Intelligent Hoodlum - Self Titled (1990)

Artist: Intelligent Hoodlum
Album: Intelligent Hoodlum
Genre: Rap & Hip-Hop: Golden Era
Release Date: 1990
Label: A&M Records
RIYL: Fresh Prince, Marley Marl, De La Soul

Rating: *****


A fantastic hip-hop album. Caught somewhere between the birth of hardcore and the end of the Golden Era, Intelligent Hoodlum provides amazing raps one can listen to over and over. Intelligent Hoodlum moves between fiery politically conscious songs of black nationalism and straight party tunes. The production is provided by Juice Crew leader Marley Marl and is filled with hardcore elements but also plenty of old school ones with the occasional scratching ("Trag Invasion", in particular is quite engaging). Intelligent Hoodlum's laid back flow is fantastic, despite being a bit dated, and his use of pausing in some songs (such as :Microphone Check" gives a mindblowing effect).

1. Intelligent Hoodlum *****
2. Back to Reality ****
3. Trag Invasion *****
4. No Justice, No Peace *****
5. Party Animal ****
6. Black and Proud ****
7. Game Type ****
8. Microphone Check *****
9. Keep Striving ****
10. Party Pack ***
11. Arrest the President ****
12. Your Tragedy **

Radio Show: 11/22/09: Indian Music

Tony's friend came in as a guest and talked to us about the music as well as giving us an amazing tabla solo live:

11/22/09: Indian Music

Israel Vibration - Free to Move (1996)

Artist: Israel Vibration
Album: Free to Move
Genre: Reggae
Release Date: 1996
Label: Ras
RIYL: Gregory Isaacs

Rating: *****

A fantastic album of various reggae styles. With the backing of one of my favorite reggae session groups, the Roots Radics (long time back up band for Gregory Isaacs) and three amazing vocalist this album is a real treat. Israel Vibration effortlessly moves between different styles, always pushing the envelope of what reggae is and what it can be. Lyrics deal with Rastafari, love, and urban life. Highly recommended for fans of roots reggae. If you like Bob Marley and you wish to begin expanding your horizons with reggae, you can hardly go wrong by starting with Israel Vibration.

1. Terrorist ****
   
2. Mud Up *****
   
3. Traveling Man ***
4. System Not Working *****
   
5. Pretty Woman *****
   
6. Livity in the Hood *****
7. Savior in Your Life ****
   
8. Solomon Bloodline ****
   
9. Feelin' Irie *****
10. In the Ghetto ****
    
11. Life is Real ****
12. Mighty Negus ***

Music Video: Beenie Man - Dude (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc398mOyzHw
(embedding disabled, just follow the link)

There's something about this video that just makes me so freaking happy. I think it's the 3 male backup dancers, they just seem like the happiest dudes, I would totally hang out with them. Major feel good music check it

Busy Signal - Loaded (2008)

Artist: Busy Signal
Album: Loaded
Genre: Reggae: Contemporary Dancehall
Release Date: Sep 9, 2008
Label: VP Records
RIYL: Vybz Kartel, Mavado

Rating: ****

A fairly excellent selection of dancehall songs. Often extremely catchy, and always extremely tough Busy Signal's skills as a vocalist make him one of the best Jamaican toasters out today. Production is solid throughout, although Busy Signal, as is common in contemporary dancehall, fuses the traditional with today's American hip-hop aesthetic, often borrowing from the Dirty South style, which may frustrate dancehall purists. Busy Signal tastefully utilizes autotuning in many of his songs, which should only bother the most hardcore crusaders against it's proliferation. The opening song is a rather weak attempt at social critique, but Busy Signal quickly remedies this with a slew of excellent songs all of which could be hits. The second half isn't nearly as strong (although the incredibly impressive speed toasting on "Knocking at Your Door" does grace listeners as the second to last track).

1. People So Evil **
   
2. Jail *****
   
3. Tic Tic Toc *****
4. Wine Pon Di Edge *****
5. Fast, Fast, Fast, Fast *****
6. Hey Girl ***
7. Real Jamaican *****
8. Unknown Number ***
9. These Are the Days *****
10. Hustle Hard **
11. My World ****
12. Strappings ***
13. Cool Baby ****
14. Knocking At Your Door *****
15. Murderer **

Introductory Post

I listen to lots of music and enjoy forcing my opinions on other so I decided I should make a music blog. I'm primarily going to use it for posting reviews of albums, both current and classic, but also for posting any interesting music related news or cool music videos I stumble upon, as well as links to recordings of my weekly radio show on WIUX.org, Sundays at 11 AM. I don't consider myself much of a qualified critic, as there are humongous gaps in my music knowledge, so please take my reviews with a grain of salt. I may mistake something as groundbreaking when in actuality it is ripping from an album that preceded it that I just have not had the opportunity to hear.

Although it's certainly subject to change, here's some information on how I plan to format my reviews.

I will be using a 5 (*****) star rating system. Each review will have an overall album rating which is what you should look at if you are deciding whether or not to buy the album. However, unlike most reviews I will also be providing ratings for each track on the album. This is because everyone knows that some absolutely fantastic albums have one or two bad tracks and some terrible albums have one or two great ones. The song ratings should be thought of as relative to each other. Thus a song with 3 (***) stars on an album with a 5 (*****) star overall rating is probably way, way better than an 4 (****) star song on a 1 (*) star album.

Another cool thing I'm going to try to do is add small bitmaps beside each song to mark different things about them. There will be a image for catchy songs, songs with ripping awesome guitar solos, love songs, and so on. These symbols will be explained in a key that will be included to the right of the blog. These tags will also be used next to the album score. This will signify things about the album in general, such as it is a very catchy album, etc.

Reviews will also be well labeled to allow you to search by artist, date released, and genre.

At first my listening tastes may seem really limited since I plan to post all about all the contemporary dancehall I've been getting into lately, but eventually I should expand out into a multitude of different genres.

Anyway wish me luck on this new venture and I will try to post as much as I can for you guys.