"i got big plans to blow up"

+ charles hamilton feat. crooked i "tears of fire" [audio]

sorry for the lack of posts, but for the last few days, i've been contemplating writing a post about the much maligned charles hamilton. mind you, i never bothered to listen to a hamilton track until his recently shelved album this perfect life made its rounds on the internet. like any mongerer, i downloaded his "debut" and gave it a listen. for the most part, it's incredibly boring. maybe i'm in that cudi zone now, but this perfect life seemed incredibly stale. i've changed my stance on kid cudi since my first listen and i can say that man on the moon is competing with veckatimest on my daily playlist, but i don't see myself changing my mind about hamilton. besides being unnecessarily full of himself, hamilton's character is boring. he likes pink. he likes sonic the hedgehog. he gets punched by females. he speaks to the dead. he gets incessantly hounded. that's it, right?

hahaha, you caught me. the only reason i bothered to bring up charles hamilton is because "tears of fire" sounds like an expertly crafted track from the heatmakerz. oh, you remember them? it's a shame that dipset disbanded and turned into jim jones and friends, skull candy kids or whatever, and cam'ron. "tears of fire" would have been the perfect backdrop for the original pink proponents. hamilton described "tears of fire" as "saying goodbye to the pain that holds one back". oh, that's deep, but who is going to save me from the pain of listening to crooked i rap? imagine if cam'ron got a hold of this track. let that thought simmer. it would be bonkers.

p.s. i didn't want to bother uploading the track because i had a feeling that nobody wanted to listen to it more than once.

DJ AM dead at 36

+ TRV$DJAM "fix your face vol. 2" [album]

as you may have heard by now, DJ AM was found deceased this evening in his new york apartment. it seems surreal considering around this time last year, he and travis barker were involved in a learjet accident that resulted in the deaths of four people. after surviving the horrific crash, DJ AM went on to become the friday night dj at rain nightclub in las vegas as well as continuing his worthwhile collaboration with barker and producing two stellar mixtapes. i can't say that i know much about his other projects, but the "fix your face" series was among my favorite dj mixtapes in the past few years. i can't think of a better way to honor his memory than listening to him do what he did best. rest in peace.

"you've got the body, now you want my soul"

being born in the 1980s, there were three succinct pieces of media that i have remained enamored with into adulthood: hall and oates, miami vice, and music videos. going in alphabetical order, i'll begin this retrospective series with a look back on hall and oates.

+ hall and oates "greatest hits" [album]

the 1980s proved to be the backdrop for a pop music revolution and produced some of the finest songs ever recorded. being an integral part of the scene, hall and oates were gods of the early mtv era. their unique blend of rock and roll and rhythm and blues helped to define the music of the 1980s. other than michael jackson, you would be hard pressed to find an act from that period that surpassed them in terms of critical acclaim, number one hits, and overall popularity. although hall and oates first appeared in the 1970s, the bulk of their notoriety originated from their contributions to the following decade. while there are numerous songs in their discography that merit discussion, "i can't go for that", their number one hit from private eyes, seemed the logical choice for me. not only did "i can't go for that" affirm their broad appeal, but it was one of my first musical memories.

the accolades for "i can't go for that" were numerous and somewhat surprising. it was inevitable that hall and oates would top the billboard hot 100 after their previous single "private eyes" achieved that same feat 10 weeks earlier. the surprising part for hall and oates (and pop music in general) was that "i can't go for that" also topped the hot soul singles chart which is now known as the hot r&b/hip-hop songs chart. needless to say, that was an incredibly rare task for white artists to accomplish. to put it into perspective, neither eminem nor vanilla ice (come on "ice ice baby" was huge) have come close to topping the hot r&b/hip-hop songs chart. if that wasn't enough, "i can't go for that" also topped the hot dance club songs chart.

chart success was only part of the "i can't go for that" legend. in further testimony to hall and oates crossover appeal, "i can't go for that" has been covered by r&b artists and sampled on numerous occasions by well-known hip-hop acts. those acts include de la soul, heavy d, 2 live crew, mac dre, mf doom as king geedorah, notorious b.i.g., and gnarls barkley. some weren't obscure songs either, "say no go" from 3 feet high and rising and "crazy" from st. elsewhere both integrated "i can't go for that" in some fashion.

i can remember a few instances where i copied jean claude van damme's epic dance sequence (click here to watch the video) from kickboxer and the intro to "i can't go for that" was the perfect foil for the shoulder shimmy. as a child, i didn't fully appreciate the depth of the music, but i definitely acknowledged the funky rhythms. the drum pattern and sounds were typical of the 1980s, but what set "i can't go for that" apart from its contemporaries were the air-like keyboards, guitars, and intense saxophone solos. daryl hall, who proclaimed himself as the "head soul brother in the u.s.", flexed his vocal muscles like arnold schwarzenegger and lou ferrigno at a family picnic. it's near impossible not to become entranced when he sings:

"i'll do anything that you want me to do. yeah, i'll do almost anything that you want me too. yeah... but i can't go for that. no, no can do."

as an integral piece of my music rotation, hall and oates has endured an early childhood obsession and remained as one of my favorite acts of all time. not only does their music conjure up memories, but it's so well crafted that it's relevant even in comparison to today's technologically advanced creations. if you really want to kick the ballistics a la nino brown, the basic formula of "i can't go for that" was korg keyboard + drums + guitars + saxophone. does that sound somewhat familiar to you? it's inherently the same formula as the neptunes. well, that's a wrap for the first of this three part series. stay tuned for the next chapter!

"it's the smell of this money"

+ raekwon feat. lyfe jennings "catalina" [audio]

if you weren't excited for only built 4 cuban linx pt. II, now might be a good time to start. i reckon that raekwon won't get anywhere near gold sales or fill your afternoon ride home via the radio, but he might just release the most important hip-hop album of the decade. sure, that's a lofty statement, but surely you have to realize how people have been wishing for an adequate follow up to his debut album. it's almost certain that pt. II is going to sound dated. it's about ten years late, but all of that will get thrown out of the window when raekwon and his team craft the most cohesive hip-hop album since... well, since only built 4 cuban linx.

"catalina" is raekwon at his finest. frankly, we know that raekwon is sharp lyrically and he rarely (if ever) disappoints. his main problem after only built 4 cuban linx was either pride or outright refusal to follow his initial formula. he waded away from the production and structure that helped to craft one of hip-hop's few conclusive classic albums. so far, it looks as if raekwon has invited the work of the well knowns and only took their premium contributions. dr. dre's work on "catalina" is no exception. he provides what is, in theory, the quintessential dr. dre production. the piano loop is simple, but enticing. the drums aren't complicated, but they are well layered and expertly sequenced. the accompanying sounds, like the slight whirl in the background, only add to the sonic landscape. lyfe jennings serves as a sublime bridge between raekwon's well crafted verses. every piece of the "catalina" puzzle seems like it was chosen and recorded specifically for this song and not a haphazard mish mash of personalities and styles that seemed to be the norm for raekwon's previous releases. only built 4 cuban linx pt. II is shaping up to be 24 tracks of pure, unadulterated hip-hop. it's about time...

extra extra extra

+ raekwon feat. ghostface killah, gza, inspectah deck, and method man "house of flying daggers" [video]