Chop Shop Podcast – Free Hip Hop Music

The 90s: A Hip-Hop Cancer

2009 may be a return to form for hip-hop, with the eagerly awaited OB4CL2, The Blueprint 3, and The Ecstatic living up in some way to expectations. However hip-hop has become a retrospective music; there isn’t a single forum or magazine that is inordinate with discussions or letters discussing the “Golden Age” of hip-hop. And the albums mentioned above are just perfect examples of how stagnated the idea of hip-hop has become amongst its own community; Raekwon, Jay-Z and Mos Def all having their albums compared to their works of the 90s. The day of the great debut therefore will come to close if the community doesn’t galvanise against the disastrous effects of the commercialisation of hip-hop.

What I am saying is Hip-hop has become conservative movement. In the 90s Illmatic, Doggystyle and Ready 2 Die we all had debuts which showed diversity within the industry due to consumer making the music move in the direction it wanted. Now in the 00s we are seeing the truly experimental albums being significantly ignored; MF Grimm’s American Hunger, Q-Tip’s Kamaal the Abstract and The Renaissance. While these albums are held in high-esteem within the small knit hip-hop community, they are relatively over-looked in their commercial respects.

Why? Because the hip-hop fan is no longer willing to vote with their own bucks. The big global companies; such as Sony BMG and Universal therefore are unwilling to invest in distribution of any underground hip-hop and want to be able to package a rapper and sell it to the consumer at a cut rate, and make sure they will buy it. So the end of the day illegal downloading is forcing the movement underground. Now we have two options available to the community: 1. We can watch Lil’ Wayne, 50 Cent and other equally talentless rappers make their way into the charts and have their music played on the airwaves, and force the good/great music even further underground. Or 2. Go back to the way things were in the 90s: Buy, Buy, Buy, and make the industry stand-up and notice us actual fans.

And in the discussion of Hip-Hop is Dead, well if it’s dead we the fans killed it.

Read More Tags: 2009, Dead, Hip Hop, rap

Review: Two Fingers – Two Fingers

Although the artist ‘Two Fingers’ may not ring any bells, the names Amon Tobin and Sway should for any self-respecting electronic or Hip-Hop fan. Tobin is electronic royalty, releasing some of the genre’s finest albums of the past decade, specialising in a spacey, atmospheric brand of drum ‘n bass, while Sway is seen as one of the finest UK MC’s, a playful and charismatic lyricist with rare commerical appeal. Both team up with the lesser known beatmaker Doubleclick on this Two Finger’s self titled debut, an impressive album that shows what can be achieved by experienced talented artists mixing different genres and styles.

The production is exactly what you would expect – dark, sparse and nasty. The title track is the best example, complete with often random beeps and noises, the distorted, warped bass, simple snare and drums are nicely complimented by Sway’s confident and quick-fire flow. There is plenty of variety on display – both ‘Kenan Rhythm’ and ‘Jewels & Gems’ experiment with Middle Eastern sounds without moving too far away from the drum ‘n bass template set by the opening tracks, while ‘That Girl’, with its heavy, pulsating drums is complete with an indie style hook. Finally, ‘Straw Men’ has a multitude of sounds zooming in and out of earshot, giving the spacey, scattered effect that you would expect from Tobin, but his minimal style means that Sway is always the main focus.  Sway’ s style is perfectly suited to the beats he is rhyming over – although his lyrics may not have the same amount of wit and creativity that we saw when he first came on the scene, he is consistent throughout, and offers an essential charismatic foil to what some may see as Tobin’s excellent but souless electronic beats.

Sway isn’t the only MC on show; female rappers Ce’Cile and Ms  Jade, while neither are as impressive or creative as Sway, offer further variety. Ce’Cile’ s energetic flow and Jamaican accent entertain, while Ms Jade just sounds sexy as fuck on the verr simple, very minimal club tracks ‘Doing My Job’ and ‘Better Get That’. The few instrumental tracks are a little less successful, particurly the unremarkable anti-climatic closer ‘Moth Rhythm’, but this is one of  a few small complaints (some may be disapointed by Sway’s more straightforward rhymes which lack much, but not all, of his trademark humour and introspection) that fail to take away from the tight overall product.

More then anything else, one hopes beatmakers and MC’s in both Hip-Hop and electronic notice and listen to this album, and take note. It would be a complete lie to say these kind of electronic/rap albums are something new, but when a couple of high-profile talented artists come together properly like this the effect tends to be impressive and novel. MC’s in particular should notice – we have enough underground rappers rhyming over the same old boom-bap, or RZA style beats, why not more experimentation with the electronic super-genre, and not just with the Techno-lite/electro stuff  ‘pioneered’ by Kanye. This Two Fingers collab suggests its one of the many ways forward for rap.

Ratings: 4/5

Read More Tags: Amon Tobin, Ce'Cile, Doubleclick, electronic, Ms Jade, rap, Sway