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Some great tunes added recently.

Here's another hard to find one with The Roots on Chapelle's Show, really kicking ass.

 
Big Chris Big Chris: the title track of Stakes Is High is sublime, it totally kicks ass. Love the horns and the bassline. This particular track has been up and down on youtube like Val Martin's wife's knickers. The reason being that passing copyright on any De La Soul track is like republishing Ulysses with the endless lists of samples from all over the fucking shop. Same with Spotify, no De La Soul at all.

De La Soul: 'Stakes Is High'

 
In the above, compared to rap and hiphop today, note the difference in tone, or you might say the purpose of the music, in terms of messages about love or brotherhood, or talking about the conditions of the world, or the commercial impetus or otherwise, and avarice, pride, respect... why did the general tone change over time to become much more violent, more self obsessed, concerned with money? Anyway here's another album from those times, I posted it before on Isle version 1.x, an old favourite:

 
Maybe it was one song that was just so good that so many of the other songs that came after used it as their model? And then distortions, hideous mutations of the original set in, as time went on.

 
As rap progressed across the decades, the 'message' in the original form was a new style of beat poetry based on the jive and the street talk in the Afro/American communities of the day. The lyrical content was local, it referenced the culture people saw all around them, the life and the social conditions they lived in and how they communicated their opinions and grievances.

But as it progressed through the millennium period to today, it became far more violent and misogynistic, it referenced money and wealth, grabbing the cash and flashing it around. Having bitches and whores, fast cars, jewelry, power, tossing cash, gold teeth, and the classic full tracksuit as the new style on the streets. The sportswear as a suit type statement, with the massive gold chains and huge rings on the fingers were the ostentatious signs of success - in terms of wealth. Along with a new pair of Nike/Puma/Adidas sneakers every other day was now the parallel of the white man's business suit and handmade shoes. It had a sort of rebellious punk ethic to it. A new way of showing your wealth and at the same time giving two fingers to convention.

Chuck D made point that, for all the money the Afro/American population spent on designer sports gear from all the big names, that these companies never put anything back into the communities that made them so wealthy right across the globe. So the political messages from the late 80's through to today had some degree of parallel, but the scope was getting wider all the time. By now there's no rule book at all. You can rap about whatever the fuck you like and nobody is shocked by any of it. There aren't any subjects that are untouchable - everything is up for judgement. But the lowest common denominator still applies: if you want to get rich in the music business these days, you'd better have something new, a new barrier to break down.

Politically speaking, nobody has yet surpassed the work of Gil Scott Heron, Afro/American, author, poet, and songwriter. He didn't dilute his statements to suit television or radio. That wasn't his base anyway, but still - modern America had a hard time from Heron, he didn't mince his words. He went for the jugular every time, and it took a long, long time for Heron's work to be appreciated for what he did. Like here, his angle on the Reagan era with references to the McCarthy trials and fear of the big bad communist wolf. The sad thing is that nobody has come close to doing what he did both politically and musically. Many have tried, but none have succeeded.

 
Got a guest list for this guy here in Helsinki tonight around 1900: Emile Parisian, clarinet player of immense talent. My bassist Lionel is hosting him for the weekend and I'm hoping we can get him to join us at the studio afterwards and maybe add some of his skills to the tracks we're currently working on.

The jazz scene, like the global punk scene, has a healthy network that helps bands and players tour ever wider circles and keep the outgoing budget as low as possible by having international musicians stay at yours for the night and in return they offer you the same treatment. This often involves composers and players arriving in town and using a local rhythm section (for example) and their equiptment for their shows. IN return they do the same for you in their location. This requires no third party agency creaming off their 17.5/20% cut in the fees. You can do via the internet and set up your tour even as just one man alone - which is what I'm waiting to find out: has Emile a band with him or is it just himself?

I'll know over the next few hours and will head to the show (it's in a beautiful location on Töölönlahti in an old wooden stately home) and then later back to the studio either with or without this genius. Never heard anyone play clarinet like this:

 
One evolutionary track of the rap / hip hop / electro of 1979-1984 was into what is now called "Chicago house", where today's club and techno scene largely started. Here is one wonderful club track, from 1988, with stripped back, minimalist beats and a Roland 303 accompanying the jive, from Chicago producer and DJ Mike Dunn.

 
This is my favorite song on a very good album, and the video alone is worth watching. Gilmour starts riffing at the end, around the 5:00 mark, but the gentle beauty of this entire song is just wonderful to listen to.

 
This is my favorite song on a very good album, and the video alone is worth watching. Gilmour starts riffing at the end, around the 5:00 mark, but the gentle beauty of this entire song is just wonderful to listen to.

 
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