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THE DROP: Diddy Dirty Money hearkens back to hip hop’s esoteric dance floor roots

3 Dec

Sean Combs was one of the first truly troubling figures in hip hop in dealing with bridging the gaps between the streets and mainstream success. As he famously stated on 2001’s “Bad Boy for Life,” “don’t worry if I write rhymes, I write checks.” As Puff Daddy, Sean John, P. Diddy or Diddy, Combs has always been at the cutting edge of the next wave of hip hop culture as a mainstream obsessed cultural aggregate instead of fly emcee. On the slow arriving Last Train to Paris project with Diddy alongside female vocalists Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper, Diddy yet again succeeds in truly taking hip hop to the next level.

In 1991, Diddy was the A & R man and stylist that ushered the aggression of hip hop into R & B through Jodeci and Mary J. Blige. In 1993, he unleashed upon us the greatest rapper of all time, and with it a style of hip hop that was about painting vivid portraits of grandiose street dreams. By 1996, he noted the progression of the culture toward sustainable wealth, so he made the samples ultra accessible and expressly disco and pop related. Gone were the blunts and Timbos, and in their stead were the flashiest shiny suits of all time and an embrace of hip hop now embracing the legitimate road to wealth of being a “baller, shot caller and brawler” all at the exact same time. For the last decade, Diddy has been content to let his money make money. Yes, Da BAND and Danity Kane were largely failures, but Diddy succeeded in being the first hip hop mogul with a TV production deal on MTV. Throughout this process though, Diddy was slowly putting together the pieces of hip hop’s next move.

http://www.youtube.com/v/pHCdS7O248g?fs=1&hl=en_US

In the early 1980s, hip hop culture truly crossed over when early hip hop cultural lynchpins like Fab 5 Freddy and Jean-Michel Basquiat took hip hop from New York City’s uptown to downtown. Wealthy types are typically esoteric and are always looking for the next hip wave to attach themselves to. Around 1978 or so, the wealthy began to leave behind the Studio 54 culture and take a cab to the Bowery to be awed by the fresh, young and edgy punk world. Hip hop combined those two elements extremely well, in blending quicker cuts of familiar disco breaks alongside spoken word phrases that had the edge of punk without the heroin and filth, so it was a much easier bridge. By 1981, Blondie, a punk band gone disco finally blended rap elements into their sound, and we got “Rapture,” which moreso that “Rapper’s Delight” or arguably any other pure rap record at the time allowed hip hop culture to cross over at the highest levels.

Diddy has so far released a July 2009 mixtape as “Lectro Black,” a 21st century Bambaataa esque hip hop shaman wandering into the foreign world of new school electronic dance music. I described the mix then as:

Diddy aims for validity in the house music world at large, and Felix responds, in one mix doing more to legitimize Diddy’s attempt at expanding the concept of urban sound than he ever could have done by constantly showcasing his “Dirty Money Crew (who will be featured almost exclusively on the album)”

Obviously, upon noting the meteoric rise by absorption of the culture by the Black Eyed Peas, Diddy has honed his concept further to be more in line with the classic concept of hip hop grit meeting with now intercontinental flair, and we get the release of the Last Train to Paris prelude a mere 11 days before the street release date.

Diddy Dirty Money – Ass On the Floor

As always, Diddy’s design is obvious. There are drops here from hip hop cultural bookends Fab 5 Freddy (yep, the same one from 30 years ago) and hottest rapper of the moment Wiz Khalifa. As well, icons from the world of fashion like Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley, Louis Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs and ex Liz Claiborne creative director Isaac Mizrahi. This is upper echelon dance music. If the Black Eyed Peas can get you through the door of your favorite EDM nightspot, Diddy is the asshole popping ten bottles of Ace of Spades in VIP with people who spend more money on manicures in a year then you’ve made in ten. Sonically, the preview is on point. There are two stand out gems, Swizz Beatz’s hip hop interpretation of Afrojack’s Dutch house drumline from Major Lazer’s “Pon de Floor,” “Ass On the Floor.” As with the track it flips, it has an insistent and propulsive dance floor energy that wins instantaneously. Justin Timberlake and Lil Wayne’s “Shades” is a smasher as well, the simmering techno track being blessed by mainstream pop/R & B’s nearly forgotten champion vocalist.

Diddy Dirty Money’s Last Train to Paris isn’t going to be 2011’s best album. It’s thematic yarn of lost love is going to wear on a lot of ears for sure. But in tastefully recasting hip hop’s historical precedent for a new generational rise of the sound? It’s terrific and a credit to a man who remembers or was the catalyst for every step of that development.

CRATE DIG: Legendary 90s Hip-Hop/R & B Producer "Buttnaked" Tim Dawg

26 Aug

Welcome to the newest regular feature here at True Genius Requires Insanity, the “Crate Dig.” As you may already be aware, we strongly feel as though it’s time to advocate a “back to basics” movement in music. We feel that instead of everyone being an innovator, that some of us need to be preserving the importance of original source material. To that end, the “Crate Dig” will feature members of the TGRIOnline.com staff, the “Hustlers of Culture,” digging through their mental crates to remember the songs that made them appreciate music. There will be some amazing, and yes, embarrassing choices here, but always the key impact is to remember when music was not something to be over studied, remixed, downloaded, forgotten and torn asunder. We’re remembering when music was simply a song you liked, and really couldn’t tell you more than a sentence or two why. Sit back, reminisce, and enjoy the building blocks of music appreciation.

Horace Brown’s 1996 hit “Taste Your Love,” written by “Buttnaked” Tim Dawg
Christopher Williams’ “Every Little Thing You Do” (Tim Dawg Remix)
Song: (Too many to mention)
Year released: 1993-1998
Year “discovered” by me: 1993
Reason discovered: Obsessive listening to Friday and Saturday night live mixes by club DJs
Between the ages of 15 and 20, the most important person in hip hop and R & B in my world was producer “Buttnaked” Tim Dawg. One of the most key components to the early success of Sean “Puffy” Combs’ vision of meshing gang culture, fashion and music into a volatile and chart ready mix, Tim Patterson was the producer of note on nearly every 12″ remix of every major early hit of the Uptown Records/Bad Boy Entertainment era. Tim Dawg’s remixes in many ways were my Friday nights. I wasn’t a big partier in high school, and in college I didn’t party until junior year, so whether it was WPGC or WKYS or Flava 1580 in DC, or Providence College’s WDOM on Saturdays during freshman year or WBRU always on Sundays while I was in school, his remixes were a major part of my teenage years.
Even more amazing to me was in doing research for this piece learning that he was the songwriter behind one of my favorite songs of all time, Horace Brown’s 1996 regional hit single “Taste Your Love.” The Trackmasters remix of that song portended the future of Bad Boy, as it was politely grimy, sex driven lyrics over swinging uptempo R & B. To hear the track in 2010, and to realize that in 1996 the track was completely fresh and brand new as a concept really shows the development and diversity of R & B over time.

At a time, Christopher Williams ran neck and neck with Jodeci for being the most influential R & B performer in my life. I was definitely a socially maladjusted nerd, so in my mind dressing and acting like my R & B heroes was the best look for gaining acceptance. Jodeci was pretty much firmly entrenched until one night in ’93 a DJ dropped the Tim Dawg remix of “Every Little Thing You Do.” I wasn’t really a big fan of the original, as it lacked the gangland attitude, overt sexuality and sneer of my preferred brand of R & B. Tim Dawg gave that song teeth, made the dance floors ignite, and in many ways set the precedent for my teenage years.

From Mary J. Blige’s What’s the 411? remix album to working with the Notorious B.I.G., the Lost Boyz, Lil Kim and so many more, Tim Dawg is a true lost legend of hip hop music who should NEVER be forgotten.

HIP HOP REMIX WEEK Countdown: #1 Puff Daddy

14 May

Puff Daddy invented the remix. Yeah, yeah, that’s sooooo wrong, there were remixes before him, he’s unbelieveably arrogant, and what kind of hip hop writer am I to repeat that offensive claim, anyway? Get over it. I say again, for all intents and purposes (and in his own words): Puff Daddy invented the remix. He might not have been the first to sit down and make a hip hop remix, but he made it what it is. He took the idea of the remix and ran with it, exploited it for all its potential and gave the remix its proper place in the lexicon of the hip hop genre.

Around 1990, Puff Daddy was working as an intern at Uptown Records, where he helped to develop Jodeci and worked on production for Mary J. Blige’s early work (including, incidentally, the What’s the 411? Remixes album). It seems he realized the value of remixing and, in effect, repackaging a track during his time there. He took that knowledge with him when he was fired in 1993 and left to start Bad Boy Records, an institution that would change the hip hop remix forever. In 2002, “P. Diddy and Bad Boy Records” released an album titled We Invented the Remix. Entirely composed of unreleased and new remix cuts, and chock-full of star-powered vocalists and rappers, the album was, in effect, an argument to prove the truth of the title.

At the head of the Bad Boy production team, The Hitmen, Puffy has used the considerable rap talent at his disposal to bang out mainstream hits for the last two decades. In the course of empire-building, he like the RZA, used the remix format to a profitable and business-savvy purpose. Not satisfied with a track getting one round of airtime, he threw other rappers in the mix and changed up the beats to make new tracks out of old, fresh sound from what might have become stale, and often perfected a track on the remix. So many of his remixes are more familiar than the originals: we’ve mentioned several of them this week (when discussing Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, and Notorious BIG).

It should speak volumes of Puff Daddy’s importance to the hip hop remix that even when we discuss other giants of the remix world, his influence is peripherally felt or directly involved. He was involved with so many hits during the rise of the remix, his business acumen was so integral to pushing the remix format to the limelight, and the re-imagining of so many tracks had his masterful production to thank, that to dispute the fact is is merely to argue semantics. The fact? Puff Daddy invented the remix.

Jay Electronica feat. Diddy – "Ghost of Christopher Wallace" … a.k.a. "everybody else get in line…"

4 May

“This is God’s work…just get out of the way and let us be great…” – Diddy, regarding he and Jay Electronica

“DO YOU HEAR US BIG! DO YOU HEAR US!” – Diddy, regarding he and Jay Electronica

I’m gonna accept my four years late card. Jay Electronica is the truth. It took none other than Sean Combs to tell me that. In the oddest combination since somebody tried to make oil meet water, “The Ghost of Christopher Wallace” is the best East coast rap record I’ve probably heard since Jay dropped the Black Album.

Jay Electronica – The Ghost Of Christopher Wallace feat. DiddybyHypetrak

For the past four years, the East coast underground’s favorite son has been grinding, and to be frank, I haven’t really cared. The nature of this report it now, worry about the quality later blogosphere has led many an emcee to mainstream ruin. The nature of the internet;s creative freedom led us to believe that a hypersenstive Brooklynite named Charles Hamilton who wrote rap songs about Windows Media Player was all the rage. Then, he got punched in his mouth by his ex girlfriend that he got pregnant, and told Twitter than Dilla was providing the beats for his album. So to 2dopeboyz, NahRight, Smoking Section, Hypebeast and all of the hyper-aggressive teenagers who dutifully jock your swag, I apologize. I can’t stand hype. But I will buy developed skill. Jay Electronica not only arrives on this record, but, he’s now packaged and co-signed by Diddy, as having the lyrical skill to carry BIGGIE’S ghost within him. I could run down the ridiculously dope bars where he equates his storytelling style to Fyodor Dostoyevsky. But then I’d leave out the historical content and ultimately the fact that Jay Electronica’s flow is so ice cold it could give a freezer the chills.

But the real winner here is the three minute long rant Diddy closes the track with. The man hasn’t talked smack for years it seems, and he lets out his pent up aggression on hip hop. Of course, this is the same Diddy whose Last Train to Paris album is an electro tinged homage to faux deep thought in the midst of Ecstasy euphoria on the dancefloor. Well, if you listen close, you’ll understand why. Yeah, he drops all of the old favorites here, saying it’s the “one, two, three, in the place to be, the, crush groovin’, body movin’, record makin’ and record breakin’, uh huh, yeah, that’s right…” Diddy, whose entire rap career has been based off of grunting, dancing and spitting rhymes he never even wrote states that Jay’s content, de rigeur in 1996, is “too real for them (hip hop),” and that “the game got fucked up somewhere…niggas just started talkin’ about…nothin’…” Ummm, Justin’s dad? Pot. Kettle. Black. Sayin’…

Sean Combs was to many the developer of the flash and style over substance Soulja Boy generation of hip hop. Puffy and Mase “turned their swag on” in shiny suits with simplistic pop formula rhymes almost a decade ago. Bizarrely, I’m going to have to give a tip of the hat to Puffy here for trying to save something he nearly destroyed. Hip hop music.

Now we can only hope that Puffy doesn’t forget that he invented the remix. That shit’s gonna be hotter than July.

SHIT I’M DIGGING THIS WEEK

2 Dec

aka avant garde and rather musical water cooler discussion.

1. DJ Quicksilva – Where The Do That At? and Unruly Records’ assault on mainstream radio

DJ Quicksilva – Where They Do That At – DMV Remix by Unruly Productions

DJ Quicksilva – Where They Do That At – Bmore Remix by Unruly Productions

2. Laidback Luke and Gina Turner are Nouveau Yorican

I’ve been preaching to everyone to prepare for the coming of the Freestyle reinvasion. Well, it’s finally here. LA by way of New York DJ Gina Turner is a club kid made great, and Laidback luke is easily one of the most respected DJs on the international underground. France’s Sound Pellegrino Records has them combined as the ultimate combination of the Hi NRG and breaks of freestyle with the jacking beats and minimalist funk of Chicago house to create a sound that can play in rooms great and small. Just recently, Discobelle dropped Gina’s mix which includes “Boriqua,” the debut Nouveau Yorican single which has been remixed by Harvard Bass, Douster and Sandro Silva. Do listen, and do enjoy.

3. Sidney Samson’s “Riverside.”

http://www.youtube.com/v/Pde2j70eiC8&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01

This is easily one of my favorite electro jams of the year. Dutch rappers Wizard Sleeve kill it, but, I really tend to think that this one can have a MUCH larger life in America, unedited, as, well, an emcee equipped to get it in at 120 BPMs, with a hook that’s as hard as “Riverside Motherfucker!” gets onto this, this could be a problem for the mainstream bottle service club community. Burns dropped this at peak time as he opened for Deadmau5 last week at DC’s 9:30 Club, and it slayed in a room filled with progressive guys and girls and oddball kids in mouse heads. It’s hooky, is a fantastic track, and really doesn’t require much as you can take the entire track, no sample, and make a hit. Here’s hoping the US catches onto this VERY trendsetting dance hit.

4. Super Cat, Biggie Smalls and Puff Daddy v. Major Lazer and how iconography can spark an entire musical movement.

http://www.youtube.com/v/uzH4tprczp8&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01

I’m of the belief that Super Cat’s “Dolly My Baby” video is one of the most iconic moments in hip hop. It’s the celluloid debut of Biggie and Puffy, and when those machine gum blasts hit the track, it signals the iconic image shaping of Bad Boy Records as the new defining concept of what hip hop needed to evolve into. Super Cat, just by breathing on a track that is this legendary, scalding and hot like fire cements his legacy as well as a lyrical toasting giant.

http://www.youtube.com/v/nWCdG0RacIk&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01

I really haven’t seen anything so iconic and visually impressive since in dancehall music trending mainstream until Major Lazer. Whenever the Major enters a Major Lazer video, it’s literally the same heroic feeling, but under a totally different guise. In any regard, having dancehall music back as a commercially viable vehicle is truly one of the highlight stories of 2009.