Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Rapsody - Every (Music Video)

RaTheMC - Anniversary


Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Stupendous Adventures Of Marco Polo

Earlier I mentioned how Marco Polo had an album coming out. Well, it's officially here: The Stupendous Adventures of Marco Polo

MED & Talib Kweli - Classic


Hulu Plus Is Official



Straight from Hulu's CEO, Jason Kilar:
Hulu Plus is not a replacement for Hulu.com. Hulu Plus is a new, revolutionary ad-supported subscription product that is incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service. For almost all of the current broadcast shows on our service, Hulu Plus offers the full season. Every single episode of the current season will be available, not just a handful of trailing episodes. Now there’s never a bad time to jump in on a hot new show like Modern Family (which I recommend highly). From Family Guy to Glee, from The Office to 30 Rock, from Grey's Anatomy to Desperate Housewives, from Parks & Recreation to Parenthood, from House to Saturday Night Live, and dozens of other hits, the best time to jump in on any series is any time, and with any episode, that’s right for you.

As a Hulu Plus subscriber, you’ll now also have access to back seasons or full runs of some of TV’s greatest shows. All nine seasons of The X-Files. All three seasons of Arrested Development. Ten seasons of Law and Order: SVU. All five seasons of Ally McBeal. Seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and three seasons of Roswell. Every episode ever of Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. Classic skits from the first five and most recent five seasons of Saturday Night Live. The list goes on. This is all on top of hundreds of shows already on Hulu.com today. It’s a treasure chest in the cloud for TV lovers.

Subscribers to Hulu Plus will also be able to download a Hulu Plus application for certain Samsung televisions and Blu-ray players that have an internet connections. Hulu will also bring Plus to the iPad, iPhone 3GS & 4 as well as the iPod Touch. Apparently Hulu has no love for us Android users. Also, it appears that Hulu and Sony have finalized the deal to bring Hulu Plus to the Playstation 3. The Hulu Plus service will be $9.99 a month, but for the moment it will be invite only. You can apply for an invite at Hulu.com/plus.

For more information, here's the full press release.

Estelle - #ialmostmadeamixtape . . . The Mixtape



01 #almostanintro
02 Dear London
03 Fall In Love [Remix] (Featuring John Legend & Nas)
04 #almostafreestyle (Featuring Kardinal Offishall)
05 Keep It Like It Is
06 They Say (Featuring Maino)
07 Star
08 Dance With Me
09 The Rocks
10 No More
11 MainStream
12 Ghetto (Featuring Meek Wilson)
13 Until I Met You
14 Since I Came (Featuring Vaughn Anthony & Thee Tom Hardy)
15 I Can Be A Freak [Pon Di Floor Remix]
16 #almostanoutro

Money Making Jam Boys - Sip The Juice

The Money Making Jam Boys rocking out to the classic Eric B. & Rakim track "Juice (Know The Ledge)" at the Highline Ballroom in NYC on June 15, 2010 during The Roots Jam Session.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Hulu's Getting Closer To Subscription Service

For $10 a month, viewers will reportedly have access to a wider selection of shows than the free, ad-supported version Hulu currently offers. The service would work on PCs and specialized devices such as the iPad, video game consoles and set-top boxes. The company plans to test a version of this Hulu Plus” subscription, an expected development, with select users as early as this month to find out whether they’ll will bite, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital.
To read the rest of the article shuffle on over to Wired.com.

Friday, June 25, 2010

FreeBass 808 - MoonBass EP

I know that this is pretty old.  I originally dropped in the Spring of last year, but I thought I would throw this up since I haven't had any new Camp Lo to post, lately.  You may be asking yourself, "8, what does FreeBass 808 have to do with Camp Lo?"  Well, I'll tell you! FreeBass 808 are The Apple Juice Kid & Geechi Suede of Camp Lo.  I thought I would post this as a warm up to their upcoming mixtape, 7th Galaxy Psychic Energy.



01 Phase One
02 Future Love (Featuring Sy Smith)
03 Sky Ocean (Featuring Simone from Rare Formula)
04 Many Moons (Featuring Janelle Monae)
05 Ultimate Bliss (Featuring The New Radicals)
06 Love Eclipse (Featuring Third Eye Blind)
07 Afterglow

Thanks for stopping by,

8

First Look: The Social Network AKA "The Facebook Movie"

Looks like more bad news is on the way for Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.  If his site's privacy issues or his own attitude towards privacy being unearthed weren't enough now he must prepare for an unauthorized look into the building of his empire.

Shade Cobain - Cassette Theory: Beat EP


CNET Buzz Report: Droid X takes on iPhone

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Free Visual Voice-Mail For All Android Users

In effect that's what I took from today's announcement by Google.
A little over a year ago, we released an early preview of Google Voice, our web-based platform for managing your communications. We introduced one number to ring all your phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more—the only catch was you had to request and receive an invite to try it out. Today, after lots of testing and tweaking, we’re excited to open up Google Voice to the public, no invitation required.
With Google's app for smart phones you had the ability to use Google Voice with your existing, non-Google Voice phone number.  Having Google's Android app handle all voice-mails for you cellphone is a huge convenience.  I always hated going through slow audio menus and listening to every message left until I could get to the message I was looking for.

Monday, June 21, 2010

New: Emilio Rojas Freestyles

Make sure to at the very least give "Heart Of The City" a listen to if you are a fan of Gang Starr and you are familiar with the circumstances surrounding Guru's last days.  Although, Diddy may not have anything to do with Biggie's death, but he sure has his whole career to owe to him.



Internets Celebrities - Stadium Status

"It's hard being a sports fan these days."

Stadium Status is a documentary which examines the rush of new sports stadiums in NYC as the latest example of an obscene national trend. New stadiums are built every year and the private businesses that own them benefit from huge sums of public money for their creation. Are we getting our money's worth?

Internets Celebrities are Dallas Penn, Rafi Kam and director Casimir Nozkowski
Featuring Neil deMause and Killian Jordan
Additional Cinematography - Ian Savage
Original Music - Bless 1

Stadium Status was funded by fans of the Internets Celebrities via Kickstarter including a sponsorship from our friends at DIYThemes -- the company behind the Thesis theme for Wordpress. We are grateful for everyone's support.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Nina B. - Remember Me: The Pay Attention Edition



01 Intro
02 Hottest Chick In The Game
03 Radio
04 Picture This
05 Fly
06 How I Met Nina B. (skit)
07 Blind Fold
08 Dream Killers
09 Call Me
10 I Get The Craziest
11 Party Here (Let It Go)
12 Lemonade Freestyle
13 BedRock Freestyle

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Stuyvesants - Brooklyn's Finest

"The Stuyvesants" is a collaborative effort between music producer Allan Cole (Algorythm), and record collector Darien Victor Birks (Flwrpt). Both reside in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. The two wanted to work together on a project where they could incorporate several of their talents, related to music and design. They wanted to do this under a moniker that would pay homage to the ’70s. The collaboration allowed them to do four major things, design, beat dig, produce amazing music, and simply have fun.

Skillz Presents: Hip-Hop Confessions

Monday, June 14, 2010

9th Wonder Presents Rapsody





<a href="http://rapsody.bandcamp.com/album/9th-wonder-presents-rapsody-replay">Intro (produced by The Sinopsis) by Rapsody</a>

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Random Thoughts: Complete Non Sequiturs & Apropos Of Nothing (Vol. II)

If you were looking for a mixtape or music, this entry probably isn't for you.  This blog entry will just be my random thoughts on different things.  Some of these things with be serious and some of them with be strictly "Stuff" That May Interest Only Me.  Basically it's just a brief glimpse into my stream of consciousness. Basically it's my ode to Larry King.  Ready?

Something that I don't understand is that when on twitter and someone has a an account and they aren't even the slightest bit interested in the protected accounts that follow them. I know if anyone with a protected/private account asks to follow me, I definitely want to see their page as well. The lack of curiosity of others just surprises me at times . . . How could "hip-hop" boutiques not carry t-shirts in XXXL?  I mean most of your clientele prefer baggy or loose fit clothing so it seems that XXXL would be an obvious size to carry . . . I previously mentioned how I finally rejoined the army of smart phone users.  Well, I was bored yesterday and decided to test out it's turn by turn navigation system.  It utilizes Google Maps Navigation and requires you to download a text to speech application.  I don't know why but I was surprised it worked as great as it did.  My past experiences with GPS have many times ended with me in a shouting match with the Garmin lady.  She loved telling me to turn at the last minute possible.  We have a love/hate relationship . . . It's odd, but since coming back home I have noticed that people are far more closed off in Pittsburgh than Chicago.  They seem to only want to deal with the people they grew up with and that's it.  I don't think it's a coincidence that those friends that I have made in Pittsburgh post-high school have for the most part not been native Pittsburghers . . . Apparently a man named Thug ticked off a few people this week.  Sadly, some of those people began to take their anger out on the messenger.  I guess these same people never saw an episode of What Chili Wants?  I think the biggest issue that started everything is that people have horrible reading comprehension skills.  He really didn’t say anything that was THAT crazy.  He was talking about the kind of women that he comes in contact with.  One can only imagine the type of women that your average rapper with Thug in his name may come in contact with.  . . . It sucks when you aren't being treated the best by someone who's done a lot for you.  You don't feel the best, but you also know that you don't really have a right to complain at the same time.

Thanks for stopping by and lending an ear/pair of eyes,

8

AFTA-1 - FORM

If there is one man who is not afraid to deliberately express the essential, artistic freedoms of music, it is AFTA-1.

The burning anticipation we built in waiting, is now over. AFTA-1's release of FORM is finally here. Being that I’m a huge fan and have been following his music for quite sometime, I was more than excited to get my hands on this release to experience the eargasms for myself. Furthermore, to know that he puts out such good music without any major backing or label support, is truly amazing in my book. You can purchase the release in either digital or cassette tape form (yes folks, I said cassette tape). Congrats to AFTA-1 on the completion of this project, from the dope sounds to the hand painted artwork on the cover(s). He is definitely on my list of good artists, respectfully. Look forward to hearing more projects from him in the future.







01. Prelude To MeMeaningWE
02. Infinite Ways
03. Become Still
04. Trust
05. Early Ideas
06. Rain
07. Horas Largas
08. Por Detras
09. The Time In Between Suite
10. Brooklyn Sunset
11. Amor Es




Thursday, June 10, 2010

Guilty Simpson - Ghettodes

This past year, around the same time Madlib was creating his remix of Guilty Simpson's Ode To The Ghetto for his Madlib Medicine Show #1 release, we had Oh No remix the tracks as well, using samples from the Now-Again catalog. Oh No's collection Ghettodes is not meant as an album, but you put 14 tracks together and you might as well call it that.


or


01. American Nightmare
02. Piglets
03. Riches
04. Futuristic (Featuring MED)
05. What To Do
06. Rob
07. The Ghetto (Interlude)
08. The Ghetto
09. Y'all Scared
10. Dreads
11. Killer
12. Runners (Featuring Black Milk)
13. Raw (Interlude)
14. Kinda


Info courtesy of StonesThrow.com

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Joell Ortiz: Hip-Hop & Boom Bap's Last Hope

If you know me or follow my blog to any degree, you know that I'm a huge Joell Ortiz fan.  He's a throw back to the Hip-Hop of my youth.  He's the embodiment of Hip-Hop from '93-'95.  To me, he's essentially the Purple Tape with legs.  I don't care if it's "underground" or "mainstream" as long as it has the knock I need and isn't glossy, I'll rock it.  Joell is the first newer artist in a while that has a grabbed my attention and has me excited to find just about any knew track he happens to release.

I can't wait until summer is over because you will see me in my hoodie, jeans & timbs (editors note:  I actually tie my timbs & my jeans don't sag).  Hip-Hop has become way too metrosexual.  Joell brings that grown man rap that I appreciate and to a large degree need.  This is in no way a diss to any fans of Southern rap or Emo rap.  There should be room for everything, but the music that I love and keeps my heart pumping seems to be going the way of the dinosaur.  Okay, I'm done with my mini rant.  Enjoy this cool article on Mr. Ortiz.

Joell Ortiz vs. Gentrification

Of Brooklyn, yes, but also of the NYC hip-hop on which he still aims to make his name

By Phillip Mlynar Tuesday, Jun 1 2010

Joell Ortiz saw gentrification engulf Greenpoint from the vantage of the Cooper Park housing projects. As the new millennium began, the 31-year-old rapper noticed the first changes sprouting up with "a little condominium here, a loft setup there." Before the influx of high-income housing, his section of Brooklyn suffered from a domino-effect blight: "My area was really drug-infested 'cause across from us was a shelter with a lot of drug addicts—the drugs bring the money, and the money leads to violence." But not these days. "Now, it's ridiculous. They brought in the hipsters, brought in the yuppies, and built up the big condos that no one in my 'hood can afford."

He's describing a phenomenon common to many areas of Brooklyn, but he could just as easily be talking about hip-hop. With a new album, Free Agent, on the horizon, Ortiz is at the forefront of a generation of New York rappers who have seen the music gentrify around them, their gritty rhymes and no-gimmicks personas pushed out by slick-talking Southerners with no qualms about taking over turf that was once the birthright of Big Apple rappers alone. As he puts it, "I'm part of this little project of raw hip-hop surrounded by so much happy pop shit—like three-bedroom condos all around us."

Make no mistake: Hip-hop is New York's music. Time was that simply hailing from the five boroughs brought both bragging rights and an audience at any major record label. New York was the place where an aspiring artist had to prove their talent—critically, commercially, and on the live stage. At our '90s peak, artists like Mobb Deep, Wu-Tang Clan, pre-Kelis-era Nas, and adopted New Yorkers Gang Starr reigned supreme with a blueprint of scrupulously composed lyrics, soul- and jazz-derived beats, and a pretext that rappers were reporting from the slums. It's a formula often regarded as "purist" and antiquated these days. But, as Ortiz testifies, "Back then, you had to be nice. You couldn't just get by with a catchy chorus and something to fill up the gaps in between."

Not any more. Today's biggest hip-hop artists hail from down South: Giants like T.I., Rick Ross, and Lil' Wayne may tackle the same street-level subjects that Ortiz dealt with growing up in Greenpoint, but when T.I. spits about dope boys, he does so over production that's cannily palatable to daytime pop radio, suitable for sweet-16 parties, and unafraid of hinging things on a hummable chorus. (It's to Jay-Z's credit that he's one of the rare New Yorkers who've managed to stay abreast of rap's sonic shifts.) Labels don't want to market an MC standing around in utilitarian Timberlands and Carhartt clothing—they want Wale in expensive, tight brand-name pants. "Rough, rugged, and raw" no longer earns a badge of authenticity—labels are looking for clean-cut kids like Drake, a rapping Dawson's Creek character if ever there was one. It leaves classical New York rappers like Ortiz, intent on staying true to their regional roots, left out in the commercial cold. Dollar cups of coffee from the corner bodega have been replaced by $4 cafe lattes, if you will, all served to a soundtrack of Jeezy and Weezy.

Ortiz is aware of the changed arena he's fighting in. Now living on a calm, residential Bushwick block, he's open to admitting that his brand of hip-hop is far from fashionable. He favors a style of rap that's abrasive and uncut and sounds best over production that cribs from the same well of sample sources his '90s New York contemporaries plundered. Done right, it's a ferocious but uncompromising blend, as exemplified by the DJ Premier–produced "Project Boy," a Free Agent track he comically recorded in a three-piece-suit while en route to a "formal function." Over a beat that sounds like it's based on the theme from a low-budget '70s spy flick, Ortiz paints an uncouth environmental picture filled with "crack heads [that] smoke anything that can fit in that stem/And little girls do grown men just to sit in that Benz." Then, as if condensing his whole mentality, he vows, "What y'all spit's sugar-coated—I be spitting that phlegm." (In a similar vein, in Ortiz's hands, Lloyd Banks's "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" became the economical "Nissan, Honda, Chevy.") Asked whether he'd have been a better fit 15 years ago, he smiles broadly, leans back on his couch, and proclaims, "If I was making music back then, this interview would be going on in my mansion! I'm pretty sure it would have been a lot easier then."

But he's not bitter. He has had his dalliance with the top echelons of the music-industry machine, and it didn't work out. The buzz Ortiz created with his 2007 debut The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, earned him a chance to sign with Dr. Dre's Aftermath label—he did, only to sit on the shelf after being told that a new Eminem album and Dre's chimerical Detox pre-empted him on the release schedule. (A track titled "What's Your World," originally scheduled for Free Agent, caught Dre's ear and has been earmarked for Detox.) He was officially released at the start of 2008—a move that prompted the title of his new album, which will be released on E1 Music.

Looking back on his gamble with Dre, Ortiz reasons, "How could anyone not take that chance? I wanted to be alongside Eminem and 50 Cent, and get pointers on how to do records and get better as a rapper." The experience only fortified his belief in standing firm with his core hometown values—the very traits that attracted others to hip-hop in the first place. He predicts that Free Agent will be better received than his debut, but guarantees that it won't come with any gimmicks. He won't, as he jokes, bend to his label's marketing department and come out "50 pounds lighter with a six-pack." After all, he was here first, and he's confident in his heritage: "The thing is, I want to get a condo just like everyone else, but I'm not gonna change who I am to get there," he says. "And when I do get there, my apartment will still feel like the projects inside. I won't be going out and ordering a gourmet salad—I'll still be getting chicken wings and french fries."


*article courtesy of The Village Voice

Monday, June 7, 2010

Cee Lo - Stray Bullets Mixtape



01. Goldschläger
02. You Don’t Shock Me Anymore
03. Cho Cha the Cat (Featuring The B-52’s)
04. I Like It
05. Little Black Book
06. Talking To Strangers
07. ChamPain
08. Night Train (Featuring Goodie Mob)
09. The Secret
10. Sophistic@ted B!$ch
11. I’ll Kill Her
12. Is It?
13. Super Woman Theme Song
14. Night Cap Outro (One Last Shot of Goldschläger)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Random Geekery: Google Has Sweats?

Apparently they were originally made specifically for Google employees working on Gmail.  But, now Google is making them available through their store.  Who knew that Google had a store?  I sure didn't.  They're asking for over $40 for the sweaters.  How sad is it that I would definitely cop one if I had the money.  I'm such a Stan for them.

Pharoahe Monch Show In Pittsburgh 6/19/10

DJ Selecta will be bringing in Pharoahe Monch to help celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of his Classic Material event.


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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Cool Kids - Tacklebox Mixtape



01 Fishing Lessons [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
02 Flying Kytes [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
03 Freak City [Prod. by Chuck Inglish & Old Young]
04 So Neat [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
05 Going Camping [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
06 Volume II [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
07 Birthdays [Prod. by Ski Beats]
08 Great Outdoors [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
09 Strawberry Girl [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
10 Systems [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
11 Good Afternoon [Prod. by The Productionix]
12 Parking Lot [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
13 Summer Nights [Prod. by Chuck Inglish] (Featuring Tennille)
14 Los Angeles Leakers Outro [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]
15 Gettin' Flicked [Prod. by Chuck Inglish]