This is just a straight-up repost. Die Antwoord rules (and so does their site):

[Also Jack Parow (no relation):]

Wu-Tang vs. The Beatles. If you missed (or loved) The Grey Album you might want to peep this:

DJ Tom Caruana comes with 2010′s first online underground megahit mashup. Google around — it ain’t hard to find — or hit me up for linkage (thx Yams).

Sounds like KRS-ONE (ft. Kobe and LeBron) and references Criminal Minded‘s “The Bridge is Over” (one of the original hip hop diss tracks):

Muppets bring the ruckus. Apparently there’s a whole series of Puppet LeBron commercials.

Masta Ace’s new album drops next week. Ace and Edo G combined forces to release A&E:

I got an “advance” copy this morning around 6am. It’s definitely worth a listen. It’s going into my rotation, not least for a banging track featuring KRS. There’s also piles of shouts to Obama’s crew. I doubt Rahm Emmanuel ever thought he’d end up an imperfect rhyme, but wasn’t it Public Enemy who said hip hop is the black CNN?

The album also touches on the “hip hop is dead” meme with some vague promises of hope. I’m toying with a new three-star hip hop album rating system:

1. Hip hop is dead.
2. There’s still hope.
3. Wu Tang is forever.

I’m still working on the ranking names but this album is a solid deuce. It just barely failed to fully gel in my 6am listening session, but I’m not sure if that’s a “if you want my old shit but my old album” thing or what. Could be the beast just needs a couple of listens.

High-tech disses too:

We cowboy these fools like Tony Romo,
Rip they posters, spit on they logo,
Open they Pro Tools, erase they vocal.

Ohh, snap!

I’ve finally starting listening to the MC’s MC, Rakim:

That’s from 1999′s The Master, which is full of amazing lyricism. Rakim says “if I wasn’t then why would I say I am?” (or is that a sample?) and a year later Eminem referenced that in his hit “The Way I Am”.

That’s a big loop closed for me, because I never understood Em’s lyric, it seemed like disappointing say-it-to-rhyme nonsense: “I am whatever you say I am,/ If I wasn’t then why would I say I am.” In a chorus that’s just unforgivable laziness. Except now I know that it was a Rakim shout. “My bad.”

Hip hop bibliographies are about copying lyrics or lyrical structures, but not both. That’s the thin line between shouting someone out and plagiarism as I understand it.

I’m listening to Ace’s Disposable Arts to track down another obvious shout to illustrate what I mean about the difference between lyrics and lyrical structures, but I couldn’t guess the track. In any case, does Enuff say there aren’t enough Caucasians in hip hop (like Paul from Saskatchewan)?! Say word.

Oh, right, this is supposed to be a review of The Master, okay: It’s masterful! Sounds glib, but I’m not kidding: liquid, healing rhymes. Srsly. Not a lot to say: Hearty recommendat.

Pac and Biggie are right: I should get angry.

I’m hitting up the DX release list to see what’s what from today’s drops. This is the week of the well-named album.

Here’s Get Over by Fresh Daily off The Gorgeous Killer In Crimes Of Passion, and this should be your one song if you’re pressed for time:

Here’s When You Fall by Breez Evahflowin’ off Breez Deez Treez. Good flow, but the chorus is for shit.

Here’s Fire (remix) by Mac Mall off Mac To The Future. One of Mac’s first videos was produced by Tupac back in ’93. Passable West Coast track, doesn’t really push the envelope tho:

Hip hop musicals are a genre now?! Why was I not informed? Jesus this looks awful. Too bad, the idea is pretty fantastic:

Here’s Big Twins’ track Trip Thru The PJ’s off of The Project Kid:

Apparently 50′s first album is authentic enough to sample now! I ain’t hatin’, Many Men is the fucking bombtrack.

And the winner this week is… Fresh Daily, hands-fucking-down. I’m in a Masta Ace kinda mood tho — I might be biased

I don’t watch live TV so this is new to me:

The Globe, somewhat predictably, hates it (“Is it better to be a fossil or a sellout?” — I dunno, is it better to be inflammatory or hyperbolic?). Rolling Stone, somewhat predictably, is pimps it. I like the commercial, for a couple of reasons.

First, it’s getting Dre out there in front of the public months before his first album since 2001 drops. Second it teases an album track without telling you that’s what it’s doing (besides hinting to you that it should be considered a hit). When you hear the album it’ll sound familiar. Last, the track is actually good.

This is a great little PR move, well-executed.

[Quick aside via Boo: Multitask is a fucking stellar little game.]

I’ve been working on a horror movie. As I’ve said before, Tarantino starts with music and I find that really helps.

The other little trick I’ve learned is to start by writing from the point of view of the antagonist. They’re the hero of their own story — we all are — so their scheme has to make some kind of dramatic sense. I find it’s easiest to put together a plot by writing what the bad guy wants to have happen and then confounding him at key moments with the actions of the hero.

Like in Star Wars: Palpatine successfully executes his decades-long ultimate-power plan, then Luke et. al. come and smash everything. Simple, right?

So, how do I get in that horror movie frame of mind? I’ve been listening to The Grateful Dead, partly because they’re awesome, partly because the protags are all hippies, and partly for the name-archetype which I think will be useful. Yesterday I decided to try some horrorcore, that rap-metal-horror flick hybrid.

Psychopathic Records is the Disney, or Coca-Cola, of the horrorcore market. Don’t get me wrong: It’s an indie label, but their fanbase is big enough to do things like send their new acts to #1 on Billboard Heatseekers.

Psychopathic’s flagship act is ICP, of whom I used to be a giant fan. Boondox is their first non-urban, Dirty South act. His thing is a kind of Chainsaw-Massacre-Deliverance-Meets-Black-Magic. Here’s Dox’s track Inbred Evil:

This video is deceptively good. Family is a key element of horror (eg/ Mrs. Vorhees). In the video Dox kills because of his childhood — the argument in the car triggers him. Plus, little kids and sped-up footage just look creepy.

Horrorcore albums are supposed to be concept-centric and cinematic, like a horror movie. Listening while I write is reminding me of some key elements of the genre: Evil should be “ancient” (in Scream the evil is a year old, which is good enough). The family element also helps because, and this is my own untested theory, family is the closest most people get to insanity so it’s a good way in.

Here’s Dox’s party track Sippin’:

You need horrorcore party tracks just like you need comic relief in horror films: The lows are lower if the highs are higher.

Here’s Rollin’ Hard, the crazy-drug-murder track. I recommend you don’t listen, it’s certainly NSFW:

You do need gore. The Blair Witch Project, psychological horror film extraordinaire, had that little pouch with a bloody tooth in it. A little goes a long way. (A quick note on that user video: Images that directly represent your soundtrack look terrible. Go for implication.)

Despite hitting the top of Billboard Heatseekers, The Harvest isn’t a genre-beater. It’s no The Great Milenko or The Amazing Jeckel Brothers — fantastic albums in their own rights, let alone in horrorcore.

I’m grokking The Ecstatic, review possibly to follow. Here’s Google Current’s Mos-in-Japan video, wherein he busts sixteen from Casa Bey a cappella:

Via DX, Royce Da 5’9″, Bizzy Bone, The Cunninlynguists, Twista, and the late J Dilla all have albums out this month. Remember Royce Da 5’9″ from Em’s tracks Bad Meets Evil and Scary Movie from back in the day?

Remix culture FTW. That video rules.

I love rapid-fire rap and toasting like Twista, Busta, and Damian Marley. Here’s Twista’s classic Slow Jams:

The censored word at the start of Twista’s verses is “cannabis”.

Via Soccer Dave: Grand Analog’s I Play My Kazoo.

New Music Canada is possibly the funkiest thing ever created by a public broadcaster. Cudos, CBC.

NFB: copy/paste this model and apply it to Canadian film… Oh wait, you’re way ahead of me. Okay then, just make funding easier to get.

Canada’s cultural institutions: Cutting edge?