Classic: Crooked Booty

Dungeon Family - Crooked Booty (with Cee-Lo, Andre 3000, Sleepy Brown, & Khujo)

I can't believe I haven't posted this song yet. Ever since I obtained a copy of the Dungeon Family compilation album Even in Darkness, one of my all-time favorite joints has been "Crooked Booty". Even though the majority of the songs unfortunately aren't actually that great when compared to the incomparable Goodie and Outkast (and even Witchdoctor) albums before this tape, I've still got a soft spot for it. On this joint, Cee-Lo goes in on the hardest eight bars you've ever heard darn near a cappella while ending each rhyme on an explosive singing note. Then Andre starts in sing-rapping the chorus as the music triumphantly comes into the picture. Between Sleepy Brown's signature crooning while trying to describe what the crooked booty actually is and Khujo's aggressive dance rapping, this entire song's just classic. I don't wanna think too much about Dre's bridge three minutes into the joint, but it's hilarious, nonetheless. Just remember that when the doctor tells you that you're coming down with a bad case of the crooked booty ...

... and do the John Wall.

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Flipher Overture

The new Stray Bullets Cee-Lo mixtape has inspired a new "Sampled" feature. He's paired up with Mickey Factz due to their beats being crafted around "Flipher Overture" by Esthero. I quite enjoy the notion of sampling her, especially since Cee-Lo was dopely featured on an original track by her called "Gone" and she was likewise on a Goodie Mob joint, "The World I Know", off the Slam soundtrack. Just saying.

Mickey Factz - Access Granted
Cee-Lo - ChamPain

... and do the John Wall.

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Stray Bullets

This is enough to get me out of my summer blogging hibernation.

Cee-Lo Green has returned sans Danger Mouse to release a solo mixtape. Free Cee-Lo literally out of nowhere? Plus it features a brand new full Goodie Mob cut that rides smoother than anything this side of Stankonia? DOWNLOAD THIS YESTERDAY! And while there's no rapping on this project from Lo, the strength of his vocals is undeniable and you need this kind of soul in your life.

Cee-Lo - Stray Bullets

1. Goldschlager
2. You Don’t Shock Me Anymore
3. Cho Cha the Cat (feat. The B-52’s)
4. Talking to Strangers
5. Little Black Book
6. I Like It
7. ChamPain
8. Night Train (by Goodie Mob)
9. The Secret
10. Sophisticated Bitch
11. I’ll Kill Her
12. Is It
13. Super Woman Theme Song
14. Night Cap Outro

... and do the John Wall.

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If Ya Take Me, Ya Don't Hate Me

Way back in my hip hop upbringing, I was devastated when Cee-Lo left Goodie Mob. It didn't matter that I was finding it out around in its contextual history about a whole year later than it happened in everyone else's timeline. With Soul Food and Still Standing spinning in constant rotation just screaming out "classic" each and every time, I didn't know how I was gonna be able to handle if the group proportionally dropped any lower than they already did on World Party. It didn't help either that while this revelation was happening to my psyche in 2006 that I was actually the one who originally created the Wikipedia pages on two of these three albums back when I sorta knew wiki-script. Why weren't there hip hop fanatics out there that wanted the internet's encyclopedia to have a linkable page about these records? They've since been crapped on and pretty much destroyed so I guess that specific hip hop head still isn't even out there to give these pages the treatment they deserve.

And then came One Monkey Don't Stop No Show. While the title obviously alluded to the mild hostility held by the remaining three members of the group at that point, I was just worried about how Gipp and the Lumberjacks were going to be able to hold up without the distinctive crooner who was long gone into a solo foray. It came as quite the pleasant surprise to me that could, in fact, hold their own on a full length LP. At that point in the grand scheme of things, it was an impossibility at that point that any of the four original Mobsters could ever achieve crossover appeal anyway, so I was solely interested in how the album spoke to me. And they sure knew how to start talking, as Big Rube provided a signature piece of epic spoken word poetry that could cut straight to the soul of any human being with a semblance of one.

And then right after the Dungeon Family's resident poet took my mind on a minute-and-a-half spiritual journey, the fellow DF member Witchdoctor greeted me while already midway into a prayer. "God I wanna live to be an old man, but I understand ... if ya take me, ya don't hate me. No, no ... no, no."

Goodie Mob - God I Wanna Live (feat. Witchdoctor)

And the rest of the album progressed with some well chosen production (even a Cool & Dre joint!) and a familiar balance of consciousness with street relativity that made the first two albums so pivotal in the second half of the nineties. They even threw in a few absolute bangers that, even thought they wouldn't ever get a taste of the radio, you could definitely still knock a dude back if you drive by with the speakers blasting. While it didn't quite round out into the end-to-end classic to compete with the aforementioned records, it let me firmly believe in the other three members of Goodie. And that's all that I could ask for. It then gave me the faith to cop Gipp's solo joint, the Lumberjacks record, and the determination to never give up until I discovered both of Khujo's Mercury and Gun Club Goodie albums. And I've had complete faith in the Mob ever since. And even though I say all that, it still gives me chills to imagine what the fully reunited collective has churning. I know a brand new foursome Goodie record has been rumored since 2006, but I still have my faith. Shoot, if Slaughterhouse has enough time to throw together a full length group LP, then Gipp can ditch Nelly's crew for a minute while Cee-Lo turns down a featured chorus or twelve to get this thing fully completed. I have that kind of faith in them. All of them.

... but do take my word for it. iTunes Goodie Mob One Monkey Don't Stop No Show link

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What's Goin' On with Me

Figured I'd get y'all up to date with my goings-on before I stay up all night with reports and homework at the library.

So my Deka Records album is completely done. I Get That a Lot. Sent in, artworked up, tracklisted, and set for release in 2 to 4 weeks. I've been told I'll have an exact release within a few days, so keep looking for that. The album will be released as digital only at first. Not sure if iTunes immediately, but guaranteed to be on iTunes. And then pressings of the actual CDs will commence afterwards. Again, no official dates or anything, but there's the generalities. Already posted the back art, but here's the tracklist again.

1. Hold On (feat. Steven Gilpin)
2. Before
3. Hannabella (feat. brandUn DeShay & Steven Gilpin) [prod. by DeShay Ali]
4. Run
5. Got Me?
6. Legendary (feat. Steven Gilpin)
7. Back Home (feat. Aaronn Ralph)
8. Kinda Fly [prod. by DeShay Ali]
9. Since (feat. Aaronn Ralph)
10. Chills
11. Enlightened (feat. Aaronn Ralph & Steven Gilpin)
12. Land of Mine (feat. Steven Gilpin)
13. Under the Rain
14. What I Thought

So except tracks 3 and 8 which are helmed by the incomparable brandUn DeShay, all compositions are from the realm of Angus Malone. You feel that other worldy vibe in the air? That's Angus Malone. With that lil' eery sense of completion in a universe of the categorizably incomplete, Angus Malone draws that perfect circle. What? Exactly. The single, "Hold On", is also slated to be remixed with contribution from (hopefully!!!) Charlie Hilton, Nova-Lyric, Ern, T-Burr, (hopefully!!!) brandUn DeShay, Lavish, and (hopefully!!!) the homie Praverb. Could wind up being an absolutely essential track covering the entire United States. I hope everybody I've reached out to enjoys and goes in on it as much as I'm hoping.

No Really, I'm a Rapper EP will tentatively be available for free download a week before my actual album release. It also will be one hundred percent original music produced by brandUn, Charlie Hilton, and Adam Braun. Short lil' tape, but a beautiful sampler of tracks that either couldn't get cleared because of it's sample or that was finished too late. Perfect appetizer for y'all.

The newly started project, Sonic the Campbellton, is in full effect. Hahaha. I love that title. It's gonna be a full-length mixtape of redubbed Charles Hamilton production. My vocals will grace instrumentals he's released and we'll just see what happens. Maybe when I send it to him he'll even give it a listen.

Another new development is The Laptop Mixtape: ReFix!!! that I'm going to try and get together when I can. I'll be redoing my entire first mixtape. All the same lyrics, but with better delivery, better presentation, better quality, and an overall better product. I feel like I've grown too much as a rapper since I recorded it to leave it as is, so I wanna make it a product I can proudly list in my catalogue. I love it now, but it doesn't reach the potential that the lyrics give it with how I rapped when I first started. Gonna be fun to relive it.

And then there's gonna be ReReRemix. It's gonna be sequel to Remix Part Three!!! in that it's me mashing together the hundred individual freestyles that every rapper and their mom puts out to whatever popular song, but with my own lil' flavor and ingenuity. And this time the joints are gonna be better produced and more concise. No 16 minute long joints. Ha. Even though I know you still listened to it.

The long-ago announced 27 Point Me is still gonna be completed one day. It's the musical comedy joint set up like a radio station with me interviewing celebrities and hip hop oriented skits. It's gonna be good, I just gotta settle in on it.

The third installment of my Laptop Trilogy is dubbed III: Laptopical. It will be the collective tale of how my life has changed in the last year since I started recording music. A mixture of everything from the freestyles to check-up interludes to poetry. It's simply the revolving door of my conscious. Don't expect it any kinda soon, but expect it.

At some point, I'm going to redo the entire Goodie Mob Soul Food album with all the rappers I know in Kentucky. Nothing can live up to Goodie, but we'll do a KY-styled version like how was already done by tons of in-state artists with OutKast's ATLiens. Tentatively called KY Whole Food.

So yeah. That's everything I can think of as of now. Well ... I gotta get on this lab report and crap. Hope y'all are all still here to support me when the album drops and everything that happens musically from then on. Peace.

... put 'em both together and you got yourself a super spork.

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That Does Make You Crazy

You were either enraptured by “Crazy” or you were annoyed at its come-out-of-nowhereness to prime super songdom. Gnarls Barkley has an immensely special place in my heart. First off, their music is doper than your favorite artists music, so I wanted to settle that right off the bat. But it’s just the back-story of it all.

You have to be a pre-Gnarls Cee-Lo fan to understand. Since ’94, dude has been one of the most doubly talented artists of any and all generations. That tiny little eight ball shaped man has more soul power in him than an army of … soulful things. Yet he can still out-rap any rhyme spitter from any region you pick out. With Goodie Mob, he was the vocal forefront of one of the most distinguishable rap cliques out preaching real life in the midst of the world’s fakeness. As a solo artist, he was the most daring singer emerging from a musical bouquet of every imaginable genre and facet of lyricism there was. As a featured chorus singer, he was adding elements to peoples’ albums pre-Akon and pre-T-Pain, still remaining true to himself while making bank. He had all the critical recognition anyone could imagine. But the masses didn’t really know him like they should.

Then Danger Mouse’s production came along. And suddenly with a little intense drum intro and some psychotic-questioning vocals, everyone knew him. “I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind. There was something so pleasant about that place. Even your emotions have an echo in so much space.” Just really deep stuff. Whether you acknowledge it or not, a rapper having to condense his normally long-winded rhymes into smaller singing segments can create some crazy intricate stuff.

Through all his struggles to gain mainstream acceptance through bringing straight knowledge to the world, it was a single pop-influenced effort that got him there. While “Crazy” sounded like nothing else out there, it didn’t really sound like Cee-Lo, either. But the fact that it wasn’t like anything else made it like Cee-Lo. But for whatever reason, “Cee-Lo” wasn’t the outlet to steal the public’s attention. The ingenious promotion of the “no-one-really-knows-what-or-who-Gnarls-Barkley-is” thing stole it. And the “Crazy” song.

So while heads whine about Cee-Lo seemingly laying down his mic ferocity, even going so far as accusing him of not being able to rap anymore, I just appreciate the two hundred and four tracks in the Soul Machine playlist on my iPod. Goodie, Cee-Lo, Gnarls, or a feature, the man’s more talented than whomever you think is talented and has been. And will continue to be. No matter what stylistics persona gives the next musical offering. And “Crazy” is a dope song anyway. Forget you if you don't like it.

... put 'em both together and you got yourself a super spork.

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Lumberjacks

The lost child of the Dungeon Family collective to me is the Livin' Life as Lumberjacks album. Not sure if it was just my copy, but the album had one of those queer copyright imbed codes on it to where you couldn't even play the CD on anything that wasn't strictly a CD player. That meant no copying to your iPod or even registering on a computer at all. Needless to say, the Khujo & T-Mo half of Goodie Mob effort wasn't the most successful from the DF.

But it still has some definite gems on it. Unfortunately at its release, Cee-Lo was completely out of the picture, OutKast was on hiatus, and Big Rube was poetically missing. Witchdoctor and Gipp lent some assistance, but the Lumberjacks themselves carried the bulk of the album. And that means aggressive choruses over some straight Dirty South production and lots of history and fightin' words. You'll definitely come out with some knowledge. My favorite incarnation was the more laid-back "Superfriends", a 3-piece Goodie joint with a really nice vibe. The rest of the album's still got quality, but this lane-changer really stood out to me in that ... I just really like this song.

Lumberjacks - Superfriends (feat. Big Gipp)

... put 'em both together and you got yourself a super spork.

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Classic: Beautiful Skin

This is the Goodie Mob's classic ode to "the coming respect for all women, period." Cuz some of y'all disrespect y'all selves cuz you don't know who you are in the first place. (c) Cee-Lo

Goodie Mob - Beautiful Skin

Back before I fully got immersed in the Mob's intricate & individually stylistic lyricism on some of the harder subjects to convey in rap music, this is the song I was ignorantly bumping anyway. Any Cee-Lo chorus has me fiending regardless, but this one is simply undeniable. There's no calling anyone out their name here. It's just conversation. Amazingly related conversation. I get chills on this this song. That's apparently my measure of classic status. Goosebumps. Oh, and Rosario Dawson has beautiful skin.

What they say bout ya ain't true. There's no me if there is no you. I hope that you understand, you got to respect yo self before I can.

... this was whatcha all been waitin' for ain't it?

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Wah-Lay!

I'm always ... intrigued (careful word choice) to hear the sound when a new music scene is on the come-up from a city on the map not previously represented. While it was a little before my prime, in the mid '90s, Atlanta hip hop came out hard with a sound only capable of being described as Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik with groups such as OutKast, Goodie Mobb, and Parental Advisory in the early years defining their specific genre. Unfortunately, crunk became an offshoot of that as newer Atlanta acts became prominent in the mainstream. But it was something we hadn't heard before. And that's important, no matter what form it takes.

Houston is a more recent example. Children got to see before their very eyes the insanely huge, though temporary, celebration of the Chopped-N-Screwed and candy-painted movement of Texas with the inexplicable rise to fame of Slim Thug, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Lil' KeKe, and others around 2005-ish. While I personally prefer to look at H-Town's richer history of the Geto Boys, Devin the Dude, and more recently Chamillionaire, no one can doubt the epic nature that distinctive sound took on the rap game for a little while.

Now the Washington, D.C. area is hoping to carve its niche in the hip hop universe on the shoulders of one man. Wale. Not "whale" as I ignorantly thought initially. But the magician/matador-like "Wah-lay"! I quote Phonte (pioneer of the NC sound!) way too much in my explanation of enjoyable and important rap music, but it applies here, too.

"Dope beats, dope rhymes. What more could y'all want?" (c) Phonte

It's a Calculus II-worthy formula that should be taught in kindergarden classes the world over. Wale prevails in his adherence to this formula. And if you're ever going to be formulaic, wouldn't this be the one you'd like to be classified under?

Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing

Before listening to the above tape I would never have believed anyone could pull off an ode to Seinfeld, regardless of genre. But Wale sets up each track as a Seinfeld episode experience in that they're methodically yet simply labeled "The [insert reason why it's relevant] Song". It's a beautiful concept that's beautifully utilized to poke fun at himself. Take for instance "The Cliche Lil' Wayne Feature" that was previously known as "Nike Boots (Remix feat. Lil' Wayne)" to earlier fans. That takes guts and humility to call yourself out as such. My personal favorite title is "The Roots Song Wale Is On" as he isn't even afraid to bill his song cementing his underground cred as thoughtfully funny on elaboration, either.

Wale takes chances in crafting his soundscape, but it's so second nature to him that the end product is consistently dope. He incorporated blatant go-go sounds as an ode to his hometown as well as live band orchestration, real drums, and heavy pop remixes, all while approaching his lyricism differently and successfully depending on the track he's adding to. His lyrics are constantly double-take worthy but never do you feel overloaded. If you're not in a thinking mode, he makes the flow just sound good so you can nod out to it.

Get up on Wale before that first official album drops. If not, you'll already be behind. And you'll have to be tutored in the fact that a single man is making rap relevant locally in America's capital. And his name ain't Barack Obama.

... and so concludes another masterpiece

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The Greatest for Forever Ever, Forever Ever

In case you don't know a single thing ever about the guy that is Chris Campbell, then learn that OutKast is an emotional mainstay for my well being. In my opinion, the men known legally as Andre Lauren Benjamin and Antwon Andre Patton are the most important and greatest artists to ever be associated with hip hop culture. Ever and always. Period. Fact.

Nothing could be more solid in my eyes. Just simply naming the album titles sends rejuvenating and inventive chills up my spine.

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Coin your own word for your genre when you come out on the scene in 1994. Especially when rap is only accepted if you're the hardest out of a New York burrow or dominate gang wars in Los Angeles. And make sure you bring an entire crew with you consisting of then completely unknown Cee-Lo as a member of Goodie Mob as well as hit production crew Organized Noize who was about to break into mainstream with TLC's "Waterfalls". History is made from the opening gong that transitions into the G-Funk-filled traded bars between Big and Dre on "Myintrotoletuknow" commenting on all the hardships of Atlanta on your way to gaining a reputation all while acknowledging nobody yet can "comprehend that it be deeper than Cadillacs." And, oh, would it get deeper.

ATLiens. Straight from Atlanta to the depths of another universe all in the course of two years. Dre became became dedicatedly sober yet spaced out further than ever before. Big Gipp's then-wife Joi immediately touches your soul in a different language over an intro of musicality never explored before by any rap act. That minute and six seconds of heart-tugging strings push you towards ridiculously perfect after ridiculously perfect capsules of orated stories dedicated to the streets that never had a voice like this before. Whether it's just riding with "Two Dope Boyz" or being warned of the fate of a "Jazzy Belle" or praying to make it through all personal struggles in "Babylon" or exploring every facet of a "13th Floor" that doesn't exist with Big Rube as we prematurely are "Growing Old", my life changed with this album's soundscape. This is the single greatest LP in music history.

Aquemini. Maybe the duo was back on earth, but their aspirations were still in the stars. But Dre had to remind you as soon as 4.0 told you to "Hold On, Be Strong" that even though he never left, 1998 would mark the "Return of the G". Proving that since it's like that now, "we just shoot game in the form of story raps now." Continuing a traditional of run-on word titles that approach your ears unconventionally, "SpottieOttieDopaliscious" brought spoken word poetry to a trumpeted triumphal forefront. But yet they could still go straight to the soul to find "Liberation" in whatever way imaginable with unimaginable instrumentation taking you there in conjunction with the amazing lyrics. You can only follow up classics with classics.

Stankonia. OutKast always was too much to simply just dwell on the surface. They had to travel 1,200 light-years below sea level to find their next medium. "Bombs Over Baghdad" was politically ahead of its time while "Ms. Jackson" became everyone's favorite chorus even though the message wasn't to be taken as so comfortably catchy. But even be taken by the fun and games could never distract from the investigation into the primal urges and non-existant inhibitions of man in the appropriately-titled one and a half minute "?". Social commentary never was so presentable and funkified, maybe because no two authors were ever "So Fresh, So Clean".

Big Boi & Dre Present ... Even in giving their greatest hits catalogue, they couldn't rest on their laurels. Andre straight prophesied in 2001 that "I'm out here knowin' hip hop is dead. The average [sucker] on my corner yellin' 'what the [heck] you mean?'" on "Funkin' Around". Coupled with the comparative circus-juxtaposing anthem "The Whole World" and the bluesy pre-project "Movin' Cool (The After Party)", nothing could stop these two from breaking the mold of already broken molds.

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The magnum opus of all artistic intentions if there ever was one. "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move" were about the 7th hottest track on each member's respective half of the double LP. It's absolutely impossible to beat this musical value of 39 tracks of pure personality of essential innovators. Big's "Reset" and Dre's intentionally inverted "A Life in the Day of Benjamin Andre" serve as genuine tales of introspective success quandaries. Who else even attempts those kinds of songs? Jay-Z even pays his respects on "Flip Flop Rock".

Idlewild. Wow. Not enough people have seen the movie. You're missing out. Unrestrainable creative juices applied towards a Prohibition-era movie concept. And they pulled it off in every nonconventional way possible while still reeling in Wayne and Snoop for a "Hollywood Divorce" warning. While riding on the exuberance of "The Train" or Broadway stylings of "PJ & Rooster", nothing delves further "In Your Dreams" or majestically retains the rhyming throne like "Mighty O". "God don't make no mistakes." "You ain't said nothin' slick to a can of oil." Real talk.

And that catches us up to the present with Big Boi's "Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty", an as-yet unnamed Andre 3000 project, and a brand spanking new 100% OutKast LP on the close horizon. My musical soul jumps just at the thought. The duo's latest offering of terminal non-disappointment is the single "Royal Flush". You can't beat it.

Here's a zip of every single song I just mentioned. I beg of you, buy one or all of their albums or just get up on OutKast in some way, shape, or form. This is only an iceberg tip of an entree of their music.

OutKasted Pt. 1 zip

OutKasted Pt. 2 zip

OuKast has the three most important artistic characteristics there are: talent, intelligence, and hunger. You can't name many other artists that have all three at the same time. Even remotely. "Styles will change." But one thing always remains: willingful outcasts. Did you remember that it's actually spelled with a 'c'? Ha!

... and so concludes another masterpiece

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