In our third installment of the Anything but Rap series, good friends and long-time listeners Matt and Tim play an eclectic set of music. The microphones are ridiculous on this one, check it out!

Playlist:

Oneida — Turn it up loud

Matt set #1
Lee Hazelwood - I’m Glad I Never…
Hildegard Knef - Die Herren Dieser Welt
PiL - Poptones (Live Peel Session)
The Clean - Anything Could Happen

Tim Set
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Half Off
V3 - Your Girlfriend
Ariel Pink - Can’t Hear My Eyes
Wipers - No One Wants An Alien
The Kinks - Afternoon Tea
Mott the Hoople - Alice
The OhSees - Bloody Water
Dan Melchoir Und Das Menace - Thank You Very Much

Matt Set #2
The Staple Singers - Here My Call, Here
The Troggs - Our Love Will Still Be There   Kevin Ayers - Town Feeling
Magnetic Fields - I Don’t Wanna Get Over You
Ni Ni Win Shwe - My Darling’s Love Arrow

Show notes

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I was over my friend Keeb$ house today and he was telling me all about Eminem’s new song about college.

Eminem. Ha!

No, that song on the radio about college is by a young man named Asher Roth (click here for video). While I think “I Love College” is as cheesy as you can get-the Weezer sample, the stereotypical college references, not to mention the predictable crowd chant at the end, I never said I didn’t like cheesy. I nodded my head for a nice while to this song.

I am the champion, of the beer pong.
Allen Iver-son, Hakeem Olaju-won.

But does that make him a dope rapper?

In order to make a clear and concise judgment, one must listen to his other material. 2008’s Greenhouse Effect mixtape was a good start, especially with the head-nodder “Cannon” at the helm.

I think a good majority of the people knocking Asher right now are the same people that knocked Eminem when he debuted over a decade ago. Sure, the two do share the same vocal tones, but that is where the comparisons stop, Asher’s flow is much more simplified and the subject matter, although lighter, is totally different. After all, didn’t Eminem fail the ninth grade three times?

The question is: Will Asher be able to transcend the Eminem comparisons? I think he will. First and foremost, no matter what the rap community has to say on the matter, he has crossover appeal. People who would otherwise never listen to hip hop will listen to Asher because they identify with him. I can picture myself right now at a “douchey” top-40 bar in the southside and everyone yelling “Freshmen… freshmen… do something crazy!” at the top of their lungs.

Secondly, I look to the experiences of a rapper who faced a similar predicament when first starting out as a major label artist:  this man is known as Shyne.

It was easy to take one listen to Shyne when he first came out and laugh. “Wait, this guy sounds exactly like Biggie, AND he is on Bad Boy?” A couple of lyrically murdered tracks and successful singles later, Shyne’s talent has shown through and nowadays the comparisons to Biggie are far and few between. For Guerilla Black however, that is a totally different story.

Asher has a whole song, “As I ‘Em” which addresses the comparisons. Apparently he spits his heart out on it. I, for one can’t wait.

Asleep in the Bread Aisle drops April 21st.

Tracklisting (check the illroots link below for some more previewable songs off the album):

01. Lark On My Go-Cart
02. Blunt Cruisin’
03. I Love College
04. Bad Day ft. Jazze Pha
05. Be By Myself ft. Cee-Lo
06. Sour Patch Kids
07. She Don’t Want A Man
08. As I Em ft. Chester French
09. His Dream ft. Miguel
10. Ladida
11. Leo The Lion
12. Fallin
13. Nothing You Can’t Do

Via Illroots

‘Twas a weekend filled with ups and downs.

The down being the upsetting loss Pitt took at the hands of Villanova last night. I can’t believe we let this fool run down the court and score on us like that:

The up being that we recorded Anything But Rap #3 with guest DJ’s Matt and Tim of Harangue. Be prepared for an episode that spans a wide range of genres and even continents-I believe there were French and Burmese songs played. Plus, the microphones… Mr. Tim, you are a funny man!

Ugh,  I got stomach burn from drinking copious amounts of Andre last night.

Here are some other items of interest:

- After Jim Jones extended an olive branch indicating that he was open to a Dipset Reunion, Cam shot him down by saying, “it’s just not happening.” Full story @ Allhiphop

- This song will probably end up as a gits and shiggle due to its extreme length (8 minutes), but if there any rappers that could carry a song for that long, my money would be on these gentlemen. Slaughterhouse - Move on:

- Here’s one for the hip hop conspiracy theorists: what if one of the MF Doom imposters was none other than Mos Def? The man knows a great deal of his rhymes verbatim:

- I actually recorded this for the podcast, but it’s much better to see Rhymefest go on about Charles Hamilton through video. Peep game at karencivil.com. Link spotted at Nahright.

Rhymefest has a song with Queen Latifah that sounds… like just about every other club joint. Latifah is spittin’ kinda hard on it, though! Stay tuned for next week, or just do a search. It’s called “Goin’ In.”

Another extra schlong episode filled with new jams and even an instrumental set.

Medina Green - Crosstown Beef

Rise and the Avid Record Collector - Rise Anthem
Saigon - Goodbye
Classified - Inspiration
Tanya Morgan - So Damn Good

Eligh and Jo Wilkinson - By and By f/ The Grouch
JR and PH7 - Fast Lane Speedin’ f/ Odissee
Rootbeer - Feels So Good
Drake - Lust for Life

Freddie Joakim - Silent
Blueprint - The Lounge
Savath and Savalas - La Llama

Focus - Tribute to Pete Rock f/ Sha Stimuli, Big Pooh

Show notes

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Freeway has been on his grizzly lately: he dropped 30 joints in 30 days just for the internet, he is working on a collabo LP with Jake-One called The Stimulus Package, slated to drop this summer, and then he has Philadelphia Freeway 2, the sequel to a very dope album.

PF2 is supposed to drop in May apparently, but on what label? I can’t see Def Jam/Rocafella putting this out.

Above is the cover art, below is the tracklisting. I am assuming guest appearances have been omitted.

1. Pay Attention
2. Finally Free
3. Gotz 2 Be Tha Bomb
4. Hands Up
5. Think About It
6. Crack Rap
7. Murda Muzic
8. Around The World
9. Streets Won’t Miss ‘em
10. It’s a Good Day
11. Keep Yo Hands Up
12. Philly Freezer

Via Nahright via The Rap Up

I’m back from our nations capital, did you miss me?

It’s been too long since I posted some videos up in this jam, and I don’t I’ve EVER shown any porn on this site. Let’s change that.

Here goes the trailer for 50 Cent’s sextape featuring none other than Rick Ross’ Baby Mama #2. This should go without saying, this video is super NSFW but not explicit enough to you know… actually depict any sexual acts, everything is blurred out.

On the really real, that’s a cute woman.

Oh, and I answered my own request, here goes a Charles Hamilton song I like,  “Loser.”

OMG, it seems everywhere I go on the net it’s Asher Roth this Asher Roth that. Why the fuck do I want to hear about how you used to play baseball? I think the kid is dope, but he might be second in overexposure only to our nation’s President, and he gets a pass because he actually has a job that is, you know, important.

Nevertheless, here goes the animated video from Asher, “Lark on My Go-Kart.”

Joe Buddens’ The Padded Room didn’t do much for me-I thought it was a very well put together album, but I just can’t get with dudes beat selection. Still, I can’t front on this video:

These last two are going to be from some up and coming cats. First we have D.C.’s Tabi Bonney.

rich kids from tabi Bonney on Vimeo

I like how Tabi puts his LIBRARY on display as a sign of his wealth. This is the kind of outside-the-box thinking we need from hip hop in 2009, folks.

Next we have the Kid Daytona with “Fly Shit.”

The Kid Daytona - Fly Sh*t (VIDEO) from The Kid Daytona on Vimeo

This video reminded me that I need to add a cardigan to the wardrobe in the near future.

Big shout out to Casual Dan, who had this cover as a poster on his wall!

Aw shit, THIS is what I’m talking about! Cormega hasn’t dropped an album in AWHILE! Seven years to be exact. I haven’t heard anything off this album, it’s not slated to drop until the summer, but my interest is piqued. My one reservation is that Cormega is too bleak of a rapper to be dropping in the summer, when music is filled with happiness. I think he would be better suited to drop in November or December, when those dark tales of life in the Queensbridge Projects are at full hilt.

For a good episode of New York-ish gangster rap featuring Cormega’s “Fallen Soldiers” peep this episode.

I ask this question because I truly don’t know. I peeped his best of mixtape and I was not impressed. He has like 50 albums out now so I imagine there has to be a FEW joints of his I’m feeling.

So, I’m going to leave this as an open thread, are you feeling Charles Hamilton? If so, what songs from him are you feeling? I left the comments open, but you can post in the forum, e-mail me or whatever. If I like the songs you pick, I’ll buy you a Pabst pounder or something.

As you ready this, I will be headed to Washington D.C., our nations capital visit mi madre (it’s her birthday!).

In the meantime, I’ll give some brief thoughts on happenings in the hip hop world right now:

Rick Ross vs. 50 - Pimpin’ Curly be damned, this beef was done the second 50 took the first baby moms out to buy a fur jacket. The cartoons are funny,  but the second baby moms sex tape is overkill at this point. I’ll probably still download, though. Big shout out to dudes keeping beef interesting in 09, but a big gas face to dudes prolonging beef way longer than it should last (see: Ransom vs. Joe Budden).

Kanye lays the smackdown on the paparazzi (again) - Kanye is in the midst of a mental breakdown or a life crisis. He has stated in interviews that he now only does shit for him, 808’s and Heartbreak, and the black mullet proved that. He is becoming increasingly irritable and angry. He kind of reminds me of the Taxi Driver… “Here’s a man who would not-listen you fuckers…”

Still, his girl is the finest baldhead lady out there.

Good lord is this woman fertile.

Copywrite disses Asher Roth - Copywrite is still rhyming? This guy gets beat up by everybody and their mother so he picks on a white surbuban kid who has a successful single? Get the fuck out of here Pete nelson. You lost the privilege to dis rappers circa Scribble 2006.

((But yeah, Asher does sound like Eminem-lite. I still think he’s pretty entertaining.  I can’t believe “I Love College” is just starting to get run on radio. I played it as a gits and shiggle over 8 months ago and I was late THEN.))

Nice Rec and I will be back with a regular episode on Wednesday or Thursday.

Has it really been TEN years since Black on Both Sides dropped? The past decade has seen the man become known more for his acting than his rapping. After the debacle that was “True Magic” and the decent New Danger, here’s hoping that the man goes straight Q-Tip in ‘08 with The Ecstatic. That would be the Tom Bombadil.

We already played Quiet Dog on an episode and I’m not too much of a fan of “Life in Marvelous Times,” but production from Madlib, Dilla, and Kanye is a recipe for success.

New Mos Def Album Set For Summer @ Allhiphop