I felt like it was time to swing back over to the hip-hop side of things. If you are an Adele fan then you are probably just coming down off of the “21″ release. I have a lot of respect for the girl. I really liked her first album, and thought she was amazing on SNL. A couple of weeks ago, Gilbere Forte’s manager flowed me this track that GF did together with Adele.  I had the opportunity to shoot with Gilbere in the winter for and Edwin editorial. He is a super chill guy and I have a lot of respect for what he is doing. So, needless to say, I was pretty excited to see Adele and Gilbere collaborating on this track. It’s called “Set Fire to the Rain.” Give it a listen.

[photo:  artwork from the cover of the featured track]

I’m having a tough time staying on top of things this week. Here we are a day late with LMC (and several other things). Better late than never? It’s debatable, but here goes anyway. Sam introduced me to this hip hop duo, while he was in town. We ended up listening to a lot of Chiddy Bang radio on Pandora, while we were hanging out. It is pretty good stuff. You might recognize the music behind this track as one of the most overplayed MGMT songs in existence. I have to say that I like this rendition better. Check out “The opposite of adults (KIDS).”

[photo:  garnered from G-images]

Two of my favorite rappers on this track. The whole Blackstar collab is pretty hot. Anyway, if you are a fan of Talib Kweli, or Mos Def, then for sure you love this track, also. “Best alliance in hip-hop”– I tend to agree. One of the best, anyway. This is another one of those songs that reminds me automatically of summer. This is the unedited version, so there is some swearin’. Keep that in mind before you press play. Check out “Definition.”

(photo:  Diego DeNicola 2007)

I’m not going to lie. I have to take Cee-Lo’s voice in small doses. But, when I’m in the right mood, I can really get into Gnarls Barkley. As ambivalent as I am about Cee-Lo, I’m a huge fan of Gnarls Barkley‘s other half, Danger Mouse. It isn’t just because he is from New York, either. His work, both inside and out of Gnarls Barkley tends to be extremely hot. You may recall the 900,000 remixes of the Jay-Z’s “Black Album” that came out after Jay-Z released the acapella version. Well, there were only a handful that really stood out. The “Grey Album” was one of them. It was a mash-up of the Beatles’ “White Album” with Jay-Z’s vocals. The architect behind that gem, was Danger Mouse.

Sorry for the digression. The track that I’m sharing is from the album entitled “St. Elsewhere.” It’s called “The Last Time.” Follow this link to hear the track.

I know that Jake is a pretty big fan of hip hop, or at least a much bigger fan than I, so it kind of surprises me that I have managed to find a group that I endorse, and Jake hasn’t written about. I will just cover the nuts and bolts, and maybe if I’m lucky, I can read a critique article next week. I don’t know much about underground hip hop. Most of what I know I learned from La Musica Coolica, and Cousin Kimball, aka “Litmus One.” He is also half of the duo that makes up Imbibe. The other member of the group is Cousin Preston. These two brothers have spent the last few years in Denver putting music together. They have done a couple of shows, and have yet to put out an album. I feel like I should have more to say about the music they make, however most of their music that I have heard has been in front rooms at house parties, and bedroom recording studios set up on card tables. *sidenote* sigh… I miss hanging out with these guys. *end note* Anyway, you can find them on MySpace, and in Denver, and on my family phone list. Please, enjoy.

song: lostouttabody (mrnils beat)

Ludacris! Yeah, man. It is about time that I threw some southern hip-hip into the mix. Whenever I hear southern rap, it reminds me of the good old days before Lil’ Jon came along and ruined it all-up with “Crunk.” I mean, we all thought that Crunk was going to be one of those timeless genres that our great-grandchildren could listen to, while they booty-pop at the school dance. Alas, it seems to have burned out as quickly as it originally came onto the scene. Rants aside southern hip-hop is hot.

Getting back to Luda: Reagan and I were actually having a discussion the other day, over sandwiches, about southern rap. It was about how when we hear albums like “Chicken-n-Beer” or Nelly’s “Country Grammar,” it just reminds us of simpler times. I also think that Luda was hilarious in “2 Fast 2 Furious.” Yes, I am admitting that I actually watched that movie (not that any females reading this didn’t watch it just to see Paul Walker and Tyrese looking hot and acting dumb). Ok, now for the real confession: I own that movie. Hahahaha. The image in this post is actually of Luda’s character from the movie.

I can’t say that I care for Lucacris’ entire body of work. For example “Move, get out the way” drove me absolutely insane.  Some of his songs, on the other hand, fall among the ranks of my favorite hip-hop jams. It is one of those songs that I’m sharing today. “Get back,” is the name of the track. It is from the 2004 album “Red Light District.” It is the edited version. You definitely need a sub, or some headphones with at least 50mm drivers to do the low end justice, on this track.  Click me to play.

Peanut Butter Wolf, AKA Chris Manak, is a California based DJ, who produces and mixes Hip-hop fusion tracks. Hip-hop fusion sounds like kind of a lame term. But I’m not feeling very creative at the moment, and that was the best that I could come up with.

I throw “fusion” in there, because the stuff he puts out is more than just a Timbaland-style beat with some rappers going back and forth over the top of it. A lot of tracks have a strong jazz flow to them. Other’s, have an overt disco flavor. Anyway, the track that I’m sharing today is instrumental. It is from the album “Peanut Butter Breaks.”

The song is called “Summer’s end.” I feel like this is fitting, because, although winter solstice is already almost upon us, winter just showed up in NY last weekend. It is a really mellow groove with some horns and a solid bass line. Give it a spin.

More Bay-area organic hip-hop for you, this week. Brought together by Del tha Funky Homosapien, “Hieroglyphics” first appeared on the scene in the early 1990′s. Though Del is heavily credited as bringing the group together, his vocals are probably not the most prominent in Hiero’s tracks. Del shares the mic well with the whole lot of the Hiero crew. In case you don’t already know, all of the guys from  “Souls of Mischief,” (Tajai, Opio, etc..), can be found in the mix.

As far as I know (feel free to set me straight) “Hieroglyphics” have have only produced two studio albums on a major label. One was released in 1998 called “Third Eye Vision.” The title may sound dirty (and I guess maybe it is), but primarily it refers to the ubiquitous graphic of the three-eyed straight lipped “smiley face” that serves at the group’s logo. The other studio album “Full Circle” was published in ’03. In addition, there were a handful of discs put out on Hiero’s own label after “Full Circle” was released.

The song that I’m sharing today is from the “Full Circle” album. It samples Bjork’s “Army of me.” It has some swearin’. So, if you are opposed to that sort of thing, then it is probably best to pass up this track. The title is “Let it Roll.” Check it out.

Brian McKnight

Omarion

Monday night, I had the occasion of shooting DJ Webstar’s b-day party for SoJones at the M2 Ultralounge in midtown west. Omarion and Brian McKnight are a few of the celebs that showed. You can check out the rest of my photos at Sojones, as soon as the article is published. I was just invited back, to shoot Mariah Carey’s Halloween party, at the same club. The only problem is that we are already going to Weezer’s party that night. Speaking of Weezer, Reagan met some of them yesterday. So cool.

Common Sense is one of those few rappers from the midwest, who was able to make it big. He hails from Chi-town, and was born “Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr.” He got his start in the early 90′s known mostly by the underground hip-hop crowd. He has done quite a bit of experimentation with his sound, over the years. He has put out several studio albums and worked with a lot of the other big names in hip-hop.

Recently, he has teamed up with Diesel, promoting their fragrance, “Only the Brave.” I shot the red carpet for one of his promo events.

I really like his sound. He incorporates a lot of classic jazz and blues style into his beats. His flow is kind of unique too.  I love the way that he opens the album “Be.” The intro is just a stand up bass, for like the first 30 or 40 seconds of the song, before organ, keyboard drums and strings drop in. He does a lot of that kind of stuff, which is really refreshing, given the tendency of hip-hop trends to inbreed. The song that I’m sharing today is from Common’s first album “Can I borrow a dollar?” (1992). It is called “Soul by the Pound.” WARNING: This song has some swears. So if you are averse, don’t press play.