Sleepyhead - Hold On, Be Strong

I FINALLY MADE A NEW MIXTAPE!

As Mr West surmised, when people are going through tough shit, ‘another dance track gotta hurt”. Yet dancing can also help. Everything's kinda shitty now, so why are we still wallowing in ‘cornball ass techno music’? We can have fun with you commanding us to in autotune. These are tunes for dancing that reflect the fact that everything’s isn’t all right and that we’re not necessarily having the time of our lives. Dance tunes for the people with boy problems, girl problems, people outta work, people having a shitty fucking time, people who don’t wanna get ravey to the latest David Guetta abortion while people are are homeless and frozen in Japan.

The tape starts off easy with some indie disco, before working up to the bass music that’s coming outta the UK, with a few diversions along the way. While the styles may be unfamiliar, the tunes wont be, with reworkings of old favorites scattered throughout. Also featured are tunes from local badmen Scenic and DYP. This is how Sleepyhead likes his music these days. Fucked up pop, dreamy disco, screwed R&B, frantic bashment and funky out of the UK, and always, always with plenty of bass. Hold On, Be Strong. Sleepyhead will take care of you.

Hold On, Be Strong - Sleepyhead by 72 & sleepyhead

Tracklist
This Can’t Be – Scenic
Odessa (Aera’s Black Sea Edit) – Caribou
VCR (Four Tet Remix) – The XX
Dreams (Rocco Raimundo Edit) – Fleetwood Mac
Rock The Boat – Soul Clap
Seventy Four – Martyn
I’m a Flirt (Accapella) (Ft. T-Pain & T.I.) – R. Kelly
Me & U (Brackles Remix) – Cassie
Battle For Middle You – Julio Bashmore
Every Day – DYP
Grab Somebody - Ramadanman
CMYK – James Blake
Digits – Mele
Bad Like Jimmy Cliff VIP – Warrior One
Calypso – Round Table Knights
Runaway (DJ Sega Philly Club Remix) – Kanye West
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People
YGTL XX Remix (Renaissance Man Edit) - Florence and the Machine
Clint Eastwood (Ed Case/Sweetie Irie Refix) – Gorillaz
It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (Regrooved by Parker) – James Brown
Used to Give a FK - ▽nkown ShΔpes
Fuck the World – Freddie Gibbs
Fireworks (Slo-Mo House Edit) – Deadboy

Stalley - Hercules

This is dope as fuck. Gotta camp out in the library today to catch up with uni work and recentish releases, so I can't wait to listen to the whole tape. Also cued up for listening today is Shaolin vs Wu-Tang, Underneath the Pine and Bible Eyes. Should be a good day.

The Streets - Cyberspace and Reds

Just found the mixtape, thought I'd give it a post since its fairly fresh. Excited to hear the Ghostpoet track when i get to it. Patience is a virtue they tell me. Odds on it was Mike Skinner on his last album.....

The Streets - Cyberspace and Reds

Best.of.2010 #5 - K.R.I.T. Wuz Here

I’ve already written at length about this album, so I’ll spare you the thesis that Krit is the southern Kanye and how soulful he is. This wound up as my 5th favorite album (mixtape?) on the list because it was the one time this year I’ve put on something new and been blown away by it on first listen. I got that super happy, giddy expression on my face, like an extended ‘oh shit’ moment. There were albums on the honourable mentions list that were probably better, more polished or more funky (read, Big Boi), but it was this project that stuck with me. A raw blueprint of an artist, expressing himself fully to the world and succeeding. I wish him nothing but the best in the future. May he not get left on Def Jam’s shelf.

Big K.R.I.T. - Country Shit

Starlito - Happy To Be Here

Came across this one by accident. Copped the full mixtape, Renaissance Gangster, at the start of the year at the behest of a friend and it lived up to the hype he gave it. Its a really cohesive and quality project and deserves all the praise that came its way. Burn One continued his winning streak, not only as a great mixtape DJ (he doesnt say a thing, only the occasional and discrete tag from time to time) but also as a producer for the entire project. Its a truly slept on tape for 2010.

However then something happened. I forgot about it...

Despite the occasional post I came across, or a reminder from my friend, it kinda sank to the back of my mind in a year of hip hop for me that was dominated by Curren$y, Kanye, Big KRIT, Freeway, Yelawolf, Jay Electronica, that amazing Lupe tape from the end of last year.... Plus it seemed at the time that Pill was probably the surer bet for success. Cynical yes, but as stated in other posts, I only got so many hours in the day to listen to music. Sometimes things get left behind.

So after a chance revisit to the Q-Tip album left Renaissance Gangster up into my iTunes list, tape standout Happy To Be Here snuck up on me. Sonically it's reminiscent of Da Art of Storytellin' Pt4 if Dre and Big Boi were possessed with melancholy rather than a desire to light a fire under the rap world. The raps are lethargic yet wise, giving them a weight usually missing from standard rap mixtape fare.

Ultimately what got me though was the chorus. While intended to be an affirmation of still being alive despite the conditions, it came across to me as as an ironic take on his situation. Like who could possibly want to be here out of all places? When one could be elsewhere? Like showing up to a party and having to say the right things. Its a sentiment I can relate to these days.
Starlito - Happy To Be Here
Starlito & Burn One - Renaissance Gangster - iTunes, show some support.

New Music Day - The Stimulus Package

Got a bunch of new albums today. Figure I might as well sit down and write about them. Couldn't find a torrent so I actually went and bought "The Stimulus Package" by Freeway and Jake One. While it would have been nice to have the full physical product with all the care they put into it, despite the fact i paid 17 bucks for this on itunes instead, I am a few tracks in and I don't regret this purchase at all. I love hip hop albums that are cohesive all the way through, not grab bags of disparate styles and ideas. The easiest way to achieve this is with only one producer and that's done brilliantly here. This is an album I can see myself coming back to and not languishing on my hard drive somewhere. The songs are memorable, beautifully soulful and catchy choruses. While its always impressive to hear a rapper go in just tear a track apart, its always gonna be more memorable if that ferocious rapping is coupled with a strong song structure.

That being said, Freeway isn't exactly ferocious here. He sounds forceful, but still laid back, sounding very comfortable and at home on Jake One's soul beats. Also just got to the Raekwon feature. God damn that man can do no wrong these days.

Yeah, if i had a car these days, this would definitively be on high rotation.

But to further wax lyrical on rap music these days (cause I'm white you know, and as such we spend our time discussing the ins and outs of the state of rap music, no I'm not being sarcastic here.) this goes to show what you can achieve if you let the artist be themselves. One of the most distinguishing features these days is the divide in quality between mixtapes and albums. Two of my favorite rappers these days released insanely good mixtapes (Kid Cudi's "a Kid Named Cudi" and Wale's "A Mixtape About Nothing"and "Back to the Feature") only to follow it them up with major label debuts that are either lackluster or cringe worthy.

Its discouraging because you get to know these people in their original material which they effectively have a free hand to express themselves and do so admirably yet when applied with the pressure of having a commercial debut, introducing themselves to audiences that aren't glued to the internet and the major label pressures, they seem to lose their way. Wale is prolly the best example of this (written on especially on this issue by Jeff Weiss in two parts), having to have the mandatory Neptunes track and Gucci Mane feature, when in reality, what needed to happen in my opinion was a fucking awesome album, choc full of BKS and Mark Ronsonm, (where he'd came from) and Dave Sitek (where hes going) production and the ability to be that everyman rapper that he does so well. Here hoping the next few promising names (Jay Electronica, Pill, Starlito, Drake, Nipsey Hussle to name a few). I want some more classic albums. While the past decade has shown that mixtapes can be art, I want new classic albums, not just awesome beat jacking.

Which brings me back to The Stimulus Package. Its nearly over, not a bad song on there, never felt the slightest need to hit the skip button. This is the level of quality I want in my hip hop. And i remain optimistic.