It’s been a busy week in the DX Lounge, so the staff has had less time for browsing than usual – (can somebody please tell Drake and Nicki Minaj’s Twitter-holders that Friday nights aren’t a great look), but we found some goodness that had to be shared.
Del The Funky Homosapien Goes Radiohead
No, Ice Cube’s cousin Del and Thom Yorke won’t be working together, but the Hieroglyphics’ homie is giving fans a pay-what-you-want album, called It Ain’t Illegal Yet. This is not a Rap first, as Murs & 9th Wonder’s Sweet Lord was something like that a few years ago in their collabo with Hurley. This time, Skull Candy gets in on the deal and while suggested download price is $3, there are packages that go as high as $10,000. For 10 stacks, Del will record an EP with you. If somebody else is footin’ the bill, we encourage the $3,000 “Hierollers” package which includes a flight to the Yay to make a song with Del and and spend the day with him. Are bidis included?
Back in ’02, Jean Grae offered Sandbox Automatic a contest that involved her shadowing one lucky winner who bought Attack of the Attacking Things around. We didn’t win. But support Del. This 12-song album just dropped, and his Parallel Thoughts joint with Tame One last year was really slept-on, we stand by that one.
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Purchase It Ain’t Illegal Yet and see price-point prizes here. (Tell ’em DX sent you, and maybe Del will fly us out too.)
The Making of Outkast’s Aquemini
Outkast is amazing. Sir Lucious Left Foothasn’t left the car since it released and was promptly purchased in mass quantities to give as gifts to estranged Rap fans. Creative Loafing’s Rodney Carmichael went back and spoke to Andre 3000, Big Boi, Organized Noize and others to re-live the duo’s ’98 classic, CLASSIC album, Aquemini. CL is a dope website, and a rigorous project like this just shows why. Suggestion: play the album while you read these 10 pages.
Read “The Making of Aquemini” here.
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Choose Your Own Adventure With Classified
Halifax, Nova Scotia emcee Classified released Self Explanatory last year. The LP got some impressive reviews, and featured B.o.B., Royce Da 5’9″ and some Canadian pioneers like Choclair and Maestro Fresh Wes (who just wrote a book!). Anyway, if you’re familiar or not, Classified has thrown together a late ’80s/early ’90s throwback with six of Self Explanatory‘s videos, allowing you to “choose your own adventure” as you navigate through. (Here’s DX’s review of ’07’s While You Were Sleeping).
Choose Your Own Video Adventure here.
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Black Milk has one of the most anticipated albums in the next six weeks in Album of the Year. Now, we have the album… and it’s pretty damn great (though the title has backfire potential like Slim Thug’s Already Platinum). But the homies at Complex.com broke the LP down track-by-track. The guests, the sounds, what you need to know. We still remember the bloody staff debates over whether Tronic was the best album of ’08. Damn close.
Read Complex.com’s Black Milk Album of the Year Preview here.
DX readers know Junclassic. He’s the enthusastic dude always commenting really positive stuff in features and telling emcees to “do ya numbas, my G.” Junclassic, also an emcee and an Underground Report alum, is also a blogger apparently. The Monsta Island Czars member’s blog is called Thoughts From A Hot Weedspot. That caught our attention, but his August 1st article “Fat Beats or Bust” is a great read. Jun went searching for El-P’s Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 on CD. When the 6th Ave. Fat Beats was closed, he went on a wild goose chase. The piece was prophetic on how much we all held our hearts last week when Fat Beats closed down. A great read though.
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