By all accounts the hardest thing about growing old is that all your friends die. Every time you lose someone who touched you, you’re a little better equipped – no less sad, but more prepared to process the grief. But this one really hurts. A Tribe Called Quest meant everything to us when we were growing up, really informing our tastes and personalities. I never met Phife Dawg – weirdly he’s the only person from A Tribe Called Quest who I never met, I guess because he lived in Atlanta – but he always struck me as a real sincere, sweet man. Michael Rappaport’s excellent documentary “Beats, Rhymes & Life” confirmed this impression and shined a light on Phife’s line “when was the last time you heard a funky diabetic.” That wasn’t just a punchline, it was a twenty-five year struggle that killed him in the end.
Phife was the consummate punchline rapper, bringing a playfulness that perfectly complimented Q-Tip’s more serious leanings. But they weren’t Flavor Flav and Chuck D – Phife wasn’t a hype man, he was a brilliant wordsmith and a beast of a rapper. Somehow he was able to be hilarious and at the same time bring his full personality through, cutting through the boasting and battling with the unique perspective of a guy from Queens with roots in Trinidad who loved his grandparents, obsessed over sports, sometimes struck out with girls – a truly relatable everyman in a genre of self-proclaimed superheros.
Let’s all celebrate his life and listen to A Tribe Called Quest records. If you want more, dig into these mixes, which all feature Phife Dawg:
DJ Eleven & DJ Ayres – Spitkicker Collabos Volume 2 by Ayres Haxton on hearthis.at
Eleven & Ayres – Spitkicker Collabos 1 by Djeleven on Mixcloud
The History of Hip Hop 1993 by Brooklyn Radio on hearthis.at
The History of Hip Hop 1991 by Brooklyn Radio on hearthis.at
TNN this week is a couple days late but still completely full of new audio goodies. This year has already seen no shortage of some big guns dropping tunes but the collaboration game is only becoming more interesting and cross pollinated. First cut is from Baauer’s fantastic debut full length, Aa, and it features Future and Pusha T combining for what should really be a full blown hit this summer. Next we’ve got a new freebie, Number One, from the Major Lazer vaults featuring a co-production with the homie Grandtheft as they flip Johnny Osbourne’s Buddy Bye reggae classic into some tastefully turnt future dancehall. Lastly, we’ve got a tasty recent cut from Philly’s quickly rising hip-hop/soul artist, Tunji Ige. Preview/stream all 3 in full below.
FOTR this week is our guest for March, DJ GetLive! Born and raised in Queens, GetLive! has been djing since 1999 by sneaking into clubs and jumping on the decks at 16. He’s known for his party rocking djing style that features a diverse and eclectic music selection on top of slick turntable skills that makes classic records you may have forgot about sound incredibly fresh and new again. Peep his set from the Boiler Room 5 year anniversary event below from back in December for proof. You can check his Midnight Rockers Express duo with Lee every Wednesday night at Kinfolk 90 and definitely make sure you do not miss his set this Saturday at The Bell House.
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#TBT – The Rub – History of Hip-Hop 1986
Posted: March 17, 2016 Filed under: History of Hip-Hop, TBT | Tags: History Of Hip-Hop, TBT, the rub
TBT this week is the History of Hip-Hop mix for we did for 1986. It’s crazy to think this mix now references music that’s three decades old. Music featured here from legends like The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, King Tee, Eric B. & Rakim, Kool Moe Dee and more still sounds as fresh as it did 30 years ago. Shouts again to our friends at Brooklyn Radio for re-upping all of this mixes to Hearthis.at, which allows streams and downloads directly. Streaming for both Hearthis.at and Mixcloud are below along with a link to a direct DL. Make sure and also revisit the whole series HERE.
The History of Hip Hop 1986 by Brooklyn Radio on hearthis.at
Download: History of Hip-Hop 1986 (right-click, save as)
Artwork by Rhek for Sharks and Hammers
Tracklist after the jump!
Brooklyn Radio has uploaded all of our Hip-Hop History mixes to Hearthis.at, which allows streams and downloads. Get em here: http://www.itstherub.com/category/history-of-hip-hop/
FOTR this weeks is the disco house music duo, Solidisco. DJ’s Dstar and Biacco rose in the Buffalo, NY music scene on the solo tip but eventually combined forces over their shared love for classic house and disco years a number of years ago. Their productions have been supported by the likes of A-Trak and Laidback Luke and their rise is well documented with releases on a number of prominent labels, with a good portion of those tracks charting on digital retailers such as dance music staple Beatport. They’ve just released a new single, Get In Love, which you can stream in full below. And make sure to catch them out on tour starting this week in Atlanta for a full run of dates with Gigamesh.
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We’ve been traveling a ton, which has given us a chance to catch up on the avalanche of new albums that came out in the last month or two. We probably don’t need to tell you about Rihanna and Future and Kendrick and Kanye, so here are a few other records which we’ve had on repeat:
Club Cheval is a French supergroup of young producers: Canblaster, Sam Tiba, Panteros666 and Myd. The first time I heard any of them was Canblaster’s remix for Style of Eye “Homeless” (2010), which is still ahead of its time, then his even more bonkers remix of Drop the Lime’s “Hot As Hell,” which has a galloping horse in place of percussion. Since then I’ve checked for everything he’s done, and by extension, all of Club Cheval’s producers. Discipline is their debut album, equal parts house and R&B, and it’s sublime. Very grown and synthy, with a ton if little electronic details that keep things fresh. Honestly the whole album is great but my favorites are “Young Rich and Radical,” “Nothing Can Stop Us Now,” “Discipline” and “From The Basement to the Roof.”
Gener8ion is the alias for another Frenchman, Surkin, from the Ed Banger crew. This project is almost entirely at trap music tempo, but far from cookie-cutter – the sound is cinematic, dark and experimental. The synths on H808 sound like a video-game soundtrack which Burial might sample, while “Bolin” is a bizarro version of Lil Wayne “A Milli.” Listen to this EP while you’re scrolling through his awesomely weird retro-futurisitic Japanese Art / Sci-Fi tumblr.
Going by the first single, you might think Santi was going to play it safe on her new album. “Can’t Get Enough of Myself” sounds like it could be a cover of The Ronettes, and if I’m being honest, it’s just a little too cheerful for me. “Rendezvous Girl” is much more my cup of tea – somewhere in the universe of A-Ha and Duran Duran, with a writing credit from Cathy Dennis (“Touch Me (All Night Long)”). I fucking loved the chorus of Makonnen’s “Forever,” which Santi featured on, and I would bet dollars to donuts she wrote that hook. Anyhow he returned the favor, appearing on “Who Be Lovin Me,” the second single. There are a huge variety of sounds – every song is different from the last, with production from a whole bunch of producers, from Zed’s Dead to Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio) to Patrik Berger (Robyn, Iconapop) to Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend) and so on. If you are new to Santigold and haven’t heard her first album, “Santogold,” it’s a fucking masterpiece start to finish, so I definitely recommend starting there in order to fully contextualize the vibes on 99 Cents.
#TBT – DJ Ayres – 80’s Re:Union Mix
Posted: March 10, 2016 Filed under: DJ Ayres, TBT | Tags: DJ Ayres, TBT
TBT this week takes us back to the sounds of the 1980’s with a killer mix from DJ Ayres. This 80’s Re:Union Mix is a deft mix of New Wave, Post Punk, Alternative and Dance music from so many favorite artists and tunes from the time period. With so much of this music approaching the 40 year old mark, it’s safe to say most of this tracklist falls into the bonafide “classics” category at this point. Madonna, David Bowie, Prince, Donna Summer, The Cure and so many other great artists are featured here. Revisit this mix below and get your 80’s fix on in a major way
Tracklist:
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FOTR: Burlesque of North America
Posted: March 8, 2016 Filed under: Friends of The Rub | Tags: Burlesque of North America, fotr
FOTR this week are the good folks at Burlesque of North America. This art and design collective based out of Minneapolis, MN has been steady killing it for years designing some incredibly fresh art and posters you’ve probably seen before at venues and on the internet. This time of year also brings their yearly trek down to SXSW for the amazing Flatstock exhibit, which is always accompanied by their annual Do It To It Party. As always, these events are free and loaded to the brim with DJs we love here at The Rub. Be sure to say hi to them if you’re in Austin next week and click some links below to get the full spectrum of everything this crew does so well.
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