Top 5 MCs

Andre 3000
edit:: Old Dirty Bastard
Guru
Nas
MF DOOM

honorable mention:
Devin the Dude

Clutchy Hopkins - The Life of Clutchy Hopkins (2006)

Man, oh man. This album is sweet. And Its all live Gs. Made by the mysterious Clutchy Hopkins featuring funky drums, bass, rhodes keys, a couple types of flutes, oh yeah and can't forget the guitar. This album rocks, knocks, and thumps so hard all there is to do is bump it over and over.

The man who is known as Clutchy has a dubious but entertaining back-story floating around the webosphere (just look around this website ) and is now supposedly residing in the Mojave desert in some cave. there also exist a few theories on his true ID that can be found as well. To suit his mysterious and such nature, the track titles are all numbers. somewhat close to the duration of each song. my personal favs right now gotta be:

Track 2:
If you were wondering why I was calling this album funky, well here is a perfect answer for you. Love the live loops. I just got say, listen to that flute.



Track 4:
Smooth and classy is what i would call this song. I can picture ghostface tearin this track a new one. damn. so gangsta, groovin, and then sudenly Hopkins unleashes a radiohead esque guitar riff. complex at first but consistent. sounds like someone knows their hip-hop... oh yeah, how about a nifty bongo groove breakdown to fade out....



Track 5:
If you thought that was good well don't bust one yet, cuz this next one is a heater. Funky bass lines all up in it but then! thats right we gotta chill out again. so much grooves in here.



Track 10:
This one brings a funk that is distinct from the preciously mentioned tracks. This is like some deltron ass beat. funky but twisted. groovin but not with that james brown/parliament funk. these kinda of combos are what keep this album fresh.



Overall i think this is a stellar album. Don't sleep on it. Clutchy also mashed some of his instrumentals over MF DOOM acapellas if you wanna go look for that.

btw i CAN'T STAND the last song. is it just me or does this track blow 37672978379201.23882382999999 more times than anything else on this album? it reminds of some crappy modest mouse song on off sad sappy sucker.


anyway enough of that...



Clutchy Hopkins - The Life of Clutchy Hopkins (2006)

or support the artist and:

buy it here

1 3:06
2 3:02
3 4:08
4 3:25
5 2:15
6 3:11
7 2:07
8 3:26
9 3:34
10 3:05
11 3:14
12 3:24

Kid Koala- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (2000) & Your Moms Favorite DJ (2006)

Kid Koala is a canadian DJ. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (2000) & Your Moms Favorite DJ (2006) are Kid Koala's first and third releases. He's done work with the Gorillaz and Deltron 3030. This is a real quick post in between studying that may/or may not be expanded upon.


Kid Koala- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (2000) & Your Moms Favorite DJ (2006)

or support the artist and:

buy it here



*this post is dedicated to Chavez who is most likely going through some withdrawals from losing all his music.

Van Morisson - Astral Weeks (1968)

Mellow, flowy, and clean. So chill so good still. Another great album straight through.


Van Morisson - Astral Weeks (1968)

or support the artist and:

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1 Astral Weeks
2 Beside You
3 Sweet Thing
4 Cyprus Avenue
5 The Way Young Lovers Do
6 Madame George
7 Ballerina
8 Slim Slow Slider

Pelican City - The Chilling Effect (1999)

You all know who Danger Mouse is. Rolling Stone's current "producer of the year." well he is a pretty sick producer and he did produce during this year so.... Anyway, if you are a fan of that whole producing/Danger Mouse thing then you might be interested in peeping his early work as Pelican City. Massively chill beats at that down-tempo pace. You know the type. Very consistent album which is both positive and negative but it definitely adds to the cohesive album feel of all the tracks.


Be sure to check out Danger's take on Neutral Milk Hotel's "Fool" on track 6 for all that are wise to NMH. Now thats how you flip a beat.


Pelican City - The Chilling Effect (1999)

or support the artist and:

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1. Over From the Start (Intro/Outro)

2. The City

3. The Bleeding Fader

4. Still Alone

5. The Search

6. The Fool (Neutral Milk Hotel)A Pelican City Experiment

7. Danger's Theme Part I

8. Danger's Theme Part II

9. Calling the Birds

10. The Chase

11. Come On Air (Wunderkind) A Pelican City Experiment

12. The Bedroom

13. The Rainstorm

14. The End of Life

15. An Exodus

Diggin this song. it must be heard.

Madlib on the boards and soul sister Erykah Badu on the vox present to us a real rugged and raw joint from Badu's new album New Amerykah Part One. QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY. You'd have be a fool to not check this track out. can I stress this enough?

I can't stop bangin this one like i'm some kind of nympho/
beautiful voices over madlib instrumentals/
it's so sinful it's soul in full/
windows open letting in new info/
we know, we grow, hearts we win those/
everybody just go....

it's bigger than religion, HIP HOP
it's bigger than my nigga, HIP HOP
it's bigger than the government
this one is for Dilla, HIP HOP
this one is the healer, HIP HOP

"you don't have to believe everything you think, we've been programmed wake, up we miss you."

The Return of the Top 10

I started trying to make my top 10 artist list and quickly learned I had no fucking clue about that so... hopefully I'll find some more luck with my CURRENT* top album list.

*throwing CURRENT in there gives me an excuse for leaving out some well deserved albums.

Quasimoto - The Unseen

King Crimson - In the Court of King Crimson

Pelican City - The Chilling Effect






Van Morisson - Astral Weeks







Modest Mouse - Everywhere And His Nasty Parlour Tricks [EP]










Neil Young - Tonights the Night (1975)










Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow








Do Make Say Think - Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead (2000)







Madvillain - Madvillainy







DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (1996)








J Dilla - Donuts (2006)

Guts - Le Bienheureux (2007)

French hip-hop. Instrumental album from Paris native Guts. Solid beats and tight album full of good tracks and some decent ones. Pretty standard style nothing revolutionary but the presence of quality hip-hop is undeniably present.

1. Intro: Actually, this intro is a good introduction to this artist. Informs you that you are in for a dosage of nice vocal sample work over beats that are both mellow and groovin.

3. Everybody Know: Chill piano loop makes a jazzy and driving beat. more of that vocal sample trickery.

4. you know dat shit!!!: since this song uses the same sample that J Dilla used in "U-Luv" this song really doesn't do it for me. It's really unfair but "U-Luv" is too damn amazing. If anything this song is a testament to how talented Dilla was and it shows what he can do with a beat and how innovative he was.

8. Take a Look Around You: Probably my favorite track on the album as of now. The vocal sample trickery here is here in full effect displaying Guts style at its finest. A track to get you movie in your upper story.

11. Cry & Smile: Full ensemble of instruments and samples. gotta love that breakdown with the guitar and tremolo picking and how it drops back into the original beat. nicely arranged, slightly banging.

13. Sweet Love: chill is a good word for this. I can't help but be reminded of fellow French hip-hop producer DJ Cam's album "Mad Blunted Jazz" when I hear this beat. Some call it trip-hop but if you like this beat and haven't heard of DJ Cam then you know what to do. I probably like Cam more but I fid]gured that Guts is less known and has more different styles.

14. Endless Night: maybe my new favorite song on this album. Epic intro and kind of asian sounding guitar along with the funky drummer. sounds like my kinda party.

15. Narco Trip: kinda reminds me of some Pelican City style beats (a project of Danger Mouse aka Gnarls Barkley minus Cee Lo Green). Once again if this beat is feelin you or vice versa check out that Pelican City project as I once again think that is an equally or even possibly more solid album.

there ya go.

Guts - Le Bienheureux (2007)

or support the artist and:

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01. intro
02. good morning
03. everybody know
04. you know dat shit!!!
05. escucha me
06. metis
07. nightmare of paris
08. take a look around you
09. pura-vida
10. skunkfunk
11. cry & smile
12. and the living is easy!!!
13. sweet love
14. endless night
15. narco trip
16. i love you it's so hard to say