the styling is creative, Black Sheep of the Native

Dres (of Black Sheep) was an emcee to check for in the early '90s. Black Sheep's most famous track, "The Choice Is Yours" was a 6th grade favorite, and in a time where "choice" matters, it's back.

Dres apparently just reworked "The Choice Is Yours" to fit the recent political frenzy. Maybe it's a bit late, maybe it's too easy, and maybe dude could do more than just remake an old hit--but the song reminds me of simpler times, is timely itself, and very nostalgic. It's worth a listen if you were a fan and, at least it's not pro-McCain. Above is the new video for it, and below is the press release they sent me, followed by the exclusive track for download (...pick it up, pick it up, pick it up!):

Austin, TX - October 29, 2008 - Dres of the platinum-selling hip hop group Black Sheep has revitalized the 1991 hit "The Choice is Yours", rewriting lyrics and donating his time and services to create an innovative pro-Obama voter initiative video. Partnered with Austin based creative teams at Voodoo Cowboy Entertainment and Super!Alright! Media in an all-volunteer effort, Dres re-recorded and shot the updated version of "The Choice is Yours" in Austin, Texas in just under two days.

"When I was younger I was told that I could be president if I wanted to, but for the first time in my life I believe it. It's an honor to work with this talented artist collective and to do my part in support of the Obama campaign and towards becoming the America that truly has liberty and justice for all". -Dres

undercover cover

Clocking in at a minute-and-a-half, “Stay” by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs is said to be the shortest song ever to be #1 on the American pop charts. It's super-popular and is a song everyone knows because it so catchy, and is also likely why its been covered so many times. Above is an early promo picture of Mr. Maurice before landing his huge hit.

Of all the cover versions by all the artists—Cindy Lauper, The Hollies, The Four Seasons, The Diamonds, Jackson Browne and others—I had never heard this northern soul version before. It's by a UK pop/soul group called The Virginia Wolves and is the most upbeat of all the versions.

***It's jumpy, full of thump, and has a clap-a-long break too. PLUS, the bassline is real nice. And there's horns. And it all fits neatly in under 2-minutes. Audio is low, so turn it way up!

sad bastard blues

Chris Jackson’s work was released on Soul City Records. Besides that, I can’t find anything on him (hit us up if you have any info!). "Little" Jimmy Scott on the other hand has had a long, illustrious, and fully documented career.

“Forever I’ll Stay With You” by Chris Jackson is so endearing. It doesn't knock, nor is it especially unique. But Jackson sounds so desperate and is totally unflinching about it. The fact that he isn’t particularly that great of a vocalist adds even more character. Some singers sound gruff, some sound smooth, some powerful, but Jackson sounds nerdy, and it works.


And if Jackson isn’t soft enough, "Little" Jimmy Scott says, “It’ll rain 40 days and nights” from his "eyes” if his girl leaves him, on his late ‘60s hit, “40 Days and 40 Nights”. It's upbeat for a sad song, and the lyrics are typical of the time, but I like the way Scott delivers on this one. Dude's heartbroken and doesn't care who knows. Get a grip man.


Check these out if you’re in the mood for great sad bastard soul tracks.***The great "Little" Jimmy Scott, pictured above.

...and to my rescue, it was an S1W: Chuck D, the '68 Olympics

Last week, your WTTM fam shot over to San Jose State University to catch Chuck D. He covered topics like the upcoming election, race, and commemorated the statement made by Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the winner's stand at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. October 16th marked the fortieth anniversary of this controversial, but moving statement. The image of their protest has left an indelible mark in civil rights history. Read on it hurr.

In other Public Enemy/power fighting news, the Security of the First World has been officially recalled into duty. We found the following article timely. Holler at The Onion.

Brooklyn Represent

Menahan Street Band's excellent debut, Make The Road By Walking, came out a few days ago. I interviewed Tommy Brenneck, producer and bandleader behind the group for Wax Poetics' new issue #31.
Besides being one the year's best releases, Tommy also explained the sense of community that underpins the project. PS 20, an elementary school in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, invited the Menahan Street Band to watch their music students perform "Make The Road By Walking", the track which Jay-Z also sampled for "Roc Boys (and the winner is...)". Below is the homevideo footage of Clinton Hill's 4th and 5th grade music students' performance of "Make The Road By Walking".

"The whole thing with the school is [like] giving back to the community. We were amazed and everyone involved in the project went. Most schools can’t afford music programs anymore and these kids chose to to pick up instruments and played our song. And they were actually enjoying it too! Their performance was unbelievable! They were amazed and asked us how we wrote these songs, and we were like: all you guys can, and will, do it one day too." -Tommy Brenneck

***For more info on Menahan Street Band, or to purchase Make The Road By Walking (highly recommended!) please visit Daptone's website.

heads up seven up

Controller 7 interview + South Paw Symphony (Controller 7 mix!) by Buddy Peace!

The Bay Area’s own Controller 7 let us pick his brain a bit, allowing us to cover some hometown history and future plans. Humble and to the point, he breaks down his early path in music, his beatmaking process, and the making of his enjoyable ’02 release, Left Handed Straw. Here are seven questions and answers with the low-key beatsmith.

1.) How did you get involved in making beats?
I started with cassettes from The Colombia House music club. I then started buying cds [when they were still in the long boxes]. I bought a few hip-hop 12-inches when I was about 15 or 16, but I didn't have a turntable. I would sneak into my brother’s room and record them onto tape when he was gone. He had one of those crappy all in one stereos that had a turntable on top. I eventually got more and decided to get my own turntable. I had a crappy 8-track cassette receiver that I used for my stereo. It had an aux input and a phono input and I was able to push a button halfway down, allowing both a cd player and a turntable to play at the same time. It was like a mixer without separate channels or faders. I was hooked and shortly after bought some 1200s. I bought them from the classifieds in the newspaper when I was 16 or 17 and I still use the same 1200s today. Eventually I decided I wanted to make my own beats. I bought a Roland MS-1 sampler, which is a terrible sampler. I remember telling my parents that "all I need now is a drum machine and I'll be able to make beats." I bought a Roland DR-5 or something like that. Also terrible. It was a bad combo and wasn't what I wanted.

I used to shop at Tower Records a lot and I met Dave Dub, who had been on an early Peanut Butter Wolf EP. He worked there and we used to talk whenever I’d go in there. He was in a group with this guy named Tape Master Steph. They knew I had a Tascam 4-track and asked if they could come over and record a song. Steph brought over his Ensoniq EPS and I was blown away. It sampled and had a sequencer! That was amazing to me. I found one at a used shop, sold the ms-1 and the dr-5 and moved onto the EPS. That's how it all started for me.

2.) Walk new producers through your production process.
I've gone through different phases. When I first started I was just really innocent and didn't know what I was doing. I would get so excited to hear something looping and throw some drums on it. I would make beats really fast.

These days I actually take more time and plan things better. I used to just grab stuff and make a beat in an hour or so. There was definitely a benefit to that. It was fun and carefree and I didn't get hung up on minor details. Now I'll spend more time trying to get things right. I like to figure out the whole map of the song ahead of time. Almost like an outline for an essay.

I usually start with a main sample. Sometimes I’ll start with drums, but I usually start with the sample first. I’ll go through tons of records and look for things that work well with what I’ve already got. Sometimes I'll spend days, months, or even years looking for something that I think is missing. A lot of the time I just never find that missing element. That's kind of what differentiates a beat and a song for me. Some samples are more flexible and allow me to develop on them and the ideas come naturally. Sometimes I'll be working on something and there is just nothing I can add to change it. So, in those cases I usually just decide that that one will be just a "beat" and not a "song" if that makes any sense.

3) Left Handed Straw is a great album; the artwork, everything was smooth.Talk about making it and describe the time in which it was made.
I made Left Handed Straw when I was going to Berkeley. I was so excited about music then and I was eager to work on anything I could. I made most of that stuff really fast. The funny thing is that a lot of the beats were made in an hour or so, but piecing the whole album together took about 6 months. I had most of the individual parts done, but I would spend 3 or 4 days getting the transition from one beat to another right. Sometimes there would be a drop in record static or something that just felt wrong to me and I'd go back in and add little things to make it sound more seamless. I'd add little things that you don't really hear, but help the overall flow sound more natural.

I made it using a 4-track and an mpc2000. The funny thing about the 4-track was that once I finished a section I was stuck with it. It wasn't like pro tools where I could easily take a chunk from the beginning and move it to the end. So, when you listen to LHS you are listening to how it came together over the 6-month period. I laid out the first 10-minutes while I was on Christmas break in 1999. I was originally piecing it all together as a mixtape for my friends to listen to. It was like a combo of all these beats I'd made over the past year and a bunch of little skits and records I had sampled for other projects. I made a lot of stuff specifically for LHS and specifically to fill in certain spaces. I had a micro-cassette recorder to record lectures at school, but I ended up using it to record sounds all over Berkeley. A lot of that stuff ended up creating the atmosphere of the record. There are a lot of things on that record that embarrass me, but I still enjoy it for what it is.

4.) As a producer, what is your dream project?
I used to want to make some magnum opus sample based epic masterpiece, but I'm not all that concerned with that these days. I'd like to make a whole album with a vocalist, but I've never really found a good fit. I'm slowly working on a few projects right now. I don't have any real dream project. I'm just happy working on stuff I like to listen to. I'm not trying to be famous. I just want to make stuff that people respect and enjoy.
5.) How did Buddy Peace’s South Paw Symphony happen?
Buddy Peace bought a t-shirt off of me about 7 years ago. We ended up talking through email and he sent me a cassette he made of some remixes and mixes. I really liked it. It had some great stuff on it. We've kept in touch since then and he's probably sent me about 30 other mix cds. He's crazy. I actually can't remember if he asked me if he could do the South Paw Symphony thing or if he just did it. It was right after my "expansions" ep came out. He did a great job. It's kind of like his take on my music. It's more than just a mix. He did some re-edits and made some tracks of his own using my songs. He's an incredibly nice guy.

***Buddy Peace's South Paw Symphony in its entirety below. Thanks Bud!

6.) What’s a cool, obscure track you think our readers should check out?
Dennis Olivieri ‘s "I Cry In The Morning". It was made famous because DJ Shadow sampled it for 6 Days, but the original is amazing. It's just a beautiful song.

***Hear “I Cry In The Morning”.


7.) What’s on your plate next?
I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I've been on a bit of a musical vacation. I haven't put anything out in awhile, but I've got some stuff done. Hopefully I'll get some stuff out soon. I've got about two albums worth of stuff done. One is more of a collection of beats and out-takes from the past 7-years and the other is more of a focused album, along the lines of an updated Left Handed Straw. I've got some mixes done too. Some half-done. Some ideas still in my head.

***For more info on Controller 7 and his releases pictured above, please visit Controller 7.com

***To find out more about Buddy Peace and his ongoing work, visit his myspace and 2600 Recordings.

Afrobeatdown

Happy birthday to the great Fela Kuti!

Born in 1938, Fela left Nigeria for London when he was twenty-years-old to study medicine. Luckily for the world, he found medical school insipid, choosing instead to study music at the Trinity College Of Music. He then formed his first band, Koola Lobitos, which would lay the foundational sound for what he would ultimately be known for, Afrobeat.

His history--government raids, riots, drug arrests, abundant sex, mass protests, name changes, political revolts and 27 wives!--is dense as his recordings are. One could devote years simply exploring his life alone (which has been done). But we just wanted to give a nod to a forefather of a genre who, if alive, would be seventy-years-old today. It's really hard to overstate his importance on music.

****Here's the title track from the revered, Expensive Shit, another long, opaque joint full of grooves and drums galore.

Cutso" (Fingerbangerz) Bitchin' Fast Rap MegaUltraMasterMix!

Here's a mix I did for Blind I For The Kids. For all you fast rap fans. Nothin' serious, only buggin'. Shouts to Noahdeeakili! Peep game hurr.

Obama-rama

We're less than 3-weeks away from possibly the most consequential election of our time. Commentators talk about it, songwriters sing about it, and comedians joke about it. Below are what smart DJs are doing about it.
Both have been floating around the internet for a while, but both are real nice!

Z-Trip's Party For Change Mix HERE

King Most's Obamix HERE

Bass, Girls, And Jheri Curls

I reviewed Stones Throw’s hilarious Arabian Prince release for the September issue of REMIX Magazine. Read the excerpt HERE.
L-R: Arabian Prince, Jerry Heller, Eazy, Dre, Yella (Photo Courtesy of Stones Throw)

I re-listened to Innovative Life the other day and found myself still laughing at the childish raps and cheesy song construction. Old booty bass/electro rap is usually entertaining, even if I'm not always in the mood for it. Plus, Arabian Prince’s career (Egyptian Lover associate turned N.W.A. member) is a West Coast benchmark that connects the decline of electro to the rise of gangsta. It must've been awkward having to decide whether to stay electro or go gansta.

"Do whatcha like and do whatcha please, like an 88-year-old lady tryin' to do a strip tease..." from the track "Strange Life". Hear it here:


****To purchase Arabian Prince's Innovative Life, please visit Stones Throw's store, HERE.

Rubber Soul Train

Derek’s Daily 45 dropped this one on me. “Devil In His Heart” by The Donays is not only amazing, but was also an early Beatles cover. I like how Derek explores the notion that the Beatles were listening to soul around the time they first began.

Check out the original post from Derek’s Daily 45, HERE!

The Donays’ version is below. It reminds me that the best songs are simple ones.


With The Beatles is where this version appears. George Harrison on lead vocals yo.