Hey guys, I wanna share this band with you that I’ve been following for a while, but I can’t find any links to download their music…just wanna put you guys on to them..ask me to burn you a cd if you dig it.
So I heard of this group because one of the rappers taught a hip-hop master class at my dance studio several years ago…I was talking to him after the class randomly about music, and he mentioned he was in a band. I checked them out, and loooved this shit…they’re called Felonious: Onelovehiphop. They have several members, who rap, sing, and beatbox. They also play with live instruments. Check out their myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/feloniousonelove
and here’s a youtube vid:
…..and the best part is….(which i just realized FAIL) is they are from San Fran!! So if you guys dig it we could see if they could come out for that Rock the Block thing..they’re super legit! If you guys like them I can see if I can get into contact with them fo sho
Cal Students for Hip Hop (S4HH) Brings you “ROCK THE BLOCK: The Bay.” We invite you to experience the Bay Area hip hop movement in the best way we know how: A Dope Concert on Campus. Stay tuned for updates and information on who will be performing and when it’s all going to be going down.
I’ve been following this group, Solillaquists of Sound for a while now. They have 3 cds out, but my favorite is their second one, “As If We Existed,” released in 2006. They have an amazing mix of unique beats, good flow, and incredible female vocals. They could be classified as politically conscious hip-hop, making statements about civil rights, alcohol abuse, and different choices people make about their lives. They’re sick…here’s my favorite song on the cd, check it out:
Tracklist:
1. Pledge of Resonance
2. Property & Malt Liquor
3. As If We Existed
4. Mark It Place
5. Ask Me If I Care
6. Black Guy Peace
7. Choices
8. Berlin
9. Beautiful Catastrophe
10. Ur Turn
11. All Too Common
12. Our 2 Cents
Unrelated, I (Rebecca) have been thinking a lot about mainstream America’s portrayal of African Americans throughout history and want to rant about it/ hear everyone’s opinion on the subject. I took two classes this semester that really made me analyze critically how blacks in America are represented – a theater class about gender, ethnicity, and culture in American dance, and a decal on Tupac.
In the theater class, I learned a lot about minstrelsy in 19th century America that I was not aware of. Particularly, learning about the reasons for creating and perpetuating black face and the stereotypes surrounding it was interesting and very relevant to today. Southern white landholders supported minstrelsy because it justified/backed up slavery. The stereotype of the happy, silly “sambo” slave made slaves look like they enjoyed being owned and working for their masters, and the freed “zipcoon” made freed African Americans look greedy, foolish, and not smart enough to survive in the business world of the North, or in other words, be free in the first place. Thus, whites started perpetuating these stereotypes to counteract the emancipation movement. They found them funny and after time, truthful. Thus when African Americans started performing in minstrelsy and vaudeville they had to perpetuate these stereotypes of their own race in order to get business. They had to put on blackface themselves and pretend to be foolish and dumb or violent and greedy, or any of the other stereotypes, so that white audiences would watch them. This minstrel legacy, in my opinion has had an extremely negative effect on the representation of African Americans throughout the rest of America’s history..
I found connections to hip-hop in the Tupac decal I took. I already knew most of the information that was taught, but it resonated deeply with what I was learning in the theater class. While much of gangsta rap is extremely violent and misogynistic, early gangsta rap like N.W.A. had a deep, justified, political undertone. While “Fuck tha Police” is violent, they were not arguing for violence for the sake of violence like much of gangsta rap is today, but arguing against discrimination and racial profiling. But when gangsta rap was appropriated into white mainstream culture, especially when huge corporations got involved, this political undertone was removed, and a stereotype much like minstrelsy’s “zip-coon” was perpetuated. Any rapper who wants to get radio-play nowadays has to compromise their message and fit into a pre-made gangsta sterotype who is violent, greedy, and like the zipcoon, unfit for the business world. But white mainstream America buys into it because they are both intrigued and frightened by it. Mainstream America has a view of African Americans that is extremely racist and stereotypical, however much we claim that we are living in a world that is a lot less racist than it used to be.
While I have been formulating these ideas for many months now, they came to a head last night when I was watching the movie Rush Hour at my friends birthday party last night. This is a great movie, don’t get me wrong (Jackie Chan is the shit), but I noticed that virtually the only black man in the movie, the black cop Carter, played by Chris Tucker, was stereotyped much like the “Sambo” stereotype perpetuated by minstrelsy. He is portrayed as foolish and dumb most of the way through the movie, and saves the day mostly through his good intentions and a lot of good luck…
I was surprised, seeing the movie in this new light, with how the script and directing made him look so dumb…walking into the Chinese restaurant and actually asking for the bad guy instead of figuring out a way to sneak up on him…I mean come on. I know it’s supposed to be funny, but I think its disgusting how it’s accepted to perpetuate these age-old stereotypes…
I really want to know if anyone else has noticed this..it seems so obvious to me after thinking about it for a while…what does everyone else think? Sorry this turned into a really long post but it’s really been bugging me.
Nothing’s better than getting free music right before Christmas
If y’all know Elzhi, then I don’t need to tell you about his lyrical abilities or his participation in one of hip hop’s most acclaimed groups, Slum Village.
Regardless, Elzhi dropped a free mix-tape called “The Leftovers UnMixedTape,” which you can get on his website elzhi.com.
While you are downloading that, here’s one of my favorite Elzhi tracks from his debut album “The Preface.”
In procrastination for studying for finals, I decided to download this some shit by this artist my friend had recommended to me named Macklemore. I was pretty impressed with this cd…the songs really hit close to heart for me. His song “White Privelege” takes a serious note, as he comments on his feelings about race in hip-hop. But he also comments on funny stuff like in “Fake Id,” where he talks about his experience trying to get into clubs as an underage MC. The song “B-boy” also shows his passion for Old-School hip-hop culture..this guy knows his shit. This cd has a lot of tracks on it, and all of them are pretty legit. Let it bump while studying or something.. xP
Tracklist:
01. Intro
02. White Privelege
03. B-Boy
04. Claiming the City
05. Fake Id
06. Gold your Head up
07. Ego
08. Inhale deep
09. Bush song
10. Good for you
11. I said Hey
12. Penis Song
13. The magic
14. City don’t sleep
15. Love Song
16. Remember high shool
17. Contradiction
18. Soldiers
19. As soon as I wake up
20. My language
Here’s a youtube video of White Privilege:
You can download the cd, The Language of My World, here:
I’ve been following this guy, DJ Funktual, on youtube for some time now. He began a series called Top 10 Samples in Hip Hop History, in which each episode goes through 10 songs that have been sampled to create songs we know today. This man’s knowledge of music past and present is unbelievable. You don’t know how much I’ve learned just from watching these videos. Besides the top 10s, he has other videos (like the one I’m posting) that focus on specific artists, genres, etc. Some of his videos had to be deleted because of the Warner Bros. Copyright rule on youtube (which he addresses). Anyway, he’s really fun to watch, and his facial expressions are priceless, so check him out. (youtube channel: funktuall)
–Rahul
…and just for kicks, in case you’re stressing out for finals
I don’t know about you, but I love walking through Berkeley in the rain with my headphones on and music playing in my ears.
It’s been pouring here, and I couldn’t help but think about the album “Rainydayz.”
If you haven’t heard of Rainydayz, it’s Bay Area’s own, DJ AmpLive from Zion I, remixing Radiohead’s “In Rainbows,” with lyrics from MC’s like Zumbi, Too $hort, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Chali2na.
It’s probably one of the dopest remix albums out there, and it’s for free.
Hip Hop comes from the strangest places in the most special formats. I was crawling the web for some new joints and stumbled on an unknown duo known as Fuzz & Mac, and my good friend, they are worth a listen.
The production of the EP is wonderfully jazzy, and the smooth voice of McClain Sullivan perfectly compliments the lyrical talent of Fuzz Jaxx. The EP is composed of seven tracks, such as “In the Evening” and “Malibu,” all of which are solid. They range from McCLain exclaiming, “Here comes a new sensation…It’s time to get down,” in “You Got It” to Fuzz melancholy describing, “So I came home to find out she had packed/She jerked around my heart around, yo/ I felt jacked,” in “The Things I love You For.”
Last month we had our first Hip Hop Music Swap and it was a huge success. We had cyphers, pizza, dope music, and a whole mess of heads in the mix. Due to the positive feed back, we are proud to annouce our second Hip Hop Music Swap.
Bring laptops, portable jump drives, hard drives, headphone, power strips, CD’s, YouTube clips, IMEEM website, Pandora Accounts, and other other forms of digital media you may have.
And regardless of the type of music you’re into, stop by, meet some heads, share music, and kick it with an ecletic group of individuals from the Berkeley campus and community.
eLZhi.Leftovers.Unmixedtape.Flier.jpg "Elzhi")
