Neo-Noir: Nas Laces an Entirely Digitally-Produced Track with a Classic Sound

It's good to know that technology and "the internets" can be used for good in this day and age of music. The past few weeks have been wrought with auto-tune hate and a cry for the days of crate digging and vinyl scratching.

The bottom line is, though -- shit changes. We can't live in the past forever. Here's what Queensbridge vet Mr. Nasir Jones recently had to say about digital production:

"With digital, it's a lot faster, it's a lot easier—so it's all good. There's probably a sound difference between digital and analog, but I haven't figured it out yet so I just keep it moving."

So there you have it. If Nas can keep it movin', the rest of us can too.

Check out this entirely digitally produced track by young'n C-Sick (an 18 year-old contest winner hailing from Chi-Town), "Film". You can't tell me this doesn't take you back to the heyday of dark, message-driven '90s east coast rap.

Nas "Film" - zShare | Mediafire Read more!

Calling All Kids With Yoni Wolf Tonight.

You may have read a couple posts down about Yoni Wolf.
Well, I have good news for you !
He's doing a guest DJ spot tonight at Calling All Kids.
Tonight also features the first live performance for CAK with Serengeti.
Resident DJs Sodapop (anticon) and Matthewdavid (dublab) will also be throwing it down.

If you're new to this jive, Calling All Kids is a jam-packed evening with entertaining and enthusiastic aesthetics- music and visuals as well as free mix cds with purchase of a drink (FYI: it's only beer). It's held at probably my favorite bar on the east side, Hyperion Tavern. Classily quirky with its walls of law books and chandelers, Hyperion is a great place to wind down after a long hard week of hustlin' social media or whatever you spend your forty plus hours a week getting into.
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Crossover Rappers that Never Should Have Tried

With the recent success of actor-turned-rapper Aubrey "Drake" Graham, there most likely will be an influx of similarly aspiring MCs who are talented in other arenas. Halt for just a moment, though, sir, and let us use history as a cautionary tale against those who think they know what they're doing with a mic just because they've been in front of a camera or live audience before.

Follow the jump for some crossover rappers who should have stayed in their respective lanes and left hip-hop to the professionals.

Brian (Austin) Green - "You Send Me"

The year was 1996. "Beverly Hills 90210" was at its peak of popularity, and Brian Austin Green decided to try and cash in on his celebrity and make a hip-hop album. Green, who dropped the "Austin" probably when he realized his name sounded a lot like the kid's from "Home Improvement", released a single album titled One Stop Carnival (insert clown joke here) and tried to get all coffee shop slam poet gangsta on our asses with this joint, "You Send Me".

With production (and probably ghostwritten verses, too) from The Pharcyde's Slimkid3, the song isn't nearly as terrible as it could have been. But even with Pharcyde's backing, there was no transforming Green's nasal tone and lame posturing into something that you could blast in your car without frantically rolling the windows up when you came to a stoplight.

2 Fail Kazaams (out of 5)

Kobe Bryant (feat. Tyra Banks) - "K.O.B.E."

As a Laker fan, I'm sure I'm not the only one who watches Kobe on the court sometimes, especially in this most recent championship series win, and feels like there is nothing this man can't do.

Just watch this video to remind yourself that he's human.

It's a good thing the crowd is cheering so loud and probably can't even understand what he's saying, because he is making Mase's Harlem World (LOL! Remember them?) look like Rakim. I'm not sure what he was going for with that Sway Calloway head piece, either. Let's just say I'm glad Weezy wrote his victory anthem and not him.

Shouts out also to Tyra Banks, who manages to make my ears bleed even when she's lip synching.

3.5 Fail Kazaams (out of 5)

Joaquin Phoenix - "Unknown/I Didn't Care to Look it Up"

The people in this club in Vegas must have felt bamboozled when they were promised Walk the Line star Joaquin Phoenix and looked up on stage to find the Unibomber doing some kind of hillbilly voodoo chant over a Casio keyboard default beat. The audio's bad, but seriously, I think he's just babbling incoherently. Watching this just makes me feel uncomfortable even more than it does embarrassed, which is not a good look.

The best moment in the performance came a few minutes later. I like to think this was a "Showtime at the Apollo"-esque elimination tactic, i.e. a trap door opened and took him away because he was so awful.

5 Fail Kazaams (out of 5)

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JoJo's Old Soul

It's been three years since JoJo released her last album, and you may be asking yourself where she's been -- but probably not, since she's best known for two sugary "TRL" friendly singles and starring in a movie with Robin Williams about a trailer.

Don't sleep, though: the sexy singer (she's legal now, I can say that) has been keeping busy in the midst of label drama (Blackground Records is currently in limbo between distributors), deciding to go to Northeastern University in the fall while putting the final touches on her forthcoming album, All I Want is Everything.

Take one listen to some of the covers she's done while on hiatus (she absolutely murdered the original versions of Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" and T-Pain's "Can't Believe It") and it's apparent that JoJo has a more diverse taste than one might expect a white girl from the 'burbs thus far portrayed as a teeny bopper might have.

She most recently tackled Drake's "Houstatlantavegas", and while she didn't shame Drake's version quite the way she did with the other two, she definitely showed a wise-beyond-her-years lyrical sensibility as well as emotional growth in her vocals (or it could just be puberty). Double props for incorporating Jay-Z's "I Know", the video for which might play with JoJo's take as an alternate soundtrack.

Here's hoping the all grown up JoJo will get a chance to shine once the technical logistics are figured out.

JoJo "Houstatlantavegas" (Drake cover) - zShare | Mediafire Read more!

Busdriver: It Ain't Club Anthems But I'm Still Down.

So, on the ninth, Los Angeles' indigenous and obscure MC, Busdriver, released his eighth full length. Ten years after his first LP, the monikered Regan Farquhar has dropped Jhelli Beam, another layered and lavish trip into underground hip-hop, flourishing with fast flows and beefy beats. And of course, his famous grasp on vocabulary. His music is chalk full of cerebral chants that could leave even the wisest wordsmith bewildered. But this album isn't just for English majors but lovers of music as well (did you catch the way he plays with "Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major"?) and pop culture enthusiasts / shit talkers (hahaha, dude, he calls out everything from American Apparel to Dane Cook to rappers acting like they're Joaquin Guzman Loera).

I thoroughly enjoyed Jhelli Beam, in all its crafty, comedic and less than commercial glory, even if I had to do the oh-so-careful-rewind on my Ipod to catch half the shit he was spitting.

And all you local Angelinos, Busdriver is playing tonight at Ameoba on Sunset at 7pm. Read more!

Is Miley Cyrus Next?!

When Cassie showed up with her partly shaved head, she did so to perhaps send the message that although she is sleeping with the boss, that she is still an individual, an artiste, a force to be reckoned with. Or maybe she just wanted to be cool. Whatever. Either way, did anyone really think that haircut would take off? I mean, it's not very flattering. You always have to be mindful of which side people are viewing you from. And then there's the eventual problem of what to do when you get tired of it, or when it grows out. Your options are limited. So, why, oh why Lala, would you bite this haircut?

Lala added a little spin to it, but it's undeniable that Cassie was a big influence. Now that D-list "celebrities" are blatantly biting this freakin haircut, who's to say that this won't become an epidemic? I already had to deal with Velour track suits (Thanks J.Lo), T-Mobile Sidekicks, and purse dogs, I will literally gouge my eyes out if I see some teeny bopper with this crap. So once Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana posts pics of her with a wet t-shirt rockin' this damn haircut, I swear I'm gonna' have to look for a new BFF.

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The DJ Equivalent of the Madd Rapper

Remember when Bad Boy Records tried to spin their skit "The Madd Rapper" into a formidable product? Yeah, neither do we.

But yet there's a new anonymous shit talker on the streets (or tweets, as it were) who is taking it upon him or herself to call out all of the... ahem, shit DJs out there. We here at Electric City decline to comment on our opinions of DJs put on blast here (unless you spin "Right Round" by Flo Rida).

Some select rants:

* if more than 2% of your set comes from crooklyn clan dot com (sorry @djriznyc) you should quit DJing

* PLEASE LISTEN: I am not on here to "hate." If i tell you that you suck, don't waste time arguing, spend time practicing. because you suck.

* I HAVE NEVER SEEN A GIRL THAT CAN DJ. (except for @djturbulence) EVER. IF YOU KNOW ONE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

This Twitter page has a few good laughs on it, but with less than 200 followers, I don't think anyone is taking this person seriously. I'm sure there's more than a couple DJs looking over their shoulders before their sets begin, though.
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