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My Favorite Hip-Hop Albums of the Decade

Published on January 2, 2010 in Uncategorized and music. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

I won’t pretend to be a professional hip-hop journalist, let alone a general music journalist, but I love hip-hop. I think I listened to enough of it over the last decade to be able to assemble a list of what I liked the most. Of course, this is a list of some of what I listened to, and there is obviously A LOT that I didn’t listen to. I don’t really believe in required reading or required listening, and I don’t read music magazines or music blogs. I mean, just because Lil’ Wayne gets nominated for a grammy doesn’t mean I’m going to go listen to his album. I do subscribe to Indiefeed Hip-Hop, which introduces a track, and plays it. Other than that, I stumble around on emusic.com, amazon.com’s mp3 store, get recommendations from friends, and sift through B Jizzle’s gigabytes. Now, let me pretend to be a hip-hop journalist and share my favorite hip-hop albums of the decade.

This isn’t a straightforward Top Ten list, but rather a favorite and runners-up for each specific year. If you want to download a specific track, click the song link, and that will take you to the download for that specific track.

I started off the decade by attending a show in Iowa City at the Union Bar. Opening up were the Beat Junkies, Supernatural, and Dilated Peoples. For the main event: Jurassic 5.  Quality Control by Jurassic 5 was by far my favorite album that year.

2000 Favorite Album:

Quality Control by Jurassic 5

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Jurass Finish First

2nd Place: Both Sides of the Brain by Del the Funky Homosapien- The track If You Must was beaten over my head repetitively in one of those Tony Hawk games, so I always skip that track, but otherwise this is jaw gymnastics of the tallest order.

3rd Place: Reflection Eternal by Talib Kweli & Hi Tek- Talib’s rhymes aren’t bad, although I like the sound of his voice more than I like his actual lyrics. What I like the most about this album is Hi-Tek’s beats.

This next album is probably my favorite for the whole decade as well. Its like a sci-fi hip-hop opera, a Scihopera. The rare instance where the beats and rhymes are of equal excellence. “I apply the flow cannon, the combo so slammin’, atomically reconstruct the whole canvas.”

2001 Favorite Album:

Deltron 3030 by Deltron(a.k.a. Del the Funky Homosapien)

deltron

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Mastermind

2nd Place: Life’s a Bitch and I’m Her Pimp by MC Chris-He’s not a ten-year old, and not a chick, but his voice sounds like it. This album has the awesome Fett’s Vette.

3rd Place: AOI: Bionix by De La Soul-

2002 Favorite Album:

In Search Of… by N.E.R.D.

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Truth Or Dare (feat. Kelis & Pusha T)

2nd Place: Parallel Universe #1 by DJ Broken Window-Some early decade mashup fun. This stuff was pretty low-tech, as far as the actual approach goes. The liner notes instruct you how to recreate the mash-ups with two vinyl records. The mash-ups aren’t perfect by any means…like the sound of rough but persistent experimentation. Pretty random results.

3rd Place: Never is Now by DJ Swamp-Over-the-top violent brags about his skills, his swamp cuts! But his beats do indeed bump, and ladies do indeed move up to the front.

2003 Favorite Album:

Hope by Non Prophets

nonprophets

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That Ain’t Right

2nd Place: Revolutionary Vol. 2 by Immortal Technique-Pretty raw stuff. Not for easily offended listeners.

3rd Place: Later That Day… by Lyrics Born

For 2003, this album technically should have been Art Official Intelligence part three, but for some reason(Tommy Boy Records?) De La Soul abandoned their A.O.I trilogy and came out with this instead. Makes no difference to me, because this album was great. It was nice having Flavor Flav visit as well.

2004 Favorite Album:

The Grind Date by De La Soul

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Verbal Clap

2nd Place: RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta by Dead Prez

3rd Place: Shadows on the Sun by Brother Ali

Sage Franics likes being in PETA ads, but, at least he’s an excellent MC/spoken word poet. Makes up for it in my book.

2005 Favorite Album:

A Healthy Distrust by Sage Francis

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escape artist

2nd Place: The Mouse & The Mask by DANGERDOOM-The rare occasion where I loved all the skits.

3rd Place: Tales of the Forgotten… by Wax Tailor

Its hard imagining The Coup being any funkier, but see them live and you’ll see just that.

2006 Favorite Album:

Pick a Bigger Weapon by The Coup

coup

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Get That Monkey Off Your Back

2nd Place: Public Warning by Lady Sovereign-She’s like little girl Beastie Boy or something.

3rd Place: 20/20 by Dilated Peoples-Babu’s beats are bumpin’! Ev and Rakaa’s faux nuglets of wisdom are entertaining, but the poetry seems real.

Listening to Tone Tank rap about domestic or personal situations like on “It Is What It Is”, makes the music easy to identify with. It’s not because I have the same problems as he does, but he comes off as being a dude who really wants to just be a hip-hop artist. He doesn’t want to win American Idol.

2007 Favorite Album:

Iller Than Theirs by Iller Than Theirs

iller

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Wash, Rinse, Repeat

2nd Place: How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? by Public Enemy- It’s nice to hear Chuck D still at it.

3rd Place: Gutterfly by Lifesavas

In 2008 Del doesn’t bring as many jaw gymnastics as he did in 2000, but his slick groovy naked fonk is in full effect!

2008 Favorite Album:

Eleventh Hour by Del the Funky Homosapien

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Foot Down

2nd Place: Feed the Animals by Girl Talk

3rd Place: MC Chris is Dead by MC Chris

As the decade progressed, I got more into mash-ups. In 2009 two of my most favorite things (Legend of Zelda and Hip-Hop) collided. Honestly, not all the artists that are mashed-up in this are my favorite, but the results are great. Jay-Z, Busta, Dre, Snoop, Aesop Rock, and MF Doom are cool, but I can identify the Ocarina of Time tracks more readily than I can identify where those hip-hop tracks came from. I also LOVE the name of this artist. This album is not to be mistaken with another album of the same name, by an artist named Sleaze. If you stumble across that somewhere, run the other way.

2009 Favorite Album:

Ocarina of Rhyme by Team Teamwork

rhyme

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Jay-Z – No Hook (Meeting the Owl)

2nd Place: Man on the Moon: End of Day by Kid Cudi

3rd Place: Uzi Does It by Get Busy Committee

So thats it. See you at the end of the next decade…hopefully.

Square Enix RPG Crash Course Part II: Final Fantasy IV

Published on May 23, 2009 in Uncategorized and video games. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

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I read somewhere once of the Final Fantasy games being compared to the excitement of managing a spreadsheet, what with all the nested menus, inventories, equipping, and stats. Well I can definitely identify with that characterization, but I think that is also what I like about, at least, this Final Fantasy. The pace of the game is pretty relaxing. I like just clicking through all my characters, equipping, and unequipping things, and managing items. I was able to really take my time. The style worked excellently on the DS. There were plenty of opportunities to save the game, and it was easy to open it up and play it for just a short amount of time. I should repeat again, this is my first proper Final Fantasy game, the only other being FF Tactics Advance. This is part two of my Square Enix RPG crash-course, the first being The World Ends With You.

This being my first Final Fantasy, it was nice to be able to finally get introduced into the universe after it being such a big part of video game culture over the years. My first impression was the effort it seems the game put forth in trying to convince me that I was experiencing something epic. It didn’t feel so epic though. It felt like a fantasy themed soap opera. Its not an epic opera anyway, more of a melodramatic adventure. All these things weren’t troublesome to me though, more just amusing. The real tone of the game is set by the mechanics of managing a party of characters, and managing them in turn-based battle. That is what was appealing about the game.

The party, represented by a single character, wanders a map of the world, a really high-level generic view. Mostly only the towns, caves, and any battle screen have a more detailed view of your environment. The 3D polygonal characters were very nice, along with the cut scenes. I like when cut scenes use the in-game graphics to unfold, and not fancy unrelated cinematics, like the intro to this game uses. The voices were hilarious, especially Edward the Bard, Prince of Damcyan. The music was nice, definitely more epic than the drama unfolding in the game.

My sense of the scale of the adventure though  can’t be competely honest, because I only finished a little more than 1/3 of the game. The area I hit a brick wall in was the chapter To Pilfer an Airship in the Castle Baron. I made it to the boss Baigan, with snakes for arms, and I tried and tried but could not beat him. One of the complaints I have of the game is the boss difficulty. While understanding that bosses are inherently to be more difficult to beat than your average bad guy, the discrepancy between even the most difficult regular enemies and the bosses in the game was HUGE. It got to the point while fighting bosses, that I figured there couldn’t be very many DIFFERENT ways to beat them. I would try many different tactics, and then it would begin to cease to be fun to me. That is what happened with Baigan. I fought him so many times, that even if I did eventually best him, the trouble wouldn’t have been worth it.

As it is, I finished with this party:

  • Cecil as a Paladin, Level 19
  • Porom,  Level 25
  • Palom, Level 25
  • Tellah, Level 25
  • Yang, Level 25

I don’t know, maybe I’ll pick it up again this Winter and beat Baigan. Its definitely a quality game.

Music and the Treadmill

Published on April 23, 2009 in Uncategorized and movie. 0 Comments

I’ve discovered at the gym two different ways to enjoy music and the treadmill together.

I am your energy

"I am your energy"

I used to go running on the bike path, but never listened to music while doing so because the rhythm of the music messed up with the rhythm of my footfalls, the discordance caused me extra work mentally, and thus physically. I never experienced what music can do for energy levels. Now that I jog more often on the treadmill, my speed is set and forced, and my mind doesn’t have to pay attention to pace. This led me to try listening to music again while running, and I’m glad I did. Girl Talk, specifically Feed the Animals is like pure sonically-delivered energy. When I start that album and pump it up, I can turn the daunting prospect of the begrudged run into something enjoyable and full of energy. The difference from running without it is amazing, like flipping a switch.

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The other way I love music and the treadmill is to de-stress and space out. The sensation of a brisk walk with closed eyes was unknown to me before I started using the treadmill. Though,  I have to say that on occasion I’ve played chicken with myself to see how far I dared to walk with my eyes closed. Its a stupid game to play. I’m sure I’ll walk off a cliff someday, or worse yet, step in some dog shit. On the treadmill, all I have to do is hold on in front of me and I can shut my eyes, walk briskly, and play Radiohead’s In Rainbows album all loud and just space out. It’s super therapeutic.

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Great Hike-New Pics

Published on April 2, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Peep the Pics

Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River in NY state.

Watchmen Graphic Novel

Published on March 4, 2009 in Uncategorized and books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Before writing about this grapic novel I guess I should say that I’m not a frequent reader of graphic novels, and an even less frequent reader of comic books. I think the last comic book I read was a Futurama comic book, part of the Time Bender Trilogy. I can count on one hand the graphic novels I’ve read: The Complete Concrete, The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, The Dark Knight Returns, and now Watchmen. I think I’m warming up to the format, because even more than movies, the pictures and frames are so thought out that they can tell as much of the story as any of the dialogue or other text does. When I was young and read comic books, I looked for the glossiest, most extreme action and lacking that I wasn’t interested.

In Watchmen, it’s a good thing that the artwork tells so much of the story and that the characters are so great because looking at the actual story, it’s kind of lame. The underlying theme (which I gathered to be the irony of mankind’s violently aggressive attempt at peace and prosperity) that is trying to be communicated through the story is interesting.  The story plot and arc I wasn’t too fascinated with, especially the ending. All except for one of the heroes have no supernatural powers, and the black-and-white morality of superhero stereotypes isn’t here. Ozymandias (smartest man in the world) even calls into question the use of dispatching small-time thugs or even criminal enterprises, because it addresses the symptoms and not the disease. All the characters seem to have their own personal philosophies and are certainly not perfect, the heroes at times seeming to come off as the villains.

I wasn’t reading to find out what happens next in the story. I was only reading on to find out where the characters would be at the end of the story and that was just barely enough to keep me reading to the end. Rorshach was my absolute favorite character in the book, and they conveyed his voice well with the squiggly speech bubbles. The Comedian was excellent. If Captain America is what the U.S. government would like us to believe it is like, then the Comedian is what the U.S. government actually is like. Nite Owl was great as well. He was probably the most relatably human character in the book. The most super powered hero in the book (Dr. Manhattan) was actually the least interesting to me.

Watchmen is definitely worth reading, although be prepared for a dark and grim story. There is another graphic novel set inside the world of the book that is superimposed at different parts of the story. It is called Tales of  the Black Freighter. A young man in the Watchmen novel sits near a newstand reading it, and that embedded graphic novel is really dark and gruesome.

I’m going to see the movie this Friday in IMAX. I read a Wired article that said the ending is different, which won’t bother me a bit. I hope the movie is good, and if I do enjoy it, I can’t possibly see myself enjoying the movie for the same reasons I enjoyed the graphic novel.

MC Chris in Chicago

Published on November 22, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

tour poster

tour poster

MC chris started his show off with a long draw on his albuterol inhaler(for asthma).He opened up with MC Chris is Dead, which was appropriate, because he looked DEAD TIRED with dark bags under his eyes. He moved slow, rapped quietly, and had no energy. Thankfully his energy picked up substantially and he delivered his rhymes much more effectively. His performance was very animated with zombie walking, spat loogies, and robot dancing.

In between his frat-geek rapid fire songs(–the strobe light explodes white as I step on the floor-the barkeep knows the code so he throws me a Stroh’s–) he delivered updates about what he has been up to.There were also some stand-up comedy style shouted rants. They tied together pop culture references from the past and present.His take on a solution to Will Smith’s predicament in I Am Legend included a twisting waterslide in the basement similar to the one in the Goonies.The whole performance works great and is humorously entertaining along with head-bobbingly catchy.

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Clip of MC Chris Owns

His fatigued beginning seemed a foreshadowing to an announcement he made later that he had been touring and rapping for four years and he was going to quit. He said he was finally going to make his own cartoon called Battle High. I guess that means no more MC Chris, MC Chris is dead. Well, not dead, because he is going to be voicing a gummi bear on a new Adult Swim cartoon called Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge. The whole cartoon direction is fine.The only reason I even know about MC Chris is because I loved MC Pee Pants on Aqua Teen Hunger Force so much I had to figure out who the hell was rocking I Want Candy. I thought for sure the MCs voice had been altered, nope, just MC Chris’ signature sound bitch!

Oh, and it’s not nerdcore, its Hip-Hop.

Be Seen

Published on November 4, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’ve been seeing a lot of these lately on cars and trucks.I guess I kind of agree with this message, seeing as it is admonishing increased awareness of motorcycles. I mean, not hitting motorcycles keeps everyone safe. My brother hit a deer recently, and thankfully came away safe from it along with his wife. The car was totaled though.

This past weekend, my wife and I were traveling on a rural two-lane county highway at night, and with my brother’s recent accident in mind, I drove 5 miles below the speed limit. I wish deer were easier to see, but there’s nothing to be done about that I guess. I wish there weren’t so many of them, but again, there’s nothing to be…wait I guess they do get shot by hunters, and controlled deer hunts. Those assigned to community service for restitution could be sent into the woods with either guns, or for the animal-rights lot, neon green worker safety vests tailored to fit deer. I think a healthy deer skull could also probably support a solar-powered yellow warning klaxon. I don’t know how else I’m going to just start seeing deer. I guess I just need to start to.

Now, back to the bumper sticker. Imploring people to “Start Seeing Motorcycles” isn’t going change the low profile visibility of motorcycles. There is a reason that drivers are taught in Defense Driving courses. The only way to be safe on the road is to drive for everyone else. This bumper sticker has the exact opposite attitude and sentiment. Instead of being assertive and communicating proactively protecting oneself, it is communicating that others need to protect them. A more appropriate bumper sticker would say “Motorcyclists: Start Being Seen”. Someone who has the “Start Seeing Motorcycles” bumper sticker displayed, yet rides a motorcycle without any reflective, fluorescent, or bright colored clothing and gear is being hypocritical. I have to say the one thing I do see motorcyclists doing for visibility is using the headlight even during the day. That’s nice.

You might say, “what’s the big deal, its just a bumper sticker”, but ironically, while I’m reading that bumper sticker in traffic I might not be seeing that motorcycle who has the right-of-way. Honestly, if you’re trying to promote visual attention to a low profile vehicle on the road, don’t try and take people’s eyes off the road.

There needs to be less of this attitude and more of this attitude.

Two More With Good Scans

Published on September 6, 2008 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: .

Figured I would follow up a long absence with more of what I like about James Lileks website…excellent scans of vintage good stuff. First up:

Museum of Bad Album Covers

Absolutely jaw-dropping and hilarious…amazing art in my opinion. There are pages and pages worth of them.

And then, something that ostensibly celebrates the good album covers:

The Worlds Greatest LP Album Covers

They have some nice cartoon ones, Disney ones, which I really like. Whenever I’m forced to go to a second hand thrift store by my brothers-in-law, I always look for old Disney vinyl. Cheap album frames from Urban Outfitters with ’70s and ’80s vintage Disney album art=pleasant wall decorations for me. Good memories. Plus you get to look at all this vintage stuff without the moldy dust shooting at your face after every flip of an album.

Zelda: Minish Cap vs. Phantom Hourglass

Published on July 3, 2008 in Uncategorized and video games. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

I’ve played all of the console Zelda games, and some of the hand held ones. I initially missed out playing Link’s Awakening on the Gameboy and Gameboy Color, going back and playing through about a third of it on my Gamecube’s Gameboy Advance adapter. I can’t say it compelled me to finish it. A little too dated and clunky I think, but I did play through Oracle of Ages for the GBA. That was an excellent hand held Zelda to play through, and I’m still planning on popping its complementary title Oracle of Seasons in my GBA adapter and playing that. I loved playing the original Link to the Past when they brought it to the GBA. It is an experience that can be replayed many times in console or hand held format.

What I love about hand held Zeldas, is that they carry on the mantle of the traditional perspective and gameplay found in the original Legend of Zelda on the NES, and of Link to the Past on the SNES, while the console Zeldas progress and refine the 3D adventures. Even if it seems that the spirit of Legend of Zelda games are threatened from time to time in the console 3D titles(Twilight Princess), having these hand held games to fall back on is sort of comforting.

The Minish Cap continued the proven consistency of the top-down perspective and “Link to the Past” style of graphics. As soon as I began playing it I felt instantly familiar with the universe it presented and had fun playing it. Besides the top-down perspective and graphics, I guess my familiarity with it made sense as it was developed by the same independent developer that developed Oracle of Ages(Flagship). The game was great dungeon and over world gaming from beginning to end. Well, the end of Minish Cap was excruciating in that the final boss(bosses?) were incredibly challenging. I tried to beat the final boss several times, and then had to give it about a months rest before I tackled it again and beat it. I would definitely play it again.

I hate judging a book by its cover, but I was skeptical of Phantom Hourglass from the first time I saw it, hell, I was skeptical of the DS from the first time I saw it. The bulk of my complaint springs from somewhat the same issue as I have with the Wii, but less so. I LIKE the stylus and touch screen controls on the DS, and the dual screens as well. I just don’t want to see stylus controls being added to gameplay simply because they are there. I don’t want to see vital gameplay elements adapted to merely take advantage of the hardware. Elite Beat Agents works awesome with the stylus, as does Brain Age and Clubhouse Games, but when New Super Mario Bros came out the stylus did not control Mario! Much like the traditional Zelda mechanics, 2D sidescrolling Mario games demand a certain control scheme…a directional pad and two buttons! New Super Mario Bros was a solid sidescroller.

The artwork troubled me right off the bat, because it was obvious they (Nintendo EAD Software Group No. 3) were cramming The Windwaker’s graphical style into Phantom Hourglass. The characters in Phantom Hourglass weren’t crisp and bold and colorful like they were in The Windwaker. The characters looked fuzzy, and only pseudo-cel-shaded. Phantom Hourglass was still top-down perspective, but definitely not the same graphical style. There are a lot of complaints about the sailing from place to place, which really didn’t bother me. What bothered me was dragging the stylus around to move Link, and being forced to use stylus swipes to swipe my sword. Most of the time my meaty little fist holding the stylus was obscuring the screen in a way that I haven’t noticed with other stylus-controlled games. I much prefer pressing a button to swipe my sword, and holding it in to perform a twirl attack. The only convenience I will concede(and that could’ve been made the only combat/control use for the stylus) is the secondary weapons like the boomerang and the grappling claw. Those worked really well, and I think enhanced the gameplay.

Other complaints that I’ve identified with are Link’s rolling mechanic, and the Temple of the Ocean King. I like rolling Link into things to shake trees and such, but due to the crazy stylus input to perform this roll, I maybe did it twice, and those times were on accident. Having to endlessly revisit the Temple of the Ocean King and do timed stealth runs was pretty tedious, and not fun. It was okay when the phantom blade came around and I could actually kill those knights, but man, what an artificial game extender. Overall, I was definitely disappointed by this Zelda release. I really hope the hand held Zeldas don’t proceed in this same fashion. My recommendation is to go back and play some other hand held Zelda, namely the Oracle series or Minish Cap. Those were real Zelda games.

Duck Creek on Friday the 13th

Published on June 13, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

It stormed ALL last night, with constant lightning and hours-long strings of thunder. The chihuahua kept trembling all through the night.The rain kept up as well, and even though we don’t live near the Mississippi, or Rock River, the Duck Creek was causing closures of main arterial streets and Highway 61 (Brady Street). It flooded homes and submerged cars overnight in our neighborhood. A few blocks North and South of us had raging creek water. I guess the least of everyone’s worries is the flooded disc golf course.

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