AUDIO: Saga’s “Saga Ghanoush”

Saga (the rapper, not the band) decided to turn The Alchemist’s “Israeli Salad” into a new dish. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome yourself to a bowl of “Saga Ghanoush”.

AUDIO: Action Bronson’s “Terry”

Action Bronson is ready to drop a new album very soon so he worked with The Alchemist to pick out semi-rare samples to create “Terry”, for those who are and aren’t hairy. Spicy coconut curry vibe for those who like to put that kind of sauce over two scoops of rice because it’s nice.

SOME STUFFS: Pharrell Williams to head line this year’s Camp Flog Gnaw

The 3rd Annual Camp Flog Gnaw Festival has been announced, with tickets to be made available to the public tomorrow (Friday, August 8th) and what you see is not a joke: Pharrell Williams will be headlining this year, hat and all. Also scheduled to attend include people like Action Bronson, Freddie Gibbs, MURS, Rick Ross, Mac Miller, and such Odd Future folks like Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats, Left Brain, The Internet, Domo Genesis, and many more. Early bird tickets can be purchased directly from Camp Flog Gnaw.

Oh yeah: as for where it will be, it’ll be held again at The Park at Los Angeles Coliseum on November 8th.

BIDEO: Boldy James’ “Moochie”

The Alchemist worked with Boldy James for the album My 1st Chemistry Set (Mass Appeal/Decon) and the first slice of visual fun comes in the form of “Moochie”. It seems Boldy James is ready to drop an all new glossary on everyone, so find what you must define and refind.

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AUDIO: Quelle Chris’ “Super Fuck”

Quelle Chris did most of the things in this song: he’s the producer, he wrote it, and he is the artist. Someone who is that confident about his own works and how to execute it is okay by me, and from his forthcoming album Ghost At The Finish Line (Mello Music Group) is a little ditty he calls “Super Fuck”. It’s just one of the things you’ll find on this project. Other things involve humans, with names like The Alchemist, House Shoes, Black Milk, Guilty Simpson, and Fuzz Scoota. The accumulation of these things will be heard on October 29th.

VIDEO: Stüssy presents a “YO! MTV Raps” documentary

When YO! MTV Raps aired on the music cable network in August of 1988, it seemed inevitable but no one quite knew the impact it would make. MTV had already placed a very small handful of rap videos by Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys into rotation, but that was it. If you had access to Black Entertainment Television, you would be able to see some of the latest videos on Video Soul and Video Vibrations, with the latter featuring more songs due to the tastes and preferences of the host (which existed only in voice). Then YO! came on, and at a time when the music was gaining a great amount of popularity at record stores and thus record labels, there was a greater push for artists to create a video because now, they were having MTV time alongside Guns N’ Roses, Whitesnake, and Ratt.

Stüssy have put together a 2-part documentary called We Were All Watching, directed by Adam Jay Weissman. The doc highlights the importance of the hip-hop show by featuring segments from it over the years and current interviews with everyone from ?uestlove to Ed Lover, Dante Ross to Bill Adler, The Alchemist to MC Lyte, DJ Premier to Rakim, Shock G. to Sway and others. You may watch both parts of the documentary above.

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VIDEO: The Alchemist’s “Don Seymour’s Theme”

This is explosive, both visually and audibly. In fact, it seems this track was either mixed and/or mastered with brickwall limiting to the point where it felt like my ears would bleed. I want the music to breathe, not bleed. Nonetheless, if you can go beyond that, this is one of the best productions The Alchemist has done. It’s fun, and it’s from his Russian Roulette (Decon) album, hopefully you didn’t pull a The Deer Hunter. Well, you’d be dead if you did, which would mean reading this and getting to the end of this sentence would be impossible.

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VIDEO: Lil Fame & Termanology’s “Fizzyology”

Giggling is not something you will do with this video, you will rock your head and make you go “ahh ooh-waaa”. This is Lil’ Fame and Termanology, who are about “Fizzyology” and you might be asking “what the hell does that mean”? This is that the video is for, go listen. The Alchemist produced this one, and no, that’s not why you should giggle, it’s really good. Don’t believe me? Listen, and watch the video by director Gorilla Flix. Mr. Flix did a great job here.

REVIEW: Oh No’s “Ohnomite”

For some people, when they listen to the tracks on the 21-track album Ohnomite (Five Day Weekend/Brick), they might want to call it this type of hip-hop or that type of hip-hop, balancing on the thin line between opinions of the greatest and the elitist. I’ll tell you what I think: this is hip-hop. Period.

Being “of the hip-hop spirit” runs in the family, and when you hear this, you’ll understand. Ohnomite may be celebrated for a few things: the amount of different MC’s and producer collaborators that help out Oh No on this, although the one thing that is constant is his own production, for he is in control of this entire album. His rhymes go anywhere and everywhere, crazy and abstract when it can be but distinct and direct when it matters, everything carefully written/choreographed like a surprise football play.

Musically, this shows the strength, power, and influence of underground hip-hop, which for me has always been major and at times better than what is pushed as mainstream music, thus the spirit Oh No has. This is why Frank Nitt (of Frank-N-Dank), MF DOOM, Phife, The Alchemist, Chino XL, Med ,Guilty Simpson, Sticky Fingaz, Phil The Agony, Rapper Big Pooh, and Erick Sermon among others are all on here: there’s a vibe here that is unspoken but is heard in each of these tracks: go for what you know, go for broke, and don’t give a fuck.

Being the younger brother of Madlib, being spontaneous and making music that sounds like a trippy collage of anything and everything (i.e. random scatterbrain funkiness) seems to be part of the family DNA. Yet you enter Ohnomite not to follow a distinct storyline or concept, but being confident in the mission about to take place and putting face in Oh No, knowing that you will be in one piece at its conclusion. Once again, this is not a specific type or style of hip-hop. For me, this is hip-hop. You’re welcome.

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REVIEW: Gangrene’s “Odditorium” (EP)

When Gangrene get going, they go in strong. A few months after the release of an album, they have released a 4-song EP called Odditorium (Decon) that just adds to the power that is the Vodka & Ayahuasca album. The samples are not as freaky as they want their personas to be known, the drama and freakiness is in the imagery but the best thing about these songs is how the imagery can be manipulated into whatever the mind wants, and wherever the mind takes itself. Tempos and themes change, samples move in and out and mixes with natural sound, becoming utterly trippy mind movies with references to feces, smells, and who knows what else. This is that grown-up hip-hop stuff with the kind of tricks only capable magicians can do, and I hope the magic continues. Everyone needs to step up to Gangrene’s level.

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