GOBLIN

So…. where to start with Tyler, The Creator.

Without boring you with wordy fluff, I’m just gonna cut straight to the point and say that nothing has piqued my interest in Hip-Hop land in recent years as much as this dude (and his OFWGKTA crew to a lesser extent). While we are constantly bombarded with cocaine rap and other general cliche rap stuff, Tyler and Odd Future rolled up outta left field.

I first started noticing the OFWGKTA (odd future wolf gang kill them all) acronym late last year, but only started really investigating earlier this year after continuing to notice a bunch of press. At first it was intimidating because the whole Odd Future thing was kind of like Wu-Tang, with a bunch of members and you didn’t know what was what or who was who. Nevertheless, it’s all pretty simple to figure out. As far as I’m concerned though, Tyler is the dude. THIS GUIDE will teach you everything you need to know.

To me, Tyler is part mysterious, part punk rock, part unfiltered teenager that has the wild lyrics and the energy to back it up. I guess all that combined is what ultimately drew me in. Originality!!!! If you think about early Eminem, than you have somewhat of an idea about what Tyler’s stuff is like. Don’t get me wrong though, Tyler’s stuff is waaaay harder. A warning, you should probably go into his music knowing that it’s tongue-in-cheek and if you are easily offended AT ALL, you should probably just listen to your Taylor Swift album instead.

GOBLIN, Tyler’s 2nd album (or first real one depending on how you look at it) falls just short of being a super-duper home run for me, but I’m still crazy about it. There’s just a few slow songs that I could personally do without, but the album is fuckin’ sick. There’s a Doctor/Psychologist theme throughout GOBLIN (similar to Tyler’s first album BASTARD) that ties it all together, and I suspect you will get something new from this album each time you listen to it. It’s not simple or status quo. I suggest downloading BASTARD first before getting into GOBLIN too. Get your Google on.

I know Tyler and O.F. are still relatively small, but I feel like they’ve gained popularity super quick. Like I mentioned before, there’s countless articles on them, they are on covers, performed on Jimmy Fallon and are on the radar of every “cool guy” out there. The music is not pop or easy to digest, which just adds to my confusion about it all. Either way, I’m stoked. Either these dudes are the greatest manufactured act of all time, or just what people need right now. I’m going with the latter.

I’m curious to hear peoples opinions on all this, let me know in the comments.

Eskay Discusses Hip-Hop Marketing

via google images

When it comes to Hip-Hop sites/blogs, Nahright is the only one I check. It’s got pretty much everything I’d need to know about (sans ofwgkta) in one place and it’s easy to view.

Go HERE for an interview with Eskay from Nahright regarding Hip-Hop marketing. It’s a pretty good read.

Dj Craze

This video makes me want to press buttons… via Yimmy

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Cry Baby

If you’re a guitarist/musician or just a music fan, than this is for you. Lot’s of notable people discussing the famous wah-wah pedal in a well put together documentary.

From Joey Tosi’s Vimeo page:

Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World tells the story of the wah wah effect pedal, from its invention in 1966 to the present day. Musicians, engineers, and historians discuss the impact of the pedal on popular music and demonstrate the various ways it has been used, as well as how its evolution has improved the ability of artists to express themselves musically. The film features interviews with Brad Plunkett, the inventor of the pedal, plus many other musical luminaries such as Ben Fong-Torres, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Art Thompson, Eddie Kramer, Kirk Hammett, Dweezil Zappa, and Jim Dunlop. These professionals explain how a musical novelty transcended convention and has become timelessly woven into the fabric of modern pop-culture.

via- twbe

CLAMS CASINO — Instrumental Mixtape

12 BEATS BY THE GENIUS PRODUCER OF LIL B’S “I’M GOD”, “I’M THE DEVIL”, “MOTIVATION”, AND “REALEST ALIVE”. Hailing from New Jersey Clammy Clams dropped his free instrumental mixtape to the cyber world a few days ago and honestly I’ve listened to nothing else since. Even if ‘rap’ isn’t something you care about… musically… these are all really compelling pieces of work that should be given some thought.

SWAAAAAAG

For full effect light a j, download this shit, slap it on your pod, and ride your bike better than ever before.


DOWNLOAD IT
(updated)

Magnetic Man – Getting Nowhere ft. John Legend

Four apocalyptic BMXers feature in the new music video for Magnetic Man’s single Getting Nowhere ft. John Legend.

via @adechong

OK Go GPS Parade

Check out this video of OK Go, where they Trick To Get Your Ex Boyfriend Back march through the streets of LA playing music with a bunch of people. They teamed up with Range Rover for this project and I guess they were linked up to some sort of GPS that tracked their paths on a map, forming a big OK GO… It’s pretty rad to see everyone cruising around playing music and it looks great when the sun goes down and the glow sticks are shining. Keep reading to watch the video and you can check out more about the project here.

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Project Runway

No tweeting, no hipster hats, all laptops on mute, just shut the fuck up sometimes, no tweeting please thank you, no blogging, no negative blog viewing, don’t tell anyone anything about anything we are doing, no racking focus while music is being played or music is being made, total focus on this project in all studios, no acoustic guitars in the studio, no pictures.

Kanye graces the cover of the newest Complex mag and to go along with the feature they have an extended 40 image gallery documenting the recording of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, shot by Nabil Elderkin. Check it out here, along withe the full cover story here.

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CCCChromeo

Chromeo recently hit up Justin Saunders from JJJJound and asked him to put together a JJJJound like image blog – titled CCCChroemeo – inspired by Chromeo’s album “Business Casual.” When I first checked this, I wasn’t sure if Chroemo was ripping on JJJJound, or if they actually teamed up… Stoked it was the latter, because this looks like a pretty fun project! (p.s. look out for the streaming music that you can’t turn off)

BIZ: iPod Shuffle 10

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – Thuggish Ruggish Bone
Sleater-Kinney – Dance Song 97
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Black Sabbath – Iron Man
Hole – Malibu
Neil Young – Rockin in the Free World
Patty Smyth – Goodbye To You
The Doors – Break on Through
Eric Bourdon & the Animals – Goodtimes
Ol Dirty Bastard – Brooklyn Zoo

Say Mayday Stranger Mix

Say Mayday dropped a new summer mix curated by Rich Hirsch.

Click HERE to check it out and/or download.

The Creators Project – Trevor Jackson

Trevor Jackson, who we’ve posted on before, has a profile on the ongoing series with Vice and Intel called The Creators Project. The video gives you a look into Jackson’s life as a designer, musician, and label owner. It also covers Jackson’s recent switch from living in a house with thousands or records and other items, to putting it all in storage and basically living/working out of his laptop and few small pieces of hardware. Keep reading to check out the video and make sure to spend some time on The Creators Project site. With almost 50 profiles up already and even more to come, there some great content and endless inspiration to keep you day rolling.

Continue reading The Creators Project – Trevor Jackson →

Premier / Bun B – Let em Know

I pretty much check for anything with a DJ Premier beat. THIS Bun B track is pretty good.

Via – Vulture

Francis and the Lights

Francis And The Lights, Awesome. Video below.

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The Madlib Mystique

Madlib covers this week’s LA Weekly, which goes along with a cover story/interview inside. This dude is one of my favorite producers hands down. If you are not in LA (which a lot of you probably aren’t) and can’t pick up a copy, you can read it HERE.

Click below to check out assorted Madlib related gems that I could find decent videos for on YouTube.

Above image via Stones Throw.

Continue reading The Madlib Mystique →

Pac Div – Don’t Mention It

Been into this latest Pac Div mixtape mini-album for a minute. It dropped late last month and is a good follow up to THIS. Download “Don’t Mention It” HERE.

Sites refer to these two Pac Div offerings as mixtapes, which sort of cheapens them a little. They are definitely better than that.

One Forty Plus

I don’t know much about John Mayer or his music, but I do know he’s got a pretty rad Tumblr page going, where he has been posting some of his own photos and videos. Out of the thing’s I do know, one of them is that he’s into photography and is actually a pretty decent photographer. Shooting with a Leica M9 and a Canon 5D the photos on the site give you a little glimpse into John Mayer’s life. What prompted this post though, was a “A Life in The Day” video he shot on his 5D. “A mostly first-person chronicle of the day’s events leading up to a performance in Wollongong, Australia”.

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A Nice Set

A Nice Set is a touring exhibition of DJ slipmats that were given to 33 artists to do their thing on. The show has been touring all over the world and is making a big stop in New York tonight (May 4th) at Reed Space. In addition to all the art, on of Defgrip’s favorite DJ’s Tyler Askew will be spinning at the party, so if you are in the city, you should definitely stop by and check it out!

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R.I.P. GURU

Guru, half of legendary Hip-Hop group Gangstarr, has passed away at the age of 43 – R.I.P.

Between Guru and Premier, there’s been a whole lot of classics in the past. There are many, but click below for a few.

Continue reading R.I.P. GURU →

Joell Ortiz

The world needs more DJ Premier right now. This is pretty crazy.

Via – Nah Right

Music W/ Tom Blyth

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Tanqueray – We Resist Simple

I’ve really been enjoying the blogs on Tanqueray’s website lately. Every blog I’ve checked out has been interesting, but I’ve found Sal Masekela and Talib Kweli especially poignant. I certainly can’t endorse “resisting simple” as a way of life but I can highly recommend reading Kweli’s travel tips, Twitter etiquette, and his heartfelt ode to J Dilla.

Ride, Rise, Roar

Ride, Rise, Roar, is a David Byrne concert documentary I’ve been personally anticipating now for a while! Directed by Hillman Curtis and shot by Ben Wolf. They follow Byrne, Brian Eno, Dancers, and choreographers, as they document songs, live stage performances, behind the scenes rehearsals, and interviews, giving a glimpse of what its like to go on tour around the world, and the creative process that goes behind it! It will be premiering at this years SXSW film festival in Austin TX. check out the trailer here, I cant wait to see it!

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Mixtape

Kids and mixtapes. How many times would you record your favorite songs off the radio on to tape. I definitely have stacks and stacks of tapes that are probably still at my parents house in a box somewhere…

Continue reading Mixtape →