Sadly enough, Royce’s new album Street Hop has been pushed back until September to make way for the new Slaughterhouse album. According to the article I read at 2DopeBoyz, all of the cats from Slaughterhouse will be dropping digital EP’s, you can get Royce’s on July 7th. Follow me after the jump for the tracklisting. Continue reading
If you don’t know, now you know. Thanks to Toki’s laid back flow and impeccable consistency, he’s ballin’ even bigger than ever.
This has been a long time coming; after what seems like ages spent toiling in liquor-soaked clubs and paying his dues in the Twin Cities, my man Toki Wright has been hooked up with a nationwide distribution deal via the hometown hip-hop heroes at Rhymesayers Entertainment. It’s been a long climb out of the depths of the underground, but now Toki Wright jams are literally available via every major retailer in the U.S.! If you’re local, get down to Fifth Element now to support the release of A Different Mirror; the release party starts at 6pm.
DOWNLOAD MP3: Toki Wright, “Next Best Thing” (from A Different Mirror, available now)
Follow the jump to hear Philadelpia Freeway and Myka 9 give the album their props… Continue reading
The mysterious and bizarre cult of drone known as Sunn O))) has just made plans to grace Minnesota with a rare performance next month during their brief tour of the Midwest. On July 5, 2009, Sunn O)) (featuring Stephen O’ Malley and Greg Anderson) will be at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown for a incredible sonic experience like no other during a small tour supporting their new full-lenght album Monoliths and Dimensions. Keep reading for all their tour dates… Continue reading
Though Tonight: Franz Ferdinand was as mediocre as album releases get, and despite my high hopes for it, there were certain songs that still made me tap my toe. Namely “No You Girls”. You know, the one on the iPod commercial. Anyway, Franz Ferdinand was apparently just as unhappy with the album as I was, so they gave it another try…
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… Blood: Franz Ferdinand is a track-by-track dubbed-up, electro-exploding remix of Tonight: The album was redone by the band themselves, but there were a few extra cracks at “No You Girls”. There was a Blood: version, now called “Katherine Hit Me”, but in addition to that The Juan Maclean, Vince Clarke, and Trentmoller also remixed the already dance floor single. I’ll of course be hyping up all 8 and a half minutes of the Juan Maclean mix, but the original that Franz did is actually just as stellar.
The Juan version though is a sprawling reverb heaven. With thousands of vocal over-and-overs, and synthesizers that build to more space themed synths, the track feels at home in the ever growing DFA catalogue. The vocals are right in line with Juan’s material lately, the hap-hazardly-hearted themes, the laughable heartbreak, and so on. The music construction of the song, the Juan production, is simply amazing. It builds, it fades, it blasts. The perfect formula for a remix, a trick that’s usually missed my most remixes. Instead of just trading in the essence of “No You Girls” for Justice-esque noise, The Juan instead carefully edits, manipulates and reconstructs an already fun single into an epic post-disco masterpiece. Bask in it’s greatness people. Or just passively listen, either will work. Enjoy!
Black Milk is probably my favorite artist in the game right now (next to Evidence), he has been putting out incredible music with that signature Detroit sound. He linked up with Pitchfork Media (who dissed him in the first paragraph citing his “unspectacular rhyming” on Tronic) about the super group composed of Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & himself known as Random Axe. Personally I feel like Pitchfork is a giant epicenter of pretentious morons, but if it’s Black Milk related I will read it. The Random Axe album is one of my most anticipated albums this year, and I feel like this album is going to be nothing short of great.
Black Milk discusses a lot of issues about how the group came to be (contacting Sean Price for a verse on Guilty Simpson’s album), how he adapts production sounds for certain emcees, how it feels to be on Duck Down Records and how he reacts to people coining him as the “new Kanye” (he cites himself as being much different than Kanye, I personally think he’s better). This interview is great and it gives some good insight into the story of the great super group known as Random Axe. According to the interview, Black Milk won’t be rapping on every verse because he wanted to focus the spotlight on Sean P & Guilty Simpson.
I am going to be impatiently waiting for this album which will be dropping late this year. I can tell you that the beats and wordplay on this album are going to be top tier, and you surely aren’t going to want to miss it. Stay tuned to Mind Inversion for all the news on the Random Axe record. This is just another great example of Black Milk “putting the D on his back like a shirt that he bought”.
You can read the entire interview here.
Can you say epic (shouts to 2DopeBoyz)? That’s exactly what this artwork is for Chali 2na’s new album Fish Outta Water, which will be dropping July 7th. This album looks like it’s going to be great. We will hear guest appearances from Talib Kweli, Beenie Man, Elzhi (holy shit), as well as Damian & Steven Marley. On the production side we will see Jake One, Vitamin D & Scott Storch (isn’t he in jail?). Follow me after the jump for the tracklisting. Continue reading
Jay Stay Paid dropped today, and I woke up bright and early this morning to go get it at our local Best Buy. I have been listening to it non-stop all day since around 10AM, and I can already tell you that it is spectacular. Hopefully all of you readers out there will go out and support real Hip-Hop and pick up the album, you won’t be let down.
I wish I could have gotten this up earlier, but I’ve been pretty busy for the last few days. Ma Dukes recently sat down with the folks over at Hip Hop DX and talked about a few issues that had to do with Jay Stay Paid. According to the article, Dilla’s estate has new people in charge and things are rapidly turning around from the dis-heartening situation that had been mentioned earlier this year. It appears as though his daughters are going to start getting some of the money that they deserve from their late father’s craft. The Yancey family has been going through so much for the last three years, I am so happy to hear that everything is turning around for them. My guess is that we are going to be hearing a lot more emcees over Dilla treats because, she also mentioned that there won’t be as many troubles when it comes to using Dilla beats.
Ma Dukes also mentione the ever-looming situation with Busta Rhymes. According to Ma Dukes, Busta was wrongfully sued by the last people that were in charge of the Dilla estate (Arty Erk & Micheline Levine). They claimed that Busta didn’t have the right to use those beats, but Ma Dukes begs to differ. She says that Busta wouldn’t take anything from Dilla, and I agree with her, Busta was very passionate about Dilla. Busta has broken the long term vow to use a Dilla beat on every album of his with Back On My B.S. because of the bogus legal situation. I really hope Ma Dukes & Busta can talk and figure things out because I’m pretty sure that Dilla would never want it to be the way it is right now.
Again, you can read the original article here. Make sure you go out and get Jay Stay Paid NOW, it’s a great collection of Dilla’s material. I will have a review up of the album in the next few days.
The super group of Diplo and Switch along with “a Jamaican commando who lost his arm in the secret Zombie War of 1984 that cruises around on a rocket-powered skateboard and chills with nude Rihanna” have produced not only one of the most fun tracks of the year, but now hold the title for best music video of the year as well. It features a desperado-like entrance for one of the greatest fictional musicians ever, segueing into the amazing surf guitar and Nokia brick phone samples “Hold The Line” is now famous for along with Santigold on the mic (overload anyone?). The second half of the video also shows some of the coolest looking action figures I’ve seen in a long time, too bad Mad Decent doesn’t have any in production considering the way the Major Lazer shirt sold at SXSW. So check it out, have a laugh, and enjoy the mp3 if you loved the video.
Major Lazer’s debut album Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do is out 6/16 on Mad Decent. Pre-Order.
MP3: Major Lazer – “Hold The Line”
BONUS! This awesome “N64 Kid” remix video set to some great “Hold The Line” chops. Enjoy to the max!
So for the past couple of months the team here at Mind Inversion have been brainstorming over different weekly columns that each of us will run. Ryan’s got his awesome ‘Sunday Metal Minute’ and Tim’s got his fantastic ‘Wildstyle Wednesday’. I’ve been hard-pressed to come up with anything decent for mine, so I had put it off for a while. But it dawned upon me tonight while I was listening to the new DFA single from Walter Jones that a weekly write up about the world of House and Electro music would be a great thing. I’ll dig into my back catalogue when I get a chance, but each week I’ll try and offer up some of the best new singles, remixes, and b-side releases. So here we go, week one… Thanks for reading this far, enjoy!
Walter Jones – “I’ll Keep On Love You”
DFA Records Supersoul Recordings BUY: iTunes/Vinyl
The newest edition to the DFA family, Walter Jones is a man of simplicity. In a world that’s been dominated by glitchy, chopped up electro music, house music has seen a strong revival within certain crowds. Artists and DJs like Walter Jones would be the reason for this strong movement, combining echoing feminine vocals reminiscent of recent Au Reviore Simone and Hercules & Love Affair releases along with poignant and perfect loops. The amazing bass kick in “I’ll Keep on Loving You” times out perfectly, not too fast, but not near deathly slow. Jones is able to reach a happy medium on all fronts of his music. It’s great for House enthusiasts who are particular about every little nuance on a track, but it’s able to satisfy the more relaxed listener who enjoys some vocal overlay instead of straight repetition. It’s a blend of genres that I have a fondness for, so it’s a great place to start ‘Saturday Single’. Those who know me well know that I’m a total DFA fanboy, but that aside, “I’ll Keep On Loving You” is a single slightly different from many of their larger full length releases, proving once again why Murphy, Goldsworthy, Sweeney and co. have some of the best ears for electro music of any styling. B-side “Living With Out Your Love” shouldn’t be forgotten about however. Again featuring the vocals that haunt even the biggest Silent Hill fans, this track feels exactly like what it is, a B-side. It’s unpolished, unfinished, and sadly forgotten. It’s house’s version of indie lo-fi, giving an old vinyl-like sound to a new mp3.
There you have it, the first in what will hopefully be many successful ‘Saturday Single’ columns. If you like what you read, please come back. If you don’t like electro music of any sorts, too bad I suppose, I’d say you’re missing out. At any rate though, thanks for sticking around!
It looks as though the most rhyme potent supergroup is going to be dropping their debut album on July 7th. Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, Royce Da 5’9″ & Joe Budden, also known as Slaughterhouse, are going to be putting out a full length album. According to the Hip Hop DX article I read, they wrote the album in six days. The production will be handled by Alchemist, DJ Khalil & Mr. Porter which means you are going to hear some sick beats at the very least.
I can assure you that this album is going to be well worth the hard earned money you work for. On a seperate tip, this might be one of the most lyrically enhanced albums you will hear for a long time. This is one album I am highly looking forward to, if you love Hip-Hop you should be to.
MIND INVERSION 
