all i wanna do is smoke a lil’ chronic, slam you like onyx, and get you hooked on this biggie smalls phonics- 102

15 minutes of chops #throwawayheat

Pips and I individually entered a beat competition (called “Microwave Mondays”) held by a non-profit music writing, production, recording, & DJing program called SESSIONS LA two weeks ago.

The top 3 beats were picked by Chairman Mao, who “once interviewed Jay-Z at a Pizzerio Uno’s in Greenwich Village”.

Pips won it!  (I came in 3rd.)

Pips “Allah Mode”

As a writer I’ll admit that I was intrigued by this one even before I heard it – thanks to how Pips cleverly, phonetically flipped the song title itself. Arrangement wise, the whole thing works for me. Pips uses the more obvious main melody, but does a nice job sustaining the tension of it by keeping the parts short, and then resolving it with a second melodic part too. The way the flute’s chopped/treated so that it sounds like its cutting out in rhythm is dope. And the placement of the flourishes to start and finish gives everything a nice symmetry. EQ-wise it’s got some oomph to it too. Nice work.

PE “Sweet Tears”

I dig the way PE flipped the main Mark Murphy vocal sample here. The overlay of the other vocal sample adds a cool extra element of sonic and rhythmic interference. After the initial flip I think I might have liked to hear it go through another change-up in arrangement just to push things a little further. The bass note stabs work but could be more pronounced. The choice of rimshot also initially threw me off – I kept waiting for something heavier to drop drum sound wise. But give PE credit for electing to shoot for a surprisingly lighter tone than the source material would necessarily dictate, and generally making the pieces work.

pe “a pair of cool” : rhyme + beat by pe.  additional production + mixing by pips.

my man shafe “won’t get me (almost final mix)”: rhymes by my man shafe.  beat by pe.

woke up to find this in my inbox today- i’ve been waiting on this for a while.  i thought i might share it with y’all.

i met my man shafe at a fat beats pop up shop event in brooklyn last may.  he rolled up with fresh (of 33jones fame), zilla roca, and has-lo (who performed on that day too, with zilla as hype man).

i remember talking with him about teflon, the rapper affiliated with the m.o.p. family, and tef’s ‘97 album “my will”.

i was surprised to find out that shafe rhymed as well.  i was even more surprised when he reached out to me through fb and asked me to send him some beats he could possibly use for his debut album “who’s that?!  my man shafe!”.

…

coincidentally, i saw the artist that i sampled for the beat that is “won’t get me” perform last weekend at the malasimbo [music + arts] festival in puerto galera, mindoro.

pe “sabaw” : beats + rhymes by pe.  additional production + mix by pips.

#new_beats. morning exercise. “p-e crazy, crazy p-e.”

shhh!

first #new_beat of #2012. laid back on my day off.

beats by dj benzocaine.  rhymes by pe.

(all night, all night, all night)

broken-heart Brown
can’t remember what from,
hollow chest tunes
devoid of emotion,
cold crush sound
boomin’ for your heart though,
sponsored by my dick
and a thick cloud of blunt smoke,
if you get down-
we can cut class, miss
i’ll take you to the crib
where i puff and cut classics,
plotting on the crown
‘cause the kingdom’s mishandled…

(all night, all night, all night)

just me and the empire,
hellfire and brimstone,
eyes in the palms,
laugh tracks on the sitcoms,
i dig chicks
who take off apparel,
fall in love with Brown
kiss the end of my barrel,
burn blunts steady
avoid scandal,
closet vandal-
tagging up the bathroom,
and under pressure
she’s tough,
knowing when to stay and fight
or leave and get up…

chorus:

(my love is
black star without mos def)
eternal reflection
(and when it comes to sexin’)
meet your death in
still pounding in your afterlife
all night, all night, all night
(x2)

…

Next up is the latest from the homie Chris Brown aka He’s Hers aka the best producer I know currently living in the Philippines. Chris recently passed along a link to his latest instrumental beat tape, Perverted Instrumentals, a collection of some of his most recent work (with a few older joints, like the below I Miss Dilla, thrown in for good measure).

be safe everybody.