I love 90 bpm, it's the ultimate head nodding tempo. In the 90s, 90 bpm was huge, nowadays, we've moved to faster tempos; in general. But things always change, and come around. Some of the nastiest beats came out of 90s rap, Premier, Dilla, Organized Noize, GZA...but they all started with killer samples. "Passing Me By", "Runnin'", "The Message", "Two Dope Boyz", "C.R.E.A.M.", to name a few.
This mix features some of my all time favorite hip hop tracks, plus some new, and some oldies- Shuggie, Stevie, Three Dog Night, and some early Bob Marley, probably the Lee Perry mixes; I love those.
I've always wanted to throw down that Three Dog Night jam, "Fire Eater," its sound is so ahead of its time; 90 bpm-ish, instrumental, with some knockin' drums, nice and high in the mix, with the snare cranked, that's how a lot of people mic drums these days, but that's 1970!
Starting off, People Under the Stairs is a quintessential backpack rap group from California. I could really relate to these lyrics in my teen days- driving at night, puffing, dodging cops, and bombing the streets all over the bay.
Onra is one of my favorite of the new era of beat makers, he's a real digger, and MPC master. "Still Broke" is just one of the many slamming tracks off the Chinoiseseries.
Stevie is maybe my all time favorite musician, what more is there to say about him? He's a living legend.
I think Danny!'s And I Love H.E.R. is his best record, "Misery" is a great track- excellent chopping- overall great production.
I think we can all agreed The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a classic album, aside from all the drama with her and the press, Wyclef, who cares...It's incredible it's her ONLY record.
On here, you'll also find some new Bins remixes, and a couple off the EPs. There are also some early works of mine and my friend Jay from the Clark & Jay record (2006), that's a real special record for me, and I know my friends will be stoked to hear some of those on there.
If you don't know David Axelrod, you should. He was a pioneer, with a great story, which I won't tell now, but he paved the way for trip hop and rap. Some of his originals have been flipped into massive hits by Dr. Dre, DJ Shadow, Joey Badass, Eminem, Jurassic 5, Cypress Hill, Fat Joe, Mos Def, The Beatnuts, Wu Tang, Cee Lo, Atmosphere...everybody, it's insane. You might recognize this track from "Dr. Carter" by Lil Wayne.
Gotta love Nujabes, I think it's not possible to dislike, even your parents would like him. I love that jazzy rap from Japan, there's a big movement for that. It's a shame he died so young.
I was nuts about Ratatat when they first came out. It's impressive they've brought instrumental rock to the masses, that's a rare thing these days. Popular instrumental rock fell off after the 60s- The Shadows, The Ventures, all that.
Aim, Lemon Jelly, The Books, Avalanches, The Go! Team; all that sample heavy stuff, especially the "found sound" musicians, I think it's apparent they're all influences on me, so I spin them a bunch.
I love all of edIT's stuff, and it's interesting to see how he's evolved. Crying Over Pros For No Reason was a ground breaking record, the sounds he's created still baffle me; it's a very emotional records.
I'm anxious to hear a new record by Emancipator, I actually discovered him on Pandora, now we're both on 1320 Records. I often put his music as my alarm clock, it's perfect for that. I'd love to collab with him one of these days.
You might know B. Eure as Bobby Blunt, it's his new moniker, actually his real name. He says it's his grown up name now, I can dig that. If you've listened to Every Minute of the Day and Every Second of the Night, you'd know I work with him a lot. It's impressive he can rap as good as he can sing, and sing as good as he can rap, not too many cats can do that without autotune.
Black Star is a classic, 'nuf said.
Shuggie is another short-lived great. I'm a big fan. He wrote "Strawberry Letter 23".
"What Now?" is more of a crazy mashup than my own production. The samples work together so well, it's seamless. I used two different early James Brown songs, with Pink Floyd, Gene Chandler, and The Four Tops. I thought it was a good closer to the mix.
Enjoy an hour of non-stop great music!
