Brotlose Kunst

So basically, it has been more than two years since the last post was published. And since I am friends with most of the regular bloggers (and ASM-affiliates) on Facebook, I know more or less what everybody is up to. At least I know it on a very general level, a social media sort of privacy. But it is interesting nevertheless, for example reading about Lando playing headliner at an Electronic-Music-Festival. Or Nearski having an exibition in Japan. Or somebody naming MC ZIPLOCK as one of the five best MCs of all time.

And now guess the transition: a guy called Amadeus (whom I know from a mutual poetic friend currently residing in Lisbon) just dropped by and we had some Dosenbier (the second cheapest from the gas station, since I did not know about a cheaper sort at first and have gotten used to DOMINIKANER by the time I finally found the cheapest one) and we smoked a joint together with my red-haired female flat mate (on a side note: I am living in Karlsruhe for 14 months now in a flat together with three other people and still beat GERONIMO MC around the corner regularly on FIFA 13) and then we had another Dosenbier, before he (Amadeus) told me, that he used to download my mixtapes (one of which was coincidentally playing at that particular moment in time) from the old ASM-Blog. We proceeded with opening the six pack of BECK’S (since the Dosenbier was gone now and the gas station will not sell you alcoholic beverages after 10pm in Baden-Württemberg, which I personally see as a true hinderance to my personal progression) and I told my red-haired female flat mate (who was of course present, since she rolled the joint and it was her weed) about those good old times when the ASM-blog was still a virtual (middle class) street corner, where likeminded creative people could get together and share their contributions to life as they saw it (bring in the overly pathetic ending of a long sentence).

So I thought that this blog shall be back like a classic Schwarzenegger-catchphrase and that we ought (critical modal auxiliary-switch) to combine the experiences that we collected during the last years in order bring back to some of the old flavour that a lot of people from everywhere still carry with them. And since this is where it all began (on a virtual level or alternatively: for me, which might render great parts of this post’s message useless) I seems fair to bring back this blogspot to life. On a side note: seriously, what has happened to the ASM-mag? You had one issue of how many copies? Such a great idea with so much potential..

So basically this was the start of my contribution. The foreword. And I close with some bad ass funk shit by yours truly Mayer Hawthorne:

Top Ten Tapes #3 – New York

Coming from New York and staying in New York.

Who has downloaded the “Five Deadly Venoms of Brooklyn”-Mixtape and how did you like it ?

And has anyone besides me (have to admit that I get a mail each time this happens) seen that Manuva himself commented my post about his “Moonwalker”-Tape (TTT#8 ) ? So dope.

Back to business. The next tape I am going to introduce here is the Fourth part of the CitySeries, a series that Dj Castro and I once brought into life, which introduces the rap-scene of a single city to the audience and tries to capture its special musical flavour. Its parts until now are Chicago, San Francisco, L.A., New York, New York 2, the ASM vs the UK-Tape and two thirds of the German-Rap-Trilogy.

So Part four of this series was my personal dedication to the rap of the Big Apple, without the intention to capture it as a whole but rather to include those artists whose music I have always valued most, most of them from the mid till late nineties.

What was kind of unpredictable for me was, that nearly everyone who listened to this mix was immediately down with the music

– Geronimo always says that “this is the best tape you ever did” –

which brought up the well-known notion that shit is real in ’96.

But let’s move on to the facts:

The original tape was recorded on overlength-cassettes and has a running-time of nearly 100 minutes.

It is embedded into a loose concept of samples from Chackie Chan‘s “Drunken Master” and the Afro Samurai-Series, that are supposed to guide through the mix or at least to cause some laughters, and it usually features a couple of tracks of each artist/group/producer which I might as well introduce one by one to you because this is already kind of a NERD-theme, hehe.

Side A starts with Company Flow and comes from an unrealesed track to the fantastic “Krazy Kings“, to that legendary Big Juss-part

“in 1985 they injected me with props”,

and its rather unknown but nevertheless great follower which was on the B-Side of

“End to End Burners” before it finishes with “The Fire in which you burn“, starring a flawless-as-ever Breezly Brewin and perhaps the best rhymes J-Treds ever dropped

“Focus from the bird’s eye, in my scenario, of dominance /
Filth eatin weaklings, we’re bumrushin like dirty communists /
Raisin, my iron curtain revealin my words the gospel /
No apples or giant serpents, the enlightened apostle /
J-treds”.

The next part is dedicated to one of New Yorks imported legends – Frankie Ano aka Frankenstein, an overtalented rapper as well as producer who was never able to release more than a couple of 12″ and retreated kind of mysteriously in the late-nineties. His part features the very rare Remix of “The Projects“, “Sparkin Intellect” from his highly acclaimed and most known Vinyl

“UV” plus another gem of his producer-carreer: coming from his legendary 96-NY-Remixalbum is his version of MobbDeep’s “Shook Ones II“.

Next up are a couple of single tracks like “Watch dees“, an early Masterpiece of DJ Spinna‘s first longplayer

featuring Brooklyn’s legend Thirstin Howl III, the Arsonists with “Underground Vandal” and its fantastic piano-sample, that Finsta Bundy used as well who are represented here with

“Feel the High Pt. 2“.

Blackstarr follows and immediately starts with one of the dopest Mos Def-collaborations, “Tinseltown to Boogietown“, the project he did with the UK-Pop-Legends

Scritti Politti, the remix by the Beatnuts. Next track is “Bright as the stars“, an early Blackstarr-B-Side, which is followed by the amazing Remix Dj Honda did of his own track

“Travelling Man“, which is followed by another Blackstarr-collaboration: “Know that” and finally the Remix my man Tony Tong did of “Ms Fat Booty“.

Starting with the fantastic Bill Murray-Interlude from Jim Jarmusch‘s

“Coffee & Cigarettes” comes the GZA & RZA-part, which means the Genius rhymes and Bobby Digital provides the beats/did the remixes which are “Labels” and the newer track out of the

Dj Muggs-collaboration: “Smothered Mate“.

 

Last but not least we have Dj Premier. Jeru the Damaja comes first with “Me, not the paper“, the rare follower of his original song “Me or the paper“, that features one of the best Primo-beats I know. Next comes the remix of

“Rugged neva smoove” an early hit MOP did in 1994, followed by “Live to regret“, a kind of unusual but nevertheless very dope Busta Rhymes-track from the

“Set if Off“-Soundtrack out of 1996, and finally, as the end of this side, Inspectah Deck‘s part of “Above the Clouds“.

 

Side B starts with a scene from the first

Afro Samurai-Episode and a song from its sound-track

(Yo, if anyone knows who made the second-track that plays in this particular bar-scene, tell me please ! It isn’t on the soundtrack and I’ve been searching it desperately for months when I made this mix ..)

before it makes room for a lyrical Heavyweight one may most likely know from his 2002-collaboration together with Dangermouse. The name’s Jemini the Gifted One and he is featured with one of his earlier tracks

“50 MCs in a cypher” as well as with one of those real-as-hell Freestyle who were recorded live on the street in those days.. “and when I touch the structure, yo watch the structure rupture“.

The next couple of tracks appear in no particular concept. Deda with “Markd 4 death“, a sadly unappreciated

Pete Rock-Project from his I.N.I. – days, followed by the East Flatbush Project‘s legendary

“Tried by 12” with this classic freestyle-beat, followed by a couple of rather unknown but still must-listen-tracks

(yeah I know that the High & Mighty are not from NY, but when I realised that they were already in the mix and it sounded too good to remove them again ..)

before Finsta Bundy return with this incredibly dope Evil Dee-Remix of a Lady Apache-Classic

.. “if it ain’t Finsta, it must be Bundy“.

Large Professor

is the person to whom the next part is dedicated. After a really impressing sample of his producer-skills comes “The Live Guy Saga“, another one of those underrated Premo-Bombs, where he justifies his reputation as a rapper

“to all those who thought I would die in the struggle /

I got the ball and I ain’t try’n to fumble“.

The X-Ecutioners provide the beat for “XL“, the next track, and the following “Extra Abstract Skillz” builds the bridge to the Mike Zoot-Part with

“a wack rapper rhyming kills the whole beat“,

the line he masterly used for the hookline of “Service“. Now Mike Zoot is one of those rappers I consider to be playing in the same league as a Frankenstein or even a Nine. Not only because of their supreme abilites as musicians, or more precisely: as rappers, but also because of their sudden retreatment from the world of rap.

The difference between Mike Zoot and these other two is that were Nine has released two longplayers (I won’t count his new one) and Frankenstein had his “UV”-EP Mike Zoot had none of this. Not only did he never put out a highly-anticipated album but besides an ominous double 12″

that came out on Guesswhyld (and that contains both of the tracks I put on this tape) all other physical proofs of his rap-carreer are features and appearances on samplers (“Spread Love” on Superrappin in 2001 was his last livesign).

But okay, one can’t change these things. His second and last track is “Scene“, where he really shows why I always tell people that he is one of the rappers with the best flow I know.

After this, Jeru the Damaja once again presents himself in his best form with the Pete Rock-Remix of “Can’t Stop the Prophet“, before

Nine takes over with “Jon Doe“. The next track is a really innovative UK-NY-collaboration I dared to prefer to a classic beat like the one the original version of “Simon Says” has. Roots Manuva, Rodney P and Pharaoh Monch keep it real with the Godzilla-sample before MF Grimm follows with “Get Down“.

A third and last Pete Rock-collabo comes with I.N.I. and their classic

“Fakin’ Jax” which Frankenstein equipped with a nice new beat on his Remix-album, too. The last two tracks are kind of hidden jewels, too, check them out and worship this early-90’s New York-flavour in his purest form !

 

Here is the tracklist in a shorter form:

SIDE A:
Intro
Company Flow – “Unreleased”
Company Flow – “Krazy Kings”
Company Flow – “Krazy Kings Too”
Company Flow – “Krazy Kings Too” (Instrumental)
Company Flow – “The Fire in which you burn”
Frankenstein – “The Projects” (Remix)
Frankenstein – “Sparkin Intellect”
Mobb Deep – “Shook Ones Pt. II” (Frankenstein Remix)
Dj Spinna,Thirstin Howl – “Watch Dees”
Arsonists – “Underground Vandal”
Finsta Bundy – “Feel the High Pt 2”
Scritti Politti,Mos Def – “Tinseltown to Boogietown” (Beatnuts Remix)
Black Star – “Bright as the stars”
Mos Def – “Travelling Man” (Dj Honda Remix”
Mos Def,Talib Kweli – “Know that”
Mos Def – “Ms Fat Booty” (Tony Tong Remix)
Bill Murray Interlude
GZA – Labels (RZA Remix)
GZA – Smothered Mate (RZA Remix)
Jeru the Damaja – “Me, not the paper” (Dj Premier Remix)
MOP “Rugged Neva Smoove”
Busta Rhymes – “Live to Regret”
Gangstarr, Inspectah Deck – “Above the Clouds”

SIDE B:
Intro
Rza, Rev. William Burk – “Who is tha man”
Jemini the Gifted One – “50 MCs in a cypher”
Jemini the Gifted One – “Freestyle”
Deda – “Markd 4 death”
East Flatbush Project – “Tried by 12”
Shadez of Brooklyn – “Wanted Men”
The High and Mighty – “The Meaning”
Harlem World – “Booda 1,2”
Lady Apache,Finsta Bundy – “Rock and Comeen” (Evil Dee Daytime Mix)
Large Professor – “Hidden Beat”
Large Professor – “Live Guy Saga”
Large Professor – “XL”
Large Professor – “Extra Abstract Skillz”
Mike Zoot – “Service”
Mike Zoot – “Scene”
Jeru the Damaja – “Can’t Stop the Prophet” (Pete Rock Remix Instrumental)
Jeru the Damaja – “Can’t Stop the Prophet” (Pete Rock Remix)
Nine – Jon Doe
Pharaoh Monch,Roots Manuva,RodneyP – “Simon Says” (Remix)
MF Grimm – “Get Down”
Dorothy Ashby – “Cause I Need it”
I.N.I. – “Fakin’ Jax”
I.N.I. – “Fakin’ Jax” (Frankenstein Remix)
Council – “We’re on top of thangs”
Mysterme & DJ 20-20 – “Can’t fuck with the record”

 

 

And because Lando wanted to have a copy of those back at the G&Q-Releaseparty in June ’07 and I do not know if I had one of them left (they were limited to 20 pieces – economic shortages), I attached the download-link for all of you to check it out if you want to. That much from the Tapeking .. read soon.

EDIT: Due to (popular) demand, I reuploaded the tape. The new link should enable you to download the mix from googledocs.

Its all about the Underwater.

because there is too much we should be sharing with the curious!

Like underwater rivers for example…

and the general shame of leaving the blog without post!

ASM Tour Blog Part 4

Whatup yalls!!!

First of all.. HAPPY FANTASTIC PLANET DAY!!! The album officially hits stores today. Infinite love to Mr Mattic aka Tasty Mc D… the incredibly talented FantAstrid… and the Fine Equipe!! (Chomsk’, Oogo, Blanka, and Giboooo) Cop that!!

On that note.. heres a few more pics from the Fantatic Planet release party:

ASM are kicking it in Neuchatel today on an off day.. Were being hosted by the amazing Stab (Berry Weight) and his girlfriend Lucy. The crib is overlooking lake Neuchatel, with the swiss alps towering in the distance. These two are certified champions!! Lucy cooked an amazing dinner for us on arrival.. rabbit loin in cream sauce say powpow.. tonight was courtesy of ya boy Green.. Stew chickaaan, fried plantains, sweet potato chip type tings..

Heres the homie Stab’s crib.. featuring some magician cuts from the man himself:

To close, in case anyone forgot how ASM roll.. heres two stage photos.. seperate nights in different corners of Europe, but the crucial similarity of the mic in one hand, rum n coke in the other stance.. champion sound!!

ASM Tour Blog Part 3

Alrighty Crew, it’s been a couple of gigs now, and I’m pleased to let u know that we brought the fire insanely hard!! It all started in Nancy, where Green and I met Fade, Mac-Hi and Pow-Lo to scorch the stage for the first Wax Tailor warm up round…. little did the crowd know what kind of funkaholics they we’re dealing with… here’s us pre-show alcoholizing:

6ix toys bringin the heat:

Likely the most fun ASM show, unless u include the next 2 days at Saint-Etienne and Avignon…. not only was the south a few degrees warmer, but also sunny, mellow and the crowds errupted like neither of us had ever seen until then… especially Avignon. Here are a couple of pictures to express the extreme mood shift in the venue.
At First: Sound check.. the calm before the storm. Much love to the whole Wax Tailor Crew at this point… JC, Mattic, Giboooooo, Mattheu, Ludivine, Behrenger, David, Max, Julien, Cristelle, and Charlotte:


And Now get ready to taste the aftermath: We once again killed the 1500 capicity (sold out) venue for the opening ASM set.. unfortunately without the horns that night, nevertheless epically huge!! then Green and I jumped out for 3 more tracks at the end of Wax’s set (Guaranteed, Say Yes, and Positively Inclined) and destroyed what was left of the ridiculously amped crowd… check what happened at the very end of the Wax Tailor set:

Shitt was wild!!! So wild that we had to sign all kinds of merchandise/meat after the show… dig it:

we definitely needed some wholesome food every once in a while.. this is us at Buffalo grill in Bourg les Valence, the final Wax Tailor show of the 4:

we also swung by a place called Big Burger, which ironically had tiny ass burgers, however a seletion of 15 different sauces, which was kidna dope…. this was just outside of it:

After 4 epic days in a row of playing both ASM and Wax Tailor sets, and constant stacking of hangovers upon one another and not having time to relax for even a couple of hours, we finally got a break and decided to cruise to Neuchatel to visit our homies Stab from Berry Weight and his girl Lucy. Green will hit u with the specifics of this swiss endeavour soon…. i’ll leave u with a little bag of deliciousness:

PEACE!!!!!

ASM Tour Blog Part 2

Yo yo, this is Pow-Lo writing from ASM HQ in Frankfurt after a couple of German shows this weekend before we head to France this week.

In usual ASM style we’ve been keeping it rockin’ and hitting the after party hard. Here’s some pictures from the last week:

FP and Green-T performing at the Fantastic Planet release party in Paris last weekend. Big thanks to the whole crew for a great couple of days. Looking forward to being back there soon!

Here’s myself getting involved with a bit of wood chopping! What else would you do on a day off?!?

We also hit up the local Korean BBQ for some amazing food!

Fade sound checking in Hachenberg. We all ended up drunkenly freestyling in the dressing room and we also encountered am amazing amount of snow. FP managed to nail me in the eye with a snowball! I’m still plotting revenge so he’s gotta watch his back! We also picked up the new ASM tees which are looking very tasty indeed.

We stayed in a 300 year old Bed & Breakfast and got hooked up with an amazing breakfast

Up until Wednesday we had nothing planned for Saturday. But a random message to a promoter I’d emailed a few times soon resulted in an epic day! Big thanks to the legend Holger Menzel who managed to find a place for us to play, DJ and generally party in Frankfurt. Easily the smallest gig of the tour but could possibly be one of the best! The set ended with me and Mack-Hi having our usual horn battle! We took it to new levels on this show though!!! We also did two shows on Radio X helping promote the upcoming album.

And that leads me to where I am now. Sat still trying to get over my hangover at 23:48 on a Sunday. We’re gonna add some finishing touches to the set tomorrow and then we head to Nancy for our first show supporting Wax Tailor.

Peace Out

Lootpack – Toyota Commercial

To do the Romes-Mania on this blog further justice, here is a rare TV commercial he did together with Wildchild and Madlib for the local Toyota dealer in Oxnard:

Proper approach to the main stream I would say!

BIG PITCH

Check me out rocking hard with the mouse outfit!

holla!

ASM Tour Blog Part 1

Yes Yes YES!!!! back and in full effect would be the main theme of the following presentation, sportsfriends.

Glad to see that the tape king is still with us on our cyber voyage.. much Love for that first of all.

The unofficial ‘retox tour’ has begun, and it feels good to be in that state of mind again… ASM cru for life!! It all started when Green and I cruised down to Zurich to pick up the Fadester at the airport on thursday to head to our first date @ Krempel in Buchs, Switzerland. Unfortunately the horns couldnt join us for this one yet, but dont doubt that we didnt bring the heat in the form of a wave for several hours, including murderous temperatures pon di decks from my boy Fade and an unexpected appearance of the villain in the form of a Green Accordion!! Say Clack, Clack!!! Also, infinite love has to go out to Mischa aka Itchy who not only dropped heavy tunes in between various ASM sounds but also kept shit Buckshakalang!!! We passed out eventually in our beloved wooden mansion, which luckily had a ’emergency-kit’ hanging in the kitchen:

Friday started off fairly mellow, but became gradually more exciting as we not only picked up the freshest horn section this side of the mississip, but also ventured up the mountain to Laax to play a show after we knocked back a couple of brews over a pan of rösti á la Flims… needless to say, the crew was amped beyond distortion!!!!!

The show was Buck!! Freshly introduced loop-pedals for the 2toys, a slightly elevated stage for fades production table, and a sound boy that cant spell mofuckin sound boy! We killed it nevertheless, and knowing we had to get up early to have a 10hour drive to Paris the next day, kept the party going til the sun came up… well, at least most of us. Some might say it was unwise to stay up this late, but wait til u check the new introduction clips for follow-up ‘cooking with Green – der hip hop koch’ shows:

UND JETZT GEHTS LOS!! the drive was just as it sounded… loooooooooong! topped by a major disoriented attempt at finding the club in paris, we had a nerve-racking day, but generally kept it together in a big way… props to green and fade for getting us there safe from sunup til sundown!!! We were definitely pumped to see the entire Fantastic Planet crew again though and powered through… some might say ‘over-powered through’. Held it down with the man Molecular Mattic, who brought serious heat on the mic, complimented by a backline of ill producers (Chomsk’, Blanka, Oogo), an incredibly gifted vocalizah (Fantastrid), and a sound man that would make that previous sound guy i mentioned look like Bullschlachen!!!!! (Giboooooo) Check this clip from the FANTASTIC PLANET release party (sorry it’s not nicely embedded and just a link, but thank facebook):

I highly recommend they’re album to anyone and everyone… seriously some of the illest shit i’ve EVER heard!!!! That’s why we had to use our post-show day to hit up Gib’s brand new studio, appropriately named “1, 2, Pass it!” The first ever track in his studio was ‘Dedicated’ produced by Fade n lyrically destroyed by ur boys Green n F. Also got on sum Fantastic Planet beats of course. Momentus and historical event, sportsfriends. We’ll upload that and any other collaborative ventures we jump on while on tour as soon as they’re mixed. Meanwhile the toys tried to go to Disneyland, but got denied and were forced to write angry raps over waitresses’ booties…. Classic Mac-Hi and Pow-Lo! Here they are at what they do best, for all who havent met them:

We returned to Green’s place last night after an epic first weekend on tour and started today off by running the administrative ASM tings in a huge way… i’m talking ‘to-do’ lists, task distribution, and affirmative task execution, with occasional curveballs and sound boy murderins!!! One of us platipi will hit u soon with the update after the next show…. stay tuned and dig the brand new album trailer again:

THE AGE OF THE PLATYPUS IS NIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Mixtape Odyssey 3 – Instrumental Excursions

To make my contribution to the Renaissance that Green has started, here is a new mix I have been working on in late ’09 and January 2010:

Since the last Odyssey has gone astray from the path direct and never made it past its second mix, the Tapeking decided not to burden others with his musical experiments again and to do the next journey alone. With what he returned three months later is an one hour instrumental mix to which his sorrowful heart, the end of the good days in Speyer, a loss of  prospects for the nearer future and a trip to Hamburg contributed their parts.

It has been split up in seven loosely thematic chapters which follow the basic idea of the Mixtape Odyssey in that they are separate pieces but together form the whole mix. Here is the tracklist:

And here is the DOWNLOAD LINK. Uploaded it on rapidshare, so let me know if it does not work. And feel free to drop some feedback, appreciate it ..