RE: Swagger Jacker

Here's that tune Swagger Jacker from Cam'ron. It's more like a piece of heavy handed investigative journalism than a song innit? Sure this expose is a little biased but that's bias based in fact. One man's homage is another's Swagger Jacking it seems. Hip Hop culture is largely based on sampling, pilfering, homages, tributes and appropriations. So perhaps Cam'ron took umbrage at Z for not owning up to his pilfering and/or his sledging of other rappers?? Cam'ron had to sample Jay Z, Slick Rick, Snoop Doggy Dog, Biggie etc. to make his own song. I wonder if that irony was lost on him though?

Funnily enough as Simon pointed out here Swagger Jacking used to be called biting. That's 'biting someone's style'. Jay Z is sampled in Swagger Jacker saying he's 'not a biter he's a writer' which is from What More Can I Say off Z's Black Album. As Cam'ron points out though he is a biter. Slick Rick says in The Ruler's Back from 1988 'They're bitin what I'm writin.' Thirteen years later Z bites what Slick Rick wrote on his very own similarly titled tune The Ruler's Back from The Blueprint. Hey Jay Z's pretty good at biting though as I've testified. Ironically Z spends the entire second verse of The Ruler's Back dissing rappers swagger jacking him, all in good humour of course.

*Unfortunately Jay Z's The Ruler's Back is nowhere to be found on the youtubes.

Raven Felix - Valifornia

Happy to see this at DatPiff late last night. I don't really get the economics of music now though. She's givin this away so how's she gonna get the green she's talkin about? Or is this just a taster to an upcoming cd/download that costs money? Also I can't believe the sexist shit lady rappers have to still put up with ie. see comment "sorority girls will love it." Over at The Guardian this year one of their own writers was sexist, bitter and nasty about Iggy Azalea. Some of you patronising boys sound a bit threatened that 'oh no' a woman has got more talent than you.

Anyway back to the tape I dunno if there's anything as good as the original bangin Girl single from late last year/earlier this year, which turns up in remixed form here. Actually I bought that on itunes so I guess she's got some money to buy her groceries.. She adds some singing and a rap to Schoolboy Q's 2014 classic Studio as well on Valifornia. On 6 In The Morning Felix takes a line from Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice in which she places herself as a character inside that song. She states "got my girls in the living room gettin it on and we ain't leaving till 6 in the morning." She even gets Snoop to guest on the tune. She's put herself in another song and re purposed it with a somewhat reclamation/feminist message. Snoop must be the most often re quoted rapper in rap. I assume it was he who said "I got my mind on my money and my money on my mind." originally (correct me if I'm wrong). I mean I still hear that phrase or some kind of rephrasing of that line almost daily in hip hop trax. Actually now that I think about it there was a white lady rapper, Lil Debbie or something like that, who also used that 6 in the morning lyric a year or 2 back.

Sex Drugs & Ratchet

DJ Mustard's still on the beat round these parts. Reynolds mentions a few more here This one I can't deny. I love that minimal spooky fade out at the end but Mustard makes spooky a 'subdued mood of depressive hedonism.'* That's the best description I've heard so far of this sub genre of a sub genre.

Mustard has turned me around on other things. I couldn't get into this at all when it came out. I knew the sonic production was v cool. I thought it was depressing though but now I get that downer euphoric vibe. Like painkillaz and alcohol. I'm not even sure what other drugs this relates to weed, ice? A heroin-y E maybe? Anyway it's a hell of a vibe. Only took me 2 years to get it. Jesus what next Drake?

Actually It was probably this tune that got me to go back and listen to Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid... cd. How is Mustard not on this beat?

I hated Gas Pedal when I first heard it, then hated it again when I gave it another go. I think it was Reynolds who said (and I agreed) it was just a rip off of Snoop & Pharell's Drop It like Hot but then he had it in his singles of the year. So I gave it another go, still hated it. 5 months later now I'm fully into it. The druggy vibe can't be too wasted because they still be horny dudes. The vibe of this song encompasses a panopoly of drugs and alcohol while being on the prowl for some tush (kids, that means booty).

Then there's magic! (I know this is a bit off topic but it kinda fits.) I get chills every time I hear this. I mean it's pop, it's got hooks and it's so fucking anthemic I can't believe it. And I hate that whole New York cultural tyranny thing, makes me never wanna go there. But this song is so good it doesn't matter what it's about. It could be about my dog doing a poo and I'd still get chills every time I heard it. Z does mention E's, well MDMA during this track so that gives you an idea of where the euphoria in this lies. I mean apart from the songwriting and musical arrangement which is enough. A bit like MBV's best tunes it's so euphoric it feels like your on drugs anyway. This is the sonic equivalent of Champagne and an E chased with a few lines of coke.

Also I think this maybe the best pop tune in history.

*That's me paraphrasing a Simon Reynolds quote.

2012 - A Look Back Part III

Best Internet Mixtapes/DJ Mixes 2012

Panabrite - Lunar Atrium Mix
Synthesiser vistas from his extensive Library music collection.
Mark Van Hoen - Pontone Mix #87
Electronic pop 101.
Ix Tab - Pontone Mix #95
The roots and traces of The Bregnut Tree.
K-Punk - Pontone Mix #91
4th world musical travels.
Evol - Fact Mix #330
Mentastic!
Dara - Blog To The Old Scool Mix
The ultimate 'ardcore 91 mix.

*A lot of time in 2012 I was putting together my own ultimate mixtapes of 'ardcore, Breakbeat, Darkside, Jungle and Ambient Jungle. So maybe I wasn't into other peoples mixes as much. I must admit my Acieeed! mix and Miami Bass mix haven't really got off the ground yet.

Re/Discovered, Not Reissued In 2012

• Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby
• Dave Graney - Knock Yourself Out/Hashish/We Wuz Curious
• Stereolab - 91-97 Catalogue
• Pulp - Intro/His n Hers/Different Class/We Love Life
• Cybotron - Clear
• The Black Dog - Book Of Dogma
• Primitive Calculators - Primitive Calculators/Primitive Calculators & Friends 1979-82
• Laughing Clowns - Cruel But Fair (3CD)
• Omni Trio - Vols 1-5
• Jacob's Optical Stairway - S/T
• A Guy Called Gerald - Black Secret Technology
• 4 Hero - Parallel Universe/The Early Plates
• Various - Reinforced Presents: Callin For Reinforcements & The Definition of Hardcore
• 2 Bad Mice/Kaotic Chemistry - Everything
• Various - Hardcore Leaders Of The New School
• Various - Torque - No U Turn Comp
• Wagon Christ - Throbbing Pouch
• The Wu-Tang Clan  - Group & Solo LPs 93-96
• Snoop Dog - Doggystyle
• Michael Hoenig & Manuel Gottching  - Early Water
• Ilitch - 10 Suicides
• Patrick Vian - Bruits Et Temps Analogues
• And every second track released on The Hardcore Continuum from like 90- 95. There I finally said it!

*I did end up listening to that Kendrick Lamar LP. Bit of a downer I thought, not bad and sonically pretty cool though.

friday night

 

EPIC

 

He really comes across as an arsehole doesn't he? Which if memory serves he was in interviews at the time. You know the usual misogyny and homophobia. That never stopped me likin Public Enemy, ODB or Snoop though. It's this video I find hard to watch. Great song, it can't be denied.