"Brain Cells"/#10Day

Fresh from her interview on 848 about the overuse of suspensions and arrests in Chicago Public Schools, Emma Chung-Ming sent me a link to Chance the Rapper's #10Day mixtape, which he recorded while on a ten-day suspension. First off, how awesome is that? I'm the kind of person who is always trying to complete music projects when I have a break from work/school, but I usually lose steam after a few hours. Chance dropped a whole album. And it's really good.

The verses on "Brain Cells" prove this is high-caliber writing and flow. Chance raps inane tongue-twisters precisely and effortlessly. His delivery is cheeky and there's a shade of nerdiness to his swagger, even when he segues from druggie vocab to gang politics. Check the DOOM-like way Chance's rhymes evolve over the course of one verse. Then watch the video for "Brain Cells".

Here's a tab of acid for your ear
You're the plastic, I'm the passion and the magic in the air
The flabbergasted avalanche of ambulances near
The labyrinth of Pan's Lab is adamantly here
No assignments, book of rhyming and I'm drawing doodles
I should rhyme "rhyme" with Ramen Noodles
Ramadan, I'm the don of the diamond jewels
Fond of finding a way to kindly tell these toddlers toodles
I'm a kamikaze and I'm kinda cuckoo
I could write a fucking book, non kamasutral
You n****s goofies, it's a conflict that is kinda crucial
Caught you on the nine in all blue yelling I'ma neutral
But I'ma let the bull pass like matadors
Versus a minotaur
Verse is a metaphor

Heartless Bastards

I went to see the Heartless Bastards' perform as headlining act of Ribfest last week in Chicago and I really enjoyed their set. The fuzzy drone and drive of this song reminds me of what the Velvet Underground were doing on White Light/White Heat, although the VUs were "in the red" much more on that album than anything I've ever heard this band do. Anyway, I've gone back and listened to all of the Heartless Bastards albums multiple times, something I highly recommend.

A Song For You

Driving to work Friday morning, I heard Carmen McRae singing "A Song For You" and I was mesmerized. It was 6:30, I was just turning onto Ashland from 47th, and there was a ferris wheel in the middle of the road that must have been three stories tall. Turns out one of Chicago's many street festivals was about to begin.

Just like the scene outside my car window that morning, this song is eerily beautiful. It's narrated by a famous singer who has spent a lifetime singing to audiences around the world. This time, the narrator is singing to her partner. The thing is, it's from the perspective of after the singer has died. She says, of all the songs she has ever sung, when her life is over, the one performance she'll remember is when she was singing to her lover, just the two of them alone in a room.

This song has also been done by Donnie Hathaway, Ray Charles, and Whitney Houston. It's one of those tunes that has become part of a modern jazz songbook. Needless to say, I was thrilled to find out that it was written by none other than Leon Russell in 1971. 

Bitty McLean/David Ruffin

There are so many excellent reggae covers of soul and R&B songs from the 60s and 70s. Yesterday I heard Bitty McLean's "Walk Away from Love" on the Bad Education summer songs mixtape from 2010. I learned today that it's a cover of the David Ruffin original from 1975. It's great how often reggae covers really cut to the essence of the original song. Both of these tracks feature great vocal performances in totally different styles.

Keef Crazy in Chicago

I was about to post about this Joe Bataan reissue I picked up at Logan Hardware the other day, but now that GCI has put Chief Keef on heavy rotation and I've heard two different cars drive past my window blasting "I Don't Like" I thought it was too timely to pass up.

Chief Keef is 16, a CPS student on house arrest for allegedly pointing a gun at a cop. He released some tracks and videos online that have blown up in the past six months. He has been in the Reader, on the cover of the Red Eye, and is is all over Chicago hip hop blog Fake Shore Drive.

This is all small hat compared to the latest news: Kanye put him on a track. "I Don't Like" is a reworking of Keef's "Bang" that also features Big Sean, Pusha T, and Jadakiss. Like the rest of Keef's stuff, this track is "hard", gratuitously vulgar and kind of hard (for me) to listen to. It's also a pean to Chicago rappers like LEP and King Louis. And Chicago in general. All rappers have love for Derrick Rose because, according to Ye, "that n**** nice". (We'll miss you next season D. Rose. Get well.)

Despite all the hype, I don't see anyone anywhere saying that Chief Keef has very much talent. For good reason. Watch him below trying to piece together a verse for the remix with Nael Shehade for G.O.O.D. Music. Whatever, though, he's certainly exciting to watch and it's pretty exciting for all the South Side artists with stars in their eyes.

Beastie Boys, Live 1992

It's sad to think that the three of these guys won't ever bounce around dorkily together again. I'm gonna miss MCA.

Van Hunt

Last month I picked up Van Hunt's first album at Amoeba Records. Have to admit, it was one of those albums that didn't really do very much for me at first. Now that I've sat with it a while, I'm starting to see what makes this man's music so good. The record definitely falls under the category of retro-soul, but it sounds more "full" to me than most other retro-soul I'm used to hearing and that was popular in the 90s. As in, more complicated arrangements, more lush instrumentation, and, well, just a little weirder than I expected. Listen to that driving electric guitar on the upbeats on "Dust". It's just different. Three albums later, Van Hunt released the much weirder What Were You Hoping For? this year and it got a lot of good buzz. I have to go back and take a listen now that I have more of a foundation for his sound, but the funny thing is that what I remember most about that album was: LOUD ELECTRIC GUITARS. Dude's music clearly covers a wide spectrum. Listen to "North Hollywood" below and I'm sure you'll think of four or five superstar, multi-instrumentalist, genre-bending artists that have made their mark on his sound. I'll leave it up to you. If you visit the official site you'll see a new live album is about to be released. Looking forward to hearing it and hopefully catching him on tour!