Pete Rock vs Premo @ Crash Mansion, LA

got this off of Nah Right. Props, eskay.

EFIL4ZAGGIN!

Goddamn, Nas.

I'm not too crazy about the beat (and homie Enemyze doesn't like the hook) but on the lyrical tip, as always Nasty ain't playin. First song off N*GGER just got leaked, and Son shouts out not only to the regular type n*ggers, but k*ke n*ggers, sp*c n*ggers, g*tty n*ggers, and ch*nk n*ggers too.

Don't you wanna be a n*gger too? Sheesh

Nas - Be A N*gger Too

the great (soul) train robbery

save us DC. save us from ourselves.

I'm not a fan of all these awards shows, but damn, doggie. Nona Ili Roguy upped me last night on the 22nd Annual Soul Train Awards getting its revered ass cancelled. Apparently last year's ceremony was so poorly attended that the people running shit wanted to avoid embarrassing themselves again and just threw the whole show under the bus. Goddamn. Don Cornelius, where you at man? Up these fools on the real.

And what's this I hear about a major record label (I mean big time TI-ridden #4080 major) getting shut down all across Asia next month? A sign of chickens finally coming home to roost, or a major setback for local and regional artists, hip hop or not?

Interesting times, brethren. Interesting times.

#4080!!!

the flip: disposable arts

"Now I don't usually do this, but ..." - R Kelly. Irony is good for your bones, son.

It's been a minute. So anyway: I was going through my own little shortlist of hip hop blogs, and came across a lengthy, well-thought out treatise on how the modern aspiring rapper can up hisself on the game by Achmed Rauff. First off, it's not a game. My bad for coming out swinging, but I need to. Well-thought out as it was, I would have to say that the article was at the very least naive and at worst, disingenuous. I'm not trying to front on dude, but I need to say what I need to say. Okay no more apologies until the very end of this post.

Being savvy on issues pertaining to product placement as a prerequisite to being a successful rapper? That would depend on your definition of success (word to Dubya). It's all good to be aware and update yourself on things that will capture the attention of potential sponsors and investors, but to say that a rapper anywhere, including here in Malaysia, needs that to be where he needs to be is a little over the top. You say in the same article that the popular perception of hip hop culture has been hijacked by MTV and then subscribe to that same symptom by also saying the main motivation of any hip hop artist is to end up sitting on fat stacks of green (I mean cash, not the yesca, holmes). It's not a dream that motivates many in our local hip hop culture. If it was, you wouldn't see a lot of the heads you know these days on their grind. They'd have given that shit up a long time ago.

I would love to get into a lengthy discussion on how to make full use of the local hip hop market to maximize profits and get those aforementioned fat stacks (of notes, not weed) but there are other far more urgent matters to deal with first. For instance, what market? I don't say this as a member of a hip hop crew and collective whose heads are so far up their underground asses that no one knows who they are, but as a genuine lover of rap music and hip hop culture who has seen the local community hide behind the excuse that it's "still in its infancy". I've been hearing that since 1998. I started listening to rap music in 1988. Hip hop's been here for a very long time, and we're still saying that we're new as an excuse for our lack of market penetration. If you want to talk business, how about this: it's not market penetration we should be worried about, it's market creation, maintenance and expansion.

I may differ philosophically from the people I'm about to mention, but Poetic Ammo, Too Phat, the Teh Tarik Crew, Phlowtron, etc have all made contributions to broadening awareness on hip hop culture in Malaysia. But it's a fragile thing to not build on their efforts, and to not let creativity and diversity dictate a scene's growth instead of what it'll take to snag that Hotlink deal. Kids - aspiring rappers or no - need to be involved in an organic community, not subscribe to brand names rappers on the radio name-drop. Kids are not stupid; they never have been and they never will be. They'd rather listen to Hujan or Onani and give those bands their support because first and foremost, these guys are in it for the music, and make it a point to appear that way. If you put yourself up on too high a pedestal, your target audience will lose their bond with you.

To artists, new and old: make music. Make some noise. Do a lot of good, entertaining shows. Be in as many places as you can be online and in person. It's great that you see Joe Flizzow and Pop Shuvit doing well and want to be like them one day, but pay your dues first. As an aspiring emcee (and that's the first time I'm using that word here) write from what you know, and also try to write about things other people know as well. Reading up on trends is cool, but not having an opinion about them would make that information useless. Don't just be informed, be knowledgeable. Be a businessman if that's what strikes your fancy, but never lose sight of your responsibilities to the art you're presenting to the world. People can spot a fake ass knucklehead from a mile away, and they'll drop you over a cliff in a heartbeat. And going out like that is no way to aspire to anything.

Oh. And just as an afterthought: XXL Magazine and The Source were headed by Eliot Wilson and Dave Mays respectively. They both thought the same way: hip hop is all about the cash. In the last 12 months, both of them were thrown the fuck out by fans, readers, listeners and hip hop artists who were fed up of their egotistical materialistic posturing. Even in the States, people are calling for this pimped-out lifestyle overkill to stop. How long will it take for us to catch up to the true school renaissance?

My bad if you're upset. Get at me. I love to talk shop.

listen: Masta Ace - No Regrets

Moar -_- Mixtapz Updatz: Reviewz

We've gotten a few reviewz already now. Two to be specific.

One from Achmed Rauff. And another from Vicjamm who runs the Malaysian Hip Hop blog.

Thanks for listening guys, and taking the time to review it too. We appreciate it very much. And we appreciate anyone who wants to review this shit, don't matter if it's positive or negative or posinegative, we'll accept it all with open hearts (open ak-47s and c4s if you diss me tho lolwootup). Give us a buzz if you've reviewed it or anything. Aight.

Young Buck out of G-Unit?

Apparently he is out of the crew, but not the recording company. Read here.

What does this have to do with me, a Dipset fanboy?

I just think Young Buck is a dope rapper. Now that both him and The Game (years earlier) are out, G-Unit is almost a total non-issue to me, or hip hop, even.

Anyway here is a Young Buck song that's been getting some hype - hip hop can't save my life. I think he did it on the Lupe instrumental. It's pretty dope, as I've said, I dig his rapping. His swag, voice and accent (I hate the dirty south accents but some rappers sound good with it) is mad dope. Can I has Young Buck join Dipset? Huhu.

-_- Mixtapz Updatz

We managed to pass around 20 or so mixtapz during KL Undercover 2 (read mah short review of the gig here). If I'm not mistaken the next gig we're looking forward to would be DJ Fuzz's Mixology 2 Launch (24th April). So see you there if you haven't got this good shiet yet aight. Inform us if there's any other hip hop gig though.

DASH UNDERSCORE DASH

Hahu. This is the Rogue Squadron -_- Mixtapz! We're giving it away for FREE at the Unity Concert @ Hokkien Hall Klang tomorrow (well today really) evening. And maybe at other hip hop gigs to come like KL Undercover 2 for instance. We might net-lease it sometime soon too.

It features some remixes, some singles from upcoming releases, some unreleased singles, and some just fuck around in a mixtape songs. It's dope, I've listened to it thousands of times d lolwut. WATCH OUW! WATCH OUW!

Pacewon is back?!

Pacewon, one of my fav emcees many years ago after I heard his 'i declare war' song on a pirated rap compilation audio cd (bless you lanuns). His big breakout however was actually on the Fugees song 'cowboys' along with Tha Outsidaz (Jersey crew) homie and homiezette Young Zee and Rah Digga. He's dope, you know, his swagger is untouchable, his voice and flow too.

I read around that he's back and has formed an Eric B Rakim Gangstarr influenced duo with DJ - Mr. Green.

Check out a video of their song 'hip hop' on youtube. Pacewon is still fucking sick as fuck.

Pacewon and Mr. Green - hip hop


And let's backtrack on two of his dopest hits from yesteryears:

Pacewon - i declare war


Outsidaz - the rah rah



Bonus brand nooh track: Outkast feat. Raekwon - royal flush (this is fiyyahh)

Nicolay & Kay - Time:Line

Is one of the latest highly rated independent releases. Nicolay is widely known as the dutch producer behind The Foreign Exchange (with Phonte of Little Brother as the collaborating emcee). No idea who Kay is but apparently he has been Nicolay's friend and musical comrade for quite some time.

This album is pretty dope. Production sounds fresh despite a lotta classic hip hop influences. Kay is not bad at all, too. There is some kind of concept runnin' which might sound a bit pretentious and complex but it's not really, this shit is simply good beats and good rhymes. Forget about it. Get it.

And if you're too lazy to check out a whole album. Here's my favourite track from this album.

Rogue Radio Sessions 2.5 Da Takeova

ROGUE RADIO SESSIONS 2.5. It's DA TAKEOVA! It's a glitch in the rogue radio system. hqa and roguestahz Jin hackman, Familyboy, NBE held WordsManifest hostage, finished his Pringles, plain water supply, and chilled in the Archetype Lab while occasionally talking to the mic, playing songs and breaking a world record - for the newest installation in this heavenly series of podcasts.

Tracks played this time around include new shits from Pete Rock, Jim Jones, Kool G Rap, Johnson&Jonson, Jazz Liberatorz and more, a buncha regional tracks by dope groups from MY (Triniti, Familyboy, SSK, and a rare track from a local scene legend), SG (Xscapists), and INDO (Madrotter, Morgue Vanguard, D'army, Kryptik, Fish), and some old school throwbacks including hip hop before hip hop was even born. Wuzzat? download that shit then innit.

Some new shit, homie - Rakim, Del, Atmosphere, Blu, Pete Rock, and Nujabes

Rakim - it's nothing (leak)
Off the upcoming album The Archive: Live, Lost & Found. God emcee is still god emcee. But honestly this beat is a little annoying. Check it out anyhow just cause it's fucken Rakim.

Updated: Got a link on this shit forgot it's already out. Here it is.

Del - bubble pop
Off his upcoming shit with Def Jux - Eleventh Hour. It's pretty dissapointing though. Del sounds unenthused, where's his excitement and rhythm? I've heard the same comments about some other songs which leaked. I would love to grunt 'Def Jux please don't fuck it up', but it seems more like 'Del you still on that crizzack?', the beat wasn't too bad. I don't know doggs. Let's just hold the judgement off until shit drops, hoping the album as a whole won't be as dull as two or three tracks. We all miss fucking Deltron.

Atmosphere - Strictly Leakage
Album for the fans before the propah album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. Can't front I was an Atmosphere fan. Was. This one's for tha still-fans, aight.

C.R.A.C, Knuckles (Blu and Taraach) - love don't (leak)
I just posted up Blu's presumably latest project Johnson&Jonson a while ago and he's already got newer shit coming. Dude is on a roll. He's deffo capitalizing on all the underground hype he's gettin'. For this project he partners up with Taraach. I don't know much bout the other dude, but I know he rhymed in the 'juice n' dranks' song on Blu's shit with Exile. That's prolly the first taste of C.R.A.C. Knuckles we got. Listening to this 'love don't' track, it ain't too bad, we'll see how it goes. Shit drops april.

Pete Rock - NY's Finest
You might notice producer-based albums featuring various emcees being the hip hop trend right now seeing as it's hard for individual emcees/groups to get some play with all the pop shit ruling the charts. But Pete Rock's been doing it for a while now. Here's his latest offering. It's still Soul Brotha like no otha banging. The Jim Jones track is ballin! Jim Jones should do more songs on hip hop beats.

Nujabes - Hydeout Productions 2nd Collection
Now this ain't too brand new. But just for those who haven't checked it out yet. Nujabes, beat conductah who was involved in most of the instrumentals for anime series Samurai Champloo which is how I got to know of him. I was watching that shit and dem intros and outros and background music were sweet as fuck. Especially the shits he did with dancehall Jap singer Minmi, one was the junglish ending credits music, another shit was from the ost album, real dope. This shit is his latest proj released around november last year. I'm still listening to it, I've already checked out the song with CL Smooth when it came out. It's dope and all, got the right vibe runnin' for The Mecca Don, but it seems Nujabes still has the same problem he had with most of his albums, beat too loud overpowering the vocals. Wouldn't be much of a nuisance if it was MF Doom rhymin' on everything. Well whatever.

For an idea of his shit, here's the Samurai Champloo ending credits. And after that Minmi's live performance of it, pretty prettty nice.

Nujabes feat. Minmi - shiki no uta (song of seasons)


Minmi - shiki no uta (song of seasons) (live)

Voices From Beneath II

Our brevrens from SG are back with the second installment of the Voices From Beneath Mixtape.

As you see there's a buncha Rogue bwois up in this - Schizzow, SSK, and Familyboy.

I was supposed to be in this myself but apologies to Ijal I couldn't come up with something. It's aight tho I've already gotten into the first one.

If you're not familiar with this mixtape, it's a Singapore-based project initiated by Ijal and his friends mainly from Resurgence Zine/TMA. It features their local acts and ours as well. Mostly from the deep underground.

So if you're up for it download it here aight.

hqa's 5 FAVOURITE 2007 RELEASES

These are 5 of my favourite 2007 releases:

Blu & Exile - Below The Heavens
Exciting new artist for sho. In an era where it's extremely difficult for me to accept new blood these dudes seem to impress me, a lot. Exile is a dope producer. Really. There's been a lot of producers trying the nu-soul or soul-hop or whatever-you-call-it sound but not many have impressed me. But Exile managed to capture the early and Slum Village-era J Dilla spirit. Applying infectious basslines and clever cutting of samples. And with Blu rhymin' on his shit, it's hard to go wrong. While this duo is from the west coast, Blu might have more east coast emcees on his influences list flow-wise, even accent-wise at times. In this album most of his lyrics are very personal but won't alienate the listener, instead we might find ourselves relating our own experiences to most of his endeavours.

Public Enemy - How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul
Yeh. Trust the old hip hop warriors to show us how to do things. This album is super banging. Chuck D is still as powerful as ever with his delivery, and Flava Flav hasn't aged. Their production team might've disintegrated at one point and are not the same old Bomb Squad, but there's still a lot of boom in them. While the old school hip hop fans will definitely appreciate this, I'm pretty sure it will get them new fans as well. After all, I haven't been the most fanatic Public Enemy fan, but somehow this record has sealed my faith. Only bummer is it is highly underrated especially since PE is independent and the last few recent releases weren't as enticing as this one.

Ghostface Killah - Big Doe Rehab
This is Primo's pick for best album of 2007. Not so hard to understand why, Tony Starks continued his trademark of rapidfire spittage on banging beats. It might be more compact compared to the intricate Fishscale but it's still good. There were mixed reviews though, some compared it to Pretty Toney, assuming most people didn't like it, but I did like that one. Honestly there might be a few throwaway tracks but most of the tracks were just a simple combination of good beats and good emcees. I'm impressed by the fact that while a lot of golden age emcees lost their dynamic styles (cough*Raekwon*cough), Ghostface seems to add more passion and fire to his.

DJ Deckstream - Soundtracks
Trust the Japs to keep good and forgotten American pop cultures alive. The nu-jazz & nu-soul sound in hip hop has been quite a trend over there. Deckstream makes it evident that it won't be just a fad. One word to describe his samples - sweet, one word to describe his method of sampling - very sweet. While his beats might be really catchy he retains the booming sound of the hip hop beat so as to make it very hard hitting and lively. No need to question his choice of guest emcees - Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, Camp Lo, Pep Love, Zion I.. need I continue?

Cam'ron - Public Enemy #1 (mixtape)
Okay. This is highly personal. Hehe. While there's a lot of rubbish tracks mostly because of the plastic beats, there are a few gems. And these gems prove that while Cam'ron has been guilty of falling into the pop-rap stigma, he is still essentially a golden age emcee having originated from a 90's crew led by Big L. Because on old-school sounding beats, his voice and flow shine, and he still has that Harlem swagger. His decision to focus on featuring only the newer Dipset members in this mixtape is welcoming to me, since they sound more serious and have the potential to have some form of depth which when added to the swagger might create sick emcees. Whatever it is, Cam might not be as big as loathsome Fiddy, but he is still more cult, has way more character, and is way more interesting.. to me, at least. Hehe.

..


Now..

I could just link the albums but I decided against that since we all don't have that much attention span. Especially the non hip hoppers. So to make it more attractive, I decided to make a mixtape consisting of songs I really really liked from those releases. With the tracks ordered the way I wanna. You can burn this mixtape to make an audio cd too.

Aight?

hqa's 5 FAVOURITE 2007 RELEASES MIXTAPE

1. public enemy - black is back
   
2. public enemy - harder than you think
   
3. public enemy - col-leepin
   
4. cam'ron - no delaying
   
5. ghostface killah - toney sigel a.k.a. the barrel brothers feat. beanie sigel
   
6. dj deckstream - can you let me know feat. lupe fiasco, verbal and sarah green
   
7. dj deckstream - keep in the pocket feat. talib kweli
   
8. dj deckstream - 3.2.1. contact feat. surreal
   
9. dj deckstream - touch of mink feat. camp lo
   
10. cam'ron - i'm a hustler barry
    
11. dj deckstream - play on feat. pep love
    
12. public enemy - escapism
    
13. ghostface killah - yolandas house feat. raekwon and method man
    
14. ghostface killah - i'll die for you
    
15. blu & exile - good life (show me) feat. joseph and aloe blacc
    
16. blu & exile - blu colla workers
    
17. blu & exile - party of two
    
18. ghostface killah - killa lipstick feat. method man and masta killa
    
19. ghostface killah - slow down feat. chrisette michele
    
20. cam'ron - bad day feat. tom gist
    
21. blu & exile - soul amazin (steel blazin)
    
22. dj deckstream - five alarm feat. nikki jean

Johnson&Jonson - Powders&Oils (new shit)

Blu from last year's Blu & Exile fame is involved in this one with another producer instead, Mainframe. It took me quite some time to get used to this album but once I did it's pretty dope. It has a different feel compared to Blu's last one.

This might be merely a coincidence or just me but I thought while Exile had a slight early-J Dilla influence, Mainframe seems to have a slight Madlib influence. From the way he samples to the various samples he uses, to the live-sounding drums. The songs don't sound too similar with each other which could be why it took me quite a while to really dig it. The Exile joint was easier to digest as it was more hip hop and bass-heavy.

Blu is still Blu, he adapted to Mainframe really well, manouvering his flows combined with his lyricism which has transformed into a more not-so-personal rockin-the-beat one compared to the last release. For some reason sometimes he sounds like a marginally faster Common. Could be just me. Anyway, this is a really good record, give it a few listens and I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

Yes.

Also check out this video of one of the tracks 'bout it bout it' which actually has been out around late last year (first shit I heard of them). Playful video for a very catchy song.

The Resistance has moved

The Resistance, former TRS forum, has now moved to http://theresistanceforum.com. It is now a more general forum, meaning not so TRS-y. So get on it fuhreel.

Headshell Heroes

A DJ crew made out of four Malaysian DJs namely - Syed Effects, DJ Doughboy, Lazyarse, and DJ Take Out. They dug out to the surface from the center of the earth using only cut-half vinyls. Learnt human interaction slowly through the tutelage of Master Splinter and Wolverine. After realizing it was all bullshit they instead decided to form a DJ crew to manipulate sounds which will relay secret messages untraceable by evil CIA to other superheroes. If you are a superhero watch these now!

I made that all up but you still have to watch all these videos, or you suck ass dude.

Headshell Heroes Jam session 1 - part 1


Headshell Heroes Jam session 1 - part 2


Headshell Heroes Jam session 1 - part 3


Headshell Heroes Jam session 1 - part 4


Dope right. I like 2 and 4. And itu baru jamming jack. They'll come back with more shit latah stay tooned.

Sum nooh vids

Blu - just another day


Ghostface Killah - we celebrate


Missy Elliot - ching-a-ling & shake your pom pom 3d video

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and white boys

I haven't been listening to much hip hop lately except maybe YAHH TRICK YAHH. So right here just to post why not me post hip hop-influenced songs from unlikely groups. Like one is a punk band, the other is a new wave kinda band. One used to share the stage with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five when they toured New York (Joe defended 'Flash when the 'tarded punk crowd was booing hip hop) and you can see a lotta 'Flash influence on their song. The other directly covered a 'Flash song.

The Clash - magnificient seven


Duran Duran - white lines





The real thing too of course.......


..broken glass everywhere. Chewah.

rebel to amerykah

Erykah Badu - Honey
Uploaded by sesame23

Erykah B for President, bitchessssssss! And lol @ her not so subtle jab at the "Hey Ya" video. At lest she still thinkin bout you, Dre. Leave a comment with as many album titles she appropriated for the video and I'll call you a smart ass by name on the next Rogue Radio Session.

New Amerykah is coming soon. Start wrapping yo damn heads.