I’ve listened to The Disrupt a million times, but this one really hit me while I was at work this weekend (Yep, another busy week at work…). I have always enjoyed this song, but for some reason I guess I never appreciated how well it was produced until yesterday. The only thing wrong is that it is way too short! Think I have put it on repeat over a dozen times since Saturday…
(Please forgive the stupid editing of the video, it is the only one available on Youtube)
Listening to Brother Ali’s Only Life I Know in my previous post reminded me of this Phonte track released earlier this year. Another excellent song that reflects on the depressing economic state of America in 2012.
Couple of videos from Brother Ali’s Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color. I posted a new track that won’t be appearing on the release a few weeks ago, happy to see the Brother Ali/Jake One combo is still very solid on the tracks that are appearing on the album. The title track in particular can be seen as controversial to some considering how heavy the material he is covering here, particularly with lines such as “It’s a very thin line between a soldier and a terrorist”. Ali posted an insightful explanation of some of these lyrics and the song over on Rap Genius. If you do have a problem with the song on the first listen, I would strongly suggest listening to him explain what he is talking about. Brother Ali does not hate this country or our people, he is only critical to the way in which violence and corruption is consuming both our own society and the rest of the world. This is largely a result of our leaders failing us each and every day. In the spoiler below you can read another explanation of the song that can be found on the video’s description on Youtube.
Brother Ali on Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color: This is the title track to my new album, Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color. The first half of the album highlights and critiques the dire situation in which we live. The second half outlines the tremendous opportunity we have to re-imagine and reform our society. This song is an observation and a critique of our culture of death and murder. From actual war zones around the world to our own inner cities where this summer’s death rates rival war zones. I also address our national hypocrisy regarding violence. We have a zero tolerance policy of violence committed against us, but we’re a lot more lenient and patient when it comes to the violence we commit. “A life is a life and a killer is a killer”. -Brother Ali
After watching the video I was curious as to what Brother Ali’s thoughts on Obama’s first term were. Back in 2008 Ali was happy to hear that Obama was going to be our President. Four years later and all the talk of hope and change seem to have faded away. We are still at war, continuing to kill innocent civilians in the Middle East. Gitmo is still open and can now lock up whoever they like, whether they are stolen away from their native country or the USA. The Patriot Act has not been removed, but instead extended. Our economy is still in the shitter. Many people, including myself fail to see the difference between Bush-era politics and those of President Obama.
http://anomaly.realgravity.com/flash/player.swf
Brother Ali was recently interviewed by Vibe on this subject and he seems to be mixed on whether or not blame should be placed on Obama for the continued injustices by our government. I appreciate that he’s willing to at least see the point of view and consider it, but I feel that he should be more vocal on the subject if he wishes to remain consistent with the messages that he has continued to present to listeners in his music. I do agree with him that voting isn’t going to get it at this point, that there is no impact when both candidates will continue to give us the same exact thing. Going out there and making your own impact is a good thought from Ali.
The video for Only Life I Know also came out today. This one is a lot less heavy than the first video, but it’s still a great reflection of the times many Americans are going through these days. A video with an explanation for this song can be seen here.
Mourning in America and Dreaming of Color is sounding like it will be a fantastic release. The album drops on September 18th, this is one I think I’m going to have to grab day one.
Picked up a copy of David McCallum’s Music: A Bit More of Me on eBay and was surprised to see this photo sheet included. They are almost like baseball cards which is pretty neat. The “David McCallum In Action” bit made me laugh. Bought this mainly for the classic sample, but there are some other good songs on here too.
Record & Photo Sheet:
Just finished watching Drive, excellent movie. Finally got around to seeing it since it’s on Netflix now. Everything is great about the movie, though it was the soundtrack that really stood out to me. The score is nice, but the real star as far as the music goes is Kavinsky. Most folks have probably heard Nightcall by now which has to be one of the coolest intro songs ever. Roadgame which is the song I’m sharing in this post is an unrealeased track that showed up on the French DVD/Bluray of Drive (and it will be included in Kavinsky’s upcoming album). See a lot of folks comparing the music to say Daft Punk but my thought was more of a modern Giorgio Moroder type sound. I will definitely be listening to more of this stuff, everything that is currently available is fantastic.
Was bored tonight so I decided to take a trip over to Easy Street Records in Seattle. I’ve tried to find their West Seattle location before but got lost/gave up, so I went to their Queen Anne store. I’ve heard many good things about Easy Street and I’d have to say it was a pretty nice shop. I believe their West Seattle location is a little bigger (and even has a connected cafe/restaurant!) but the selection at the Queen Anne store wasn’t too bad. Like every other record shop I’ve been to in WA, their hip hop selection wasn’t the greatest but there were still enough good picks as you can see from the photo above. I actually had more records in a stack but trimmed it down a bit as I didn’t want to spend too much tonight (Still paid around $120 for the above, ouch). Was worth the drive up there tonight, think I will try finding the West Seattle location again to see if they have even more hip hop. Would recommend Easy Street to folks looking for new records, especially if your tastes are more inline with rock music.
Was listening to Madlib Medicine Show #11 and these are the two that I always have to play again and again (the rest of the album is still fantastic though!). What’s funny is that they are pretty much on the same theme as far as the rap goes too I guess. First track is MED – Cheaters, second track is Guilty Simpson – Thoughts of an Old Flame. If you haven’t checked out MMS #11 or any of the Medicine Show series I would highly recommend grabbing them (if you haven’t heard any of the releases, the Brick is a great value!).
I’ve been watching a bunch of Tom Goes to the Mayor lately. The Bass Fest episode has to be one of my favorites, the video above always kills me. Bob Odenkirk is a very funny guy, it’s great that more folks know about him since playing Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad. A few more of my favorite music bits from Bob on Mr. Show can be seen here and here.
[mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/waxramble_radio/roc-c-guilty-simpson-ox-to-the-d/ width=100% height=208 light=1 hide_cover=1 hide_tracklist=1]
Been a few days since I’ve posted something, busy at work this week. Also going to be busy this weekend with PAX, so I figured I’d post some goodness just in case I’m either too lazy/tired to put something up here soon. This is another one of those excellent VTech mixes that I talked about a week ago. As I’ve posted here again and again, I’m a huge fan of Guilty. I’ve always enjoyed Roc C as well, though he didn’t get enough time over at Stones Throw doing stuff which is too bad. The two are a great combo on this mix and are backed up by some nice beats. Soul Professa has some of the songs off this mix available on Bandcamp that he produced, the sound quality is even better over there too. Feel free to download the mix above if you are digging it and want to share!
http://www.audiomack.com/embed/2dbz/4th-king
Was reading some posts at 2dopeboyz earlier today and ran into this excellent track from Brother Ali. He’s got a new album coming out soon but this one won’t be showing up unfortunately. This is due to Rick Ross/Jay-Z/Dre getting the beat first for 3 Kings, guess I haven’t been following the mainstream stuff much lately (Surprised to see this level of production on a Rick Ross joint though, will give them props for working with folks like Jake One). It’s a shame that Brother Ali didn’t get this beat first though as he did a lot more with it than any of those dudes can. Have always been a fan of Ali’s music, he gets pretty deep on almost anything he’s doing. Looking forward to the new album for sure, especially since Jake is producing the entire album!
