Friday rewind

It was just a matter of time before UGK was going to get on this rewind thing, and what could suit better than to put them out there on the last one of 2011? Three Sixteens is from their 1994 album "Super tight", and you can clearly hear the G-funk influences in the heavy beat. One thing I really liked about the G-funk is that high note you often could hear through out the tracks, e.g. in Ice Cube's "Ghetto Bird" or Above the Law's "Black Superman", and "Three Sixteens".

I'm a big sucker for disco reworks or edits. And this one by Mercury, is fucking nice. Enjoy!

Friday rewind

Visiting MLK in London, so what could be more suitable than to drag out two old London bangers like this? One from London Posse and one from Roots Manuva.

London Posse


Roots Manuva

Spiderdogs and Loop Troop Rockers live at SR Metropol. Listening to Loop Troop always makes me think of summer and festivals. I wish it was summer now...

And...Action!

It's been embarrassingly long since last time, sad but true. So here's a first effort to get back in the game. This week a redbearded albanian from New York has come to my knowledge. Action Bronson is his name and his debut album was released in March and just recently his collaboration with Statik Selektah hit the streets. Here's one track from each!

Snow

This week the snow came to Oslo and I got reminded of how much I'd like to kick off the snowboard season. To calm the desire I watched some snowboard movies, and that is often a good way of finding new music - especially outside rap. I found this great song by The young and the naked on "the art of flight", a movie definently worth checking out if you like big mountain snowboarding.

Friday rewind

Me and Bob have been a quite dynamic duo here on the blog lately - he's giving you new and fresh tunes while I'm treating you with good old classics.

Here's southbound group Nappy Roots using the old trick of having a children's choir joining - a phenomenon used by many great artists across different genres (e.g. Jay-Z, Nas, Pink Floyd, The Smiths and Alice Cooper). "Nappy Roots day" is on their 2003 album Wooden Leather.

It's always nice to stumble upon something new, someone you never heardof before. Jesse Boykins III is new to me, found his song Light to Dark on some blog and was very impressed. Not so strange though, the beat is made by Musicology favorite, Gold Panda. Enjoy

At the moment listening to the Live Love ASAP Mixtabe by ASAP Rocky. Palace is one of several songs produced by Clams Casino, which is not a bad thing...

Friday rewind

Not a big fan of Lil Kim in any way, but she has done at least 2 great songs: Lighters up and Drugs. The latter has Biggie on chorus and carries one of my favourite beats that's just crazy good. Clipse's version is even better, but I'll stick to the original here.

T.I. is back

This track with Pharrell is supposed to be from T.I.'s coming album "Trouble man". Quite nice.

Wow, this one keeps getting better and better for every try!

Friday rewind

Ok, so keeping to a friday held for one week... Anyways, here's another classic and this time from one of my favourite producers The Alchemist. It's from his album 1st infantry from 2004, a quite nice album featuring a lot of good rappers in addition to the Alchemist himself (who isn't a that rapper...).

Friday rewind

To try to get some consistency here I thought I'd start with a classic concept - Friday rewind. It is exactly what the name says; every Friday I'll post a good old track that for some reason can be concidered a classic (in my mind at least). Nothing newer than 5 years is the only rule. Let's get it on.

I was thinking of this song on the bus home earlier so why not use as the first Friday rewind and get off to a running start with perhaps the most legendary rapper of all, Biggie Smalls, giving his take on the G-funk era.

Floting Points - Sais

It's here!

Pusha T's second solo mixtape within a year, Fear of God pt.II - Let us pray, drops today. Pt. I was very nice so I don't see any reason to wait getting this.

Keeping the south alive

No secret I'm a big fan of southbound rap in general and UGK in particular. Unfortunately Pimp C passed away a couple of years ago, but in Big K.R.I.T. he has got a good successor. Here's a good tune from the latter.

Nice vibe

This was good.

Low activity

Not much activity here so far in October.. So I'll break the silence with some good old rap. Nothing new really, but at least good.

Camron and Vado - Road trip


The Left - Binoculars


Consequence - Life is short

Nas rapping like it was 1994

The Carter IV dropped a few weeks ago and sold over a million in its first week out - Lil Wayne apparently still got fans after the horrible Rebirth... I haven't got around to listen to the full album yet, but herd this star filled track today. It's an OK beat but there are two other reason I had to post it here:

1) Nas verse that is just sick. When God's son is rapping like this he's as good or better than anyone. Too bad it doesn't happen that often no more...

2) The fact that the forgotten Shyne features. All the years behind bars has made most people forget about him, but his album Shyne from 2000 is still really really good.



And for all of you who'd forgot about Shyne

Slap the bass !

You may or may not know but Bob Hurts and I have a thing for a bouncy bass line played without a pick and just properly slapped about.
Well - the intro to this tune could well be one of the funkiest MFs I've heard in a while.

Rest of the tune is not bad, not bad at all. But the intro, OMFG. Haven't heard of Moonlight Matters before but it's apparently a Belgian one-man-band signed t Kitsune (hat's off). Listen more on their soundcloud channel. Def. on my radar from now on!

Is Tropical - The Greeks (Moonlight Matters Remix) by Moonlight Matters

Heard on set

This was my office for today,


and this was my soundtrack.



Over and out.

White sun

Found this song by Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross in a Shlomo mix, quite nice, especially those Lil Jon sounding "Yeeeay".

Old school

Not that often I post something swedish here, but I heard this Infinite Mass classic for the first time in years a couple of days ago. It's a really good track, but the video is an EPIC re-make of Scarface that I just couldn't spare you. And Rodde is actually quite alike Al Pacino..

RIP

The fenomenal DJ Mehdi sadly passed away today...

Long time no see

Ok, time to get back up in this. I'm ashamed over my own inactivity lately, leaving it all to Bob. I'm taking an easy (but way to late) way into this by giving you a few of my favourite tracks from the 3 rap acts on way out West in august. My plan was to write this before the actual festival, not after. But here it is.

Wiz Khalifa
I thought he gave a good concert with a lot of energy. He mainly did his college-party-drink-smoke-fuck-rap, but he can do heavier things as well - as the tracks below.





MF Doom
I've always been a huge Doom fan, so it was fun getting the chance to see him. But to be honest the concert itself was so so - bad sound and Doom's chorus-less songs isn't optimal for a live performance.





Kanye West
Kanye's concert was just as blown up as you would have thought for a guy with such a huge ego. It was a quite fun spectacle, but I thought it lost too much tempo when he was living out his soul singer dream through the voice decoder. For me the concert peaked when Pusha-T came on and did his verse on Runaway (by the way quite crazy that a rapper of that calibre rides around the world with Kanye to rap 1 min every night...).





(Ok, the 2pac predecessor as well)

Trentemoller

Our dear friend from Denmark with a remix of M83's Midnight City. Midnight City (Trentemøller Remix) by M83

Liiines

Ghostpoet remixed by XXXY

Has it come to this

Simple but massive

Audio, Video, Disco

The album drops on the 25th of October, I am a bit doubtful but it's going to be interesting.

Gabriel

Joe Goddard from the 2 bears together with Valentina

Beirut

Not as fun as the Gulag Orkestar but it's a nice and mellow album. Titel song right here:

ABBA 002

Nice tune by Axel Boman, out now on the Europa EP. (Unfortunately I only found this short video)

I Like you

More magic from Jacques Greene, I like You.

Get High

ASAP Rocky trying to put NY bsck on the Hip Hop map...

Close

I've missed this one, Hackman - Close, it's nice, makes you embrace the rain and the darkness...

Back on topic

I'll do one more while I'm at it; here's a banger from Fred da Godson. The track comes from his great 2010 mixtape Big Bronx - it's really worth a listen.

Off topic

A kinda slow start to August here on the blog. But here's something I stumbled over when watching a video on todaysbigthing.com. I don't know anything about Florence + the Machine, and it's not quite my typical post.. but it's fkn good. I love the athmosphere in the song, and it really suited the video I watched (which you'll find here). Here's the official video:

How Deep Is Your Love

Nothing can go wrong with a piano and a saxophone

Fly Together

Ryan Leslie in the studio with Red Cafe

Alexander

Old song but with a new video, still nice. Alexander - Truth

Sunday sum up

SBTRKT is out on a tour promoting the superb new album. In Toronto he got a little help from Drake.



Otis, is taken from the anticipated collaboration album from Kanye West and Jay Z. The album called Watch the Throne is due to be released on the first of August.



And, it still is a lot left of the summer…

We the best!

DJ Khaled is a quite comic and annoying figure. and I don't really get what his role is in the songs released in his name. But sometimes he brings the world great tracks like this.

Talented collab

Pusha T + Tyler the creator + Neptunes = dope music. Can't wait til "Fear of god part 2: Let us pray" drops...

Here we go again - 3 for 1

Here's a couple of takes on La Roux's big hit from 2009 In for the kill. It's the old acquaintance French Montana and up-n-coming Donnis that stands behind the mic this time. Enjoy.

La Roux


French Montana


Donnis

A developed diamond in the rough

Got this little gem sent to me the other day. I guess most people, just like myself, have not really had Arrested Development on their radar since back in "people everyday" hay days.

( Just as an FYI i just wiki:d that one and their debut sold 4x Platinum - OMFG !)

Anyways, the beat of "Since the last time' is just so god damn silky smooth. Today it's a f*n dismal rainy awful day in London - still this puts a smile on my face (cheesy - yes, but true).

So here's some cheesy love for ya'll.

Laced Cheeba

I’m a sucker for old school beats. Here are two new songs from not so new cats:

Edberg vs Becker

A nice, sun-drenched, funky house jam from Homework

Midsummer classics

It's midsummer and why not celebrate with som classics? Exactly - no reason not to so let's go:

Great summer vibe: Fat Joe - Envy


Soft track from when Weezy still was relevant: Little Brother feat. Lil' Wayne - Breakin my heart


Pure greatness: 2pac - Life's so hard

Investigation Discovery

It's Britney, bitch, and I'm not that innocent...

Sunday sum up

Caribou can't do anything wrong (radio rip)...



...and a new song from the man with the mask SBTRKT

Dirt

Apart from Koreless, Q-Tip, Wiz Khalifa and the bloke called Prince, I’m really looking forward to see this band, WU LYF, play at this years Way Out West. Below you’ll find the new song from the soon to be released album; Go Tell Fire To The Mountain.

"That weird place between youth and middle age."

"Forever Young' is my song for all the 30-something-year old people out there." - Joakim

An old friend

Ed Banger member Sebastian released his album a couple of days ago, sounding as expected. It contains of some new and some old songs, such as this old friend of MLK and me; Ross Ross Ross. Find the album here.

Strange guy

New cool video from the talented and seemingly strange guy Tyler the creator. Enjoy.

R.I.P.

Soundtrack

Three songs that were on my playlist while I was walking home tonight.

1. Curren$y - #JetsGo



2. SYNKRO - Look at Yourself



3. Midland - Through Motion

2 x veterans

Two nice tracks from veteran rappers Scarface and Raekwon.

Scarface - 2 the beat from the mixtape Dopeman music



Raekwon has been very productive lately with multiple mixtapes dropping. Here's Rock 'n' Roll from the mixtape Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang

Whatever happened to the big live collabs?

Was surfing around on youtube earlier and I stumbeled over a video of Rolling Stones playing live together with Axl and Izzy from G'n'R, and it struck me that that type of collaboration - two or more stars on the same stage playing together - basically has died out. It might be that I'm not that updated on rock live shows today, but when thinking of the swingin' 80's and 90's (or watching videos of it on youtube, I'm not that old) this somewhat felt like quite normal, as opposed of today's artists that only strive to make a remix with David Guetta (or am I that old?). I kinda' like the live collabs, so let's celebrate that with a few videos.

First out is the video mentioned above, Rolling Stones feat. Axl & Izzy - Salt of the earth.



Queen feat. Annie Lennox & David Bowie - Under pressure



Pink Floyd feat. Sinead O'Connor - Mother



Rappers might be the only new artists who carry on this tradition with their posse-cuts. LLoyd Banks feat. Fabolous, Pusha T, Swizz Beatz & Ryan Leslie

An old friend

Taking a little break from the rap game to give a push for an old friend of mine, Marcus Gamme (a.k.a. GamleGamme). He has just released his second EP, the smooth Come Away. As opposed to me, Marcus really know this with making music himself (he's playing all instruments on the EP..) and this is really worth a listen. In addition to the music, Marcus also got a reeeeally friendly family - if you ever meet them they'll take you in as a lost son!

You'll find Come Away for free here.

In to the Valley

To continue with the theme from the last post, the summer vibe, here's one more. A Julio Bashmore remix.

Far Nearer

Still waiting for the release of this one, absolutely magnificent, sound of summer...

Ellipsis

Some Joy Orbison to start the day off.

Mount Kimbie

Still playing my Maybes 12” on repeat. I really like to see Mount Kimbie live, even more so after seeing this video; “Field”.



And here you go, a bonus, a small one but a major one, Maybes together with James Blake.

Back again

Continuing my journey through all mixtapes I got backed up since my iPod broke down. First out is American Rapstar from Big K.R.I.T.'s solid Returnof4eva.



Big shot Rick Ross released two good mixtapes last year - Ashes to ashes and The Albert Anastasia EP - both a bit harder than the album Teflon Don. Here's 300 soldiers from the latter.



Last but not least is Big Sean who's mixtape Finally Famous volume 3 really is worth a listen. Here's the super soft Shit got damn with Chris Brown.

Marriage

Mu-si-col-o-gy favorite Gold Panda is remixed by the talented Star Slinger, it’s just nice…

A couple of funky geezers

I must admit that Mike D and his posse have been of my radar for a while, even though I fondly remember the joy of christmas past receiving anthology as a little kiddo.

There are many things to be glad about with their return:

1) The sound is back. More hipeti-hop and electric influence is taken back to a perfect level.

2) Their back to what they do best - F*N awesome videos

3) The beat of "Make some noise" - seriously, what's up with that sick beat.

4) "Make some noise" - count the cameos. Hurts was spot on with Barbra and all the cameos. This is just another league.

5) The full length short movie directed by AD Mike. "Fight for your right - revisited"

Glad the boys are back in town!

Essential

Deadboy returns with yet another epic EP, "Here" will be released in the comming days where you will find this song; Ain't gonna lie.

Fantasy

Mr Friday a.k.a. Breakbot is back with yet another funky beat, sounding a bit MJ.

Off the beaten (techno) track

In all this spring-time oozing everywhere and fellow bloggers putting up soft, upbeat summer vibes (which I truly appreciate) I happened to come accross this marvellous techno EP from UK based Magnets

Phenomenal big-room techno made to be blasted out of big speakers late at night.
EP "Propeller Falls" is out now.

3 for 1

It was a while ago, but here's another 3 for 1. This time it's not a beat made by some talented R'n'B guy (like here) or well known producer group (like here) but 80's sensation Spandau Ballet and their hit True. It's a really soft beat I think is suitable now that the spring really is here, and lately I've been listening to the Andre 3000 and Nas (doesn't get much better than that rap-wise...) version quite much. Rick Ross have also made a good version of it. As usual, starting with the original.





Track 20 - "My name in lights"


Download Mixtape Free | LiveMixtapes.com Mixtape Player

It was me

Haven't heard this version before, quite nice, Hybris vs Hybris.

Abducted

New song from the Cults. Their debute LP drops later on this year, yes it's going to be one of the soundtracks to this summer for sure.

Sunday sum up

Three songs I stumbled upon this weekend

Ghostpoet's second single "Survive It" from his new album.



Two inch punch - Love you up



Curren$y and Freddie Gibbs - Scottie Pippen

Say yuck and you know it's me

In my eyes, Clipse have been the best act in rap over the last 10 years. I honestly mean everything they have released since their debute in 2002 is pure gold - nothing bad. However, earlier this year the two brothers announced that they are parting, putting Clipse on ice for a while, and we can only pray they'll get back together some day. While older brother Malice has retired from the rap game, Pusha T released his first own mixtape about a week ago, Fear of god. Even though I miss Malice, Pusha hasn't lost his god given ear for beats. It might not be the best mixtape I've heard him on, but it's still better than most rappers will ever reach.

Something for a guy like MLK?

Pharrell on a Daft Punk beat might get his juices flowing...

Embody

More new music from the Ed Banger family.


SebastiAn - Embody by edbangerrecords

Balearic house

It doesn’t have to be that complicated, here’s a perfect example: John Talabot’s wonderful remix of Cheaters.

Long f*n awaited !

Really don't need to write anything - this has potential to be massive.

The drum seems the same, bit more lyrics, not really the best I've heard. But I still know 3 people who'll be queuing up for the shoreditch warehouse rave that's about to happen summer/autumn 2011.

The french MF's have probably done it again..



And for all you non-believers and haters.. take a couple of minutes to reminisce with the beauty and madness which was Justice live in Gothenburg 2008... NUFF SAID

You know what I mean

Cults from New York are releasing their debut album in May.

Freeway & Jake One

Some nice beats for the afternoon lounge. One Thing taken from the great album the Stimulus Package that was released last year. “Keep snitchin’ on your man, you gon fry in a pan”

Stolen Dog

Just had to post this as well, while we’re at it. A new song and a new 12” from Burial, hopefully there will be a new album later on.

Halleluiah

This is truly fucking amazing, Four Tet, Thom Yorke and Burial, enjoy. (unfortunately only radio rips)

Let The Children Techno

Well, at least it's Friday tomorrow. Here is Breakbot's contribution to Busy P's and DJ Mehdi's Let The Children Techno compilation.

A legend has left us

At the age of 41, westcoast legend Nate Dogg dies due to health problems, and the world as gotten a little bit duller. For me, Nate Dogg by far was the greatest chorus singer the rap world has ever seen with his super smooth swagger and great punchlines (such as "fifteen in the clip and one in the hole, Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold" and "I need a girl I can fuck in my Hummer truck, applebottom jeans and a big old butt"). Even though I've never listened that much on his own music, he's always been there by putting his quality mark on other rappers tracks. If I had been born black in Queens, Houston or Compton, grown up and learned to rap and finally got the chance to release a single, I would have wanted Nate by my side. From now on we'll just have to manage with T-Pain and Akon... Rest in peace Nate, you're leaving a big void behind!

My Nate Dogg top 5:

1. Regulate - Warren G feat. Nate Dogg


2. XXplosive - Dr.Dre feat. Nate Dogg


3. Ohno - Mof Def feat. Nate Dogg & Pharoahe Monch


4. Area Codes - Ludacris feat. Nate Dogg


5. Bitch Please - Snoop Dogg feat. Nate Dogg & Xzibit

Catching up

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, both my iPod and computer broke down a while ago, and this was really bad for my ability to listen to new music. I've finally managed to get me an iPhone, and that will hopefully mean that I'll be a bit more active here onwards. Since good music kept on coming even though I had my unintentional break it means I've got some catching up to do. Therefore my tips the oncoming weeks probably wont be totally fresh - but bear with me, cus' it will still be good music. I thought I start of with three tracks from three of the most hyped mixtapes of 2010.

Before I'm gone from J.Cole's Friday night lights.



The short but sweet Example from Curren$y's Pilot talk.



Good dank from Wiz Khalifa's Kush & Orange juice.

Koreless and friends

Koreless and Jacques Greene are two of the most interesting guys in this “post dubstep/whateverstep” genre at the moment. Koreless, a 19 year old Glasgow based producer, has made an excellent remix of Jacques Greene’s The Look. The Canadian Jacques Greene is releasing another great 12” with the track Another Girl tomorrow on the 14th of March.

One day late...

But better late than never. Yesterday it was 14 years since Brooklyns finest, Biggie Smalls, was shot in LA. Rest in peace

Fat Joe

Practically every time I've been drunk the last 3-4 months I've played, or at least tried to play Fat Joe's classic What's luv. It's one of those songs I hated when it was up on the charts, but now a few years later have rediscovered and found to be a true banger. Anyways, Fat joe is back with a single together with Harlem rapper Vado, and if What's luv was for the dancefloors, Massacre on Madison is definently for the NY streets.



Had to post this as well..

A-Trak

Haven’t been able to get to see A-trak yet, but I will, I have to.

Forever Dolphin Love

Erol Alkan returns with a rework of Conan Mockasin’s Forever Dolphin Love. This one sounds a bit like his take on Hot Chip’s Boy From School a few years back, witch is still today, one of the best reworks/remixes out there. This is a five minute radio edit, the original will be a ten minute magical trip. Erol will make a rare visit to Sweden in April, on the 8th he’s playing Crowded in Göteborg and on the 9th he’ll be at Loftet in Stockholm.

The bass - omg - THE BASS !

As always,
I'm the least frequent contributor to the forum, but now I've found somthing of a nugget.
It's from Seb Ingrosso's label "Refune" and it's Allesso with Dynamite. I believe it's Seb's baby brother.
And for once the title is fitting.

This is just a mad mf of thumping bass. Well done, well done indeed. The whole EP
is just booming and makes me think of the eminent EPs Teasing Mr Charlie or Puzique.

I don't condone it, but here's the full song (soon on soundcloud). Boom !

One mango frappuccino please!

It was a while since my last post, mostly cus' my computer AND iPod have broke down so I haven't got around to listen to that much music. Just to show a sign of life I'll post this masterpiece from the big apple produced by Pete Rock and rapped by Red Café. Enjoy!

Something New

Freddie Gibbs, one part of the new “supergroup” P.O.C. (Pulled Over by the Cops) uses a well known Isaak Hayes sample; Bumpy's Lament.

Molasses

2nd track from Raekwon’s next album “Shaolin vs Wu-Tang” together with Rick Ross and Ghostface. A nice track with some classic Wu trumpets on the beat.

TOP TEN 2010

So finally I’m done. It was harder than I thought but here it is, my top ten for 2010. Starting of with number 10.

10. Chemical Brothers – Escape Velocity
They know how to do it, Ed and Tom.




9. Håkan Hellström – Du är snart där
Håkan is just getting better and better and better for every album.




8. Strong Arm Steady - Best of times
A magnificent Madlib production.




7. Jai Paul – BTSTU
Not much happened after BTSTU but he has signed with XL, which is always a good sign so hopefully we will hear more from Jai Paul this year. However, if you make one song this good it’s ok just to release one every year instead of releasing three albums all sounding the same, Robyn….




6. James Blake – Limit to your love
James Blake released a couple of EP:s during 2010 all of them great. Limit to your love is also featured on the album released a couple of weeks back.




5. Big Boi – Shine Blockas (remix ft. Gucci Mane, Bun B & Project Pat)
A great album, a great song and a great guest appearance by Bun B. He’s been quite busy in 2010 appearing almost everywhere but doing it good.




4. Salem – King Night
According to Chinese astrology 2010 was the year of the Tiger. I say it was the year of the witch. Witch-house was the sound of the spring and the summer and Salem did it the best, with a bit of competition from oOoOO. The whole album is well worth spending some time with.




3. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home (RAC remix)
Home is a great song, filled with love, summer and happiness, and what else do you need. The original is great but RAC manage to make it even a little bit better with this remix. RAC had a good year with a couple of other nice remixes.




2. Caribou – Sun
Swim was the best album of 2010 and Sun is a song that you never get tired of. I’ve heard a couple of remixes of it but no one comes even close to the original, it’s a brilliant track, nuff said.




1. Kanye West – The Joy
“No electro, no metro, a little retro, ah perfecto” I never thought that I would ever have Kanye on the top of one of my lists. But with this Pete Rock beat based on a Curtis sample together with Jay Z sounding like his glory days, nothing could top it in 2010. As Kanye says “This beat deserves Hennessy, a bad bitch and a bag of weed, the Holy Trinity”

I don’t know if this song will be part of the Jay Z – Mr West collaboration album or if it just was one of the G.O.O.D Friday treats. What I know though, is that this album can become one of the golden moments of 2011, Madlib, Pete Rock and Q-Tip, three of my favourite producers out there, are set to contribute to it.

Sabotage

This week ends with a classic, enjoy.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

One for the night, happy clubbing

OFWGKTA

Tyler The Creator And Hodgy Beats from Odd Future doing what they do best, this time at Jimmy Fallon.

Back again

It’s been awhile since I last posted something here; Forsberg returned and left, democracy has taken a big leap forward in northern Africa, €400 000 is apparently equal to 40 000 000 000 000 SEK, James Blake released his fantastic debut album, Mike Skinner released his brilliant but sadly last album and the Jealous Guys gave us their Love Mixtape.



James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream




The Streets - Lock the Locks




The Jealous Guys - Insomniac Rhapsody

A Pittburgh steeler

The Steelers are playing Super Bowl next weekend, and I guess Pittsburgh naitive and Bob Hurts favorite Wiz Khalifa is a fan. Here's a new video together with Too Short.

Erol Alkan is God. Period

It was harder than I thought to come up with the top ten of 2010. I’ve come a long way and I’m going to finish it before the end of this week. In the meantime I’ll give you a track that probably will be featured on my top ten for 2011.
“Erol Alkan is God. Period” as MLK stated a couple of days ago. I couldn’t agree more. His DJ-sets and reworks for the last couple of years have put him in a league of his own. This time he has created some magic with Tame Impala’s “Why Won’t You Make up Your Mind”.

Happy New Year 2012

Looking into the chrystal ball and coming with a prediction of what's gonna be bringing down the house in late 2011 - christmas day and NYE 2011/2012.
In a slightly drunken mid-week epiphany (i.e. melancholic reminiscence) I hereby bring you the "allsang i baren pa Lounge med hemvandare pa juldagen" (Stretch knows what I'm talking about!) song of christmas 2011/2012. I'm adding previous hits just to get you in the mood. And yeah, the videos are just gravy..
Remember where you heard it first

2009/2010



2010/2011



2011/2012

Leftovers

When doing a top ten like I did a couple of days ago, there's always some good music left out. Here's two such tracks by Cee-Lo Green and Greg Street, both from their mixtape Stray Bullets from 2010. The first has the same beat as my favorite track on Prince Paul's masterpiece A prince among thieves, and the other has a nice french accent to it.

Hippie Hop

Found this track by Sidewalk. It's really soft.

Top 10 high school hits of 2010

So, two weeks in to the new year I'm posting my top ten tracks from the past year. Some of them have already been posted, some not. To maximize the excitement (?) I'm starting with number 10 and working my way down to the best song of 2010. Here we go:

10. Waka Flocka Flame - Hard in da paint
Without a doubt the hardest track from 2010 comes from new acquaintance Waka Flock Flame, a rising star on the rap scene. A plus for the video that is as hard as the track itself.



9. Cam'ron feat. Vado & Kid Cudi - Ya killin me
As I've said earlier, I don't think Cam'ron is such a good rapper, but what he can do is pick beats. Ya killin me is with its dark and suggestive sound one of those "thieves themes" I've made a post about earlier.



8. B.o.B - Don't let me fall
Another rising star - but with a totally different approach than Waka Flocka - is B.o.B. His album from 2010 (The adventures of Bobby Ray) maybe was a bit too much pop for my taste, but some of the tracks was really good, such as this (Airplanes was also on the shortlist for this top 10)



7. Young Jeezy - Money to blow (remix)
This song was actually released late 2009 so it really shouldn't be on this list, but two reasons make me give it a 7th place anyway:
1) I found it on Jeezy's and Gucci Mane's collab Keyz to the city that was released in January 2010
2) It's so fkn good, better than the original



6. LLoyd Banks feat. Swizz Beatz, Kanye West, Ryan Leslie, Fabolous - Start it up
A guy I didn't think much of coming in to 2010 (mostly due to his G-unit membership), but this track produced by Cardiak is a true banger. With so many rappers featuring, I guess I'm not alone with that opinion..



5. Drake feat. Young Jeezy - Unforgettable
Hyped Drake is one of those new multi talented musicians that raps, sings, makes beats and solve global warming at the same time. Personally I think it's a bit pretensious and I thought I didn't like Drake, but when listening through his Thank me later again before making this list I realized it got plenty of great tracks. For me, Young Jeezy's participation on Unforgettable is crucial, balancing Drake's quite soft approach with some dirty southbound rap.



4. Waka Flocka Flame feat. Roscoe Dash & Wale - No hands
The second track by Waka Flocka on this list, and I've got big hopes for him in 2011 as well. Here partnering with Roscoe Dash and one of the biggest hypes of 2009, Wale, who also had a quite good year and was close to make this list with a couple of tracks.



3. Beatnick & K-Salaam feat. Young Buck & Lil' Wayne - From the gutter
One of 2010's best album was released already in it's first week: producer duo Beatnick & K-Salaam's Where the streets have no name. Out of all the great tracks on that album, this soft beat with both Young Buck and Weezy making strong performances is the best.



2. Rick Ross feat. Jay-Z - Free Mason
The silvermedal goes to fake drug lord Rick Ross. I read somewhere that you need at least a little street credibility to make it in the rap game, with the only exception of Rick Ross who's image seems as realistic as Kim Jong II's first round of golf (11 hole-in-one's!). Looking away from that, Ross can really pick his beats and his Teflon Don without a doubt was one of the best albums of 2010. Jay-Z makes a strong appearance on Free Mason with lines as "bitch I said I was amazing, not that I'm a mason" referring to all secret society-rumours surrounding him the past year.



And the winner is...

1. Chemical Brothers - Escape Velocity
The only non-rap song on this list is also my number one. I have to give a big up to MLK for posting this great +10 minute musical odyssey in the blog. I remember sending him a text when Chemical Brothers played it on Way Out West this summer, reading something like "Escape Velocity is the best song of 2010, no matter what category", and I'm still behind that statement.

Soundtracks

The soundtrack to the day before...



...and the sountrack to the day after.

Biz y Casa and Ayinde

The Jealous guys, a duo from the SF Bay Area. I’ve found three videos and couldn’t decide which one to post so I’ll give you all of them. They have a mixtape "The Love Mixtape" in the works, coming out on Valentines day this year.

I'll Take Care of You

Jamie XX is certainly the man of the hour, my guess is that he will rule 2011 (with a bit of competition from James Blake)? Everything he touches turns to gold, he is fucking brilliant, I tip my hat. This song is from the coming Gil Scott-Heron remix album due to be released in February.

Cold Rain

Starting this year with one of the guys we talked a lot about at the beginning of last year. Talib will release his solo album “Gutter Rainbow” on the 25th of January.



Soon I'll be back with my top 10 of 2010…