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  • » Name: William E. Ketchum III
  • » Location: East Lansing, MI
  • » Member Since: 04/12/07
  • » Bio: For the right price, I can even make your blog tighter.
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Speech Is My Hammer...

"Man, I Don't Even Listen To Rap Anymore"


June 09, 2008 | Tags: none

The title of this blog is a pet peeve of mine that has showed up in rappers' interviews for the past few years (or longer?). In the words of my COMPLEX homie Brendan Frederick, "Please, for the love of Jehovah, stop complaining about how hip-hop 'sucks.'" As I've said before, hip-hop is what you make it; why complain about the culture that you're supposed to be a part of? Plus, with how incredible 2007 was for hip-hop music of all sub-genres, you'd be hard-pressed to make me take your complaints seriously.

 

With that said, I have had a little change of pace recently. Don't get me wrong, I love Tha Carter III, along with some other heatrocks this year. But over the past week or so, there's been a lot of non-hip-hop releases that I've been falling in love with. A quick rundown:

 

N.E.R.D., Seeing Sounds

The title Seeing Sounds is Pharrell & Chad's inspired by their interest of synesthesia, which, in this example, is a phenomenon of how peoples' experiences of sounds can trigger visual experiences of images and colors. While this cross-sensory stimulation (pause) isn't something I've been able to experience, anyone should be able to appreciate the experimental approach to this album and its rewarding results. N.E.R.D. takes cues from other genres-retro soul, psychedelic funk, and seemingly everything in between-to make a wildly engaging palette of sounds. Their technical instrumental talent and knack for manipulating sound is unparalleled, especially in the hip-hop world. Check 2DopeBoyz for some tracks from the album, and some bonuses on the Japanese version. Standouts: "Love Bomb," "Sooner Or Later"

 

Plantlife, Time Traveller

I've been up on this LA-based quartet since I randomly received their 2004 disc, The Return of Jack Splash, in the mail. I was gassed when Shake let me know they had a new album, and Time Traveller doesn't disappoint at all. Lead singer Jack Splash's spacey vocals and the band's brilliant understanding and re-interpretation of 60s, 70s and 80s funk make this an album that your parents (or grandparents) would enjoy as much as you will. Standouts: "Your Love," "Sumthin About Hersuga"

 

SugaRush Beat Company

I randomly came across this group's single "L.O.V.E." while scouring OkayPlayer's message boards, and I'm glad I found ‘em. SugaRush Beat Company is a trio of soulster Rashaan Patterson, Australian producer/multi-instrumentalist Jarrad 'Jaz' Rogers and Danish singer Ida Corr. Patterson has already established a respectable solo catalog, Corr had an international hit with "Let Me Think About It." The production of SugaRush Beat Company's impending solo album has gotten Jaz phone calls from Lauryn Hill to co-write and produce tracks for her long-awaited comeback album. After checking this, it's not hard to see why. Still, they make it pretty fucking hard to get a hold of their music. **EDIT: So signing up as a member gives you a download for the megamix after all; just sign up and go to the members page; I thought it'd have a download link on the audio page. Still, you can't buy the music anywhere on iTunes or anything.** Either way, I guess you can hear some of it here. Standouts: "(Oh Lord) Take Me Back," "L.O.V.E."

 

Veronica Maggio, Måndagsbarn

http://www.zshare.net/audio/13349724e680e153/

No idea who this woman, but the homie B Perkins at URB sent it over, and I loved it.


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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