Underrated MC's Part Deux II

Yes it’s on now I got my pc up and running like a marathon runner. So here is Part Deux of my most underrated MC’s. I received feed back from one of the most intelligent brothers I know Stephen Bradberry who gave me a couple of names I left of the original list so with no further hesitatation here it is damn:

Chuck D (Lyrically Politically, and just dope Thanks brother Steve)
Hieroglyphics Crew (Thank you Steve again brought a whole new sound Left Coast)
Redman (Reggie Noble been doing it for years)
A Tribe Called Quest (Top 3 Groups of All-Time)
De La Soul (They went from picking daises to leaving lacerations around the mic)
MC Lyte (From Cha-Cha to Keep On Keeping On)
Cee-Lo (Before Forget You he was dope in Goodie Mob)
Grand Puba (His solo ish was dope)
Pharcyde (Passin Me By you still rock that I know you do)
Strong Arm Steady (I was taken aback these cats GO HARD)
Dilated Peoples (Real music and real lyrics)
Jurassic 5 (5 different lyricists with 5 mic results)
Company Flow (Rawkus at its best)

So if you agree or disagree let me know we can always do a Part Trey (III). Hit me on Facebook or Da Twitter @big_oof70

My List of Underrated MC"s

Yes I am back to blogging took a break had to get my thoughts together after my father's passing so I celebrated his life with music of course. So I have been listening to a lot of hip hop especially golden era hip hop from 1989-1995 some may disagree on the dates but hey its just my opinion. The list includes MC's from all eras ....

I have complied my list of some of the most underrated cats to bless the M-I-C so check it out and if you disagree please feel free to say so...

In no particular order:

Jadakiss (his flow is crazy and dope lyrics)
AZ (Sugar Hill was tip of iceberg his music is real)
Black Thought (how he gets left off lists is amazing)
CL Smooth (lyrics, swag, and punchlines)
DJ Quik (more than just beats)
Moutain Brothers (yes you tube them classic)
Bahamadia ( just dope nuff said)
Ghostface (just feel never got his due)
Pharaoh Monch (consistent)
Boots from the Coup (political genius)
Devin the Dude (Southern word play)
Phonte (wordplay, timing, crazy skills)
Royce Da 5'9 (Detroit's Finest to me)
Black Milk ( Young gun bringing it)
Slum Village Bataan, T3, Elzhi, and JDilla (Legendary)
8Ball&MJG (Memphis Representing Car Speaker Muzik)
Mr.Cheeks (NY for real youtube Lost Boyz)


These are just some of the people I will be doing a part II soon...

For Colored Girls My 2 Cents

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf is a play written in 1975 a collection of 20 poems that are performed by seven different women? The play written by Ntozake Shange and was made into a movie in 2009.

The movie’s release has made for a lot of discussion on whether it should have been released as well as the choice for the director of the project. I was not surprised that the play is now a movie but I was a little surprised at who was tapped to direct the project. I have my issues with the director about his previous movies and their portrayal of blacks. The casting of the female characters of the movie was excellent with a wide range of talented black actors who care about bringing a script to life. There seems to be two topics of contention about the movie how black men are portrayed and why we do not have more positive black images on screen.

I feel black men do get a bad rap on screen and there have been some improvements but overall it seems our faults are magnified on screen with the world to see. Are we perfect? No but there is more to black men then the parts we play on the big screen. Positive images of blacks in movies is dictated by the box office numbers in my opinion if movies with positive images are in the top five for the opening weekend and stay there for a few weeks then there will be more of those movies made. Movies with dark and painful stories about black men and women will make more money they will be in the top five and receive the critical acclaim, which keeps those scripts in demand. We need balance in the roles black men play in movies on a more consistent basis.

The Roots "How I Got Over" Review

I was introduced to the Legendary Roots Crew in the 90’s and was hooked. The meeting of live instruments with Black Thought’s flow was it for me. This is hip hop in one if its purest forms. The live shows are an experience every music fan should have at least once in life. I must admit I wasn’t feeling the last three cd’s like I thought I would and I was thinking maybe it was due to my musical tastes venturing into other arenas. When I heard “How I Got Over” was due out I got excited like I did for the Phrenology cd back in ’02. so as I saw the track listing my excitement waned some with all the guest appearances. I was being selfish I just wanted Black Thought and band to give me dope music and raw lyrics that made me nod my head.


I take back my reservations about the guest appearances concerning the cd with Phonte (Foreign Exchange and Little Brother) bringing his patent flow to the track “The Day” which may be one of the sleeper tracks of the summer along with Patty Crash and Blu whose hook is in there . “Doing It Again” featuring John Legend was better than expected I have to say Mr. Legend came through on the vocals and Thought, come on you know he did his thing. I am not a big Dice Raw fan but he brought it on “Walk Alone” and “Radio Daze” along with Phonte. “Dear God 2.0” is a must listen to please put your IPod on and just let it take you on a ride. The title track “How I Got Over” is the crews classic sound and Black Thought‘s flow is out of this word he just rides the beat the whole track and the hook fills in perfectly. The surprise track for me was the bonus track “Hustla” with STS had that real hip hop feel and closed out the cd on the right vibe.

Overall The Legendary did their thing but it was too short with all the nonsense out there they could’ve had 12-15 tracks of real hip hop. The Dilla interlude should’ve been an entire song that was just a teaser. This is definitely one for the collection and will help you enjoy the summer that much more. Black Thought is the most underrated MC's of all time for real he needs to be recognized.

Kraak & Smaak Chat

                                                                

Kraak and Smaak a trio (Wim, Oscar, and Mark) hailing from Holland who I discovered via the worldwide web (Thanks Al Gore) are responsible for some great dance/electronica music as well as some dope remixes. So please read this Q &A I did with them and check out their music and add it to your collection this holiday season.

1. How did the group get together?

We all met up in Leiden - our hometown in Holland – it’s a beautiful (if fairly sleepy) old school place and we all used to hang in the same bar. Mark and Wim already knew each other from DJ'ing, but there we met Oscar, who studied at the conservatory. We all had a wish to start producing dance music, hit it off, started jamming with beats, samples and keyboards and Kraak & Smaak was born. We started out with a couple of EPs and remixes, but soon we were also making full albums. Later on, apart from our dj sets, we started our own live band.



2. Where did the name Kraak and Smaak come from?

Kraak & Smaak comes from a Dutch saying meaning crunchy & tasty, so no real pun intended if you pronounce it the English way! We think it’s kinda funny that apparently it has this double meaning for the non-Dutch but it sometimes leads people to expect us to be something that we’re not, which can lead to some silly situations sometimes.



3. How has having “Squeeze Me” in the Rhapsody commercial been for the group?

I think we sold about 60 or 70,000 legal downloads in the US and it led to loads of attention to our other songs, videos, our live band, the dj sets, etc. so really great. Besides, because of it we were able to play on the Jimmy Kimmel show and did some good touring across the US and Europe the last one and a half year.



4. What are some of your favorite cities to play in the U.S.?

Of course we love New York, San Francisco and LA but for example the shows that we did in Lawrence, Kansas and Austin at SXSW were also brilliant. But in general, for Europeans to be able to be on the road in the US - and get good crowds of course - is just a dream come true. And there's also so much vinyl to be found (we are real vinyl addicts)



5. The group has done some really nice remixes what would be the ultimate song to remix for the group?

That's a difficult one, as our remixes may have very different vibes, but I would guess the Medicine remix for Mark Rae, the Jamiroquai remixes and lately the remixes we did for Fedde Le Grand, Fort Knox Five and All Good Funk Alliance.



6. What’s up for Kraak and Smaak in 2010?

We stopped with our live band for a while, just doing dj sets and are working hard in the studio on new material and remixes for others (we just did Maxwell for instance). We are planning to release a new album before Summer next year if possible. After that it's hopefully touring a lot again internationally, including dropping by in the US again.

Check them out at the following links:

www.myspace.com/kraaksmaak
http://www.kraaksmaak.com/

State Of Hip-Hop

It’s Hip Hop Tuesday on Musical Eargasms… I need you to name your top 3 favorite Hip-Hop artists. I decided to do this after a conversation I had over the weekend about the state of Hip-Hop. I am not impressed with the new wave of Rap music on the airwaves. I feel the music, lyrics and beats are wacked let’s be real. I saw the ciphers that they had on the BET awards and the last one was the best one the, first one was wacked (Execpt  Buckshot ) and the second cipher was better but the last three MC's were spitting hot fire like Dylan from MTB.

I was on a quest a few years ago to find some new artist you can only depend on The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Common for so long. I discovered Dilated Peoples, Little Brother, CunninLynguists, Strange Fruit Project, and Lyrics Born to name a few. These artists I feel are doing real Hip-Hop no gimmicks or bs just lyrics and dope beats and yes an occasional dope hook. It’s funny you never see their videos on BET, MTV or any mainstream video channel so thank Al Gore for the internet where you can escape the sad state of radio rap music featuring Little whoever, Young so and so, or whoever is the hot mixtape artist of the week.

So feel free leave comments on whom your favorite Hip-Hop artists are and I will start things off with who I am feeling right now. This is in no particular order:
1. Little Brother
2. Mos Def-Estatic
3. Wale

Tortured Soul Interview

Tortured Soul is a group that consist of three members Ethan (Keyboard), Jason (Bass) , and Christian (Lead Vocals& Drums) hailing from NYC playing soulful funky dance music which I discovered a few years ago through a DJ Spinna remix. Their first album “Introducing Tortured Soul” released in 2005 is a must have for any collection with its soulful dance grooves. Tortured Soul released “Did You Miss Me” in 2009 and one of my favorite albums of the year.


Tortured Soul does a monthly show in Chicago at the Double Door every 3rd Friday of the month with the next show this Friday October 16th and I had a chance to do an online interview with them so please check it out below as well as their links.


1) How did the group meet?

Jason: We were originally playing in another band together, a larger acid-jazz funk group called Topaz. Eventually the three of us decided to split off and start doing our own thing, and right about the same time Christian had begun to write songs under the name Tortured Soul. We collaborated on some stuff and decided to use the name for the new concept we were working with - live house music - and we pretty much just rolled with it from there.


2) Who are your musical influences?

Christian: I like all kinds of music but as far as artists that have influenced the music I make go, the list becomes smaller. The list is still long, but to name a few there's:

Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Prince, Rod Temperton/Heatwave

Donna Summer, The Bee Gees, Thelma Houston, Chic, Kool and the gang, the Dazz band, Rick James, James Brown

Marvin Gaye, the whispers, the Spinners, Quincy Jones, the Sugar Hill Gang. That's a start.


3) What are a couple of your favorite cities to perform in?

Ethan: We get asked this a lot, and it's always tough to answer since we get such a warm response in a lot of places. Short list? Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, London, Istanbul, Jakarta, Seoul, Manila, Tokyo... Actually I could go on. The enthusiasm we've had the opportunity to receive is truly humbling.


4) What are some of your upcoming projects?

Ethan: We have a couple upcoming singles that we're really excited about, including remixes from DJ Spinna and Mark de Clive-Lowe.

We're also running a remix contest for the title track off the album, "Did You Miss Me," on Traxsource.com, and the winner from that will be featured in an upcoming release in our label, TSTC Records.

We also have something totally new for us. We're just finishing up our first music video, also for "Did You Miss Me." It's looking really good so far! Folks should keep an eye out for that later this Fall.


5) What individual or group do you want to do a song with?

Jason: Our wish list includes some pretty serious heavyweights...Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Prince. I've always dreamed of working with a legendary producer, like a Rick Rubin or Nile Rodgers


Here are some links to check out the hot sounds of Tortured Soul and find out when they will be in a city near you..…For the DJ's out there check out the remix link see if you have what it takes to remix "Did You Miss Me"

Tortured Soul website:

http://www.torturedsoulmusic.com/ 

The Tortured Soul Remix Contest:

http://www.traxsource.com/index.php?act=page&page_id=237

Myspace: myspace.com/torturedsoul


Facebook: facebook.com/torturedsoul


twitter: @tortured_soul