Friday, January 25, 2008

The YMD:Excuse Me, This is the Yah Mos Def

The YMD is an alternative/punk/hip hop group from Philly. This music reminds me so much of the Beastie Boys when they started and this other group called the Bloodhound Gang. One of them sounds like a young Ad-Rock! The tracks are basically very rough around the edges but great to listen to; simple yet catchy. This album brings me back to the 90s when there was that whole era of rap/punk/alt rock mixtures. If you want something different, new, energetic and fresh, check out YMD on EMUSIC, Amazon and on Myspace!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Mr Rashad-Mind State


Real hip hop doesn't come easy that much anymore. Just seeing the "BET Notarized" a couple days ago, the top 100 videos of 2007 only had one real hip hop artist, Common. The rest were the usual hip pop stars and starlets that permeate the radio stations in every station owned by the same company in every city in the USA.

So, when I find something real and underground, I expect something that will have me thinking this is some real music. Thats why I decided to check out Mr Rashad.With a cool album cover like this of a boombox radio as a head, I knew this had to be interesting. Here I thought that this was going to be some music that would be so unlike all the stuff on BET.

However, this album was good. What this group delivers is straight up beats and rhymes. There is alot of sampling and elements of blues, jazz, soul, and funk. The dudes can definately rap, and the tracks, though they sound low budget, bump.

There are a couple of items I would suggest as feedback. Some of the songs on here are good but end abruptly. I was getting into such songs as "Success", "The Stretch" and "Say A", but they would end, making me think that this was a promotional sampler as oppossed to a real album.

The album did have some high points which I enjoyed. There was the sample of one of the songs from "The Mack" soundtrack on "Can It Be" and the bangin' beat on "Live It Up". All in all, if you like an album of just straight up hip hop to just chill out to, then this is for you. I would personally put "Can It Be" and "Live It Up" on my Ipod.

You can get this album on Emusic.