Most Georgetown freshman spend their time worrying about the next accounting test (or econ or human bio), making merry at Leo’s and thinking of innovative ways to play drinking games in dorm rooms. I don’t know to what extent Tate Tucker does any of these things, but I’m profoundly impressed that he found the time to put together Blue Dreams, his debut mixtape that dropped Monday. It spent most of the day shooting up the charts on the download site Datpiff, and deservedly so. Replete with fun samples, hooky beats, diverse rhyme schemes and thoughtful lyrics, Blue Dreams appears to be the beginning of something special. Its not as if this tape is just “pretty good for a freshman rapper from Georgetown,” its just really good.

♫ Listen to “Blue Dreams” by Tate Tucker Read More »

A biweekly look at what is up in the world of hip hop, including both retrospectives on the classics and first takes on the modern-day pioneers, who I believe are led by – but by no means limited to – the innovators of Odd Future.

For most, Madlib is the best DJ they’ve never heard of. For me, he’s one of the best DJ’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, and I hope you will soon come to the same conclusion. Throughout his career as J Dilla’s handpicked apprentice and crate-digga extraordinaire, Madlib has put out crates of his own records, as a producer for artists such as Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, MF Doom and De La Soul; as part of his own groups and collaborations such as Lootpack, Madvillain and Jaylib; under his solo moniker, the Beat Konducta; and under the guise of various fictitious jazz cats like Joe McDuphrey and Monk Hughes. A comprehensive review of Madlib’s career could provide the material for hundreds of blog posts (and probably will depending on how long they let me write this), so I am going to focus on what is perhaps the most diverse, most eclectic, and most awesome project in hip hop history, Madlib Medicine Show.

♫ Listen: Miles by Madlib off Madlib Medicine Show #8: Advanced Jazz

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For whatever reason whenever I hear music described as “beer-soaked,” I am automatically intrigued. Putting aside for a moment what that says about me, this means that I was predisposed to enjoy Warma from the moment I read the promotional blurb on the album cover. I would be lying if I told you that my instinct was completely wrong, because truth be told, this is an enjoyable little piece of pop-punk. However, it is enjoyable in a very sort of beer-soaked, closing time at a seedy-but-somehow-cool bar, danceable-background-noise kind of way, as opposed to being enjoyable to listen to attentively and/or sober. Read More »

Alyosha, the debut solo EP from prominent Arizona musician Tobie Milford, is beautiful. And I mean that in every sense of the word. Sounding at once stripped-down and symphonic, Milford’s uses nothing more than a violin and his voice, performing live in a studio over and over again, to produce a staggering musical accomplishment in just over 30 minutes. Alternating between sweeping, orchestral soundscapes and weightless pizzicato, Milford seamlessly weaves his fiddle and his vocals into a single expression of his equally poignant message. Read More »

Even though no one likes that guy who always has to be ahead of the proverbial curve of new music, who always liked that new band before they were big, I hope you all seize the opportunity to be up on OFWGKTA—(Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), commonly referred to as Odd Future—before they blow up. If you wait a day or two to read this blog, though I don’t know why you would, you might miss it. Led by their fearless de facto leader, Tyler, The Creator, Odd Future is the biggest new thing in west coast underground hip hop and will soon be the biggest thing in hip hop. Period. Read More »

New York City rapper Beans has long been aptly described as experimental. Both in his role as a founding member of Antipop Consortium and throughout his solo career, he has been known for his unusual, electronica-infused beats and complex, stream-of-consciousness rhyming style. On his fifth solo LP, he is clearly not done experimenting. The intricacy of his beats occupy the full spectrum, from the straightforward “Gluetraps,” which literally consists of a drum machine and two alternating synth tones, to “Blue Movie,” which appears almost randomly thrown together on the first listen because it incorporates more digital instruments than I care to count and can’t seem to decide on a tempo. Read More »

I hope many of you, dear readers, are familiar with the late DJ and hip hop producer James Yancey, often known affectionately simply as Dilla. If you have heard his solo work, you probably love it. If you haven’t, you almost definitely have heard of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Common, the Pharcyde or Erykah Badu — some of the other artists he has not only produced for but whose careers he has shaped and guided, polished and propelled. This writing may be ill timed, but I simply could not wait a year to wish you all a Happy Belated Dilla Day, because recently on February 10^th many remembered this icon on the anniversary of his tragically early death. Read More »