Cube
Scott B
This is probably ~5 years old, I still like it just fine. I haven’t even tried to make another dance hall riddim since then.
April 2011
21 posts
The PEMDAS controversy that is taking over the internet is intriguing.
The important things on the internet are not the important things in the world.
Blackish White
Alton Ellis
Alton Ellis - Blackish White (196X)
This is a big tune. Alton Ellis displayed a more conscious style than what was popular around the time in Jamaican music. Clearly, a foundation for roots reggae was laid. Everything on this track is edgier on than the norm for Rocksteady. This makes for good music.
NPR covers Moombahton-- 'Moombahton: Born In D.C., Bred Worldwide' →
npr.org
“In keeping with Nada’s formula, Moombahton is a cross between Dutch house music and reggaeton. Popular in 2009, Dutch house music clocks in at a relatively rapid 130 beats per minute, with a 4/4 structure and fat bass kicks on every beat of the measure. It’s a branch of house music that features notably large builds and drops and uses piercing electro stabs that rapidly glide up and down the sound spectrum.
Reggaeton, which became popular in Caribbean and Latin American communities in the middle of the past decade, is a slower 108 beats per minute. A blend of reggae, dance hall, and soca, it’s usually topped with Spanish-language rap. Nada took elements of each of these styles and worked them together.”
Yo, this is beautiful. It makes me want to dance like Spongebob.
Since it was born out of a party to entertain high schoolers, it’s simple. But it just might be something that reggaeton needed, considering that it’s progressed slowly, if at all, over the past decade. But it might only be more realistic for it to grow in underground scenes outside of reggaeton’s caribbean base since the raunchy lyrics are missing.
On another note, “genre” is getting over used to the point where it doesn’t mean anything any more. Which might be a good thing? Music should be labelled by it’s emotion. That way when I go through my iPod I can find the tracks with genres Bragadocious and Cooking
PaultheKing: Things I learned while using the Tumblr search feature →
paultheking.tumblr.com
#3: Young people equate Schoolly D to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme song rather than his contributions to gangsta rap.
…
#5: The search feature doesn’t really work.
Young people don’t know what gangsta rap is. Schoolly D goes hard though.
And yes, the search feature is terrible. The effort put into “Explore” should have been channeled into “Search Tumblr”.
Listen
“I Want That Shine”
…You grind, and you grind, and you grind, and you grind—then you get it.
Listen
“Fly In Any Weather”
After a 3AM gym session, I felt like this one was ready. If you’re wondering, I think it’s called stress.
4-9-11
BeatKnock
Anyway, no traffic samples in this one. I instead took some advice from Blackbeans and sampled some Jean Luc-Ponty. The name of the track is “Enigmatic ocean pt.4.”
…
Basically I cut this one up a lot and used the harder part for a chorus.
Jean Luc-Ponty will make you want to do that.
“You’re telling me Onyx wasn’t hip-hop? Onyx in, what, ’95—very similar to Waka in 2010”
—Wale
Beautiful Losers (2008)
Very few documentaries have a story that develops as sincerely as Beautiful Losers’s. That could be because it is a film about street art, made by people within the street art community. The issues the group faced as teenagers bonded them together to form creative types of art. But the trials never really went away as they became adults, and neither did the drive to be creative.
Although I don’t particularly get street art (really, most forms of visual art other than surrealism doesn’t speak to me), the most intriguing characters tend to be associated with it. Watching Steve Powers get his hair cut into his version of the high top fade was magnificent. The artists were open with their thoughts, messages and methods. The last of which is important of course because every art documentary should show artists in their natural environment.
Beanage:
4/5 Beans
IMDb | Netflix | Trailer & DVD | Amazon
If you are a nerd about sampling and beats (and also have 18 minutes to spare), watch this. →
youtube.com
“An entire subculture based on a six second drum loop from 1969.”
You’d have to be a srs hip-hop lover or audio nerd to get through the narrator’s monotone voice. But it does provide some great insight into sampling’s development.
BTW, I transcribed the track at 5:55. Just for kicks, cause that’s what I do.
Listen
“Suppose We Never Knew It”
Listen
“It Doesn’t Get Any Realer”
Real Talk.
Food Matters (2008)
I expected some great scientific insight into nutrition and health since the documentary began with quotes from Linus Pauling and Hippocrates. Unfortunately, the suggestions presented in the film left me skeptical of some of the expert’s credentials and/or sanity.
Food Matters presented alternative viewpoints in treating physical and mental health problems. Its key point was critisizing the health care industry and government organizations for lack of emphasis and delegitimizing nutrition as a main form of treatment and prevention. One thing that triggers my skepticism is a very generalized claim of healing powers. For example, claiming something like the raw food movement can cure/heal/prevent nearly every one of the broad variety of health issues that is common in America is wishful thinking. To be fair, it was only mildly conspiracy theory laced, which kind of made it entertaining enough to watch.
I wanted to get something out of it. People need to consider what they intake and how it affects their health. It was just too hard to get past the pseudo-science that most of the featured commentators founded their opinions. The very singular perspective on a dynamic issue with complex factors including socio-economics and medical science just left me shaking my head throughout this film.
Beanage:
2.5/5 Beans
IMDb | Netflix | foodmatters.tv | Amazon
(Thanks to jjlouis for the recommendation.)
In Case You Were Wondering Where Yung Berg's Been →
youtube.com
He’s been kickin’ it with some local Miami rappers in King of Diamonds. I went to school with two of these dudes (but with all the random people on here, who doesn’t have a connection to at least one of them). Found this over at 2DBz.
And on another note, Miami does has a lot to offer outside of South Beach, but why do rappers all tend to hang out at a large warehouse in an industrial park?
Lindsay Robertson: Co-sigh. →
lindsayrobertson.tumblr.com
Headline: “Play” of “Kid-N-Play” Teaching Hip Hop Class in Tallahassee”
Most Recent Comment: “After reading these comments I realize why I left Tallahassee. TOO MUCH RACISM.”
That is not precisely why I left (I left because it wasn’t New York) but it’s probably the best reason to leave…
Florida is lovely and awful all at once.
Alright, so people in Tallahasse don’t like FAMU. Nothing new. Too bad this isn’t a national new source, the hate could get more publicity.
(To be fair, for an article that is pretty bland, these comments are derisive and over-the-top, so I call trolling alert.)
Listen
“And You Already Know”
