Your Old Droog provides the vocals for the latest track in the !Go Fish! series from Larry Fisherman, aka Mac Miller.
Category: Mac Miller
Larry Fisherman – ‘!Go Fish!’ feat. Conway
Man of the moment Conway collaborates on this new track with Larry Fisherman, aka the alter ego of Mac Miller.
A round-up of Phife Tributes
Today hip-hop lost one of its most loved icons, Phife Dawg. There will without doubt be many tributes over the coming days, but here’s a round up of some of the best we’ve heard and read so far.
Kendrick Lamar, getting a stadium full of fans to chant Phife’s name. Watch here.
Remembering Phife Dawg, by our Editor Ben Pedroche, posted on HHGA.
Snippets of an interview with Q-Tip, released by J. Period:
This new joint from Mac Miller – 5 Foot Assassin: Larry Fisherman Tribute:
Mixes from Hellee Hooper, DJ Yoda and Unkut:
Mac Miller – ‘Break The Law’
Mac Miller has dropped another track from his upcoming new album, GO:OD AM. It’s laid back, down and dirty, with the Pittsburgh native ripping through a couple of tight verses. The new album drops next month, but you can listen to Break The Law below.
Mac Miller – ‘Pet Sounds’ feat. Sean Price
Mac Miller has posted this unreleased track recorded with Sean Price, who we all know tragically died last weekend. It has a banging beat from Nottz, and sounds nice. Listen below.
Mac Miller – ‘I Got This Beat In My Head ‘
There’s probably a lot of weird shit inside the head of Mac Miller, but plenty of good stuff too, like this new joint that has surfaced online, following on from the recently-dropped Boo. Its not clear what project this is or isn’t from, but you can hear I Got This Beat In My Head on the link below nonetheless.
Listen here.
Mac Miller – ‘Boo’
Say what you want about Mac Miller, but the boy can rap, and his flow is incredible on new release Boo. No word on what project this might be from, but it bodes well for the next MM album, which will be the official follow-up to the brilliant Watching Movies with the Sound Off from 2013. Listen below.
Why we are all just hypocrites (but with good taste)
The Music Snobs is one of our favorite podcasts, and on the latest episode, the panel of experts discuss that age old problem. In short, the issue is this; are we hypocritical for liking the music of an artist we know has either done or claimed to be doing bad shit? And are we super-hypocritical if we stop liking some artists for the bad shit they have been accused of having done, but give a pass to others, purely because they are so good (case in point: MJ).
It’s an argument that has and always will be most relevant to hip-hop, where a lot of what we like is music about negative subjects. Even the naive rap fan knows that most of what comes out of a rapper’s mouth is fiction, but many rappers would like us to believe that what they are saying is real. We also know for sure that some really have lived the life they rap about, from drug dealing to murder charges, assaults to sexual misdemeanors. Should we be supporting and helping to make wealthy a person we know has broken the law in a horrible way? Here in lies the conflict.
Ultimately, we are all more than a little hypocritical in our tastes. Personally, we pride ourselves on liking only the finest, intelligent, non-commercial hip-hop, yet we’ll confess to having many guilty pleasures, even if we know the content of the song we are listening to is down right immature and several types of wrong.
We’ll also give a pass to a work like Pinata, justifying our love of an album all about slanging dope largely because the whole thing is produced by Madlib. We find ourselves sugar-coating Royce Da 5’9″ and his frequent misogyny on the latest PRhyme album because he’s saying those words over a DJ Premier beat, just like how we’ll excuse the casual homophobia on a Tyler, The Creator or Mac Miller record. And the reason why we’ll do all of this is because we are massive hypocrites. Albeit hypocrites with impeccable taste.
It’s a debate that will rage on forever, but one that can’t be fully ignored. Most of us got into hip-hop because we were intrigued by the stories the songs told us, mostly negative. Over the years, as we have grown up with rap and matured into responsible adults, our tastes in hip-hop have matured too. Yet we’ll still regularly listen to a track like Put it in your Mouth by Akinyele or Bridgette by The Doc, or tracks from M.O.P., Kool G Rap and Biggie Smalls, where they rap about murdering people in all manner of bloody and violent ways, and hundreds of other songs about seemingly bad people doing bad things. And that’s because we are hypocrites.
Listen to the debate for yourself below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Album Review: Royce da 5’9″ and DJ Premier’s PRhyme
DJ Premier and Royce da 5’9″ have been steady working together since 2002’s Rock City, an album that featured the certified banger Boom. There have been hits and misses since, but when they announced a few months back that a full length collabo was in the works, it got everyone’s attention. After weeks of teasers and videos, the PRhyme album is now finally here, and its dope.
What hits you straight away is the production, and how Premier has managed to adapt to rappers with a style not typical of the artists he tends to work with. He’s produced for a range of different artists before of course, from west coast groups like Compton’s Most Wanted, to southern acts like Bun B and Ludacris, but the beats for those still had that classic Primo sound. What impresses most here is how easily the music changes to suit an eclectic mix of unique artists that includes Mac Miller (on Dat Sound Good), and Killer Mike and Schoolboy Q (on Underground Kings).
In fact, the entire album is a bit of a change of pace for Premier. There are still classic bangers, like U Looz and Courtesy, but also rich compositions that you wouldn’t necessarily know were Primo beats if you heard them out of context. It’s a refreshing new direction for a producer who, while unquestionably one of the greatest of all time, does tend to get stuck in their own signature sound. This is new-era DJ Premier, holding his own amongst the modern beat makers, with a little help along the way from Adrian Younge.
As for Royce, he’s stepped his game up, with the same sense of purpose and aggression we saw glimpses of on 2011’s solo album Success is Certain, and on his Bad Meets Evil side project with Eminem.
Other standouts include the Common-featuring Wishin, and To Me, To You, where PRhyme team up with the over-hyped but always-impressive Jay Electronica.
There’s a moment on U Looz when Royce points out how stupid it would be to suggest that by joining forces with DJ Premier, he’s trying to be the new Guru. The Gang Starr days are long gone for sure, but PRhyme is shaping up to be a group that over time could well end up achieving similar levels of critical acclaim.
PRhyme is set for release December 9.
Why a multi-million dollar contract probably won’t change Mac Miller
Mac Miller recently featured in an interview with Fader, talking about his signing to a major label for a rumored eye-watering $10M. It’s a decision likely to split opinion, but at the end of the day, you can’t really fault him for making the choice. And just because he’ll now have a shit load of money, it doesn’t mean his music will all of a sudden turn pop.
Miller is one of the most interesting artists to emerge in the last few years. Crazy, fucked-up, addicted to lean. He’s been all of those things, but he’s also a talented kid both on the mic and behind the boards.
Underneath the persona there’s also an ultra-smart brain with a clear idea of how the modern music industry works. Like others making a comfortable living at a time when most musicians aren’t making any money, Miller has put in work and built up a solid empire. He also has the respect of his peers, which is harder than it should be when you happen to be a young middle class white boy from Pittsburgh.
When you’ve got talent, savvy business skills and a solid idea of what your fans want, then a big contract can mean better music rather than a watered-down, overly-commercial offering.
The candor of the interview alone is telling. Whereas a chat about a contract as big as that with a mainstream artist would usually consist of them bragging about what they’ll do with the money, Miller talks of how it will allow him to have enough budget to do things musically he couldn’t before, all the while keeping laid back about it.
Time of course will tell, but can you really see the man they also call Larry Fisherman in a flashy video dancing with Chris Brown? Us neither. Here’s to hoping we are right.
Watch the video from Fader below:
Mac Miller’s latest mixtape Faces is out now.