Moving On Up

HaterPlayer has moved to WordPress!!!

I finally checked out WordPress after hearing all the hype and it's seriously the illness. I had to make the move.

Content will remain the same but it's gonna look a whole lot fresher and it's gonna be a lot less strain on my membrane to deliver you the truth in the tunes and shit. Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out!

PSA

Also, my bad about the older posts and not being able to download tracks currently. My DivShare account only allows like 10 GBs of downloading per month and it's run its course this month. It'll reset on October 4.

I'll work on a different way to get the music to you.

Recap: The Office, Episode 5-1

I saw the Pam other-lover storyline coming a mile away. Last season, the show had lost some of the emotional edge that it had in Seasons 2 & 3 because really, this show should've ended when Pam and Jim got together at the end of Season 3. That had been the emotional crux of the show and since that had been resolved, the show should've ended naturally. Of course, that's not how it works in American television so The Office chugged along. But last season struggled to find something to fill the void left by Pam & Jim's relationship. The show tried two different story arcs--Michael and Jan's relationship and the love triangle between Dwight, Andy, and Angela--to produce some sort of emotional resonance but neither worked because everyone hates Jan and no one gives a shit about Dwight, Andy, and Angela on an emotional level because they're all obnoxious (albeit hilarious) characters. While I like the fact that Jim proposed to Pam this episode, I know that the show is only setting Jim up for even more massive heartbreak later in the season when he catches Pam whoring herself out like Angela or something to her newfound college buddy. I can see Jim now, busting into Pam's lecture hall and rushing her new BFF who has a thing for her, a la how Roy rushed Jim in Season 3. It's pretty crap that the show fucks Jim over like this, especially since they introduced the Michael-Holly dynamic, which is something that we can really get behind (how can you not support the possibility of more rap duets from Michael and Holly?) and something that might actually achieve the same level of emotional investment/tension as the Pam-Jim courtship in the first three seasons. I just hope that the show doesn't fall into some kinda Ross-Rachel cycle because that would be just freakin lame.

And speaking of lame, how the hell did Ryan get back on? As a temp? WtF? Combined with the inevitable breakup between Pam & Jim, it's like they're trying to bring The Office back full circle so they can rehash it over and over again.

On the bright side, one element I was glad to see again was the resurgence of the Dwight-Michael-Ryan triangle (..... that's what she said?). Season 4 was wrought with too little of Dwight and what little we did get was emo-Dwight, whining over that ho-bag Angela. I thought he was funnier kissing ass to Michael than he was when crying over Angela so I hope this old dynamic will bring a greater focus on Dwight's ass-kissing adventures.

Overall, it's as interesting as last season's premiere and while I liked some of the elements from past seasons, I wouldn't want them playing it too safe with the show. Hopefully, Kevin gets to bang Holly after all and they shift focus to him because dude is hilarious and he deserves to win one every now and then.

That's what she said > No homo

The Office season premiere tonight!

I've personally had a lot more fun with the "That's what she said" game than the "No homo" game. Plus The Office > Dipset. They even rap better.

The Mighty Underdog

Z-Ro "You"


Z-Ro "Lonely"

This week, Rap-A-Lot released Z-Ro's latest album, Crack, with zero promotion to speak of outside maybe a 10-mile radius around Fondren & Main. Which is about the same promotion that the ABN (Trae & Z-Ro) It Is What It Is release got earlier this year. And that's a damn shame.

I just got put onto Z-Ro earlier this year and I've been anticipating more from him ever since. Z-Ro, the self-proclaimed "King of the Ghetto", possesses the same quality that makes Tupac and The Game so attractive. Amidst all his posturing, Z-Ro is brutally honest and emotionally vulnerable. He doesn't bother much fabricating tales of the crack game or really tales of anything. His singular obsession is the loyalty of those around him. He constantly shifts betweeen unabashed love and unrelenting hatred for the people around him, without a hint of irony or self-consciousness. At one point, they could save him but at another they could be gold-digging fakes. With this paranoia, he reveals the scars of a tortured soul, struggling with himself to find companionship. His latest album is full of his signature brand of down-home bluesy raps. It's not quite as strong as the ABN album because it's less varied without the relief of Trae. But it's still really good and it definitely merits more buzz than it currently has.

New World Water

Mos Def "New World Water"

Cali's been in a water crisis for a minute now. For the past two years or so, I've been looking up to the sky everyday, trying to squeeze some drops of water out of the clouds with the sheer will of my gaze. Somehow, it feels that everyone else has just caught onto the worry too. The news is challenging us to use less than 20 gallons of water per day. And the price of refilling a gallon of water just went up from 25 cents to 30 cents, the first price increase of water in like 40 years or something.

I don't think Mos Def intended for his words to become literal. Back in 1999 when he first dropped this cut on Black On Both Sides, I thought Mos was merely decrying corporate greed, depicting a world where corporate greed leads companies to charge us for even the most essential of essentials. Now, it's looking like the world he spit wasn't a figment of his imagination, it was a prophecy. Water is slowly becoming the new petroleum.

That half-empty glass is looking emptier everyday.

Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn

Fuck-a-Playstation.

Yet another look into video game-sampling. I think I'm gonna retire this series with this post (yeah right). The general song quality is dropping and the concept is getting played out quicker than Killer Instinct.

I hesitate to include any so-called "nerdcore" because that would include like another 7,000 more songs sampling video games. Plus, I'm not sure how legitimate "nerdcore" is as a sub-genre or really as actual music. I guess Def Jukies, Anticonvicts, and Canibus can get about as scientifical, verbose, and obtuse as much of what I've heard of nerdcore. But well, the whole thing just kinda sounds like a joke, like every song sounds like a Weird Al Jankovic rap parody where much of the humor comes from the fact that some overly nerdy person who shouldn't be rapping--and who pretty much knows he shouldn't be rapping--is rapping about nerdy stuff in a corny way. Except that nerdcore wants to extend this joke over an entire sub-genre? Fuck outta here.

Credit due to Quibian and the commenters at The Examiner, most of whom probably came from Digital Gangsters.


Sonic 2 Boss Battle Theme

Jokaman, Magno, Spark Dog, K. Reata "Playing Sonic" (aka "Sonic Sega Flow")
Sega gets first dibbs. I've been looking for this one since my first post in this series. This appears on the Southern-rap-oriented Awready Vol. 5 mixtape. I'm glad they didn't try to do too much to the sample or else it might've ended up as corny as Green Lantern's FF7 flip. They just laid some bouncy drums over it and had some fun. This takes me back to fighting Metal Sonic at the end of Sonic 2. I hope these Houston rappers survived Ike.


"Korobeiniki", the Russian folk song that forms the basis of the Tetris theme

Extended F@mm "Line Drop"
QN5's Extended Famm does about the same thing, laying some upbeat drums over some simple cuts and loops of the Tetris sample, except they gradually speed up the track to mimic how Tetris speeds up its pace. The emcees drop some kinda-hilarious, kinda-clever, kinda-corny punchline raps that work because of their energy and chemistry.


Kid Icarus: Stage 2 - Overworld

Tonedeff "Move In, Ride Out" (aka "Round 'Em Up")
Quibian dropped an alternate mix of this that may or may not have come from the Game Over 2 compilation as "Round 'em Up", though Amazon shows otherwise. This version here landed on Tonedeff's Hyphen EP. With this and the "Line Drop" track as evidence of his hardcore gamerdom, I say him and Oh No collab on a game-oriented album.


Super Mario Bros. Level 1-1

Benefit "Warp to Level 6-9"
I'm not sure if Benefit considers himself nerdcore. I made that assumption on my first listening because of his weak-ass voice. But this is pretty hilarious in its own right, on the same level as maybe something Kool Keith or J-Zone might think of.


Max Payne - Chapter ?

Jedi Mind Tricks ft. Ill Bill, Sabac Red "The Wolf"
I've had this since the first post but, not having played the first Max Payne, I didn't think it was anything other than a vocal sample. I was wrong. Dope sample and some typically ultra-violent, gothic raps from Jedi Mind Tricks, if that's your thing.


Random "Rock and Roll" (Rockman MM Soundtrack)
Quibian was feeling the "Shadowman" track but I thought this was the runaway highlight. Random, inspired by ytCracker's nerdcore NES-sampling work, dropped Mega Ran, in which he samples exclusively from Megaman games. You might think this would legitimate nerdcore to me if a rapper I like respects it. But the difference is that nerdcore rappers are still geeking on the novelty that they're rapping about nerdy stuff. They don't get beyond the novelty to actually craft something entertaining out of their foundation of nerdy knowledge. On the other hand, Random doesn't obsess over his nerdiness. Rather he uses this knowledge, just like any other knowledge, within the context of some sick battle-braggadocio rhymes.

But someone shoot me now because I cannot for the life of me find this sample. Each song is labelled with the stage and the version of Megaman that the sample comes from (eg. "Shadowman MM2" for the "Shadowman" track) but "Rock And Roll" is listed as coming from "Rockman MM Soundtrack". Does this mean the soundtrack to Megaman 1, the soundtrack to the short-lived American cartoon series, or maybe even the soundtrack to a Japanese cartoon series (as "Rockman" is what they call Megaman in Japan)? Wtf?

Saafir "Smart Bomb"
Saafir kinda struggles lyrically but that beat is sick, using random sound effects to dope effect. Sounds like a weaker version of "Put Your Quarter Up" though.


Jay-Z ft. DMX "Money Cash Hoes"
I can't confirm this but someone mentioned that this Swizz track samples Space Invaders. While I can definitely see that as a viable possibility, I've yet to find the exact version of Space Invaders with the exact sound effect used. Is this BS? Help?

Previously: Part 1|Part 2

Broken Glass

Punk-ass bitches broke into my car last night. Thankfully, they didn't steal anything of real value like my stereo (dumb-asses) but I got a busted window and all my CD's are gone including my actual copies of:

The Roots - Illadelph Halflife
Big Pun - Capital Punishment
Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia
Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar
Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought
Pharoahe Monch - Desire
Dilla - Donuts
Dilla - The Shining
Cunninlynguists - A Piece of Strange
Psalm One - The Death of the Frequent Flyer
J-Live - The Best Part
J-Live - Then What Happened?
Oh No - The Disrupt
Oh No - Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms
Killer Mike - Monster
DJ Neil Armstrong - 2Original

And some other shit. Criminal delinquents. They must've listened to too much of that infernal rap music.

Fuck.

Go Home With You

Kardinal Offishall (ft. T-Pain) "Go Home With You"


Kardinal Offishall "Going In"

I guess people are too busy either sucking Kanye's d-i or raping him up the ass to notice that Kardinal Offishall just dropped the best mainstream album of the year.

It was really tempting for me to write this off as his sell-out album. Kardi already half-admits it in the album's title, Not 4 Sale, as if pre-emptively guarding against critics because Kardi knows himself that this is some sell-out shit. Glancing at the guest spots, it looked to me like hip-hop had died and went to a hell where it must spend the rest of eternity collaborating with R&B devil crooners. But I give Kardinal more credit than that, and even moreso, I give Steve Rifkind more credit than that, given his history of managing gully-ass rap on his labels (hell, he even signed Pharoahe--Rifkind knows good rap).

Behind the sparkling synthesizers and unnecessary, forced star-powered guest spots that characterize most mainstream albums, Kardinal still spits that illness. This isn't his sell-out album but it is his compromise album. It's the compromise that conscious artists like Lupe Fiasco have been trying to achieve for the good portion of this decade. The compromise that lets them preach to the people beyond the choir. Kardinal looks to have achieved it here, feeding his lyrical gymnastics and refreshing positivity with a spoonful of glossy synths and sing-songy gayness to help it go down the throats of the radio-tuning masses. It's not just sneaky. With Kardinal's always-dynamic delivery able to adapt to the production, it's legitimately good and entertaining. And in the second half of the album where Kardi looks to have been given more creative control, he starts keeping it real again and drops gems like "Ask me who's my top 10?/ I'ma mention myself, my shadow, my fame and no more men".

The album can be summed up in the song "Go Home With You". It's a song that's sorta about the club with a T-Pain guest spot that seems tailor-made for the club and for radio. The beat lurks in the shadows and then T-Pain's vocoder crooning comes in, embellished by this ghostly choir on the hook, creating this haunting, hypnotic club atmosphere. But Kardi merely uses the typical club theme as a jumping off point for impressive wordplay-based braggadocio and even for some conscious raps. It's the type of effortless balancing act that characterizes the album, a balance between the brand of lyrical hip-hop he came up with and loves and the brand of club-ready hip-hop that will expand the messages he spits beyond the underground niche audience.

Now stop blogging about Kanye's latest exploits in attention-grabbing and cop that Kardinal Offishall.

Reasons To Hate AJ's Playhouse

Strictly for Daygo peeps. I've extricated myself from the Matrix that is the hip-hop blogiverse to a large degree this week so the majority of my musical stimuli has come from the radio fumes pervading my workplace. And my office listens to AJ's Playhouse on Channel933. It's been a long week, to say the least.

Reasons to turn that dial:

1. Fuck Clear Channel.

2. AJ straight-up isn't that funny.

3. Hula completely bites Jack from Will & Grace, which means;

4. Hula is an Uncle Tomming disgrace to the gay community.

5. Geena the Latina is about as hispanic as Al Pacino in Scarface.

6. I would rather put a hanger on the stove for like a half-hour and stick it up my ass real slow like "Tssssssss" than listen to Geena the Latina's blog of the day.

7. Karoake song spoofs from Geena and the interns make me want to put the Japanese back in internment/concentration camps for popularizing karaoke.

8. Fuck Clear Channel.