Which Came First?

OR



::MH::

A Travesty!!!

{How is the best dancer, Will Wingfield, in So You Think You Can Dance's history voted off? Especially someone who pays tribute to James Brown.  Get out and vote!}

::MH::

BRB

The Get Down blog will be temporarily down so that we can perform some site maintenance issues. You can still download from past posts, but we'll be holding off on new posts for a minute. As you might be able to tell, it's a bit of a mess in here, so we're working on cleaning things up for you and we should be back in a week or so. Thanks for your patience, and hope to see you back again.

|bruce banner|

Ouch...

{Gnarls Barkley's "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"}

::MH::

Fashion Forward

Andre 3000 is a bada$. Kanye and Pharrell wish they could be him. Now homeboy is coming out with a clothing line, Benjamin Bixby, that sounds more interesting than an oversized Polo shirt with a big logo on it. Some of my favorite, lesser-known, Andre 3000 musical moments (besides some of the other ones we've already posted).

[MP3] Outkast :: Humble Mumble

{Does it get any better than this? One of my favorite songs ever.}

{Andre steals the show again in Fonzworth Bentley's "Everybody" also featuring Kanye West and Sa-Ra.}

There's too many to choose from and more to come, I'm sure (just less Semi-Pro and more biopics please).

Is do you want to live or wanna exist
The game changes everyday so obsolete is the fist and marches
Speeches only reaches those who already know about it
This is how we go about it

::MISTA HIPPO::

Mixtapes

Greetings all. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. It has been a minute since I last shared my thoughts with you all. Today I will take the time to edumacate all of you on mixtapes. In the beginning, a mixtape constituted of songs that one used to record and compile into a cassette tape. There were many ways to do this. You could go and cop new cassette tapes that were like 60, 90, and 120 minutes long from your local store and record on them.

As for me, I bought the 120 minute ones so I could capitalize on the minutes available. I used to use this ghettoass boombox that I jacked from my pops. I was in my early teens, and too broke to afford new tapes, so I would apply scotch tape over the holes on the rear spine of the cassette, and reuse them over and over again. Shoot... I would even jack my little sister's Paula Abdul and Whitney Houston's Bodyguard Soundtrack tape so I could record over them with tracks from my favorite "urban station" and edit out the commercials and compile a dope tape. Don't you just hate it when you try to make a clean dope mixtape, and radio DJs speak over the song, or you hear this synthesized voice repeating "this is an exclusive"??? I know I had to delete that mess off, and wait hours for a track in its entirety to come back on for me to record...

Well basically this way of compiling dope tracks onto tape concept spilt over to the "mixtape" game that we see today. Unlike average joes like me, DJ mixtapes would be mixed, blended, and have their own unique theme, interlude, sound, dialouge, blah blah blah... (Tony Touch used to take bits and pieces from the movie Scarface and put it out there...)

In my humble opinion, mixtapes were at their hiatus during the 90s. Those surely were the days... We had mixtapes by Ron G, Tony Touch, the DooWop brothers. Heck.. I used to even fuck with DJ Clue's mixtape when he wasn't mainstream....

Anyways, you are wondering where am I going with this... So I will just go ahead and say it...The mixtape game today is purely garbage... DJs are releasing all kinds of caca/doo-doo... DJ Drama? Whoo Kid? What kinda crap is this? When G-Unit, Lil' Wayne, and a bunch of Texas Screw music folks are releasing mixtapes, there is something inherently wrong with the mixtape game.

Thus, I lost all faith on mixtapes until recently. I heard of this mixtape called "A Tribe Called Fresh" by this one cat out of the BX called Daytona. He is affiliated with DJ Cipha Sounds. For those of you that don't know Cipha Sounds is this cat that managed Nina Sky. You can also check him out on MTV's TRL and all that bullsh*t.

Basically "A Tribe Called Fresh" is a mixtape with Daytona rapping over classic Tribe tracks like "Can I Kick It," "Award Tour," "Stressed Out." This mixtape even revised bunch of interludes from the original Tribe albums. Daytona really brought a rugged and raw appeal to these timeless tracks. While the beats are classic Tribe, Daytona's lyrical content will touch upon topics such as yayo, vagina, fresh clothing/gear, money, car, and all the other conventional topics that rap artists obsess with.

For those of you that know me, I enjoy these forementioned topics, so I had no problem bumping"A Tribe Called Fresh" in my ipod and car and listening to it over and over. I also respected this mixtape because it touched upon the current state of hip-hop and hip-hop lifestyle/fashion. "A Tribe Called Fresh" mixtape is a great course for all of you fugly hipster tight jean/hightop wearing Kanye-like MCs, and you fugly thugs with fitted 8-and-a-half Elmer Fudd Yankee cap when you really aren't from NY.

Here is a link of "A Tribe Called Fresh" for you guys to click on and do whatever you wish to do. By the way, that linked site is not mine, so if you attempt any legal bullsh*t on me, I promise that you will get dealt with. Enjoy the ride!!!

[Mixtape ] Daytona :: A Tribe Called Fresh

:|kangbang|:

Music to Let Your Mind Unwind...

image credit: bette burgoyne

Sometimes, I forget that hip hop can be melodious, that it can have harmonies, it can be soulful, and have insightful rhymes. Let's face it, hip hop wasn't very pretty to begin with - it's the sound of the streets, where the bass is bangin', the kick drum is hammered, rhymes are spit, and records are scratched. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved hip hop's raw and brash roots but at times I feel it's nice to kick back and listen to some joints that don't make you want to go out and knock somebody out (although that may have more to do with my own anger issues than some types of hip hop, but you know what I mean). So maybe it's just me getting grown, but lately it's been more about these warm, thoughtful, mellow joints, and kickin' back in the breeze.

[MP3] Bahamadia :: Reign
I don't know what it is, but these days I've been on Bahamadia's non-existent nuts, diggin' up all her albums and annoying my coworkers by putting "Reign" and "Real Love" on repeat - I guess when you're in the mood for that mellow ish, Bahamadia's flows are like a verbal massage that soothes the mind. The beat on this one is deceptively simple, yet full of warmth and that looped piano is a perfect accompaniment for the soulful hook and Bahamadia's methodical rhyming.
[MP3] Arts the Beat Doctor :: Crazy Times
Thanks to interrupt3d_soul for this one...damn I don't know how she stays up on all the dopest underground joints, but every time she breaks off something, I know it's gonna be good. "Crazy Times" is no exception, and to make things better, it includes what sounds like an interpolation from one of my jazz favorites, "In a Sentimental Mood" by John Coltrane and Duke Ellington.
[MP3] Ryuichi Sakamoto :: Undercooled (Nomak Edit feat. MC Sniper)
Damnnn, who knew Ryuichi Sakamoto could make a dope hip hop beat? I love that this song has Japanese, Chinese, and Korean influence all over it, yet it's still very hip hop. There's something about MC Sniper's staccato delivery that's strangely hypnotic - I have no idea what he's saying, but it still captivates.
[MP3] Nujabes :: Eclipse (feat. Substantial)
Just like Bahamadia's "Reign", "Eclipse" is based on a simple looped piano sample that rises above the mundane with easy rhymes by Substantial, definitely one of my favorite Nujabes joints.

|bruce banner|

Born Into It: 90's R&B Continues

Continuing the celebration of the corny times we grew up through. For the other Getdownnn writers, if any of y'all want to put up Imeem playlists, starting next month, please do cause (as you can tell) I'm runnin' out of ideas.




-Getdownnn Crew-

Full House

{Radiohead's "House Of Cards" video. The making of here.}

::MH::

Can't Wait For This One

Even though I was disappointed overall with Raphael Saadiq's last album, Ray Ray, I still am going to cop this one when it drops.

[MP3] Raphael Saadiq :: Love That Girl

{First single off The Way I See It.}

Also, is Ryan Leslie the next Raphael Saadiq?

Gotta love the in-studio clips.

::MISTA HIPPO::

Sometime you just got to slow down...

& listen.

Bringin' 94 back.
::MH::

in his arms she fell

i'd like to take this opportunity to inform and educate you folks with the disgusting reality of human trafficking in many parts of the world. Children and women of different ages and ethnicities, being sold for the price of sex and/or slavery. Human trafficking is estimated to be a $5-$9 billion a year industry, mostly coming for the world wide web, ahhh fuck the internet!

now for the music part of this portion.



Mr. J Medeiros of the Procussions, totally set up this dope ass anti child trafficking movement, after writting "Constance", this song has inspired a international human rights movement called " the constance campaign", to learn more about this movement, and how you can help or just inform folks whats going on, please visit humantrafficking.org.

Mr. J totally did not sugarcoat anything with the lyrics to "Constance", listen to every word he says, or open another tab on your explorer/firefox and search for the lyrics, and read a long while he tells you the story of Constance...Mr J, in a interview said, "A large part of hip-hop's identity has been formed through a consistent disregard to a women’s civil rights...Most of the album is about what we (I) make gods out of, the idea's men have about women and how those two interact in both a dangerous and beautiful way...there is a focus on women in this album with a hope that in man’s recognition of woman as an equal we will be creating safer environments for women in what, for the most part, has been a "mans" world...hiphop."- word up, J. Definitely folks, check out his album.

I'm sure everyone has heard this song, and know about whats going on, but I thought I'd remind everyone this shit is still going on..

[MP3] Mr J Medeiros :: Constance

will you stay with me?

//_ interrupt3ds0ul

The Soulful Sounds of Lauren Santiago

I love when you listen to a song, and you reach the end of the song and realize that it's a beautifully composed holistic unit. As in - the beats, to the lyrics, to the vocals - just fuse together seamlessly. Lauren Santiago's songs, produced by LA producers Freddie Joachim and Choice37, blend all the elements of good soulful music and make you just want to float along real peacefullike. Ever since interrupted soul dug up these tracks for me and banner, it's been on heavy rotation (thank you!!!). And props to DJ Yusai for tipping me off to her sounds.

If you're in LA this weekend, check out her performance at Boombox @ Grand Starr with Choice37. And Diamond D and J. Rawls on the decks?!? Need I say more? You know it's gonna be some jazzyfunknasty shiet. I might have to hitchhike my way down to LA for this one.

[MP3] Lauren Santiago :: It's So Easy

[MP3] Lauren Santiago :: Autumn Breeze

[MP3] Choice 37 ft. Lauren Santiago :: Hope

.:debstar:.
its 56 degrees in frisco right now!