Beats, Rhymes, Life [Labor Day Weekend Edition]

because you had better things to do over the weekend then surf the web

1. Gaslamp Killer’s album is quickly approaching it’s departure date. The third single released off the forthcoming album “Breakthrough” is a doosy and features the festival circuit favorite and fellow Angelino Daedelus. The album will be released on September 18th via FlyLo’s Brainfeeder outfit. Considering the hype and talent, the album title is more than apropos.

Impulse

2.  Azealia Banks dropped a video for her track “1991″, that was cool. Dropping it on Labor Day though? I am extremely critical about the timing of this release, I just do not see the advantage of releasing a video on a day where by definition people are not in front of their computers. Nevertheless it nabbed 320K views over the past 24 hours, so I’ll zip it. For the record, it’s her most straightforward aka vapid video yet.

3. Underground favorite and ZIF regular Quelle Chris finally got signed! This is a big score for Mello Music Group who announced they got his signature on a multi-album deal. The Los Angeles via Detroit based emcee has been making noise via his Crown Nation work with Denmark Vessey as well as random hodge-podge efforts on his own now that he’s in LA. Pairing up with MMG makes a lot of sense stylistically, he clearly would mesh well with fellow labelmates Gensu Dean and Apollo Brown. But was this deal selling himself short? In my opinion Quelle has big time commercial potential, whereas Mello Music Group is clearly indie country. Apart from Odissee is anyone on Mello actually paying bills? If Danny Brown had signed to MMG last year for a multi album deal, it’s clear that his reach would have been limited for a few years. Either way, we wish the best for Quelle. Here’s some work to wet the appetite (mind that spelling).

4. Nicki Minaj is a Mitt Romney supporter? No, of course not, but on a new track with Lil Wayne she does turn some heads with the following lyrics

“I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney / You lazy b—-es is f—ing up the economy.”

Now, everyone and their favorite political mama know that this is a gimicky way of getting mainstream exposure to what would have been just another Minaj mixtape verse. However, it does accentuate the tenuous relationship Obama has with hip hop artists and frankly black youth in general. Read more about that here. Peep the rhyme in question below.

5. House Shoes has finally dropped his video for his track “Sweet” with Danny Brown. Sweet.

Time To Put On Your House Shoes [Video]

It is somewhat hard to define who House Shoes really is. If there were such a thing as cult characters in hip hop, he’d definitely be on the list. Yes, you could call him a DJ, and yes he certainly has ample production credits under his belt, however his passion for his hometown Detroit coupled with his dedication to hip hop, make him more an ambassador than anything else. A righteous and informed ambassador he is, having worked with the likes of  J Dilla and Big Proof, to Black Milk, Danny Brown, Invincible, Finale, Big Tone,Bugz, Marv Won, The Fat Killahz, and Now On. He has also DJ’d for such names as Guilty Simpson, Illa J, Exile, Aloe Blacc, Percee P, Phat Kat, Slum Village and Elzhi. His pedigree is as concrete as the pavements he once meandered around on in his hometown of Detroit, having lived in Los Angeles for some time now, it’s been a pleasure to make his acquaintance. He dropped his new album Let It Go and this is the first video off of it, a humble start, expect future videos to include tracks from youthful avengers Danny Brown and Quelle Chris.

Friday Free Joints

Calliko ft. GlC – Cruisin (prod. by Big Head Beats)

Dark Time Sunshine – A Walk In The Park

Gunplay, Stalley, Wale, Meek Mill, And Rick Ross-Power Circle (Feat. Kendrick Lamar)

House Shoes-Nails (Feat. Quelle Chris And Guilty Simpson)

Rapper Big Pooh-The Love (Feat. Alexis Jones)

Talent Couture-Percocet and Adderall

Charles Hamilton Must Not Like Having A Rap Career

I always thought Charles Hamilton could rhyme, even if his fascination with Sonic the Hedgehog was kind of corny and childish.  I just figured that sometimes (in fact, probably more often than not), very clownish people are blessed with above-average skills.  If he were an artist during the ’90s, we probably would never know how wack of a person he is.  But in the present, we know all about him jacking beats from Myspace pages, getting smacked in the mouth by a girl, and now, trying to fuck with J Dilla’s legacy.

Last Friday, he posted the cover to his upcoming album on his blog, and listed the Executive Producers as Charles Hamilton and James Yancey aka J Dilla.  Strange on it’s own, but he included the following explanation in his shoutouts:

I also wanna thank James Yancey for his guidance in putting this album together. Sound wise, I couldn’t be happier. Again, the album was mastered reel-to-reel/digital-to-digital, and I couldn’t have done the entire process without him being a total jerk about me getting that EXTRA vinyl-ish sound. Thanks Dilla.

Nah seriously. He helped master the album.

You’d think somebody would have made a much bigger deal about this if it were true.  Feeling the heat/hate from bloggers, he contacted some of them personally.  In a phone interview with Sweeney from Rappers I Know, he claims to know Ma Dukes, Dilla’s mom, his daughter, and Phat Kat. He was also allegedly present at the Jay $tay Paid mastering sessions.  To top it off, he claimed  that the “proceeds from my album are going towards the J Dilla Music Foundation.”

It turns out that the J Dilla Music Foundation doesn’t exist.  If he were donating the proceeds from his album to Ma Dukes, it would be easier to let this slide, but his album is FREE.  And straight from Twitter, Ma Dukes confirms that Phat Kat and Illa J don’t know who he is:

Detroit “Hip-Hop Ambassador” House Shoes also chimes in and airs this fool out in the following video:

Ether.  Seriously, I learned when I was 5 years old that lying to get out of a lie comes back to bite you in the ass.  Charles Hamilton isn’t a fan or a stan.  He’s just the most delusional and morally corrupt individual in Hip-Hop.  I’m taking a page out of the Rap Radar book and banning this idiot from Zebra is Food.  Peace, sucka.