Musical Selections

Mixtapes are where it's at if your into hip-hop or you could even say music more generally. There's something about being able to use a sample that would otherwise not be able to be cleared or jacking someone's else beat and using it in a totally different way that can take something familiar to a totally new level. There's quite a few good ones at there right now.

Although its been out for a while, and got quite a bit of attention this spring, Wale's Seinfeld themed mixtape "Mixtape About Nothing" is a really good one. I don't know much about Wale, but his mixtape is one of the best this year. it was mixed by Nick Catch Dubs -- who did Saul Williams stellar "Real Niggery" mixtape a few years ago.

KiD CuDi's mixtape "Emile and Plain Pat Present a KiD Named CuDi" might be the best non-cocaine dealing themed mixtape out in the last few years. Plain Pat mixed Kanye mixtape from last summer and he put together another scorcher this year. The beat selection is really good and the KiD delivers some fine verses.

Looking for some mellow music to chill to do on a hot summer day/evening? Diplo and Santogold's Top Ranking will fit the bill. There's a few hard driving tracks on this one, but most of it is pretty mellow. There's quite a bit of reggae, probably about one third of the total tracks on it (this has got about 35 tracks on it).


While most big label hip hop underwhelms -- although the mixtapes are a different story -- indie/underground hip hop continues to thrive. Stone's Throw steps the pace with two releases this summer. The first solid entry is the Dilla Ghost Doom "Sniperlite". So this is a couple of J Dilla beats from donuts with verses from Ghostface Killah and MF Doom. This is short, one from Ghost, one from Doom, and the 3rd track splices the two together.

On the longer side, is MF Doom & Madlib's (i.e., Madvillain) "Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix". Apparently, this was Madlib's personal remix -- which he just decided to release this summer. Although its a remix, it has the feel of a totally different album because none of the track names are the same. Also the beats are so different it gives it a whole totally different feel to the original. This is highly recommended.