I don’t know if you guys know, but a doe is a female deer. So I was really confused as to why Funky Dee was so concerned about whether people were having intimate relations with girl deer, but hey 92% of the time I heard this song I was sippin that ‘trone and livin’ that life so whatever. Though technically quite a recent “throwback” it is part of the (sadly) dead Funky House movement, and so worth bringing back to life for this week. Dropping in 2010 (though I swear I heard it in 2009), the tune set clubs almost literally on fire, being one of the club essentials of the time. Now for a song in which “bang” is said 85 times in the full version and 71 in the video, that’s not bad. So anyways time to dust off the skanks for this week’s throwback, Are You Gonna Bang Doe by Funky Dee.
Are You Gonna Bang Doe
Funky Dee
2010 (earliest video I could find, but I swear it was out in 2009)
Fun Fact: Funky Dee still makes music. He currently is having beef with another "rapper" named Sox, and you can see the video where Funky sends for Sox here.
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HAPPY SINGLE AWARENESS DAY EVERYBODY! Today I’ve got a song with
a message that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, Unpretty. Released in
1999, the song became TLC’s fourth number one single, and the second consecutive
one after No Scrubs and rightly so in my opinion, as this is one of the few
songs of that time and indeed our current one that has a genuine message without
sounding too preachy or corny. So this Single Awareness Day (SAD) or Valentines
just remember: no matter whom you’re loving and how much you love them, if you
can’t look inside and love yourself that love is meaningless. And with that
cheesy ass message I’ll leave you with this week’s throwback, TLC’s Unpretty.
Unpretty
TLC
FanMail
1999
Fun Fact: The random guitarist in the video is actually the producer, Dallas Austin.
Dallas Austin is his real name, despite it also being two cities in Texas.
Yes, it's like someone being named "London Birmingham".
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Hype does
funny things to people. It makes them listen to crappy music and respond with
monosyllabic adjectives such as "dope" and "ill", which they used to only declare on monochromatic pictures reblogged on their avant-garde-esque deep-esque I'm so mysterious-esque Tumblrs. It makes them
engage in pointless arguments they're unable to see the truth in due to the
weight of fanboy-itude on their eyelids. And it makes people really easy to
piss off when they’re all excited about the song and you say "NAH I AIN'T
HEARD IT BRO".
Hehehe.
But one of the most justified hype houses I've come across recently has to be
Joey Bada$$ of the PRO(gressive) ERA collective and his debut mixtape, 1999.
Sheep and a poem. Now that's FRIGGIN DOPE.
From track one Joey goes in, though to me it's from track 2, Waves, that your mouth fully starts
catching flies as you just sit in awe of how he manages to string rhymes
together in a flow deliciously reminiscent of early nineties hip hop. He
generally maintains this standard throughout the mixtape (bar a couple songs
you generally, to be frank, don't care about), covering a range of different
topics and in different styles that really show off his versatility as an
artist. Seriously, after a few tracks you stop and think "what the hell is
this?" but not what the hell is this like someone posted a sea bass in your
letterbox, it’s more like “OMG it’s raining money! What the hell is this!”. As
you listen it's surprising how good 1999 sounds at first, and after a few
listens you're well and truly hooked.
Sea bass... GEDDIT
And it's not just Joey either, the features by his fellow PRO ERA members range
from solid to impressive. On one of the best tracks of the mixtape Survival Tactics, the late Capital STEEZ
even manages to outshine Joey Bad with a fiery verse that thunderously compliments
his venomous delivery. Other members Chuck Strangers, Kirk Knight, CJ Fly and
Apex also provide respectable verses and choruses which help to concrete the
mixtape as a satisfyingly superb listen. And I'll ignore Chuck Strangers 2chainz-esque
scrrrt outburst in FromdaTomb because although it invokes a sea bass level what the hell it’s a one off and doesn’t
really affect the song.
Like I mentioned there are a couple tunes that you listen through and not
really pay attention to, which for me were Suspect,
Daily Routine and Where It At, despite a catchy chorus. I
mean they're decent songs, but it's like the other tunes GO HARD and those ones
are just... not soft. And plus with songs like Waves, Pennyroyal and Hardknock you feel as though you're a
busy bandana donning woman from the hood who honestly, aint got no time fo' dat.
1999 is like a fight between an angry Jack Bauer on Red Bull and E and Optimus Prime who fused
with Gogeta, but with both of them having 80s mullets - AWESOME, but not altogether perfect.
Download it. Even if you don't have eardrums, download it. Make it work. Nike
that ting homie, just do it. Anyone
who's even remotely into rap, especially if you're a bigger fan of pseudo old-school mid-nineties flows should at least give it a shot - it's definitely
worth the 88.5mb on your computer machine device thingy that you have.
No no, please, I know. I'm awesome, #ThrowbackThursday is awesome, and this song - bloody amazing. I can't even be bothered to make jokes in this one; if you don't know this song, seriously, you're the joke. Send me a picture of you and I'll laugh. Damn you funny kid, damn you funny. Ex-Factor dropped in the winter of 1998 and was part of the absolutely amazing Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album and is nothing short of a classic. It's just one of those songs that when it comes on your shuffle you just wanna hold your iPod close in pride that your taste in music is simply that good. Enjoy this week's #ThrowbackThursday selection, Lauryn Hill's Ex-Factor.
Ex-Factor
Lauryn Hill
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
1998
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Really and
truly making your first mixtape is stress. Sure you may have been writing raps
and making songs and stuff for however long but chances are people don’t actually
know who the hell you are, and so will generally respond to stuff you try to
show them with the same exact response:
So needless
to say it’s important to make a good impression. Enter Ayar, the 18 year old (I
think because he said he’s 18 on the mixtape and I can’t find any other details
about him which makes me unsure whether he really exists as in exists or whether he exists like Bruce
Willis in the Sixth Sense exists – spoiler alert) whose debut mixtape Good Could
Be Better may not be perfect, but still provides a solid and somewhat unique
running start to his mixtape career.
One of the
best things about the mixtape is the way that Ayar manages to make you believe
in his world, the importance of his success, and his passion to make it. This
ting is not a rassclart game to him; he’s got plans and people that depend on
him making it and if his drive was a weapon it would be something like the thing in this video. Through the emotional Letter
To My Marge to the pensive Just Like
You at some times Ayar can seem bitter, though he unlike a lot of artists
manages translates that bitterness into memorable lines that make you raise a
“nice one bro” eyebrow when they hit.
Also you
really feel as though Ayar has the ability to make some damn amazing songs, but
apart from Rough Start and Big Screen, to me he doesn’t quite do
it. Either songs will have a chorus that’s a bit off (in the case of Letter To My Marge or Fade Away) or his usual simple yet
powerful delivery will be enough to make the tune good, but not amazing.
Additionally by the end of Good Could Be Better you don’t feel as though you
know much about Ayar, which is bad as the mixtape seems to revolve around him.
I mean you get to learn some stuff, enough to make the mixtape feel “personal”
in a sense but the lack of depth makes Ayar come across as one of a category of
rapper, one of the “I have a dream, I wanna make it, mama I love you” kind of
rapper. Now I’m not saying it would have been better if he was rapping about
models having spinners on their gold plated cheese graters, but the mixtape just lacks
that level of personality that makes you think only Ayar could have possibly
made it, which would have made it far more memorable.
For someone
who may or may not exist (I’m leaning towards him existing though, because
there’s a whole YouTube channel with his stuff) Good Could Be Better is a
pretty good mixtape, and well worth a listen. It’s simple yet effective, and I look forward to
the next mixtape. He’s set a standard here – let’s see if he can maintain it.
RUMOURS of New Yeezy - New JT - Rick Ross Shot At - Chris Brown/Frank Ocean Beef - New Daft Punk - Joey Bada$$/Lil B Beef
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So probably one of the biggest stories this week – and it’s
been a bit of a mad week let me tell you –are the rumours that Kanye West is to
release a new album soon called Rich Black American, and that album shall
include features such as Pusha T, Florence Welch, Frank Ocean and of course, of course, Skrillex. However as this is
based on an image posted on one of Kanye’s major fan sites, not anything direct
from Kanye himself, it may be just a rumour or even a hoax like the Black American Psycho thing. Personally I’m hoping the rumors are false as RBA sounds
like an album of that “Louis Vuitton, ni**a I got model on top of a model” rap
we’ve been getting a lot these days, which is so far from exciting if you asked
a GPS to guide you to exciting it would likely roll over and be like “nah blad,
that’s long”.
Justin Timberlake also previewed two brand new songs from
his upcoming album the 20/20 Experience during a live performance, the first
being Pusher Love Girl and the other That
Girl, whose instrumental has the delicate aroma of a Timbaland production.
Both songs are promising and indicative of the classy romantic feel the new
album (apparently dropping in March) shall have. Oh and it was also revealed
that David Fincher, the guy who directed Fight
Club and The Social Network will
be directing the video for Suit & Tie,
so needless to say I’m expecting something no less ridiculously epic.
Little Pusher Girl
That Girl
And in case you didn’t know, someone recently shot at Rick
Ross. Yeah. Last Monday (28th) while Ross was returning to his car
with his girlfriend after celebrating his 37th birthday, several
shots were fired towards him forcing him and his girlfriend to seek cover in a
nearby building. Since the incident Ross has chosen to increase his security
detail, and after a four day absence has returned to regular business on
Twitter. While there’s no word on who performed/ordered the shooting notorious
rap bully 50 Cent claimed that the shooting was staged, while real life LA drug
kingpin Ricky Ross claims that incidents such as this are risks you run when
you don’t understand street rules and still seek to tell stories about it. In
any case it’s clear it was a crap birthday present.
Speaking of beef (horse free), there have been some issues
between Frank Ocean and Chris Brown lately with a fight occurring between the
two camps last week. Following the incident Mr Ocean later tweeted “got jumped
by Chris Brown and a couple guys, lol” following that with “cut my finger now I
can’t play with two hands at the Grammys”. While the mystery finger in question
isn’t known it is hoped that Frank will make a full recovery by the awards show,
happening Sunday night. In a more serious note though, he also took to his blog
to post this, apparently quashing the beef until further notice:
And that’s about it for this week, other than the fact that
Daft Punk has apparently signed a deal with Sony to produce a new album in
2013, and a form of beef erupted between Joey Bada$$ and Lil B over the week,
which resulted in a surprisingly lacklustre response from Joey, him going on a
Twitter rant, deleting his Twitter, then coming back. Well okay then. However like I mentioned above - THE GRAMMYS ARE COMING THIS SUNDAY!
Should be a great night, though I must admit to you guys if 2Chainz wins best
rap album, against Drake’s Take Care,
Nas’s Life Is Good and Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor II, there
goes all respect I have for the Grammys.
