Playlist : September 20th - 24th, 2010

This is our weekend and it's ending, one second at a time. But not to worry, sit back and relax. Play some tunes. Dig yourself, man.

These are the songs that I'll be taking with me on my working week next week :

• Shonen Knife - Rock Animals : Looking at a list a bit full of alt-country, I went looking for something with some crunch. Shonen Knife rock my socks off. They are a Japanese all-girl punk rock band I first heard on the fantastic If I Were A Carpenter compilation, doing a superior cover of Top Of The World. On Rock Animals, the almost maddeningly catchy Catnip Dream is a gem.

• VA - Culture of Kings : An early skip hop compilation for hardcore Diggaz like me. Featuring Aussie hip hop luminaries like Koolism, Matty B, Suffa of Hilltop fame and the Hoods themselves. Mass MC's popular track The BBQ Song also features.

• Gram Parsons - Greivous Angel : After being moved by Gillian Welch's lyric from I Dream a Highway last week ("Now you be Emmylou and I'll be Gram") I felt like some Gram Parsons magic. Emmylou of course is Emmylou Harris, Gram's long-time friend and singing partner whose sweet harmonies make this great record even better.

• Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em : Usually when I reach for Eric B & Rakim, I go straight for Paid In Full - 1987's seminal golden age album. This time, I made a conscious effort to choose something I don't normally play. It's been a while, but I know this album to be a little jazzier than Paid and just as lyrically inventive.

• A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose : Last week at work was kind of a drag and when things get a little low, alt-country always sounds it's best. A.A. Bondy are folkier and lonlier than a lot of the stuff I listen to, but this album is good for a spin.

• John Legend and The Roots - Wake Up! : I heard this album last week on stream from NPR. It's a really solid set of old Soul covers with a political bent. It sounds like music from a greater time with a modern day traveler on the mic. It also taught me that The Roots are a tight Funk band with some really tasty bass grooves. Going to get this album on vinyl as soon as I can find it.

• The Police - The Best of the Police : I felt like a little bit of classic rock and I haven't heard The Police in quite a while. I have this album on vinyl and few songs in my record collection benefit from the sound of wax quite like Roxanne. With The Police and me, the rule seems to be the earlier the better.

• VA - Music from the Motion Picture Crooklyn Volume II : One of my all time favourite Spike Lee joints, Crooklyn is a partly autobiographical tale of living in Brooklyn in a large family in the 70s. The soundtrack is packed full of some of the coolest Soul tunes ever made. Spike is brilliant, Crooklyn is fantastic and the soundtrack is killer.

• John Cale - Paris 1919 : I don't know a lot about this album, but I've always wanted to hear it. Ever since a 1997 issue of Uncut magazine published a list of the most depressing albums of all time, I have been slowly acquiring them all. John Cale was a member of Velvet Underground until 1968 when he went solo. Paris 1919 is his most famous album and Uncut said if you listen close you can hear Cale weeping at the mixing desk in the middle of a breakdown. Good times.

• Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz : Having only discovered Ornette Coleman tunes last week, I have quickly found out that Free Jazz is widely renowned as wholly original and as fine a jazz album as you'll find outside of Trane. Sounds good to me.
  

It would be great if you found something new in amongst all of that. Get the John Legend album if you dig Soul, because it is totally ace. I'm off to Beat Route tomorrow for a little vinyl and turntable shopping. Hopefully I'll have something I can add to next week's list.

That's it from me. Go safe my anonymous friends. Don't forget how blessed you are.

Hip Hop Appreciation Week Pt 5

Mixtape 5 of 5 Back to the Roots

Finally the end of my set, but certainly not the end of my devotion to all things Hip Hop. While Eminem had got me back into rap with the Marshall Mathers LP, it was a couple of hooligans from Adelaide with a CD called The Calling that I borrowed from the library who got me passionate again. The rise of Australian Hip Hop made me realise there was a way forward - upwards and out of the gangsta quagmire. ...giggidy ;)

• Hilltop Hoods - 1979 : It wasn't til after I had lent The Calling that I discovered Hilltop Hoods and downloaded Matter Of Time from their website archives. This song for me covers everything I've been saying about where rap went wrong and how it can be fixed. Plus, you can feel a genuine passion for the culture in every rhyme Suffa and Pressure drop. "It's not Hip Hop / It's something more sad, sick and seedy / What's popping that Gucci got to do with graffiti?"

• Bliss N Eso - That Feeling : Thanks to my initial foray into Skip Hop, I discovered Bliss N Eso via an iTunes free song of the week. Again, these guys had a love for the culture and were telling their own tales of how they got into it, where it took them and where it's heading. It genuinely felt good to hear people tell stories like my own - much the way I figure Bronx kids felt when Run DMC blew up. It got me all the more passionate about the music and made me rediscover the old school stuff I used to love.

• Pegz - Back Then : Yet another great Australian Hip Hop song about the old days of the culture from an AU perspective. When Pegz says "Who remembers Ice-T was king? Flat tops were in, Swatches were bling" you just try and stop me putting my hand up (with my Swatch on).

• Hilltop Hoods - The Calling: As mentioned, this was really the album that put me firmly back on the Hip Hop track. This song is an ode to the almost religious hold of the culture and being down for the joy of it and not for money, fame or girls. "So from the cradle to the grave, turntable to holy father / I swear I didn't slit my wrists, I've got the Hip Hop stigmata".

• Public Enemy - So Whatcha Gone Do Now? : The first piece of positive flow I had heard come out of America for a while was of course from the great PE. On this track, PE use soundbites from Spike Lee's School Daze from the likes of Laurence Fishburne and Giancarlo Esposito to punctuate Chuck D's rant about what he percieves is a lack of self respect from the men in his race. Chuck spits vitriol at those who are "talking that drive-by $#!&", "that gangsta $#!&" and call each other by the N word. And, like Fishburne's Dap in School Daze says when an arch rival accuses "You're all N----s just like us, and you're gonna be N----s forever." Chuck's point is "You're Not N----s".

• Hilltop Hoods - She's So Ugly : So you can probably guess the importance of the Hoods to me with three tracks in my final ten. State of the Art dropped this year and it continues the great work of the Adelaide trio with rhymes that mean something, that have a tale to tell and do it with impressive flow. This track again touches on what others have been saying about Hip Hop being at a low point - with the great sample "Hip Hop right now she's an ugly b!%#&" At the same time, the Hoods again proclaim how much they once loved 'her'.

• Brother Ali - Watcha Got : I don't recall how I found Brother Ali, but he has quickly become my favourite US rapper. The hulking albino with a cheeky grin and a whole swag of arrogance has no time for the empty rhymes and disrespect for women and Hip Hop pioneers so prevalent in much of rap in the early 2000s. This track spoke right to me from the opening line "I came in the door 1984, paint on the wall got chased by the law / Once got stole in the face for the flow, was never given a zone, had to create my own." It's like Ali grew up in Perth in the 80s too.

• Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead : Featuring wil.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and samples from In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Apache (the latter fittingly among Hip Hop's earliest and most iconic tracks) Nas proclaims the death of Hip Hop from over-commercialization and the pursuit of conspicuous wealth. Meanwhile, he reminds us what is right about the culture with talk of its pioneers and its roots - proclaiming he's "on my second marriage; Hip Hop's my first wifey."

• Nas - Carry On Tradition : As well as declaring Hip Hop as we know it DOA, Nas offers advice on how to revive it on his 2006 LP Hip Hop Is Dead. Despite some dubious antisemitic statements, this song is a protective hand over the culture demanding that up-and-comers show it respect or get out. As Nas spits, there's no point calling yourself Hip Hop if you can't even quote Daddy Kane.

• Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson 3 History of Hip Hop : Winners of the 1983 Tommy Boy Records remix contest, Double Dee & Steinski were turntablist pioneers who layed down in 3 lessons the bare essentials of just about every iconic cut in Hip Hop history, ever. I have included Lesson 3 as a celebration of the fourth element (DJing).

And so that is my full set of 50. It has been an enjoyable experience writing about the songs that have kept me in Hip Hop's grasp or pulled me back in through all these years. For anyone who read this, I hope you learned a few things and maybe want to go out and hear some new tracks. If you read this and you lived it all too, I hope you felt a little of the joy that reminiscing about all this brought me.

Now throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care... Yes, yes ya'll. And it don't stop.

Hip Hop Appreciation Week Pt 4

Mixtape 4 of 5 Bling & Remebering

Welcome to part 4 of my tribute for Hip Hop Appreciation Week. At this stage in the game, I wasn't what you'd call a fan. I was off listening to Dinosaur Jr, Nirvana, Hole and Soundgarden etc, wearing flannel and 'slacking'. It's also when I got into folk and Dylan for the story telling. But when Eminem dropped Stan, something that I had forgotten somehow resurfaced as I realised rap told many a great tale. It was just that now most of the tales seemed to be of little importance.

• Snoop Dogg - Still A G Thang : With the popular G-Funk style of synthesized melody and deep bass lines reminiscent of the 70s funk stylings of Sly, Parliament et al, Snoop Dogg told tales of the life of a G and his harem of 'bitches' and yards of bling.

• The Notorious B.I.G. - Things Done Changed : Cali may have been the in sound, but the Bronx kept a stamp on rap in the form of Biggie Smalls, aka the Notorious B.I.G., real name Christopher Wallace. Biggie talks here of how the streets aren't the place they used to be with kids punching on over territory. Using a sample from Dr Dre's Lil Ghetto Boy, BIG exerts "Remember they used to throw? But now they blast, right?" This is the violence and nihilistic attitude of gangbangers writ large

• Nas - N.Y. State of Mind : The West Coast v East Coast rivalry was in full effect by now and East Coast rappers had a penchant for burrough checking. Nas was very firmly in the East Coast camp having come up in Queensbridge. This song talks about the escalating violence of gang culture, as B.I.G. had, but without the swagger and with an added touch of disillusionment.
  

• Jay-Z - Izzo (H.O.V.A.) : An anthem of sorts with not much more to say than "I'm Jay-Z and I sell a lot of records but I used to be a drug dealer." A long way from the positive message of rap's 'founding fathers'. Famously, Jay-Z was involved in a feud with fellow NY local Nas and was later Nas' boss after he signed him to Def Jam in 2006.

• Eminem - My Name Is : Marshall Mathers aka Slim Shady aka Eminem burst onto the scene with this, for the time, controversial track which again had not much to say. It did later cost Eminem almost US$10M when later his own Mother sued him for the claim that she 'does more dope than I do'. While Eminem has a staggering talent for rhyme that helped suck me back into rap, he only occasionally has something important to say with his impressive tongue.
  

• 50 Cent - In Da Club : Many people may disagree vehemently with me, and that's fine, but as little as I paid attention to this kind of track, I think the new faux R&B / Rap reached its most vacuous low around about here. I have heard 50 Cent drop some tremendous flow, but this isn't it - and the dance track backing makes it all the worse. The backlash had to come, and it's coming still.

• Black Star - Definition : In 1998 two then little known MCs, Mos Def and Talib Kweli formed Black Star and released a self-titled debut. Much of their rhymes focused on reconciliation between the West and East coasts. This track talks about the inherent dangers of being a rapper and of life on Brooklyn's streets, while it takes a subtle swipe at the up and coming wannabe gangsters with "What a pity blunts are still Fiddy cents...".

• Missy Elliot - Wake Up : Just as guilty of the phony R&B but none-the-less starting to get on the positivity train, this track sees Missy Elliot and guest star Jay-Z reassure rappers and ghetto youth that "If you don't got a gun it's alright..."

• Common - I Used To Love H.E.R. : Telling the tale of a woman he once knew, Common lays down some soulful lamenting of how she went from a sweet young girl to a militant activist and eventually a drunken, crack-smoking gangster whore. The woman is of course Hip Hop. This was perhaps the most vitriolic track spat at Hip Hop culture up to that point.

• The Roots - Act Too...The Love Of My Life : The disillusionment turns to nostalgia and a longing for the long gone days of pure Hip Hop for the sheer joy of it. The Roots were proclaiming, it seemed in this track, that they would breathe life back into a dying art.

That's it for part four. In the final part, I'll take a look at how the ascendancy of 'Skip Hop' really sprung from the same thread of disillusionment that seemed to be running through much of the most important Hip Hop music coming from the States at the time. But it wasn't just Australia who wanted Hip Hop back, there were a number of Americans with the same idea.

Adios Amigos.

Hip Hop Appreciation Week Pt 2

Mixtape 2 of 5 : Golden Age

The second lot of ten songs on my list covers rap's so-called Golden Age with artists like Run DMC and the Beastie Boys making a massive impact on the world stage.

• MC Shy D - Rap Will Never Die : Having already released this song, Shy D rerecorded and rewrote it to cover the history of the genre; with shout outs to Kool Herc, Arika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and just about every notable artist all the way to Run DMC. This was an anthem to me. All I have for this remixed version is an mp3 I made from a tape off the radio in 1987.
  

• Run DMC - Walk This Way : When my best friend from Primary School came back from Bali in the summer of 1985/86, he gave me a tape and told me it was 'breakdance' music. At the time, B-Boying was deader than the Charleston so I scoffed. That tape was Raising Hell. Within months, Walk This Way was the biggest Hip Hop hit ever, at the time, and remained so for quite some time afterwards. Rap now had true sway with the industry.

• Beastie Boys - The New Style : Def Jam's stab at the white boy market started life as a trio of 'beer-drinking, breath-stinking' spoiled brat middle-class kids from Brooklyn. Mixing rock guitar with beats and cuts the way Run DMC had so successfully with Aerosmith, the Beastie Boys' debut Licensed To Ill was a Billboard #1 hit.

• Eric B & Rakim - I Ain't No Joke - The smooth and serious baritone of Rakim Allah and the masterful mixing of James Brown soul and Hip Hop's hardest beats by Eric B set a bar for rap albums on Paid In Full that is rarely matched. I must have played my dubbed copy from imported vinyl as a 15 year old a million times. I purchased the CD as soon as it made it here, but rap got no love from Perth in 1987. I can still play this album from start to finish and then play it again. Absolute masterpiece and a treasure of the genre.

• Public Enemy - Bring The Noise : With Paid In Full, PE's debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show was like a twin talisman of everything I loved about rap. But Bum Rush sounded like PE had been mucking around when It Takes a Nation of Millions dropped. "Too black, too strong." With Nation, Chuck, Flav, Griff and the S1Ws really brung the noise.

• Ice-T - High Rollers : When Ice-T tells you he is the OG, you better freakin' believe it. I hadn't even heard Six in the Mornin' from Ice's debut Rhyme Pays when I first bought Power, but this for me is where gangster rhymes began; released before Straight Outta Compton dropped - and Rhyme Pays had already done it. Good use of sampled sounds and beats and Ice's hardcore intensity with a moral make this my favourite Ice-T track.

• NWA - Fuck Tha Police : Oh didn't we like to blast this one from our cars on P plates in 1989. This was violence and disrespect for the fun of it - just the way adolescent boys like it. There's a direct line from NWA to Big and Pac and 50 and Jah Rule et al. And of course, without Dre, rap would be a whole different beast by now.

• The Stop The Violence Movement - Self Destruction : Hip Hop and rap's Live Aid. Iconic artists from PE to Heavy D got together and decided to make a song about gang violence. This was rappers with a conscience trying to do something positive amidst the cries from the media and government that rap was violent. Forever all I could get of this song was a recording from the radio (Perth's first rap show Scratch FM on 100FM Fremantle) I have since purchased it online and recently bought the 12" vinyl.

• De La Soul - Say No Go : Hall and Oates in a rap song about drugs and poverty. How did that work so well?! Prince Paul you are a genius. This is more positive attitude from rap with Native Tongues members De La Soul releasing the ever-brilliant 3 Feet High and Rising (a cassette for which I paid $50 to import when it was released in 1989).

• Salt-n-Pepa - Push It : At this stage in my life as a head, I wasn't impressed with Salt-n-Pepa. They were girls, for a start and not Roxanne Shante, and everyone seemed to love this song - especially people who claimed to hate rap. I had already heard The Showstopper which was simply a dis to Doug E Fresh's The Show and that was the other reason I disliked them. But I have grown to enjoy their early work, particularly My Mic Sounds Nice

So that's another 10. I really would like to post the mixtapes so anyone bothering to read this can hear what I'm rambling about. I wish I had hosted space; but alas...

See you for part 3 soon.