So, a while ago, before people like Benni Benassi and Eric Prydz started relying on tits, sweat and slow motion tits and sweat in their promotional material, dance music videos used to be brilliant. You know, back when artists appeared in their own videos, and not just as a seedy looking fat man in the midst of a club of semi-naked girls. Or if they weren’t in the video, it was because the video consisted of groundbreaking 3D animation which more than made up for it. Back when the dangers of strobe lighting effects triggering seizures were irrelevant. When anything was possible. I miss those days.

So in a loose attempt to revitalise the dance music video genre and drag it out of the slump that they’re currently in, I present my top 7 dance music videos from the 90’s. A selection of the best of the best, each one has carefully been considered against the following criteria:

Got any salmon?
How well does it embody the ethos of dance music? Is there a clear use of salmon in the video? (high). Or no dancing at all? (low).

de l’Épée factor
Were the production crew clearly deaf? (high). Or does the video actually have any relevance to the song? (low). (Named for Charles-Michel de l’Épée)

Dworkin-ism
Distinct lack of tits, arse, or any other excessive sexy time allusions in order to try to promote the music. (high). Or, does it look like a promo for ‘nuts’ magazine? (low).

You’re not alone..
Its influence and clones etc.. Also known as the ‘dolly’ element. Because of dolly the sheep. (Two birds, one stone. Genius.) More influence = more sheep.

Sound basis for evaluation, I think you’ll agree. There’s also the factor of whether I like the song or not, but I’m trying to be objective. Honest.

Anyway, Let’s begin by pushing the limits at number 7...

Last night, BBC Radio 1 & 1xtra broadcast 5 hours of hip-hop as part of their celebration of ‘30 years of hip hop’. It was alright.
Most of the quality came from an hour long mix from Jaguar Skills, featuring tracks from the past 3 decades. Superb, and available to download courtesy of the man himself here. The quality of the mix is undeniable, but some of the tracks toward the end (i.e. recent times) are a bit iffy.. Maybe that’s just me and my distaste of modern music, who knows. Either way, worth a listen. Great stuff. I’m not sure how different it is from his ‘Hip-Hop Odyssey’ 1979-2006 mix from a few years ago (I’d need to listen to it again) but to be fair, that was brilliant in itself and pretty hard to beat so he could be forgiven if there are any similarities .

The rest of the show, hosted by Zane Lowe & Tim Westwood, took the form of a top 30 countdown of the ‘most hip hop’ people. It was generated by a ‘consensus vote from influential people in hip hop’ including Dizzee Rascal, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, Zane Lowe, Tim Westwood and more. Comprehensive indeed. There are definitely some questionable entries and positions but generally, I was actually surprised at how good it is. Bear in mind this was broadcast on Radio 1 which is generally hip hop retarded, and you’ll share my surprise.

The list, in full, is as follows.. complete with links to their featured songs in case you’re not sure who they are..

30. Q-Tip
Founding member (and the most notable one?) of A Tribe Called Quest.
Featured track: Can I Kick It? (ATCQ) from People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

29. N.W.A.
The world’s most dangerous group..
Featured track: Express Yourself from Straight Outta Compton.

28. Ice Cube

Don mega.
Featured track: Today Was a Good Day from The Predator.

27. De La Soul
Started the D.A.I.S.Y. Age, repping native tongues.
Featured track: The Magic Number from 3 Feet High And Rising.

26. Beastie Boys
Known to let the beat.. dddddrooppp!
Featured track: Intergalactic from Hello Nasty.

25. Wu-Tang Clan

From the slums of Shaolin.. The RZA, the GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon The Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah and the Method Man! (& Masta Killa )
Only at number 25?! Loco.
Featured track: Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin Ta F’Wit from Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

24. DJ Premier
Producer extraordinaire. He IS that boom bap NY sound.
Featured track: Just To Get A Rep (Gang Starr) from Step Into The Arena

23. Lil’ Wayne
Biggest selling artist of 2008. “best rapper alive”? Fucks sake.
Featured track: A Milli from Tha Carter III.

22. LL Cool J
Don’t call it a comeback, he’s been here for years.
Featured track: Mama Said Knock You Out from Mama Said Knock You Out.

21. Snoop Dogg
Laaiiid back..
Featured track: Gin and Juice from Doggystyle.

20. Rakim

He was a fiend, before he became a teen..
Featured track: Paid In Full from Paid In Full.

19. Barack Obama

Featured track: Victory Speech.

18. Run DMC
Featured track: Run’s House from Tougher Than Leather.

17. James Brown
The most sampled man in the world. Praise be to the funky drummer.
Featured track: The Payback from The Payback.

16. Puff Daddy
Don’t worry if he writes rhymes, he writes cheques.
Featured track: Bad Boy For Life from The Saga Continues….

15. Public Enemy

Featured track: Fight The Power from Fear of a Black Planet.

14. Spike Lee
Doing the right thing.

At this point, I stopped listening. Not in a protest or anything, but because things to do and that.. 5 hours is a looong time. I have the final ‘chart’ entries but the featured songs from here on are my choice as opposed to the tracks that were played on the radio.

13. Nas
Half man, half amazing.
Featured track: Nas Is Like from I Am...

12. Kool Herc
The innovator.
Featured track: Old school documentary.

11. Afrika Bambaata
Zulu nation overlord.
Featured track: Planet Rock from Planet Rock.

10. KRS-One

Knowledge reigns supreme over nearly everyone.
Featured track: Sound Of Da Police from Return of the Boom Bap.

9. Notorious BIG
Mo money mo problems.
Featured track: Party & Bullshit.

8. Tupac
Sippin’ hennesy and ridin’ on his enemies..
Featured track: 2 Live And Die In L.A. from The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.

7. Eminem
How the fuck can he be white? He don’t even exist..
Featured track: Role Model from The Slim Shady LP.

6. Chuck D
Different to Public Enemy(?) Never hear a brother like him go solo.
Featured track: Welcome To The Terrordome from Fear Of A Black Planet.

5. Kanye West
Seriously?
Featured track: 2 Words from College Dropout.

4. Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster! Cut-cut-cut faster!
Featured track: The Message from The Message.

3. Russell Simmons
Bigger and deffer.
Featured track: EPMD – Rampage ft. LL Cool J from Business As Usual.

2. Dr Dre

The motherfucking D R E.
Featured track: Keep Their Heads Ringing from Friday Soundtrack.

1. Jay-Z
Meh.
Featured track: Can’t Knock The Hustle from Reasonable Doubt.

And that’s that. If you’re in the UK and reading this within the first week of this being posted, you can go and listen to the various hip hop shows that formed this mini celebration over at the BBC here. The Sarah Love UK hip hop show is a standout. Live cyphers from Jehst, Verb T, Mystro and some others..

Word.

Saw this today and marveled at the genius of it for a while. Thought I’d share.

It’s basically a collection of songs that have been produced from audio snippets off of YouTube – and the corresponding music videos which are made up of the actual original video footage. I’ll let Kutiman explain it himself;

It’s really nicely done and actually surprisingly listenable-to. It’s also a nice touch having the credits (i.e. links to the source material) because watching the original clips on their own highlights how much of an achievement this project is. Rather mundane videos of people playing guitar in their bedroom or singing to themselves come together to form a decent piece of music. Go watch. http://thru-you.com

Inspired!

So, happy new year and all that.. I’m not really one for retrospectives (nor for any blog posts at all it would appear) but I thought I’d briefly kick off the new year by commenting on my most listened to music from the past year. Because I’m sure you’re interested. Bear in mind that this is based on my last.fm stats so doesn’t take into account any stuff played at home or in the car (thus ignoring a lot of dance music). But still, it’d be fairly similar anyway.

In a year in which I got to see Atmosphere and Rage Against The Machine, it’s hardly a surprise that they both feature heavily in my rotation. Between them, they make up my top 20 tracks of the year, and rightfully so. The new Atmosphere album is brilliant, and the Rage shit never gets old.

In fact, in the top 60-odd tracks, the only other artists that featured were Justice, Brother Ali (both of who I also saw last year), Nas, Wu-Tang & Doomtree. Quite a Rhymesayers-themed 2008 for me then.

So there you have it. Just something to get into posting in 2009. It’s a start. Incidentally, my most listened to track so far of 2009 is Columbia University Orchestra – Mozart – Symphony No. 40, IV. Could be a sign of things to come. Though it probably wont be.

Great post over at formatmag that shows 20 hip-hop album covers done in lego. Well, with lego characters anyway. It’s well fresh.

Granted a lot of the covers wont mean anything to a lot of people but there’s a lot there that everyone should own. Or at least hear at some point. Download some stuff. Expand your mind.

It’s been a fair while since any new Sage Francis material came out, let alone any stuff with a expressly ‘political’ theme.. I still remember downloading Makeshift Patriot a month after ‘9/11′ and being overly impressed with the way it really seemed to capture that moment in time. (The signed 7″ of one of the original pressings of that track is one of my prized possessions) . But anyway, what better time to step back into the fray than this, the last few weeks before the US presidential election..

‘Conpiracy To Riot‘ is, on the face of it, a track released to highlight various issues surrounding the Republican National Convention last month – notably the arrest of his fellow Providence poet and musician Jared Paul but as Sage points out, it’s really..

..less to do with a friend of mine possibly looking at jail time, and more to do with citizen’s rights continually being trampled on. There are thousands of innocent people in jail right now because of their lack of finances. This is a principle thing as much as it is personal. Attorneys working with the National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU are identifying this year’s RNC as one of the most extreme examples of strategic, premeditated attacks on the First Amendment in U.S. history..

You can familiarise yourself with all the background info, check the song lyrics, make donations, and of course, download the track for free on the Conspiracy To Riot microsite. It’s recommended.

http://www.strangefamousrecords.com/conspiracy/

I was going through some old records last night and it made me think of this video of Paul Mawhinney’s music collection. The video has been doing the rounds for the last month or so but I remember reading about it at the start of the year when he was trying to sell it on eBay and I presumed that it had actually sold and was in safe hands, but apparently not. A $3m bid fell through and as far as I can work out, the collection is still for sale.. Surely someone wants to buy it(?) DJ Shadow? Premier? Dre? If I had a few milli to spare, I’d happily snap it up.

Anyway, the video is only short, and worth a watch if only to get a vague idea of what a couple of million pieces of vinyl in the same place looks like. Crazy.

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

More about the story here, or on google.

4 words that have the initials R, A, T and M.
You’re a fool if you can’t fill in the blanks.

As pretty much the only reason I wanted to go, Rage Against The Machine were always going to the highlight for me, and while there was a risk that they’d be a letdown because I was looking forward to it so much – they weren’t. Just amazing. My only complaint (apart from the lack of volume that afflicted everybody on the main stage) is that we could’ve/should’ve tried to get closer to the front because we seemed to end up in a patch of people who were happy to stand with their arms crossed and only appeared to know Killing In The Name. Eejits. Bouncing around to Know Your Enemy, Sleep Now In The Fire and Guerrilla Radio, we must’ve looked a tad odd to the statues behind us but it’s Rage for fucks sake.. etiquette and inhibitions had no place there. The whole set was great, and featured everything you’d expect right through to the rant during Wake Up (although really, surely it’s getting too late to mention Bush & Blair?). It’d be hard to single out highlights, but coming out and doing Bombtrack in the jumpsuits was loco, and the Freedom/Killing In The Name encore was fever pitch.

Epic. Definitely one to remember.

It’s a bit shit that the band have a ‘no filming’ policy going on because it means that for video footage, you have to resort to shaky hand cam stuff on youtube. Like this.

Rage aside, we managed to catch a few other bands across the Friday and Saturday. Worth a mention; Manic Street Preachers, Justice and Dizzee Rascal. Slightly mentionable; Queens of The Stone Age, The Ting Tings, The Killers, Bloc Party, Jack Penate, The Wombats, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, Hifi Handgrenades and Santogold. Utterly forgettable; Editors, Ida Maria, The Subways, The Enemy, The Fratellis, countless other ‘The’ bands. I’m sure there were other people worth seeing but as I’ve said before, it’s not really my ’scene’ so I’m not really fussed. But I did have lots of (mostly Rage inspired) fun. Good times.

Wu-Tang to headline next year(?)

(plenty of photos/video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/)

It’s been a chockablock couple of months in terms of new musical offerings and while it’s beyond me to comprehensively review everything I’ve been listening to lately, I wanted to mention a couple of things in no particular order, with examples!

Doomtree – Doomtree
Easily one of the most talented collectives in hip hop right now, Doomtree finally blessed us with a group album (self titled). It’s rather good. As with a lot of their stuff, there’s a big punk influence meshed with the straight up hip hop and it works gloriously. P.O.S. is probably the most noticeable face of the crew but there really is no weak link to be found.

The Game – LAX
3 albums and countless mixtapes in and Game is still superbly embodying almost everything you love about gangsta rap. There’s still no Dre reunion but to be honest, I’ve given up noticing. You can criticise The Game’s lyrics as much as you want – (the consistent name-dropping is getting to almost a parody of himself by now) – but one thing he’s always shown is an ear for a quality beat, and to his credit, while not necessarily stellar, he’s never weak on the tracks.

GZA/Genius – Pro Tools
Not a great album title, and to be honest, not a great album on the first couple of listens, but that’s probably because I can’t help but compare every GZA release to Liquid Swords and that’s not especially fair is it(?) There’s no denying that there’s just something lazy about his delivery these days though, and it’s a shame because lyrically, he’s still a beast.

Ice Cube – Raw Footage
Listening to this album it makes me wonder how the fuck films like Are We There Yet? ever got made. Ice Cube clearly isn’t meant for the kids. It’s a welcome return to form and is the reason I said that The Game is ‘almost’ everything you love about gangsta rap.. Because as much as he idolises NWA, his content isn’t a tenth as good as Cube at his peak (or even remotely close to his peak). Peep the video for Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It. Brilliant.

Also in rotation and worthy of a listen (and maybe a future more detailed post);

• Nas – Untitled (didn’t really live up to the hype but still, not bad for his NINTH ALBUM!!! mental.)
• The Wackness – Soundtrack (nothing new to be heard but a good one for reminiscing to when it wasn’t all business..)
• El-P – WeAreAllGoingToBurnInHellMeggamixxx2 (free on the def jux site and even better than the first one)
• One Day As A Lion (a fairly decent stand in for new RATM material)