Generic list post: October 2018

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when Children's Story took a disturbing new turn. Hey young world - don't ever let uncle Adam22 read you a bedtime story.

70th Street Carlos ft. BBG Babyjoe - Do That (2018)
Homeboy Sandman & Edan - Rock & Roll Indian Dance (2018)
1TakeQuan - Grub Hub (2018)
Open Mike Eagle - Microfiche (2018)
Donae'o - Chalice (No Canadian Rappers Please edit) (2018)
Other notables: I Hope by Jay Lewis et al is the Hater's Anthem of 2018; people don't half sweat some boring music nowadays because that Lil' Baby & Gunna album is even duller than all the Faux Marciano-core bullshit; speaking of which, not gotten around to the DJ Muggs & Roc Marciano album yet; damn, even Rich The Factor has himself a goofy white protege now; Sherwood Marty's We Outchea ain't really my thing but I love seeing Mouse On Tha Track productions possibly blowin' up; the only song I'm digging on that new SOB X RBE album is the one with the best song title of 2018; was anyone expecting 70th Street Carlos would drop a boom-bap 2Pac tribute?

Anthony is a Johnson

"Big Afro wig with a chin-strap
I'm thinkin' real hard, chewin' on a pen cap
Some songs just more for the headphones
Fuck the NFL, fuck the RedZone"

Open Mike Eagle - Microfiche
(From What Happens When I Try To Relax EP; 2018)


Damn, Open Mike Eagle drops some fly shit when he embraces the craft of songwriting and leaves the Unapologetic Art to his videos. Bradley tells me Microfiche is Anthony Fantano's least favourite song on the new O.M.E EP, and of course it is because Fantano's ear for music is about as good as his eye for #menswear.

PS: fuck the NFL indeed. It's bad enough that a sizable portion of the U.K thinks Rugby is a watchable sport without the NFL hiring out Wembley to host the even shittier Yank equivalent. Did the British public learn nothing from that brief moment in the late 80's when da streetz of everywhere from Liverpool to Liskeard to Liscannor were littered with lads wearing them 'orrible Pony Linebackers?

Ain't I allowed to just post a bona fide classic sometimes?

Yung L.A ft. Young Dro & T.I. - Ain't I (Remix)
(From Aint I (Remix) single; 2008)


Remember, remember the 25th of November for being the 10th anniversary of the Ain't I remix. A song which keeps getting better with time and deserves an in-depth Oral History Of.. Red Bull TV video. Call me an old sage if you want, but I knows my onions and Atlanta just doesn't make 'em like this anymore.

**Sean Price voice** Edan white but Edan nice

"Look up in the sky, it's a bird..
Yo, that's played out!
..I was gonna say it's a birdbath
That's way out!"

Homeboy Sandman & Edan - Rock & Roll Indian Dance
(From Humble Pi EP; 2018)


Grim Seasons is a Homeboy Sandman song which just happens to be produced by Edan; #NeverUseTheInternetAgain is an Edan song which just happens to be rapped by Homeboy Sandman; The Gut is pretty much what you'd expect a Homeboy Sandman & Edan song where they both rap would sound like; and Rock & Roll Indian Dance here is like a lost Edan & Skillz Ferguson pass-the-mic song where Homeboy Sandman just happens to plays the role of Edan's former favourite token blk m8.

It only show up once a year, ol' McRib ass song

Good news for all Lurches of chirpsing & Vampiras of banter, Open Mike Eagle's deleted 2017 Halloween loosie has reappeared on his new EP in time for the 2018 witching/cuffing season. Ain't a damn thing changed except the song's name because it's still the exact same strangely humourous take on how ghosts went from being inside the machines to becoming the machines making ghosts of humans. No lie, that bit at the end of the third verse where the Opera sample builds to a crescendo before Open Mike interpolates the chorus of Ghostbusters has haunted ya host's speakers for the last 12 months.

Open Mike Eagle - Single Ghosts
(From What Happens When I Try To Relax EP; 2018)


Gonna need O.M.E to record a song where he raps from the perpective of a dead person's social media account floating abandoned in cyberspace like a ghostship, adrift like the Mary Celly Celeste.

R.I.P to Pumpkin, I had to regulatte

Conclusive proof Errol "Pumpkin" Bedward shoulda been the best producer of 1980 in Complex's The Best Hip-Hop Producer Alive 1979 - 2018 listicle in the form of Spoonie Gee & the Trecherous Three's New Rap Language/Love Rap 12" single:



The definitive Rap record of 1980, empirically better than any of Rocky Ford & J.B. Moore's productions on Kurtis Blow's debut album. Both tracks are original compositions rather than replays of Disco hits or classic breaks, the latter track was the first Rap song to become a breakbeat in its own right, and both songs established Pumpkin as Rap's first superproducer. I rest my case, y'honour, and I didn't even have to mention Pumpkin's other great 1980 production.

TBF, the people behind the listicle did a decent job on those early years of Rap, especially by 2018 Rap media standards, but there's a couple of mistakes in there: you can't claim Jiggs Chase was the real auteur behind The Message when you admit that Duke Bootee practically did everything on the song; and it's long been established that Davy DMX #actually produced damn near all the tracks Kurtis Blow and Aaron Fuchs both took credit for.

Generic list post: 2018 late pass! (thus far)

"Ten four! Ten four!
The Martorialist has been spotted dropping a list of legit jams™ he'd slept on until 2018!
Officer required! Please bring heat-resistant gear!"

We got De La Soul samples by The Outlaw Blues Band; 70's synth-pop by Squeeze before Jools Holland discovered his boogie woogie piano; L.A Chicano Punk by The Brat; various Bay Area shit by Mac Dre, Father Dom, Z-Man, Ghost8800, and Calvin T; an unreleased Pete Rock & C.L Smooth which saw the light of day in 2009; an early Devo song Jason Jessee used in a skate video; a killer single from Ice Cube's equivalent of Knoc'turnal & Kokane; a proper saucy sitar Grip Plyaz joint; an electro-boogie cover version of Steely Dan's Peg by Brian Ellis; Nigerian semi-Grime from DJ Consequence & YCEE which bodies the British stuff: and a 70th Street Carlos loosie from the biffin's bridge of 2017.

The Outlaw Blues Band - Deep Gully (1969)
Squeeze - Take Me I'm Yours (1978)
The Brat - Attitudes (1980)
Mac Dre & DJ Cee - Donkey Ain't Free (demo) (1989)
Pete Rock & C.L Smooth - Cool & Calm (1990/2009)
Devo - Fountain of Filth (1978/1992)
Father Dom - Tell Your Baby Mama Leave Me Alone (1997)
Z-Man - White Girls Wit Ass (1999)
Mr Short Khop ft. Kokane - Dollaz, Drank & Dank (2001)
Grip Plyaz - Big Ballin' (2008)
Ghost8800 - Sonic Boom (video mix) (2012)
Calvin T - Bottom Bitch (2014)
Brian Ellis - Peg (2015)
DJ Consequence ft. YCEE - In A Benz (2016)
70th Street Carlos - Rich N*gga Bitch (2017)
(Post edited to include new discoveries.)

Is Quavo's terrible solo album Auto-Tune's death rattle?

Let's be honest here, chiefs & chiefettes: there hasn't been a Rap song improved by Auto-Tune in a couple of years now, it's one of the two main reasons why 2018 is the blandest year for mainstream choonz in the genre's history, it strips regional Rap styles of all their geographical twangs into sterile RapCaviar fodder, and when Simon Reynolds is writing thinkpieces celebrating it and illustrating his points with some of the dullest songs Future and Migos have ever recorded then you know it's definitely time to leave That Funny Voice Shit™ in the past innit?

Sleep tight, sweet pitch-corrector... we'll always have the time Jadakiss accidentally called you "Audio-Tunes."