Recently, the trio participated in the 30 Songs, 30 Days project, contributing a vicious and scathing anti-Donald Trump diss track “Fat Fingers” in which Diggs references Nas’ legendary diss track “Ether” and the Canadian anthem “O, Canada” to a sparse yet forcefully minimalist production featuring a sample of people whislting the melody of the Canadian anthem, boom bap-beats, industrial clang and clatter. Fuck Donald Trump and everything about him and his family!
Tag: Nas
Unless you’ve been living under a cave for the better part of the past 15 years, if you’re a hip hop head, you’d be familiar with New York-based emcee Jadakiss both as a member of The LOX and DMX’s Ruff Ryders crew and for recording four solo albums — with the most recent being 2015’s Top 5 Dead or Alive. RRose RRome is New York-based emcee and founder of Real Right Empire, and the two New York-based emcees recently teamed up for
“Ziploc,” a swaggering, boom-bap street anthem using a sample from Nas‘ and Lauryn Hill’s “If I Ruled The World” that’s recently been taking over the airwaves at my hometown’s two super conglomerate hip hop and bullshit dispensaries. And although I don’t have a ton of respect for my cities’ local hip hop stations, this particular single brings it all back to basics — emcees spitting and bragging over dope beats and scratching.
Los Angeles, CA-based producer and artist Ringgo Ancheta, best known as MNDSGN has had one of the more unusual backgrounds of any contemporary producer. Ancheta’s parents were once members of the Philippine arm of Aum Shrinriyko, a controversial cult that reportedly believed in the imminence of armageddon — and believed that the US would start the process with the attacking Japan to begin World War 3. As a child, Ancheta was raised in the forests — until the group’s increasing ventures into terrorist activities, forced his family to flee the group in the late 1980s. The Anchetas were granted political asylum and eventually settled in rural New Jersey, where the young Ancheta was raised on the outskirts of a commune without electricity, while his father worked as a researcher at Princeton Neuroscience Institute.
As the story goes, one of Ringgo Ancheta’s earliest excursions into the “modern: world was a trip in which he hitchhiked to Philadelphia — and as he has publicly described it, the first guy he encountered, introduced an impressionable young Ancheta to beat making and production. Within a day, Ancheta was making his own beats on his newfound friend’s sampler. And as his trips, to Philadelphia became more frequent, he began using the name Mndsgn (pronounced as “mind design), largely inspired by the Nas lyrics, “my mind is seeing through your design like blind fury,” and a nod to his father’s work in neuroscience.
Much like a large number of J. Dilla-inspired instrumental producers and beat makers, Ancheta eventually headed west to Los Angeles, where he was eventually signed by renowned indie hip-hop label Stones Throw Records, who released his full-length debut Yawn Zen, an effort that seemed deeply inspired by the peaceful bliss of meditation and paired it with a thoughtful soulfulness.
The renowned producer, who recently played at Northside is putting the finishing touches on an album that is slated to be released by the end of this year, and the yet unnamed album’s first single “Ya Own Way” a shimmering, slinky and soulful bit of synth funk that channels Dam-Funk, complete with vocals fed through vocoder and other effects to give the entire song a retro-futuristic and cosmic sheen.
New Video: The Dream Collaboration: J. Dilla, Nas and Madlib Team Up On a Long-Lost Single and Video
Much ink — both real and virtual — has been spilled on the work of the legendary J. Dilla, so delving deeply into his backstory will seem highly unnecessary — but what I will say […]
Nigerian-born, Montreal-based producer Teck-Zilla emerged as an up-and-coming producer with the release of Son of Sade: An Ode, an 18 minute instrumental mixtape that was intended as a tribute to both the renowned British-Nigerian vocalist Sade and the producer’s mother, who coincidentally is also named Sade. Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past two years or so, you might remember that I wrote about the Nigerian-Canadian producer’s Afro Bootleg EP, an EP that had the producer revisiting his birthplace, as he remixed some of Nigeria’s biggest hits with a populist, globe-spanning, crowd-rocking sound that would get asses moving in clubs across New York, Montreal, Lagos, London, Ibiza an others.
Although it’s been a little while since we’ve heard from Teck-Zilla, the Nigerian-born and Montreal, QC-based producer has been prolific, as he’s released a number of mixtapes, including the aforementioned Son of Sade and Afro Bootleg EP, as well as Souled Off: A Dedication to Molly Molls. His third and latest instrumental mixtape Joe Jackson Kids has the producer paying homage to Michael Jackson — mostly Jackson 5-era Michael Jackson as the mixtape features snippets of interviews with Michael Jackson and his family, as he was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and uncertain about his fame, and a variety of chopped up samples of Jackson 5 songs and Michael’s solo work. While reminding the listener that Michael Jackson’s ghost looms large in contemporary pop — hell, contemporary music in general — the mixtape also manages to create nuanced and empathetic portrait and interpretation of the young Michael Jackson. But ironically, the EP’s title comes from a playful, inside joke that the Nigerian-born, Montreal-based producer had with his brother. As Teck-Zilla explains in press notes “I got the title from one of my favourite Jeru the Damaja records, ‘Whatever,’ off his Wrath of the Math LP. That line always cracked me and my brother up every time, so it was kinda like an inside joke for both of us. Just remember to say ‘check it out’ after the title.”
Probably the biggest highlight on the mixtape is “Human Nature (Jackson Jones Flip)” which not only turns the original song on its head, but also reminds the listener of how influential the song has been to hip-hop and to R&B as Teck-Zilla weaves bits of Nas‘ classic Illmatic including “It Ain’t Hard to Tell,” “The World Is Yours” and others songs while subtly nodding at Off the Wall. “Letter to Michael” is a headbanging take on Michael’s work that sounds as though it were indebted to J. Dilla while “Goodbye (Last Call)” is a sensual closer that features twinkling percussion, handclaps and chopped up bits of Michael singing in a way that creates an entirely different song. “JJ Kids” features the sample that inspired the title before quickly turning into the warm, twinkling soul instrumental that’s nods to J. Dilla and Pete Rock. But perhaps most important, the entire mixtape reveals Teck-Zilla to be a remarkably playful yet thoughtful producer, whose sound has become increasingly warm and soulful.
New Video: Shabaam Shadeeq’s “Grown Man Rap” is Here To Save You From Too Many Rappers and Not Enough Emcees
Over the nearly six year history of this site, Brooklyn-based emcee Shabaam Sahdeeq has become a JOVM mainstay artist, who I’ve written about on a number of occasions. Last year marked Sahdeeq’s 20th year as a recording […]
New Video: Follow a Wild Day in the Life in the New Video for J57 and Koncept’s “The Excitement” feat. Andrew Thomas Reid
J57 and Koncept released their latest collaboration The Fuel EP last month to critical acclaim across the blogosphere, and it shouldn’t be terribly be surprising if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time as the duo, along with their […]
New Video: The Affecting and Empathetic, New Video for Koncept and J57’s “The Fuel” feat. Akie Bermiss
J57, Koncept and their sadly unheralded (and extremely prolific) crew of collaborators, Brown Bag All-Stars have mainstays on this site as I’ve written about J57, Koncept and several other members of crew throughout the years. And if you’ve been […]
As a hip-hop fan going back to the early 80s, it seems to me that at times the genre and its fans can frequently be incredibly fickle, and as the genre goes through its inevitable […]
As a native born Queens kid, I have a particularly interesting relationship with my home borough. I’ve joked that it’s mostly a hate/hate relationship but in reality it’s probably much more along the lines of […]
Hot Sauce Committee Part Two was the last Beastie Boys album to be released, and the album featured a collaboration of New York hip-hop legends – the beloved trio of MCA, Ad Rock and Mike D, […]
A few years ago, I was at a Summerstage show that included the legendary Large Professor got on the stage and literally half the audience had no idea who the man was – nor did […]
As a native Queens boy, it frequently seems as though my home borough is a sort of barren wasteland artistically, although that isn’t quite the case. After all, The Ramones, one of the world’s greatest […]
In comparison to the archetypical hip-hop producer, Ringgo Ancheta has quite an unusual biography. Ancheta’s parents were once members of the Philippine arm of the Aum Supreme Truth Cult, and as a result he was raised […]