Dick Flink and Nick Fenmore – or the Super Mash Bros – describe their group as “Girl Talk’s Hot Cousin.” Despite the abundance of family terminology, they manage to put together some extremely danceable stuff, with samples ranging from MGMT to Death Cab for Cutie to Nelly. With a few of these samples, it’s tempting to write off the group as a Girl Talk knockoff, but once you begin going through the album, listening to tracks like “Meet Me at Fantasy Island” (which samples Blink 182), or “Stop that Booty” (sampling Modest Mouse and Bubba Sparxx) you begin to understand that the Super Mash Bros sample sources much more diverse than Girl Talk. Spanning the spectrum from indie rock to Top 40 to european electronica, Fuck Bitches, Get Euros should be the next mixtape you download. [read more…]
by Jim Fields on November 12, 2008
in Uncategorized
Ninth Wonder's God's Stepson
For this week’s Mixtape Monday, we’re stepping back in five years time to 2003 for Ninth Wonder’s classic mixtape, called God’s Stepson. Every track on the album is a remix of a corresponding track from “God’s Son,” NaS’ seminal release from 2002.
Fans of MURS might recognize Ninth Wonder’s name, since Ninth produced beats for MURS’ 2004 LP MURS 3:15: The 9th Edition. Ninth Wonder also produced a song on the Viva La Hova mixtape, which (coincidentally) was featured on last week’s Mixtape Monday.
Like a lot of Ninth Wonder’s other releases (like “Freak these Tales,” with MURS) this album contains many samples from classic soul recordings. One of the best stand-alone samples comes at the beginning of “The Cross,” which samples “Beautiful Man of Mine” by Phyllis Hyman. All of Ninth’s samples enhance the original recordings of each song, especially the “Ether” remix, which features an amazing sample from “Hey, What’s That You Say” by Brother to Brother. The original recording of Ether (NaS’ infamous diatribe against Jay-Z) is a great song in its own right, but Ninth Wonder’s sample choice and production really transform it from a energetic battle rap into a much more nuanced assault on Jay-Z’s character and accomplishments. Many of the other tracks perform similar acts of transformation, like the upbeat Thugz Mansion that falls somewhere between the original track and the later acoustic recording from Better Dayz.
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by Jim Fields on November 3, 2008
in Uncategorized
Late one night, I was at a small party, doing DJ duty and selecting songs on my iPod. I searched for a while, scrolled to a song, then clicked “play.” Chris Martin, of Coldplay, began to croon out his slow (medical?) ballad, “Fix You.” Initially, the crowd was not happy with this choice. “When you feel so tired that you can’t sleep,” Chris sang, slowly. “Stuck in reverse!” he whispered. Suddenly, the word “reverse” began repeating, and a bass beat started thumping. People at the party started tapping their feet. The beat built up, people started dancing, and by the time Jay-Z (aka Jazzy, Sean Carter, Jiggaman, Hova, The Roc, etc.) began rapping, the party was bumping.
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