Stephen loses Time’s Top 100 most influential people to Korean pop star Rain.

Rain shows up at the studio for an after hours dance-off with Stephen.

Today is “when I feel like it” as I forgot about it yesterday. It is also a bit of a change from my normal musical choices. I’ve posted plenty of hip-hop. Plenty of R&B. A decent amount of rock…I think. Today we get some good ‘ol Blues. Well, not really old, as I believe it was released in 2006. Either way, it is incredibly good. The artist died last year but I’m not too sure too many tears were shed as he was vilified in a very public divorce and later a big movie starring Angela Bassett playing the iconic Tina Turner. If you haven’t figured it out by now, you should probably just stop reading now…of course I’m pretty much done typing now so…do as you wish. Anyway, without further ado I give you the Grammy nominated artist Ike Turner. Not much of a man, but one hell of an artist.

Ike Turner – Rockin’ Blues
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I’ve always been fascinated by the punk scene. But until now, I’ve never looked into it. Only thing punk I knew of was the Sex Pistols and The Ramones. It’s safe to say, I’m not a fan of punk after seeing this. Only band I sorta enjoyed, of what little I heard, was D.O.A. and Bad Brains. I totally respect the scene. Just not the music I’d ever be into. It was cool seeing Henry Rollins in the scene. Didn’t much dig Black Flag, but they didn’t show a whole lot of performance stuff. My favorite line from the movie was John Joseph going on a calm profanity laced tirade about todays “punk” scene…

“We looked forward to going on the road because at least we got hospitality and we got fed and we got to do shows and have a great time, but it wasn’t none of this shit, all these fucking, like, spoiled little fucking brats that are on MTV now with their fucking buses and all this bullshit and they’re calling that shit punk. That ain’t fucking punk.”

Bitter much? Though I feel the exact same way about most of the rap music of today.

Also didn’t know straight edge was popularized by the hardcore punk scene. Interesting, since my image of punk was drug addicted fools like those in the Sex Pistols. Anyway, I greatly enjoyed the DVD and highly recommend it.

Back in my hoodlum days, I listened to “gangsta rap” almost exclusively. Besides the obvious N.W.A., Ice-T, Ice Cube, The Wu and Geto Boys I had one not as well known favorite. A cat from the Bay. I know what your thinking, but you’re wrong. It’s not the one trick pony Too Short, or MC Eiht, or E-40. The king of the Bay in my eyes is easily Spice 1.

I bought, stole, acquired, borrowed, and/or downloaded his first CD I’d say at least 7 times due to it being stolen, acquired, borrowed, lost, and/or pawned. A side effect of hanging with other nefarious wannabe thugs and needing money for a 40 on the weekends.

His first cd is still one of my favorite rap albums EVER. His flow and the way he could change up his styles was just great. With that said, I have 2 tracks for today as I couldn’t choose just one. These are my two favorite songs, and both are off his first CD.

Spice 1 – 187 Proof
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Spice 1 – Eastbay Gangsta
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Side note – Damn Jayhawks! What the hell!? Oklahoma? Seriously?

Todays song is Livin’ In a New World by The Roots off the cd Game Theory. I haven’t listened to this cd alot, so when I was trying to come up with the song for today I hadn’t a clue. A quick listen to a few of the songs and this one stuck out the most. Also liked the title track, but again. I really like the Beck-esque vocals. Hell it might be Beck, but I’m too lazy to check it out. Anyway, due to extreme laziness I’m done talking.

Livin’ In a New World by The Roots
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Today I give you Papoose. Until I heard this song, I had never heard of him. I’m not real upto it as it relates to underground hip-hop. Since I have no personal experience as it relates to Papoose, I give you his WIKI PAGE.

The song is a lyrical nightmare I imagine for most rappers as he raps the alphabet. Calm down, it’s not like it sounds. He goes through the whole alphabet using only words starting with the specific letter he’s on. Pretty impressive. The beat’s alright. I’ve heard it somewhere but can’t place it.  What’s important is it makes you bob your head.

Without further ado, I give you…

DJ Kay Slay and Papoose – Alphabetical Slaughter
[mp3]DJ_Kay_Slay_and_Papoose_-_Alphabetical_Slaughter.mp3[/mp3]

This week we have my current favorite hip-hop group. That group Jurassic 5. Only problem is, they’re no longer current as they broke up. Ego’s are a bitch. It’s a shame they never made it bigger, cuz they’re a perfect blend of old school and new. Simple rhymes that just flow into one another. No overly complicated deliveries, no gimmick, not overly produced shit. Just a simple sound with great lyricists. I guess the CunninLynguists get to be my new favorite hip-hop crew by default. I really love their new album Dirty Acres. But that neither here nor there as this is about the greatness of J5. Picking one song is impossible. So I devised a complicated system that only I and the greatest of mind’s would understand. I’m not gonna even try to explain, but it involves a blindfold and pointing…like I said, very complicated.

Without further ado I give you J5 – “End Up Like This” off their latest and hopefully not last CD “Feedback”.

Jurassic 5 – End Up Like This
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I’m not gonna lie and claim Nas as the second coming. I’m not gonna say he’s the greatest rapper alive. Hell, if I had a choice between Jay-Z and Nas, I would pick Jay-Z. No qualms about it. I will say Nas is great. He is one of the greatest lyricists alive. It’s funny, I like Jay-Z’s flow better, and it’s pretty much confirmed Jay-Z “borrowed” Nas flow. Jay-Z used to have a fast, rapid delivery flow but like Jay-Z said.

Yeah I sampled your voice, you was using it wrong
You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song

With that said, I can listen to Nas’s older shit anytime. I eventually get tired of Jay-Z’s albums. I LOVE ‘em when they first come out. Then after a month or so I grow tired of ‘em. I never grow tired of Nas. So without further ado…Nas “One Mic”. It’s the beat that I love so much. The lyrics and flow is nothing to look past either. Love everything about it. I just feel like a new man after hearing it. Very calming…and yet so angry.

I found this next artist thanks to gamefly…yes gamefly, let me explain. I went to gamefly to see what game I had coming next, and I noticed they had free mp3 downloads. I was bored, so checked it out. Saw a group by the name of “Little Brother”. Looked like Hip-Hop, so downloaded it…not bad. It also had a link to their myspace, so checked it out as well. Again, not bad. Checked out their friends and noticed another artist.

This one going by the name of Donnie. He looked like he did R&B, so again, I checked it out…and was very pleasantly surprised. He’s got a very unique sound in this day and age, and just a consciousness about him. He’s not crying or bitching about his ex-lady friend, he’s not trying to be hard. He’s just singing about life, the things that affects him, and the world.

I’m not gonna lie. I immediately went to my favorite download spots to see what I can find…nothing. So like any good citizen I broke down and bought both of his CD’s. They were worth the money. Especially his debut CD “The Colored Section”. I don’t really have a favorite song yet, so I’m just gonna post the first one that “spoke” to me. That song. Beautiful Me off his debut CD, The Colored Section.

Today is the legendary rap group Geto Boys. Oddly enough the song I’ve chosen today is off their CD ‘Til Death Do Us Part, which featured Big Mike instead of Willie D. It’s still my favorite Geto Boys CD. So many outstanding tracks. 6 Feet Deep, Crooked Officer, the fun Cereal Killer, and Murder after Midnight. But my favorite by far is “Straight Gangstaism”. Just everything about it. Lyrics, flow, beat. Great stuff. Without further ado…