Top 5 Speeding Ticket Inducers
Sometimes it's simply unavoidable. That driving beat, that incredibly heavy riff, those angst-ridden lyrics . . . these are those elements found in certain songs that seem to unexplainably make a journey that starts at the auditory canal and twists and winds through our anatomy ending up at your feet. From there, these songs are...
jj – New Work
jj is a Swedish duo that released their debut single in 2009 and quickly became Pitchfork darlings. The band has two studio albums to their credit, jj n° 2 and jj n° 3, but today were are focusing on their 2010 mixtape, Kills, which was downloaded in a frenzy this past December and quickly thereafter made unavailable. ”New Work”...
The Whitest History of Hip-Hop, Part 4
Have I deviated terribly from the original intent of this column? It may seem so after the last installment providing a brief history, but all of this is necessary to set the stage for proving that Kanye West's latest full-length album has ushered hip-hop into the legitimate world of canonical art.
The Top 5 Unexpected Samples in Hip-Hop
When Jay-Z came out with “Hard-Knock Life,” I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised that he’d sampled the musical Annie. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to be doubly surprised that it worked. Sometimes we can’t believe what we’re bobbing our head to—but it sounds so good we can’t stop.
The Whitest History of Hip-Hop: Part 2 – Verse vs. Us
In the last installment, I said this article would be called “A Study of Binaries – New Black Poetry Replaces Old White Poetry,” but in fact, the “Verse vs. Us” title is far more linguistic, it just isn’t the sort of title that has you chomping at the bit to read more. So I tricked you, sorry,...
Jay-Z – Allure (Ratatat Remix)
Oh my Ratatat, this remix is what the kids would call “hawt!” Yet another fantastic posthumous contribution from Biggie. The original “Allure” off Jay-Z’s album The Black Album is a more laid back affair with suave background vocals and thin synth-string foundation. It would be unforgivable to not mention the repeated pistol sample (yeah, really original...
Top 5: Fist-Pumping Songs
After a full 8 hours of acting like a good citizen at the office, sometimes what you need is music that brings out your inner anarchist. I'm talking about songs that you can really pump a fist to.
