...But I Said Mo' Mo' Mo'!!!

Nick James comes at us from Oakland with a classy smoothed out remix of AG. This one has taken pride of place in my top 3 so far (alongside Filthy Gangster & Crooklyn Gangster). He also has the honour of having my fav sample so far on any AG remix joint. The Jazzy keyboard & strings used on the American Gangster track is beautiful stuff.

American Producer (Remixed by Nick James)

J. Brookinz turn to drop a lil sumthn fpr the good people. He's decided to use a whole load of 80's music samples for this one. No Hook, Ignorant shit & the Chopped up Guitar riffs of Success are standouts on this one. But the electro pop and keyboard sample used for American Gangster is easily one of the catchiest beats of all the AG remix so far. 1 or 2 of the samples used need a few listens to appreciate but it is an intewresting listen non the less.

American Gangster 80's Style

AAAAAAHHHHHH MAAANNNN!! No sooner do i make a bold statement do i then have to change my bloody mind. DR. Goo... strange name & possibly the most eccentric source yet chosen to extract samples from. He's taken the soundtrack to the Chicago movie and found some absolute gems. Now, i'm  not just talking about simple blends here. I'm talking about some ingeniusly chopped and looped vocal & orchestral samples. The Goo's version of party Life is catchiness personified and anyone who doesn't snap their neck to that one needs their head examined. This one narrowly beats Nick James effort on my top 3 (sorry Nick). The sheer quirkiness of the beats makes this a definate banger.

American Gangster In Chicago

Get em all and check out the sites too.

Nick James Myspace

J. Brookinz Myspace

Dr. Goo's Myspace

WTF: Swiss Cheese For Brains

Do people have no shame? or Should i realy be asking, do goverments have no shame? after this brainstorm of a video by the Swiss government (which not every member supported) i think it's safe to say that the answer is no. These fools have funded an advertising campaign being shown in Africa. Nothing wrong with that, apart from the fact that it has actually been designed to deter african immigrants from trying to enter Switzerland. The advert starts with a Black immigrant telling his father during a phone call that all is well and he is making money. But he is actually living on the street, being chased by police (seemingly for no reason) and has to beg to survive day to day. The final message of the ad reads ''Don't believe everything you hear, leaving is not always living''. This ad has already been shown in Cameroon & Nigeria and should be aired in other parts of Africa soon. 

The first and most glaring gripe with this ad is the obvious racist undertones. Well i say undertones but you could hardly be anymore blatant if you tried. A video designed just for african immigrants and not for migrants in general is just plain disgusting. Then there is the fact that they have actually gotten away with it shows that all the other european governments are all just as happy to have this video made, because apart from one member of the swiss government (who was a legal migrant himself) nobody else has batted an eyelid over it. Also, how the hell did they manage to find someone to play the immigrant in the first place. Either he got paid a comparatively ridiculous amount of money to do it or he simply has no shame at all.

Regardless of who played the main character there is a much bigger and far more disturbing picture of just how far the leaders of the supposedly free world are prepared to go to impose their way of life on the rest of us. Regardless of what people are being told, this video is aimed at both legal & illiegal imigrants amd makes no attempt to differentiate between the two at any time on the ad. Which means that there is strong possibility that the Swiss government quite simply don't want any more black/non white people settling in Switzerland, that is unless your Lewis Hamilton (ie you have money), then one of the richest & most tax friendly countries in the world is only too willing to have you.

I wait with (sarcastically) baited breath to see whether these goings on set a precedent and other countries try to follow suit.

p e a c e

Swiss Immigration Advert

Damn Man... More???

This Ones made my top 5 so far. Detroit producer Alpha-Bet has come up trumps with this one. Great use of samples as well.

Alpha Gangster

Be prepared to open your mind for thids one people. Hailing from DC, D has decided to go with samples from dance legends Daft Punk. Incase if you didn't know Kanye sampled these guys for Stronger (Better, Harder, Faster, Stronger). I think it works really well.. The standout on here has got to be I Know where D has used my favourite Daft Punk track (Voyager) and it suits Jay perfectly. Ye would be proud. 

Daft Gangster

Superior by name, superior by nature. Berlin has offially entered the race with this one. KD Supier drops a superb offering. Some of the samples have been heard before but don't let that get in the way of the fact that this needs to be heard. In my top 3.

Superior Gangster

Wowzers. The goodness doesn't stop. Jimi Kendrix has already done work for Jay-Z (cool), Mic Geronimo (cool) & The Murder INC family (not so cool). Then together with his partner in beats J. Math, Street Radio have worked with 2Pac, Styles P & Papoose. Well these boys have decided to throw there hat into the urban mix with Street Radio's American Gangster. They have raised the bar with this one by adding new vocals with artists not featuredon the original (Grab it & find out for yourself) and the results are 1st class.

Street Radio's American Gangster

Grab em all & be sure to check out their sites too.

Alpha-Bet's Myspace

Dthenextlevel's Blog

KD Supier's Myspace

Street radio's Myspace

What If???

Gift Rapped

That's right folks. It's that time again. Mad Skillz (i just can't stop calling him that) is back with another Rap Up for that ass. And yep, he kills em again. my personal laughout loud moment (i picked from a few) was his impression of T-Pain only for him to say after it ''What's crazy is that wasn't T-Pain that was me''. Brilliant. Since i'm a nice guy i decided to post all 6 rap Ups for the good people. Grab it for a laugh.

The Rap Ups: 2002 - 2007

2007 The Rap up

The N Word

Apparently people, this is the new album cover. It's easily gotta be the boldest statement ever made on a major album release on any genre (and i say album release for 2 reasons, Fuck The Police & Cop Killer). We can talk all day about the sexual content in songs & on videos these days (which being a red blooded male, isn;t all bad) but Hip Hop was always meant for bigger things. This cover hasn't been confirmed yet by any means but if he does go with this i think it does make an interesting statement. Think about it. A... actually not just A word, Thee word that is bound by history to the pain & suffering of black people across the globe is emblazened on a black & white picture of a black man sitting underneath a white light sitting in a pose that is so often asscociated with the White middle/upper class societies of the world. It also smacks of someone sticking 2 fingers up at the system to me. I mean look at the size of the album title. It's about as big as he could get it without obscuring is face. 

I say do what you think needs to be done, Nas. It shows the growth of a man when he can do what he's done on the mic, both good and bad. and come out a better man on the other side. Love him or hate him he always got a statement to make on his albums (Destroy & Rebuild, These Are Our Heroes, Black Rebuplican etc). And don't forget, although his beat choices have, at times, been questionable, lyrically he's on his A game. Lets wait and see what he has to say on the album before we decide whether The Whole Nigger thing it was just a publicity stunt or not. I for one don't think it is. But i could be wrong.

p e a c e

Farming Is Cool!!!

Aided by a Wordly collection of Emceeing (if that's actually a word) talent, The Hitfarmers come out of Munich, Germany with a really good christmas mixtape for us, The good people to download for free. I'm probably the biggest fan of hip hop related freeness around so you know i've already got hold of it. Do the same fam & you won't be disapointed. My personal favs are X-mas in Pensylvania ft. King Magnetic (yes from Army Of The Pharoahs) & X-mas in Sweetwater Pondz ft. Ciph Barker. They also got Snowgoons, Mr. Malchau & Nomad (amongst others) on there. Grab it 1st then go then go to Ap-Rock's myspace & Grab the other goodies for yourselves people.

X-Mas In My Hood ft. The Joining Forces Allstars

The Joining Forces mixtape Vol. III

Ap-Rock's Myspace

Preach Brother... Preach Some More!!!

I couldn't wait to the new year to post this. After letting the good people know about just how good this guy is, the man himself dropped me an email & gave me a link to share with everybody. It's for a clean version of his album, Garveyism. I said before that it was a real good listen so i don't want nobody accusing me of brown nosing. Oh and be sure to check out his comic strip too. I'm hoping to have an interview for the good people sometime soon too. In the meantime click the links, Grab whats available & be sure to thank the man on his myspace.

Preach - Garveyism (Clean Version)

Preach's Site

And his Myspace Too

What If???

.... see you in the new year!!!

Straight From Brooklyn, Better Known As Crooklyn...

Sorry Kideight (Filthysox). I know your AG remix is amazing & i know you're representing for my side of the pond (UK) but Crooklyn Gangster is THEE best AG remix album i've heard so far, bar none. Small Professor (see what he did there) has crafted something that goes way beyond what any other remix album and the original itself could achieve. Anyone who knows their movies knows the feeling that the dark string arrangements did for Bullitt. Well, SP has created this same dark mysterious 70's feel on his masterpiece. From start to finish the samples have been used to perfection and every beat fits not just Jay's vocal but the topics of the songs as well. The production is far superior to the original & since there was never anything wrong with the original lyrically, i would go so far as to say that Jay could've had a classic on his hands. I don't care how many of the samples used have been heard before or who used em because the fact is this guy has created something special. This needs a retail release asap. In my opinion this is one of the best produced albums of the year retail or not. I would have to question whether half of these samples would get cleared though. I'll say it again, A Masterpiece. GRAB THIS NOW!!!

Crooklyn Gangster

Small Professor's Myspace