Requests & Re-Ups & the Week that was.....

I've been kind of lazy this week, well not completely lazy, but I haven't posted as much as I would like. Been a busy week, I have some other writing projects going on, school and calculus is kicking my ass (as usual), and one too many proverbial "sticks in the fire". Hopefully everything will pan out the way I want it to. I've also had a case of "blogger block" (is that a word?) and not really knowing what I want to do with this blog. I did line up WYDU's first interview ever, so be on the look out for that in the next couple of weeks. I won't say who it is just yet, I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but I'm excited to talk to these dudes (there's your hint, it's a group). That is hopefully a step in the right direction of where I want to go.

Lately, I've been on a big Soul/Funk/classic R&B/Jazz kick. I'm proud of my hip hop knowledge, but one area I'm solely lacking in is sample sources and the such. I've never DJ'ed and I toy around with production, but nothing very serious, so I've never gotten into some of the old classics. Growing up, my mom played some Coltrane, Gene Harris, Chuck Manigone and several others, so I do know some about them, but I just never got into the classics all that much. I'm slowly starting to change my ways.

Sites like ..And You Don't Stop and Souled On have helped immensely in helping me get my learn on. I've also been heavy in a couple albums Dan Love posted up on his blog "From Da Bricks", Ahmad Jamal's "The Awakening" and John Coltrane's "Blue Train". Not that I don't have enough to listen to already, but it's great putting on some of these songs/albums while doing some homework, or just while I'm chilling with my thoughts.

While going through Ohwords "This Week In Blogs", I ran across a link from the Crate Diggers, which we do have linked, but the link isn't working. Semantik posted up his list for the top 30 Greatest Hip Hop drum breaks and samples. If you have listened to Hip Hop for any amount of time, they should all be familiar to you, but personally, I didn't know the name to some of them, so I found this very useful. I do know enough to know there is a couple things missing that I would personally put in the list ("Apache" anyone?, "Today" by Tom Scott?), but still good for us amateur crate diggers. Fun to check out.

If anyone wants to share some albums or compilations that they think I would enjoy, by all means, I'm all ears, lace 'em up! I don't have a lot so more than likely I don't have it.

If you haven't checked out Bob James myspace page, it's a pretty good one, with a nice blog of artists that have sampled him. He doesn't always seem the most open to sampling, but still a nice read and nice to see some of the old farts stay up on the technology.

Trav's Top 5 Spins Of The Week

1. Juggaknots - Use Your Confusion
The love affair continues with this album. Every new week, I have a new favorite song from it. This week "Leon Phelps" is getting the spins. Only song I'm not really crazy about is "Strip Joint" and even that is growing on me. I really haven't enjoyed a new album as much as this one since Cunninlynguists "A Piece Of Strange" from last year about this time. If you haven't bought this album, you need to do so.

An interesting interview with the crew here.

2. Masta Ace's discography
My mp3 disk playing diskman is my ghetto Ipod. I recently made a disk with most of Ace's discography, including those Hits U Missed Volumes 3 & 4. That's been getting a lot of play. Getting amped up for the eMC release, hopefully this summer, be sure to be on the look out for that.

3. The Golden Era Of Hip Hop DJ K-Prince Disk 2

I found this little ditty on ..And You Don't Stop. A lot of the material on here is new to me, but this is the type of Hip Hop I LOVE. It does contain some early, early Keith Murray (Keefy Keef on here) and Craig Mack (when he was known as MC EZ) and a personal favorite of mine, "The Bronx Is Back", by Tall Dark & Handsome, which I had tracked down on Cocaine Blunts a couple of years ago. I highly suggest anyone who loves the first era of the Golden Age to go over and pick this up. The first disk contains a little more well known joints, but still pretty good as well

4. Supreme Nyborn - Style

Polarity told me to check it out if I could find it, so I went to the one source I was pretty sure would have it, Dread over at Bust The Facts. Sure enough, he came through for me. I've been playing this on a regular basis the past few weeks. Sounds like some early Ski production, who is a personal favorite of mine. I don't know how I slept on this album back in the day. It was on Next Plateau, so it should have been easy enough to find I would think.

5. J-Zone - In The Zone (A Schooklyn Zoo Compliation)

I'm a big J-Zone fan, always have been since I first heard him. Lord Vas over at Schooklyn Zoo laced up a bunch of his production from other artists and it put it in a nice little compilation that got some headphone time this week. I had some of this, but a few joints were new to me, plus it's nice to have it all in one place

WHY.....
Why does this new Blogger suck balls?
Why can't I stop playing Nas' "Can't Forget About You"?
Why is the rest of the album just so-so? (oh yeah, it's a Nas album)
Why can't everyone just shut up about Anna Nicole?
Why can't dudes just remind me about something on this blog instead of being dicks?
Why do I totally disagree with Jeff Weiss' 10 Best White MC's list?
Why have I never heard of "The Streets" on said list?
Why do I think Passion Of The Weiss is the best blog of it's type? (I've enjoyed reading all the past posts while being slow at work, probably another reason I haven't posted as much this week)
Why did it take me this long to get Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?
Why didn't that game cause more of a social uproar. I'm not even black and I'm offended by some of the stereotypes presented in the game.

Album Time......

Grand Daddy I.U. - Smooth Assasian (Cold Chillin', 1991)
http://www.zshare.net/download/grand-daddy-i-u-rar.html

1. The U Is Smooth

2. Pick Up The Pace

3. Something New

4. I Kick Ass

5. Mass Destruction

6. Gals Dem So Hot

7. Girl In The Mall

8. Kay Cee Is Nasty

9. Nobody Move

10. Dominos

11. Behind Bars

12. Soul Touch

13. This Is A Recording

14. Sugar Free

15. Phuck 'em Up U

16. Shout Outs

Grand Daddy I.U. was part of the Cold Chillin' label roster back in the early 90's. This album is produced by Biz Markie, who a lot people sleep on as a producer. I have read some interviews though where I.U. said him and his brother did the majority of the production, but Biz got the credit for it. The album itself is on some smooth shit, which was recieved kind of luke warm when it dropped. He got a lot of comparision to Kane back in the day, which you can kind of see. His image on this first album was kind of the Smooth Gangster. He looked like a bad ass in the suit in tie, kind of the mafiaso flavor before it became big.

He did a track with Large Pro a couple of years ago and there was talk of him dropping another album, but I've never seen it.

King Tee - Act A Fool (Capitol, 1988)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=18UAAZV6

1. Act A Fool

2. Ko Rock Stuff

3. The Coolest

4. Flirt

5. Baggin' On Moms

6. Bass (Remix)

7. Let's Dance

8. Guitar Playin'

9. Payback's A Mutha

10. Just Clowning

11. I Got A Cold

King Tee's classic debut album, complete with some of DJ Pooh's finest work.

Money Boss Players - Ghetto Chronicle Daily & Cop N Go EP (ALL ZIPPED TOGETHER, MISSING TWO INSTRUMENTALS FROM GCD)

http://sharebee.com/1ccb3396