Rap – Page 6 – 7th Level Music

D-Tension: The Violence of Zen

Boston-based MC and hip hop producer D-Tension is back with another album of killer beats, wicked lyrics, and righteous indignation.

The album starts with “Fresh,” which itself starts with a sample of someone saying, “Beats are the worst. Nobody likes beats.” D-Tension then proceeds to slice and dice through jaw-dropping beats provided by DJ Emoh Betta. D-Tension is “Fresh like Febreeze” when he enters a room, and immediately gets your attention with his skills. “Godly” brings rhymes from indie rappers Diamond D and A.G. Diamond talks of being godly on the mic and D-Tension warns other MC’s of faking it (“This hip hop shit’s much more than a hobby.”). A.G. proclaims he was “resurrected between Third and Cypress,” name checking other hip hop gods out of respect.

“What Happen to That” (featuring Akrobatik on guest vocals) is a groovy track with D-Tension reminiscing about “when bad meant good” and when you could still hook up to free electricity at the basketball court and throw your own party there. He admits it wasn’t all great times, however, and how things are much different now. “Landlord Song” is a great example of D-Tension’s humor as he blasts his landlord for renting him a place with broken air conditioning, plumbing leaks, and gouging him on rent.

“Do You Comprehend” is a sizzler with guest vocalists Pace Won and M Dot. The looped baritone sax is great, as are the rhymes – such as Pace Won thinking his life is so screwed up he should just chuck hip hop and go play for the Lions or Rams. “Deal with the Devil” isn’t another song about D-Tension’s lease with his landlord, but rather about how D-Tension takes down inferior MC’s.

“Young Love” is a song about “the ones who got away” and D-Tension’s crushes as far back as fourth grade and being the only Puerto Rican in the small Indiana town where he attended middle school. It’s all true. Full disclosure: I was there. D-Tension and I were pals in middle school. He was the funniest guy I knew then, and he’s still among the funniest people I know now.

“Scandalize” has D-Tension name checking Bruno Sammartino and Devo in the same verse, so that alone makes the track outstanding. “Roaches,” with its jazz lounge groove, is, believe it or not, a song about the gentrification of his old neighborhood and D-Tension being baffled at how the hipsters, artists, and new landlords eliminated the pests that plagued him and his friends all their lives. “Talk White” slams racism, economic inequality, and educational disparity with D-Tension’s slick mic work.

The Rolling Stones loop on “Piss You Off” alone is worth the purchase price of this record as D-Tension admits being “king of the prank” and how much he enjoys ribbing others. The album ends with “Rosebud,” an ode to D-Tension’s first love – a blue Schwinn bike.

Zen is a path of simplicity. “Every day life is the path,” as Zen master Nan-Sen once said. Yet we shouldn’t forget that some Zen masters carried a big stick to crack us across the back to shatter our illusions and bring us back into the moment. D-Tension acknowledges his past, but doesn’t stay mired there. He’s too busy making rent money and embracing the now. The Violence of Zen is his stick waking us from our open-eyed slumber.

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll crack you with a stick if it will remind you to subscribe here and now.]

Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 10 – 6

It’s my top 10 of the year. Who’s here? Read on for the first five.

#10 – Sleaford Mods – English Tapas

Bold, brash, and at times brutal, this is a punk rock album disguised as a hip hop record. The minimalist beats get under your skin and the scathing lyrics stick it to the Man, ourselves, and everyone in-between.

#9 – Gary Numan – Savage (Songs from a Broken World)

This industrial powerhouse of a record was a great return for Gary Numan and a fantastic concept album (about life in a post-apocalyptic world) to boot. It has some great riffs and Numan’s synth work is top-notch. He shows no signs of slowing or aging.

#8 – Soulwax – From Deewee

Recorded beginning to end in just one take, this amazing record combines three drummers with four other people playing vintage synthesizers, drum machines, and sequencers. It’s an impressive piece of work and it produced one of my favorite singles of the year – “Missing Wires.”

#7 – Honey – New Moody Judy

I picked up this album after hearing just one song from it, “Dream Come Now (another one of my favorite songs of 2017),” and was astounded by the rest of the record. It’s fierce and chock-full of garage-punk riffs that flatten nearly everything else I’ve heard this year.

#6 – Slowdive – self-titled

This is one of the most beautiful records of the year and marked a big return for not only Slowdive but also the entire shoegaze genre. Everyone wondered how this record would sound once Slowdive announced their reunion, and it exceeded everyone’s expectation. It’s easily the best shoegaze release of 2017.

Who makes the top five? Tune in on New Year’s Day to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Sleaford Mods – English Tapas

I’d heard a lot of good things about Sleaford Mods, one of the best being that they were Iggy Pop‘s new favorite band. That alone makes them worth a listen, but if you come for the Iggy Pop suggestion, stay for what might be the most punk record you’ve heard all year…and there doesn’t appear to be a single guitar on it. It’s just Jason Williamson‘s half-rap, half-stream of consciousness social commentary and Andrew Fearn‘s minimalist electronic beats. When you first hear a Sleaford Mods song, you might think, “This shouldn’t work.” Yet, it does. It does every fucking time.

English Tapas, the band’s newest, is a punch to the gut of subjects like Brexit, working class blues, one-percenters, consumerism, Donald Trump, hipsters, and everything else currently annoying. The album title itself is a play on the gentrification of working class neighborhoods.

Opener “Army Nights” has them taking down weekend partiers. Fearn’s electro-bass is instantly addictive, as are most of his beats. They get stuck in your head and you find yourself humming them throughout the day. “Just Like We Do” has Williamson making fun of music snobs. “You walk around like a twat, just like we do,” he says, not caring about people who dwell on past accomplishments.

“Moptop” has Williamson worrying that he can’t cope with what’s happening around him (mostly having to deal with inane bands, internet overload, and annoying British politicians) while Fearn’s synth-bass gets downright groovy. It’s even groovier on “Messy Everywhere,” as Williamson sings about people being stuck in dead end jobs (“First it’s this, then it moves on to that…”) yearning to get out and shake up things.

I love how Fearns loops crickets chirping in “Time Sands” to mock the crickets in our heads as we see chaos and inequality all around us yet we stand and often do nothing. Williamson warns us that time, and history, is passing by us so we’d better “turn it upside-down” by getting off our asses and making our voices heard (or at least lending a hand now and then). “Snout” immediately trashes people creating perfect, fake images of themselves to project to the world via social media. “Felt like I was trying to be trendy, when I’m not,” Williamson says. “I don’t fuck about, I’m making sure I don’t give my kids anything to feel fucking embarrassed about.” Preach it, Jason. Seriously, this might be the angriest track I’ve heard all year.

“Drayton Manored” refers to an amusement park in Staffordshire, England and is a funny song about Williamson and Fearns lamenting about a long trip there and all the odd looks and attitudes they receive there. “Carlton Touts” has Williamson flat-out referring to English politicians and ticket touts (scalpers, as we call them here in the U.S.) as “fat bastards.” “Cuddly” has slick beats from Fearns that any hip hop producer would love to have in their back pocket. “What does a million quid a week bring when your brain can’t tell your legs to kick the fuckin’ thing?” Williamson asks, making us question our addictions – whatever they may be (iPhones? Drugs? Booze? Recognition?).

“Dull” lashes out at those who voted for Brexit (“Safe bet, all the oldies vote for death.”) and “B.H.S.” is a lament for over eleven thousand people who lost their jobs (and more lost their pensions) when a British businessman, Sir Philip Green, bankrupted the B.H.S. department store chain and skated to the Mediterranean with hundreds of millions of pounds. “I Feel So Wrong” has Williamson feeling conflicted over his own success with a chorus of him repeating the song’s title and lyrics like “I looked at myself tonight, I know I’m richer. It turns itself inside and burns that little bit deeper.”

This is one of the smartest, wittiest, best,and most punk albums of 2017. Sleaford Mods might not be for everyone, but they’re speaking for all of us.

Keep your mind open.

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Top live shows of 2017: #’s 20 – 16

We’ve reached the top 20 live shows I saw this year. Read on to see who made the cut.

#20 – A Tribe Called Quest – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 15th.

It was one of their first performances without Phife Dawg, and they paid him many great tributes during it. ATCQ also came to preach and teach, and Q-Tip was absolutely fierce on the mic. The whole crowd was with them the entire time.

#19 – Cut Copy – Mamby on the Beach – Chicago, IL June 25th.

Cut Copy were easily the best band we saw on Day 2 of Mamby on the Beach. They played an energetic set that had the whole beach crowd jumping before it was even halfway done.

#18 – Will Clarke – Mamby on the Beach – Chicago, IL June 24th.

Speaking of great Mamby sets, DJ Will Clarke‘s was our favorite DJ set by far. He seemed to be having a great time behind the decks and inspired me to dust off my digital turntables.

#17 – Nicolas Jaar – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 16th.

We ended our Pitchfork experience with Nicolas Jaar, and it was a lovely, trippy way to end the festival. He created a neat soundscape that drifted and swirled around the crowd like a warm fog.

#16 – Derrick Carter – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 16th.

If you need a boost to start your final day of a big music festival, go see Chicago house music DJ legend Derrick Carter. His set in the early hours of the last day of Pitchfork was outstanding. Everyone worked up an early sweat and enough energy to make it through the rest of the day. He put on a clinic.

Who’s in the top 15? Come back tomorrow to see.

Keep your mind open.

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Public Enemy – Nothing Is Quick in the Desert

The cover to Public Enemy’s new record, Nothing Is Quick in the Desert, features outdated technology ranging from tube TVs and cassettes to an outdated computer and, yes, an iPod classic (like mine). Lit candles circle the items in homage to a time past, which includes some of PE’s classic albums, by the way. The words “Except death” line the bottom of the cover. The desert will reduce you over time, but it will kill you in an instant if you’re unprepared for it. It’s the same with time, and PE are using this record to warn us (again, as we can’t seem to listen) of growing lackadaisical in these tricky times.

The title track has a nice mix of heavy guitar and bass with chimes and piano as Chuck D proclaims “Everybody sellin’, but nobody buyin’” before rolling into “sPEak!” – a slick track encouraging us to use our voices and not let twenty-four hour news cycles and propaganda drown out our concerns (“Speak your mind. Speak. It’s time. Speak your piece. Be free.”).

Flavor Flav throws down a challenge at the beginning of “Yesterday Man” as he proclaims, “You don’t even know who the hell you are.” The song is about those of us who choose to live in (and are thus prisoners of) the past. Chuck D claims many of us want to be a spectacle instead of spectacular. We’d rather be momentarily famous than do something that matters.

“Beat Them All” brings in trance bass as the band sings, “If you can’t join ‘em, you know you gotta beat ‘em.” The song flows well into “Smash the Crowd.” Chuck D puts down some of his best flows on the track (tearing up rappers who’d rather get a quick buck instead of trying to change the world with their art) and I’m sure it’s smashes crowds and clubs live. “So Be It” has Chuck D proclaiming the virtues of “it,” but what is “it?” It’s whatever you believe in, according to him. Only Chuck D could use the word “it” so many times in one song and have it mean a hundred different things. Listen to this track if you’ve forgotten what a master MC sounds like.

“SOC MED Digital Heroin” is heavy on guest stars and warnings about getting “lost in the 1980’s” and becoming lazy thanks to having everything spoon fed to us. Flavor Flav shouts that he’s “shakin’ my damn head” at the proliferation of reality TV (of which, it should be noted, he was a star) and social media. “Terrorwrist” has wicked beats and bass by DJ Lord while Chuck D asks, “How can I make you understand?” – which he’s essentially been asking us since Public Enemy’s first album.

DJ Lord puts down more killer beats and cuts on “Toxic,” while Chuck D asks if MCs can change the world in “this time of 45.” He and Flavor Flav speak about how toxic talk and venomous news cycles have poisoned us. One of the cleverest tracks on the record is “Sells Like Teens Hear It.” It’s a slam on new styles of rap such as mumblecore and trap music. Chuck D likes some of it, but can’t understand why so many teenagers like songs that are essentially empty calories. It also has Flavor Flav’s best rapping on the record. It’s easy to forget that Flav can drop rhymes because he’s the greatest hype man of all time.

The album ends with “Rest in Beats (Parts 1 & 2).” Chuck D laments the losses of so many hip-hop and rap legends from Jam Master Jay to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez. It moves onto the loss of record stores, excellent tours, exquisite rapping, rap teams, “the time when you really had to rhyme,” and having everyone together in one studio instead of e-mailing pieces of tracks back and forth. A lot of what made rap so good is a lost art by now.

Thankfully, we still have records like this.

Keep your mind open.

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Pitchfork Music Festival 2017: Day Two recap

We were happy to learn that the folks at Pitchfork Music Festival decided to open a second entrance on the east side of Union Park. This saved us from having to walk around the park to get into the lone entrance (unless you were a VIP), and saved probably thousands of people from waiting in another long line at the start of the day.

The new entrance, located at Ogden and Washington, sent us straight into the poster and print exhibition.

We immediately noticed it was far busier than the previous day. The weather was better, too. It was sunny and just a tad humid, whereas it had been mostly cloudy on Day One. The new entrance also put us near the craft and record fairs.

Clothes, jewelry, sunglasses, hats, one-hitters.

It’s a bunch of wrecka stows under one roof!

I’m curious to see how much prices drop on Day Three, as I’m sure all of the vendors would like to pack up as little as possible.

As for the music, we started off the day with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. We managed to find a college housemate of mine in the crowd. I hadn’t seen him in over 20 years, and it was fun to jam with him, his husband, and Mandy while Mr. Clinton and crew went nuts. I was surprised when they ended their set with some trap music. I expected more funk. As my friend said, “They need to have about fifteen more people on stage.” The group did include a foxy lady whose job was to stand next to the drummer and look sexy. She succeeded on all counts.

Mr. Clinton is in the striped shirt. The foxiest go-go dancer / back-up singer I’ve seen in a long while is to his right. MEOW!

We had plenty of time until the next set we wanted to see, so we headed to the food vendors for drinks and snacks. The festival organizers made another smart decision by not checking I.D.’s at the entrance gates (like they’d done on Day One, creating an even longer wait time to get into the park), but instead checking them by the tents where you bought drink tickets. One extremely dry cider and two teriyaki chicken buns later, we were off to see Madlib.

Madlib not caring if you expected more bass or trance beats. He’ll play what he wants, and we’re all better for it.

Madlib gave a master’s course in mixing and spinning. He played a lot of tracks features different rappers he’s collaborated with in the past such as J Dilla and MF DOOM. I geeked out when part of his visual display showed clips of the psychedelic movie Phase IV.

I caught part of S U R V I V E‘s set, which was a neat blend of dark wave and film score music. I saw more than a few kids at their set and figured they were probably jazzed to see the guys who made the Stranger Things score. One man was tripping hard during their set and dancing like he was having a religious experience. More power to him.

S U R V I V E gets bonus points for one of their members (far left) wearing a Goblin shirt.

We couldn’t get even halfway to the stage for A Tribe Called Quest. The crowd for them was massive, and having P.J. Harvey on a nearby stage before their set only added to the number of people on the main lawn of the park.

A photo of a video screen. Mandy and I are somewhere in the back right of that crowd.

Nevertheless, we had a blast during ATCQ’s set. They ripped through classic and new tracks, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad is still one of the best DJs in the business.

The crowd around us was a bit low key, for reasons unknown to us. One woman was wandering around asking random strangers if they had any weed to share. A drunk man danced with Mandy and mumbled nonsense before learning I was with her and then freaking out a bit when he saw me. I patted him on the shoulder and told him not to worry.

One of the best, and most bittersweet, parts of ATCQ’s set was the unmanned microphone on stage for Phife Dawg, who died last year from diabetes. They still played his vocals, and even an a cappella version of one track that had the stage dark and only Phife’s vocals carrying across the lawn. The band was big on “Dis Generation” and “Award Tour,” which they restarted twice.

It was a fun way to end the day, but getting out was another story. Pitchfork has VIP entrances and exits, but they don’t open these exits to everyone at the end of the day. As a result, hundreds (at least) of us who figured we could get out through the east VIP exit were sent back through the record fair tents to the entrance and exit gate for the plebeians. This gate still had a folding chair, a box, and some cattle gates across it that should’ve been moved before thousands of people started to leave.

Day Three will involve Derrick Carter, Ride, the Avalanches, and Nicolas Jaar. Wish us luck.

Keep your mind open.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2017: Day One recap

I must admit that the Pitchfork Music Festival crams a lot of stuff into a small park. I’m used to larger spaces like Levitation Austin, but Pitchfork gets a lot of bang for its buck at Chicago’s Union Park.

Speaking of cramming, the lines to get in were long, but moved well when my wife and I got to the festival close to 2:00. By the end of the day, we were hearing stories of the line to get in wrapping around the block and going the whole length of the park. One friend posted on Facebook that it was almost as bad as getting into the massive Star Wars Celebration convention.

Once inside, I was surprised to see how close two of the stages are to each other. The Red and Green Stages are almost a stone’s throw apart. Mandy and I wondered how noisy it was going to be with the bands playing on each stage, but the Pitchfork programmers wisely schedule the bands so that none are playing on the Red and Green stages at the same time.

We missed Madame Gandhi‘s set, unfortunately, but arrived in time to see Priests.

They played a set that proved post-punk is alive and well and had a fun time. I later picked up their first record at a record fair located on the park’s tennis courts. We had plenty of time to wander after their set and that’s when we discovered not only the record fair, but also a print and poster fair, a book fair, a craft fair, and plenty of food vendors. I walked out of the record fair with not only that CD by Priest, but also CD’s by Waxahatchee, Screaming Females, and Vacation. I might go back for a Chicago Cubs World Series Champions poster and a cute one of animals reading books.

We wandered to the Red Stage to catch the Thurston Moore Group, who put down a loud punk / noise rock set with hammering guitar solos and thunderous bass. Moore told a funny story about Henry Rollins’ too during the set, so that was a treat.

We went straight back to the Green Stage to catch Danny Brown, who came out to Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” He quickly got the crowd jumping with his crazy rhymes and booming beats. Water and water bottles were flying in every direction from a mosh pit that broke out in front of the stage. There was a lot of call and response stuff between Brown and the crowd, who I’m happy to say looked sharp and healthy (check out his lyrics if you’re wondering why I was concerned).

We stayed in our spot for about an hour to wait for LCD Soundsystem, who got a big cheer just from raising the biggest mirror ball I’ve ever seen above their set.

The crowd kept building as their 8:10 start time grew closer. It was so packed at one point that I had difficulty raising my arms to get this photo.

I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic. That’s the Red Stage behind us, and this is just half the crowd for LCD Soundsystem. Mandy’s checking her phone to my left.

LCD Soundsystem started their set ten minutes early, bringing seemingly enough people for an Earth, Wind, and Fire tribute band with them. They burst out of the gate hard and fast, and the crowd seemed to release energy it had been storing all day. Their big hit “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” was the second song of the set, so they didn’t waste time.

How it looks when Daft Punk is playing at your house.

A mosh pit broke out next to us at one point, and this aging punk rocker had to get into it and show these young hipsters how its done. Other highlights included “Trials and Tribulations,” a lovely and loud version of “New York I Love You, but You’re Bringing Me Down,” and “You Wanted a Hit.”

LCD Soundsystem won’t be your babies anymore.

I warned Mandy as they started “Dance Yrself Clean.” “This whole place is going to go ape shit,” I said. She had no idea what I meant and thought the entire crowd was going to break into a mosh pit. She was pleasantly surprised when instead we all pogoed when the song kicks into full gear. It’s as great as you can imagine.

Dancing ourselves clean with LCD Soundsystem.

They closed with a wild rendition of “All My Friends.” It was well worth the waits (the hour before their set, and a few years since they called it quits) to see them. I had been bummed that I missed them when they were first on the scene, so their set at Pitchfork was my main reason for buying weekend passes. They didn’t disappoint, and lead singer James Murphy performed with a bad back and keyboardist Nancy Wong with a bum knee – although neither showed much signs of impairment (Murphy stretched at one point, and Wong would sometimes take his arm to walk from one spot on stage to another).

This is how you end a set. Stay home if you can’t bring this kind of energy.

Getting out of the festival was a big harder than getting in since the main entrance and exit isn’t huge. We plan to look for a VIP exit tonight. On the way out, a young man behind said to his friends, “Mosh pits were fun when I was a sophomore three years ago. Now, I’m not so sure.” The old punk rocker in me wanted to give him a backwards elbow shot to the face and say, “I’m getting into pits at twice your age!”

On the list today is George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Madlib, P.J. Harvey, S U R V I V E, and A Tribe Called Quest. We also plan to meet up with some old friends we haven’t seen in a while (one in decades), so it should be a good time.

Keep your mind open.

Pitchfork Music Festival artist spotlight: A Tribe Called Quest

Hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest are bringing their final tour to Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival on July 15th. The impact of ATCQ on rap music is probably incalculable, and they were (and still are) a bright contrast to gangsta rap. Don’t let that sentence confuse you, however. ATCQ were (and still are) powerful voices for the causes of racial, gender-based, and economic equality, solutions for gang violence, and freedom of speech.

Founding member Phife Dawg died last year, so the band announced that this will be their last tour and the outstanding We Got It from Here…Thank You 4 Your Service will be their last album. It’s sure to be a raucous set full of hip-hop favorites, power anthems, and political commentary.

Keep your mind open.

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Pitchfork Music Festival artist spotlight: Madlib

DJ, producer, and rapper Madlib will be playing Saturday afternoon, July 15th, at the 2017 Pitchfork Music Festival. Madlib has collaborated with some of the best rappers and musicians in the world, including MF Doom, J Rocc, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, and Kanye West.

His Madvillain album with MF Doom is a masterwork, and many cite his 2003 album Shades of Blue as another must-have record. I’m sure his set will be jaw-dropping.

Keep your mind open.

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Pitchfork Music Festival artist spotlight: Danny Brown

Detroit’s Danny Brown is a rapper, storyteller, and outsider artist. His unique delivery immediately gets your attention. It’s easy to dismiss him as a guy who mostly raps about drugs and drink, but you’ll find out he’s layered like an onion if you pay attention. Many of his songs deal with his admitted drug addictions, the agony they put on him and his family, and the trappings of celebrity. He is brutal in his honesty, which puts him far ahead of the pack. Clips of his live sets look like crazy shows, and I’m sure his July 14th set at the Pitchfork Music Festival won’t disappoint. I’d like to meet and thank him for his pure expression. We don’t get enough of that in music nowadays.

Keep your mind open.