#LHHS10 2016
June 7, 2016
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About half way into the year, here's the latest #LHHS10 update.
#LHHS10 is a top 10 break down of my favorite Hip Hop listenings. It dates back to the Lee Hip Hop Show #radiodayz and charting to the College Music Journal (CMJ). Charting is a process radio djs participate in to report their top 10 albums or singles in rotation. When I was on the radio CMJ sent magazines to program directors that included Hip Hop and other genre airplay listings from college radio stations around the country.
LHHS stands for "Lee's Hip Hop Show". That's what I called my Hip Hop radio program when I started broadcasting on KRUX 91.5 FM in 2000. A couple of years later I renamed it "The Representation Show" and "Soul Session". During the eight years I was on air, I charted the free music KRUX received from promoters, record labels, or directly from the artists themselves. Access to music was costly for a broke college student so it helped to be a part of what was referred to as a record pool. Today #LHHS10 is a music chart I created in memory of my radio program and to continue finding time to share, document, and write about music I love and continue to discover today.
This week I saw a 2016 interview with Mya on YouTube and she talked about how much has changed when it comes to radio and how people access music. Her thoughts of new R&B being extinct from radio was interesting to me since I was thinking the same thing a couple weeks ago listening to Jodeci's Diary of a Mad Band. On popular charts like the Billboard it appears all R&B groups have gone fishing. On the Billboard's latest top 25 R&B, there are no groups, only solo artist. Mya also discussed the pros and cons of today's digital music market. We've heard what artist don't like about downloading for years but whats interesting is how much digital continues to grow and render traditional marketing methods obsolete for certain artists.
I still like to buy CDs. I collect vinyl too but since last year I stopped to catalog and listen to what I've collected over the past fifteen years. On my desk I have a stack of CDs I've listened to since the start of 2016. I pulled most of the CDs from storage so that I could listen to them again, reflect, and organize them in three stacks I identified as classic, cool, or trash. In terms of store bought music, that day is dead. I haven't bought a CD from a store since last year. I've been a frequent buyer since my teenage years so for me that's a big change. It made me realize how less interesting stores become with less music. This year, all my purchases have been done online through Amazon for physical CDs and Bandcamp or eMusic for the digital. YouTube also has an endless search of full albums that can be accessed for free on any mobile device. Get connected to an auxiliary cord in the vehicle and you're set. At first I wasn't interested in listening to full albums on YouTube. The idea of being detached from appreciating an album cover, tracklist, and liner notes felt disposable. However, in the past couple of months I've changed my mind to stream certain listens during workout time or a long drive.
I haven't updated this blog since the beginning of the year after wrapping up 2015. I've posted a few tweets but made no effort to reflect and write about the music I was listening to. It makes me feel like the year is speeding by. I love how I think about the music I'm listening to, especially from an artist or group I've been listening to for a while. I've had a collector's spirit since childhood so the stories have always mattered. As a kid it seems like I had all the time in the world to become absorbed in what I liked. And there was nothing like simpler times between headphones connected to my Sony cassette walkman...
listening to Dre..
listening to Pac...
listening to the Wu.
Those moments are memories I value as part of my own history with music as a fan. When I found a spot on air I attempted to record every show on cassette. Writing today feels like an extension of why I wanted to preserve those radio programs as moments that were all part of the listening process. Watching 'I Am Ali', towards the end of the film viewers hear a clip from the recordings Ali made of himself talking to his children over the phone. In the clip he we hear Ali telling his family... "If anybody ever wonder why Muhammad Ali making these tapes, it's cause history is so beautiful..."
Reflecting and thinking about music also opens up the chance to do a different kind of digging that's focused on research and the stories behind the music. For example, when I revisited my Pistol Politics CD by Paris and returned to the Guerilla Funk Recordings site, I found out about a compilation project from a new member of the Guerilla Funk family who goes by DJ Justice. His compilation album is called Man of Steel. Looking back at what I wrote in January about Pistol Politics it reminded me to check in. Music occupies a powerful space in our lives, especially when we think about what it inspires us to do.
Moving forward, here are the notes for the latest #LHHS10 chart...
When it comes to new releases, 2016 didn't really jump off for me until I heard Elzhi was coming out with a new record titled Lead Poison. I heard about the new record through Junclassic's Twitter page. Junclassic is an eMCee out of Southside Jamaica Queens and when he's not creating his own classic music he's tuned in putting people on to who he listens to. I was introduced to Elzhi's rhymes on Dilla's Welcome 2 Detroit solo debut and more when he joined Slum Village for the Trinity (Past, Present, and Future) album. At the time I also read an article where someone referred to Elzhi as the "Detroit" Nas. At first, the connection wasn't there for me in so far as style, but I thought about it every time I heard something new featuring Elzhi. This was reinforced listening to his debut a couple years after Dilla passed when the The Preface dropped. When Elzhi dropped Elmatic though... For anyone not familiar with Nas debut Illmatic we're talking about one of the greatest albums of all time. Released in 1994 tracks like ((The World is Yours)) have a place in my life's soundtrack. From the beats to the rhymes Nas and Pete Rock captured a universal feeling with that single. To me, everything about the creation of Illmatic, from the production to the book of rhymes and the videos that were like short films made it a timeless record for 1994.
Elzhi's Elmatic, to me, went beyond a tribute. In detail, Elzhi rewrote Illmatic as a Detroit story. Sound wise its the art of sampling in reverse with the live band Will Sessions covering the original beats. Will Sessions are straight outta Detroit and one of the baddest bands I've ever heard because of the way they express Illmatic's sound. Similar to the Illmatic view of Queensbridge, the Elmatic videos shine light on Detroit's style and Hip Hop history. Listening to Elmatic I felt like a kid in 94' again watching Nas's ((It Ain't Hard to Tell)) video. In it, calm and cool as ever Nas rhymes soul deep in the now to a Large Professor beat sampled from Thriller sounds of the early 80s. Elzhi's Elmatic also took me back to the article I read years ago that compared Elzhi to Nas. To me, Elmatic represented something unique about the soul and relevance of Detroit when it comes to Hip Hop. It also made me rethink the art of sampling and how to turn a homage into a concept of music rememory.
It made me wonder what a Watt's Illmatic would sound like;
or a New Orleans Illmatic...
or who would be capable of pulling off an H-Town State of Mind...
I think of Planet Asia's ((Fresno State of Mind)) track. He was the first to do it.
With Elmatic we gotta recognize how much work went into translating the slang and relocating New York into a ((Detroit State of Mind)). Elmatic is a project that can only live once and it speaks to the power of Illmatic's inspiration. But man... even that title...Elmatic... quoting SV... it's fan...ta...serro.
Going back to Lead Poison by Elzhi I have this album at no. 1 for my 2016 #LHHS10. The title and cover speak to 2016...from the power and fear of the pen to the biological oppression of a U.S. water crises. In 2016, Lead Poison is a labor of art, from how its arranged and connected track for track to the complex back story we learn from Elzhi's interviews promoting the record. Lyrically, it's not politically loud but there's an art to Elzhi's storytelling and how its put together. The title of the album itself is politically charged to me, as is the artwork just based off of where this record is coming from. As I listen to Lead Poison it brings memory to Dilla and Elzhi's verses on ((Come Get It)) from Welcome 2 Detroit. I also think of a track I must have listened to a thousand times on repeat over the years...((Love It Here))... thinking back to Elzhi's hook..."...but I love it here, just think if I wasn't here, my uncles and cousins here, my struggles and come ups here..." Lead Poison is no. 1 cause you won't find many eMCees releasing another album like they were just getting started; each time giving people's imagination a much deeper perspective of what Detroit's rhyme writers are capable of.
Following up with no. 2, I got The Kenner Loop by Jet Life soldier & Good$ense general, Young Roddy. There was no other record I listened to more so far this year then The Kenner Loop. When it comes to Jet Life, it was the New Orleans villain Trademark Da Skydiver that led me to an abundant online stash of Curren$y downloads, Jet Life compilations, the LE$ and Cookin' Soul tape, and this year debut from Young Roddy, The Kenner Loop. Years from now, reflecting back on 2016 I will remember and hear this album. In addition, nothing beats the access fans have to more Jet Life and Good$ense affiliated music on Dat Piff Mixtapes and plenty of YouTube media including The Kenner Loop documentary.
I've kept the Paris Pistol Politics on the charts. If how I charted was based on which records bump down others, Pistol Politics would not be moved. Eventually I'll have this one listed under my 21st Century Hip Hop Classics tab cause its #timeless.
Oddisee, man... what can I say? There's a lot artist can learn from Oddisee when it comes to the music biz, digital responsibility, and the world as a platform to an eMCee's brand. He's an incredible story of what it means to be unique and to "do you" like Slum Village said. With the
Alwasta EP, even though it's only seven tracks its deep enough to be in conversation with any other eMCee's full length. Therefore I added it to the #LHHS10. Oddisee is one of the few artist on my radar that just as easily could top my #HHbeAtz10 instrumental charts. Check for
Alwasta for free
download from Oddisee's Bandcamp site.
For the life of me, I can't keep up with Moka Only. At the same time I can't complain. I just know any day I feel like listening to something out the Moka Only archive that I haven't heard yet there will always be something to purchase. This year I decided to start with his newest record
São Paulo. It's dope... first listen no skips and by the end I wanted to know more about the record and dig back to listen to everything I missed. To learn more about each track on
São Paulo visit Moka Only's
Bandcamp page. Here's Moka Only's notes on one of my favorite feel good tracks on
São Paulo ((One One))... “This is just some whimsical shit written for people that have lost and learned how to keep going. Keep your eyes on the silver linings. Feel it."
Next up I got a record from the beautiful mind of Saul Williams Martyr Loser King. Listening to him spit ((Think Like They Book Say)) on Sway in the Morning reminded me how much he's inspired going back to his 'Slam' film. His art breathes with a revolutionary spirit that I think people tend to lose track of when it comes to the arts. It's honest, strong, consistent, and something to think about when we reflect on the value of our own expression and what we're doing with it. Martyr Loser King is a landmine in your brain. Tap into it.
On deck for the remaining #LHHS10, I got Sevin's Purple Heart... I've said it before and to me, Sevin is among the \/\/est's best on the mic. Last year he set off on a spiritual journey with his camp H.O.G.M.O.B. (Hooked on God Ministry Over Bizness) to spread the gospel to every hood they could reach across the nation. Purple Heart is progression of Sevin's concept records with the word of God that brings life to every track. Next, I added Royce Da 5'9's Layers to the #LHHS10... just a dope record. The intro ((Tabernacle)) is the most personal I've heard Royce go though there's a lot I missed early on from his discography. During the #radiodayz I got introduced to his music through the Premier produced 12' single ((Boom)). This collab reached a pinnacle in 2015 with the release of the DJ Premier produced Adrian Younge sampled PRhyme.
Two records remain from the 2015 #LHHS10 and that's katO1O's On the Cusp and PE's Man Plans God Laughs. I wrote about both of those projects in the last #LHHS10 post.
Coming up, I'm listening to the latest from the Yancey family with the posthumous Dilla The Diary release (that track ((Trucks)) tho'!)... I'm also setting up my summer for the international collab between Junclassic & Wun on the Better than Fiction Too album.
Here's to a return to reflect and just write.
Til' the next blog...hopefully sooner than later. Peace. #LHHS10
-lee aka repshowhost
