Staff Writers

We salute Tyler, the Creator for crying like a baby

We’ve all seen that clip of Tyler, The Creator crying at the sight of N.E.R.D. on stage (haven’t seen it? Wake the fuck up), and how star-struck he was in a recent interview with Pharrell.

Funny shit, but at least the guy clearly has some genuine passion for the music and its biggest stars.

In a music fueled by egos and trash talk, its all too rare for a young hip-hop artist to show mutual respect for their peers. Its even common now to hear modern rappers talk about how they don’t even listen to rap at all, not even hiding how they are in the game solely to get money.

Compare this to the veterans and older artists and its a completely different story. They have no trouble shining a light on others, and acknowledging the history of the music. Take Run the Jewels, currently the hottest property in the game. El-P and Mike not only have a detailed knowledge of hip-hop, but also have no issue singing the praises of the legends and other artists. Same goes for Common, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch and others. As for the legends themselves, like DJ Premier, they are forever paying respect to others and the masters of genre.

Its perhaps unfair to say all young artists are ignorant to other rappers (Freddie Gibbs frequently points to Drake as being the best there currently is, as contentious as that may be), but a little acknowledgment that they at least like hip-hop and appreciate others would be nice.

Tyler himself has stated he doesnt intent to make hip-hop for much longer, but this is still a man with a deep-rooted respect for the music. And for that, despite all the other crazy and stupid shit he does, we salute him. It was his party, and he can cry if he wants to.

Listen to a new PRhyme track from Primo and Royce Da 5’9″

Its been a good few weeks for us DJ Premier heads. A crazy interview with Snoop Dogg, where he dropped teasers about that future Nas album, new music from M.O.P. coming soon, and of course, PRhyme, his latest collaboration with Royce Da 5’9″.

We’ve had some clips of the music already, but now we’ve been blessed with the title track too. Primo is assisted on the beat with samples by Adrian Young, who adds some extra little flourishes to the mix.

It’s another impressive sign of the quality that is no doubt set to come when the album is fully released next month. Listen to the new track here, courtesy of our friends at the always-entertaining EgoTripland.

PRhyme is already available for pre-order in some areas. Look out for our review when it drops.

Why Aloe Blacc getting ripped off is no big surprise

Former Stones Throw artist and chart-topper Aloe Blacc recently announced that he has only earned $4,000 from Pandora streams of his monster hit Wake Me Up (with Avicii), despite clocking up an incredible 168 million plays in the US.

A shocking revelation, but is anyone really that surprised? The game changed beyond all recognition years ago, and the plates have shifted again several times since, each time leaving the artist with little to show for their efforts.

Gone are the days when a musician could sell millions of CDs and make big bucks. Save for the occasional exception, like Taylor Swift, who recently shipped well over a million copies of her latest album 1989, sales ain’t what they used to be.

What’s interesting in relation to hip-hop is how all that big talk about sales figures that dominated headlines a few years ago has all but disappeared.

As a music built upon bragging rites and proving you are the best, there was a time when commercial artists like 50 Cent were obsessed with sales numbers, making them as much of a badge of honor as the amount of times he’d been shot.

If a big release didn’t ship more than a good few hundred thousand right away you were done, and your rivals would tell you so. Nowadays though, no one is moving units, not even Em, Pimp Juice or Rocafella, as Jay-Z once famously said (sort of).

Everyone knows the big money is now to be made from touring, where eye-watering prices can be charged for a show that, lets be honest, usually sucks.

But it would be hard for a rapper to deny that still being able to make big money from sales would be nice, especially when facing the necessary tough grind that comes with traveling around the world on tour.

New ways of getting music to us are appearing all the time, and as always hip-hop is at the cutting edge. From the biggest albums to the humblest of indy material, most work is now available for stream before release. Run the Jewels even gave away RTJ2 for free, following in the footsteps of U2 and others.

It remains to be seen if the industry will ever find a way to get those sales revenues back up, but whats certain is that a rapper will need to be pretty damn successful to get anywhere even close to that Taylor Swift money.

Rare old video of MF Doom way before the mask

Images of MF Doom without the mask on are rare. Dig around YouTube and you’ll find some of those old KMD videos with him in, back when he was known as Zed Love X. Since then though, clear shots of the man with the government name Daniel Dumile have been hard to come by.

Look closely at the Viktor Vaughn Mr Clean video and you do catch some glimpses, but these are obscured by the animation. It all adds to the mystique of course, and its one of the things we love most about the mythical Metal Face Doom.

A little insight is nice once in a while though, which makes this little gem of a video doing the rounds yesterday a bit special. Its from 1991, where a fresh-faced 19 year old Zed Love X addresses congress peeps about Rock the Vote and other initiatives to get young people voting.

It’s interesting to hear him drop knowledge, but even more fascinating when you remember this is the same man that has gone on to give us so much good music since. Watch the clip here:

http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4513596

Read our review of NehruvianDOOM here.

Why we miss the classic hip-hop breakdown

Hip-hop production has changed and evolved many times since the late 80s, swaying back and forth between old styles and futuristic ones.

The basics don’t change much though, with most tracks roughly sticking to the classic structure of the first two golden eras: Short into with ad-libs, or cuts and scratches. Verse 1, hook. Verse 2, hook. Verse 3, hook. More hook, shout outs, extended cuts and scratches. Fade out.

We are know it well, not just from hip-hop but also most other popular music genres. Classic rap tracks sometimes had an extra special treat though, between the second hook and the start of verse 3. It was known as a breakdown, and we miss them like crazy.

A breakdown tended to include extra cutting and scratches, variations on the beat, extended use of the main samples, and various other types of niceness.

They provided a chance for the listener to pause for reflection, to take in the meaning of the first two verses, and get ready for the third, which was often the most powerful. They also gave the producer time to showcase their abilities, and flex their cutting skills if they also happened to be a deejay.

We’re not necessarily saying we need them back, and in fact producers like DJ Premier and Pete Rock still tend to produce beats in this way. Other modern hip-hop tracks still have them too.

Lest we forget how fucking dope they were though, so here’s a few of our personal favorites. The breakdowns all appear after the first couple of verses.

Nas, The World Is Yours. Produced by Pete Rock.

Lords of the Underground, What I’m After. Produced by K-Def.

LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out. Produced by Marley Marl.

Elmo and Ice Cube: Together at last

You’re a fool if you think Elmo is just for the kids. The furry red monster has been meeting the biggest names in showbiz and music for decades, and each time the writers and puppeteers make things entertaining for the little ones, while also making sure there are lots of clever references that only adults would understand.

Elmo’s latest guest is Ice Cube. Ice. Cube. Mr NWA and AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. On Elmo. As you can imagine, the outcome is pretty special. Cube is there to teach Sesame Street’s finest what the word ‘astound’ means, and does so with some magic tricks that make Elmo lose his shit.

It’s one of the funniest clips we’ve seen in a long, long time, and just shows how incredible Ice Cube’s career has been. Being down for the kids is a great look for the West Coast legend, and good for hip-hop too. Watch the madness below.

Watch Pyramid Vritra on Rhythm Roulette

Rhythm Roulette is one of the best hip-hop video series we’ve ever seen, and we can’t get enough of the rush of new episodes that have arrived in the past few weeks. The latest producer to don the bandana and try their luck is Pyramid Vritra (aka Hal Williams, one half of Odd Future affiliates The Jet Age of Tomorrow), who’s impressive debut album Indra dropped on Stones Throw Records earlier this year.

As always, the trip to the record store throws some curve balls, but Pyramid just about manages to make it work. Watch below to find out how it turned out.

Pyramid Vritra’s Indra is out now.

Nas previews new J Dilla track at Run the Jewels press event

Just when we thought the hype around Run the Jewels 2 couldn’t get any hyper, a special press conference in New York City last night took the situation into overdrive. El-P and Killer Mike were joined on stage by none other than Nas, who seems to be taking his role as Mass Appeal boss seriously.

The legend gave some supportive words to the label’s hottest act, before then giving us all one hell of a treat: a preview of a track from his next album. New music from Nas is always exciting, but when it turns out the track uses a J Dilla beat, that excitement reaches a whole new plain.

Rabid Dilla Dawg fans will instantly recognize the beat as Gobstopper from Donuts. To now have Nas drop vocals over it is an incredible look.

Watch the full video below, and check out our review of the incredible RTJ2.

Run the Jewels 2 is out now on Mass Appeal.

Listen to a Time is Illmatic mix from Pete Rock

Time is Illmatic is showing in cinemas around the world right now, and to celebrate, Pete Rock has blessed up with a new Nas mixtape.

As the producer of one of the classic album’s finest tracks (The World is Yours), there’s few people more qualified than Pete, and he does a fine job reminding us of just how groundbreaking Illmatic was. Not that we’d forgotten of course.

Check below for the full stream, and see here for our review of the Time is Illmatic documentary.

Visit the Time is Illmatic website to find out if the film is showing in your town. It is also available from iTunes in some regions.

Watch: Snoop Dogg interviewing DJ Premier

Snoop Dogg’s online TV show is usually too smoked out and crazy for us, but on the latest episode his guest is the one and only DJ Premier. It starts off with Snoop paying homage to the early Gang Starr records, before Primo moves on to talk about PRhyme, his new project with Royce Da 5’9″.

Also up for discussion is the tracks they have collaborated on together. It’s easy to think of Primo as a producer who only works with boom-bap artists from New York, but he’s mixed it up with Snoop, MC Eight and plenty of other West Coast rappers over the years.

Premier also drops in a little teaser about that long-awaited Nas collaboration, which hopefully will see the light of day at some point after Nas finishes his duties with Def Jam. Amazingly, Snoop claims not to have known that Primo has worked with Nas since Illmatic, but that may have just been the weed talking. Watch the full clip below.

The PRhyme album is set to be released in the next few weeks.