The Musik Lounge

After much procrastination I decided it was time to stop and get this review done. It is almost February after all and I have the next artist already picked out to receive my dissection (even if I did loose all their music this week, damn hard drives!). You're just gonna have to wait for that (don't spoil it for 'em Caroline!) - right now it's time for American Gangster , the last studio album we have received from Jigga. After watching the Denzel epic of the same name about Frank Lucas' rise to power in New York, Shawn Carter hit the lab with Puffy's latest incarnation of the hitmen LV & Sean C and banged out one of his most impressive works, albeit a step in the wrong direction for the man who will one day be viewed as the first to deliver a true grown man rap album . Not that I don't blame him, while critics tended to enjoy Kingdom Come his fans (this one included, at the time) were filled with rage due to his choice to talk about his current life in

With a little snow falling it was easy to stay inside and go through the new songs for the week - not much, but I came up with some of the best for ya'll to bang in this weeks edition of TML Radio . TML Radio #4 You aren't gonna find any of the Joe Budden/Saigon beef, although you will here probably the best song of the Slaughterhouse music we've been privy to in a remix to Joell's "Move On." I have been waiting for one of the continuous stream of Freeway cuts to grab me and while I'm not sold that this is the best Free has to offer, it's decent enough. Reks makes another appearance and continues to prove to me that not hearing Gray Hairs is a mistake - can anyone hook me up? As my time in Seattle begins to tick away I'm glad to be hearing some of the best music from local crew Dyme Def. I've been disappointed in a lot of the leaks but "Cheers" is superdope. Anyone who hasn't heard Space Music needs to get it in their life! Els

It's that time once again! Sundays of Soul in full effect. While it took us a few weeks to get back on top of things, Rob and I are gonna deliver the soul to you for the next few weeks and hopefully find a way to keep in going once I depart the 6. After some technical problems we got everything straight and dropped a few tunes live from the 308 straight to you - I hope y'all are having a great weekend and that this will be the soundtrack to your afternoon! TML Radio #4 on it's way...

A week of sickness means a lot of listening time and I heard some great music this week and found some great stuff both on the internet and in the stores of Seattle. I got three weeks left and I'm definetly planing on taking advantage of any oppurtunity to get my dig on! Lord knows what the stores in Coos Bay, Oregon will bear - I think trips to Eugene will be in order... With new adventures and intentions in mind, I present to you the latest installment of the Musik Lounge podcast, New Sounds . I threw this down Friday afternoon and while I've deviated from the "strictly wax" policy (two of these cuts are mp3's, sue me) I think you will be entertained by the assortment of styles touched on throughout. Enjoy this mix and pardon my scratching - I have to play around a little! New Sounds Piet Van Meren "Cool Echo" (Cinemaphonic: Soul Punch) Sandy Nelson "Soulful Strut" (Rebirth of the Beat) Snoop Dogg "The One & Only" (Paid Tha Cost

So... I said I would give ya'll a Sundays of Soul on Sunday regardless. Then I talked with Rob on Sunday and he was down to come through on Monday. He did. I got lazy (and sick) and didn't want to post it that night, and Tuesday came around and I just never did it. So here it is, Sundays of Soul done on a Monday and delivered to you on a Wednesday. Better late than never right? Get your groove on! See Gran Tornio .

Damn... Going through 150 plus tracks from the week takes longer than I thought it would! Oh well, here it is this weeks installment of TML Radio . Kick back and vibe out to this assortment of songs from artists big and small, known and unknown. In honor of the upcoming events of this Tuesday January 20th I had to kick a few songs that speak on the topic - including the one Jeezy just dropped a video for !

So the TML was a little quiet this week. I’m not gonna try and say that I’m real busy and don’t have time… I got time. I got more time than I ever have had since I began doing this thing - almost a year ago that I started? Damn. So whats up with no updates? I just didn’t care this week. Hip Hop wasn’t moving me and as excited as I had been about trying to review American Gangster … Let’s just say it sounds tired. It’ll still come, in due time. For the moment I’m playing country songs on Lia’s radio show and whishing that I didn't need to look for a job while at the same time preparing my resume and getting my hopes up on a job that I probably have about zero chance of getting – but I’ll still give it a shot! Been reading a lot of Wax Poetics lately and not going out. Hell I’ve been reading in general. Even picked up a Sci-Fi book last week and have been reading about ten pages a night. It’s interesting, if not completely understandable. I think I actually had more luck figuring ou

And I'm back around these here parts for another go with TML Radio - I hope y'all are enjoying the tracks and hearing some stuff you weren't up on. This week we had a lot of joints, I had to cut more than I ever remember in the past, but I think I found the best ones to offer you! It's the Musik Lounge y'all, keep rocking.

After a year and a half of playing catch up I’ve finally read the back issues of Wax Poetic s and gotten to new issues I missed out on. And leave it to the first new issue I read to throw an excellent surprise my may – welcome to The Dragons. A trio of brothers (their last name is Dragon) who were living it up in the late sixties in LA found themselves with some instruments and studio time concocting their own tunes, inspired by the sounds of the times and their own youthful innocence and lack of experience. Amplified Emotion BFI was the result, which only saw it’s release recently thanks to Ninja Tune. Inside you will find an amalgam of sounds bordering on a little bit of all that was going on musically at the time of it’s conception. You hear hints of The Beatles pop formulas, although nothing quite as straight forward as what the fab four were known for. You hear some Doors influence and a lot of soulfulness combined with distortion and fuzz. Organs are layered into the tracks and v

I'm some what new to the music of Max Roach , but what I'm hearing is only fueling the already legendary rep the pioneering Bebop drummer has. Today, Januray 10, 2009 would mark his 85th birthday and while people always tend to pay tribute on the days of someones death, I want to celebrate their life and the music that we were blessed with in those years. So give a listen to some of these videos and get familiar with the man and the myth - listen to how he plays and then go out and pick up anything with his name on it! Be sure to watch to the end as Max gets busy before they wrap the song up! "Your hands shimmering on the legs of rain." -From Max Roach's grave stone. May he always rest in peace and forever be remembered in the grooves of the wax.

Emcees Lansky, Remy Banks and Versa hail from Queens NY and make up Children of the Night (COTN, pronounced Cotton – as in the fabric of life). Having spent years in the NY underground they have united under the COTN flag to deliver their debut mixtape 100 % and are looking to break out of their backyard and make an impact on the national Hip Hop scene. In these days and times within the music industry making a name for yourself is as hard as ever and putting in the work is only half the battle. As blogs continue to gain momentum and followers, fans are slowly gaining control of the music once again deciding what it is they want and if you aren’t on point the people won’t be fucking with you. Luckily Lansky, Remy and Versa all have skills plus a natural chemistry that brings to mind the essence of any number of classic Hip Hop groups. 100 % sees these three trading bars over fourteen smooth and soulful tracks reflecting on their lives in the city and the music they love. On “Cartun

Pretty much out of nowhere Termanology came out with If Heaven Was A Mile Away on New Years day. Serving as a tribute to J Dilla we are given just over forty five minutes of Term rocking over a number of classic Dilla soundscapes. Now I know you may be thinking “who is this kid from Mass thinking he can rock to some Dilla?” Well I'm with you on that, Termanology seemingly has no connection to Mr. Yancey and as he states on the outro he wishes he could have gotten to work with him while he was here and this tape is his fulfillment of that dream – as much as it can be given Dilla's passing. Regardless of Term's right to rock some of these tracks, he pays respect and the tape serves as a great example of what Dilla could have accomplished if he had been able to keep blessing us with his genius. Termanology is aware of the line he may be crossing and while it may seem an odd move he succeeds in delivering what I think will prove to be one of the most memorable mixtapes of thi

Yes I was up listening to beat tapes late last night, and the night before. I’ve always enjoyed instrumental Hip Hop – the Strictly Beats blog was my introduction to the music blog scene – and as such I figured why not give some new beat tapes a listen. As it is every year, the first quarter generally starts out fairly slow on the release of new music. Luckily the industry is changing and while our favorite rappers won’t be coming out readily with new music a number of up and comers have been blessing us with great music non stop since before the 2009, and it seems that it’s only going to continue. Dert is a talented producer. As I mentioned in the Jansport J post below , sometimes beat tapes are inspired by one source, as is the case with Talk Strange , an instrumental project inspired by the tunes of Icelandic songstress Bjork. My familiarity with the music of hers is fairly minimal. I heard the Timbo produced tracks and may have ran through the last album once? A couple of her olde

The world of instrumental Hip Hop is vast and intriguing. Never do you really know what to expect from a beat tape. Sometimes it’s an emcees album stripped of the vocals, sometimes it’s a collection of beats composed from one source and sometimes it’s just a dope collection of music put out by a beat maker trying to be heard. Jansport Js latest offering, The 2 AM Tape , would fall into that last category – but he added a slight twist: “This project is an instrumental concept album revolving around all of the common characters, events, and thoughts that take place in the middle of the night...2 AM. The album provides a soundtrack to these events, and takes the listener through a journey through the goings on of 2 AM.” Concept albums aren’t exactly common within Hip Hop. Sure you have the classics like anything Prince Paul lays down and Nas did a decent job last year (although giving up on the name hurts the overall theme) but by and large rappers seem more interested in just spitting r

It feels good to get back to the blog game and it feels even better to have my gear set up right so I can do these podcasts from my spot rather than going into the office on my day off... well what used to be my office. With the recent relaunch of my Musik Lounge mix series I figured it would be a good time to start the Hip Hop podcast again with a slightly changed name, welcome to volume one of TML Radio giving you the latest and greatest in the Hip Hop world! Stay tuned y'all.

One of my goals for the New Year is to listen more. Now I listen to music pretty constantly – but while home for the holidays I realized that when it comes to new, modern music I stick fairly close to the comfort zone of Hip Hop. This isn’t a bad thing, I love rap and it’s by and large the music that inspires me. That being said I’m a vinyl fiend (watch out for a relaunch over there soon!) whose crates are filled with music from across the board yet rarely do I allow those musical interests direct my listening habits when it comes to music of today. "40 Days & 40 Nights" I started Saturday Spin as a way to get myself to listen to stuff outside the box - namely a big pile of CDs I acquired while involved with KSUB , Seattle U’s radio station. I don’t fully know what to expect from the large majority of these discs, I’ve come across artists I know and artists I’ve never heard of. Music that I don’t see any value in and music that I’m sure no one else but me would see valu

I know, I know I've been off an on with these Jay features but I only got two left and I'm determined to knock 'em out! Of course The Black Album didn't end up being Jay's parting shot to the game and form the looks of things we might be many years and several more albums away from Shawn Carters departure from the mic. With Kingdom Come Jay-Z proved once and for all that his talk of laying down the mic was just that, talk. But was it bad? Most took it as less than top form Jay that we all expected from his return effort but time is a funny thing and listening today it stands in his discography as a different record. From less street talk to an elevated level of reflection and introspection this is grown man rap for the older heads to vibe with – but even if you are in your twenties, or teens for that matter, you should be able to find songs here to rock with. While Hov has always blessed us with impressive rhymes if you listen throughout the album you will be trea

Welcome to 2009! I hope y'all had a great holiday and celebrated right. I dropped off the map, but I'm back in the 6 and ready to get busy with the blog once more. I'm gonna be branching out to some other blogs as well, contributing my personal tastes where I can and hopefully continue to expose people to some great music! I spent the day rearranging my apartment, if I can't move to some place new I guess this will have to hold me over. 2009 marks some big changes for me - from being out of school (and loans that expect to be paid starting in a few days) to not having a job (gotta get on the hustle and find something, anyone know people looking for someone?)it's a new begining. In the process of shifting things around this box they call an apartment I managed to get my Pro Tools working right and that means I can get back to dropping mixes like I used to . For those who were checking in with me back then (we got any long time readers?) you will be treated to more of