heavy d: December 2010

Monday 27 December 2010

The best of 2010 Hip Hop according to Coldrockdaspot...

Edit: I was missing some dope LP's and singles that need to be mentioned, so I have changed it to Top 10's of 2010 :)

Peace all, I felt like getting this done now, so here it is...the dopest Hip Hop music etc from this year according to this blog.

It has been a year of some really dope albums and tracks, a lot of new groups and Old School cats taking real Rap back to the esscence, hopefully in 2011 we get many more and Hip Hop continues to grow.

These are the artists that cared about the art form and culture and repsected all of the elements of Hip Hop, there were no gimmicks in their music, no auto tune, cheesed out beats, and the rhymes made sense and meant something, these albums and tracks are Hip Hop with a soul, and that is sadly missing a lot these days.

These are the albums, singles and tracks and moments that made me still love and appreciate Hip Hop, they defined what Hip Hop is all about and stayed true to the art form for me.

Top 10 Singles/Tracks of 2010:

Over a hard beat lifted straight from the legendary Buckwild's vaults, all MC's bought the goods to the table and delivered very hungry and memorable performances, it was hard to choose who bought it the most, but I have always sat on Diamond-D followed by Grand Puba, I did feel that Lord Finesse was missing but the rest of them were just incredible regardless.

This was on my stereo pretty much everyday in 2010 as were the other 9 listed here...

1-Celph Titled ft OC, AG, Sadat-X, Grand Puba & Diamond-D-There Will Be Blood (Produced by Buckwild)2-Meyhem Lauren-New York Where Ya At? (Produced by PF Cuttin)
3-Blueprint ft Illogic-Pain (Produced by Blueprint)
4-Smiley The Ghetto Child-I Am Legend (Produced by DJ Premier)
5-Black Milk-Welcome (Gotta Go) (Produced by Black Milk)

6-Bun-B & DJ Premier-Let 'Em Know (Produced by DJ Premier)
7-LCA-Welli Girls (Produced by Kase)
8-Qwel and Maker-The Game (Produced by Maker)
9-The Roots ft Joanna Newsome & STS-Right On (Produced by Alectrick.Kom)
10-Roc Marciano-Panic (Produced by Roc Marciano)

Top 10 LP's of 2010:

1-Celph Titled and Buckwild-Ninety Ninety Now *

2-Oddisee-Traveling Man

3-Roc Marciano-Marcberg

4-Gangrene (Oh No and Alchemist)-Gutter Water

5-Qwel & Maker-Owl
6-The Left-Gas Mask
7-Damu The Fudgemunk-How It Should Sound Vol 1 & 2
8-DJ Premier-Presents Year Round Records-Get Used To Us

9- The Roots-How I Got Over
10-Madlib-Medicine Show: No: 5 History of The Loop Digga, 1990-2000

Special Mention: Evil Mule-P-Hood Prophecies, it wasn't technically released in 2010, but it was a dope album that I was introduced you to this year and played all through out the year.

LP Re-issue of the year:

Re-issue LP of the year:

Truth be told, I got a bit bored with Celph and his whole stlye, but he got some really dope unreleased dope beats from the great Buckwild and went to work hard, resulting in a mad fat LP of classic beats and samples and loops, amusing and tight braggadocio rhymes, odes to what Hip Hop was all about in the 90's and a series of guest MC's that all bought their A-Game, I loved every track on this album.

You cannot wrong with that superb re-issue of such a classic and timeless album from Pete Rock and CL Smooth, the re-issue came up with instrumentals, accapellas, remixes and exclusives, a 20 page booklet, a full sized poster, printed dust sleeves and a remastered version of the classic album, Traffic Entertainment did it really big this time.

Get it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Soul-Brother-Deluxe-Smooth/dp/B003XIO7QE

EP release of the year:

Printmatic sampled not just sounds but also vocals and speeches from The Who, added his trademark dope beats and got busy, a superb and essential EP, the whole EP is such a great listen from start to finish.

Download it for Free here:

http://printmatic.bandcamp.com/album/blueprint-who-free-version

Producers of the year:

The one and only DJ Premier...

Oddisee

Madlib

Damu The Fudgemunk

Oh No

Black Milk

Apollo Brown

Maker

Marco Polo

RawDeal & ATS (Evil Mule)

Kase (LCA)

Ridge Jaggers (Dues Paid)

Kev Brown

Alchemist

Pete Rock

DJ Muggs

Lord Monsta
M.D. (Martel Ruffin)

Proh-Mic

Dopest live shows:

Talib Kewli and Jean Grae
The Beatnuts
DJ Premier and Sir Vere
Masta Ace, EDO.G and Marco Polo

R.I.P.(Farewell to the true talents we lost in music)

Melvin Bliss

DJ Premier and Pete Rock LP

Tef and DJ Premier-Contraband

Showbiz and KRS One-Godsville

New Evil Mule album and solo ATS album.

The Offspring of the Native Tongues LP
Ghostface Killah-Supreme Clientele 2
GZA-Liquid Swords 2

Blueprint-Adventures In Counter-Culture

Joel Ortizz-Free Agent
Meyhem Lauren-Self Induced Illness

J-Rocc-Some Cold Rocc Stuff
Blue Scholars-Cinemetropolis

The Beatnuts-The Planet of The Crates

Talib Kweli-Gutter Rainbows

Pharoah Monch-WAR

Madlib - Low Budget High Fi Music
DJ Premier - Beats That Collected Dust v.2

Pete Rock & Smif-N-Wessun - Monumental

Unreleased Gang Starr...

J-Live-S.P.T.A.
Saigon - Greatest Story Never Told Plus: MED and Oh No are scheduled to drop new albums.
Madvillain 2?

Hail Mary Mallon (Rob Sonic, Aesop Rock & DJ Big Wiz) LP
Random Axe (Black Milk, Sean Price and Guilty Simpson) LP
Bumpy Knuckles?

Happy New Year good people, I am talking a small break and will be back in 2011 with interviews from the legendary Simon Harris and new dope kids...Martel Ruffin and Calcei and Meyhem Laruen

Stay tuned...

Peace

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Blueprint – Radio-Inactive, Zero Star EP...and Merry Christmas

Those that follow this blog will know that I am a huge Blueprint fan ("Pain (ft Illogic)" is in my top 5 of this year and The Who EP was my fave EP of 2010)

Shot, edited, & directed by Bangland Media

Buy it now at iTunes: Explicit | Clean | Instrumental

Critically acclaimed mc/producer and Soul Position frontman Blueprint, returns with his highly anticipated sophomore solo release Adventures in Counter-Culture. Experimenting with synths, keyboards, and drum machines, Adventures in Counter-Culture touches on Blueprint’s cynicism with the world, his disdain for pop culture, the state of politics and an apathetic, uninspired society. The album encompasses every facet of music Blueprint knows.

It blurs genre lines and connects his hip hop pedigree with his early days in the church choir, to the R&B bands he was a part of in high school, to his new found interest in rock and electronic music.

After a five year musical journey, Blueprint has emerged with his greatest effort to date. A culmination of self discovery and societal critique, Adventures in Counter-Culture is just that. The adventure begins March 1st, 2011.

http://printmatic.net

Another talented Weightless Recording's artist is Zero Star, who released the dope "Forever's Really Not That Long" LP in 2006.

On Jan 1st, 2011, Zero Star will be releasing a 3 song collection for free download called "The Ink Pen Method"...I have just heard it and let me say, it is pretty damn good, be on the lookout for it.

I would like to wish all of my readers and followers of the CRDS blog a very Happy Christmas and an awesome 2011 (God knows my 2010 has been a mad bumpy, bewildering and interesting one, but ultimately good)...I have a really good feeling about 2011 though.

See you in the new year, oh and by the way in late Jan 2011, it will be the fourth year anniversary of my blog, I will also get back into doing compilations and Fat Tapes, I stopped for a while as a few blogs were getting shut down.

Merry Christmas :)

Thursday 16 December 2010

The Official Evil Mule Fan Page at Facebook

Is here...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Offishal-Evil-Mule-Page/169340766437715

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Pics from The Code of The Streets gig, Dec 10, 2010 @ Bar Bodega

Epic night, my many thanks to all those that came along, everyone performed really well and yeah I am bias because I manage them but Evil Mule killed it and it was really dope seeing them rock freestyles to some instrumentals I provided for the crew after thier set had ended,we could have gone for hours.

Los Jineteros did a great early set that got the punters in the groove.

Upper Hutt Posse did a dope set and I have never heard "E Tu" like that before, the 3 piece played really well.

MHB were cool and were just having a great jam with the Evil Mule boys joining them and Art Official scratching over the top (he also did this for Evil Mule and it was dope).

Pete and JD from AVS blew me way with the awesome lighting and visuals, Mike did a great job at the mixing desk.

I had lots of great Friends there and people thanking me for the gig and buying me drinks and seeing the smiles and enjoyment on people's faces is what it was all about.

Thanks so much again Bar Bodega, it was an honour to host this gig there, here is to bigger and better ones next year :)

Big ups to Marv at Manky Chops Gallery for some of these awesome pics...