The knee cartilage issues continue… it’s distracting to say the least. To tide you over until tomorrow’s beat deconstruction, here’s the current television campaign for the digital offspring of Britain’s Yellow Pages. Anyone who doubted how down the Brits are with hip hop can get the bozack.
Marvin Gaye - ‘Cleo’s Apartment’
taken from Trouble Man OST (Tamla Motown, 1973)
I’ve been on a soundtrack tip pretty hard of late and although the vast majority of the albums that I’ve copped have been more than worth the price of submission, none have stood out for me as whole works as fervently as Marvin Gaye’s score to Trouble Man. The title track was one I was already familiar with as it stands as one of my favourite Marvin cuts of all time, but I’m ecstatic that I’ve now shaken myself out of a deep slumber to enjoy the complete score as it is excellent from front to back.
‘Trouble Man’ itself and of course the classic ‘T Plays It Cool’ are likely to be familiar material to you even if you’re not particularly up on Gaye’s discography, but there really isn’t a misstep to be found here. To me this is staggering, as music that is scored to be specifically twinned with the moving image can often suffer when removed from its visual counterpart, but the soundtrack to Trouble Man really does manage to stand on its own two feet and goes down for me as essential work from one of soul’s most charismatic and enduring figures. ‘Cleo’s Apartment’ is the song that has received the most rotation of late, a track that begins with harrowing strings before dropping into one of the most delightfully soulful pieces of music to have graced my ears in a minute ever. The layering of vocals is to die for, as is the gently twinkling piano part and booming claps that punctuate the groove. Spark a fat one and recline: this is sumptuous enough to completely melt into.
As bonus material, you should definitely check out the first of the following videos from Denver’s Boon Doc, who does a fantastic job of flipping the sample with real finesse. I think it was probably Dart that probably put me onto this guy, but I’m now a real fan of his sequence of YouTube videos where he displays genuine talent behind the boards; let’s hope he can make a full transition into the game ‘proper’. The second video is his latest installment, and although it has nothing to do with the post at hand, it’s so damn fresh that I’m chucking it in anyway…
…that is if embedding video was working properly. Grr… check the ‘Cleo’s Apartment’ flip here and ‘Smooth Beat 2008′ here. Damn Wordpress gremlins.
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. Well, most of the time anyway…
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… lucky bastards.
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.
I’m away again this weekend and lack the energy to put together a full post, so I’m falling back on a little video action to get me by. As I said earlier in the week, I’ve finally hit the ground running with Double XX Posse’s ‘Put Ya Boots On’, and as expected, I’ve been killin’ it this week. ‘Not Gonna Be Able To Do It’ is undoubtedly one of the standouts on the album, and the video has a seriously fly early ’90s feel:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izHMv-ZVsbw]
Don’t miss out on the T-Ray post over at Can I Bring My Gat? that covers this song as well as three other slammin’ T-Ray productions in substantial depth.
Enjoy the weekend folks, apologies for the cop out here. My man Scholar tells me that something big is happening at Souled On tomorrow afternoon, so make sure you go and check his dope site out at some point over the weekend. If you like what you read here, I can tell you it will be right up your alley… is that too obvious a hint? I’ll catch ya Monday: laters.
I’m back home in London this weekend to catch up with the fam, so no full post unfortunately. However, I did come across this video which sees Premier, Pete Rock and 9th Wonder kickin’ it with Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg, who incidentally was mentioned by Gerald Walker in my interview earlier this month. I also noticed that Kev Brown has been throwing up links to Rosenberg’s shows over at his blog which I am yet to check out, but they are most certainly on my ‘to do’ list over the next few days. Check it:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaeprTp532Q]
Imminent Pete Rock Banter
I’m not someone who has ever got involved in the world of forums, having found them a little confusing in the past. This one’s an exception though as it’s Pete Rock themed, so I’m going to get over my reservations and go for it. Thanks to Jaz for pointing me in the right direction, this could be cool if enough people get involved with the promise of some proper treats for those who engage in discussion. Hope to see you there…