Tag: hip hop

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, New Albums, New Tunes, podcast

September Album of the Month: Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium Vol. 1

Posted on by nolankane706

This month we’re delving into Common and Pete Rock’s  The Auditorium Vol. 1. There have been times throughout history that the human race didn’t know how much we actually needed certain super combinations (individually doing well on their own, but even better with the perfect match). Salt & pepper, fish & chips, milk & cookies, David & striped t-shirts.

Much like the aforementioned, both Pete Rock and Common have had long heralded music careers spanning over 30 years which individually are eye watering. Both have had multi generational successes in the underground and mainstream. From Pete Rock’s historic track T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You), production with Nas on Illmatic, Run DMC, House of Pain, and Kendrick Lemar there is a constant Pete Rock essence throughout music culture constantly. Common has released 15 albums to date. A mainstay within the (new) native tongues, Common has been a long time collaborator with the likes of De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli, Black thought, etc. whilst also maintaining muse stature of some of the best producers in hip hop; No ID, J Dilla, Kanye and of course Pete Rock. You can add three Grammy Awards, and Academy Award a Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Award to his achievements (did I mention he is also a pretty good actor?)…..Whilst writing this I wonder to myself if these two need any introductions at all?

Not resting on their laurels, they continue a steady output of creativity within hip hop and beyond. If you want some insight to the history of both Common and Pete Rock and their respective parts within hip hop’s story I encourage you to listen to them on Drink Champs (though you’ll need a spare 4 hours), it’s not only entertaining but mind blowing how involved they are within the cultures history. One key thing that shines through in the interview is not only each artist’s deep history within hip hop, but their love of the music and the culture. This is evident throughout The Auditorium Vol. 1.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of buzz in the build up to the albums’ release. Since world of the album broke in late 2023, expectations were high for the project being released from two of hip hop’s most respected sons. Drenched with inspiration from the golden era of hip hop (the 90’s), the album delivers arguably some of the best music both artists have released their heralded careers. Differing from recent hip hop albums we have discussed, this offering isn’t as dense. Pete Rock’s well-orchestrated laid back beats compliment Common’s welcoming narrative flow.

From the get go, all that is good in hip hop shines through on the lead track Dreamin.

There is a lovely sprinkling of soul throughout the album. Tracks like This Man, Fortunate and Now and Then not only compliments Common’s laid back story telling —-(flow)— but also highlights Pete Rock’s sample prose and highlights why he has been long heralded as one of the best beat makers in hip hop for both his production and ear to match the perfect beat with the MC he’s working with. Not forgetting their roots, they delve into the boom bap on tracks like Wise Up, Chi-Town and Stellar, reminding that a strong sample and well executed scratching can be all you need for the perfect hip hop track matched with one of Hip Hop’s most consistent MC’s is a wonderful thing.

A smorgasbord of exception tracks, the stand out for me is All Kind Of Ideas. Sliding in with its subtle bass line and clinical scratch of Rakim’s ‘all kinda ideas’, we’re welcomed by a rare 18 bars from Pete Rock ‘I’m soul brother uno, black from the future. Make beats on the table if I break my computer and still make hits like I used to. Keep your top five, I’m god’s favourite producer’. One for the hip hop heads, the song instantly puts a smile on my face.

Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s T.R.O.Y. is one of my favourite songs of all time, and Common’s Resurrection is one of my favourite albums of all time. There was a high bar for this album in my mind. Has it been met, yes and more. The Auditorium Vol. 1 is super accessible. It’s the kind of album that people that ‘sort’ of like hip hop will love whilst giving everything you want out of a positive conscious hip hop album. Common’s positive lyrics and Pete Rocks refreshing beats have served up an album that is a ray of light. I’m still early into this album, but it’s already one of the stand outs for 2024 for me.

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat

JULY HIP HOP 50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: De La Soul – Buhloone Mind State

Posted on by misterstory

This month we’re all picking our favourite Hip Hop album to celebrate the genre’s 50th Birthday. We’re NOT picking ‘the best’ or ‘the most hipster’ or the ‘one with the most singles on it’ etc etc. It has to be personal, it has to be ‘our’ and it has to be ‘favourite’. For me, there is not too much debate on my choice. Well, ok, there was a little debate. I too, like David struggled with a Public Enemy album but mine would be Apocalypse ’91 which is almost nobody else’s favourite PE album. But being true, I had to pick Buhloone Mind State.

I bought this, on CD from John Menzies in Aldridge in 1993. I guess that means I was 16 and I guess that means that due to the release date I had just started my A levels. I had barely listened to De La Soul for 5 years. I wasn’t a huge 3 Feet High and Rising fan. It has a place in my heart and in my history but SOOOOOO many skits. Obviously it had a HUGE impact on music, on Hip Hop and on culture in general. It was important. I was mostly listening to Sonic Youth and the Pixies at this stage. I was starting to explore electronica. But something made me buy this album and it has been with me ever since. I wish I could chart the consistency of which I play this album cause I think it would be a surprisingly frequent and regular listen over the past 30 years. Albums have memories attached to them, my memories attached to this album span 30 years!

So what is it? It’s De La Soul’s 3rd album. And its a ‘proper’ album. Its a coherent body of work with productions credits going to Prince Paul and perhaps his best work? (Handsome Boy Modelling School?). The album has recurring musical, lyrical and emotional themes. It’s an exploration of Hip Hop, of music, of De La Soul’s treatment by the music industry. It’s about 3 musician’s growing up.

At first it can sound like a bag of ideas, not all of which are expressed fully formed but in my mind all of the ideas on this album are fully explored, they are just not explored within the confines of one track. Motifs are introduced on one track, carried through to another and finally resolved in yet another. The tracks on this album could only ever appear in the order that they do. There is no debate. Sorry. If you listen to this on shuffle, we need to speak.

It’s got just about everything you could want from any album. It’s introspective (without that introspection every wandering up it’s own arse), it’s genuinely innovative, it’s funny, it’s heart breaking, it’s educational, it’s 48 mins but feels much less. It’s a joy.

It’s also pretty dark in places. A repeated notion is the their frustration with constantly being asked to ‘cross over’. ‘Why are N***** always crossing over something huh? I mean what’s the matter huh? They can accept our music as long as they can’t see our faces’. This theme appears through out the album and is a clear reference to the expectations of the industry following the success of 3 Feet and then the critical reception to De La Soul is Dead.

Let’s also hear it for Maceo Parker ‘who be blowin’ the soul out of this horn’.

David has asked if ‘I am I be’ is the best Hip Hop album track of all time. I ask, is it the best Hip Hop track of all time? It is the beautiful, perfect resolution to many of the motifs explored on the album, they all point to this piece of Hip Hop perfection. If you ever find yourself in an argument with a mouth breather about the importance of Hip Hop as a credible art form, just ask them to sit down and listen to this. You might want to share the Posdnous’s first verse lyrics and ask them to reconsider their opinion;

I am Posdnous
I be the new generation of slaves
Here to make papes to buy a record exec rakes
The pile of revenue I create
But I guess I don’t get a cut cuz my rent’s a month late
Product of a North Carolina cat
Who scratched the back of a pretty woman named Hattie
Who departed life just a little too soon
And didn’t see me grab the Plug Tune fame
As we go a little somethin’ like this
Look ma, no protection
Now I got a daughter named Ayana Monet
And I can play the cowboy to rustle in the dough
So the scenery is healthy where her eyes lay
I am an early bird but the feathers are black
So the apples that I catch are usually all worms
But it’s a must to decipher one’s queen
From a worm who plays groupie and spread around the bad germ
I cherish the twilight
I maximize, my soul is the right size
I watch for the power to run out on the moon
(And that’ll be sometime soon)
Faker than a fist of kids
Speakin’ that they’re black
When they’re just niggas trying to be Greek
Or some tongues who lied
And said “We’ll be natives to the end”
Nowadays we don’t even speak
I guess we got our own life to live
Or is it because we want our own kingdom to rule?
Every now and then I step to the now
For now I see back then I might have acted like a fool
Now I won’t apologize for it
This is not a bunch of Brady’s
But a bunch of black man’s pride
Yet I can safely say
I’ve never played a sister by touching where her private parts reside
I’ve always walked the right side of the road
If I wasn’t making song I wouldn’t be a thug selling drugs
But a man with a plan
And if I was a rug cleaner
Betcha Pos’d have the cleanest rugs I am

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat

JULY HIP HOP 50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: Q-Tip – The Renaissance

Posted on by GuyHornsby
Q-Tip’s The Renaissance

How to feel old? Realise that hip-hop turns 50 and that when it was born you weren’t even (quite) alive. But it feels pretty incredible to be celebrating a genre of music so wide and vast that is just as strong as a pop-cultural touchstone, a movement, a social bedrock and so much more. So we had to try and pick something out ourselves to celebrate it all.

It shouldn’t be any surprise to listeners of the podcast that I am not the biggest hip-hop head of the four of us. In fact if Joey, David and Nolan are all dipping for the line, I’m still sauntering around the home straight. But this doesn’t mean I don’t love it: I adore so many cuts from its five decade history. But while everyone else was getting into Nas, Public Enemy, NWA or KRS-One, my nerdy teenage self was, well, into pop music, indie and guitars. Yes, I saw the odd track on Top of the Pops, and the Chart Show, even the safest on Now albums (though White Lines is gloriously on Now 3, which I have on vinyl at home), but like dance music, it wasn’t until I went to university that this really changed. So for one, I was a late starter, and for another point, for a long time I was a singles man. So many bangers, so much great tracks through the late 90s and into the 2000s, but did I even own an album before the new millennium? No, I did not.

Given we are all choosing our favourite hip-hop album for Episode 34 of the podcast, unlike the other four, narrowing it down to even ten, I was struggling to even pick 10 I owned and knew. We’ve reviewed some brilliant, epochal albums on the blog before: Kendrick’s To Pimp A Butterfly is a modern classic, RTJ’s RTJ4 was the first episode of what would end up as the podcast, 3 years and counting. We’ve covered Rapsody, Mac Miller, Skyzoo, Apollo Brown, Little Simz, Gangstarr, N.E.R.D, Loyle Carner, Tribe…. in fact I’d go as far as saying that this blog and podcast single-handedly got me into hip-hop albums so amen to that!

But picking one that came to me via elsewhere, nominated by someone else, never felt right, however much I loved it (Tribe’s glorious comeback We Got It From Here was a flirtation though). So I had to go back to the slim pickings and actually work out what I liked in the end that was truly ‘mine’. There were some great albums, just not many! I loved Jurassic 5’s J5, a 1998 classic that I still play now. But while it was fine, it wasn’t one that would want me reaching for the repeat button. Of course, by the 90s and 2000s, I owned classics like 3 Feet High, It Takes A Nation Of Millions, Midnight Marauders, and I’d got and loved Beastie Boys long players, but I wanted to pick one I was there from the start with, and in the end, with my love of sample-based, Native Tongues-adjacent rap, it could only be Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, from 2008.

Now, if you asked me what my two favourite hip-hop acts were, it would be easy to answer: De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. They were incredible musicians, they went against the grain of so much hardcore and hood/gangsta hip-hop that didn’t really connect with me. But I remember seeing De La and that departure from what I thought hip-hop was, as they played with samples, conscious lyrics and it changed things for me. Tribe were not far behind. But in 2008, Q-Tip, their beating heart, released his second solo album: The Renaissance. I pretty much fell in love with it at the time. Melodies and hooks? Tick. Samples galore: tick. Q-Tip’s distinctive flow all on his own? Yep. Funk? HELL YEAH. And then some perfectly pitched guests – D’Angelo, Raphael Saadiq, and (even) Norah Jones. BINGO.

That was enough to get me in, but why is it so good? Because whatever others think – and it’s definitely considered a classic – there’s so many reasons to adore this record. For one, it is so optimistic. It arrived after Obama got into the White House – even with a sample of one of his speeches on Shaka – and seemed to evoke so much of what we all hoped would happen (and that really didn’t). Contrast it with the fantastic comeback from Tribe – We Got It From Here in 2016, to see just how far the world had fallen. From the opening bars of Johnny Is Dead, with its cascading guitar chords and that so distinctive flow (‘What good is an ear if a Q-Tip isn’t it it?’, indeed!) breaking into the harmonies in the chorus. It is simply life-affirmingly good. I challenge anyone to listen and not come out of it feeling better.

It just has so much life, energy, positivity and goodness. The bumping Won’t Trade, trading on soul vocals and Gettin’ Up’s sun-drenched vibes (with that great Black Ivory Sample) it just has you nodding and wondering where this album has been all your life. Across 46 minutes (my perfect hip-hop album length, no hour plus stuff, this is just tight and fizzes along) it goes from introspective break-ups (You), funk and soul half-songs (WeFight/WeLove), the Can-sampling ManWomanBoogie’s head-nodding brilliance (giving props to all the great artists along the way), Move’s all-out maximalism sampling the Jackson 5, and slower jams Life Is Better and Believe. Arguably its strongest effect is from the Dance On Glass, (picking up the hypocrisy of the industry, ‘ The people at the label say they want something to repeat / But all my people really want something for the streets’) with its first minute of just pure unaccompanied flow.

For an album that’s 15 years old, it still absolutely pops. There’s so much to enjoy about it, and it’s so musical, some of the tracks almost songs in their own right, even if its’ a guest vocal or sample, and with Tip let loose to do what he wanted. It’s an artist still at their top of their game, and enjoying the freedom of a solo project. It came with a lot of pressure and history, given a decade after his solo debut, Amplified, and label-denied false starts (the jazzy Kamal the Abstract from 2001 was a niche masterpiece for me too), the Renaissance came with a lot of expectation and delivered. It was when Tribe were on hiatus too, so for a creative like Q-Tip, it must’ve been a real release to put something out so good.

Talking about it ten years on, in an interview with the NME, he mused about where he was and what the album meant: “The Renaissance was about dealing with classic colloquialisms about self.…. I wanted the music to have a sound that stood the test of time, it was all about our humanity. It felt like I had re-entered hip hop. At the time I exited, music was vastly different.” In 2008, it was all about Kanye, Jay-Z, Lil’ Wayne, a world from Tribe’s heyday. But he delved into not just some of the usual subject matter, but Renaissance was a much more personal album that I’d expected: “You” was hard to go through, but easy to recount. It’s much like going through a break up and telling your boy what happened as therapy. That was to one of my ex-girlfriends, actually.” So it had layers beyond the samples, or the flow. And that’s why I still come back to it.

It’s been a total joy to get back into it. I must have rinsed it 20+ times in the last 6 weeks and I could let it go back round again and again. While I struggle to stick with hip-hop albums, this feels so easy. It has so much of everything I love about the genre in it, and it has an infectious positivity and outlook that seems to be in scant supply 15 years later, with so much of hip-hop on a much darker tip than the time of Tribe and De La (not that they didn’t talk about reality, of course). So it’s a ray of sunshine, a classic artefact of the best of hip-hop, a slice of pre-Trump goodness we could all benefit from a listen to.

And that’s why it’s got my vote.

Posted in Album of the Month, Music chat, podcast

Podcast Episode 29 | Ab Soul | Herbert

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025 – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Festive Greetings from This Is Not Happening and welcome to our year-end, 2025 wrap-up episode. As always we split the pod into Part 1 and Part 2.Part 1 features our Top 10 favourite albums of 2025. We use a proprietary algorithm to create our list our collective favourite albums, we're talking nascent data-science excellence! Every year it throws up some surprises as our tastes are so different (and in some ways so similar.Part 2 features a festive Spin It or Bin It. We each bring a candidate for track of the year and ask the age old question 'Spin It or Bin It' … will anyone really bin anyone elses Track of the Year? Probably.To retain the tension, I won't share any spoilers here … other than to share a 40 track playlist of some of our favourite 2025 tracks … here.Whatever you do at this time of year, who ever you do it with … have a good one.Please join us in January where we will go back to the usual format of Album of the Month + Spin It or Bin It.We've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. EP. 63 | Our Top 10 Albums of 2025
  2. EP. 62 | Juniper | Joy Crookes
  3. EP.61 | Blood Orange | Essex Honey
  4. EP.60 | Wet Leg | Moisturizer
  5. EP.59 | Little Simz | Lotus

Our first AOTM episode in 2023 finds us exploring Ab Soul’s ‘Herbert’ in Part 1 and we focus on New Music for ‘Spin It or Bin It’ in Part 2.

Part 1 | Album of the Month | Ab Soul | Herbert

It’s Nolan’s choice this month and he’s taking us to his spiritual home – Hip Hop with Ab Soul’s late 2022 release, ‘Herbert’. For once, we’re all coming to this artist pretty fresh . Nolan’s been banging on about the singles from this album for like 6 months so giving the album some extended love seems a natural choice.

If you’ve not heard it, we think it’s well worth a listen …

  • Go listen to the album – Here
  • Go watch some videos – Here
  • Go buy some merch – Here 

Our discussion focuses on how we’d describe the album, mental health, suicide and how these topics impact the album, the length of the album, the bangers and of course we touch on a few of the clangers too.

We mention a few things that we’d highly recommend checking out, so here are the links;

  • YouTube interview with Charlamagne Tha God – Here
  • GQ interview – Here
  • Joey’s alternative, 10 track playlist that focuses on the bangers – Here
  • Guy’s alternative, 11 track playlist that focuses on the narrative – Here

Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | ‘New Music’ (Nov ’22 onwards)

We all pick a tack based on a theme and present to the rest of us to ask the simple question, Spin it or Bin it? The theme this month is a simple one ‘New Music’. The only rule is that the track has to be released after November 2022. We chose albums from as far a field as Doncaster and Russia.

  1. David chose – ‘Nothing Left to Loose’ by Everything But the Girl 
  2. Nolan chose – ‘Like a Heart Won’t Beat’ by Skinny Pelembe  
  3. Joey chose – ‘Let’s Hold Our Hands Together’ by Kito Jempere
  4. David chose – ‘Gorilla’ by Little Simz

Next Month

David is in the hot seat for AOTM and he’s bringing Rozi Plain’s new album ‘Prize’ to the table. We’re all getting stuck in and seeing how we live with the album for a month or so. In Part 2, ‘Spin It or Bin It?’ will be a good one too … the theme next month is Protest Music.

We’ve been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/

Posted in Album of the Month

AOTM | Sudan Archives | Natural Brown Prom Queen

Posted on by misterstory

… and the award for the best album title of 2022 goes to … Sudan Archives ‘Natural Brown Prom Queen’.

Sudan Archives, AKA Brittany Parks, is a 28 year old, musical force of nature from Cincinnati, Ohio but now based in LA. Natural Brown Prom Queen is her 2nd album and it’s getting significant and well deserved attention from the press, live audiences … and This Is Not Happening. This album is a rollercoaster ride, it’s wild, frenetic, original, chaotic, ridiculously high energy, high concept, totally individual, ambitious, and above all massive fun. It fuses Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Dance, sounds of the 90s, early naughties, contemporary times … and perhaps even the future.

If you’ve not yet heard the album, have a listen here (other streaming platforms are available).

Two pods ago, David chose ‘Topless’, the first single off the album, as his selection for ‘Spin it or bin it’. I think we all ended up spinning it but we had an interesting discussion in getting there. Topless is a brave choice for the albums’ first single as it is so divisive, I can’t imagine anyone not having a pretty strong opinion about this track. I said something along the lines of ‘this is either the best or the worst track that anyone has chosen for Spin it or bin it’. Making your mind up about the track is a lot easier if you only listen to it, when you watch the video too, it’s close to sensory overload. Therefore, I’d recommend you first listen to the track here but you can also dive straight in to the video here …

There’s a lot going on isn’t there? While this track isn’t wholly representative of the album it does point you in the right direction.

The album is 18 tracks and 54 mins long. As Nolan has pointed out, this is pretty much standard Hip Hop / R&B album length these days. But also, this kind of length has caused problems before when we’re digesting previous albums of the month. It’s much easier to digest a tight 35-40 minute album if you’re tackling a new artist or something that’s not your natural musical tastes. Brother Guy, I’m thinking of you here. And the 54 mins of this album can hardly be described as ‘easy listening’. There is so much going on here that it asks quite a lot of the listener, even if this does fall into your natural wheel-house.

For me, the 18 tracks on the album fall into 3 different phases of the album. This is something that we’ve discussed quite a lot on Whats App and I am sure will be a central point of the pod. But here are the ‘phases’ as I hear the album.

Phase 1: Track 1 (Homemaker) to Track 8 (OMG Britt)

Phase 2: Track 9 (Chevy S10) to Track 13 (Do Your Thing)

Phase 3: Track 14 (Freakalizer) to Track 18 (#513)

With such a long album I often get interrupted when I listen and don’t get as many ‘all the way through’ runs with the album as I’d like. Therefore I tend to chop the album up and the above has begun to feel like a natural(ish) division. I don’t think for a second that Ms. Parks designed it like that but it’s the reality of my listening experience.

In short, the first 3rd contains all of the singles – Topless, Selfish Soul and OMG Britt. As with so many albums these days, it’s front loaded with the hook laden, immediate attention grabbing (perhaps not ‘radio friendly’) singles. Let’s take a quick minute to talk about Selfish Soul. This is a mega track. It’s got a similar attitude, vibe and bounce to ‘Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ and like that track is close to impossible to sit still to. But, it’s also weird AF. Or perhaps ‘wonky’ as Brother David would put it. It also touches on subject matter that I’ve never heard covered like this before.

As we always do, we love to share brilliant content from other blogs, websites and pods … I MASSIVELY encourage you to listen to the Song Exploder episode on this track which you can listen to here. It’s fascinating listening to Brittany talk about the recording process – her working alone in her home recording studio and sending the track to producers and remixers who do their thing, totally independently and send it back to her. She then picks and chooses what she likes and what she doesn’t. Whilst I am sure it’s not a unique approach its certainly not a common form of ‘collaboration’ that I’ve come across. However, you can definitely hear the hand of many creatives in this album … but their input seems to be moderated and modulated by Sudan Archives to create the final product that we hear and is totally hers.

One more track to call out from this first third … only cause you’re going to hear us speak about this so much more on the Pod is OMG Britt. David and I love it but Guy hates it with a passion I’m not sure I’ve seen before (sorry Nolan not sure what you think about it yet). Sudan Archives is at her spikiest and most aggressive on this track but for me, it’s a total banger.

So what about the 2nd and 3rd ‘phases’ of this album?

Phase 2 turns to more ambitious tracks of greater scope and scale. Chevy S10 is the perfect example. At over 6 minutes it’s the longest track on the album by some way. This song itself has as many phases as the album, all quite unique, equally ambitious and intriguing. This track reminds me of some of the longer, more experimental College Dropout Tracks in its complete ignorance of the rules that govern so much music in the Hip Hop / R&B genre. Also, I hear shades of Pyramids by Frank Ocean here too?

For me, the second phase contains some of the strongest tracks on the album, ChevyS10, Copycat and Flue are super strong tracks and TDLY is sparkling in it’s oddness and is great example of the violin playing that Sudan Archives has become famous for. This phase ends with the only skit on the album which I can take or leave but its only 50 seconds long and feels like it fits.

The final phase of the album doesn’t let up in it’s vast array of styles and genre influences on display. Freakalizer marries a lovely early 90’s beat with nu-soul early 2000’s vocals in a catchy, funky track with a bunch of vocal hooks. We then move to two, perfectly crafted slow jams (Homesick and Milk Me) before we move to the final two tracks, Yellow Brick Road and #513 that both remind me of late 90’s early naughties R&B and perhaps even Trip Hop influences (particularly #513) but alway with a contemporary twist or nod.

If you can’t tell, I think this album isn’t far off being perfect. I wouldn’t lose a single track and I don’t think I’d change anything about the sequencing. I love the massive list of influences that I can hear here. I love how they’re blended so well. I love the zero fucks given to genre rules and tropes. I am not sure if I’ve heard such a confident presentation of someone doing exactly what they want to do since ‘Smiling with no teeth’ by Genesis Owusu. I think I’d argue that Sudan Archives has achieved an album with a greater level of consistency. But I also appreciate that this is less accessible than ‘Smiling’ and I know for a fact that for one of us on the Pod, this album has been a struggle.

It should be an interesting discussion. Look out for the Pod episode dropping mid November wherever you get your podcasts!

Posted in New Tunes

A Boy Anonymous by Paris Texas

Posted on by misterstory

I’m a little bit obsessed with this 21 minute, 8-track mini-album by Compton duo Paris Texas.

They’re released 3 tracks from this mini-album in the build up to it’s release and I’ve loved each one a little more. Last time we chose ‘New Music’ for our track selection on the pod I nearly and should have chosen ‘Heavy Metal’. This time round ‘Force of Habit’ is in my 4 track shortlist …

The 8 tracks borrow from Hip Hop, Funk-Pop, Scrungey Garage Rock, and Electronica. It has lyrically strong tracks, jam-like groove tracks and just about everything else along the way.

As we spoke about on the pod last month, we struggle with new-Hip Hop … but there is some really interesting things being done and Paris Texas are doing pretty much all of them. I’m also loving the new Tyler The Creator album and this definitely owes something to the Odd Future vibe and is a good accompaniment if you like your Hip Hop experimental.

Posted in Music chat, Playlists

Skyzoo Playlists

Posted on by nolankane706

In one of our most enjoyable chats to date we delved into Skyzoo’s latest effort ‘All the Brilliant Things’ on Episode 13.

Within the chat David requested a Skyzoo playlist looking into his previous work or perhaps a quick trip into the Brooklyn artists that inspired Skyzoo…. I chose to do both!

First and foremost lets delve into some of the most formative hip hop tracks from Brooklyn. Where do you start and more so end?

And then Skyzoo. Like the Brooklyn playlist it could be much longer and was tough to keep it down to 10 tracks (plus a bonus).

What tracks do you love that I missed?

Posted in Album of the Month, New Albums

AOTM June: Skyzoo – All the Brilliant Things

Posted on by nolankane706

At best we will choose a hip hop album for our album of the month yearly, and it’s for good reason. Hip Hop is at times hard to approach, and hard to find time to listen to away from your kids as 4 middle aged fathers.

For me there’s more of an issue. I remember when I first heard the likes of Nas, Common (Sence) and Rakim. Each song was a lyric twisting journey into their world. As time passes I find it harder to find MC’s that blow me away with their word play. I often wonder is why latter generations of MC’s are less focussed on this? Does it matter anymore? The genre of Hip Hop is a bit confusing these days. I find it hard to understand how much of the hip hop that ‘the kids’ like these days is listenable. Misogyny, violence and criminality seem to be more prevalent than ever.

I came across Skyzoo in 2014 through his collaboration with his New York collaborator weight Torae. Instantly I was a fan. His word play and commentary put him amongst the hip hop heavy weights that I love. The more you listen to his lyrics the more layers to his lyrics you discover. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 90’s made him a student of some of the greats such as Biggie to Jay-Z and it shows. He has an uncanny ability to bring you into his world and keep you there. I was hooked and instantly delved into previous releases which included a heralded mixtape produced by 9th Wonder, followed by his debut album on 9th’s Jamal records (home of Rapsody amongst others) and later releases on two of my favourite labels; Duck Down Records and Mello Music.

You can find music from Skyzoo over the last 20 years, but the last 10 have seen him at his best. Releasing at least an album a year, it’s hard to find any weak piece of work among them. It’s understandable why he’s become one of the most respected underground MC’s around the globe. From working with boom bap super producer Apollo Brown to hip hop general Pete Rock, Skyzoo’s output is diverse and more-ish.

So this brings us to his latest effort, ‘All the Brilliant Things’. Like last month’s St Vincent album, it comes with a theme. This is an album about the gentrification of Brooklyn. Not only highlighting the change but also the world Skyzoo has grown up in, why he loves it, the memories, the stories and the dreams.

My notes for this album have been extensive. I was lost for words, how do you encapsulate the plethora of Skyzoo and what he does to this album? Lucky I read an interview with him where he described it perfectly. He said ‘My music has always been a combination of a few things: storytelling, motive, and intention’. That narrative rings true with another Brooklyn native that I love, Spike Lee. In fact there are cross overs throughout between the two. Perhaps I’ve seen too many Spike Lee movies.

I love hip hop albums that set the scene for the album on the first track and ‘Free Jewellery’ does it to a tee. Skyzoo dives in from the start. Weaving, layering, and provoking thoughts with each line. Amongst the journey he dips his toes into the irony of the critic’s interpretations his world whilst at the same time gentrifying it themselves.

‘So don’t mistake me, yo, I don’t do this for Complex

Nor a Pitchfork or any other facade

Where the culture is determined while chugging a PBR

And telling you how to represent all of the shit that you made

While they move in your building with their roommates’

‘Culture-ish’ is another remarkable track. Full of recollections…

‘I was buying art, my friends was buying dope.

I went and made friends with rappers that was buying both’

….was the line that caught my ears, but every line in the song is spotless. I’ve spent so much time getting my head around the layers of lyrics. He reminds me of Jay-Z on Reasonable Doubt. From Brooklyn or not, you’re pulled into his world (then and now) as you sit ring side in Skyzoo’s world in Brooklyn.

There are lyrics throughout outlining changing worlds. In line with the theme, but not blatantly. ‘The Scrimmage’ looks into money and how it’s made, old and new and it’s ruthlessness. I love the track lyrically, but when the track finishes with a clip of two people talking about being removed from their neighbourhood, it makes you listen again…. Because he was talking about it the whole time.

Hip Hop was born in the Bronx, but since its inception the New York boroughs all battled to own the top spot. Brooklyn arguably has a strong claim for the top spot. Jay-Z, Biggie, Sean Price, Yasin Bey (Mos Def), the list goes on. That mixed with exceptional graffiti artists and their influence on me is the reason Brooklyn has always facinated me. That fascination of Brooklyn for me and so many others may just kill where that fascination comes from; it’s soul. This album concept is well overdue.  ‘Bed-Stuy Is Burning’ is not only the stand out track on the album but one of the best hip hop songs that has been released in recent memory as Skyzoo delves into the world he loves and how it’s crumbling at his feet.

‘To whom it may concern, don’t let this happen to you

True to what you heard, they want this back like a loop

They gave you a curb and kept you back on the stoop

And now what they prefer is to help you pack when you move’

There are few reviews on this album, but many podcast interviews with Skyzoo. From a fan point of view some say it’s his best lyrically rounded album while some say it’s too long and the beats could be better on many tracks. I don’t disagree with either to a point. Personally I think that this is an album that when digested the four of us will use as a reference point for many albums in the future as this in its’ bones has the feels. The song by song justification and the ability to continually discover with each listen. Its’ long term importance to all of us is unseen but on different levels this album is important to all four of us and is worth everyone digesting. I’ve stayed in New York three times for work, once in Brooklyn. I’ll take Brooklyn and day of the week. It’s mind kind of place. It’s cool. Like east London is cool. The hipsters came in and made it cool for the middle classes. But at what cost? This album is about that cost. About a changing neighbourhood. This message transcends globally.

One of most common narratives on the blog and on the podcast is album length. ‘All the Brilliant Things’ is 14 songs long and just over 55 minutes which is standard for a hip hop album. At first I considered that the album could drop the middle three or fours tracks, but lyrically they’re growers and some of the best on the album.

The more I listen to this album the more I discover. Will it be perfect to the lesser hip hop fans? I’m not sure. I love it because it’s out and out hip hop that also delivers on a social commentary that we should all digest.