Pop Producers Read mp3 Blogs
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 by Paul Irishuk pop ← new orleans jazz
If you didn’t already hear, Lily Allen is ‘the next big thing’. Music geeks have been pushing her, wanting her songs will blow up in the US mainstream for a while. She’s definitely got the appeal potential: crisp and fun production underneath her own gritty urban storytelling. Her track “Knock ‘Em Out” was released as a B-side, but is now getting as much attention as her released singles.
Lily Allen - Knock ‘Em Out from Alright, Still (2006)
If you’ve been with Aurgasm for a while, that opening that forms the basis for the track might sound a little familiar. In December 2004 I shared a track by New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair. Take a listen:
Professor Longhair - Big Chief (1964)
cuban mambo → chicago hip hop
Around the same time, a little more south, a Cuban vocalist by the name of La Lupe was gaining notoriety for her energetic live show and, quite franky, her near-insanity. Before joining Tito Puente’s tour, her fan-base included Pablo Picasso, Jean-Paul Sartre and novelist Ernest Hemingway, who called her act, “the art of frenzy.” Last October, I dubbed her song “Fever” as an mp3 gem in The Link List.
La Lupe - Fever (1961)
Chicago’s Rhymefest is best known for penning Kanye’s Grammy-winning single “Jesus Walks”, but you’ll hear that La Lupe track repurposed in this new single off his LP.
Rhymefest - Fever from Blue Collar (2006)
I hear you asking. “How precisely does a group of four Parisian DJs snag the DMC World Team Champion title?” (You’re asking that, right?) Well, let me let you in on a secret. It has to do with eight turntables, half as many mixers, and four Frenchmen that know how to cut, copy, paste, and manipulate songs into healthy grooves. The impressive thing here is that Nam Nam’s music is enjoyable by itself, yet similar to 
I imagine it’s pretty hard to remix songs that are as oft-played and over-sampled as much of the Sugarhill catalogue– and when I saw Still The Joint: Sugarhill Remixed in my local music emporium a few summers ago, I was a little dubious. But hey, it was the right price, so I picked it up and let it grow on me. Roots Manuva’s remix of ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash, particularly, has been a regular fixture on my headphones ever since, with its shadowy horns and tight, controlled bass. Even better, though, is the way other tracks slink out of my iPod’s shuffle mode and take me by surprise, like the strut-worthy Two Lone Swordsmen remix of The Sequence’s ‘Funk You Up’.
I’ll admit it’s odd for me to be writing on a fairly popular dirty south rap star, but this track “Shooter” has been on solid rotation since I first peeped. The casually dope bassline vibes underneath syncopated soul lyrics from