Best of 2010

NOTE: After legal complaints, I'm going to only post mp3s for songs freely provided by the artist. All other links will be to SoundCloud, YouTube, Grooveshark, Bandcamp, or other such sites. Sorry for the iTunes library hit, but let's start the year off by supporting music the right way.

2010 was a year that has carried a sense of significance for a while now. Back in 4th grade I figured out that was the year I would graduate (middle school...), and thought it was so cool that the year ended in a zero. The start of a new decade. I still think thats pretty ill.

For the past hour or so, I've been going through my iTunes library and checking songs from the past year --  listening as they pop with memories, people, car rides, or just straight hotness. I've decided to try and list ten of them, being completely biased in my calculations. These are not the best ten songs of 2010, but rather ten songs (or other musical entities) that did it all for me, and to be real shoulda done it up pretty well for you too.

So before this becomes a Xanga entry:

10. Das Racist

2010 saw Das Racist's image morph from fast-food loving stoners to Ray Liotta-like, complex pop culture connoisseurs. Formed by Himanshu "Taliban-chic" Suri, Victor "Second Best Rapper with Glasses" Vasquez, and their hypeman Dapwell, these dudes put together some of the most fun and insanely clever lines of the year -- droppin' two mixtapes Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Takeaway all the Pitchfork and indie bloggers love.  Take away the dope production from the likes of Diplo and Dash Speaks. And at its essence, the reason I love these guys is cause I relate. They're our generations Beastie Boys right now: speaking in a voice that rings true. Pop cultural overload, as smart as how fast we can use our smart phone, complex like Donkey from Shrek, smoking the same loosie from 14 to 24, celebrating the fact we moved into our mama's basement. Plus Heems and Dap went to my high school, so gotta give up the Stuy love!

Amazing - Das Racist

You Can Sell Anything - Das Racist

For more check what MUSKit said bout them a quick minute ago.

9. B.M.F - Rick Ross

ROSS! When that intro hits, no matter my age or the occasion I will start stompin' a little, aggresively start pulling at my shirt, rock back and forth, and then just shout "I THINK I'M BIG MEECH!" This song blasted from my car all summer, with Rozay's first verse just monstrously devouring my already broken speakers. It's one of the few songs that just by osmosis, the listener can actually become more gangster. The result: "cocaine, running in my dick vein." 

8. A-Trak

A-Trak had such a crazy year in 2010 that he gets his own number. Under the entity of Duck Sauce - he and Arman van Helden dropped two of this year's funkier club destroyers "aNYway" and "Barbara Streisand." Then came out with fire remixes of Robyn's "Idestructible" and Sebastien Tellier's "Kilometer." The Tellier remix being my favorite of the whole lot. A-Trak has done a whole lot since buying his first turntables using his bar mitzvah money, and he is gonna be around a long time, but 2010 will definitely go down as a big one for him. 

Sébastien Tellier - Kilometer (A-Trak Remix) by A-Trak

Barbara Streisand (Fare Soldi Remix) - Duck Sauce

7. Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours 

Ed Banger's latest French export, Breakbot, just made my 2010 a little happier with his Baby, I'm Yours EP. Getting his 1970s - 1980s electro disco on, Breakbot dug into his keyboard and combined so many funky sounds to create a complex, yet super light and smiley pop number. I mean look at the picture! Fun!

Breakbot FT IRFANE - Baby I'm Yours by Breakbot

6. We Are Trees

I stumbled upon We Are Trees by accident at a CMJ showcase, getting to the venue too early. I should do this more often as We Are Trees blew my mind. Their music combines delicate strings and body pounding percussion with the soul-wrenching vocals of James Nee to create the best emotional dance party I've ever been a part of. Said party may have just been me, in my basement, but shitt, you should have been there! Anyway for reals, this group is incredible, and are my pick to blow the fuck up in 2011. Think The xx type blowup.

Check their Bandcamp here for their EP Boyfriend

5. You Got The Love (Theophilus London Remix) - The xx 

Transition! This track combines two of my favorite acts of 2010 - Theophilus London and The xx covering The Source and Candi Station's 1986 original disco number. This fresh track has a genuine bareness to it, opening with a chilling harp arpeggio and Mr. London softly repeating "You got it." The simple drum loop enters to Theophilus declaring "I think its safe to say I'm in your heart and you can't get me out" with a little wink and swagger in his delivery. Maintaining that feel, Theophilus weaves the tale of a breakup, and twists this love song into a breakup song while still maintaining all the beauty and vulnerability of The xx's cover. In this way, the song highlights the close proximity between love and breakup in a way thats's so much more earnest to the real thing than your stereotypical ballads. 

You can think about all that or you can just listen to the track and be blow away.

The xx - You Got The Love (Theophilus London Remix)

4. Congratulations (Erol Alkan Rework) - MGMT

When I heard the original MGMT single "Congratulations" I wasn't super impressed. Maybe I wasn't ready for the change of pace from MGMT's Oracular Spectacular or maybe I really don't listen to lyrics and the music was kinda boring. Anyway, 6 months after hearing the original the dudes at EMPT shared the Erol Alkan rework with the world, and everything was good. Mr. Alkan makes the song danceable, fun, and much more interesting -- throwing a hot riding bass line, some sexy guitar strumming, and spreading around the awesome melodica solo from the original. Like all great remixes, Erol Alkan's rework also reignites the listener's interest in the source material. After hearing this I found myself going back to MGMT's Congratulations and finding value I would never have seen otherwise.

MGMT - Congratulations (Erol Alkan Rework)

3. Supa Dupa Lemonade - Big Sean

I first got wind of Big Sean from Mike Posner. I actually first thought about Big Sean as the dude who rapped with Mike Posner. I was an idiot. 2010 saw Big Sean rise from Posner stage mate to GOOD Music love-child and one of the hottest younger spitters in the game. Big introduced and honed the #hashtag flow in 2008 with "Supa Dupa", but it wasnt until 2010 that his style got blown up. Reclaiming his flow, Big Sean dropped the hottest example of hashtag rap that will ever be made in "Supa Dupa Lemonade." Going hard on Gucci's "Lemonade" beat, Sean eats the track clean. Instead of explaining just peep the lyrics:

Boy, What the fuck these rappers sound like, Ha just a whole bunch of my sound bites, 

First whip Garbo, Second whip Largo,

Don't worry bout my niggas they're good, Marshall,
Bank account got me feelin well, Fargo,
Ballin 'till I get a milla-check Darko,
I just give em line afta line, afta line afta... Afta line, afta line, Bar codes,
They lookin for my work, Narco, 

Cuz I just blackout in the booth, Charcoal

Boom. Done. This track can be played at any point of time and I will flip out in excitement.

Big Sean - Supa Dupa Lemonade by iDropBombs2

2. Dance Yrself Clean - LCD Soundsystem

Whenever a song can spend the first three minutes and eight seconds slowly warming the listener for the drop, and that song is not dropping at an Ibiza club at 3am, and that song works, you have to respect it. When that song then procedes to melt your insides and cause you to jump uncontrollably with your tongue out in a cardigan and skinny jeans, then you know you got a keeper. LCD Soundsystem kept hipsters and all other sorts of pseudo-intellectuals dancing all year with their This Is Happening LP. "Dance Yrself Clean" was the crown jewel in this achievement. Unpredictable, musically complex, ugly-face inducing funky. Perfect.

Dance Yrself Clean by bailinho

1. Shine Blockas (featuring Gucci Mane) - Big Boi

All the hoes say! With Sir Lucious Left Foot, Big Boi showed the world (me) that he deserves SO much more credit for Outkast then he ever gets. Putting out an album with all the flavor, fun, funk, and wackiness of its Outkast-released predecessors, Big Boi rose above the haters and stole 2010. Teaming with the raspy greatness of Gucci Mane on this track, Sir Lucious lays back and just swags on his verses. This is a celebration track, and no one is gonna block his shine. Big Boi also cops a co-production credit on this track with Cutmaster Swiff, and thats impressive on the best song of the year.

Big Boi Ft. Gucci Mane - Shine Blockas by allhale

Bonus:

I couldn't forget about my favorite dance number of the year. You may hate on it, but honestly this shit is the truth.

Happy New Year! May you fill it with as much MUSKY music as possible!

The Turntable Remixed

The ever cool design team at IDEO have created a new way to enjoy music with a nod to the past. The c60 redux is built to look like a vinyl turntable, but works like a sonar-- picking up on RFID tags that are stored in paper cards. Each card, or tag, corresponds to a song. Throw them on the player and boom, your song plays. Depending on how you stack and arrange the cards, the c60 plays your songs in order allowing you to create a mixtape instantly, no tape deck or time machine required!

IDEO is not planning on selling the device to the masses, but at least they're thinking of ways to keep the human touch in music. Got to love it.

Check out the video, they do a much better job of explaining than I do!

c60 Redux from IDEO on Vimeo.

All IDEO needs now is some music consultation. C'mon guys, we should be playing something with a little more soul! 

Fela Kuti

So MUSKit has been doin' a lot of hip-hop lately, and while there's nothing wrong with that in the least, I wanted to get a little more funk up in this thang. I was listening to WFUV today (I still love radio) and they were doing a little feature on Hugh Masekela -- an afro-beat and jazz legend from South Africa. It got me inspired to do a little post on my favorite afro-beat performer of all time -- Fela Kuti.

Fela, like Masakela, blended key forms of American pop music-- electric guitars, big band horns, smoky organs -- with African rhythm and percussion and rode that funked out sound in deliverance of a message of social import. What Fela did better than anyone else was deliver that message in the midst of a euphoric dance party. Shit, the message was part of the dance party - a celebration of the beauty of African culture.

Fela had presence, style, and incredible musical ability. We live in a day where you dont need to play an instrument in order to be on top of the music world, and I have all the respect in the world for Kanye, but for a singer to be able to pick up a saxophone and deliver a mind boggling solo after belting verse after verse of protest song, then go over to the keyboard and drop a ridiculously funky diddy all while dancing the entire time. That's just some next level shit.

While it has its flaws check out "Fela!" on Broadway to get a glimpse of the spectacle that was Fela Kuti, and enjoy a musical feast by the house band Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Or just check out the YouTube below of the real Fela.

B4 the Night is Thru

The first time I saw Jesse Boykins III, he was playing wingman to Theophilus London on stage at SOBs. Over the past few years Boykins has been developing into a soul force of his own with some big help from the always mind trippin' Machine Drum. (I know I've been on that Theophilus / Machine Drum tip for a little bit now, but they're just putting out a whole lotta good music right now.) Anyway, this new drop "B4 the Night is Thru" by Mr. Boykins and Machine Drum is sexy as shit.

"Before the night is through, I will walk to you; you will be the one and I will be your drum." 

Boykins soft but cool voice plays the perfect bard to Machine Drum's complex, relaxed alien electro. The music is not poppy and doesn't hook you like your cookie cutter R&B, but rather it entices, surprises, sometimes pushes a little too hard, but all in all keeps it interesting... This is one of them late night wine drunk type songs.

Besides the fact that the song is hot, I wanted to post this cause Mel D Cole shot a beautiful album cover for the single that you guys can all enjoy above. 

Buy Jesse Boykins III's vinyl @ http://jbiiimusic.com/jb3/

And check out Mel D Cole @ Village Slum

download:

Jesse Boykins III - "B4 the Night Is Thru" (Produced by Machine Drum)

Happy Birthday to the Poet, Shawn Carter

"Shawn Carter was born December 4th... " 

I picked up Jay's Decoded for the first time today and it got me a little amped. The book itself is beautiful-- hardcover with a golden Rorschach test looking cover, lots of great images placed within the pages, well-stylized highlighted lyrics... so basically, just like Muskit blog over here... But beyond just the look and feel, the text speaks with all of Jay-Z's signature flow and authority. The book opens with Jay talking about the emergence and development of rap in the early '80s and how it coincided with a young Shawn Carter, pen and paper in hand, also trying to find his voice on the concrete of Marcy Projects. The most striking impression the book has made on me so far is re-imagining the persona of Hova as a poet. Behind the legend, mogul, hustler, pimp, player, etc etc, is an artist, in the truest sense of the word, and a poet. And I think that can be easily forgotten when listening to hip-hop -- that while the rappers can wear many guises, many based in truth, beneath it all is the soul of a poet. An ability to incite with insight and capture a relatable reality in just a few bars.

Decoded ain't a memoir and anyone looking for a real introspective revealing narrative about Mr. Carter are going to have to wait a few years when he really does hang it all up, and has time to go back through it all. Decoded is a mix of lyrics explained, liner notes, and snippets of the life of the most interesting man on the planet. It's an ode to the poet inside.

Ask Santa to put it in your stocking or kvelt a little to Yentel, definitely a great addition for all.

"It just once in a blue moon when there's nothin to do and

The tension's too thick for my sober mind to cut through / I get to zonin'"

Enjoy the free Jay-Z classics.

Jay-Z - Cashmere Thoughts
Jay-Z - Feelin' It
Jay-Z - December 4th

Rolling Stone Does Playlists

The latest issue of Rolling Stone highlights 50 legends of music, past and present, and has them do variations on a theme: the top ten list. MGMT gives their top 10 psychedelia songs, Yoko does John, Drake does Hendrix, Keith Richards does roots and reggae. All in all, it's awesome.

Since I'm 1) feeling a little lazy and 2) really want to share this, I'm highlighting two lists from two huge record heads -- Mark Ronson and ?uestlove.

Mark Ronson on Stevie Wonder:

Mark Ronson has been DJing for dozens of years while also bringing the soul to the studio as a producer for Ghostface, Amy Whinehouse, Lily Allen, Wale, and many more.

1. "Big Brother"
2. "All I Do"
3. "I Was Made To Love Her"
4. "Superwoman"
5. "As"
        This song just builds and jams on itself. Ronson says it incites soul dance-offs and lovefests. Stevie's voice commands the track while his fingers blow your mind.
6 "I Don't Know Why"
7. "Happier Than the Morning Sun"
8. "That Girl"
9. "I Believe"
10. "Living for the City" 
          This song just got so much emotion going into it. Every time I hear it I get a little chill. Not to mention it has one of the darker and funkiest keyboard intros in the history of music.


?uestlove on Prince:

?uestlove of The Roots fame is a music junkie with a record collection befitting of his giant frame and persona. Dude's also a killer DJ.


1. "Baby I'm a Star (Live from Landover, MD)
2. "Movie Star"
3. "Irresistable Bitch"/"Tricky"/"Cloreen Bacon Skin"
4. "Little Red Corvette"
5. "Lady Cab Driver"
      This is a funky little number that according to ?uestlove turned him onto Prince back in the day. Maybe it was the angry sex/orgasm vocals that play for a good minute smack in the middle of the song, or maybe its the dope disco jam that follows for another 4 minutes. Both had me going.
6. "The Bird" (Rehearsal Demo)
7. "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker"
8. "The Sex of It"
9. "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore"
      Aside from the title sounding like a text a middle school girl would send to her crush, this song is sophisticated sexy. Prince channels early soul and gospel while getting to the basics of acoustic bass, piano, and drums done to minimalist syncopated perfection.
10. "Erotic City"


Check the source for all the playlists at Rolling Stone

Can We Get Much Higher?

Kanye dropped My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on Monday, the clean version leaked a little over 2 weeks ago, but I haven't really given the thing a fair thorough listen until today. When I heard Pitchfork gave it a perfect 10 and Rolling Stone gave it 5 stars, I was immediately skeptical. I had heard a bunch of the singles and Good Friday tracks and while there were some great moments, by no means was it at a "best shit ever" type level that those ratings should connote. (The last album to get a 10.0 from Pitchfork was "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel" in 2002). Having really listened to it, shit is hot but not perfect.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy might be the best and most accurate album title of any album in the past few years. Each of these words alone can aptly describe the album, or Kanye himself :

My - This is Kanye's album. He is on top of the world and he aint making albums for anyone else. He can be a douche, he's arrogant, he knows it, but thats him and thats his music. I mean he solos on a vocoder for 3 minutes in "Runaway." But interestingly, while this album is Kanye West, more than any other album, he lets go of the reins. Every song has an incredible guest rapping a verse, singing a hook, or even laying the production. RZA is the principal architect of the perfect "Dark Fantasy," S1 led the production of"Power", and "Devil in A New Dress" is produced by bink!. For this I only have praise for Kanye. Ironically, it takes a lot to put some ego aside in the name of a better record.

Beautiful- A lot of this album is just beautiful. The instrumentation, the plush beats, the singing, the complexity. The re-emerging musical themes. The more chilling, barer and starker instrumentations. 

Dark- While everyone is quick to say how this album is such a celebration, especially compared to 808s and Heartbreak, Fantasy still a a darker element to it. Although Kanye has recently semi-apologized for his remarks about George Bush hating black people, you can tell 'Ye is still effected by racism. 

"As long as I’m in Polo, smilin’, they think they got me
But they’d try to crack me if they ever see a black me
I thought I chose a field where they couldn’t sack me
If a nigga ain’t shootin’ a jump, try runnin’ a track meet
But this pimp is at the top of Mount Olympus"

Beneath all the maximalism and ego of this album there's still a man struggling with race, fame, and identity. All narcissism is bedded in some insecurity. For him to acknowledge that is what makes his art relatable.

Twisted- Have you seen the album covers?

Fantasy- The album is indulgence. And maybe thats what we need. It's not flawless. It's not a 10. But its damn fuckin good. 

Hottest Tracks:

"Dark Fantasy", "Devil in a New Dress", "Power", "Monster", "Gorgeous"

Best line:

"Yeezy reupholstered my pussy"

mp3:

Kanye West - Devil in a New Dress