Random Treats To Ease The Monday Blues

2008 is off to a great start for yours truly, so much so that I honestly don’t think my life has ever felt as full. With the blog to maintain, a recently started music production course (don’t worry, I won’t be inflicting anything on you in the near future), an upcoming web design course and ongoing projects for Oh Word still to complete, to say I’ve got my hands full is a laughable understatement. Oh, and there’s the small matter of educating the youth of today to slip in there as well: top priority of course.

As a result my thought processes are a little all over the place, so today’s post is an amalgamation of exciting things that have landed in my inbox, must-see YouTube treats and a growing concern that something isn’t quite right with the coding of the site: continue and all will be revealed.

Damu The Fudgemunk – Spare Time

Damu The Fudgemunk – ‘Beat Original’ & ‘To RBI’
taken from Spare Time (Redefinition, 2008)

For those of you that check into FDB on the regular, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Damu The Fudgemunk, the producer behind one of the dopest releases of last year, Y Society’s Travel At Your Own Pace (check my review of the album here). Damu’s kicking off 2008 in style with a free download of miscellaneous beats from his back catalogue that I can guarantee will keep all you beatheads more than satisfied, and the collection stands as a testament to the fact that he is undoubtedly one of the most promising names in the contemporary game. DJ Semantik has already done a great write-up of the work over at Crate Kings, so I won’t rehash what he’s already said, but I will confirm that Spare Time is something that you categorically need to have in your digital archives.

There’s a link to the whole album up above, but I’ve taken the liberty of uploading a couple of tracks just so that you can get a flavour for what is on offer. 2004’s ‘Beat Original’ is a song that I had already heard care of Damu’s YouTube channel, but I’m chuffed that it made it onto Spare Time because it’s a fantastic piece of production work that’s sure to get your head nodding, with the swirling intro making way for a beautiful loop that drops just before the 30 second mark in the midst of a bangin’ drum track. ‘To RBI’ may not be particularly original, employing the same samples as Buckwild on O.C.’s ‘Word…Life’ and Marley/K-Def on the Lords Of The Underground’s ‘Madd Skillz’, but it’s still a tasty chunk of boom bap that won’t fail to put a smile on the face of any discerning mid-’90s head. You’d be a fool to sleep on this one people: these two cuts are only scratching the surface of the joys to be discovered here.

Shouts go out to JNOTA at Redefinition Records for the hook-up. Be sure to stay locked into FDB for more on the Fudgemunk in the very near future… real hip hop is alive and well!

NY’s Finest Preview

Preview video on YouTube (I’m experiencing technical difficulties embedding video: apologies)

With Pete Rock’s full length album nearly upon us, be sure to watch the above video where various producers in the game big up the Chocolate Boy Wonder and he reveals some of the groundwork that has gone into what must be my most anticipated release of the year. So far NY’s Finest is sounding great, with the recent single ‘We Roll’ flicking all of my switches despite slightly uninspiring lyrical performances from Max B and Jim Jones. Of course, you can expect an extremely detailed review of the album once it leaks drops in a month or so, so I’ll resist the temptation to say much more at this stage. Roll on February!

Nas Live @ Hammerstein Ballroom

Peep the video here & download here

Thanks to Majesty over at Street Knowledge Media, I can also offer you a download of footage from Nas’s end of year gig at the Hammerstein Ballroom. A couple of classic beats and verses from QB’s finest and an appearance from Busta make this more than worthwhile, and it’s got me excited about the inevitable furore that will surround Nigger later this year. It’s this sort of event that makes me realise how badly I want to make it out to NYC for an extended period: you New Yorkers don’t realise how lucky you are. Having said that, you probably do…

Having Trouble Commenting? Speak To Me!

I’ve received several e-mails now from people saying that they are having problems leaving comments here at FDB. This may have been the result of my ineffective attempts to block spam, but I’m very keen to get this sorted as soon as possible, particularly if there is an issue with the coding of the site. I’ve enabled comment moderation for the moment as a way of filtering out the various porn/casino/drug links that plague my comment bank, so don’t expect to see your comment go up immediately. However, I would really appreciate it if you are experiencing difficulties as your thoughts are highly valued at FDB and I would hate to think that some of you are missing out on the opportunity to speak your clout. Contact details within the tab located at the top of the page: thanks in advance.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Pete Rock, Producers, YouTube Treats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.