digitally in the crates

dre, old and new

2005-04-22T18:28:00.000-06:00

My apologies for the inactivity of Digitally In The Crates over the past month, but I'm a starving college student and was in the middle of assignments and exams. It's on now, though.

And for the first post in a month, why not focus on one of the greatest to ever do it? Y'all know Dr. Dre beats, but I'm going to put you up on some tracks that don't get as much shine as they should.

The only name I know of for this track is "The Future", so I'll go with that. This is the full 8 minute version of one of Dre's newest proteges, Atlanta-based Stat Quo, freestyling over a beat that's just hypnotic. It's notable for Dre being drunk and high as fuck and sounding hilarious, and Stat Quo stumbling over his pre-written from time to time and having to restart. Sure, it's not a freestyle, but dude has a unique flow that's worth a listen.

Next up is from my favorite Dre era, when he still used breakbeats. "The D.O.C. and the Doctor", from The D.O.C.'s classic album No One Can Do It Better, is a cut that could be thrown on at a party tonight and people would still feel it. In interviews, Dre's always said that DJ experience is invaluable to a producer, and that shines through on this track. Not too complicated, but you can't front on it. And fuck, how dope was The D.O.C.?

Overlooked since their demise, West Coast group Above The Law had their first album, Livin Like Hustlers, (co)produced by Dr. Dre. The very first track on that album was "Murder Rap", letting everyone know what the fuck was up with the siren sample from Quincy Jones' theme to "Ironside". This is more breakbeat-Dre; just try to resist drumming along. Listening to all the layers of samples is amazing - you've got the backward breakbeat, the forward breakbeat, squeals and scratched/stuttered sirens far off in the background. You've even got a Chuck D. vocal sample in there (not to mention Ice Cube). You can't ask for much more than that.

dreaded fist of the northwest

2005-03-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Time for some CanCon. I'm not sure if their name means anything outside of Canada, but for a while the Rascalz were the pinnacle of Canadian hip-hop. This was circa 1998, long before the Swollen Members were a force to be reckoned with. I'll set it off with their two best-known tracks from back in the day; I'm not a fan of their latest stuff as it just seems uninspired.

"Dreaded Fist" was the first I ever heard of the Rascalz, and I was hooked instantly. The video for this song got a lot of play on MuchMusic; it was dark and grimy and I seem to remember some sort of kung-fu stuff going on. If you listen closely to the lyrics, you can hear the Wu-Tang influence: the Wu were huge when Rascalz were coming up, and it shows up as they label themselves as being from "northwest Saigon".

I'm also including what is perhaps the biggest single in Canadian hip-hop history. "Northern Touch" made all-stars out of everyone on the song. Rascalz, Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust and Choclair were household names once this song blew up. Having the names of the artists on the song as the hook was genius; even if you couldn't pick Checkmate out of a lineup, you knew his name. As a posse cut, there's nothing groundbreaking about the lyrics, but Choclair and Thrust drop two great verses and everybody else is solid. I just wish I'd heard more from Thrust after this: "Thrust / I'll break you off a style that you want to represent / present, in other words I pay the rent". Listening to Choclair's verse, he's got a really strange rhyme style, but somehow it works; I guess that's what happens when you've got a "mouth colourful like the currency".

don't call it a comeback

2005-03-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

I'm back. Many thanks to Tofu Hut for the link, as it just kicked me in the ass and convinced me to stick to this.

As much as he's criticized these days for the texture of his face and the fact that he appeals to his female fans more than most MCs do, LL Cool J was dope. When he was young and hungry, there were few that could touch his intensity on the mic. Radio, his debut album, gets most of the attention when people talk about early LL, but his third album Walking With A Panther is solid in its own right. I could post the songs you've heard from this album, the singles "Going Back To Cali" and "Big Ole Butt", but there are a couple album tracks that deserve your attention.

"Droppin Em" opens the album with some speedy funk. Although he's matured as an artist, LL is still focused on battling; he's dropped Kool Moe Dee by now and wants all those other sucka MCs to know he can still slay with the best of them. Listen carefully for the scratches of Billy Squire's "The Big Beat", used most recently in Jay-Z's "99 Problems".

"Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?" seems typical of the late 80s-early 90s quick flow that you heard from people like Jaz-O. LL's not as fast, but the rhyme patterns are there. Listening to the beat, there's an influence at work that reminds me of Ice Cube's first two solo albums. The lyrics sound nothing like Cube, but the way the beat switches up reminds me a lot of Sir Jinx's work on Death Certificate and the Bomb Squad's production on AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. The latter is hardly surprising given the Bomb Squad's work on "Nitro" and "It Gets No Rougher" from this very album.

"and caine one was really whole car-ing on the damn 7 line..."

2005-02-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

When a song can be considered not only great, but evocative - then you know it's timeless. New York has been captured in music for much of its history, but apart from Bitches Brew, nothing else sounds like the rhythm and pace of the city like the Subway Theme. The man behind the track is none other than the inventor of the scratch, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore. Theodore worked closely with Blondie guitarist Chris Stein on the soundtrack for the 1982 film Wild Style, on which this track appears. Wild Style is the classic graffiti movie - as its soundtrack is evocative, the film has become an artifact that helped to define a time in urban America.

The spoken intro to the song comes from Wild Style. It's LEE - graffiti artist Lee Quinones - whose role in the film as himself ties the film to the experiences of his peers. His reflections on being a writer in the early Eighties are some serious shit. If you want to check out Caine One, who LEE mentions, on screen then you need to see Style Wars, a documentary made prior to Wild Style that features the one-armed artist (as well as a young DJ Kayslay).

why y'all haters still mad?

2005-02-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Though most of the kids these days know him for showing up on the remix of Beyonce's "Naughty Girl" and his mediocre hit "Sunshine" (which itself was pretty much just a ripoff of Beyonce's "Summertime"), Lil' Flip has been around for a while. A member of the late great DJ Screw's Screwed Up Click, Flip was originally known for his freestyle talent. He won't blow your mind with wordplay, but he can rhyme for days - he was the first to freestyle for 10 minutes straight on a Screw tape.

Flip's mixtape songs are better than his commercial output. The older, the better. I'll get things started with Haters Still Mad. This is a screwed version, the original is out there but I like this just so you can drawl out the hook. Screwed-up songs are perfect for singing along.

Next we've got one of my favorite weed songs ever, So Gone featuring C-Bo and Big Shasta. This is over the beat from the Monica song and one of two Flip songs that bear this title; the other one features Big Shasta singing a hook to the tune of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. I might post that a little later on.

Finally we have what I consider Lil' Flip's masterpiece, Sunny Day featuring Big Shasta. A smooth beat with a hint of g-funk in the whining synth line during the hook, this song lends itself to cruising and nothing else.

edmonton's finest

2005-02-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

Although I haven't heard as much local hip-hop as I probably should have, I've heard enough of a cross-section to know what's good and what's not. After wading through nobly intended, poorly executed mumblings and beat jacking, I've come to the same conclusion I came to a long time ago: Yak and Double D are the shit.

Bang Tha Roof might be the first E-Town anthem. Yak and Double D have distinctive voices, and they compliment each other fairly well. Their lyrics are on point, Double D's flow is insane, the beat is perfect for cruising through traffic, and your hood probably gets shouted out. How can you not love a song that mentions Ill Woods?

summer madness

2005-02-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

If you ever happen to get into an argument with someone about what the most chilled out song of all time is, this is your trump card. "Chilled out" might not be a description that would satisfy an academic, but in this case the term applies.

Picture in your mind a summer's day. The sun is blazing and it's hot enough that you're starting to sweat. The action around you in the city just makes the environment all that more unbearable. And then a cool breeze hits, sending shivers down your spine, the ultimate refreshment. That's what Summer Madness by Kool and the Gang is.

Other people realized this long before me, and so Summer Madness has been sampled a few times. This isn't a comprehensive list of the songs that have sampled it, just a few notables.

Most people might recognize that it's sampled in Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Speeding up the bassline and chopping up the synth wail make the song danceable, and still everytime the synth line moves up an octave the air gets colder. Curiously enough, this song wasn't produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff; I bet he wishes he did it, though.

My personal favorite song that samples Summer Madness is DJ Premier in Deep Concentration. I've heard DJ tracks, and this is still the most amazing to me. I don't even DJ and I'm playing air DJ, scratching and hitting the fader when this song comes on. Even though I've never been there, this song feels like NYC traffic at night.

The most recent sampling I've come across is by Pete Rock for a song called Midnight And You that's shown up on Pete's second instrumental album, The Surviving Elements. Using only the bassline, the Chocolate Boy Wonder crafts his own synth line it all comes together for another relaxing song.

big l rest in peace

2005-02-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

On February 15th, it'll be six years to the day that Big L was murdered. Big L is the dead rapper most folks have never heard of - he had one raw album, Lifestylez of the Poor and Dangerous, in the early Nineties but hadn't released much since then. His style was unbelievably raw but witty, with quotables damn near every line. As L himself said, "you can listen to my first album / and see where a lot of niggaz got they whole style from".

If anything, Big L's spirit lives on in someone like Jay-Z. L was cocky but could back it up both in the streets and in his rhymes. Jigga's a little more lyrical and more of a finesse man than L was, but both of their styles are unfuckwitable.

Here are three tracks from Big L's posthumous album The Big Picture. The first is the intro, produced by DJ Premier with a special live intro from Gangstarr and Freddie Foxxx. Some of my favorite quotables come from this track: "that's like jewels without ice / that's like China without rice / or the Holy Bible without Christ". Size 'Em Up was released as a single before L's death, and there's a live version floating around the net. The beat just bangs, and while it might be a little awkward to work with for some, L rides it perfectly. Finally we have Flamboyant, which was cobbled together after L's death - listen to him say that he's out after only the first verse. More insane quotables in this one, like this gem: "so pal, back up a bit give me some elbow space / I represent Harlem World, not Melrose Place".

When you listen to these tracks, and indeed everything out there that he ever put his voice to, it becomes clear that six years ago, we lost a great one. Big L rest in peace.

all this sugar can't be good for me

2005-02-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

When winter gets me down - as it has several times this year - I turn to the Caribbean to cheer me up. The song that accomplishes that every time I play it is Trini To De Bone by David Rudder. Caribbean nations, and Trinidad and Tobago in particular, are hotbeds of uptempo dance music, and I'd imagine this song could get a party started on any beach. Once it gets you hooked, you can't help but sing along.

I've often thought that this song should be the Trinidadian national anthem; listen to the emotion in the singer's voice at 1:44 of the song when he proclaims, "all these years I've spent abroad in the cold longing to be home / Trini to de bone, Trini to de bone / Lord I pray that some sweet day I will no longer have to roam". Politics even show up for a little bit, but the party keeps on rolling.

A fun fact: Trinidad and Tobago are below the tropical storm belt. There aren't ever any hurricanes there!

the time has come for us to stop messin' around

2005-02-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

The time has come for me to drop some knowledge. Ladies, gentlemen, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, today's selection from the crates will help you have the smoothest Valentine's Day ever. Yearning For Your Love by The Gap Band is some of the smoothest funk you'll ever hear. Extremely singable, you'll be humming the vocal melodies all day.

If you're a hip-hop fan, you've heard this song sampled before, as the loop right when the drums kick in is the basis for Nas' "Life's A Bitch". While that doesn't really fit our romantic theme, I can assure you that whether you play this in the bedroom, a party, or a vehicle, everyone in the immediate vicinity will be picking up good vibes.

instead of your wack sound, i'm kickin' shit to make MCs back down

2005-02-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

Casual steps to the mic with a purpose. He's there to serve MCs, and he doesn't need to do it with punchlines or even direct disses. Showing his skills is what he does best, and That's How It Is is a perfect example of this. If I was an MC and heard this, I'd be scared shitless.

The song is from Casual's debut album Fear Itself, which is about as raw as I've ever heard the west coast. With the rest of Heiroglyphics, Cas is usually pretty chilled out, but on his own - and especially on this album, the debut of a hungry MC in a time when there was dope shit coming from everywhere - he's vicious. College kids should be listening to this to find the essence of what makes an MC an MC; Casual is rugged but refined.

Oh yeah, and the beat BANGS.

well it's a hot hot sunday

2005-02-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

Kids these days just haven't heard of King Tee. Personally, I haven't heard enough of him. His reputation is that of an OG, but whereas these days many are quick to give themselves that label, Tee has earned it, in and outside the music business. Although allmusic.com lists an album released in 2004 entitled The Ruthless Chronicles, I have a suspicion that this will probably be another round of the bullshit that surrounded Tee's last (and unofficial) album, Thy Kingdom Come.

But enough's been spoken about that bullshit, and the music is what counts. The first song I ever heard from King Tee was the OG mix of "Let's Go Dippin'". Spellbound by his intricate storytelling and unique voice, I sought out everything from then on. With this song, Tee shows he can make charging up batteries sound ill. He can make parking on three wheels sound even ILLER. You'll wish that you'd left a blunt in your Benz, too.

That's not all, however. I'm throwing in the DJ Screw mix. With a chopped intro, a fade into MC Breed's "What You Want", and everything that much slower, you can't hate on this.

we are coming, strong strong strong

2005-02-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

There's no possible way I could claim to be a reggae expert, or even to have a half-assed grasp on the history of the music and the culture surrounding it. Other than the requisite Marley and Perry selections, I've heard little. Strangely enough, my ignorance, along with a practice of random downloading, leads me to this post.

I found Black Brothers - School Children completely by accident, which makes it all the more special. On the surface it's a phenomenal groove with simple vocal melodies. It's hard not to sing along with the song. The bassline exists within stomach-churning frequencies; in the car, it rattles the trunk like nothing else.

Underneath its musical exterior, however, the song tells another story. The names of the children - "Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Daniel / Gad, Asher, Napthali, Joseph, Benjamin" - are the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Twelve Tribes were chosen by Jah as those true believers that will make it to Zion. Zion itself is Ras Tafari's empire in Ethiopia, where all mankind descended from. Those who are proficient in Christian mythology will note that these are the same Twelve Tribes that descend from the sons of Jacob. Here, the Black Brothers wish it to be known that they are "coming home" to Zion as they have been chosen to do.