An old favorite, featured on Kanye’s The Essentials mixtape. This mix came out right before The College Dropout and is still one I overplay. “My Way” features the original Kanye soul sample sound, and personally, I like it more than Jay-z’s “My Way” from the Blueprint 2.
The mixtape documents the begging of what has turned into one of the biggest Pop Stars of today. Other highlights include the original version of “Self Conscious” with the Lauren Hill, “Wanna Ride” ft Common and Ye’s remix of Dwele’s “Hold On.”
For any fans out there, I’ve zipped up the mixtape. Download here.
Check out a previous mixtape post from the same era:
Track of Day - Sharam ‘She came along’ feat. Kid Cudi
I’ve been gone for a while, my apologies.
Its been a hellish couple weeks, but there have been a few great songs that have helped me grind through the work. With new music recently out from Em, Cudi, Blu, Asher and more it was difficult to pick a track to throw up out of the 20 or so I’ve had on a fairly constant loop the last week +.
It was truly a coin toss between this and Cudi’s latest posse cut ‘Poke her face’ ft the G.O.O.D. music fam, but there is something about the baseline in this track that keeps it stuck in my mind for the entire work day. As more from this artist is released and he begins to build up his press out reach the more anticipation I have for his debut album. Don’t miss out on this one.
Mixtape Street Album of the Week: S.O.U.L. Purpose City Permits
Street ‘album’ may be pushing it a bit as this has a number of interludes from a Mick Boogie interview with Mazzi of S.O.U.L. Purpose, but nonetheless, a number of standout tracks make this an enjoyable listen. Highlights include the classic Statik Selektah produced ‘Talkin’ bout You,’ remixed with a feature from New York Nick along with ‘Keep Movin remix’ featuring a verse from Fresh Daily. The mixtape also has a joint produced for Peter Rosenberg’s Real Late on Hot 97. Presented by Mick Boogie and Terry Urban, who’s stamp of approval is often worth the download alone.
Track of the Day - Q-Tip ‘We Fight, We Love’ remix ft. Kanye West and Consequence
Just a feel good track for your Wednesday afternoon. I’m expecting a lot from the Cons album featuring major heavy lifting from Ye and Tip handling the production. Hip-hop often strives on collaboration, and its clear how much Kanye has been inspired by both in his production (tip) and flow (cons). ‘09 might be the year Kanye comes back to being an MC.
Mixtape of the Week: Outasight From There to Here an album prequel
Mick Boogie jumps in to produce a new tape from one of my favorite unknowns of 2008. After checking this kid at the Brooklyn Bodega showcase for CMJ I quickly wanted to find out more and downloaded his last free album Radio. I’ve included a video post from Outasight and since then have seen him starting to get a little shine on the nmc blogs, mostly from 2dopeboyz.
As a prequel to his upcoming album, Outasight is releasing some of the obscure tracks from other project and some new remixes to Radio. If you aren’t familiar, its worth checking out. Highlights include a remix to ‘Radio, radio’ with a verse from Ced Hughes, and his Oddisee produced track ‘Exclusive.’
Great interview dropped by Juan Epstein today with all of the regular highlights including yelling at Rico, Jen From Brooklyn, and Rosie hating on Ciph for getting name dropped by Kweli back in the day.
The video above shows one of the big surprises from the show as Kweli performs a few classic snippets. Nice to finally hear Rosenberg and Ciph doing a great show. I’ve been avoiding the morning show since its format change but this back to a the classic Juan Ep’s, all the way left.
A few points during the interview also reminded me of shows I had completely forgot I had been to. Kweli mentioned opening up for N.E.R.D. on the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour. I attended the show at the Tweeter center (how great is that name now?) in Massachusetts and remember walking by the second stage and seeing Kweli perform in front of about 12 people. N.E.R.D. only performed to maybe 300 on the main stage and were on in the middle of the day, but the closing sets by Jay-z/Rocafella and 311 were packed. 311, stole the show with Amber.
Another reminder was during the Matt Pinfield walkin and Talib talking about a Highline ballroom performance for myspace. That was one of the most awkward shows I have ever been to. I was one of the few people there old enough to drink and the thing was setup as a fake New Years event but tapped over a month before. At least it was free.
Track of the Day - Asher Roth ‘Lark on my Go Kart’
I don’t care how much you think this kid sounds like Em, this sounds really promising. College kids are going to eat this album up. He is going to make a killing touring campuses and would be a great pick for UConn for Spring Weekend.
This is the opening track to the upcoming album Asleep in the Bread Isle. From what I’ve heard, this leaked a bit early, and I’ve noticed it pulled from a number of sites for download. Well, I don’t think I generate enough traffic for anyone to notice, so download the track here.
Wow. Things escalated quickly. 109 re-blogs/likes already and a number of new followers. I think its clear that tumblr users are big fans of the hip-hop/nintendo sound mashup.
I noticed a few people looking for the download link for this. For you and yours, here is the track, ripped at a decent audio quality. As an added bonus I separated each track and made each into an iphone friendly ringtone. I had planned on doing this for myself, but why not share.
Jacked from Nahright. Damn, I miss old Kanye. College Dropout was such a huge part of my life when it came out. I was DJing on college radio and probably played every track on that album (minus workout plan) on the air over that year it was released. I remember seeing Ye at Uconn. He bailed on giving me an interview and cancelled all media appearances because the sound in the stadium was too ‘fucked up.’ Kanye literally sat down on the edge of the stage and said he would wait till the sound was fixed before he would continue on.
I remember recounting this to my college rep, Chico, at Def Jam. He says, “oh, Kanye didn’t give the 2 hour performance? Brother loves himself too much.” Or something like that. He was clowning around about Kanye loving to perform, but really thinking he was the greatest. I guess time is proving he had an idea of how big he would be, but I miss the slightly more humble Kanye. The one who thanked Mos Def and Talib Kweli at the end of every show.
Recently Fake Shore Drive posted up a mixtape Kanye West - The Lost Songs. The link on their site is dead, but you can download it here to remember some of the old chipmunk classic Kanye.
New concept for a web-only release. The Revision Series will feature remixed cover work and albums and be given away/ announced online without any major record store promotion. Here is the blurb from the redefinitionrecords.com site:
In an era where liner notes and record jackets are almost non-existent and where fans often hear the leaked version of an album weeks and sometimes months before a project is properly released, we’re particularly proud to bring the element of surprise back to music, even if on a small scale. Future editions of ReVISIONS and the artists covered and involved will not be announced prior to their release, and will ironically be released right here on the net instead of your local record store, as free downloads.
The site is worth checking out and will hopefully bring about more interesting collaboration efforts from Damu, the artists responsible. In a recent blog post Damu mentions having just finished a track for Buff1. Below check out the stream player of the Madvillian track Beat Grinder that has a built in link for the free download.
And on pure web design note, I really wish the imeem embed players looked this clean. Say no to cluttered ad space.
