Video: Exile, “Population Control”

Here’s another clip from Exile’s Radio: AM/FM project. It features three remixes of “Population Control” by Samiyam, Dibiase and Free the Robots, as well as the original track.

Directed and edited by Greg “The Dude” Ponstingl. Co-directed by Exile and Justin Abbink.

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Video: Pigeon John, “The Bomb”

Pigeon John is so freaking earnest it’s hard to get into his music sometimes. But this one’s worth the effort.

Directed by Matt Hobbs. Taken from Dragon Slayer, which is in stores now.

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Video: Seu Jorge & Almaz, “The Model”

Here is a two-part short film, The Model. It’s based on Seu Jorge & Almaz’s cover of the Kraftwerk classic “The Model.” The film incorporates footage of an incredible home in the Hollywood Hills and dream-like images of the beautiful model Jodie Smith.

The Model is edited and directed by Kahlil Joseph, and includes music from Seu Jorge & Almaz’ self-titled album, which is in stores now.

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Video: Zion I, “Always”

Here’s another great track from Oakland’s Zion I.

Directed by Paul Bradley and Robin Twomey. Taken from Atomic Clock, in stores now.

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Review: Guilty Simpson, “OJ Simpson”

Guilty Simpson, OJ Simpson
Stones Throw

It’s not easy rapping over a Madlib Invazion. The Los Angeles producer is infamous for layering his beats with all sorts of nonsense that can turn an MC’s performance into a mere sideshow. However, Guilty Simpson manages to hold his own on OJ Simpson. (The title not only references the fallen gridiron hero but also Otis Jackson, Madlib’s real name.) The Detroit thug carries plenty of verbal “hammers,” drops gully thug rhymes, and promises a “Hood Sentence” over “Coroner’s Music.” Madlib fanatics shouldn’t worry, either, as he crams this collaboration with plenty of comedy skits and wacky interludes. But when it’s time to handle business, he turns up Guilty’s voice in the mix and lets the thug rock.

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Review: Sage Francis, “Li(f)e”

Sage Francis, Li(f)e
Anti-

Sage Francis’ fourth solo album finds him collaborating with Chicago indie-rock band Califone. The resulting songs, most of which address hypocrisy (or “lie”) in modern society, wed Francis’ densely lyrical rap style with complex textural instrumentation. Francis has never been known for hook-laden hits or catchy punchlines, and Li(f)e is no exception. It has plenty of deft meditations, though, including prodigal son anthems like “Little Houdini” and “The Baby Stays.” Like chapters in a book, they add up to a greater, meaningful whole.

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Review: B.o.B, “The Adventures of Bobby Ray”

B.o.B, The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Atlantic

On his long-awaited debut album, B.o.B’s “Bobby Ray” persona – the pop half of his rapper/singer personality – emerges with a vengeance. He bookends rhymes with earnest, dreamy vocals like “Let Me Fall” and “Past My Shades,” and invites Bruno Mars (“Nothin’ on You”) and Hayley Williams from Paramore (“Airplanes”) to contribute hooks. Rapping alongside Eminem, Lupe Fiasco and T.I., B.o.B announces his hit-making potential in an emphatic and surprisingly confident way. The Adventures of Bobby Ray may not be what fans of underground anthems like “Haterz Everywhere” expected, but it’s entertaining all the same.

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Review: Murs & 9th Wonder, “Fornever”

Murs & 9th Wonder, Fornever
SMC Recordings

Murs and 9th Wonder’s third album together (not counting the Internet-only My Sweet Lord) has a distinctly L.A. vibe, with guest spots from Sick Jacken, Kurupt and Suga Free. The beats are slightly rougher, too, as 9th Wonder adds live instrumentation to his familiar soul loops and even steps out for a rhyme on a celebration of “Asia Girls.” But Murs still has the crazy stories, from dating porn stars on “Vikki Veil” to ruing “Cigarettes and Liquor,” that makes this a solid if unspectacular entry in the duo’s growing catalog.

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Review: Meth, Ghost and Rae, “Wu-Massacre”

Meth, Ghost and Rae, Wu-Massacre
Def Jam

Okay, so the thirty-minute mini-album Wu-Massacre is something of a rush job, with few developed concepts and no memorable hooks. But who cares? The Wu-Tang triumvirate sticks to what it does best and spits hardcore darts over a crackling set of soul loops. While the results aren’t revelatory, they’re thrilling all the same. Ghostface’s “Pimpin’ Chipp,” where he impersonates a hooker paying tribute to her dead pimp, is a strange highlight. Other songs, such as “Youngstown Heist” and “Criminology 2.5,” seem pockmarked with bellowed threats and blasting gun shots.

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Review: GonjaSufi, “A Sufi and a Killer”

GonjaSufi, A Sufi and a Killer
Warp

A Sufi and a Killer opens with “Rebirth,” an extended loop of a Native American ceremony, with totem drums pounding as voices cry to its rhythm. GonjaSufi dreams of being a “Sheep” and a lion, interpreting the animals as prototypical vegetarians and carnivores as an Indian mantra hums. His voice cracks and wheezes, as if he were a dreadlocked mystic descended from a terrestrial planet. A Sufi and a Killer, largely produced by GonjaSufi with key assistance from Flying Lotus and the Gaslamp Killer, is magical stuff, but it isn’t a spiritual exercise. He’s all too aware of the hot and dangerous concrete jungle that surrounds him, as well as the endless sky of possibilities that lie above.

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Review: Kidz in the Hall, “Land of Make Believe”

Kidz in the Hall, Land of Make Believe
Duck Down Records

After two charming, playful albums and a minor indie hit (“Drivin’ Down the Block”), new rap gen stars Kidz in the Hall sound world-weary. Their cynicism weighs heavily on Land of Make Believe: On “Simple Life,” Naledge wonders what success really means, while he swaggers on “Bougie Girls” and “Jukebox” with a casual misogyny uncharacteristic of the group’s earlier material. But repeated listens to Land of Make Believe find that the Chicago upstarts haven’t lost their ear for great melodies – check Double-O’s standout production on “Will II Win” and “Running” – just a sense of confidence.

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Review: Strong Arm Steady, “In Search Of Stoney Jackson”

Strong Arm Steady, In Search of Stoney Jackson
Stones Throw

Madlib has promised to release at least twelve albums in 2010, along with several Yesterdays New Quintet adventures and collaborations such as this production gig for Los Angeles hard knock trio Strong Arm Steady. How In Search of Stoney Jackson will measure against the eventual deluge is anyone’s guess, but it sounds as if the eccentric beat master is off to a, uh, strong start. All of Madlib’s tricks are in evidence here, including wacky, laugh-out-loud samples, tasty head-nod loops and a dusty, scratchy-record tone. Admirably, Strong Arm Steady manage to keep up with him, offering inspired rhymes on dietary methods (“Chitlins & Pepsi”), the current recession (“Best of Times”) and, of course, thuggin’ out (“Bark Like a Dog”).

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Review: K-os, “Yes!”

K-os, Yes!
Last Gang Records

Canadian rap star K-os remains a cult figure in the States, but standout singles such as 2004’s “Love Song” have had an impact, influencing artists like K’naan and Drake (who is taking K-os on his U.S. tour this spring). If you’re unfamiliar with K-os’s B-boy forays into pop-rock, soul and other musical flavors, then Yes! is a good a place to start. It doesn’t have as many good songs as his best album, Joyful Rebellion, but it has plenty of sharp tunes. On “4, 3, 2, 1,” he uses a sample from the Pharcyde’s “Soul Flower” to reminisce about hip hop back in the day. He teams with Saukrates for “I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman,” and brings Murray Lightburn from the Dears and Emily Haines from Metric for the tour story “Uptown Girl.” The sound is melodic and adventurous.

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A flood of reviews from 2010

This weekend, I’ll post the rest of my Rhapsody reviews from 2010. Why did I wait until the end? I originally planned to write new reviews for these albums but, unfortunately, I’ve run out of time.

Last April, I announced that I would re-publish my Rhapsody reviews that fit within the Plug One format. I have long wanted to build a database of my thoughts on current hip-hop, but figured that I didn’t have enough time to review every album twice (and occasionally for a third freelance outlet, too). I hoped to solve that problem by using re-posts for minor works, and then write original reviews for the more important albums.

Unfortunately, re-posts took over the site. I haven’t published an original piece on Plug One since my TOKiMONSTA interview in August.

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Review: Redman, “Redman Presents…Reggie”

Redman, Redman Presents…Reggie
Def Jam

“Some rappers say they had it/ I feel I’m getting started,” argues Redman on his seventh album, Reggie. To prove his point, the Brick City veteran abandons the distinctive funk beats of his earlier classics in favor of electronic R&B hooks and clubby bounce tracks. It yields some rewards like “Def Jammable” and “Lite 1 Witcha Boi,” the latter a posse cut with Method Man and Bun B, as well as a few duds such as the Auto-Tuned “Full Nelson.” Reggie sounds uneven, but give Redman credit for trying something new, even at the risk of alienating his hardcore audience.

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Review: T.I., “No Mercy”

T.I., No Mercy
Atlantic

No Mercy, much of which was recorded after T.I. earned yet another prison stint for probation violations, finds our ATL hero angrily defiant. He calls himself a “convict with a conscience” on the militaristic “Salute,” and he and fellow pop pariah Chris Brown demand that fans don’t judge them on “Get Back Up.” “I’m only human,” he says, adding on “I Can’t Help It,” that his recidivism is a result of “keeping it real,” and offering his most misogynist song ever in “Amazing.” It’s hard to agree with him and his supporters (including Kanye West and Kid Cudi on “Welcome to the World”), but No Mercy is still a compelling statement.

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Review: Kanye West, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”

Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Def Jam

To understand why My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy earns its title, sounds both sensuously epic and a bit of a dick joke, and manages to combine deep melancholy and triumphant hubris into a stunningly intense experience, let’s backtrack to Kanye West’s debut, 2003’s The College Dropout. On “Never Let Me Down,” Kanye multi-tracked John Legend and Tracie Spencer’s backing vocals into a full-blown gospel chorus as he ruminated on how his parents participated in lunch counter sit-ins during the civil rights movement, and how that legacy made him different. “Niggas can’t make it to ballots to choose leadership/ But we can make it to Jacob’s and to the dealership/ That’s why I hear new music and I just don’t be feeling it,” he rapped. Matched against Kanye’s earnestness, Jay-Z’s Cristal-stained boasts were woefully out of place.

Seven years later, Kanye has become another errant choir boy. His religious upbringing and Black History Month studies help him make outrageous claims of being a pharaoh, a deity similar to Allah himself. “Malcolm West had the whole nation standing at attention,” he claims on “Power.” He speaks about light-skinned girls as if they were new Bentleys to be licked and humped. (Cue R. Kelly’s “You Remind of My Jeep.”) And suddenly, Jay Hova himself sounds right at home. He murders “Monster.” Even Rick Ross, who repeats his familiar shtick of personifying big-balling hustlers on “Devil in a New Dress,” is apropos to this tall tale of adult children lost in a world of designer clothes, luxury vehicles and scantily-clad women, with TMZ and Gawker keeping score. Brilliantly, Kanye couches these fantasies in a hip-hop context. By inviting the aforementioned plus the RZA, Pusha T, Swizz Beatz, Raekwon and Kid Cudi, he demonstrates that materialism and hubris are essential to understanding hip-hop culture as it is lived, if not necessarily how Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa first envisioned it. As Pusha T says on “Runaway,” “I’m just young, rich and tasteless.”

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Review: Curren$y, “Pilot Talk II”

Curren$y, Pilot Talk
DD172

For anyone who thrilled to Curren$y’s excellent major label debut, Pilot Talk II, released a mere five months after Pilot Talk, offers more of the same. This sequel may sound overly familiar since the New Orleans rapper, Trademark Da Skydiver, and Smoke DZA predictably riff on “good weed and broads, spaceships and stars.” However, rewind material abounds, from the zoned-out grooves of “Michael Knight” to the languid guitar strolls on “A Gee.” “Ain’t nothing changed but the weather,” he says on “Famous,” and his ability to elucidate his bourgeois ambitions with sharp lyricism is all that matters.

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Review: Yelawolf, “Trunk Muzik 0-60”

Yelawolf, Trunk Muzik 0-60
Ghet-O-Vision/DGC/Interscope

Yelawolf’s Trunk Muzik 0-60 may only be an expanded version of his popular Internet mixtape Trunk Muzik, but it’s a vastly improved one. The Alabama rapper has added a handful of new tracks – including “That’s What We On Now” and “Billy Crystal” – that sharpen the album’s themes of gritty street tales and sexcapades. He’s an incredible bounce rapper, one who not only can flip drug metaphors in a matter of milliseconds, but also communicate real heartbreak on “Love Is Not Enough.” As Yelawolf says on “Pop the Trunk,” “This isn’t a figment of my imagination, it’s where I live.”

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Kid Cudi, Eminem and the Perils of Addiction

Rap Is Not Pop: Kid Cudi, Eminem and the Perils of Addiction

This post is inspired by a commenter on my recent piece about Eminem and his album Recovery. “Somebody’s finally on the radio talking about NOT doing drugs. That’s a good thing,” wrote Halo in the comments section. “I know that it’s tough being clean and still keeping it real.”

Why has there been so little hip-hop that addresses drug and alcohol addiction? It’s not as if rappers aren’t abusing drugs: The tabloids are filled with their exploits, whether it’s Lil Wayne serving time for drug possession, T.I. violating his probation over Ecstasy tablets and codeine syrup, or Gucci Mane reportedly heading to rehab. It appears that the days when it was only “cool” to smoke weed are a thing of the past. Yet those personal struggles rarely make it into the music.

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