monday mixtape haterism
May 6th, 2013 by david brothers | Tags: aesop rock, blu, copywriteEight songs here, which should play in random order. The list:
-Curren$y – Armoire feat. Young Roddy & Trademark – The Stoned Immaculate
-Aesop Rock – Getaway Car feat. Cage, Breeze Brewin – None Shall Pass
-B-Rock & The Bizz – My Baby Daddy
-Angel Haze – Realest – Reservation
-Copywrite – Light’s Out feat. Catalyst – The Jerk
-Johnson & Jonson – Hold On John – Johnson & Jonson
-The Alchemist – Flight Confirmation feat. Danny Brown & Schoolboy Q – Russian Roulette
-Joell Ortiz – Nissan, Honda, Chevy
I spend a lot of time listening to the same ol’ songs. I have a little iPod Nano I use for music, an eight gig joint, and I tend to keep it stocked with favorites, albums I want to revisit, and new mixtapes or albums. The downside is that after a day or two, I realized I know everything on the iPod by heart, so if my mood changes and I want to hear a certain sound, my choice is to either listen to something hot that I’ve temporarily played out or to just deal with it.
So I changed things up. I made a smart playlist in iTunes, told it to populate randomly, and gave it a size limit of five gigs, so I could still have a few favorites loaded up. I’ve got something like sixteen thousand songs, but only a fraction of that stays in heavy rotation. This is a way to correct my course and rediscover things I forgot.
This mixtape is a semi-random selection of eight songs from my 5 GB playlist. I pretty much flicked down the iTunes list and grabbed the first ten songs that caught my eye, and then pared it down to remove dupes. It’s tilted highly in favor of rap (no surprise), but also toward the past five years, which was a legitimate surprise. I don’t listen to a lot of ’80s rap, but I love joints from the ’90s and early ’00s. That’s not represented here, I don’t think. I am pleased at the diversity of styles, prestige, and content here, though.
Aesop Rock’s “Getaway Car” has one of my most favorite beats ever, and Aes Riggedy Rock, Cage, and Breeze Brewin go in so hard, and the Camp Lo sample is disgusting. It’s ugly, a mean mug of a sample that’s just the best thing ever this morning. I’ll show up for Breeze anyway, but it’s lovely this song is so ill in general.
“My Baby Daddy” was the jam when I was a kid. I guess I was 14 or 15, but that song goes now just as much as it did then. Maybe you had to be there, like with “Ya mama smokes crack rock!” “Mama, please stop, ’cause they pickin’ on me!” Be careful out there, tho — a lot of people think it was JT Money (including my iTunes, for some reason), because of his single “Who Dat.” “My Baby Daddy”‘s music video is super ’90s too.
Here’s the answer song from Anquette:
I always liked answer or sequel songs. “No Scrubs” vs “No Pigeons,” or how Beanie Sigel’s “In The Club” came out of Jay-Z’s “Do It Again.”
Copy’s “Light’s Out,” featuring Catalyst, has one of my favorite aspects of rap music: when the beat drops out at the end and the rapper just keeps going. Copywrite is nice — “if it ain’t MHz or Weathermen it’s a piece of shit!” — but Catalyst getting those extra few seconds is spectacular. I know it’s calculated or whatever, but it feels like just unbridled creativity spilling out. It makes the raps better, even if they’re just aight, and I’ll never stop loving it. I react to it like I reacted to Canibus kicking 100 bars in a row.
Johnson & Jonson (bka Blu & Mainframe)’s “Hold On John” actually has an iller sample than “Getaway Car.” It’s a perfect pairing of sample, tone, and subject matter. It should go without saying, but Joell Ortiz can spit, too.
True story: I had this big plan this year to go full freelance. I’ve been doing freelance since 2003, and it’s mostly been a side gig to a day job, or a way to help pay my student loans. It’s never been enough to live on, and I’m starting to feel like I might have missed that window, thanks to a combination of bad timing, comfort, and… probably pride. Definitely pride.
ComicsAlliance closing caught me by surprise, because it’s one of a couple things I took entirely for granted when drafting this big plan. I sort of assumed that the site, and the money, would be there while I looked for more. I placed a few singular pieces elsewhere around the internet (I placed five pieces at four outlets that were new to me), but nobody’s biting for what I’m best at or a regular gig. And now CA is gone, so I don’t even have the homebase I was hoping to hang onto while I tried to branch out.
I’m pretty discouraged. I hadn’t realized quite how much until late last week, long after the praise online had died down and I had a chance to think about it. I utterly hate when plans bend and warp, especially when I felt like I had a chance to hit the mark. On top of that, I apparently alienated a few close friends by writing about comics, the money was never great (it was more than welcome, don’t get me wrong — I’m still very grateful for the chance and the checks), and my difficulty elsewhere has me thinking like… “Is it worth it?”
I dunno. I’m still processing. I think I was too ambitious, maybe, but also too focused, in terms of what I can write about. But I’ve spent enough of my time feeling bad. Now it’s time to do something else.
Once a week, for as long as I can hold out (months, looking at what I’ve got banked and planned), I’m going to post a new piece at stories.iamdavidbrothers.com. I’m thinking of alternating fiction and non-fiction, but don’t hold me to it. The first story’s about Karen. I hope you dig it and come back on Friday for the next one.
Thanks for reading.
The Following‘s first season ended last week. I’ll have a longer post later, I think, but here’s a short review of the last episode:
Open thread. What’re you reading/watching/hearing/enjoying?
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Dude: I’m a relatively new reader of yours. I’ve only been checking out this site for the last few months, Comics Alliance for the last year. I’m sad it’s gone, because it seemed to be one of the few places where the snark was heavily balanced out against sheer joy of comics; that being said, I follow your posts because while you write about comics, it’s not just about comics, if that makes sense? Anyway: I’d happily check out any place where you might start writing, because you’re damned good at it. So there.
I’m so glad to hear the love for Aesop Rock. Skelethon’s been on heavy rotation in my house since it came out, and so few people seem to understand just how good he is. Aside from that, I’m currently listening to a tonne of Erykah Badu, Le Tigre, M.I.A and Metric, so that I can put together a decent playlist for my daughter’s upcoming Jelly Bean Dance Party, because apparently that’s what 5-year-old’s do now, and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna suffer through four hours of Katy Perry and the like.
Reading: (or re-reading) China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station; currently revisiting a lot of books I used to champion as my favourites, to see if they hold up, and Perdido’s doing just fine. As well, I’m reading the first trade of Morrison’s Action Comics, which I gotta admit is kind of a stumble for the man.
Watching: Home Movies. Cuz I need Brendan Small to remind me to not put marbles in my nose.
Anyway: keep up the good work, and the best of luck to you in the future.
Right now I’m reading Joe Hill’s Horns. I’d read his Heart-Shaped Box and thought it was nice enough but not for me. But I’m liking this one a lot more and its making me more willing to see how accurate the positive buzz on Locke & Key is…
man, ComicsAlliance shutting down blows. 🙁 i hope thing work out. it’s nuts to hear that you alienated friends by writing about comics..?? i’m not sure what that means but i guess there’s more to it that makes it make sense, but i’m sorry to hear it.
your Karen short story is great stuff!!
(Re)Reading: Ennis’ Punisher run, especially his collaboration with Parlov, cause those two dudes work together so well. Lot to dig in and pull apart in their work.
Listening: The local college radio station has a quality range from abysmal to solid, so I’ve been tuning in and out of that when I need some background music for other things.
Your short story was really interesting, and paced really nicely! I’m looking forward to more short fiction from you weekly.
I also ended up recently posting an article about Jordie Bellaire’s coloring that would’ve gone up on CA, so that’s here if you wanted to give it a read, and don’t mind the plug.
http://thedoctorapocalypse.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/jordie-bellaire-colors-your-perspective/
reading: just finished that recent Ellis book ‘Gun Machine’. It was pretty alright. About to re-read ‘Spook Country’ by William Gibson because I didn’t process it fully the first time. Doing this thing lately where I actually schedule reading times throughout my day. Seems like a simple thing, but looking back on the last year I didn’t read even close to enough.
Gotta get back to ‘Cold Six-Thousand’ again after losing track after a busy last quarter of ’12
watching: The Shield. I’m almost all the way through the series for the first time. It’s great. Goggins is the secret weapon. Even knowing that I like him in everything, he steals the back half of this series.
listening: all shuffle all the time lately. Also as a way to re-discover music I didn’t know I had
Just downloaded Eureka through iTunes and amazon… How is Joe Morton not a regular on any mainstream show right now? His character arc from the end of season one through season 3 is just a purely tragic rollercoaster ride for a lighthearted series…
Iron Man 3 got me re-reading certain parts of Iron Man’s history and right now I am in the midst of Armor Wars. The fight between him and The Captain by The Vault is a classic…
Listening wise, David THANK YOU for putting me onto Sugar Tongue Slim. Dude’s flow is nice and I love his takes on more “popular” beats. His rhyme on Gold Rush III over The Heavy sample is fast yet I keep on rewinding/replaying it just because I am shocked at how he gets away with some of his wordplay….
Good Luck Man! As I told you before here, I got my whole crew paying attention to your articles because you force us all to look at our beliefs in a light. A D.Brothers Article = Always Debatable, Never Dismissable, and It’ll Make You Think!
Man I don’t say it often enough, but yours is the best writing about comics I’ve ever read. Keep it up if you can, but don’t doubt that you’ve put out an amazing amount of excellent writing.
Reading: “Jesus Christ and Mythology” by Rudolf Bultmann. It’s interesting, and I like the fact that I can see my dad’s notes in the margins. Like a definition for “eschatology” and such. I should write in books.