Posts Tagged Hip-Hop
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August 25, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Missy Elliott: ICONOLOGY (ep)
Missy Elliott ICONOLOGY (ep) Goldmind / Atlantic The problem with disappearing in this age is someone arrives to take your place. Much as I’ve missed Missy over the last decade and a bit (nearly 15 years since her last full album, only a handful of singles and collaborations to satiate) I’ve seen Azealia Banks come […]Archive
August 20, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Shit That’s Good! Crap Albums I Love: #2 – Miles Davis, “Doo-Bop”
Miles Davis, Doo-Bop, 1992 Okay, it might not be the worst Miles Davis album but it’s up there. It has to be. Simply because no other Miles Davis album has a track on it where someone steps up and raps: Let’s kick a verse for my man called Miles ‘Cause seems to me he’s gonna be ’round for a long […]Archive
August 15, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 265
Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique (1989) Just recently I wrote about this album and some of what it means to me – got quite into the idea of this being 30 years old. It was and is one of my favourite albums. Still. Always. I love everything from the Beastie Boys – but this was always ‘The One’. And yet my original […]Archive
June 25, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Matangi / Maya / M.I.A: DVD
Matangi / Maya / M.I.A Director: Steve Loveridge Madman The Amy Winehouse documentary was devastating – of course. But what was amazing about it – as is the case with documentary subjects that came of age across the last two decades – was the gathered footage. Home videos, goof-offs, early social media…Archive
June 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 289
Run-DMC, Walk This Way [Single] (1986) I’m pretty sure I knew this version and knew about Run-DMC before I knew the Aerosmith version and maybe even before I (really) knew about Aerosmith. I certainly got into Aerosmith (for a while) on the back of this. I remember that much. Then it was to Beastie Boys and Public Enemy and all sorts of things on the […]Archive
April 10, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 144: Cee-Lo Green – “Cee-Lo Green…Is The Soul Machine”
Cee-Lo Green…he’s a bit like the Elton John or Sting or Eric Clapton of his day really, in that people now might struggle to believe how potent, how good he once was. Since everything happens a lot quicker now this happened a lot quicker to Cee-Lo. There he was in Goodie Mob killing it and then across his first couple of solo albums […]Archive
March 29, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 139: Mike Ladd – “Welcome To The Afterfuture”
Mike Ladd is a rapper I’ve been aware of for a while – yet I never heard this. It’s fantastic. Everything I’ve heard him do – or heard him on – has been great. I love his albums with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer. He’s one of the people you can point to as furthering hip-hop, taking it beyond anger […]Archive
March 12, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 132: Jeru The Damaja – “The Sun Rises In The East”
Now I knew about this album – maybe not quite at the time, but sometime shortly after, and I just never quite made it through to it. A shame. And good to be there now. Because not only is Jeru The Damaja great, and certainly career-best here on this debut, but also I was into all the stuff that came up around this time […]Archive
March 3, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 129: Ice Cube – “The Predator”
I rate Ice Cube – big time. Made it work for him in acting (wasn’t/isn’t great, yet isn’t flat out terrible, etc…) but really his true strength, apart from building a business empire, a brand, is his rapping, or even – actually – his writing. Dude is one of the great lyricists in hip-hop. A pioneer even. […]Archive
February 16, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 125: Gang Starr – “Step In The Arena”
This is the sort of straight-up banger that makes me pleased I signed up for and carried on this ridiculous ‘Challenge’. Here I am going through old albums I missed at the time. Mostly finding gems. A few duds. A few ‘who really cares’, a few ‘you had to be theres/time/place’ but mostly finding gems…then there’s something like this. You’d […]Archive
February 10, 2019 by Simon Sweetman