Has anyone else seen @hemingway, this weird Twitter feed that just spouts Ernie quotes every once in a while? Well, tonight I decided to code up my own twist on the idea. Follow @mistadobalina to receive hourly bursts of verse from one of my favorite albums, I Wish My Brother George Were Here by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien.
The whole thing is automated by about 30-45 minutes worth of work. So don’t expect any miracles. But all the code is over on github if anybody wants it. I had a couple problems (no matter what album I asked for, I was only getting track listings for Staind), but the LyricWiki SOAP service is a pretty sweet Web service.
Right now I’m getting a kick out of this YouTube hype tape for last year’s CL Smooth album. There’s not a lot to it, but I love seeing my man Pete Rock do his thing with some pure 80s cheese. Are there more “producer-in-action” tapes like this around the web? I’d love to see ‘em.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co__eHlCFJs[/youtube]
You can sample the whole song here. These guys can still out some pretty decent hip hop considering their age. It’s not anywhere as startling as the burner Premier and AZ recently managed, but CL is about as solid as ever. Pete isn’t weaving as tight as he once did, but the novelty of the sample is enough for me right now.
One of my favorite mashup producers, Mark Vidler, has apparently decided to call it quits. If you visit his Web site, you’ll find a free-to-download compilation of some of his more notable creations. I recommend checking it out.
In an email blast he sent out last week, Vidler suggested that he may go even further, posting an exhaustive collection of all his work online. I hope it happens. But, failing that, this set is a good retrospective. It includes some of my favorites (”The Weather Episode,” “Shannon Stone”), though there are still some great tracks missing (”Jet Lady Joe”).
Five years or so after the online bootleg fad got going — oh, boom selection, we were once young! — the novelty has certainly worn off. But I think Vidler’s best work holds up well.
A good Go Home Productions track is greater than the sum of its parts. When Vidler introduces hip-hop to a Rolling Stones riff, it doesn’t feel like a campy gimmick (See: Girl Talk). It’s as if a sort of pop vertigo has set in and you’ve hallucinated your way into an alternative universe.
I think that’s largely due to Vidler’s skill at songcraft, something you don’t hear often accredited to pop artists who build their work from other musicians’ primary materials. Cut and paste may be easy, but doing it this well ain’t.
I made a call-in appearance on the Chicago Public Radio program Sound Opinions last Saturday to answer a request for great summer songs. My choice: “Dr. Bombay” by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien.
If you download the podcast and fast forward to a little past the 32-minute mark, you can hear me ramble on about Del’s song, early ’90s G-funk, peripheral characters on the television series Bewitched, blues legend Robert Johnson and my beloved Toyota Camry.
What you won’t be able to hear are any of my thoughts about how club culture and the increased recreational use of MDMA (a.k.a. Esctasy) has changed hip-hop music since Del’s day, when marijuana consumption was much more conspicuous. You won’t hear any of that, because my comments were edited out by the show’s producers. I have been censored. Ben Welsh. Too bad for public radio.
Below you can find a copy of the notes I prepared before my call.
Talking Points: Del Tha Funkee Homosapien