Skillz 2011 Wrap-Up

Oops, did he say “3,000 home runs?”…
hip hop music

HHS 2011 Year-In-Review: The 10 Best Mixtapes Of The Year

So, last year we picked 25 of our favorite mixtapes, but this year we narrowed it down to a concise 10 selections. Why? Well, how many times can you hear freestyles over the same “hot” instrumentals? So, this year, we trimmed the fat, instead choosing the cream-of-the-crop. As far as the 2011 mixtape game is concerned, these cats did it best.

P.S. – What?!?! No Buck’s Wildest Beats?!??! Heh…

10. XV – Zero Heroes - On his 15th (!) mixtape, “newcomer” XV celebrated his namesake by releasing yet another collection of strong original songs, including viral standouts like “Awesome” and “Pictures On The Wall”. Coupled with guest shots from Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, Cyhi Da Prynce, Vado, and others, it’s clear from the sound of things that Mr. X-To-The-V is just getting warmed up.

9. Consequence – Movies On Demand 2 – Before all of the controversy surrounding Consequence this year, he released one hell of a mixtape with Movies On Demand 2, the follow-up to 2010′s original. Consisting of all original material, Cons kept his ear to the street, inviting both today’s generation of emcees to take part (Kendrick, XV, Diggy, Mac Miller), and balanced things out with a crew of classic collaborators (Dilla, Large Professor, Havoc, Q-Tip, Lil Fame, Bun B). Say what you want about the man, but his mixtapes outshine many rappers’ LP’s. Maybe we’ll see an official full-length this year?

8. Pete Rock & Camp Lo – 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s – There weren’t many mixtapes this year that paid tribute to the classic era of hip-hop, but Pete Rock and Camp Lo’s lead-in to their eventual super-group project accomplished it perfectly. Allowing the duo to rhyme over vintage Petestrumentals, and blended to perfection by Trackstar The DJ and Mark Divita, this was a “mixtape” in the truest sense of the word. Reinvigorating the career of Camp Lo, we’re excited to see what they have in store for the eventual LP.

7. Money Making Jam Boys – The Prestige: Jam Boy Magic - Black Thought and Dice Raw used this opportunity to introduce the world to several of their favorite Philly emcees, comprised as the Money Making Jam Boys. This mixtape produced a few new favorites for us at HHS, as we are now following the careers of Truck North, STS, and P.O.R.N., who served up a series of classically styled hip-hop tracks, trading The Roots live instrumentation for dusty, crate dug beats. Bonus, mixed in key by Mick Boogie and Terry Urban.

6. Ludacris – 1.21 Gigawatts: Back To The First Time – Sure, “‘My Chick Bad’ still went platinum!”, but let’s face it, Battle of The Sexes blew. No matter, Luda knew exactly what he needed to do to win his old fans back, and he accomplished that with ease on this mixtape. Picking fights with Drake, Big Sean, and Field Mob got him some press, but what it also accomplished was getting us all to listen again – and that’s all he needed. The old cat’s still got it.

5. Elzhi – Elmatic – True, Fashawn covered Illmatic just a year earlier, but Elzhi brought something new to the table with his rendition, thanks to the live instrumentation of Will Sessions. Coupled with El’s sharper lyrical wit, this was anything but rehash.

4. Skyzoo – The Great Debater - Boasting production from usual collaborators 9th Wonder, !llmind, and Oh No, Skyzoo continued his tradition of dropping consistent projects with this tribute to the Cosby kids. Sounding more like an LP, Skyzoo’s bucked the industry trend of treating his mixtape like the cutting room floor.

3. Curren$y + Alchemist – Covert Coup – Released on 4/20, Curren$y and Alchemist may have been born to work together forever, as evidenced by the sounds of Covert Coup. The smoker’s album defined, Alchemist’s lush, psychedelic production, meshed with Curren$y’s blunted flow fit together like weed and rolling papers. This album plays on repeat, whether there is smoke in the room or not. The two will follow-up this April with Re-Conversionalize, which is not a word.

2. Big K.R.I.T. – Returnof4Eva – Big K.R.I.T.’s career exploded this year, and it was all thanks to the word-of-mouth buzz generated by both K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and Returnof4Eva. A student of the U.G.K. and Outkast school of southern hip-hop, this self-made man produces his own beats and writes his own lyrics, in an age of artificial, manufactured rapstars. This mixtape was testament to his level of talent, which turned an unknown name into a producer for T.I., Young Jeezy, Bun B, Chris Brown, and many more.

1. Kendrick Lamar – Section.80 – Okay, so while this one could have been included on our “Best Indie Hip-Hop Albums” list, we thought it more appropriate here, since Kendrick has built the foundation of his career through a series of mixtapes leading up to this one. Either way, Section.80 was perhaps the year’s most talked about mix, showing a scary level of consistency from the young Compton emcee, who is now sharing studio space with Dr. Dre. Too many memorable moments to mention, the whole thing plays through without a hitch. This will easily go down in history as a classic mixtape release. Or album. Whatever.

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HipHopSite.Com

HHS 2011 Year-In-Review: The 10 Best Non-Rap LP’s Of The Year

The Major Label and Indie hip-hop album lists are coming, but first, let’s take a look at the best non-rap LP’s of the year. Download these to your Ipod if you need a break from that ol’ boom bap.

10. Deadmau5 – 4×4=12 - Virgin – The fifth album from electronic maestro Joel Zimmerman was easily his biggest, and the one that pushed him into the mainstream. Massive anthems like “Some Chords”, “Sofi Needs A Ladder”, “Animal Rights”, and “Raise Your Weapon” helped propel the album, while deeper cuts like “I Said” and “Chthulu Sleeps” helped round it out as the year’s most authentic EDM LP. David who?

9. Icebird (RJD2 + Aaron Livingston) -The Abandoned Lullaby – RJ’s Electrical Connections – RJD2 has experimented with sung vocals on his solo LP’s in the past, but as it turns out, Aaron Livingston was truly the missing link for his brand of instrumentals. Together as Icebird, the duo released one of the year’s most slept on albums, which even helped land Livingston a place on The Roots’ undun LP.

8. Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome – Capitol - DM met up with composer Daniele Luppi for this ode to music of Italian cinema, which was executed brilliantly thanks to additional collaborations with Jack White and Norah Jones. A sleeper hit that found it’s “Black” as the music for the last scene of Breaking Bad‘s season finale.

7. The Black Keys - El Camino – Nonesuch – The Black Keys have had an uncanny ability to make one guy with a guitar and another guy with a drum set sound like several musicians playing at once, with their big bodied blues sound. Together with producer Danger Mouse, the two closed out the year with the biggest LP yet, sure to find them filling concert seats, without sacrificing the core sound.

6. DJ Shadow – The Less You Know, The Better - Roc-A-Fella/Verve – People almost lost faith in Shadow after The Outsider, a collection of tracks that were half in his usual tradition, and half Hyphy. Thankfully, The Less You Know, The Better was a graceful return to form – an album that still showed off his many talents and diverse musical ear, evoking the heavy sound of Endtroducing without cloning it.

5. Coldplay – Mylo Xynto – EMI - Yes, they’re huge, but it’s really hard to hate on Coldplay when they are this consistent and still pushing out albums like this one as this stage in their career. Two massive singles included – “Every Tear Drop Is A Waterfall” and “Paradise”.

4. Amy Winehouse – Lioness: Hidden Treasures – Universal Republic – Amy’s passing this year was a crushing blow to hearts of many, especially considering hopes of that third album vanished. Lioness is a collection of leftovers from Ms. Winehouse, produced and overseen by Back To Black producers Mark Ronson & Salaam Remi. Like we said in our review, Amy’s table scraps are better than many artists’ entire catalog.

3. Mayer Hawthorne – How Do You Do – Universal Republic – Hawthorne’s brand of classic soul with a slightly modern edge was executed even better on his second LP, suggesting that today’s overproduced approach to R&B isn’t needed if the artist’s talent is harnessed right.

2. Adele – 21 – XL / Columbia – There probably wasn’t a more surprising and heartfelt album than Adele’s 21, yet another notch on the belt of Def Jam-alumni Rick Rubin. Written mostly about her ex (who incidentally tried to sue her for inspiring her to write the album), Adele’s brutally honest, soulful LP produced huge hits in the form of “Rolling In The Deep” and “Someone Like You”, and is packed with meatier selections like “Rumor Has It” and a cover of The Cure’s “Close To You”.

1. Radiohead – King Of Limbs - Radiohead – Radiohead’s elaborately packaged eight studio album was a perfect follow-up to In Rainbows, and was independently released, to the dismay of the rest of the music industry. Words don’t do it justice, so just listen.

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HipHopSite.Com

BET Hip-Hop Awards 2011 Performances

Hip Hop Music

Kanye West Speech at Summerfest 2011 (VIDEO)

When I saw there was a new Kanye speech circulating I immediately played out a script in my mind, with Ye saying “Even after everything I’ve been through, bearing the cross of being The Person Inside The TV, people…
hip hop music

Electric Boys Tour In Late 2011

Electric Boys are coming to the UK in the autumn.

Joined by Tainted Nation, Miss Behaviour, Dynazty and Sencelled, they play the following shows in October:

Thu. 6: Liverpool O2 Academy 2

Fri. 7: Grimsby Yardbirds

Sat. 8: Nottingham Rock City

Mon. 10: Glasgow O2 Academy

Tue. 11: Sheffield O2 Academy

Wed. 12: London Islington O2 Academy

Find out more at www.electricboys.com

Classic Rock

Exclusive: The Juan Maclean with Lord Bass, Red Door, 27 May 2011

Lord Bass returned to his monthly residency at the Red Door in Portsmouth, NH this past weekend for a big Memorial Day opener, this time for DFA Records artist The Juan Maclean.

Juan’s second visit to the city’s lounge brought loads of grooves on an all-vinyl set, rumbling the floor to a deep simmer. Lord Bass happily used 0s and 1s to bring the tunes, starting very chill with Boards of Canada, ending over two hours later with Gui Boratto. Juan’s set is a Trance Lab-exclusive that’s not available anywhere else.

Download or stream both sets here, and join the Trance Lab podcast feed to keep up with more.

Play Lord Bass – Red Door – 27 May 2011

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trancelab.com – Electronic Radio

Eurotrash Radio: Lord Bass with Olik from Berlin – 7 Apr 2011

Lord Bass returns to WUNH’s Eurotrash radio to split up two hours of great dancefloor tracks. Host Olik from Berlin and Lord Bass swap half-hour sets from deep tech house into super trashy West Berlin club bangers.

Download, stream, or podcast up two hours that will keep you on the groove.

Eurotrash Radio: Lord Bass with Olik from Berlin – 7 April 2011

Olik from Berlin (30 mins)

Lord Bass (30:00)

• Trentemoller – Shades Of Marble (KiNK Remix)
• Mark Broom – Raincheck (Remix)
• Diego – The Chord
• Jamez pres. Tatoine – Music (16b remix)
• Matthew Dear – Free to Ask (D’Julz Remix)
• Luigi Lusini – Flare

Olik from Berlin (1:00:00)

Lord Bass (1:30:00)

• Booka Shade – Darko (Booka’s Air Tube Mix)
• Steffi – Yours (feat. Virginia)
• Dirty Vegas – Changes (Shiny Objects Vocal Remix)
• Alex Gopher – Belmondo (Just A Band Remix)
• Digitalism – Zdarlight (Bag Raiders Shout It All Out Edit)
• Robert Babicz – Crystal Castle

trancelab.com – Electronic Radio

Trance Lab mix: Lord Bass – Spring Chill 2011

A techy hour of mostly brand new tracks assembled by the mind of Lord Bass. This one is for the deep dancefloors filled with heads that park next to the subwoofers. It’s minimal on vocal and long on groove that takes time to build into each track.

This is Lord Bass’ deepest set in years. Electro House is loads of fun, but just sit next to a 30″ subwoofer and this mix will grab you for weeks.

Enjoy the new tracks featuring Sebo K, Aux88, Spektre, SCSI-9, and much more!

Trance Lab mix: Lord Bass – Spring Chill 2011 (55:44)

trancelab.com – Electronic Radio

Trance Lab mix – Eurotrash Radio 17 March 2011

Lord Bass is back in the WUNH studios to guest host the Spring Break edition of the weekly Eurotrash program. This time, Lord Bass carries the full two hours, with a continuous mix of new and favorite tracks.

Check out the latest from deadmau5, new music from Shiftone and Microtrauma, recent Joy Orbison and Julio Bashmore, and long time favorites from John Tejada, College, Underworld, and many more.

Download, podcast, stream, groove!

Trance Lab mix –  Eurotrash Radio 17 March 2011
host Lord Bass
podcast

trancelab.com – Electronic Radio