Travelling Through The Minimal Nation #1: Breakthrough In The Grey Area

Listening to Robert Hood's Deep Concentration: The Grey Area Mix.

I want to thank everyone who has pointed me towards this name in the past. With time you get to the important things in life - whether it be books, movies, or music - and then it all makes sense. I rarely listen to mixes (I prefer the fully physical live situation, with people moving mechanically around me; or perhaps I just have too short attention to span), but when it is put together this brilliantly, it is visionary funk in its purest, most beautiful form. It takes you places never seen, never before imagined.


Long live modern mythology, mass movements, motherships, minimal meditation, man machines, Motor City.






"Robert Hood makes minimal Detroit techno with an emphasis on soul and experimentation over flash and popularity."

KRS-ONE - Maximum Strength

Released last year, Maximum Strength sounds much better than what an artist's 21st album should have the chance of doing.

But if you feel hiphop with reggae is played out (I don't), maybe you should pass on these.

KRS-ONE - Beware

KRS-ONE - All My Men

Low Down Drum n' Bass @ Bodoni 26/6

Fredagen den 26e juni slår vi upp portarna för en ny drum n' bass klubb här i malmö. Stället är Bodoni precis bredvid KB på bergsgatan. Om den här kvällen går bra kommer vi fortsätta att köra en kväll i månaden för att erbjuda malmös dnb törstande skara ett vattenhål att gå till.

Först ut har vi tagit hit vår gode vän Phono som står bakom Leet recordings. Som alltid utlovar han ett set med en massa nya grymma dubs blandat med klassisk dnb. Warm upen står Southern connections troopers Haywire och Camonition för.

Kom dit och supporta!

26e juni
23.00-03.00
Bodoni, Bergsgatan 20
60kr
18år
--
www.southernconnection.se
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115208106202

Efterlängtat. Malmö är törstigt!

"Pun, the one that makes the kids run"

Watching Flow TV's special on Big Pun got me listening to his classics again.

Big Pun was mad charismatic, made better battle raps than anybody, managed to pull of some OK club songs, penned introspective and relationship songs without making a fool of himself, narrated great storytelling tracks, and even dropped powerful political comments. And he was the illest lyrcially, ever. He seperated himself from other technical monsters, such as Canibus, by always keeping the multisyllable madness, the scientific, hyper futuristic lingo deep within the pain and struggles of his everyday life. It is there for a reason, not for just for showing off.

Let us look at often quoted rhyme from his first album. Being in need of money, Fat Joe and Big Pun have agreed to do a quick job for the mob. Everything seemed to go be going well, but soon they will discover something about the people they left "dead in the middle of Little Italy":

"Little did we know we riddled two middle men who didn't know diddily".

With that language-stretching syllable-fest he establishes the scene, introduces two minor characters, tells us what happened to them, and what went wrong. I'm not saying he was the greatest ever. But had he been able to carry his weight and record a catalouge as deep as those of Scarface, Cormega, Ice-T, KRS-ONE, Tupac Shakur, Kool G Rap or Rakim, he might have been just that.

At times Big Pun preferred to spit that undilluted street venom so very few artists are capable of producing these days. Besides being the most technical, he was also one of the most hardcore rappers ever. Proof below; Pun at his rawest, ugliest, at his most obnoxious and ignorant.

Fat Joe, Big Pun & Eightball - Heavy Weights

KRS-ONE and the New World Order

I watched Alex Jones' The Obama Deception yesterday (well, most of it anyway).

While it surely is wise to pay special attention to what kind of people the new president puts in his government (as we saw in the documentary mostly bank people, members of the Bilderbergs and The Trilateral Commision, leftovers from the Bush administration, even Henry Kissinger (of all people) as an advisor), Jones' extreme emphasis on certain people and secret organizations does the whole thing a disservice. Conspiracy theory does not make you feel like the world is in our hands (which it really is), but in the hands of a few very powerful men. His dada-like gusto and ability to dig up interesting factoids should be acknowledged, but his analytical tools need to be sharpened.

What I gained from watching this was mainly a deeper respect for KRS-ONE (who stops by to give his two cents on the new administration). He is one of the few rappers who has had the balls and the intelligence to critize the first black president. His message: "Don't get caught up in the emotionalism of Obama!"

Kris is still completely on top of his game, spiritually profound and verbally razor-sharp, having stayed relevant for more than 20 years, releasing more than 20 albums (Pick It Up form the youtube-clip sounds pretty dope, Maximum Strenght needs to be looked into), and succeeding with seemingly impossible tasks, such as incorporating dancehall and vegetarianism into the boom and the bap and still keeping it one hundred percent hardcore. Twenty-two years after Criminal Minded, he still smacks you over the head verbally. If it is one artist I would like to see live, it would be the Blastmaster.

Now what Alex Jones really should do is record an album with the God, supplying the anti-governmental motivation speeches and creepy electronics backdrops that we are used to from his movies to The Teacher's most politically explicit verses.

KRS-ONE f. Truck Turner - Bring It To The Cypher (prod. by DJ Premier)

Saul Williams f. KRS-ONE - Ocean Within

KRS-ONE - You Thug (prod. by Marley Marl)

KRS-ONE - Sound Of Da Police (Showbiz Remix)

"go and tell ya momma i took a bite outta ya bum..."

Learn about Paul C

Traveling at the Speed of Thought: an incredibly well written article about old school maestro Paul C, the man who taught Large Professor everything he needed to become the producer he is today, and he also supplied the musical brainpower needed to make Critical Beatdown a classic. Why is Give The Drummer Some one of the funkiest tracks ever? Because of Paul C.

Together with other genius innovators such as Kurtis Mantronik and The 45 King, he is a half-forgotten (extra obscure perhaps "because he preferred to work without contracts", and so mostly "did not receive credit for his production") master architect of this rap music thing. These people were the Premiers and Pete Rocks of their generation.

"Paul C panned the record, then he just flipped out on the programming. It was crazy.” Extra P says, “It was crazy” three more times and grimaces like it’s so good, it’s McNasty.

NORBERG UPDATE

HIGHLIGHTS:

Swedish skwee-masters Flogsta Danshall are coming to battle Finnish skwee-masters Harmönia...

Tom Hansen, who "will be playing a 1 hour tribute set with strictly The Advent tunes"...

Swedish legendary performance duo Guds söner... it's gonna be real interesting to see what they'll bring to the table...

And more dubstep!