A week or so ago I was watching Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness, his new series, on BBC2, about the history of exploration in the wilderness and wintery northern reaches of Canada. In the episode I was watching, Mears visited with Inuit to hone his igloo building skills, as one does, and learn more about the people. Anyway, one segment covered katajjaq, or Inuit throat singing, and, I’ll be damned, if it wasn’t mesmerizing.

Sadly, I haven’t got an mp3 to share. However, there are plenty of videos on the Interwebs and here are two that show you just how interesting and rich katajjaq is. The first one features the infectious Billy Connolly being astounded by the two performers.

This one is nearly six minutes long and was, apparently, part of a video application for the Traditional Performer category for the 2008 Artic Winter Games, You need to watch the whole thing to see the variety of styles on display. Simply incredible.

I was messing around in iTunes and when I mess around in iTunes without a purpose there are a few songs I end up playing. “React” is one of them. Which then sent me to YouTube to dig up some EPMD videos.

As a result of my excursions you get the video of the EPMD Golden Age of Hip Hop classic “Strictly Business”, Erick Sermon’s 2002 single “React”, and a reminder about EPMD if you a) didn’t know about them (shame on you) and b) forgot about them (seriously, dude, shame on you).

The laid back flow of “Strictly Business” isn’t for everyone and the production value is shocking compared to the technical wizardry Just Blaze cranks out for “React”. But, even 20 years later “Strictly Business” and the album it fronted are lauded as part of a critical surge for rap and hip hop.

You may have asked yourself where the folks from 100b went? I mean, heck, the apartment has been empty for more than a month. You tried ringing the doorbell. You checked with the super. Their mail has been spilling out of their mailbox. Well, I can say we’re back and any squatters in the apartment are just gonna to have to get out.

The folks in 100b were busy throughout June. Then, we, again, took stock, and discussed how we run things here in our favorite little corner of Music Land. In the end, the Bean, Tamboosh, and I all think we have come up with a schedule and way of posting that’ll be both more enjoyable and easier to manage for three adults with stuff to do when we aren’t hanging out in 100b.

As for myself, I stopped buying new music a while ago. I was just accumulating so many CDs and individual tracks that I could listen to something new or rarely listened to for months without stopping. So, my new plan is to begin digging through music I already have and music sent to 100b HQ and let people know all the good stuff out there they may have missed. That should get aDawgg out of his 100b funk.

To kick it off, though, I’ve got a favorite underground hip hop track, “Off The Books” from The Beatnuts’ 1997 album Stone Crazy. “Off The Books” marked the first time Big Pun alias Big Punisher alias Christopher Rios appeared on a recording in his short music career and life.

We’re baaack …

From the projects to the stage to the boardroom, hip hop performer and entreprenuer extraordinaire Shawn Carter – alias Jay-Z – has established himself through 10 (soon to be 11) albums as perhaps the greatest hip hop artist of all time. He is now almost a charicature of himself so it is easy to forget just how good this guy actually is. It’s our job here at 100b to remind you.

100best: Jay-Z.

Out.

aDawgg:

Eight years on, The Blueprint is a classic for good reason. Released at a dramatic time in U.S. history (9/11/01), the double platinum album broke in two uber-producers (Kanye West, Just Blaze), cracked the stranglehold Timbaland had on the genre, and helped return sampling as a cornerstone of hip hop production. Even the notoriously negative Bitchfork lauded it as the #2 album of 2001. “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” is a testament to the ability of Jay-Z to remain commercially successful without losing relevance and credibility in a genre that shakes off fakes with ease.

Bean:

My choice was based purely on gut – no Jay-Z song packs a punch as hard as “99 Problems”. The opening line and beat busting out of the speakers hit you right in the guts. And although his singles are usually damn catchy, I’ve never really been taken by Jay-Z’s lyrical style. “99 Problems” is different – it’s the first time I’ve really wanted to listen to him. Plus, that beat is incredible: part fuzzy guitars, part raw industrial drums. It doesn’t so much pop as explode, and gives Jay-Z a raw power I’ve never heard in him before.

Tamboosh:

I’ve had a crush on the man since I don’t know when, so picking a favorite had to be easy as pie, right? No pie. Jay-Z’s songs can be rated by impact, entertainment value, and pure lyrical wizardry. Every category has multiple contenders; which surpasses all of them? The instant impact “99 problems”, “Jockin’ Jay-Z” or “Roc Boyz” have? The incredible lyrics on “Dead Presidents”, “What More Can I Say” and “d’Evils”? Or the boombastic fun that’s “Big Pimpin’” and “Dust Your Shoulders Off”? The one that checks all the boxes for me is the unstoppable “Heart Of The City”.

I bought Yeah, It’s That Easy simply based on the name of the band and the cover of the CD. I was walking through Amsterdam Central Station in 1997 on my way to a party and ducked into a small branch of a CD chain store in the station. The cover artwork caught my eye. I remember thinking to myself, “With a name like that and a funky cover, this has to be good.” It was one of those risky buys that either tanks completely or succeeds wildly. This isn’t my normal CD purchasing method. I like to hear a few singles off an album or give it a listen before spending my hard-earned duckets on it. So, it was seriously out-of-character for me to plunk down the cash for Yeah, It’s That Easy.

And, brothers and sisers, I didn’t regret it. The album quickly became one of my favorites and still is. Giving it another listen before putting together this post, I realize just how much fun G. Love & Special Sauce can be. It’s a perfect blend of hip-hop, blues, and cheesy goodness. Have a listen. I’m sure you’ll agree.

The goofy-looking guys you see before you are Woodhands, from Toronto, Canada. Remember them from high school? Maybe freshman year at college? They were the guys you cool people probably thought were geeks (note that I didn’t say us cool people). Now they have the kids up and moving it to the beats they weave and you might even wish you were them a little bit. Woodhands, not the kids, though that might also be the case.

Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt bring a purely-created (no samples or nothing) dance vibe meant solely to rock the party. And, given their cover of the Eddy Grant 1983 hit “Electric Avenue” had my head boppin, I think you’ll have to agree Woodhands achieve their goal well. Electro-pop, digi-beat or whatever you want to call it, these creations can’t help but bring a smile to your face and have you interested in hearing more. The Bean doesn’t like the Eddy Grant original and thought the Woodhands cover was something to hear. That’s saying something.

Check out Woodhands at their digital hangouts: MySpace and Facebook.

Want more? Buy Heart Attack at Paper Bag Records

The Score blew up in 1996 and there was no looking back for Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel. The Fugees’ second album flowed out of speakers around the world with a combination of superb bass drops, verbal hijinks, and unparalleled class that simply left weakass hip hop in the past and helped propel the genre into a new century.

I have no research to back me up, but I imagine few albums have been career-makers or-propellants to the extent The Score was for the three members of The Fugees. Even the runt of the trio – Pras – parlayed the success of this monumental album into side-projects and exposure. The Score is that good.

Refresh your memory with one of the non-single tracks, “How Many Mics”, a track that lets the rhymes and flow shine without the distraction of pumped up production and little sampling (only The Moody Blues’ “Twilight Time”).

   The Fugees – How Many Mics

There is no one particularly Poptastic thing about the Fun Lovin’ Criminals. Their being alone simply captures the essence of the concept. Produce good songs? Check. Don’t seem yourself too seriously? Check. Have a goofy take on a Pope of Greenwhich Village vibe? Check. Not afraid to look a bit silly now and then? Check.

They’re like a Poptastic Frankenstein, stitched together from some of the best and most Poptastic aspects of different decades since the 1970s.

The Fun Lovin’ Criminals are the Ambassadors of Poptastic Plenipotentiary.

   Fun Lovin’ Criminals – King Of New York (Cooley High Remix)

In the annals of Crap Rap, 2 Live Crew hold a very special place. Not only is their brand of hip hop just painfully mediocre, it’s the sort that, for all intents and purposes, is designed simply to provide controversy. And, damned if it didn’t generate enough controversy and scandal to propel it to the top of the Billboard Rap Chart and into the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989.

That said, everytime I hear “Me So Horny” I start to crack up. I get the giggles listening to the Full Metal Jacket clip played over and over and, of course, in the past had to say it over and over to get on the nerves of the Bean. Ah, good times.

Someday we here at 100b will make a graphic of the Poptastic Wheel so everyone can see how the good-to-bad-to-good continuum works for this sort of stuff. It’s a scientific thing. Like physics or even chemistry. Put enough bad into a song and, at some point, it becomes good again.

   2 Live Crew – Me So Horny

What better way to “Start It Up” after a much-deserved 100break by the 100b crew than to throw some of A Tribe Called Quest atcha?

There is no doubt that among the groups formed during The Golden Age Of Hip Hop the Tribe is among the best. I wouldn’t laugh at anyone suggesting they belong among the best evar. The beats. The flow. The lyrics. There’s simply no need to hype these guys up. Their reputation and quality shine through with every spin of the disc.

Stayed tuned for more from the Bean, Tamboosh and yours truly. 100b is back refreshed and energized!

   A Tribe Called Quest – Start It Up

Regular readers already know I loves the hip hop. Thinking of a topic for my Zany Charts at-bat, I began to wonder about the build up to hip hop chart success. I mean, the pre-history between, say, Debbie Harry fashion-rapping on “Rapture” in 1980 and before the 1986 cross-over success of “Walk This Way” (Run-D.M.C.) and the Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill. I’m talking about the five or six years after hip hop was already firmly rooted in the inner cities and when it spread into a wider national and international consciousness.

What were some of the key moments and trailblazing tracks that lead to rampant chart success in the 90s and Naughties? Not necessarily what were the best tracks (though most of these are undeniable classics) or what were the most successful within a slice of the American cultural pie. I’m talking about what were some of the keys that really launched hip hop to a wider audience when there were still industry insiders, commentatories, average joes actually saying, “This is just a passing fad.”

The first emcee to sign to a major label (Mercury), Kurtis Blow released “The Breaks”, his second single, in 1980. The song broke into the Billboard R&B Top 5, eventually went gold, and Blow’s appearance on Soul Train would be the first nationally televised performance by an emcee.

   Kurtis Blow – The Breaks

The Funky Four Plus One became the first hip hop group to appear before a national television audience, performing their Sugarhill classic “That’s The Joint” on the 1981 Valentine’s Day broadcast of Saturday Night Live hosted by none other than Debbie Harry.

   Funky Four Plus One – That’s The Joint

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five need no introduction and the 1982 single “The Message” is a big part of the reason why. Among the first hip hop tracks to speak to inner city life and problems, “The Message” peaked at #62 in the Billboard Hot 100 and has since been sampled many times over.

   Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five – The Message

Herbie Hancock and Grand Mixer D.ST’s “Rock It” and Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball” (off the 1984 Ego Trip) are the two earliest hip hop tracks I can remember. I wasn’t completely hooked just yet, but I clearly remember these as the start of my hip hop journey. “Rock It” would be the first solid hit to prominently feature serious wheels of steel.

   Herbie Hancock – Rock It (ft Grand Mixer D.ST)

Considering the style of Blow’s relatively popular “Basketball” in 1984, to hear “The Show” by Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, featuring Slick Rick, in 1985 marked the sea change coming in hip hop. This was the dawn of the future.

   Doug E. Fresh – The Show (ft Ricky D a.k.a. Slick Rick)

And, if “The Show” was the dawn, then Eric B. & Rakim were the true morning of hip hop, blowing the doors off with “Eric B. is President” in 1986. This was the new benchmark by which hip hop albums and emcees would be measured. From there, there was no turning back for hip hop and its growing legions of fans.

   Eric B & Rakim – Eric B Is President

In May 2007, I posted an Aesop Rock Mini-Sampler Backtrack. R.A. The Rugged Man is not Aesop Rock. In fact, The Rugged Man is to Aesop Rock as turds are to brownies. Aesop is a cerebral underground hip-hop lyricist. The Rugged Man is often filthy and rudely vapid, which should come as no surprise given he holds Kook G. Rap as one of his primary influences. He’s the seedier side of underground hip hop and is not for the easily offended or those of delicate constitution.

And The Rugged Man is one of my favorite emcees.

With only two full-length albums made a decade apart (Night Of The Bloody Apes in 1994 – never released – and Die Rugged Man Die in 2004), it says a helluvalot about his skills that R.A. is as well as known as he actually is among the hip hop community.

To introduce R.A. The Rugged Man to the uninitiated, three tracks from between 1999-2006 for your consideration. First, “Stanley Kubrick” (Soundbombing 2 1999). Next, “Lessons” (Die Rugged Man Die 2004), a capsule biography without unnecessary apologies and one of only two singles from his only full release. Finally, a superb example of his explosive skills at internal rhyming in his verse for Jedi Mind Tricks’ “Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story” (Servants In Heavan, Kings In Hell, 2006), the story of his father in the first person.

For those possessing the aforementioned delicate constitution, only “Stanley Kubrick” contains anything remotely as crude as The Rugged Man has been known to spit.

   R.A. The Rugged Man – Stanley Kubrick
   R.A. The Rugged Man – Lessons
   Jedi Mind Tricks – Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story (ft R.A. The Rugged Man)

During a visit to Rough Trade East last weekend, I picked up Best Of Grand Royal 12′s, a collection of, as the smart folks at Rough Trade note, “not strictly legit” Beastie Boys remixes released in September 2007. Beasties? Yes, please. Remixes? What more could a remix whore like me want?

Michael (Mike D) Diamond, Adam (MCA) Yauch and Adam (Ad-Rock) Horovitz have been making The Music – in one guise (punk) or another (hip hop) – since 1984. After two and a half decades in the biz, having sold in the neighborhood of 20 million albums (20,000,000, otherwise known as alot) and sprouted more than a few gray hairs, the trio are giants of music, yet still manage to maintain their independent streak and underground sensibility and respect.

Between 1985 and 2008, these three goofballs have made their presence known with 14 Top 50 singles in the United Kingdom (three of them Top 10) and six Top 100 (four Top 50) singles in the United States. I have to say, having observed U.K. charts since my days spent lounging around WPTS in the early 90s, they’re just that much more adventurous over here. What is usually underground or college music in The States has a fighting chance for wider success in Britain. Example: Singles off Ill Communication didn’t really get a sniffle in the U.S., but reached #19 (“Sabotage”), #19 (“Get It Together”) and #27 (“Sure Shot”) in the U.K.

It always fascinates me when artists have mega-multi-platinum album success over the course of decades while not hitting huge peaks of singles chart success. These always seem to be the most respected performers. Year-in, year-out they practice their craft, honing, refining and expanding what makes them legends. The Beastie Boys fall into this category. They jumped into the public eye with Licensed To Ill in 1987 and haven’t looked back. And, while they haven’t torn up the charts, a new Beasties album is always anticipated.

All Hail! those Boys from the Boroughs!

   Intergalactic (Strawberry Bath And Jelly Soles Instrumental Version)
   (Original #28 U.S., #5 U.K.)

   The Negotiation Limerick File (Handsome Boy Modelling School Makeover)
   (Original #29 U.S. Modern Rock Chart)

   Sure Shot (Green Mix)
   (Original #27 U.K.)

While 2 Live Crew were busy fucking around and acting the fools on Move Somethin’ [1988] and As Nasty As They Wanna Be [1989], something happened in the world of hip hop. … Boom! N.W.A. moved from relative obscurity to (inter)national prominence with Straight Outta Compton [1988] and 100 Miles And Runnin’ [1990]. I say relative obscurity because N.W.A. And The Posse [1987] went gold. That’s chicken feed compared to the double platinum blowup of Straight Outta Compton, an album that, now, seems mild, but, back then, walked up and smacked you in the face demanding a place in music history whether you liked it or not.

N.W.A. was pretty nearly a supergroup in reverse, with most of the members later taking separate roads on their way toward moderate-to-massive success via platinum solo releases and/or branching out to other areas of the entertainment industry. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre pursued widely successful careers. Eazy-E kept his mug in the limelight enough to garner attention when he succumbed to AIDS. The D.O.C. released the superb No One Can Do It Better before having his larnyx damaged in a car accident. MC Ren went platinum with Shock Of The Hour and cemented a place in hip hop’s underground with his collaboration with Public Enemy and Paris on Rebirth Of A Nation. Only Yella, from among the more prominent members, didn’t see much post-N.W.A. success, though he’s now leveraging his involvement with N.W.A. to pursue his DJ Yella Entertainment porn directing career.

   N.W.A. – Express Yourself (Remix)
   N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton (Extended Mix)

Yeah, so what. I start all of posts with excuses about why my post might (probably) sucks eggs. This week I have yet another excuse. A good one. For me at least. I bought a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple and, hot damn, it’s sweet! So, I phaffed about for the past four or five days setting it up. What this meant is I had to export and import all my RSS feeds and all the entries was zapped to Kingdom Come.

Anywho, onto this edition of my disjointed and disconnected collection of news-ish tidbits … a.k.a. some stuff that comes from the Interweb into your feeder reader for people that don’t know the news too good.

I may have nuked my backlogged feeds, but you couldn’t have missed the blow-up over what seems to now be known as the ‘Barack Obama Race Speech’ or ‘A More Perfect Union’ or Obama really taking on the elephant in the corner of his campaign or Obama taking on the even bigger elephant crushing the United States with his big ass. Predictably, the Right – in this instance, the White Right, most notably – is all up in tizzy.

(Beware: This video is the FULL speech, running nearly 38 minutes.)

From the inspiring to the painful. Submitted for your approval, two tales about the pathetic and their attempts to mean something to someone somewhere:

Tale #1: The Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records over the licensing of their tracks to Pepsi and Amazon.com. Their reasons? Negatively impacting the credibility they worked ever so hard for years to build with their fans. … They still have fans?

Tale #2: NME, the infamous rag that loves a band or artist one week and hates them the next, is making a Robbie Williams-style attempt to become relevant in the U.S. Good luck. Prediction: NME will fail miserably and then write off the U.S. as musically useless.

This month’s 100best of … selection, Elvis Costello, is opting to release his upcoming album (Momofuku) via digital download and vinyl only. Interesting. Somewhere a record exec just pooped herself a bit.

Undoubtedly, the number and variety of reality crap (*COUGH*), I mean, shows is just out of hand and definitely, somehow, at the heart of the decline of Western Civilization. Even so … Oh. My. God. Let this be shown in the U.K.! The concept is so cringable I can’t not look. I’m so gonna be thuggin to this.

Weezer, Justice, The Klaxons, Mars Volta, DJ Shadow. No, that’s not the lineup for an indie/underground festival. That’s a selection of the artists on the Gran Turismo 5 soundtrack, scheduled for release for the PS3 in April.

On March 16, tamboosh clued you into the existence of hip hop at SXSW with some cuts from The Cool Kids. Well, here’s another I bumped into on my travels along the musical backroads of this so-called Information Superhighway (shout out to The Rap Up) …

   The Carps (ft The Cool Kids) – Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames
   (Warning: 12.28 MondoBites!)

Want to know more about The Carps? Check out their CarpSpace.

That’s it. I’m done. Out.

I can feel myself entering a hip hop phase again, having drifted away for a few months. In my regular pre-post scramble, the Geto Boys popped into my head. When it comes to the Geto Boys many (if not most) hip hop heads will immediately think of their only truly big time single, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me”, off We Can’t Be Stopped (1991).

This isn’t the best rap track ever. In fact, “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” is very much of its time. But, damn, if it ain’t catchy. Listen to it once and it’ll be looping through your head incessantly, especially if your memory is seeded with it already.

   Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me

As a special bonus, here is the irrepressible Isaac Hayes’ “Hung Up On My Baby” from the 1974 Tough Guys soundtrack. Listen to it for 10-15 seconds and it’s obvious why I’ve thrown this up as well.

   Isaac Hayes – Hung Up On My Baby

Just when I thought I could not get more jealous of all you people who get to go to South By Southwest. The AP tells us that Hip Hop has gotten more and more of a foothold on SXSW. Ice Cube, Bun B, The Clipse, Dizzee Rascal, 2 Live Crew, Talib Kweli, The Cool Kids are just a selection of the mouth-watering acts that grace the festival’s stages. For those of you who are missin’ out as well, let the amazing Cool Kids rub-a-dub-dub some more salt in the wound. Damn, that smarts.

   The Cool Kids – Pump Up The Volume
   The Cool Kids – ’88

Released together with “Phuncky Feel One” as a double a-side, “How I Could Just Kill A Man” was the first single off Cypress Hill (1991) and the absolute B-O-M-B back in 1991-1992. For me at least, it’s one of those tracks which, even at the time, marked the end of the Golden Age of Hip Hop and the start of 1990s Gangsta. Sure there were other albums prior to that, but, for good or ill, releases from Ice Cube and Cypress Hill in 1990 and 1991 seemed to just smack the Golden Age into the history books.

I bought every Cypress Hill release after being grabbed by them back then and have seen them in concert twice. Some albums are better than others, but, for the nostaglia factor alone, nothing beats tracks off that first album. Today you can taste the late-Golden Age production of the original 1991 vintage, the Spanish version from Los Grandes Exitos En Español (1999) and contrast both those with the visceral Rage Against The Machine cover.

   Cypress Hill – How I Could Just Kill A Man
   Cypress Hill – No Entiendes La Onda

   Rage Against The Machine – How I Could Just Kill A Man

Now you know this shiznit is gonna slam when the emcee is Kevie ‘Waterbed’ Kev (a.k.a. Kevin Strong) from The Fantastic Five. He’s a ladies man and that’s all there is to it.

Don’t believe me? Check this 1983 track out …

   Kevie Kev – All Night Long (Waterbed)

Touch it, why don’tcha.

Argh! Carnage! Was WordPress upgraded? It doesn’t matter. The net effect was that, somehow, my ‘Use the visual rich editor when writing’ setting was checked when normally it isn’t. Of course, I only double-checked this after screwing up a few of my older posts – deleting one in utter frustration. So, you all can just pretend my Muse post still exists. All of which is a perfect segue-way into today’s Classics post. Some late-Golden Age Brand Nubian to play while ass-whipping Internet gremlins.

I didn’t go for the standard selection, something from One For All, instead opting for a track off their 1993 second album – In God We Trust – which pushed its way to #12 in the album charts and #4 in the R&B/Hip Hop Chart (making it Brand Nubians biggest chart success even if it wasn’t as acclaimed as their debut).

“Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down” helped In God We Trust and Brand Nubian achieve wider notoriety for its openly homophobic lyrics. Yes, hip-hop has flaws. Please, let’s not start a debate about this. Irrespective of its homophobia, this post-Grand Puba Brand Nubian track, produced by Diamond D, still flows.

   Brand Nubian – Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down

You will notice the sound quality on this track, or, rather, the lack of it. I have no clue why that is. I purchased it from an online music store (a real one, though it remains unnamed) as a replacement for my long-gone Golden Age tape collection. The quality was this disappointing. Just pump up the volume and pretend you’re listening to a well-loved old tape.