two Fingers- Keman Rhythm

So Icey Horns

So when I ride around in my car I usually have my ipod set to shuffle, and the last few days it's been pretty excellent in queuing up some great Gucci/Juiceman/Waka Flocka tracks. Along with the now universally known sound of Casio King Zaytoven, I've started to notice a lot of my favorite tracks from these dudes involve horn samples (or keyboards set to "trumpet").

I'm not in the loop enough to know definitively who produces a lot of these tracks, but at least a couple have been definitively done by DJ Speedy. Anyway I don't really have much analysis to lend to these tracks, other than Gucci can ride pretty much any beat he wants at this point, Juiceman's hyperactive kid flow works well with a brass sample, and "O Let's Do It" speaks for itself. While a lot of these tracks tend towards that frenetic, high-energy sound you might assume when horns and ticking hi-hats meets, both "Mag Song" from the Bird Money tape and "Follow Me" from Gucciamerica creep excellently in a dirty funk way like "Cannon" off Wayne's Dedication 2 tape. Also, not enough people have recognized "Good Night" for being the instant classic it is, and that big band sample from Old Blue Eyes on "Frank Sinatra" legitimately swings.

Gucci Mane- Mag Song (off Bird Money)
Gucci Mane- Follow Me (off Gucciamerica)
Gucci Mane- Running Back (prod. by DJ Speedy)
OJ da Juiceman feat. Gucci Mane- Good Night (prod. by DJ Speedy) (off The Otha Side of the Trap)
OJ da Juiceman- Frank Sinatra
Waka Flocka feat. Cap- O Let's Do It

Yelawolf is a Don

Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk from Motion Family on Vimeo.

So Yelawolf dropped the video for his track "Pop the Trunk" off the amazing Trunk Muzik mixtape he released earlier this year (probably a top 2 or 3 tape of the year, along with the Starlito and X.O. joints), and there's not much more I can say about it than what some other bloggers have already said. It's a great video from the amazing Motion Family (who I'll hopefully do a post on later this week), and puts a literal face on the lyrics Yela lays down on the track. Kind of seeing his juxtaposition of rural life and sudden violence in the first verse with the parking lot argument ending in a murder in the second verse is a good statement of what Yelawolf appears to be about in totality.

I'm extremely interested to see how Yelawolf goes over in the music world this year. I predicted that he'll be huge by the end of this year. He certainly has the pure talent and skill to put out some GREAT work, and his work on the hook for Santana's "Mixin Up the Medicine" seems to show he has some crossover appeal. As perhaps it was inevitable for Asher Roth to be compared to Eminem, people are beginning to compare Yelawolf and another rural southern rapper, Bubba Sparxxx. It's not a terribly long stretch to compare these two, but whereas Bubba Sparxxx' sound appeared to be artificially constructed with help from Timbaland or Collipark, Yelawolf seems to be totally in control of his own sound and image. He draws from a variety of disparate sources to create a wholly organic sound and image that's thrilling. Also, for the record, comparing him to Kid Rock is terrible.

Below I've compiled a video of Yelawolf freestyling and an interview off of last week's Baller's Eve, as well as a couple of tracks, "Fifty" with Grip Plyaz from his 2005 release Creekwater, my favorite track off of Trunk Muzik, "Speak Her Sex", and his track off the new SMKA album "Deer Mama":



Yelawolf feat. Grip Plyaz- "Fifty"
Yelawolf- "Speak Her Sex"
Yelawolf- "Deer Mama"

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County Bounce

So I made this blog, County Bounce, to highlight and talk about music I am interested in. Usually, but not always, that's rap music. Which is one of the reasons I chose the name I did. Even though Freddie Gibbs wrote the song about getting bounced from the county lock-up, I'm doing it because I'm writing as a white dude, living in the suburbs, listening to and thinking a lot about rap music. It's a bit different for me, but really, this shit is universal.

Freddie Gibbs- County Bounce