Rootbeer is Pigeon John and Flynn Adam

I love collaborations. Anytime you can get Pigeon John to drop some lines, it is all good. This colab is with Pigeon John and Flynn Adam. Pigeon John has several solo projects including one of my favs, "The Summertime Pool Party". Adam has some star power as a member of LA Symphony and he's a producer as well.

"Girlies" is one of the first singles under the Rootbeer moniker. I love the tempo of this track. It reminds me of something old school. But it's not coming to me at this time. The hook on the song goes like this "girlies hit me up because the homie is famous" and the say that quite a few times. I love simple songs. Meaning you don't need pages and pages of lyrics, but a catchy hook, good beats, nice lyrics. Easy formula. I also like their sense of humor which comes through on this single.

The title track did not do much for me. It has eclectic written all over it. Which is cool, but in this case, I thought that the track was directionless. It was just doing too much and it did not come together. You may feel otherwise, if so, do chime in on this one.

So, Rootbeer's "Pink Limousine" EP is out; released today. And I believe that the fellas will be on the road. But not so fast, it's a west coast tour. And it includes South by Southwest - SXSW; a music festival and conference. That should be nice.

• Check out the tour sked
  
• Check out Rootbeer on MySpace

Their MySpace page has several tracks from "Pink Limousine".

Hip hoppers ... spring is on the horizon. Let's keep it fresh. kfox.

Pigeon John - What's He Up To?

I like the music of Pigeon John - witty, fun, good stuff. He's on tour and will probably be in your neck of the woods - though not mine! :-(

Check out his MySpace blog.

Here's a photo journal that he posted on the blog.

2006 ... a brief recap

Well ... this seems a bit premature, but CMJ's deadline for the best of 2006 was this past Friday.

I primarily culled this off the top of my head, but I thought it would be best to revisit the archives and not soley employ my selective memory.

Generally speaking, 2006 was a fine year for hip hop. I'll elaborate in another post closer to the end of the year.

Here is the WMCO Top 10 Hip Hop albums/cds for 2006:

#1 THE ROOTS "Game Theory"
#2 GHOSTFACE KILLAH "Fish Scale"
#3 PSYCHE ORIGAMI "The Standard"
#4 OH NO "Exodus into Unheard Rhythms"
#5 PIGEON JOHN "...And the Summertime Pool Party"
#6 P.O.S. "Audition"
#7 J DILLA "The Shining"
#8 SERGIO MENDES "Timeless"
#9 COLLECTIVE EFFORTS "Medicine"
#10 WAX TAILOR "Tales of the Forgotten Melodies"

Let me know what you think ... stay true, kfox

...a lil sumpthin to tide you over

Hey folks,

I'm trying to trudge through some, what I believe to be 'good music', and a load of other things (things just don't stop showing up on my desk, in my office, under my door, in my mailbox - the heck with voicemail though because I rarely check that ...).

So this here is a lil posting to keep you company until I can fully give an attentive and thorough posting. It's still good stuff, yo and it should give you an idea of what my weekly hip hop show sounds like (I've been meaning to post the playlists of my three hours in heaven, but, well, you know how the story goes ...)

1
THE ROOTS
Game Theory

2
PIGEON JOHN
...And The Summertime Pool Party

3
LUPE FIASCO
Food And Liquor

4
J DILLA
The Shining

5
DJ SHADOW
The Outsider

6
X:144 AND SPS
M.E.

7
DAN THE AUTOMATOR
NBA2K7

8
RHYMEFEST
Blue Collar

9
ZION I AND THE GROUCH
Heroes In The City Of Dope

10
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Chrome Children

Later hip hoppers (and stop telling - and listening - to those tall tales ...), kfox

Summer ain't over yet, games and food ...

I'm still reminiscining about the pair of Roots performances that I caught about a week ago ...

Okay, so I've sort of not been listening to what I should be listening to ... right? I don't want to say I've been feeling slumpy, but I've certainly been attached/attracted to something other than what I promised to check out.

So here's what keeps loopin in my music player:

• Pigeon John, "...and the Summertime Pool Party"
• The Roots "Game Theory"
• Lupe Fiasco "Food & Liquor"

I've already given you the low on the first two, but now is the time to school you on the guy who everyone has been talkin about - Lupe Fiasco.

I caught the buzz on this one some time ago - I can't pinpoint the exact time, but I believe that it was sometime this summer (well, of course it was, that's when "Kick Push" was released - and that is such a cool song).

And on a side note, just let me say, I am NOT a fan of the cover art on Lupe's latest. It does not seem befitting of his personality. So let me give you a brief description because I refuse to post it on this here blog. It is a bit shiny and intergalactic; notice how I did not say 'bling' because that, it is not. It seems like he is in outer space w/laser's behind him, he has an old school boom box and what appears to be some other digital devices ... He is also sporting what looks like a pleather bomber jacket - an NO, I am not trying to clown him. At any rate, maybe, you should check it out yourself ... come to your own conclusion, why don't you ...

Anyway, a few weeks before the official drop date for "Food & Liquor," I received a copy of of the "Chi Town Guevara Mixtape." There were some familiar tracks on there like "Touch the Sky" and "Kick Push." Acutally, there is not a great deal of overlap from the mixtape to the current project. But the mixtape was hot! Lupe's skills are bonafide. There was an edge to his delivery accompanied w/DJ Envy's mix skills, it was a good listen. Lupe's good at storytelling. I like that. What I did not like was his constantly dropping the n-bomb. What is w/that...? I know you'll say that's the way of the street and it is a mixtape, right...? Whatever is my response. The mixtape was so heavy on the n-bomb that I did not even bother to try to edit it. One reason I did not try to edit it was because I thought that the same tracks would appear on "Food & Liquor" - wrong. It seems the mixtape includes some previously recorded material and/or some exclusive material for the mixtape - you know how they roll...

So why am I peeved about Lupe and the n-bomb, well, you see, from what I'd read about him I got the impression that he was a cool dude - conscientious, positive, a skateboarder, somewhat nerdy and of the Muslim faith - in other words, I truly did not anticipate that he would so comfortably drop the n-bomb, but I guess that's where my misjudgment is just another poor assumption, eh?

Once I get over that bit of disappointment, I trudge through and am mostly pleased w/what I hear/heard. His style reminds me of someone, but I can't place it right now... Here's what I like on the mixtape: "Outty 5000," and "Switch."

Then there is the "Food & Liquor" disk; Lupe has some uptempo tracks like "The Instrumental," which I really like. But he also goes mellow on several cuts including "Daydreamin" w/Jill Scott. He goes on to enlist the skills of Def Jam Pres Jay-Z on "Pressure." I'm not so crazy about the second single "I Gotcha" - it just seems like it is missing some umph and it's a bit non-descript. But, oh ... there's the 12 minute "Outro" where he gives 'shout outs' to everyone - everyone but me, but he does say that if he forgot anyone, he'd shout them out on the next one - I guess I'll start my email campaign started now so that I can get mine on the next joint ...

I won't promise to listen to anything in particular in the near future, but you can count on me to give you some perspective on what I love most - hip hop culture, from the not so known world.

stay true ... kfox

countdown and count'em

So here is what is goin down my way, I had promised to post the most recent WMCO Hip Hop charts (for those who are new to the blog, I am the station manager and hip hop music director for WMCO, Muskingum College's radio station). And it is all good.

So count'em:

1. Oh No :: Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms
2. Jurassic 5 :: Feedback
3. Earmint :: Another Early Evening
4. J Dilla :: The Shining
5. The Roots :: Game Theory
6. Aloe Blacc :: Shine Through
7. Cut Chemist :: The Audience is Listening
8. Strange Fruit Project :: The Healing
9. DJ Shadow :: The Outsider
10. Pigeon John :: ...And The Summertime Pool Party

Gotta love that ... if you did not know, this is one hot ass chart, baby! And you need to get down with it.

Now, the countdown ... the Roots are scheduled to be in my neck of the woods in less than a week. I can hardly contain myself. It is going to be a pretty crazy weekend. I hope to not only have stories to tell, but pix to show and tell because bloggin is what it is all about ... it's the way of the new media world yall!

Let's keep lovin each other ... kfox

look who's flying the coop ...

Hey folks ... I'm trying to get my rhythm. But it was a slow music period for a minute, now ... swamped!

So much so, that I will be brief and hopefully be back with the full mantra in a few days.

Pigeon John is back, yall! I love this guy. He is so quirky cool. Just speaks his mind, no matter how silly, but he still has a point to make. The project is called "Pigeon John ... and the Summertime Pool Party." Good stuff.

The DJ Shadow EP that came out a few weeks back, threw me for a loop. I don't even recall what genre I had labled it as ... point is, the full disk is now avail and I am lovin it. It does include the genre-defying tracks, but he gets down on the hip hop side - "Outsider."

The Lupe Fiasco is now in my hands. I'm diggin that one, for sure. There's a collabo with Jigga as well as Jill Scott. I will definitely get back to this one, since I have been hypin it for some time "Food & Liquor."

Other notables:

• Ken Starr
• X:144 and SPS
• Dan the Automator
• Black Ice

Oh, and Mojoe. I've briefly previewed all and need to go back and listen more closely and attentively.

Here are the projects that I will listen to definitely before the week is out:

• Finless Brown - that Cleveland connection
• Common Market
• Sol.illaquists of Sound

I'll post up the most recent WMCO Hip Hop chart later in the week.

Much is goin down ... but no flippet remarks hip hoppers, kfox