Monday Mixtape, Vol. 225

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225 volumes should be some sort of celebration, a few balloons and whistles to lead in this week’s first track, “CABRA DRIVE”, by Kojaque. Damn, this song is tight, and I’m diggin the lingo. The transition into the bridge (starting around 1:30) is jaw dropping, and the move back out (2:04) is flawless. This dude’s due to blow up.

Kojaque is an Irishman hailing from Dublin, blending storytelling and style spanning soundscapes, resulting in music transcending the boundaries between the bars.

Nas released a new album, and although it’s nothing amazing, it’s still crazy to hear a rapper his age still killin’ it. Two tracks from Nasty this week! Jay Rock and Anderson Paak round out the rappers this week.

Post Malone dropped an album. His lyrics have always been boring and uninspired, but he knows how to sing a hit.

The Beaches, a band of female rockers, got me intrigued. I gotta look back on their previous couple albums and see if there’s any hubbub to intrigue further.

I’ll report back. Over and out.

Best of Nas

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1994 was a year like none other in the realm of rap and hip-hop records: Common’s Resurrection, Warren G’s Regulate…G Funk Era, Gang Starr’s Hard to Earn, Digable Planets’ Blowout Comb, The Roots' Do You Want More?!!!??!, Scarface's The Diary, Method Man’s Tical, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth's The Main Ingredient, Outkast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Biggie’s Ready to Die, and my favorite rap album ever, the LP that encompasses everything rap represents to me, Nas’ Illmatic.

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Singles - De La Soul feat. Nas - God It

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If you haven't heard, the legendary trio De La Soul opened up a Kickstarter to make a new album. The album will feature collaborations with Little Dragon (!), David Byrne, 2 Chainz, and Damon Albarn (of Blur and the Gorillaz), and possibly more! Their last album was over a decade ago, so needless to say this will be quite anticipated for all hip-hop fanatics of new and yore.

De La Soul turned to kickstarter (in their words) "to help pay for recording, mixing, marketing, and everything else. Your support will keep us in the studio, help us continue to sample and manipulate the music we’ve recorded, will help us get additional production work done; and will help us design, package, market, and distribute the album. The whole thing. We literally cannot do it without you."

They asked for $110,000 and they've gotten a total $514,000 from almost 10,000 people! Amazing.

They've been getting fans excited with some releases, including this jam featuring Nas (who refuses to age or fade and is still killing it) providing the hook. This track will not be on the album, but for all of us waiting in eager anticipation for it to drop, this will certainly quench our thirst.

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Notes on the Hip-Hop Messiah

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"Like Nas – a one-time messiah himself – Lamar, a scrawny 25-year-old from Compton, was a visual poet. You can see Compton — the burger stands, the lights of the police cruisers, the 405 freeway — in every track of “good kid, m.A.A.d. city,” just as you can see the dice games, project hallways and parks of Queensbridge in Nas’s “Illmatic.”

- Jay Caspian Kang, Notes on the Hip-Hop Messiah, NY Times, March 24, 2015

Kang just wrote a great article on Kendrick Lamar, his last two albums, the classic good kid, m.A.A.d. city, and his recent album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and the meaning of "hip-hop messiah," which Kang defines as:

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Top 25 Albums of 2012

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2012 starts and ends with Frank Ocean. Channel Orange is an album that I will play until the day I die. It’s beauty - naked and fragile at times yet full bodied and confident in others - is unlike any other album to compare to in the past decade. Ocean’s falsetto on “Thinkin Bout You” wails in sincerity. His epic “Pyramids” runs a wild gamut of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic elements. I always find it an amazing accomplishment to have a song that’s over 6 minutes (this being 9:53) that I can listen to constantly. 

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Top 100 Songs of 2012

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1. Jack White – Weep Themselves To Sleep

2. Tennis – My Better Self

3. Geographer – Kites

4. Delta Spirit – Tear It Up

5. Frank Ocean – Lost

6. Peace – 1998 (Delicious)

7. Kendrick Lamar – m.A.A.d city

8. Santigold – Disparate Youth

9. Jack White – Sixteen Saltines

10. Schoolboy Q – There He Go

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