Roddio Jukebox

So it’s been a while. The reason for it is partially shrouded in mystery. I can say that I’ve felt like I’ve lost something. It’s definitely not the love of music, that is never going anywhere i can promise that. I guess part of the reason is, I’ve felt like I’ve lost my flow. Why it took me so long to figure that out, I don’t know. It’s also not known if posting this is going to help bring it back, but I’m doing it anyway. The mood just struck me when I thought of this song a minute or two before writing this. As for my flow, I do need to find it again, we’ve been friends too long for me to be without it. I’m gonna count this as part of my attempt to do that. So while I’m trying to find it, you enjoy this flow by the ever beautiful, Sade.

As a shorty, I saw this video featuring a rapper who’d Busta Rhyme like he bumped his head. And sure enough, the video confirmed it. It started out as the rapper as a little boy playing out in the yard, falling and bumping his head. Somebody elped him up and asked him if he bumped his head. He said, “yea”. They said, “Oh, so that means you gone switch it on ‘em”. The kid said, “Yea, Flipmode. Flipmode is the greatest”

The rest you can see for yourself…

So i’m at work last night and one of my co-workers who is also on Twitter (@Colden2) tells me that he just got this Ultimate Luther Vandross CD (which they NEVER are & I don’t like them, but that’s another post). Ok, cool. Then the brother, knowing full well he was baiting* me, tells me that the Luther vandross/Mariah Carey version of Endless Love is better than the Lionel Ritchie/Diana Ross version. Actually, what he really said was that Mariah Carey sung her part better than Diana & Lionel’s was better than Luther. I guess you could make a case for this, but I just took each version as a whole…and still gave him the side eye. At first I immediately said no, no, & HELL NO followed by a series of no’s and then a no. Then I thought, NO! I also took into account his personal bias (of which he claims is not a factor) towards Mariah’s talent (among other things) as to why he says that. And as much as love Luther(R.I.P.), I will not go into my belief in the fact that everything he touched was not turned to gold(case in point). That’s not what this is about. I believe that the original Ritchie/Ross pairing is way better than the Vandross/Carey version. This also brings up something about remakes that I want to come back to one day.

Oh, and to make matter worse, I come home, check Twitter and see this in my stream. Ladies and gentlemen of the internet, help me out. Check out the two versions of the classic song and you tell me which one is the better version. And yes, I realize that my personal bias of the original song may have colored my choice, but once again, nope!

Lionel Ritchie / Diana Ross version

Luther Vandross / Mariah Carey version

P.S.

I’ll take this battle over original or extra crispy any day.

* – I can’t believe it took this for me to post. *SMDH*

I’ve always maintained that MF Doom (now going by just the name of DOOM*) in any of his various forms, is one the hottest emcees out there. He’s your favorite rapper’s, favorite rapper’s, favorite rapper. It is REDONKULOUS that he’s not as known as he should be. “Villain’ll hold the mic like he’s mean and his tummy hurts. In a clean pair of ripped jeans and a bummy shirt”. Fuck Little Wayne or ANY of these other popular clown ass rappers out here right now(I’m looking at the likes of you, Soldja Boy, etc). Naturally, you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out this mix from the Big La, Todd Kelley’s Artist Spotlight: MF Doom (scroll down for it)

Also, peep out these videos from various Doom projects:

Madvillian – All Caps
* – Yes, folks, the all caps spelling is not new. He put it out there a couple of years ago.

King Geedorah – The Fine Print
“Render unto Geedorah what is Geedorah’s. 10 to 1 he sees you through a beeker and a Tweezers”

Viktor Vaughn – Vaudeville Villain
“Viktor the director flip a script like Rob Reiner
The way a lotta dudes rhyme their name should be “knob shiner”
For a buck, they’d likely dance the Jig or do the Hucklebuck
To Vik it’s no big deal, they’re just a buncha knuckle-fucks”

Jake One w/ MF Doom – Trapdoor
OH MY GOD, I love this song! I play it in triplicate every time I hear it. Probably did it while writing this post.

DangerDoom w/ Talib Kweli – Old School
“And since when lyrical skill had to do with killing a cat, what type of Chitlins is that?”

Da Supafriendz – Vast Aire w/ MF Doom
“Give him some skin, a real country bumpkin
Get up off his property, villain, fuzzy lumpkin
Dumpin, enough raw lead to leave a forehead sunk in
When he’s on tour, keep your paws off him pumpkin dumplin”

MF Doom – HEY!
“I only play the games that I win at. And stay the same with more rhymes than there’s ways to skin cats”

What I’m saying is that if you don’t know this cat, you need to. That said:

It’s always good to see the brother getting his due props from anywhere. Check out this Youtube video (found via @HumanityCritic on Twitter)of the mighty Mos Def speaking on his favorite DOOM verses.

Oh, DOOM’s new album, BORN LIKE THIS is in stores now. Go get it. iTunes and Amazon, also.

Just came across this on Twitter (Via @kpereira through @jeffgerstmann). If you’re old enough to enjoy the 8-bit styling of the Super Mario Brothers theme & a medley of popular rap songs, this one’s for you. Just hit the link below. I don’t believe you will be disappointed.

…shot then » Blog Archive » 8-bit Hip Hop medley

It’s that time again. Once again, it’s time for the annual Cupid Hunt Podcast Event masterminded by the one TGrundy over at Rhythms In Black Satin(RIBS, for short). This is the event where a group of music podcasters & DJ’s all release mixes with the theme related to Valentine’s Day and the subject of love. Information about this annual affair can be found, here. This year, I decided to join the fun with a mix of my own.  It was no easy task even when knowing what I’ve wanted to do since last year’s Cupid Hunt. Needless to say, I encourage you to go check out every mix that’s being put out for this event. Most of the people in my Blogroll will be providing mixes for this event. The master list of mixes is being kept here. It will be updated as the weekend progresses. Here are some of the ones that I know are posted already:

DJ Grantlove Pt1, Pt2, & My love, my life, my wife

Soulrific

Todd Kelley

Anji Bee @ the Chillcast

DarrenKeith @ My love for music

Friday Night Dance Party

Fave @ the Friday Favecast

Anewlis

EJ Flavors

Calinative

DBassist

TGrundy

I would like to thank TGrundy for opportunity to take part in this event. That said:

I’ve always loved making slow tapes. You either had a mood setting mix, straight baby making music, or some combination of the two. I wish I hadn’t gotten out of doing them, or mixes period. That’s another story.  Right now, it’s about a soundtrack. As in from a movie. Back in the 90’s, it seemed like most every urban themed or starred movie had a great soundtrack with some notable slow songs attached to it. Sometimes, the soundtracks were better than the movies themselves. I thought I’d make a mix that incorporated some of those songs in my mix. So with out further ado, here it is.

Cupid Hunt ‘09 – Lights, camera, slow jams*

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(download here)

(For those folks with ipods(and probably iphones), you should be able to click a couple of times to see the track listings. SHOULD being the operative word)

Playlist:

• Tony! Toni! Tone! – Just Me And You (Boyz N The Hood)
• Allure – When The Shades Go Down (The Best Man)
• Sandra St. Victor – Come Over (A Thin Line Between Love And Hate)
• London Jones – I Lust 4 U (House Party II)
• Johnny Gill – There U Go (Boomerang)
• Faith Evans – Kissing You (Waiting To Exhale)
• Keith Washington & Chante Moore – Candlelight & You (House Party II)
• Luther Vandross & Cheryl Lynn – If This World Were Mine (The Wood)
• Chaka Khan – My Funny Valentine (Waiting To Exhale)
• Tears Away – Faith Evans (Hav Plenty)
• Mint Condition – My Dear (Mo Money)
• Me’shell N’degeocello – Let Me Have You (How Stella Got Her Groove Back)
• For Real – Love will be waiting At Home (Waiting To Exhale)
• Maxwell – Sumthin’ Sumthin’: Mellosmoothe(Cut) (Love Jones)

* – As with any other time, I’m taking a Badu stance on this. I’m sensitive about my stuff, so be nice.

Grenique came along when there was still some semblance of goodness to be found on the radio. Not much, but some. I kid, radio was still somewhat good for soul artists at that time. There were a bunch of promising one hit/album artists, all of whom had a hook of some kind ,came out at this time. Grenique was among this bunch. 1999 saw the release of her album Black Butterfly & it’s single, “Should I”. It had much play during the time of it’s release. I know I personally had that album in heavy rotation. I was hoping to hear more from her in the years after that, but it seems like she got lost in the shuffle. I brief bit of checking didn’t seem to suggest that she was doing anything right now, but I’m sure that the person on Myspace using that name, isn’t her.

So if you should happen to see Grenique or have any ideas of her whereabouts, please point her to the nearest studio and tell her to get to producing some stuff. Now better than later. Check out a couple of tracks below & reminisce with me, if you please. Oh, and Grenique holds the distinction of being one of the few artists that has made a remake of a song(in this case, Heatwave’s “Star of the Story“) that could hold up to the original. That is high praise if I may say so.

Should I

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Black Butterfly

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Star Of The Story

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At a Consumer Electronics Show press conference yesterday, Chris “Lova Lova” Bridges, AKA Ludacris AKA LUDA!, spoke on his recent release of his concept album, “Theater Of The Mind”, in High Definition Surround sound (HDS) on CD & Blu-ray disc. This is probably not unlike the seemingly nonexistant DVD-Audio format that made their way into the market some years ago. Do they even still make those? I’m all for good sounding audio, but I’m more concerned that there is good material on the album. It’s not like most people can tell the difference anyway. And let’s just say that concept albums don’t fill me with the warm fuzzies, you know? Anyway, here is a video courtesy of CNET about the press conference.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the only ‘08 list I could muster up. Why? Because I was just slipping back into a whole lot of music for whatever reason & therefore couldn’t do a proper year end list justice . You can check out this post here for some good picks. You can also go check out the ‘08 Best Albums Round Table podcast done by Fave & other notable personalities on his site. It is well worth the listen, folks.

Now, on to my list. Have you ever had that song that just instantly grabs you from the first note & never lets go? Well, my list is comprised of those such songs. At first, I didn’t think I had a whole lot(because my mind only keeps stuff for so long), but I ended up with more than I thought. Anyway, in no particular order:

Erykah Badu – The Healer

I defy you not to have nodded your head when you first heard this song. I double defy you. The producer Madlib & the divine miss Badu put their respective socks into this joint.

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Jean Grae – Love Thirst

Take one of the hottest female emcees & put her over a hot 9th Wonder beat spitting sexual imagery. Head nodding Fiyah!

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Lalah Hathaway – For Always & That Was Then
I LOVE Lalah Hathaway. So when I heard she was coming out with an album last year, it was on. She didn’t disappoint, not that I thought she would. Not one but two songs got me off the bat. It doesn’t hurt that they were back to back. Hope you can hear why I like them.

For Always

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That Was Then

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Come Back – Algebra
Ok, I know that this is from an album that was released in ‘06, but it was re-released in ‘08. It counts, back up. I love Algebra’s voice already, but this song had me more sprung.

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Stacey Epps – Floatin’

Another head nodder from someone I found out about late in the year. Singer/rapper with a good future if she gets it in. Sounds like she might.

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Ra Re Valverde – Superhero

I believe I heard about this lady from the folks at Soulbounce.com. I really liked the album. This song and one other not on this list was in constant rotation.

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UGK feat. Andre 3000 – International Players Anthem

Do I have to say it? The song in itself was great. Andre 3000 sets it off lovely with his verse. R.I.P. to Pimp C

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Jazzanova – Let Me Show Ya

Another late in the year entry. This group was a buzz all over Twitter. I see why with songs like this.

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Colin Munroe – I Want Those Flashing Lights

I like this version better than Kanye’s version. Nuff said. This cat has another song called piano lessons w/Joel Ortiz that’s pretty hot, also.

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Foreign Exchange – Daykeeper

If you hadn’t heard this song yet, what is wrong with you?

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Maiysha – Alchemy

I am looking to hear more from this young lady. If you hadn’t checked out her album, “This Much Is True“, please do. you won’t be disappointed.

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Liquid Spirits – Melodies feat. Leon Ware

Mix one eclectic group out of Amsterdam with a legendary songwriter of soul music & you get this song. This could go on a slow tape playlist at some point.

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And that, friends, is that. Hope to do this again in ‘09. Preferably better prepared.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one, but there have been plenty. I should have kept better record of them. Probably could have turned them into something. Anyway, this is the first on this site. The rest I have done are here. Let’s get to it…

This has to be the shortest sparked but most appropriate song for some of the way that I’m feeling & will feel going into the new year. I love it when it happens like that. What can can I say, it just felt like right.

Brand New Heavies – Feels Like Right

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Couldn’t find a video for this song, sadly, but glad that I have the space to put the song up.

Enjoy!