Some of y’all might have wondered why I’ve been largely absentee from this website in the last year. There’s a couple reasons for that, but the main one is that I’m in graduate school now and my free time to do music and post it online has been basically non-existent for the last 9 months or so. But it’s (just about) summer vacation, and I’ve got some biz to take care of. So with that in mind, I’ve got four goals for this summer, and can’t nobody stop me:
1. Everything must go.
I’m sitting on a big back catalog of pretty damn good beats that people have expressed interest in but never used. Eff that. If you’ve got songs, I’ve got beats. It helps to have a previous relationship with me, but I’ll entertain offers from anybody. Twitter is a good way to reach out to me, but make it clear that you’re interested in doing business. If it looks like spam, I’m gonna treat it like spam. Nothing would make me happier than to clear this old crap out.
2. New Chop s**t.
In January, I started work on my debut solo album, which I’m currently calling Polite Society. I’m going to get that finished in the next few weeks and in your hands by fall. Yell at me if I don’t have a progress update by about mid-July. To whatever extent I have fans, I think they’re really going to be impressed by this one.
3. Conspicuous consumption.
Still working with @thehonestape on a promotions company that’s largely focused on dance music. We already pushed a soft launch with DJ Diamond Tip‘s Energy Crisis mixtape and you should expect more soon.
4. New collaborations.
I got heat in the chamber with Crew54, and everybody’s been real supportive of my work with the League of Extraordinary G’z in the last year, so expect more projects with them. Still in the process of laying some stuff down with Feddi Man, and I also plan to work with Tip some more.
There’s a lot on my plate, but I’m resolving that this summer will be full of new music. Let’s get it.
presented by chopsteakmusic.com and bigbadmedium.com
Once again, back is the incredible. I return with a mix of my favorite hip hop, R&B and everything in between from 2010. Thanks very much to Abe Garcia, a.k.a. The Honest Ape, for the cover design and all his help getting this mix off the ground via his website, bigbadmedium.com. Thanks also to Tasha Johnson. Have a wonderful holiday, and hit me up when you can.
Listen:
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Track Listing:
Andre3000: I Do
H.I.S.D.: Lando
Exile: Your Summer Song f. J. Mitchell
Big Boi: Shutterbugg f. Cutty
Willie The Kid: Bath Water Running
Aloe Blacc: I Need A Dollar
Kanye West: Monster f. Jay-Z & Nicki Minaj
Black Milk: Oh Girl
Leela James: So Cold
Little Brother: Tigallo For Dolo
Guilty Simpson: Hood Sentence
Rick Ross: Free Mason f. Jay-Z & John Legend
Foreign Exchange: Maybe She’ll Dream Of Me
Chopperlude
Jabee: Imagination f. Carlitta Durand
Wiz Khalifa: Black & Yellow
Janelle Monae: Tightrope f. Big Boi
YahZarah: Why Don’tcha Call Me No More
Dred Skott: Home f. Tuk Da Gat (Produced by Chop Steak)
If you’ve been keeping up with them Crew54 boys (and shame on you if you haven’t), you know they dropped a new mixtape back in June of this year: The 54 Reality Show Tape.
I have been busy as a mug with my first semester of graduate school, so I haven’t been doing much of anything on the boards. But this week, I decided to dust off the keyboard and make it do what it do. So without further ado, here’s my remix of one of their tracks off the album, “So Beautiful.” Download, share, and let me know what you think via the comments.
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A huge thank you to The Honest Ape, who designed the cover art for my newest summer hip-hop mixtape, Soft Serve. It’s chilled, it’s smooth and it’s so refreshing on a summer day. Chop Steak Music and Medium are proud to release this mixtape. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Track Listing
1. Goapele – Different f. Mos Def
2. Petey Pablo – He Spoke To Me
3. Beatnuts – Get Funky
4. Bishop Lamont – Right
5. Dilated Peoples – Worst Comes To Worst
6. Q-Tip – You
7. Zion I – Boom Bip
8. Freddie Gibbs – Ghetto
9. Redman – Tonight’s Da Night
10. Foreign Exchange – Raw Life f. Joe Scudda
11. Pete Rock – Queen f. AG
12. Common – Real Nigga Quotes
13. Johnson & Jonson – Told Me
14. People Under The Stairs – Days Like These
15. Cam’ron – Like Shiiit
16. Pharcyde – She Said (Jay Dee Remix)
17. Ludacris – Good Relationships f. Snoop Dogg & Nate Dog
18. The Game – Old English
19. Lil’ Wayne – Mo’ Fire
20. Three 6 Mafia – Da Summa
Listen and download my newest track, “Home.” Rhymes by Greezo, Tuk Da Gat and Esbe. Hook by Reggie Coby. Da C.O.D. and the other members of the LOEG’z release their newest mixtape, Concealed Weapons 2, this week. Let me know what you think.
To all the rappers and singers in the audience, I give you my brand new beat tape. This is an 18-track collection specially released for South By Southwest Music Festival 2010. We have specially prepared a limited release of CD’s to hand out at SXSW as well as put the album up for free download on Bandcamp. All these beats are for sale. Please contact the beat sales mailbox for more information. Thanks very much to Abe Garcia for design. Abe and I will be out in the streets for SXSW, so be sure to hit us up when you see us!
In years past, I have put together a list of free events/parties for SXSW, and you have loved me for it. This year, the Austinist’s SXSW 2010 guide includes a list of free events so complete that I really don’t feel compelled to do much more than link to it (Hover over the “SXSW Party Guide” link to see the free events broken out by day).
Am I being lazy? Indubitably. But you’ll thank me when we’re drinking free beer together somewhere on a Thursday afternoon. My advice is to RSVP for every single party. If you don’t do that, at least hit anything you have even a vague interest in. Remember, a lot of these events have free refreshments and other cool stuff. I may try to post a more focused list here later, but no promises.
I got the news this evening that one of my musical heroes has passed away at the age of 59. I wish peace to his family and friends. As my tribute, I am posting up the first beat I ever made, which samples Teddy’s classic, “Close The Door.” While this beat is no technical masterpiece, it was the first step on the road to where I am today and where I continue to go musically. Over the last 8 years, I have gone back to Teddy P. many times, and drawn much inspiration from his work. I only hope that my own music keeps his spirit alive, and is a fitting tribute to the man who first inspired me to chop up a sample. Safe journey, Teddy.
Chop Steak – No Babies
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Teddy Pendergrass – Close The Door
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As promised, some bonus material! I selected one track from each of my top 20 and made a youtube playlist. I’m aware T.I. is missing. Thank his label for making every single one of his videos either silent or not embeddable. I suppose 2003 was a different era of internet distro. In any case, enjoy…
While this album’s weight was increased by its release within days of its creator’s death, this instrumental collage would be a classic regardless of the circumstances. One of the greats of all time, Dilla used chopped up samples and dusty drums to make beats that were sometimes delicate and beautiful and at others pounding, cold and mechanical. Almost four years after his death, they continue to define the sound of Detroit’s underground scene. This album, jumping from one brief moment of bliss to the next, was an appropriate final statement for such a unique talent.
9. The Game – The Documentary
(Aftermath, 2005)
The Game’s debut album revealed some of the qualities that would make him both a standout and one of the biggest oddballs in hip hop this decade. On one hand, he is a gifted lyricist who stands up well to the large bill of marquee name rappers and producers on the album. On the other, he name drops and fawns over so many other rappers that he is at times corny and strange. Still, this album, made before his falling out with 50 Cent and Dr. Dre, was a superior effort.
8. T.I. – Trap Muzik
(Atlantic, 2003)
Proclaiming himself the king of the south, T.I. showed immense potential on his second album. Hardcore but polished enough for crossover success, T.I. took the usual set of dope boy/rapper cliches and managed to turn out an original and engaging set of songs. Paired with beats from David Banner, Jazze Pha, Kanye West and others, perhaps the best production he ever received on a whole album, this record set a standard T.I. has yet to improve on.
7. 50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
(Interscope, 2003)
50 cent is certainly a hip hop cartoon character, and his major label debut was painted like an expertly done comic book. With bold colors, dramatic flash and meticulously crafted perfection, 50 steamrolled through a very paint-by-numbers hardcore rap album. It is amazing how well he and his production team planned and executed every single detail though. With the Swiss watch precision that made 2001 such a success, Dr. Dre helmed an album that was as brilliant as it was ridiculous.
6. Outkast – Stankonia
(La Face, 2000)
The follow-up to the masterpiece, Aquemini, this album did not disappoint. With a playful, experimental spirit, this disc was, in retrospect, an interesting bridge between the former and 2003′s landmark Speakerboxx/The Love Below. Big Boi and Dre took on such subjects as illegitimate pregnancy, American excess, suicide and drug use in a variety of ways that made this record constantly fresh and engaging. Despite weighty subject matter on much of the album, they kept the overall tone light enough to be listenable, helped by inventive rhyming, diverse experimental production, and possibly the most clever set of skits on a rap album ever. BREAK!
5. Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury
(Jive, 2006)
The long-delayed sophomore album from brother duo, Clipse, was nothing if not proof that there is room for originality in even the most well-trodden hip-hop subjects. This cold, neurotic album was cocaine-obsessed, but even their boasting and talk of material wealth were tempered constantly by a sense of impending doom. A stripped down and spaced out set of menacing tracks from The Neptunes was one of the most cohesive and impactful of the decade. With equal parts of contrition, ambition, unapologetic malice (no pun intended) and paranoia, these skilled rappers made a complex and brilliant record.
4. Jay-Z – The Blueprint
(Roc-A-Fella, 2001)
If we had any doubts as to who was running this rap ish in 2001, the second track of this album cleared them up quickly. Hov manhandled the microphone and did not let go the entire record. Production led by Timbaland, Just Blaze and Kanye West (in the start of what would become his meteoric rise in hip-hop) offset the classic verses to make an album that showed Jay on top of all he surveyed. Tracks like “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “H.O.V.A. (Izzo),” and “Heart Of The City” make this an enduring classic of early 2000′s rap.
In what would turn out to be the last classic Wu-Tang album, Ghostface proved once again that he could possibly be the most engaging storyteller in hip hop even if listeners didn’t know what the hell he was talking about half the time. With the clan’s best ear for beats, Starks selected some gems from a group of RZA disciples and others. A solid string of all-in-the-family guest appearances and intricate, if confusing, rhymes from Starks showed, one last time, what the Wu-Tang was capable of at their best.
2. Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
(La Face, 2003)
While the scope of this album goes a bit beyond “hip-hop,” I remember what section of the record store this was in when I bought it. Experimental albums are often positioned as ahead-of-their-time only to turn out to still suck years later, but this album truly did get better with age. The split album concept confused fans when it came out, and even in 2009, many still haven’t fully processed what it meant creatively to the duo on this album or since. Both albums were experimental in their own way, Big Boi with a unique synthesized funk that stayed firmly rooted in rap and 3000 assuming the persona of a more playful Prince. Each showcased their talents brilliantly and together they helped pave the way for acceptance of experimentation in rap, R&B and funk in the latter part of the decade.
The Album of the Decade:
Kanye West – College Dropout
(Roc-A-Fella, 2004)
In a hip hop era that defined by the exaggerated gangster of 50 Cent and the mindless pop-rap of acts like Nelly, Kanye flew in the face of everything rap audiences seemed to want with this album. He was a throwback to the soul-sampling 90′s in a synthesized 2000′s, rapping as a sort of misfit, endearing in that role even while he was telling you how much cooler than you he was. In making this album,Kanye cleared a lane for himself and blazed a trail that would leave an indelible stamp on hip-hop in years to come. Comfortable trading lines with Jay-Z, Mos Def,Twista and Saul Williams on the same record, West helped bridge what was a widening gap between “commercial” and “underground” rap at the time. With his signature sped-up samples and clad in his iconic sweaters and button-downs, West accomplished what few did this decade: He single-handedly changed hip-hop.
say what?