Jam Track of the Week

Digressed from hiphop last week, but its back with jam track of the week. And first jam track of 2012, so thought I'd post one of my favourite tunes, this producer is a genius (and I cant stress that enough) Jneiro Janel, whos the mastermind behind group Shape of Broad Minds - slightly more surreal than his other projects; not too sure how else to put it - his other stuff is deeeefinitely worth having a look at (click HERE), also working under the alias Dr Who Dat? He's an artist's artist making crazy abstract beats, bit trippy but so chilled, think Dilla in the Nothing Like This video but less harsh. I cant even remember how I stumbled across this group but I'm glad I did.

 If everyone listened to a track like this on the way to work/college/uni the world would be sweeeeeeeeet.

And wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!

Welcome to that Garden State of Mind

Got listening to this rapper Moruf after That Good Good Blog put me onto him in her feature People you should know: The Hiphop Edition. He's 22 heralding from NJ originally from Nigeria, he's studying at uni whilst working in Radio Shack. But click the link to read the full interview.

He seems like a pretty down to earth guy. And the mixtape, is pretty sick. He's got a lot of talent even if he is at the start of his career he has an underground feel but it's an accesible one, reminds me a lot of a less lyrically developed Blu. Not that that's a criticism, if he was on a Blu level after 2/3years rapping it'd be craaaazy, actually if i consider anyone on a Blu level it's craaaaazy. In terms of witty hooks and serious wordplay it's lacking, in the sense that trying to find a bar which stood out for a title or quote isnt easy, but then is it a good thing that hiphop has become about Drake style one liners ("chance is like a picture it'd be nice if you'd just take it....". Moruf is more about the poetry, it's less playing around fanciness and more realness, he is undeniably a poet and his style is nice, a little rough but in a good way.

The mixtape is just mellow the way I like music, you can see the Dilla, traditional hiphop influence and I like that, it's far from commercial in the best way possible. Highpoints for are the beats on Story of My Life: Exile stylee sooo jaaaam. And he uses the Slum Village (untitled) Fantastic beat on the Slumdog track one of the best tracks on the mixtape and That Good Good blog just posted the video. Worth watching. From the surreal vibe of Sometimes (just the kind of thing I was talking about in Changing Realities).

He says in the That Good Good interview that he loves music, then hiphop and it comes across, you can tell from this mixtape his a musician not just a commercial rapper who can write a hook. 

"Welcome to that Garden State of Mind as I let my thoughts blossom in this Garden State of Mine"

Download his mixtape Garden State of Mind: Ready to Live here, and check his tumblr for updates on what he's doing atm, and his blogspot for his general lifestyle blog.

Changing Realities

Currently listening to J Cole The Warm Up but then this came on my ipod. If you read this blog you'll know I got a lot of time for Fashawn. So I was listening to When She Calls best track on the album btw. And it made me think, when did surreal beats and abstract samples, so slow they're almost acapella beats become hiphop.

Kanye West came through with the samples back on College Dropout, and slow jams have always been around. And the abstractness can be found throughout indie hiphop, so I guess that can exclude Blu, Fashawn and Sene.  But who would've thought mellow drawls (outside of the south and the west coast style of the dee-oh-double-gee) would become not only  popular in the underground but mainstream; Drake's Thank Me Later so laidback, mellow, jaaaaam, and the surreal theme runs through the whole album (and is even more concentrated in So Far Gone). Not to say it hasn't been done before Common - The Light etc. but never has it been so mainstream and become so much the thing to do.....

Question is do you miss the days of A Tribe Called Quest or happy that Slum Village/J Dilla style jaaaaamed hiphop is slowly making it more mainstream? Or is Drake just synthy overproduced souless music, lemme know what you think.......