Charles Hamilton - reIntervention
Tracklisting:
1. Track 01
2. Track 02
3. Track 03
4. Track 04
5. Track 05
6. Track 06
... and do the John Wall.
Showing posts with label Phonte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phonte. Show all posts
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Linkin Parkilton
Charles Hamilton - reIntervention
Tracklisting:
1. Track 01
2. Track 02
3. Track 03
4. Track 04
5. Track 05
6. Track 06
... and do the John Wall.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Classic: Whatever You Say
I'm cheating on this one. I'm using it as a "classic" and a fake "sampled" joint. But you'll forgive me.
Little Brother - Whatever You Say (Pete Rock Remix)
Maxwell - Whenever, Wherever, Whatever
The middle of this remixed Little Brother joint has one of my top three Phonte verses of all time. I'm not gonna ruin it for you if you haven't heard it, but it has one of those closing lines that can instantaneously make you an annoying mixtape DJ ... "BRING THAT ISH BACK!!!
And Pete Rock beautifully laced it with a remix beat utilizing a song off of Maxwell's debut album. [As an aside, I don't think Urban Hang Suite is even a fraction as ridiculously and amazingly perfect as BLACKsummers'night. But that's just me.] You'll like it. You'll even sit through Big Pooh because you'll like it so much. I'm just joking. But not really. I don't have much else to say about it. It's classic and is one of those hip hop moments that you just need to know.
... but do take my word for it.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Genre
As it stands right now since I sent all my intros, interludes, outros, and production kits to the recycle bin, I got 18,518 songs sitting in the iTunes. And since I'm one of those OCD organizers who gotta have everything straight and accessible, I got each song labeled perfectly appropriately according to my mental categorization. As you can imagine, the rap/hip-hop tag was just simply not gonna work for me to tag as the genre for darn near every joint. So initially I split it up like any reasonable hip hop head would and got my compass on. East Coast, West Coast, Dirty South, Midwest, and Foreign. But that even got too cluttered. For real, Bay Area joints should not be mixed in with So Cal joints. That kinda stuff don't quite mix right. Or at all. And while I could have microcosm-ed the genre's down to boroughs in all honesty, I finally settled for a mixture of state, city, and general region dichotomy. It works. As long as you know where everybody's from of the top or got Wikipedia on your favorites bar. So just because I wanna, here's a list of my top five emcees (where applicable if I care about five whole people) from each of my hip hop genres on my personal overloaded iTunes.
Alabama: Rich Boy
Atlanta: Andre 3000, Cee-Lo, Big Boi, Bobby Ray, Killer Mike
Boston: Termanology, Guru
Canada: Shad, k-os, Drake
Carolina: Phonte, J. Cole, Joe Scudda, Median, Big Pooh
Chicago: Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Common, brandUn DeShay, GemStones
Detroit: Royce da 5'9", Eminem, Obie Trice, Elzhi, Big Sean
European:
Houston: Scarface, D.O.C., Chamillionaire, Devin the Dude, Bun B
Kansas: XV
Kentucky: CunninLynguists (group), Nappy Roots (group), Chris Campbell
Los Angeles: 2Pac, The Game, Crooked I, Blu, The KnuX (group)
Maryland: Wale, Sage Francis, Marky, Oddisee
Miami: QuESt, Smitty
Minnesota: P.O.S, Brother Ali, Slug, Young Son
Mississippi: David Banner
New Jersey: Lauryn Hill, Joe Budden, Wyclef Jean, Redman, Serius Jones
New Orleans: Jay Electronica, Lil' Wayne, Curren$y
New York: Rakim, Jay-Z, Charles Hamilton, MF Doom, Pharoahe Monch
Oakland: Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Boots Riley, Lateef
Ohio: KiD CuDi, Ilyas, Donwill, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (group)
Pennsylvania: Wiz Khalifa
Philadelphia: Black Thought, Jedi Mind Tricks (group), Asher Roth, Beanie Sigel, Freeway
Rhode Island:
Seattle: RA Scion
St. Louis: Wafeek
Tennessee: GRITS (group), Three 6 Mafia, Young Buck
Virginia: Praverb, Tonedeff, Clipse (group), Trey Songz, Skillz
... but do take my word for it.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Unexpired
I cannot tell a lie. I never got tired of "Buy U a Drank". It was impossible for me to. I don't know why. It's ridiculous. How could I put up with that God-awful drunken Mother Goose rhyming by Yung Joc over and over again? Was it because I knew that it was shortly leading into the think-about-it-walk-it-out bridge that I so dearly had the desire to act out and slow snap into conclusion? I'd need a lot of therapy time to discover why this song was so integral to my high school livelihood.
T-Pain - Buy U a Drank (Remix feat. Kanye West, UGK, & Trey Songz)
"Excuse me, but ... this verse has not been Russell Simmons approved ... uh uh." For everything the original represented to me as my clear cut second favorite song on the high school dance floor (first is "Walk It Out" cuz ... best believe I can walk it out ...), the remix represented the exact same to me in my car. I knew every Kanye line including the dumb intentional slur rhymes of hoe is/po' is/low is/Lois/bogus and standin' there/cameras/Amerie and Rodeo/day oh/monorail/ay yo that literally make me laugh out loud to myself when separating them out linguistically in context. I knew just enough of the UGK phoned-in verses to stall until I burst out belting the immaculately perfect Trey Songz intro of "what's yo name? I'm Tremaine" that amused me way more than it should. This song was a staple of my car rides with the women that got spun to death on my original iPod along with the two Unk remixes of "Walk It Out" and "2 Step". But the chant of "you know my bankroll gotta lotta zeroes" is a classic novelty to save for another time. Say what you want about the caricature he has become and the evils you may think he represents for R&B and hip hop as a whole, but Thelonius Pain [(c) Phonte] struck a chord with the entire world and me personally with this joint. And for that, I will eternally respect him. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, SNAP."
... but do take my word for it.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Snippet #1: Put On?
This is just a super short styled entry I might make a series if I have enough random interesting questions. Nothing like how extensive the Drake post went, though.
Question: How many crazy big features and co-signs can you get without ever hitting mainstream whatsoever?
I mean, I'm sure he's over it by now, but if you ever find out then I think Phonte would like to know. Here's a random assortment of some of dude's musical collaborations on his and their albums:
Kanye West, Lil' Wayne, Drake, will.i.am, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, AZ, Blu, Royce da 5'9", DJ Shadow, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, DJ Jazzy Jeff
The Alchemist, Buckshot, Consequence, Cormega, CunninLynguists, Elzhi, Hi-Tek, Jean Grae, Kardinall Offishall, Masta Ace, Murs, Rhymefest, Sean Price, Slum Village, Witchdoctor, 88 Keys
A-Trak, Akrobatik, Anthony David, Darien Brockington, DJ Khalil, eMC, Eric Roberson, Evidence, Fakts One, Flying Lotus, Oddissee, Joe Scudda, Kenn Starr, Median, Kev Brown, Supastition, Kidz in the Hall, Playaz Circle, Stat Quo, Jake One, Chaundon, Wordsworth, Skillz, Statik Selektah, Tanya Morgan, Yahzarah, United Soul, 4hero
... but do take my word for it.
Ruining a Good Thing
Question: Is it possible that simply by becoming the "in" thing, that someone could lose all credibility and likability?
That's what I've been struggling with the last few months as a certain former teen-drama star has become the new Lil' Wayne in hip hop. Drake. Right then you either fawned to near fainting, began awkwardly singing "Best I Ever Had", said "that boy's the future", or you all the sudden got a bad taste in your mouth. I happen to now fall in the very last category. When I intro'd dude for the first time on my blog, he was catching stride but not yet even close to a household name. Now he's ... a household name. Somehow his mixtapes completely transformed without ever being touched in my iTunes. Three efforts by an up-and-coming artist, only known to teenage girls as "Wheelchair Jimmy" on Degrassi, used to be overlooked and darn near underground classics. The guy could throw around a metaphor pretty hard and then later came on with a little bit of singing to balance this catchy, well-rounded approach to his music that could possibly hit a target demographic pretty effectively if given the right lane.
Apparently the right lane was a bunch of songs with Lil' Wayne. The tattooed gremlin freak who has been inauspiciously running commercial and internet rap music since a garbage feature on the Destiny's Child comeback single, "Soldier", had a new lil'er bro who he wanted the world to hear. A few featured autotuned moans and poop metaphors later and the entire world now had a face to the future of hip hop! A dying genre was now renewed and the balance of power was settled as insurance just in case Kanye stayed eight-oh-eighting while his heart kept breaking. He had a brand new revolutionary sound that would push rap into the next decade and provide the next generation of dudes a role model and girls a heart throb.
And just what did this new musical savior bring to the game that wasn't being brought before? On his breakthrough street single, "Brand New", he sang in autotune while questioning if any of his sexual advances and techniques were of different quality than his woman's past experiences. It's just what the world needed; a rapper using the T-Pain voice to sing about sex! Oh, but it didn't stop there! How did the prodigy follow up his magnificent foray into the spotlight? He dropped a guest verse on the Young Money posse cut, entitled "Every Girl", in which the chorus is "Cuz we like her, and we like her too ... I wish I could f*** every girl in the world, I wish I could f*** every girl in the world, I wish ..." and he asks the given girl he's met at this party to remind him of her name because he's exceeded his quota of alcoholic beverages, passing the threshold of sobriety, and can't separate her from the multitude of sexual playthings he's met at that given party/club/bar/orgy. I don't know about you, but I think the music industry has sorely been depraved of misogynistic binge-drinking anthems. And with such lyricism that hasn't been seen in ages, I can't wait until the Kidz Bop version has been unleashing to fully tap this song's teaching potential to a broader audience. But Drake wasn't content with simply tearing down these two previously unapproached walls in rap music; he had a third single as a clincher to cement himself in legendary, boundary-destroying hip hop lore forever.
"Best I Ever Had" is his current radio-dominating hit, a groundbreaking love story of a successful man who has an amazing relationship with a woman whom he cares for very much. Their relationship is so well founded that they skip all other antics and get straight to the Fred Flintstone (... bed-rocking). She's so proficient in the acts in which they partake that the man passionately indulges to her that she is "the f***in' best, you the f***in' best, you the f***in' best, you the f***in' best, you the best I ever had." But that's where the plot thickens to a level of unparalleled genius. The woman gets hounded by her best friends because, though the man cares for her deeply, he seems to be eerily unreliable in how much he's actually there to spend quality time with her. And on top of that, there are ... rumors going around. Is it possible? Could he in any sense of humanity actually be unfaithful? A successful entertainer who only shows up for physical favors and could possibly be doing the same with other self-respecting, strong women ... how could that be? And that's when it hits you! Spoiler: This story is not only about the individual woman in verse one! The man tells every woman that he has sexual encounters with that she is the best he has ever had! Do you get it? Oh, the irony. This Drake fellow is on some other level of musical ingenuity that simply cannot be touched or even fathomed by anyone in the game right now. It's quite remarkable. And that's not even speaking of the video he and Kanye dropped for it (which I'll let this parody video explain).
Now let me do my clean up on this smidgen of a column I got going right here. I have no problem with Drake's music. He defined his sound before the radio spins came into play, so I can't exactly call him a sellout as the music that's becoming popular was made prior to everything. Now while he's sonically inseparable from a Trey Songz/Weezy ripoff to me, that's beside the point. I respect his catchy song-constructing ability and the fact that he's taken full advantage of the connects that he's assembled in the industry. He has all the right in the world to become a huge artist and get more money than any other new rapper going. I mean, I still sweat his joint "Successful" with Songz, regardless of everything I just wrote. But what I don't respect is the average unintelligent music fan who puts Drake on a pedestal above anyone else in the game. Do not act as if he's the only emcee out there who can hold a tune. Cee-Lo, Phonte, Andre 3000, Mos Def, and plenty others should burn down your house if you do. Do not act as if dude's spit game is actually that nice. He goes for easy punchlines with an actual, respectable eye-opening line sprinkled in every third verse or so. And while he's going to be getting features on everybody's singles approximately for the next two and a half years, do not claim that he's doing something to change the game, no matter how Jay-Z, Mary J, or Jamie Foxx would tell you differently to coercively promote their personal ventures pending on dude's buzz. My God. I will personally shoot you in the face with a Nurf gun full of appropriately shaped glass shards if you do.
Alright ... I'm done. Go back to humming along with that stupid song on the radio with your idiot bandwagoning friends. You're the reason I can no longer enjoy that stupid So Far Gone mixtape that I used to actually play on repeat. Ugh.
... but do take my word for it. iTunes Drake "Best I Ever Had" link
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Lust for Life
Who knows if they're samples or Charlie re-did the Drake beat. I mean ... I could prolly just ask him ... but I haven't written an entry the whole summer, so that shows you how lazy I've been. Either way, they're both fire. I wrote up a piece on Drake awhile back and since then he's legitimately exploded on the scene. Just saw him the other night with Jamie Foxx on the new Conan Tonight Show (which I'm extremely impressed with so far). But you know what ... I ain't really feeling Drake anymore.
Drake - Lust for Life
Charlie Hilton - Smart to Talk to God (feat. brandUn DeShay)
I know it's blasphemous to say nowadays since he's still publicly brand new, but all the adoration surrounding him bores me. His music is definitely welcomed by me on the radio; I'm all for that. But people are talking foolish now that he's the best out like he's doing anything different than anyone else ... which he's not. He's got his own thing going, but he isn't pushing any boundaries (good or bad) that haven't already been pushed by Phonte, Lil' Wayne, or Trey Songz. He's nice, but ain't that nice.
But who cares. Both these tracks are nice.
... put 'em both together and you got yourself a super spork.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Jealous Love
I absolutely loved the following tracks individually and wanted to slap myself when I didn't realize they used the same sample after reading Talib's liner notes on Right About Now. They both take powerful lines from Bobby Womack's 1975 song "Jealous Love". All the MCs involved are ridiculously nice. I think Jean Grae destroys it something else though.
"Where you gonna run ... ? Where you gonna hide ... ?" It kinda sucks cuz you know both producers knew they struck gold when they originally mixed their respective tracks. Just happened that 9th Wonder's got on wax with LB before J. Cardim's did. And, like I said, both tracks are bonkers, but once I heard Jean spit, "Ten years deep and my tenure's still deep. My bad, I'm sorry, I don't like when phrases repeat." Uh! But Phonte slaps it nasty, too (of course), so which do you like better? Oh, and the picture with this post was just the first thing to pop up on Google images when I searched where you gonna run. The picture actually had something to do with the Nina Simone song, "Sinnerman", but oh well.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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?
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.
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Cipher: Bittersweet
In its short three years of existence, the "Cipher" series has gained quite a bit of recognition as the solely reserved non-industry segment on the BET Hip Hop Awards. On the surface that's all quite apparent. While it's sad that grouping legitimate emcees in a celebration of the true foundation of rap is relegated to a few two minute segments yearly, I'm obviously happier that BET puts them together rather than not. And all praise for DJ Premier scratching every year.
BET Cipher Series - feat. Everybody
But I still feel I'm watching an eerily sold out product even though I enjoy every single addition to the series. It seems that BET makes this the annual equivalent of "Saturday sinners, Sunday morning at the feet of the father." (c) Talib Kweli
It's like the producers are trying to make up for all of the garbage they flood the masses with every single day by putting together a cut that'll have all the hip hop heads celebrating. Here are a few reasons why I so strongly get that vibe in elaboration after I've just got done bobbing my head and cheering.
1. Rappers are prominently featured that BET could absolutely not care any less about.
There was a big debacle that I remember awhile back about a Little Brother video being blacklisted from the station because their video was, infamously quoted, "too intelligent." Fans were in a big ole uproar over it, especially since The Minstrel Show was just such a monstrously dope album altogether. But when the next year came around, Phonte got a lead spot in a cipher. A more recent and even quicker-responding example is Q-Tip, whose video was also disgustingly quoted as being ... "different" as a reason for why it wasn't on online polls to be put on 106 & Park. And guess who gets a closing cipher appearance before his album even drops?
2. Nothing wrong with international rappers, but interlingual?
There's just something about a rapper spitting in Japanese while the dudes around her "ooh" and "uh" as if they're hanging on every punchline. For me personally, it's hard enough to pay attention to Dizzee Rascal's heavy accentuation, much less the aforementioned Hime or the French Flo or K'naan slipping into Somalian. Unless Fuse TV is on the brink of buying out BET, these artists have no chance of ever getting another two milliseconds on the station. And I'm serious, Willy Northpole was sweating Hime's tanka usage.
3. Hurricane Chris got a spot in there ...
Yeah. I know everybody's waiting for next year's Rakim-Lady Sovereign-Soulja Boy spit down.
Now I just gotta say it again, I absolutely love these cipher segments! But you know when something seems a little too good to be true and you just know the motives behind it are in no way honorable? I can't complain about the final aired product, though. I'll suffer through an I-don't-know-why-everybody's-bigging-upping-him Ace Hood verse if it means there's gonna be a Lupe, Rhymefest, or Jadakiss to come correct afterwards. Maybe if BET replaced Rap City with some form of a Cipher show that actually showcased real talent on a regular basis then I'd shut my mouth and actually enjoy the thing.
They say the game got the belly of a beast ... (c) Lupe Fiasco
... and so concludes another masterpiece
... and so concludes another masterpiece
Monday, September 22, 2008
Classic: Backstage Girl
Before I go to sleep only to wake up a couple hours later to finish homework, I'm going to post this beautiful nugget of a song.
This song is by DJ Shadow featuring Phonte from Little Brother and Foreign Exchange and Zo! & Tigallo (busy dude! AND does a dope podcast) off of the album The Outsider. It was once said to be my favorite song ever. A claim I'm not sure if I disagree with today. Shadow orchestrated magically up and down through the uses of any and every sound and influence imaginable, while Phontiga weaves in and out perfectly. It's just a perfect song. No other way to put it. Much respect to everyone who makes working the turntables an awe-inspiring art form.
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