#11 :: HERE IS TO NOT STANDING STILL

So yeah, the mix tape has been down a while. You see I set out in December to put together my first Hip Hop mix, and it proved to be a task so daunting that it completely shut me down. You see I am no Hip Hop expert and I know any mix I put together could easily be picked apart. I am fairly confident in my knowledge of indie rock, rock, pop and the like that I feel like I could adequately defend my critical opinions. But with Hip Hop I am a total noob. Such a noob in fact that as I find myself enjoying hip hop more than ever before, I am also playing catch-up with sounds and styles that are considerably tired to people not living in a urban closet.

For the most part I have always found Hip Hop to be a single-dose only escapade. Sure every year there are a handful really great songs but to find a Hip Hop album that was great from start to finish always felt impossible. They are inevitably so full of pretentious boring filler that I have always had trouble listening to a whole album all the way through. That changed for me this year with a couple of key albums of undeniable mind blowing quality. That experience has opened up a lot of doors for me to experience Hip Hop with a whole new perspective. Granted I am just dipping my toe in a much larger pond but you gotta start somewhere.

The mix is longer this time to make up for previous inactivity, plus I just couldn't whittle it down to just 10. Enjoy.

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Song: Benzie Box (ft. Cee-Lo)
Artist: DangerDoom
So the DangerDoom album is the record that changed my entire perspective on Hip Hop. Its the first Hip Hop record that I found to be dependably awesome from beginning to end. And this song is one of the best. It also doesn't hurt that its riddled with cameos of characters from Adult Swim. Makes me laugh every time.
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Song: Just a Thought
Artist: Gnarls Barkley
With a whole series of home runs in his corner (See Above, and the Gray Album), I can't help just salivating in anticipation of anything new from DJ Danger Mouse. Enter the fabulously named Gnarls Barkley, a collaboration between Danger and Cee-lo Green. While there isn't any actual rapping, this soulful R&B track is brimming with mad beats and a hip hop soul. I am literally salivating in anticipation of the full length.
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Song: Hip Hop
Artist: Dead Prez
I first caught the video for this song in the late AM on MTV2. My mind was totally blown. At the time I was listening to a lot of Rage Against the Machine, so I was receptive to this kind of hard left politics. And political rap is so rare that you have to cherish the little tidbits that come along.
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Song: Bin Laden
Artist: Mos Def
Another awesome political rant courtesy of Mos Def. There is so much misogyny and crass consumerism in commercial Hip Hop, that its wonderfully refreshing when something comes along with a real message, not to mention one as potent and dead on as this. Awesome.
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Song: Mutescreamer
Artist: Beans
This song is so infectious, I would challenge anyone to deny its charms. Combining out-of-this-world production with inventive richly paced word play, Beans is an uncompromising experimental visionary of hip hops future.
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Song: Fast Cars
Artist: Aesop Rock
This guy rhymes like he is not only mentally challenged but inflicted with a stroke induced slur. Matched with an undulating deep rhythm, it gives this song a great demented unhinged feel.
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Song: Fix Up Look Sharp
Artist: Dizzee Rascal
So a couple years ago this guy came out and was supposed to be the next big thing. Everybody swooned. Top ten lists were littered with his name. For the most part I find him worthy of all the praise, but damn the hype machine can be out of control. Still this song for me, is one of the best examples of experimental minimalism in hip hop and it packs hella punch in all its unused spaces. And admit it that accent is just hypnotizing.
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Song: Random
Artist: Lady Sovereign
Lady Sovereign is generally categorized in a similar vein of Grime as Dizzee Rascal. Her production and accented flow is significantly more worldly and that international vibe draws comparisons to M.I.A. but I just love M.I.A. so much that it can't really be a bad thing.
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Song: Ego Trippin
Artist: De La Soul
This is one of my favorite tracks by De La. Its pretty old. But every mix needs a little of the classics to balance it out. It always gets me screamin.
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Song: Earth People
Artist: Dr Octogon
So Kool Keith, originally from the Ultramagnetic MCs, is one strange dude and he put out what is probably the strangest Hip Hop record ever, Dr. Octogonecologyst. One of the rare must-be-owned-by-everyone-hip-hop records.
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Song: MistaDoblina
Artist: Del the Funky Homosapien
A friend of mine used to sing this song endlessly in junior high. I never knew what the fuck he was talking about. Now 15 years later I am finally catching up. Its one of the classics that I can't believe I wasn't aware of back in the day. Where the hell was I?
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Song: Rebirth of Slick
Artist: Digable Planets
So this was one of those songs that was really safe for everyone to like, and was a big contrast to the gansta rap that was all over the place in 93. What it lacks in "gangsta cred" it more than makes up for with cool jazzy rhythms and surreal rhymes that I always find a pure sweet enjoyment in, (an enjoyment that is as much a part of my love of music as it is a remnant of my youth). It may be "Mall Rap" but with hip hop, mass appeal was never as much of a taboo as with the hipper-than-thou world of indie rock. You mean you didn't know?
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Song: What's Up Fatlip
Artist: Fatlip
This darkly humourous track by a member of the Pharcyde, was another late night MTV2 discovery. The video by spike jonze is equally funny, sad, and downright weird.
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Song: Kilo (feat. Raekwon)
Artist: Fatlip
I was never that much into WuTang. Where the cartoonyness of other gangsta rap artists allowed an entertaining auditory tourism, the harsher reality of WuTang always made me feel like a poseur, like that guy in Office Space. I wasn't going to be that guy. I guess I got over that a little cause this new track from WuTang member Ghostface Killah is so good. . Its got a great vocal hook, emotive delivery, and lots of gangsta imagery. Its message and aesthetic are not necessarily fresh but its still unbelievably good.
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Song: The Corner
Artist: Common
Personally I think Kanye is actually worth all his hype and his indelible producers touch is all over this awesome track from Common. And I appreciate that Kanye's commercial appeal allowed me to discover an artist like Common.
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Song: All Caps
Artist: Madvillian
Madlib is a hell of a producer. The track is short but the samples are sweet and I just fucking love MF Doom.
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Song: Scenario
Artist: Tribe Called Quest
In my opinion this one of the greatest Hip Hop songs ever. Its probably one of the first songs I truly loved. I never get tired of it and hits as good as any rock song. There are a lot of commercial hits that I could have included in this mix but one thing if for sure, there is no way I could have left this song off.
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