Remember the 90’s dance music machine C&C Music Factory? Well, this is by no means them. Rather, it’s the newest release by Jason “CookBook” Soto and Rene “Uno Mas” Palma, C&U Music Factory, released on Just-US/Audio Sketch Book Records. Presente!
Complete with some great guests like Evidence of Dilated Peoples, Pigeon John, Site Raw, Sareem Poems (fka Sharlock Poems of LA Symphony), DJ Rhettmatic, King Charizmatic, Scarub of Living Legends, and Raquel Rodriguez, this CD demonstrates the skills of Cook and Uno, two Latino MC’s with pride for their roots and love for their fans and their craft. If you aren’t familiar with this duo, suffice it to say that they’ve been around the block a few times and have been doing it together for over a decade. Formerly part of the well-known Christian hip hop collective LA Symphony, they’ve continued to forge on despite the demise of the seminal outfit. In the past few years, they’ve released a few releases together, many made available to their fans for free, and Cook released his first solo effort last year. Now, with C&U Music Factory, they continue their legacy of releasing great hip hop that is both commercially viable and uncompromising, something very uncommon in today’s big budget bling rap world.
15 tracks and a bonus cut makes 16 tracks in all. All 6 are solid, but there are a few that standout to me. “When You Rock & Roll” features Evidence, another great MC, making the duo a trio; this is a great hip hop track with a fun hook, plus I like any hip hop track that has the words “rock” and/or “roll” in the title. “Our Life Sounds Nice” just flows so perfectly, if it doesn’t make you bounce (like I am doing in my chair as I type this) then you may need to check your pulse. “Just-Us” has a rock vibe to it and some Santana-like intricacies in the guitar work, which is always a good thing for me (a guy who named his son Cash Hendrix); Raquel’s vocals are great in the hook and Site Raw lays down a nice verse. “AM Radio” is all about the verses that Cook, Uno, King, and Sareem lay down, with a perfectly understated backbeat. “Where Ya Been All My Life?” features my favorite MC, so how can it not be fresh?
But my favorite track is “Monster Mosh”. This is quite possibly due to my recent interest in all things monster and horror related, but I think that it can also be credited to the hot beat and the playful and entertaining lyrics. Complete with references to too many horror flicks and monster myths to name, the lyrical content is extremely fun. The chorus is very catchy as they “turn hip hop audiences into a mosh pit”. I guess all there is left to say about this track is that the diabolical laughing at the end is kinda creepy and I’ll have to make a point to find out who that was next time I get the chance to talk to the fellas.
Overall, it’s fair to say I’m not hip hop authority, but when a 16 track CD has 8 or more tracks that will be continually getting play on my iPod for weeks, months, and years to come, it’s also fair to say that this is a solid outing. Enjoyable, sometimes thought provoking, and always fun… once again Cook and Uno show that they love hip hop, their God, and making music together.
As I sit here, snowed in, for the second time in a week, I am watching Independence Day on VHS. Since today is a cold day, where I need something to warm me up, I decided to start off with a bit of the sound of the surf to open this one up. The closer: (Pictured on the right) Michael Signorelli’s winning entry for the ReverseRemixThis! Contest in which entrants were asked to prepare lyrics and vocals for a great instrumental track by the VBM band, Map. In between, new track from Cook & UNO, killer hardcore from Twin Killing and Debtor, and a whole lot more. ENJOY!
4. Cook & UNO’s “Where Ya Been All My Life?” (Featuring Pigeon John) is off of C&U Music Factory, the newest release from the duo formerly known as “The Eternals”. Throw in my favorite MC and it’s a trio to swoon over. Expect a review of the album within the next week.
5. The Glass Gentlemen’s “Ocean Stars” is another example of this indie band’s talent and ability. Brad and Brad continue to crank out viable, relevant music, even if most of the world has no idea who they are.
10. TechnoBears’s “Night of the Brainless Date” is another breath of fresh air. TechnoBears has entered several of the TPM remix contests and I’ve always enjoyed his contributions. This is no different. Enjoy.
Last week I asked what song you’d sing on an American Idol audition, to which I received some great answers, including Skot’s CD-winning-worthy tune from Les Miserables (Hit me up for your choices, Skotty). This week, I think the question is easily as awesome… or even awesomer!
Self, if you were a dope master of the ceremonies like Kevin “Kwalified” Ritchie, what would your name be?
A truly interesting question, I found myself with many options, some that were quite fly and others that would not fly at all. I mean, think of all the great names that my favorite MCs go by: Beefy, Mos Def, Pigeon John, Uno Mas, Blackthought, CookBook, MC Frontalot, thekeenone… but what to name myself?
First, I thought,
What about “MCJC”, I mean Justin Charles… JC… ah, I guess that sucks. Oh, I know, I could make it a play on one of my favorite MCs, like I could “Dos Mas” or even better yet “Whitethought”… no wait, that sounds like a white supremacist rapper, if there is such a thing.
I realized that as creative as I thought I was, I wasn’t. In fact, the name I chose was the easiest of all… and a name that my wife’s grandpop came up with to begin with… so here it is (stand in awe of my wit and wisdom!): “thepaintedman”.
HA! I am awesome. So, now it’s your turn. What would your rap name be?
My favorite answer gets a Hip Hop prizepack. Word?
Kevin Ritchie, aka Kwalified Emcee, is indeed a qualified MC. Like my boy CookBook (who has a new joint releasing on the 26th with Uno Mas), Kwalified’s newest release is a concept album based on 80’s culture… though Kwalified is a bit more focused, specifically on the classic TV show The Wonder Years. If you are not familiar with the adolescent drama that ran from 1988 through the early to mid 90’s, then you need not read on, because you are not the target audience. If you, however, didn’t live under a rock during this time (or through the late 90’s and early 2000’s when it hit a second audience in syndication), then you should be able to appreciate Kwal’s Kevin Arnold EP.
Each track has its own flavor, some with a very blatant nod to the show and some that seem only vaguely connected, but the EP flows very well and makes this Wonder Years fan very nostalgic. Interwoven clips from the show and lyrics about Kevin’s big brother Wayne and his love interest Winnie Cooper (who is still quite hot, by the way) capture Kwalified desire to pay homage to a show that was ever present in the adolescent lives of many 20-somethings like myself.
The opening track sets the tone with a great clip, a little bit of the Joe Cocker theme, and a great intro song to the EP that features a chorus that quotes the famed lyrics originally sung by Ringo Starr. The seventh track concludes the homage to the show with Kwalified relating Kevin Arnold’s life to his own.
After these 7 tracks, Kwal includes 3 additional tracks that continue to highlight his talents (even though it seems that the right people have yet to discover him, as he declares in “Exit the Wonder Years” that he has yet to “make a dime” from “writing a rhyme”). My favorite track on the album, perhaps due to my own nerdiness as much as anything, is one of these 3 tracks. It is entitled “I Like She Like” and features the chorus, “I like Batman, she likes Superman.” Of course, I side with him and am not quite sure I could dig on a gal who prefers Superman (my wife much prefers Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego to Clark Kent’s, so I’m all good on that tip).
My other favorite tracks on this EP are “Winnie Cooper” (included on the January mixtape) and another of the 3 post-Wonder Years tracks entitled “Ohdee!” The old school WWF references hook me early on the latter track. Worth mentioning here, one of the sweet things about indie hip hop vs. indie rock is that self-produced hip hop doesn’t hurt the experience the way it can cripple a band trying to use Pro Tools on their laptop in a basement studio.
All in all, a fantastic effort by a nerdy MC that is likely to join the ranks of Pigeon John, Wyclef Jean, CookBook, Uno Mas, Int80, Beefy, and Mos Def in my personal pantheon of the dopest in the biz.
The 3rd day of Christmas (at least by thepaintedman’s math), brings more fresh hip hop, in fact… what I am presenting to you is the freshest Christmas themed hip hop since Rev Run, Darryl McDaniels, and the Jam Master presented us the classic tune of which I shared with you yesterday.
This 10 song compilation is thoroughly enjoyable and can spice up you Christmas playlist very easily, as it has mine. All 10 songs are solid, featuring artists like LA Symphony (including my boys CookBeezy and Uno Mas, who incidently I saw on JCTV yesterday while flipping channels), MG! the Visionary (a man responsible for getting me much deeper into hip hop than I ever had been before when he released Transparemcee…), Scribbling Idiots (JustMe, Cas Metah, Mouf Warren, Theory Hazit, and Wonder Brown), Sintax the Terrific (free download of track “Snow Day” coming on Friday’s mixtape), Page One, Elias, Caramel Skillington, and Sivion. And while, I can honestly assert that all 10 tracks are fun, enjoyable, and well made, here are my top 4, in David Letterman-esque fashion:
4. LA Symphony’s “Christmas Song”
While I have not confirmed this, I assume this is an older LA Symph track, notably because of the presence of Pigeon John on the track. The beat takes a back seat to the rhymes of this all star cast of MCs. (Their other track on this comp is a sweet track, too. It’s entitled, “It’s Christmas” and has a beat I dig a bit more, but the lyrics and showcasing of the delivery of these talented MCs on this track make it my favorite of the two).
3. Elias’s “Maria”
Different than the other tracks here, Elias’s track is not really a hip hop track, but rather an acoustic reggae track ala Bradley Nowell of Sublime. A fantastic track for fans of hip hop and those who don’t bump much hip hop alike. Been stuck in my head for a few hours now (as I type this I am singing the song aloud in my office).
2. Page One, Theory Hazit, MG! the Visionary, and DJ Because’s “We Three Kings”
I’m just such a sucker for MG’s flow and adding a few other fantastic artists into the mix doesn’t hurt. I wholly dig the jingle bells and how they pair with the scratch work and the backbeat. Hot track. Period.
1. Scribbling Idiots’ “Jingle Bell Knock”
Sampling “Jingle Bell Rock” is genius for this track. The construction of the beat is phenomenal. While the LA Symph track noted above is almost entirely about the MCs on the track for me, this selection as my favorite track is easily as much about the production and beat as it is about the rhymes and flows. A very well put-together track from the collective that seems to be at the helm of all that is Illect.
Download these tracks today from sphereofhiphopstore.com or on coming soon on iTunes… you won’t be sorry. And then you can come back and tell me which tracks are your favorite. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, telling me about your favorite track(s) will pay off with a little Christmas surprise in the way of some free music.
Without further ado, here’s my first ever podcast… thepaintedpodcast 1.0: What a Tangled Webb We Weave features 2 tracks by Derek Webb and a full length interview I did with him with phone for Decapolis. While I work my butt off transcribing the full interview for Decap, I figured I’d share it as a podcast with my loyal TPM readers.
This week is Contest Week, so I can’t just post something without including a small contest now, can I?
This is the first and simplest contest… follow these 3 easy steps and you may be the winner of a copy of one of my all-time favorite CD’s, a sealed copy of the out-of-print original pressing of Soul-Junk’s 1956. This CD if the very CD that introduced me to Pigeon John, who has become my favorite emcee over the years… here is what you gotta do.
1. Download the Podcast.
2. Tell me what was the most interesting thing Derek talked about to you by commenting on this post.
3. Email me at justincharlesharlan@gmail.com with a follow up question to Derek that I can pass along to him.
Enjoy the conversation with Derek, he’s quite the interesting artist and you won’t have to take my word for it. Contest will run through Friday, so you’ve got a week to listen to the coolness of Derek and the not-quite-as-coolness of me.
K. Flay, Hip Hop’s best kept secret, just released a hot FREE mixtape (available at her website) to wet our proverbial whistles for her debut full-length album. Frequent Nerdcore collaborator who has also worked with Del and Zion-I (among others) uses this release to demonstrate her production, rapping, and singing chops. Taking popular songs from all types of genres, K. Flay put together 11 tracks and a 12th bonus track where she intertwines great beats with familiar hooks and showcases her vocals for all the folks who are new to the Suburban Rap Queen.
I first got diggin’ on Ms. Flay when I heard “Other People’s Property” from The Digital Gangster LP, then I hear her on other Lars tracks, and I got my first full taste just a few weeks ago when I picked up the Single and Famous EP. Then a last week I was clicking through my On Demand music videos and saw a Zion-I video featuring K. Flay called “Coastin’”. After this, I was hooked, just in time to see MC Lars tweet about her mixtape… I immediately downloaded it.
The mixtape, as all good mixtapes do, works best as a complete product, but I do have a few favorite tracks.
The opener, “ON the bridge” immediately catches me with the RHCP sample it utilizes as the primary backing track. Flay’s flow on top of the track demonstrates her ability to chill out the listener with a sing-song rap delivery, almost like a female version of my favorite MC, Pigeon John. “boom boom pow KUNG FU” uses a cool sample of a kid saying just that with a well crafted computer drum loop to set up a perfect backdrop for her to crank up her showing of her MC skills. On “paper planes & SPITBALLS”, K. Flay chops ups MIA’s “Paper Planes” and brings MC Lars on board for a verse. Solid track, which is no surprise when considering how solid the entire tape is and that Lars is the best post-punk laptop rapper ever (he told me on Twitter that he was not Nerdcore!).
Flay samples tracks from Kanye, Missy Elliot, and a whole bunch of others. It’s well worth it’s price… and quite a bit more. So do yourself a favor, in fact, two favors:
I decided today to choose a Song of the Day because I’ve been hooked on a specific track on a CD I recently purchased for about a week now. An early track from So-Cal rapper, RedCloud, is the culprit of my current mental affliction, it has simply been stuck in my head and it won’t go away.
From RedCloud’s 2001 debut, “The Pigeon John Song”, features this blogging rap fan’s favorite emcee, the aforementioned Pigeon John.
The song chronicles RedCloud stalking “Pigeon Jiggy Jiggy” trying to force him to collaborate on a track for his album. The chorus is Pigeon telling RedCloud to chillout or he’ll have to call the cops. The song finishes up with PJ finally dropping a verse for RedCloud, but not before a coupel of RedCloud verse, including one where he mockingly imitates his hip-hop idol.
You can’t enjoy this song fully without first listening to the preceding track, a group of messages on RedCloud’s buddy Tim’s answering machine, including a great one from Pigeon John.
While we know that this is all a big joke, especially seeing as Pigeon John has collaborated with RedCloud time and time again, even producing Hawthorne’s Most Wanted, this song makes me wonder if this is kinda how Pigeon John and RedCloud truly began their musical friendship.
So, go to iTunes or your local record store and find this song (or the whole album, Is This Thing On?) and thump to “The Pigeon John Song”. And before you go, bump to another RedCloud/PJ collab, “Tapatio” from Hawthorne’s Most Wanted
Canadian MC, Abdominal, has quickly risen from “some rapper I’ve never heard of” to “a guy who has one song I really like” to “staple in my musical diet”. To the best of my knowledge Escape from the Pigeon Hole is his only solo project, but when an album is this solid who needs another?
Toronto native, Andy Bernstein, entered the rap game in 1998, but truly hit his groove in 2003 when he teamed up with DJ Format… I can’t lie… I basically learned anything I know about Abdominal from wikipedia, so I’ll just leave my introduction at that. However, what I don’t know about Abdominal, I can make up in praise for his music.
Escape from the Pigeon Hole was first introduced to me when I mistakenly wiped out my entire music library of 6,000 or so tracks on my old PC. A friend happened to be visiting the next day and decided to get me started with repopulating my computer, he’d log into his FTP and let me grab whatever I want. I didn’t know who Abdominal was, but he said to me, “Oh, trust me, you’ll dig him,” and highlight his album as one I’d be copying. Since that time I have purchased a copy as I learned from “Walk Left/Stand Right” that telling him you download a bootleg of his CD is one of his pet peeves… I digress. After a few months, I had been digging on “Radio Friendly” and put it on a few mixes for driving and such… I figured it was time to give Abs a full shot and put the album on my hand-me-down iPod Shuffle before I headed out to the gym. A nice workout later, I was hooked.
So, what does Abs sound like? Good question… the music is very funky. Produced by the team of DJ Format, Cut Chemist, and Young Einstein, the beats are hot throughout. Vocally, his delivery is unique… powerful, fast-paced, slick, and incredibly smooth. I can’t describe exactly what I love about his flow, but I can say that I certainly do love it. The lyrics are witty, entertaining, and (at-times) well-informed. I’d have put money on the fact that he was black before I saw a picture of him, not sure why but he just sounds black. (DISCLAIMER: “Sounding Black” is not a good or bad thing, just something that seems to occur solely in Hip Hop and other “urban” genres. While my favorite MC’s range in ethnicity from black (Mos Def) to Hispanic (CookBook) to mixed (Pigeon John), vocals often present a picture of what the MC looks like… and when I close my eyes, Abs is a black dude!)
Now that I’ve taken a few paragraphs to tell you very little about anything worthwhile, let me highlight my favorite tracks in 10 in 10 fashion, along with a 1 to 5 rating of how much I dig the track. It’s hard to decide which tracks to leave out, but I hate to bore you by going on and on for 15 tracks…
“Escape” thepaintedman rates this:
Spoken word track in tradition of the beatniks. Snap Snap!
“Breathe Later” thepaintedman rates this:
Funky bass line thumps while Abdominal display his lung capacity.
“T Ode – Abdominal & Notes To Self” thepaintedman rates this:
Ode to Abdominal’s hometown, Toronto, complete with mayoral endorsement.
“Radio Friendly” thepaintedman rates this:
Misleading title, but “I don’t give a fuck.”
“Pedal Pusher” thepaintedman rates this:
Abs waxes contemplative over another funk-laden beat.
“Walk Left/Stand Right” thepaintedman rates this:
Abs expresses pet peeves over toe-tapping guitar driven backtrack.
Overall, the album can be summed up in noting the cleverness of Abdominal as an MC and the fantastic production and beats lent to Abs from Cut Chemist, Format, and Einstein. I can’t imagine too many Hip Hop fans that wouldn’t dig this LP. Check it out, I doubt you’ll be sorry.
