Show 15 - Left-Field Hip-Hop

Ever heard of left-field hip-hop? Yeah, neither had I until fairly recently. I noticed it was popping up as a genre tag on a lot of artists searches I was doing on All Music Guide, which piqued my curiosity. Turns out left-field hip-hop lives at the intersection of electronic music and hip-hop -- two things I already love independently of one another. Also, upon discovering that Kid Cudi falls under the left-field category, I took this as an opportunity to open the show with "I Poke Her Face," the play on that insidious Lady Gaga song "Poker Face" off of his latest mixtape. Does the fact that I find that hilarious make me a self-hating woman? Probably.

Left-Field Hip-Hop
25 May 2009

1. Kid Cudi - "I Poke Her Face," Dat Kid From Cleveland
2. Mic Break: RJD2 - "Two More Dead," Dead Ringer
3. Onra - "I Wanna Go Back," Chinoiseries
4. Boom Bip - "Mannequin Trap Door I Remember," Seed To Sun
5. Bizzart - "Stumbling Blocks," Bloodshot Mama
6. El-P - "Flyentology," I'll Sleep When You're Dead
7. Dabrye - "The Lish," One/Three
8. Daedelus - "At My Heels," Denies the Day's Demise
9. Mic Break: Onra - "Full Backpack," Chinoiseries
10. J Dilla - "Stop!," Donuts
11. J Dilla - "People," Donuts
12. J Dilla - "The Diff'rence," Donuts
13. Flying Lotus - "RobertaFlack," Los Angeles
14. Madlib - "Shades Of Pete (Super)," Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6
15. Madlib - "King Chop (Top Line)," Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6
16. Prefuse 73 - "Blacklist," Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
17. Alias - "Angel of Solitude," The Other Side of the Looking Glass
18. Mic Break
19. RJD2 - "Ghostwriter," Dead Ringer
    

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Show 14 - Mama's Day

Emcees like to act all tough and mean, but I'm convinced that at heart they are all big mama's boys. This incontrovertible fact was illustrated by the hour of Yo! KALX Raps! I dedicated to mom tribute tracks by everyone from Goodie Mob to 2Pac. Rappers love they mamas.

I'm going to be honest here and give credit where credit is due. I hadn't heard of most of these songs before putting this show together. So here are links to places I came across during my research: a neat list that was featured on NPR, a list from About.com and a list from Co-Ed Magazine. More musings about hip-hop and Mother's Day after the jump.

On a somewhat related note, I came across some commentary on the lack of dad tribute tracks. This piqued my interest because 1) I've never thought about dad tribute tracks and couldn't think of a single one and 2) I figure I should also do a Father's Day show to be fair. This seems correlated with the fact that I think every track I played mentions that dad wasn't part of the picture.

Another interesting thing to consider is if rappers love they mamas so much how do they reconcile that with having such naughty, misogynist mouths? That "ho" you just objectified and/or insulted is probably someone's mama. Something tells me you wouldn't be okay with someone saying that about your mama ...

Also, I tried out something new this show with the mic breaks. Instead of using instrumental tracks for the mic beds, I worked some Audacity magic and put the breaks from songs on repeat. I haven't decided which is less work: finding instrumentals that fit into a show's theme or dinking around in Audacity (which proved to be more difficult initially than I had anticipated). I'll probably use a mix of instrumentals and breaks in the future. If you happen to have an opinion on the matter, by all means made it known. Onward to the playlist.


Show 14 - Mama's Day
11 May 2009

1. Brand Nubian - "Momma," Fire In the Hole
2. Mic Break
   
3. Talib Kweli - "Momma Can You Hear Me"
4. Goodie Mob - "Guess Who," Soul Food
5. Nas - "Dance," God's Son
6. Ghostface Killah - "All That I Got Is You," Me Against the World
7. Common Market - "Love One," Common Market
8. Mic Break
9. 2Pac - "Dear Mama," Me Against the World
10. A Tribe Called Quest - "4 Moms," The Love Movement
11. Chubb Rock - "Momma Was a Rolling Stone," Chubb Rock Featuring Hitman Howie
12. Beanie Sigel - "Mom Praying," The Reason
13. Jay-Z - "December 4th," The Black Album
14. Mic Break
15. Kanye West - "Hey Mama," Late Registration

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