Hasta lasagna, don't get any on ya.

One last song to make yr New Years EXPLOSIVE.


Brian DePalma's Mission: Impossible was my favorite movie when it came out in '96. Shit was totally badass (and much better than the sequel) - gadgets and intrigue on the rainy streets of Prague, spies, THE NOC LIST IS IN THE OPEN!, pen-launched diuretics, Jon Voigt, "I'm gonna miss being disreputable," "Drake Hotel. Chicago," "They stamped it didn't they? Those damn Gideons," convincing latex faces, John McLaughlin cameo, miniarature cameras in eyeglasses, "If Max doesn't like what you have to say, you will be wearing that shroud indefinitely," double-crossings, moles, "Kittridge, you've never SEEN me 'very upset,'" explosive chewing gum, "Red light! Green light!" high-speed train antics, Jean Reno & Ving Rhames, "Everyone has pressure points, Barnes. You find something that's personally important to someone and... you squeeze," Langley acrobatics, stabbings and shootings in the dark on cobblestone streets, Jim's death at the bridge, carbombs, "Would you consider the cinema of the Caribbean? Aruba, perhaps?" beautiful Emmanuelle Béart, "Wake up, Claire! Jim's dead! He's dead! They're all dead!" drunk Russians on the embankment, the convoluted plot, the betrayal, the awesome DANNY ELFMAN soundtrack which is sampled for this rockass club jam:

Al Kapone + Mr. Sche feat. K-9 - On Da Flo

Pure Memphis club shit from Mr. Sche (pronounced like "scheme") and Al Kapone's album Showdown, released this past year and packed with ANTHEMS, stretching into similar territory to Hypnotized Minds-style goth club rap, thumping 808s and doubletime hi-hats, squirming synths and real raps, aural mean muggin. And smooth pimp raps riding sampled dark chirping soul ("Forever Pimpin' Hard"). "Thug Holiday" (video) has smoky synth production that sounds modern & Memphis, but moody and atmospheric like filtered basslines and mid-90s New York hardcore.

Sche is from Orange Mound, like 8ball and MJG, and he's done production work for 8ball, Tony Draper (Suavehouse) and other dudes from Memphis. His site is here. Al Kapone has been underrated in Memphis for a minute; he works a similar vein to Three-6 etc but has a unique edge, a sort of vigilante attitude vs. Hypnotized camp's posse approach. Hopefully Kapone's part in Hustle & Flow means a higher profile in the future. I've been feeling dude since Serg put me on to the Memphis Drama compilations a year or two back. Both of these are worth checking as well, especially for "Guerrilla Milk" with E-40 and "Grippin' the Wood":


The Memphis Drama sequel is much better than the Mission Impossible sequel which was some sub-James Bond Jr. biting bullshit. MI3 comes out in May and I don't think I'm gonna bother. Do check out Mr. Sche and Al Kapone's album Showdown which you can get for 11.99 here.

stay fly til 06

yeah this might be annoying but with all these motherfuckers making their stupid ass end of the year lists and shit I've decided that somanyshrimp is going to play Stay Fly automatically until new years day because it is better than everything else that is on all these shitty lists. If anyone else disagrees well fuck it. I'm just doing it that way cause it's I'm drinking right now and it sounds like a great idea to me.

When The Internet Raps

this came up when I searched for "internet rap"

When the internet raps it usually sounds like this retarded bullshit that this dumb broad Uffie makes. My assumptions about this girl maybe wrong but her sucking ass at music is not wrong. This girl discovered rapping by getting hip to MIA and grime music...oh and of course every hipsters favorite, the dirty south. Since she can't rap for shit, old lady in the wedding singer got more style than this girl, she has decided to add vocal effects to make her crap rhymes sound avant garde. Some internetters think she makes cool shit, those internetters are fucking stupid. Sideswept bangs to not make you a rapstar, hipstar maybe.

Sometimes when the internet raps it sounds like Cadence Weapon. From his humble beginnings as a shitty rap reviewer for pitchfork Rollie has blossomed into a majestic internet rapstar. Unlike Uffie, Rollie actually knows a little something about rapping and as a result his raps do not sound like total shit. He has recently released a brand new rap album that I don't know the name of because in true blogger fashion I downloaded the fuck out of his record. I never really checked any of the Cadence Weapon joints that he posted on the Razorblade Runner blog, like I knew dude made music but I never really checked what he was about. In my mind he was just this blogger who happened to rap and I didn't care to much. So I get my hands on his shit and much to my own surprise it's been getting some play around these parts. He's got a little of that pop and glitch going down on some tracks which is cool. A lot of times that shit gets on my nerves but with tracks like Diamond Cutter that are filled with fun static and raps about a girl that wants to fuck I can cope with it. My favorite joints are Black Hand and Julie Will Jump The Broom. I'm feeling that Black Hand beat. It's not anything super fancy some loops and this ridiculously corny horn but I'm all about. Oh Grim Fandango is also a dope cut, check that shit.

For those expecting mp3's fuck that shit. Go peep his site and/or blog, dude puts up enough of his own shit for you to get your fill. Or just buy the goddamn record.

congratulations

...to somanyshrimp.com writer Rob aka ICARUS who is now a father.

Dream World Of Magic

yeah peep this shit because it's funny and actually kind of dope. The rapping isn't the best but as far as what you would expect when standard white guys try to do the "hey it's funnier because we rap and front like we're hard" type shit this is actually funny and way better than anything paul barman will ever do in his life.

High Powered

Confusion - Mr. Kee, Duke Shiesty

So confused about living that million dollar dream. This album was released in january of this year. Nick Peace does a lot of beats for dre dog and the million dollar dream camp. I'm posting this track up because it just came up on my computer and I like it. It's got Nick laying down some of that slump for Kee and his cousin to rock. I probably should have posted this shit up when the record came out almost a year ago but that would have made too much sense so here you go.

dancing with the stars.

LOOK OUT

It's XMAS.

Trauma

"Ain't that the kettle callin' the pot round and hot? / ain't that the reason you bout to be found bound and shot?"


Check out those champ sweat-pant pockets.

If you talk about 'underrated' Quik is always mentioned, but everyone seems to be satisfied with it that way because after every beat he makes he stays there. Trauma shows him strong as ever, a year after some of his best beats laced that amazing Suga Free album, got in some drama and emerged with an album on par with his best. And it's not gonna be on many year-end lists, or if it does it'll be safely near the bottom. Meanwhile Quik languishes as if he was still in Dre's gigantic shadow, even though Quik is more California than Dre has been in ages, even if Dre's rep is un-toppleable.

"I transferred out of Compton high school with a gun in my pants ready for whatever comes and I'm prayin' I ain't gotta be the one shot up in the hospital simply because Compton never had one.
Fuck it."

Lyrically he still brings heat too, not as charismatic as Suga Free but similarly jokey and clever over beats that groove with rattling funk, not precise like Dre but slightly off, toddling around but always in the pocket. As usual Wyclef is the lone misstep but the rest of this is high-class. B-Real rocks the single "Fandango," which kicks off with a SWEET RIP (a SWEET RIP is also the name of a solid hit in Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball for N64) and shifts into horn-blasted Cali funk. High profile guest stars Game (still shoring up his Cali cred, surely aware that he's facing an uphill battle for a sophomore release sans Dre's focus and 50's hooks) and T.I. (pulling off "Indescretions in the Back of a Limo" with more skill than he usually supplies in the sex rap dept.) and Luda perfectly capturing cool California rolling lo-rider "just jumped out the shower" clean hot sunny Californ-i-day.

But Quik still has my favorite verses.

"Let me take a moment to tell you just what it is
C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A is the biz,
celebrity down to charity and back to the kids
every level of living status except for the mid,
a paradise situation (if thats what you make it)
red and blue equal yellow tape (if that's where you take it)
forest fires and earthquakes and man-made lakes
a prescription for chronic tonic to ease your aches
and if you dress right you can have the best night
two or three at a time and let the rest fight
the diamonds and red gold might give you a head cold
you freeze like a jello mold when you hit the light
On rosecrans you can't make a U-turn.
Cross the T flats and try to make new birds or shoot back
It's war and peace with no help from police
Either you restin' in peace or tryin' to conquer the streets
in California...."

So in the end Dre's shadow doesn't matter because Quik knows where his skills are and rides them hard - groove, pristine production, Cali atmosphere, quirky funk, funny gangsta high-pitched rapping with clever lyrics, love of his hometown and that unparalleled west coast vibe. Let's get Quik off the 'underrated' list for good please?!

DJ Quik feat. B Real - Fandango

Qualo

I'll be real: at first I dismissed these dudes, mostly because their music seemed underwhelming to me compared to the marketing copy, which still talks about them like they're gonna be all things to all people, this confusing angle about not being gangsta OR backpackers, conscious but not nerdy, etc! Post-'benz and a backpack' that was just too bandwagon for me.

But that's unfair because I think their music is actually good, and the copy is just selling it short. They were signed to Universal this year and two new tracks just leaked, "Favorite Things" and "Chocolate Tie," following in Kanye/Twista's footsteps by rolling with smooth and soulful grown-n-sexy mature style. Although most of the tracks I've heard slot comfortably in this vein, I'm looking forward to the album if only because of how ambitious they come across in interviews.

Qualo - My Favorite Things
I'm not wild about the interpolation for the chorus but the rapping is on point, Twista-style double-time and rolling, inspired production. A little bit of entertaining narcissism: "Gettin' head to my own damn song."

Qualo - Chocolate Tie
Here's a quick take: "Post-"Slow Jamz," Qualo pull off a mature trick recycling neo-soul with unexpected vibrancy." This has quietly become the sound of Chicago - Rhymefest's new album has Cool&Dre, Mark Ronson and Chicago producer No ID among others, and between those tracks, "Brand New," Qualo, Common's (mostly boring) Be, Lupe Fiasco, GLC and Bump J singles, it seems like this new Chicago underground is reveling in that Kanye-inspired smooth, relaxed & 'soulful' vibe that allows chart-ambition, underground style boom-bap/nostalgia. Right now I think its a style worth exploiting, but it could easily become insular and dull if some folks don't step up and do something totally different on the production tip.

We'll just have to see who gets out of the gate first, and if any of these neo-Chicago dudes can move from semi-hype to platinum. (The real question, then, is - where are Traxster, CWAL mob, EC Illa? Stay tuned.)

Here's their song with Twista.
Qualo feat. Twista - I Ain't a Pimp

with no remorse

Some folks talk shit about how I post grime and R&B on a rap blog, so I decided what the fuck, why not throw some house music into it too.

This song is from DJ Funk's 1995 CD Pumpin' the Trax which is full of the kind of wild dance music that Chicago was producing in the mid '90s, some of the craziest (and most compulsively jack-able) "ghetto house" you'll ever hear. This shit feels dirty, as it should, for dancing with girls your grandma would not respect you for knowing. You can still get 12"s of this shit at Gramaphone in Chicago, hometown-pressed white-label bangers.

But yeah because this is a rap blog and some of you are bitter motherfuckers about non-rap music, so I'm just gonna throw up one of the last cuts which is basically just pure gangsta shit, not really a booty beat to be found. What it does share with the jack house on the CD is a suitably dark and cold mood, like these fucking below-freezing windy city temperatures we've got now, where the landlord controls the radiators and I get heat for about 30 minutes a day. Creepy shifting bass tones and that chopped "No-no mothafuckin' looooove" sample, slight syncopated bounce that was novel in '95. Grimey.

Do or Die feat. Psycho Drama - No Love (g-rap)

New Eddie K

A while back my girlfriend started a new project called "vetv" which is going to be this short 10-15 minute show about records and rap related shit. The first episode features eddie k, mark of future primitive, dj rasta cue, and cool chris of groove merchant. The show will debute sometime early next year, they are pulling for january. It will be available online so you can get your internet on. Anyways the day of filming Eddie K hooks us up with a couple new tracks he's got. These are suppose to be on the next Gurp City EP. It's going to have 7 songs with 3 instrumentals and some accapellas featuring the likes of Baldhead Rick, Z-man, Luke Sick, Topr, Conceit, Philo and Blisterfist.

SF Hyphy
Eddie K on that bay shit getting cutesy for them folks in the club. I think if he can get this on the radio it might take off. The beat has these little electronic pellets that don't ever stop dropping and between versus you get a little wave of synth connecting everything together. Baldhead Rick does the chorus section of this joint. The song fucking bumps, I've been jamming this shit since I got a hold of it.

Move Those Jeans
It shouldn't be too hard to figure out what this song is about. The beat is built on those congos with Eddie K plushing it out. The beat has this off key whiney portion that is a little suspect but it's short so I just deal with it. This EP is suppose to drop January 1st so cop that shit because it going to be totally not shitty.

Pimp C is coming home

Pimp C has been approved for parole.

be happy for the man who we owe for the name of this shitty blog

just a little bit...

...of R&B before rap heads get mad, but the production on this song is out of this world. I'm guessing it's Tim & Bob again. The rest of the Trey Songz album is aite but uneven, this is definitely the best track, with floating graceful production smokily snaking around these heavy-ass column-like drums. Check the drum-and-bongo breakdown-bridge where Songz seems so impressed by that ass that he starts chanting about it, like a mantra. Ass mantra.

Trey Songz - Ur Behind

Yeah yeah I'll post some more hardcore raps tomorrow.