CRYSTALLINE ROSES

Crystalline Roses is a solo project of Tony from Mudlark and SQRM, two bands you know about if you're in Western Massachusetts and two bands you should probably know about if you're from anywhere else.

The Crystalline Roses project has really been getting to me lately after first hearing it on a three-way split with Justin Pigott and Peter Bonneman last summer. Saw him play a quiet set in George's basement to cap off a show once and it was beautiful. It's devastating how well these recordings suit a frigid Western Mass winter. "Dante" lopes along about as fast as I could imagine moving when the windchill is -13°. "Calling Upon the Wind" refers to these gusts, a faint falsetto recalling some lonely Phil Elverum shit.





Crystalline Roses - Dante

Crystalline Roses - Calling Upon the Wind





Head over to I Could Die Tomorrow and download the split HERE. Pigott's and Bonneman's sections are great too, as is the uplifting Crystalline Roses cover of Charles Manson's "Home Is Where You're Happy."

I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT TAKES

More ice-cold jams from how to dress well & cokc dokc. You might remember them as the dudes releasing five 3" CDRs over a few months I mentioned a while back. All the music is still available for soundcloud stream and download from their blog and will eventually be compiled into a box set of sorts and released by Cryptic Carousel with all five discs and a book of art.

The new CDR is called Like in the Night How the Heart Becomes the Truth, which would be a mouthful but by now I'm used to saying/typing out "how to dress well & cokc dokc." This edition stays true to the sonic themes explored in the previous three, blurring the line between R&B Shai bombast and cavernous black metal textures, which makes sense seeing as the guys fancy "listening to gucci and gorgoroth and taking handfuls of pills." Don't believe me? Peep their year-end list.





how to dress well & cokc dokc - closer

how to dress well & cokc dokc - i don't know what it takes

PEACED TOGETHER

Truman Peyote's kickin it on a little tour with Whitehaus brethren Many Mansions in celebration of their upcoming Peaced Together split 12". The two acts will be rolling through Brooklyn for New Year's Eve, back up to Northampton for a show at George Myers' house on the 4th and will make their way out to Chicago over the rest of January week two.

You may remember "Sidewalk Sludging (Airbud)" from TP's WMUA live set or maybe you heard it somewhere else. Here's "Numbjob," another track from the record that I've been diggin a bit harder. Check it out, then check all the dudes at a show in your area (dates up on Myspace) then buy the 12" when it comes out.





Truman Peyote - Numbjob

THE GIRL FROM KOLN IS GONE

Chris D'eon a.k.a. D'EON been gettin his slink on up over in Montreal. Dude's ÆON tape just dropped on Numbers Station. Chris sent me the first half of the tape, five airy tracks of "house / r&b / pop / psych," as the label puts it. ÆON is the follow up to wa al-'asr, another one of D'EON's tapes Numbers Station dropped earlier this year.

The side's closing track, "The Girl From Koln Is Gone," is probably my favorite cos it gets the most funky. I'm not big into the whole house pulse but sometimes it reminds me of Selected Ambient Works Volume 1 which is probably a very naïve reference point but whatever. Shit sounds like a failed night at some awful club. Going home and coming down would be a good idea, but the drinks are cheap and everyone looks good. Everyone looks so good you been feelin fresher by the hour. Besides, you've learned this one before - that girl from Koln always comes back.





D'EON - The Girl From Koln Is Gone





Head on over to Numbers Station to grab a couple more downloads and to BUY the tape.

MUTANT FEVER

So I've been on all this rad Luke Perry shit after digging dANA, another of his projects which Rose Quartz introduced me to last summer. dANA is the duo of Luke Perry and CH-Rom, whose solo stuff I've just started to listen to thanks to the advent of the SKYMALL.

The album up over there is Call Me Rom, a vibrant assortment of mutant rhythms spawned from squirting all the flavorcolors into your Slush Puppie at once in unison. The following psychedelic brainfreeze is welcomed, much like when Bart slurped the all-syrup Squishee. Shit slows down. Other shit speeds up. Everything stutters, but you get used to it quick. And it's awesome.





CH-Rom - Deep Dimension Video 2


CH-Rom - Teenage Cop


CH-Rom - Mutant Fever





Dig? Then head over to the SKYMALL and grab the whole thing.

ICE CREAM PAINT JOB PART 2

This evening marks the second chapter in a whole winter of ICE CREAM PAINT JOB, my new radio program hosted by DJ BEER WITH DINNER. Last week was more on the zoned-out side if you took a listen, so expect this edition to be more of a party. Listen in from 6:30-8PM EST on 91.1FM, stream from wmua.org and make a request at 4135453691 or @FriendBracelet.

Expect some classic jams thrown in for good measure all mixed up with some more recent bangers and highlights from the Underwater Peoples Winter Review. DON'T MISS OUT.

PLAYLIST

LOVESICK

My buddy DJ DARMOK has been on me pretty much 75% of the year tryna get me all up on this Lindstrom shit. I been dabblin and all but this album, out recently on Smalltown Supersound, pretty much kills it. The record is called Real Life Is No Cool, a collaboration between Lindstrom and Christabelle a.k.a. Solale whom Lindstrom has worked with before. I can get behind this mantra.

Dude's got the whole space disco thing down, which ends up sounding like Prince playing prime-time Phil Collins songs. That is, if you could ever imagine bald Phil Collins being referred to as 'slinky.' I'm talkin the guy's had the perfect amount of beers, whiskeys, more beers. Now he's on to champagne, big-steppin, livin large, tellin the deejay to turn it up.

"Lovesick" is the most 21st century jam of the lot.

"Baby Can't Stop" is pretty much a 1983 Michael Jackson cut. I'm talkin these horns was probably ripped straight from Motown wax.

"High & Low" is a Prince slowjam minus the Earth-shattering solo.





Real Life Is No Cool can be found by visiting the friendly Google Search function, but you should really BUY THE LP.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

RUN AWAY

Video for "Run Away" by Sonnymoon a.k.a. couple of Berklee kids who have probably listened to Bitte Orca more than you but don't have any guitars. Video's sort of like less-involved some Alice Cohen shit if you know what I mean. Thanks to Benny for the tip.

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - RUSSIAN MIND

Nasty digital sinus infection goin on here. The press release had a lot of intelligent stuff to say from synth zoner Daniel Lopatin as well as director Nate Boyce, but I can't get away from the feeling that it all looks like a Windows 95 screensaver or Doom.. in a good way. Youtube access is now down, but you can watch the high-quality version HERE.

Don't forget - the sub-zero OPN trilogy Rifts is now available from No Fun Productions.

TERRORS

Nice little dream piece from Terrors up over at the Bathetic blog. Stuff up at Myspace varies a bit, but I suggest grabbin the tape. Sounds promising.





Terrors - Soft Proliferating Light



Bathetic has a few more rad releases coming up including another Pink Priest tape, a split between Dead Luke and Stacian and a Heavy Hawaii/Wild Safari split.

ICE CREAM PAINT JOB

This evening marks the first in a series of Monday night time slots for me on the radio. I'll be airing every Monday from 6:30-8PM EST on WMUA all by my lonesome hosting ICE CREAM PAINT JOB as DJ BEER WITH DINNER. If you're around the Pioneer Valley you can tune in on 91.1FM. If you have a computer you can stream from wmua.org.

Since I've been away from radio for a couple weeks I have a bunch of new music piled up, but instead of trying to tackle that I'm going to make tonite's set more of a droner for all yall with heads packed fulla cotton and throats crammed with Sudafed. Journey to another dimension where cough syrup streams ooze over Benadryl pebble riverbeds and songbirds chirp auto-tuned bangers when dawn breaks.



(image via Google Search)



P.S. This means ya can be treated to some quality radio alllll Monday long by tuning in to Weekly Tape Deck's show on Indie-Verse at 2PM EST then a few hours later you can catch me. Damn, babies - if you have a nice lil radio-charm on Mondays lemme know so I can add it to the radio-bracelet-chain.

FRIENDSHIP BRACELET PRESENTS...

TODAY IS DECEMBER 17. I ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO COME TO CAKESHOP 152 LUDLOW STREET IN NEW YORK TONITE FOR A NITE OF RAD MUSICS AND BEER.

BANDS - BIG TROUBLES, BYRDS OF PARADISE, COOL WORLD + MORE BIKINI BABES.

I WILL BE PLAYING SONGS BETWEEN SETS. SORT OF LIKE A DJ.

ROLLING ROCK CANS.

DOORS ARE AT 8PM AND THE SHOW IS 21+.

BE THERE.

SLUMTOWN SYMFUNNY

Turquoise Cats sent over this 20+ minute piece of mix yesterday. Turquoise Cats is from Baltimore and is buds with Run DMT and LEXX and is down with Dem Hunger (and the Dem Hunger Remix of that Run DMT track).

The 'release' is out now on New Baltimore Records. By 'release' I mean it's all available as Mediafire download in addition to a physical copy which is composed of "a broken jewel case with shit from off of my floor as the back cover, a cd-r with nothing written on it, a single match in a matchbook, and one newport." Get at the Cats for your copy.

The mix comes on all dusty and dope, some real fur coat African cinema shit, all big jewel necklaces and twelve-inch cigarette holders - and the bellhop strikes yer match for you. First Maghrebi space program shit. The cuts used are "all vinyl except one african highllife song." Process-wise, shit was "all done live on one take. no ovadubs. no stems. no seeds. no sticks. only dust." Don't ask what went into the mix however, since

"me tracklist be hiddn up in ma fortress on some swiss family
robinson held captive by pirates shit."

Sometimes it's better to know not where you are, to know not what ingredients make up the secret spice blend.





Turquoise Cats - Slumtown Symfunny

FIELDED

Chicago's Lindsay Anne Powell, a.k.a. Fielded, played at the Media Mansion/George's house last week and was mighty breathtaking, even after the complete and utter skull-crunch (in a good way) that was Noise Nomads. The recordings on her CDR/tape EP The Lord Reigns, Let the People Tremble (Catholic Tapes) are slightly less bludgeoning than her live performance, but just as beautiful.

Church drones, beat shards, ghost town tumbleweed specters. Woulda been great for creepo-dungeon Halloween mix, could probably be used in place of "Silent Night" shit on yer Christmastime mix, assuming your Christmas party been thrown in the graveyard. I'm talkin ghost of Christmas future shit, clinkin down in a freshly dug grave, huge blue moon overhead, huge pack of coyotes howlin overhead. Long bouts of shivers.






Fielded - All the Best



Fielded - The Watcher



Fielded - You Got the World, You Got the Century



Lindsay also plays in Ga'an.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



Also checked out Big Troubles play last week in Worcester at a house called Distant Castle. They played as a duo with a drum machine to good effect. "Freudian Slips," "Drastic and Difficult" and a newer song they played last all sounded great. Check them out Thursday night with full band at Cake Shop with Byrds of Paradise, Cool World and More Bikini Babes. INAUGURAL FRIENDSHIP BRACELET PRESENTS SHOW. BE THERE.

ATLANTICS

Boys over at Astro Nautico dropped a dope lil EP of sorts, couple tracks each from Kuhn, Obey City and +++WEED (might know him better as Al Gates). Generally zonked and damn thick, these beats should probably get you stoned just bumpin em out yer ear buds or lil laptop speakers or whatever, but seriously. SERIOUSLY - I wana cruise around blastin these joints.

Take this sample, like it and love it, then head over and grab the whole thing cos 1) it's free and 2) it's dope.





Obey City - Celestial Steam





Astro Nautico - Atlantics

BRUNO B. DICOLLA

This dude did the cover art for the Buon Giorno Luamada album, out now on Perdizes Dream.



Previously:



Buon Giorno Luamada - Cartographie

MANE MANE

Mane Mane gets down with the Peace Age crew (or at least is somewhat associated with em) and it makes sense. Mane Mane is the combo of C Powers and Fuzzy Foe.

Drop the Cadillac top, turn it up and drive slow. I know it's pretty much winter and all, but the late afternoon light reminds me of summer and makes me want it back. I'll be waiting at least five or six months. Hopefully you're pampered in perpetual sunlight and can get a head start.







Mane Mane ft. CH-Rom a.k.a. Charlemane - Rain Mane

Mane Mane - Skin Fox





If this whets the whistle, backtrack a bit and peep some C Powers and Termeric HERE.

TERMINATOR EX

Luke Perry's new CDR Terminator Ecstasy wins 2009's award for "Album That Sounds The Most Like Its Song Titles." I'm talkin shit like "Skynet Infiltration Simulation Unit," "In Robocop's Eye," "Alien Hairspray." A bit over a month ago, Rose Quartz treated us all to a lil preview of the CDR with its first track "Avon Lust" (grab that HERE), which actually ended up on Shea's Top Songs of 2009 list at #9 alongside heavy jammers from Speculator, Ducktails, Oneohtrix Point Never.

"Skynet Infiltration Simulation Unit" is equally if not more dope, total brain-scan laser zaps circling around your body making sure you are, in fact, you. This is why I like the future so much - one musn't even know who they are cos barcodes and computer scanners will never forget.



Luke Perry - Skynet Infiltration Simulation Unit





"In Robocop's Eye" offers up a good mix of the two things Luke Perry seems to do best - supreme silkworm zone-outs and deep, cosmic grooves, nearly split down the center as one transitions to the other without warning around the 3:45 mark. Like if you were listening to some OPN/Ferraro/Dolphins Into the Future jam on yer walkman then took off the headphones right as you stepped into your alien-life-force-themed senior prom, everything covered in silvery green scales. Oh, and the bar is strictly Orange Julius floats.



Luke Perry - In Robocop's Eye

THE YEAR IN WAYNE PART 4

It's hard to believe after the whole year droppin powerful cuts and fairly decent mixtapes that in the fourth quarter Lil Wayne wouldn't take it easy, ya know, to deal with his gun charges n shit. However, as we've been taught in the past, sky's the limit - so much so that Wayne's most recent collection boasts a title referencing the oft-quoted phrase. A close second to Hottest Nigga Under the Sun for Wayne mixtape of the year, this joint might even be more of a mixtape EP, seeing as there's only 14 tracks minus the interludes. While 14 tracks is still about average length for a hip hop album, we're totally used to Weezy dropping 25-30 tracks at a time. This makes the mix more easily digestible, allowing more tracks to stand as memorable. Oh, and the fact that there's a lot less godawful tracks helps too. I'ma go track-by-track on this one.

No Ceilings

1. "Swag Surfin'"

Before we even hear Wayne say a word on the first track we hear his Bic flick. Get ready - this theme will persist throughout. Without analyzing it too much I'd say he literally hits a blunt on every one of these 17 tracks, ya know, just to set him straight. "Swag Surfin'" runs just over four minutes, almost all of which features Weezy spitting lines. No real hook or chorus or anything, just spits. The beat isn't too crazy, but like usual Wayne wrings its neck (um.. he mentions Nomar Garciaparra). Not a ton of extended theme shit but I'm pretty sure he's best at one-liners anyway. Case in point:

"I'm too much for these niggas and three much for these hos"

Lil Wayne - Swag Surfin' (via Fader)

2. "Ice Cream Paint Job"

Another flick. Another few minute span of one-liners. Beat's a bit heavier than the previous track's.. can't tell which of these I like better. You make the call

"Concrete shoes won't help in the river - I don't care if you's Michael Phelps my nigga"

"If you ain't the bank teller don't tell me nothin"

...but seriously, if you ain't listening to ANYONE except for the middle-aged lady behind the counter at the bank, well... not sure how you're gona, you know... function in real life. Good thing he quit real life a while ago.

3. "D.O.A."

Jay Z will probably always be a clever dude. His new shit might not hold up against his classic material but he seems like a smart guy, you know by not becoming completely irrelevant. He ain't a slave to fads n shit, as painted by the first single from The Blueprint III, "D.O.A." ("Death of Auto-tune"). Jay's not gonna make himself sound like a fuckin chipmunk in order to push units. There's two huge rappers ('real' rappers.. not Akon/T-Pain) that absorbed auto-tune into their curriculum last year and made crazy(er) paychecks because of it, Kanye West with 808s and Herartbreak and Lil Wayne on Tha Carter III. I don't think Weezy took "D.O.A." to heart necessarily (Jay and Wayne is both Carters, right?), but he sure kills its beat and makes it his own - that's right, with no auto-tune. My only issue with the track is any part where Wayne isn't rapping. Since no one can fuck with Drew Brees, he references and makes fun of a former Saints quarterback ("I'm in the way - you can't pass like Aaron Brooks"). None of this really holds much weight as written words so you gotta hear the track, but he does this great little thing at the end of the first and second verses where he hollers at Hova like "young or old there ain't no comparin me - I just cleared that up, moment of clarity" and "Weezy Baby a.k.a. your highness I just killed this shit moment of silence." DAMN.

Lil Wayne - D.O.A.

4. "Interlude"

This portion of the mixtape is where Wayne continues to smoke weed and gets a bit bleary-eyed thanking all the fans for listening to the mixtape. You're welcome, Weezy.

5. "Wasted"

Speaking of weed, as the strings start to pump at the very beginning of "Wasted," Lil Wayne is again hitting a blunt. He's so concentrated on his Kush that he actually stops the beat after just 16 seconds to focus on the hand-eye coordination task of putting the flicked lighter to the L. The track is not skipping or corrupted, just a couple seconds' weedbreak, which makes sense seeing as the track is called "Wasted" (this might also explain the "big shit like a horse ass" line). However, this don't mean Weezy's vulnerable. Blitzed is his primo state, so don't even think that just cos he stumblin you can fuck wit him. "I'll serve anyone like a blind waiter," he warns, so be sure to keep any beef to yourself.

Also, the whole mixtape sees Wayne tryna prove that sky is the limit. This been proved over and over, especially since he name-drops fucking Jalen Rose (cos he 'ball hard') in this track before coming to an eerie realization to end the spit:

"As we look up - where did the ceilings go?"

Lil Wayne - Wasted (via Fader)

6. "Watch My Shoes"

I mean, good thing there's no ceilings in Wayne's house. I mean, how else would he absorb all that cough syrup rain been storin up overhead? That's the only explanation for the first lines of "Watch My Shoes"

"Okay - no ceilings mothafucka good mornin
dick in ya mouth when yer yawnin I'm goin in
Gudda why they started me?
Marley why they started me?
I'll bring ya to your front door like ya ordered me
back in this bitch
but a lot more rich
on my poppa bear shit need hot porridge"

The rest of this is straight fire, Weezy absolutely killing the 3 Deep beat. Again, the written word don't do this shit justice - his flow baffles, his content amazes and his insults hurt bad. Though, this is where the "Ay Man" reference pops up, with Weezy claiming "R.I.P. 'Ay Man'" since he finally decided to leave the cut off this mix. I mean, it's a fine piece of Wayne and all but there's obviously more pressing issues.

Lil Wayne - Watch My Shoes

7. "Break Up"

Shit's a slow-builder, sort of sounds like some lil squirt tappin his index finger on the hollow part of his desk to the beat of the Junior High second hand draggin by with nothin on his mind 'cept how fuckin cute the substitute teacher is. Please give this guy the strength to get in trouble (spitball, conspiracy to drop pencils, whatever) so he gets made to stay after class to sweet on dat recent post-grad. Sure she outa his league (he's fuckin twelve years old) but he got that charm, man, he got that charm. Shit's got this lullaby quality, makes certain lines sound a bit more heady than they're probably supposed to be. Example:

"Braindead flow vegetable zucchini"

Gudda Gudda got some verse on here as well, and while I usually brush the dude to the side in favor of better rappers, his flow matches the beat better than anything else he's done (assuming his output is limited to Young Money mixtapes). Oh, and Short Dawg's verse really ain't bad either but still, I'll take Wayne's brags anyday:

"Elevator in my crib cos it's five floors
I'm not expectin you to have one inside yours"

8. "Banned From T.V."

"NO CEILINS GOD DAMMIT NOW THE FUCKIN SKY SHOWIN"

9. "Throw It in the Bag (rmx)"

Eh, I mean this shit's pretty rad but I gotta say the remix with Drake probably kills it harder. Bangs harder, snaps harder, thumps harder, etc. Again, you make the call:

Lil Wayne - Throw It in the Bag (rmx)

Fabolous ft. Drake - Throw It in the Bag (Remix)

10. "I Think I Love Her"

Finally, I have beef with this mixtape. SOMETHING WENT WRONG. But.. why's that a good thing? Cos Wayne acknowledges.

"Now let me start by sayin I dont like this beat,
but I weather the storm I'ma lightning streak"

So why'd he do it? A bet? To prove he can give any shit shine? Who knows.

11. "Interlude 2"

Self explanatory, but Wayne DOES remind us that "there is no ceilins, there is only the sky and the sky is the limit. Christopher Wallace said that."

12. "Wetter"

Hm. Weird slow jam. Now really my shit, but you gotta hand it to Shanell for pleading with Weezy to "make it Wayne down on" her. Imagine that.

13. "I'm Good"

Here we go, bringin the mix back up to the first half's supremacy. "I'm Good" sounds like some horns blarin to announce some far off pharaoh back to reclaim his land, previously taken over by wack emcees that had no concept of swag or syrup ("No such thing as sobered up. You closed-minded? I shoot you in your head I bet you open up"). The camera pans to reveal a staggering amount of Egyptians on they grind (you know.. the daily push/pull of pyramid building while superiors get they whip on), but as Pharaoh Carter approaches the kushsmoke plumes start spotty, soon filling the whole scene with a thick haze smellin all grape.

"Fire alarm dick them bitches wana pull
Weezy Baby nigga I ain't just good mothafucka I'M GOO-OOD"

Try n figure that one out. But not on my time. Back to work - heave-ho, etc, etc.

14. "Make Her Say"

Wellll. Lady Gaga "Pokerface" sample. Turns it into "poke her face," you know like she givin ya some oral pleasure or something. This is a lotta fluff. It ain't TERRIBLE but you know.. awful analogies.

15. "Run This Town"

Yeah, Mr. Carter does up the whole other Carter shit again, perhaps not as jaw-dropping as "D.O.A.," but then again that shit can't be fucked with in general. The "Run This Town" beat doesn't work quite as well with Weezy as the former, but he manages to drop some weird cannibal imagery, which he continues to excel at

"Young Money run this towns, countries
I still eat rappers - mmmmm, scrumptious"

16. "I Gotta Feeling"

I don't know much about this beat except that I heard it on the radio at the bank the other day. I don't imagine this version is much better than the radio version. Probably wanna avoid this one, though for the record Wayne flicks the lighter and takes a hit on this track too.

17. "Outro"

Wayne thanks us all one last time for listenin to all the tracks and actually gives us some nice insight as to why he keeps on giving away all this music for free. More like a lil P.S.A.

"This is just a message - your beat ain't safe. I just like to have fun. And so, they asked my why did I do this. Why do you give out free music why do you do this, why WHY? Because I'm Weezy. I I I I I I'm different. I have plenty of it, so it's nothin for me to share. Priceless, that's why it's free. Yeah. No Ceilins. Please don't forget the F."

And so there you go, this has been the No Ceilings portion of The Year In Wayne, the final chapter. Appreciate you reading and all.

Lil Wayne - No Ceilings




P.S. I probably won't review Rebirth or anything (apparently droppin Feb 1). Seems like it's just going to be awful. Just sayin.

THE YEAR IN WAYNE PART 3

So after the general disappointment that was Public Enemy, Mr. Carter saved the day with this mixtape, a combination of previously released tracks without DJ drops and a buncha new shit. The absence of drops even makes "The Beach Boys song" sound better, though now it's called "Relationships" instead of "Girls Forever" (though still fairly unlistenable). It's still not as cohesive as Hottest Nigga Under the Sun, but the cuts are more interesting all around.

Official White Label (The Second Edition)

"Ready For the World" and "Relationships," the first and second tracks, are recycled from Public Enemy, but there's a new track in "Baseball Sex" immediately following. Wayne's verse isn't awful (but Mack Maine's is) and the beat is rad.. sort of some less minimal "Drop It Like It's Hot" shit. A couple tracks later Nikki Minaj does some mostly annoying spitting on "I Get Crazy," then "We Be Steady Mobbin" repeats, again from Public Enemy. Ya gotta bear with Gucci Mane on this one, cos even though he struggles to breathe with all those marbles in his mouth, Wayne's verses outnumber his. Plus Weezy says

"I'm so hot you'll probably catch a tan around this motherfucker"

..which is one of the best one-liners of his career.

"I'm Goin In" repeats as well but this time, again, there's no watermarks and the name is changed to "Harder Than Ever." Theres a little Young Jeezy verse stuck on the end too, which isn't at all necessary.

There's another re-play a bit later that's really just awful, "The Same Shit" featuring Juelz Santana. It's about how Wayne survived Katrina and Juelz survived 9/11. Now hold on... it's 2009. Katrina was 2005... and 9/11 was 2001. I'm not sayin "GET OVER IT DUDES" by any means cos those are tragic tragedies and all, but come on. I'm sure there's something more pressing/relevant/crunk to rap about.

"Ask Me" throws a new beat under Kanye's excellent verse on Rhymefest's "Brand New"

"the survey says by the streets accordin'
Kanye just as important as Michael Jordan
was to the NBA when he was scorin'
Ralph Lauren was borin' before I wore him"

and couples it with Wayne lines from "Cannon" in the second half (actually.. another very good recycling of Wayne's "Cannon" verse can be found in the track "Lost Boys" from the Night of the Living Dead mixtape).

Lil Wayne - Ask Me

"Actor" is pretty great as well, some awesome looped horn sample matched in the mix by Wayne's flow which might have for the first time actually been part of the beat rather than the dominating squeaky firespitter up on top of it. This is due to the repetition of "did it before"s and other similar 4-syllable bites, the sum of which create some sort of convoluted tale of remembering yer (many) sexual partners.

Lil Wayne - Actor

Next is "What It Iz," the better version of "The Best" from Public Enemy with Kanye and Jay Z. Track's got a summer-fresh beat, sexy-cool spats and a syrup-drenched chorus from a flawlessly autotuned 'Ye. Really, this has potential for summer jam 2010.

Lil Wayne - What It Iz

"How Ya Doin" is sandwiched between "What It Iz" and "Stay Late" but really doesn't need to be there cos it's just "Ay Man" from Hottest Nigga (note: Wayne mentions this theme on No Ceilings a.k.a. hold fast til next post). "Stay Late" is another Drake track that he pretty much kills

"Me and Weezy like a mouth full of hot peppers"

It's either true that they sputter hot jalapenos or I've been bombarded with too much Drizzy, which is entirely possible considering I survived most of 2009.

"Fix My Hat" is crazy too, if not for the beat on the verse then for the rad "hold up hold up lemme fix my hat" hook (oh, and "Weezy F Baby ga-ga goo-gooin'").

Lil Wayne - Fix My Hat

There's some other alright stuff between then and the end, but I really gotta note the last track, simply titled "Bonus Track." Here we get Weezy puttin on his best Rasta fire-spit accent. For some reason it's even edited for radio play, but we're still treated to this pretty gruesome murder spree/cannibal imagery:

"TURN YOUR BLOCK INTO A RESTAURANT, ORDER AND LEAVE
WHAT ARE YOU HAVIN'? ORGANS, PLEASE."

Honestly it's a good listen as a whole, but will probably go down better broken up and minus the shitty tracks. As expected it's bit drawn out and lacks enough exclusives to really make its mark, but I mean it IS a Lil Wayne mixtape after all.





Lil Wayne - Official White Label (The Second Edition)

THE YEAR IN WAYNE HALFTIME EDITION

All this Wayne talk and oh hey Flying Lotus' Lil Wayne remixes are available to download with their respective instrumentals over at Brainfeeder. The only problem? There's still only two of them and "Robotussin" was like last year, right? More please?

THE YEAR IN WAYNE PART 2

Ugh. This mixtape almost makes me want to take back everything I said in the last post. Lil Wayne trying to "rock out" or be a "rock star" kinda reminds me of how uncool Dave Coulier and Bob Saget were next to John Stamos on Full House. I mean... Uncle Jesse was in a ROCK N ROLL BAND. Uncle Joey just fucked wit puppets and Danny was a straight up wiener. Wayne, please.. for all the fans out there... listen - BE JESSE KATSOPOLIS.

Public Enemy

I remember when this appeared and all my P-field dudes were so happy some new Wayne dropped... and then we listened... and we quickly forgot. I mean seriously... this shit's loaded with awful DJ drops, machine gun clip emptying and disgraceful nu-metal beats. First track "Human" would've certainly been better if it was anything other than what it was, even if it was verses over The Killers' "Human." Wayne, you are not a rockstar. Wayne counters:

"Rockstar shit from my rockstar ass
got a tub full of money that's a rockstar bath
then I use more money to wipe my rockstar ass
then I throw it in the garbage - that's rockstar trash"

I'm not even going to go into the second track. The third, "Another Planet," is where the party can start back up because if you put either of those first two tracks on at a party I'd be surprised if everyone didn't get the fuck out of there. This track is with Huey (you know, "Pop, Lock & Drop It") and I'ma assume it's about gettin fucked up and having a GREAT time - I'm talking buying the bar, lots of ladies, little-to-no clothes. Yeah there's those dumb watermarks but really, it don't get much better than Wayne referring to himself as "Mr. He Took My Girl." He also admits to consuming "syrup by the crate." That's cough syrup for all yall outa the loop.


Lil Wayne Ft. Huey - Another Planet


There's some more middling shit before what must be Weezy's most embarrassing moment, "Girls Forever," what P-field begrudgingly calls "The Beach Boys song" for some reason. Gotta be cos it's Wayne ya know.. tryna do that rockstar shit but this time filtered through some sort of summery pop bullshit. If you decide to listen you will cringe. 'Nuff said.

"Mr. Gangsta" ain't bad. Features some dude named Smitty who does this Pusha T -esque "yuuuck" thing to no effect, but Wayne is on first so you can skip to the next track if you want after this line:

"Weezy bionic
Wayne ionic
get up in that ass like a colonic
we don't do drive-bys, we do pull-ups like Sonic"

"We Be Steady Mobbin" sees Wayne gettin on some Hottest Nigga shit, a crisp beat and actual memorable lines (shit like "I don't care, I 'so what' these bitches" and "You can't reach me on my Samsung - I'm too busy fuckin the world and givin the universe my damn tongue"). Unfortunately Gucci Mane kinda drops the ball with his whole mumbly goon thing, but like I said, Weezy kills. Oh, and he recycles that "what's a good to a goblin" line from "A Milli" for the chorus and it totally works.

Scrolling down the tracklist yields few highlights, and actually listening to the whole thing is painful and boring. One other highlight, however, is a track called "The Best," which finds Mr. Carter gettin sexy again talkin all smooth for the ladies like

"I hope she throw away the key too
got me tied up like a three-piece suit
got a sweet tooth
Miss Caramel I need three scoops"

It's almost like has feelings when he begs the Misses for the sweets, but remember - he's hopped on the purp. Kanye's on this shit too and his verse ain't bad ("a fishstick nigga now we messin wit lobster"). His chorus kills though, super laid-back summer groove shit that draws the listener in and caresses the ear ever so softly - I'm talkin piano tinkles, huge sweeps of strings, awesome airy vocal samples... almost "Every Girl"-caliber.

I believe this is also the first time I ever heard "I'm Goin In" (not to be confused with "Goin In") and "Rollers," two of his most ridiculous tracks of the year. The former certainly has one of the best opening lines of the mixtape, transforming the word "doing" (as in "how are you doing?") into "dern," either some Cajun accent shit or a great use of artistic license to rhyme with "urine." Shit features Drake, whose first line is great as well:

"First off you know what it is if ya heard Drake
makin hos wobble like a bridge in an earthquake"

"Rollers" goes hard - heavy-huge beat, tons of nasty imagery ("I'm the shit - I am funky like I never bathe"). Don't really care for the Juelz Santana verse, but the chorus makes up for it.

P.S. on these last two tracks - better versions with no drops are available on the Official White Label mixtape.

There's some other stuff that ain't bad but seriously there's better Wayne shit. The "rock"-heavy first half just ruins the mixtape for me.. and the second half has a bunch of stuff that had already been available or went on to be on different/better mixtapes. Probably for Wayne-heads only.





Lil Wayne - Public Enemy

THE YEAR IN WAYNE PART 1

I mean sure everyone does year-end lists and blah blah blah but honestly I don't think I've listened to any one artist or band over the past 2 years more than Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. a.k.a. Lil Wayne a.k.a. Young Weezy a.k.a. Weezy F. Baby a.k.a. Young Tunechi (but don't call him that). Dude moved the most units last year with the whole Carter III/"A Milli"/"Got Money" auto-tune phenomenon and didn't even think about stopping, dropping (at least) a mixtape per quarter in 2009. This isn't to say all this material is great (Public Enemy is of very poor quality with a ton of annoying DJ drops), but three of these, Hottest Nigga Under the Sun, Official White Label and No Ceilings, hold a ton of fantastic Wayne moments.


Hottest Nigga Under the Sun

Lemme first admit that there's some inexcusably awful shit on this mix. Under this category falls "Prom Queen," "Got Me A" and "Rockstar," each cut one of Wayne's bad-decision "rock" songs, featuring some meaty riffage and/or embarrassing noodling. If you're going to burn Hottest Nigga to a CDR, it's highly recommended that you just leave these three tracks off entirely.

This leaves you with 23 tracks. I'm talking 23 solid tracks/verses, each worthy of floating in a purple plume of weedsmoke to hip hop heaven where tops are always dropped and blunts are plenty. Wayne's verse over Santogold's "Unstoppable" works way better as a CDR-starter than the horrific "Prom Queen," bubbling steadily upwards until the cork finally blows. Wayne begs you not to merely understand him, rather he urges you to "OVERstand" him before he tears through bar after bar, finishing the verse by basically making an apology to all his female fans:

"Daaamn, all I got is one dick"

Ladies, there's only so much Wayne to go around.

Next is "New Orleans Maniac," where we see less of the Lil loverboi and more of them murderous boast-raps

"Hollygrove monster, New Orleans maniac
shoot a nigga up until his whole body ain't attached
Hi, my name is best rapper alive
and your mouth is the best crapper alive"

This track also sees him threatening to shoot you til his wrist sore (we are to assume this is a lot of gunshots) and referencing Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin.

Soon thereafter we're treated to one of the hottest jams of 2009's summer season, "Filet Mignon" (appropriately changed to "Every Girl" for the single). If you don't know the premise of the song, it's pretty much a shout-out to all the babes all over the globe that Wayne wants to fuck, which just so happens to be each and every one of them. That's right, even you. Are you flattered? It's cos Wayne has drugged you.

"Go n throw it back and bust it open like you 'posed to
girl I got that dope dick now come here lemme dope you
you gon be a dope fiend
your friends should call you dopey
tell em keep my name out they mouth if they don't know me"

Disgusted? You should be. But really, dude's a sweetheart ("I don't think you're beautiful - I think you're beyond it"). Then Drake gets all up in the second verse and kills it like

"Every time I thinka stayin wit her
she bring that friend around and make a nigga reconsider"

The next track "Yes" is probably the other most talked about track from the mixtape since it features Pharrell on a (very short) verse and the chorus. The beat rumbles n claps with an "A Milli"-like precision and Wayne just freaks out the whole time. He tells you he'll "fuck you so good" that "you gon need a bed break." And this exchange is worth noting:

"I ask her do she want to fuck
before I ask twice she say YES"

Unfortunately for "Yes," it's blown outa the water by "Hello World," where Wayne again shifts to that version of Carter where he brags about killing and, well, kills it. He asks you to call him "Mr. Kill Em All" before diving into one of the best one-liners on the whole tape:

"Ski-masks on my bullets let em commit brain burglary"

Imagine that - clip after clip of tiny ski-masks covering up tiny bullet faces breaking and entering human skulls. Yer dead. And then if you're still alive...

"Kamikaze you can try me I'ma shoot ya
when that gun in this position you can call it karma sutra"

Lil Wayne - Hello World


"Blow My Mind" is another version of Wayne where he's way into being successful, as he should be. I mean... he was a Hot Boy. This might hold the most solid beat on here too, with some absurd string overdub and that chopped vocal sample. He uses the auto-tune on this mixtape as well as if not better than on Carter III and, yes, he does weave some clever wordplay into all the guns and syrup:

"And since day one (1) I look forward to (2) three, four, five bitches in my Porsche coupe"

Lil Wayne - Blow My Mind


There's few non-Young Money guest spots on this one, but the best is probably Chingy on "Let's Get it," a super bouncy snap track that doesn't necessarily showcase much of Chingy's lyrical prowess (assuming there is some?) but his flow works so well. Fortunately Wayne's on his game:

"Hundred dollar cash call it picnic money
money just to blow call it tick tick money BOOM
pockets on fire yeah I got money to burn
and I think I am infected and money's the germ"

Another one of Wayne's awesome fire-spitting tracks is definitely "Yeahhh," with some sample that sounds totally Jackson 5. However, for the most part he's again talking about killing all yall, not counting off the ABCs.

"Stuntin like my father, boy
flow like water, boy
even though I got a voice like your boy on the water, boy
they Pay a Ton like my first name was Walter, boy
'Sweetness,' but see you'd rather salt a boy
but I put that pep in your step like Walter, boy"

Then there's this winner:

"Yeah I'm hyped like my wife made extra coffee
me and my wife be a-okay outside of shakin exes off me"

Lil Wayne - Yeahhh


Now, from here on in we see a slight change of pace with some questionable tracks but also some absolute cheese-fests which are way silly and fun. This mainly includes "Piano Man" and "War," a Prince-like sex ballad and a hyper-produced ringtone hit featuring Sean Kingston, respectively. The latter might be one of my biggest guilty pleasures of the year, brimming with auto-tuned love syrup. Sean and Wayne say some pretty stupid shit, but "salute to all the veterans - and girl, your love is like a nuclear weapon" is one of the most appropriately low-brow lines I've ever heard. Dudes know their audience (yes, self included).

The last five tracks are all single verses on a variety of beats, most of them superb. "Beep Beep" is what I believe to be some Bobby Valentino shit (you know, Mr. wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee from "Mrs. Officer") and jeez, Wayne gets all flirty n shit:

"Mama let me beep beep like a Motorola
now I'm in love knee-deep, but it's at her shoulders
but bein' I'm a G I try to keep composure
but that's where shawty got me week like the weekend over"

He gets all lover-man on the closing 50-second track "Clear My Throat" as well, burbling some sweet auto-tune nothings into yer headphones:

"I'ma rocket like Houston I'm leanin
ain't nothin between me and you but this bikini
now can I take it off ya?
rub my tongue across ya?
I do it so write she call me an author"

All in all I really gotta hand it to this mixtape for providing a year's worth of stupid-dumb decibel bumping meat, always ripe for big beer parties and mild weather weed cruises. He hasn't topped this shit yet this year, but there's always 2010.





Lil Wayne - Hottest Nigga Under the Sun