A great use of Rap, showing a literary level not usually seen.

The premise of this song is that three famous rich people are at a party and they start Rapping as a party trick— a bit of “look at how silly I can act at the party”, with a strong overtone of racism, making fun of African-American culture.

Their Raps—just like real ones—are about pimping hoes, murder, doing illegal things, etc. At this point, if it was incompetent-sounding mockery, we’d all be appalled, say “this is a caricature of rap, this is racist!”, and stop the track. The genius of it is that it’s actually really good—The Coup are real rappers, after all. So this is fake and real at the same time, satire at its finest.

We listen to these characters talking about abusing others to get their wealth—which is how many great and “respectable” fortunes were made in real life—and eventually we have to ask why the murder and greed being glorified by “these” people, is any less acceptable than the murder and greed being glorified by “those” people. It sounds just as cool.

Don’t let me get my flex on, do some gangster shit
make the army go to war for Exxon
Long as the money flow,
I be making dough.
Welcome to my little pimp school …

Is the wealthy abuser that came “from the streets” any better morally than the wealthy abuser that whispers in the ears of senators and presidents?

• The Coup – Pimps (Free Stylin’ at the Fortune 500 Club)

• Teddy Pendergrass — The More I Get The More I Want (Dimitri From Paris Super Disco Blend)

Not my favourite song but it’s a perfect example of how, within any given album, the Beastie Boys always had different sounds; they took you on a journey. Maybe something like this doesn’t sound great by itself, certainly not within a “shuffle” of songs, but it was definitely part of the special album experience that the BB always delivered.

• Beastie Boys – Electrify

• The Cardigans – My Favourite Game

Yet another example that there is there is no doing the Funk halfway.

• Deodato – Area code 808

• Junior – Mama Used To Say

Forgive my heretic thoughs but turntablism can get boring. It becomes a showcase of technique and skill to the point where the music is lost and it’s almost like watching a shooting competition. Nothing wrong with technique, skills, or shooting competitions but I generally like music to be musical …

But every once in a while you see someone use turntables as a musical instrument, expressively (as opposed to using them as video-game controllers to score points on combos). If you’ve never watched turntablism—or if you’re looking for musicality—this is a prime example of a master at work.

• GrandWizzard Theodore – 2008 DMC U.S. Finals Showcase

• Nina Simone – Feeling Good

• Beastie Boys – Three MC’s And One DJ

Mix Master Mike Angle!

Classic

• Oliver Cheatham – Get Down Saturday Night

Gotta let you know the time like Morris Day and Jerome

• Morris Day & The Time (feat Jerome) – Jungle Love

• The Fixx – One Thing Leads To Another

Turns out you’re in luck ’cause I know this dodgy fuck in the duck.

• The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward

At first, this song was annoying; the beat was decent but the lyrics were repetitive and her voice seemed to clash on top of the music. I thought: “OK, ha ha, it’s funny but it’s not even good comedy seeing as it only has two lines. Why couldn’t she just write more lyrics to at least try to save the song? It’s a novelty song, let me play some real music … ”.

Later, on good speakers (balanced EQ), where the bass was coming in stronger and the sound was better mixed, it started sounding good; “Damn, it’s got a little groove. OK, OK …”.
[Say what you want about the song but, back when, if you were making House in Chicago or New York you had to know a little something.]

Finally, after I saw the guy in the video doing that old House stepping (@ 1:35, on stage, black and white scene), I was trying out my own moves talking about “Don’t want no short dick man!”

This almost made “Too Good Monday” …

• Gillette and 20 Fingers – Short Dick Man

Remember when all it took to make music was a band? No fireworks, celebrity cameos, or 500 ft. LCD screens …

• Pantera – I’m Broken

• Café Tacuba – Chilanga Banda

• George Morel – Let’s Groove (Morel’s Groove Dub)

“Wow this tune is an oldie, ain’t it?! This is a certified classic and we have to include it in our top ten as it was played on heavy rotation notably as the second track in on our infamous ‘Crisp Biscuit’ compilation mix. Originally released on American house label Strictly Rhythm, this is more like the roots of UKG but it worked for us. As the tune is quite sparse and there are no vocals we were able to chat longer story time lyrics with no interruption and ride all the way through to the end!” — Heartless Crew (DJ Fonti, Bushkin, and Mighty Moe)

I’m on BBC2 now, telling Terry Wogan how I made it all. What I made is unclear, now …

• Franz Ferdinand – The Dark Of The Matinee

• Billy Paul – Me and Mrs. Jones

Jigga-jigga-jigga-jigga-jigga like JAY-Z.
Jig is up, you fuckers who didn’t write anything
are getting washed.
Thicka, thicka, thicka, like bathing.
Young Hova, I know hitters like Yankees,
gun toters that pull triggers like crazy;
unloading leave you shot up in your Rover
your body goes limp and slumps over
like A-Rod in a month lull, but he just homered.

• Eminem and Logic – Homicide