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Published
August 18th, 2008
in
Collaborations, MP3s, Music |
3 Comments »
I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that this existed, nor would I have ever imagined it listenable had I known that it did, but yes, a Jay-Z/Pavement mashup album has been made. And, you know what, it’s not actually that bad. In fact, it’s pretty cool.
My never-ending mancrush on all things Pavement is pretty well documented, but I actually spent at least a year of my life convinced that Jay-Z – huge pop star and all – was the best rapper of all time. His last couple albums have tarnished the luster a bit, but regardless, The Black Album was one of the all-time greats.
The Slack Album (which I found, via gyeeker) is a mashup of Jigga’s The Black Album and Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted by DJ N-Wee, who, based on his (or her) non-existent Web presence, is … well, not around anymore. It’s not new, but the fact that somebody thought to mix Jay-Z with Pavement’s off-key, broken rhythm masterpiece is a testament to their sense of adventure, and that it actually works, is pretty amazing.
I’ve included a couple stand out tracks, but the whole thing can be downloaded here.
MP3s:
Jay-Z vs. Pavement - “Zurich Your Shoulder”
Jay-Z vs. Pavement - “Our First Singer”
Published
June 10th, 2008
in
2008 Releases, MP3s, Music, New Music |
14 Comments »
As with all things Lil Wayne, you always end up having to take the good with the bad: Dude is undeniably talented, but he’s also a bit of a trainwreck. His swagger and magnetic personality are most of what makes him great, but it also causes him to take things a bit far, like claiming he’s the best rapper alive. As we’ve discussed before, “Favorite Rapper Alive” may be more appropriate.
All that said, as a complete hip-hop package (for commercial rappers anyway), he’s about as good as it gets – he’s a really good MC and he’s completely unafraid to let his freak flag fly and take chances. And on Tha Carter III, that’s when Wayne’s at his best.
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Published
May 27th, 2008
in
MP3s, Music, News |
3 Comments »
So, I originally set out to do a post on the music tastes of John McCain and Barack Obama, which I sort of knew was just going to turn into an opportunity to mock McCain. Fucking sue me. But then, I ran into this:
[McCain] was trailed by a mob of photographers and Cindy, smiling in a black turtleneck, her hair tightly wound. ‘Very interesting,’ he said, just before someone showed him the Escape Hybrid. ‘This is the future obviously.’ Another Ford executive put him in the driver’s seat of a Focus, which could play an iPod on voice command. ‘Play Abba,’ said McCain. But the iPod did not have Abba. It could play The Doors’ ‘Roadhouse Blues.’
Sweet mother of God. There’s a reason the iPod did not have ABBA and it’s very simple – ABBA blows. Badly. But wait, it gets worse:
If elected, ‘the background music would be ABBA in the elevators all over the White House.’
When ABBA plays in the White House, the terrorists win.
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Published
February 23rd, 2008
in
MP3s, Music, Video |
5 Comments »
[Editor's note: We'd like to welcome Uncle Corey to our band of brothers here at the Stranger Dance. Besides being a certifiable life-long music lover and all-around brown-bear-cub-like nice guy, he also spent the better part of his 20s working for a host of newspapers across Washington and California, so he'll hopefully bring some kind of journalistic credibility to what we do here.]
It always bugs me out when I’m talking about music to someone younger – especially a music lover – and I ask if they like a band from 10-15 years ago and, in return, get a blank stare: “I’ve never heard of them.” It’s weird, especially since I grew up in an era where I grew up on my parent’s music (’60s and early ’70s rock), was weened off of that (’80s pop radio – but only for a year or two), then branched off on my own (thank you Run D.M.C.). Apparently the time-lined introduction to music doesn’t happen anymore.
So, before I digress too much more and end up yelling at those young punks to get off my lawn, I’ll get to the point. I love rap (or hip-hop, whatever your Hipster Dialect-o-Tron 3000 requires you say), I have since lo, that fateful day in 1985, when I heard Run D.M.C.’s “King of Rock” and had my first “Holy shit!” moment with music that didn’t involve Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I’ve loved it ever since, in all it’s twist, turns and incarnations. Old-school, basic shit? Fuck, and yeah. Pop rap? “Summertime” was a great song and fuck you if you’re too cool to recognize it. Black militant rap? Let me dig out my red, yellow and green Africa pendent. Gangsta rap? The fuck you looking at, bitch? Point is, unless it’s total bullshit, I can handle it.
My question, though, is when was the golden era of rap? Join me, won’t you, after the jump and we can discuss.
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