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The Land of 10,000 Lakes and 2 Dope Emcees - Max Haben and Mally from the 612

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Tue, 24 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

Mally and Max look down on all other rappers from Minnesota.

Fresh off the release of his tremendous sophomore album, The Moment, our favorite Minnesota emcee Mally From the 612 has teamed up with a fellow resident of the Gopher State, Max Haben, to add another dope song to his catalog. Like Mally, Max Haben is a student at St. Thomas (having graduated this past spring, Mally is technically no longer a student, but you get my meaning), which I assume is how they met.

Produced by Teddy Roxpin, the beat samples what I could swear are the horns from Slick Rick's Mona Lisa (or perhaps the original Dionne Warwick song, Walk On By). Whatever he used, it's a memorable bit of production. Check it out:

Max Haben featuring Mally from the 612 - Ghost Town

For those of you who have been paying attention, you no doubt remember Teddy Roxpin as the producer behind the Praverb the Wyse track that we featured on the site a few weeks ago, The King. Max Haben, Teddy Roxpin and Praverb are currently collaborating on a joint album, due out sometime later this year. I'm always excited to see artists that we've profiled connect with each other (a topic that came up recently in the comments), as the results are, without fail, quite good.

Max Haben released his debut album, The Mind is Infinite, this past January. In addition to the upcoming project with Praverb, he is also set to release a mixtape, Runnin' Down a Dream, next month (Mally didn't send me a whole lot of background info on this track, but I presume Ghost Town will be on the mixtape). To find out more about it, hit up Max's MySpace page.

You already know all you need to about Mally by now, so let me just remind you one more time that his album, The Moment, is available for free. If he was selling it for $12.99 (or whatever a cd goes for these days) it would still be a bargain, so go cop it!

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Rapping about the Economy (Nico B from Chicago)

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Mon, 23 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

Nico B chose this image of Thomas P. Stafford

Unless you're one of the fortunate few whose financial security is not dependent upon the well being of the U.S. economy, you've probably noticed that things have been on a downward trend lately. Poorly thought out energy policies, over reliance on Chinese imports, inept and often corrupt corporate leadership, a mortgage crisis, a multi-trillion dollar quagmire in Iraq, an impending Web 2.0 Bust, and a drastically weakened U.S. dollar have all contributed to a rather pessimistic prognosis for the future of our economy. While the mainstream media does its best to distract us with their Bread and Circus of tabloid stories in place of real journalism and analysis, lest the plebs begin to get agitated, it's getting harder and harder to ignore the financial crisis we seem to be racing closer towards with each passing day.

It's not just the average man on the street that's been affected by the downturn, however. Even NBA players have begun to migrate as far away as Eastern Europe, eager to have their salaries paid out in Euros instead of Dollars. And we've already seen a few rappers begin to embrace the Euro, flashing wads of blue currency in their videos as the new symbol for real wealth. One has to wonder how much longer a sagging music industry and struggling economy can continue to support the gold- (and platinum-)paved fantasy world that most rappers continue to live in.

With that said, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a new freestyle from my man Nico B, part of the Record Playas crew in Chicago (who we featured earlier this year). Over the beat from Jay-Z's Snoopy, Nico addresses the reality of the situation that we find ourselves in today. This is real talk, and I wish more rappers would follow his lead, because they can't all be living like Jay-Z. Peep:

Nico B - Snoopy freestyle

Though I haven't had many opportunities to feature Nico B on the site, he has let me listen to a couple of unfinished tracks that he's been working on for an upcoming album. They're not yet ready for public consumption, but I will say that what I have heard so far has me looking forward to hearing the final project. For more from Nico B, stop by his MySpace page.

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Ill Eagle - The Stendhal Syndrome LP

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Sun, 22 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

Back in '07, I put up a review of The Wilhelm Scream, an album from a kid out of Chicago by way of Gary, Indiana, going by the name of Ill Eagle the Anti-Rapper. The review ended up generating a fair amount of feedback, with opinions split almost evenly between "Love" and "Hate." While I was a big fan of the album, the backlash wasn't entirely surprising to me; no one denied Ill Eagle's talent as an emcee, but his beat selection, which veered well into hipster territory, was another matter entirely. Now a year later, Eagle's followed up his debut with another album that I've thoroughly enjoyed, yet fully expect will lead to the same split in consensus.

The album's named The Stendhal Syndrome, which Wikipedia defines as "a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly 'beautiful' or a large amount of art is in a single place." It's a lofty title to live up to, but as with his previous album, Ill Eagle puts so much effort into experimenting with the whole concept of what constitutes "hip hop" that a case certainly could be made for this falling into the category of avant-garde. While most of the independent artists that I feature on this site tend to stick with the more traditional approach to hip hop (and I love them for that), Ill Eagle is one of the few unsigned rappers I've come across who has embraced the music's shift away from the 'boom bap' sound and managed to leverage that shift in sound to create some really good music that draws influence from several other genres.

It's a safe bet that, whatever opinion you had of Ill Eagle after listening to his first album, you will likely hold that opinion even more strongly after hearing The Stendhal Syndrome. From rapping over beats from Justice, to the borderline emo lyricism, there's plenty for the traditionalists to be unhappy with. Yet if you're able to look past that, you'll find a surprisingly capable emcee who can switch from punch lines to (mock) gangsta lyrics at a moment's notice, dropping more than a few lines that will make you laugh out loud. As for the beats, while there's a lot more club-oriented material than I would normally like, they actually work quite well with Eagle's delivery. And it's worth noting, even if Ill Eagle himself never does, that he was rapping over electronica/club beats long before Busta and Kanye ever thought of sampling Daft Punk. Whether that's a decision to be commended I'll leave up to the listener, but at the very least Eagle deserves credit for being ahead of the game.

Here are a few tracks from the album:

Ill Eagle - I Hate Mixtapes

Ill Eagle - I Still Like Grime!

Ill Eagle - He Sounds Like Eminem

For a link to download The Stendhal Syndrome for free, head on over to Ill Eagle's MySpace page.

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J Dilla and Jazzy Jeff remix of Lauryn Hill's Lost Ones

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Sat, 21 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

Lauryn Hill - Lost Ones Remix (J Dilla / Jazzy Jeff Remix)

For reasons that we don't need to discuss, I was searching through youtube for a certain song by DJ Jazzy Jeff (As We Go, if you must know, featuring some of the best sample scratches you'll ever hear, even if they're overwhelmed by Will Smith's signature cornball lyrics) when I came across the above remix of Lauryn Hill's Lost Ones. The remix, built around the J Dilla-produced beat from Q-Tip and the Brand New Heavies' Sometimes, is off of Jazzy Jeff's mixtape The Vibe I'm On, which was due to come out way back in '98 but never got an official release.

While we're at it, here's one more Jazzy Jeff-related remix which seemed rather appropriate for today, considering the 100 degree temperature outside:

Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff - Summertime (remix)

Who would have guessed that, ten years later, both Lauryn Hill and Will Smith would have both gone crazy? (With "crazy" being somewhat more literal a diagnosis for Lauryn than for Will...)

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Mally From the 612 - The Moment LP (Free Album D/L)

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Fri, 20 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

A couple of years ago, my man Major passed along an album from a friend of his going by the name Mally From the 612, with a rather modest suggestion to check it out if I had the chance. The understated introduction to the Minnesota MC's debut, The Letter, left me unprepared for what I was about to hear, a showcase of one of the best new lyricists to arrive on the scene in years. There were a couple of moments on the album that were a little raw - more so on the mixing of the tracks than anything else - but in spite of that, the album maintained one of the top spots in my iPod rotation for the past two years. With his new album, The Moment, Mally has improved on every aspect of his craft as an emcee, from the depth of the subject matter in his lyrics to the wider variety in his beat selection, and put together a tremendous follow up to his debut.

Mally often points to Joe Budden as one of the main sources of his inspiration, and the level of introspection on this album clearly shows Joey's influence, to the point where you'll come away from listening to it feeling like you've just finished an hour long conversation with him. The most poignant song on the album, Never Knew Him, reflects on his absentee father, somehow managing to turn a very personal examination of their relationship into a head nodder. Perhaps even more impressive, however, is his ability to jump on an up tempo beat and still maintain the depth in his lyrics, as he does on the socially-conscious track My People, which we featured a couple of months ago. From start to finish, Mally never lets up, often continuing to rhyme well after the beat has faded out.

When Mally's on top of his game, he can spit raw acapellas and still catch your ear's attention, but what sets The Moment apart from his previous effort, The Letter, is the production backing his lyrics. While it's hard to complain about an album that relies primarily on old Dilla beats, as was the case with his first album, The Moment benefits greatly from the use of several original beats (in fact the one track that used a beat that I had heard before, the Menahan Street Band song that was used for Jay-Z's Roc Boys, would have actually worked better as an acapella). For a lot of emcees, particularly emcees who have yet to establish their identity on the mic, it's hard to get a true feel for what they're capable of when they rhyme over an instrumental that's already been used by another rapper, and the familiarity of recycled beats often covers up whatever deficiencies that emcee may have. On this album, we get to hear Mally break ground on new beats, and it's a marked improvement over his debut.

The production credits for most of the tracks on the album feature names that longtime readers of the site should be well familiar with by now. Mydus, Miami's king of the remix album, Clean Guns' Zilla Rocca and Redwine, who produced most of The Letter, have all put together some memorable beats. The album also features some standout work from a French producer named Astroblack, who's sample-based, up tempo offerings left me wondering how I had never heard of him before. There are seventeen tracks on the album, and with the exception of one beat - the previously mentioned Make the Road By Walking - they all manage to enhance Mally's impressive delivery.

Having recently graduated from college, Mally at one point during the album questions what he's going to do with his life. Here's hoping that The Moment serves as a rather impressive resume for a long, successful career as a full-time emcee.

Mally - Lookup, Lookout (produced by Astroblack)

Mally - Never Knew Him (produced by Redwine)

Mally's made the entire album available for free, so go get it!
Mally From the 612 - The Moment (zShare link)

After you listen to the album, head on over to Mally's MySpace page and let him know what you thought of it.

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Throwback Thursday: Fu-Schnickens and Phife Dawg

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Tue, 17 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

Fu-Schnickens featuring Phife Dawg - La Schmoove

I was digging through my crate of old cassingles today, and I came across the above song, which I hadn't heard in years. Listening to them now, I can see how some of the younger generation may find Fu-Schnickens to be a little corny with their Das Efx style of delivery, but growing up my older brother used to have La Schmoove on a constant loop, lending a very strong sense of nostalgia to the song whenever I hear it these days.

Fu-Schnickens seem to primarily be remembered for being the group that unleashed Shaq-Fu onto an unsuspecting public - a full decade before dropping the classic diss track Kobe, how my ass taste?, Shaq was recruited to sing the hook on What's Up Doc? after the group was unable to clear a sample of Bugs Bunny - overlooking the fact that they put out a pretty solid album two years before that, with F.U. Don't Take It Personal. While there were several hip hop acts that attempted to merge rap with dancehall during the early 90's, Fu-Schnickens were the only American group (that I can recall) that managed to gain credibility in Jamaica, with their song Ring the Alarm. And although they never really got credit for it, Fu-Schnickens were the first hip hop group to really build their image around old Kung Fu movies, a couple of years before Wu-Tang came onto the scene.

While searching for La Schmoove, I also came across a video with Phife and Chip Fu that I had never seen before, most likely because the song was released a couple of years after the Snow phenomenon had played itself out. Peep:

Whitey Don featuring Phife Dawg and Chip Fu - Artical

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The Wu-Tang Brothers - A Scandinavian Wu-Tang Cover Band

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Mon, 16 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

It's Wu motherfuckers?

This past weekend I was skimming through a copy of Mass Appeal and came across an interview with a crew out of Amsterdam calling themselves the Wu-Tang Brothers. While the Wu-Tang Clan has had an almost limitless supply of affiliates and hangers-on over the years, the picture that ran with the interview certainly didn't look like any branch of the Wu family that I was familiar with. As it turned out, the Wu-Tang Brothers were a cover band, putting on live performances of the Wu's greatest hits (and even reenacting some of the skits from their albums).

The idea of a hip hop cover band in and of itself was interesting enough to catch my attention. In a genre of music where the act of merely biting one line from another rapper is enough to cost an emcee their entire credibility, hip hop cover bands are, not surprisingly, a very rare phenomenon (truth be told, this is the first one I had ever heard of). Even more intriguing was the fact that the group's appearance ran counter to what one could expect from anything Wu-related in the past.

When I first heard about the Wu-Tang Brothers I was skeptical, to say the least. The concept behind the group - seven Scandinavian kids decked out in stereotypical Hipster attire, mimicking not only the lyrics but the whole onstage persona of the Clan - seemed to be a rather blatant attempt to make Wu-Tang's music more palatable to the type of audience that would, under normal circumstances, dismiss hip hop without a second thought. And after watching their videos I can't say that isn't the case, yet somehow they've managed to turn a glorified karaoke performance into something that's begun to get more attention from the media than many legitimate rappers. Normally I would just dismiss them for the gimmick that they are, but considering all of the bickering and in-fighting that's been going on between the real Wu-Tang Clan, these guys may be the closest thing we get to an authentic Wu concert experience any time soon.

I suppose at the very least we can be thankful that they've chosen to emulate one of the greatest groups of all time rather than, say, some of the groups that have come out more recently (though I can only assume it's just a matter of time before we see a Dipset cover band). Yet I'm still unable to decide whether this is a misappropriation of hip hop culture or a genuine tribute, though the more I read about them the more I've begun to lean toward the latter. They've got two videos up on Youtube, so take a look and decide for yourself. The sound is a little rough, but it should give you a good idea of what their shows are like:

Wu-Tang Brothers - Reunited

Wu-Tang Brothers - Protect Ya Neck

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Feed the Beast Week 9 - Nico raps along with Weezy and...Ashanti?

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Sun, 15 Jul 07 20:35:01 GMT

By now, you should all know the drill for Feed the Beast. To promote his debut album, No Beast So Fierce, Philly emcee Nico the Beast has been selecting two user-submitted beats each week and dropping an original verse over each of them. So far, Nico's batted 1.000, lyrically knocking all sixteen beats out of the park like a rap version of Chase Utley (can you tell that I have the All Star game on while I'm writing this?).

Nico tells me that this week's entries have been his favorite set of songs for Feed the Beast, and after listening to them, it's easy to see why. What he's put together for week nine goes well beyond the original freestyle concept, with two entries that are complete songs in their own right.

The first song, with a beat (Lil Wayne's Hustler's Music) selected by Nico's little brother Nooch, features Nico at his best as an emcee. Showcasing his proficiency at the (lost) art of storytelling, Nico drops a verse that manages to be both "street" and sincere. A lot of the songs on No Beast So Fierce have a similar feel to them, so if you like this one you should definitely be into the album:

Nico the Beast - Hustler's Music

The beat on the second track (submitted by Jimmy Giambrone, who also took the above photo), caught me off guard, as I didn't expect to hear Nico rap over an R&B joint. I wouldn't have expected someone to submit an Ashanti beat, either, but it worked out surprisingly well. Flipping the concept behind Ashanti's love song, Nico turns the whole thing into something significantly more hip hop:

Nico the Beast - Only You

He should already be in your Top 10 by now, but if you want to hear more music from Nico, hit up his MySpace page. And go pick up a copy of No Beast So Fierce!

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Briefly Noted: Mista Mista (Providence, RI)

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Sun, 15 Jul 07 20:15:01 GMT

Over the past few months, I've been getting an increasing amount of promo material in my inbox. A lot of it isn't worth passing along, but even after filtering out the stuff that's not quite up to par, I still don't get a chance to feature every artist that I'd like, particularly the unsigned artists. So I'm going to try putting up the occasional short post, with just a track and the artist's contact information (I'll be labeling these posts with the very original title of "Briefly Noted" until I come up with something better). I realize it's not quite as good as doing an "official" feature on the artist, but at least it will give you all a chance to hear some more good music and perhaps get these artists a little bit more exposure.

So here's a song from Mista Mista, a rapper representing Providence, Rhode Island. He's done a couple of shows with Chachi, which is how I first connected with him.

Mista Mistas - Still Don't Know

To hear more from Mista Mista, visit his MySpace page.

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Busta Rhymes - Bird Peterson Remix (Throw Da Water On 'Em)

mrjones@33jones.com (Fresh) — Sat, 14 Jul 07 20:15:01 GMT

Ok, quick status update: I left the tracks for Feed the Beast Week 9 at my office, so I'll be putting those up tomorrow, I promise. In the meantime, I've got a club remix of Busta Rhymes' Don't Touch Me Now (Throw The Water On 'Em), by Austin, Texas DJ Bird Peterson. I know that some of you really aren't checking for these types of remixes, but I thought this one was pretty good. Peep:

Bussa Buss - Don't Touch Me Now (Bird Peterson Remix)

Shoutout to low-bee.

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