I don’t like Charles Hamilton’s music, so when I found this posted over at FRESHselects it brought a smile to my face. Below is an excerpt but I would highly recommend clicking here to read the entire post, listen to the tracks in question and read Charles Hamilton’s response.

Basically, Charles jacked a beat straight from Black Spade’s MySpace player and rapped over it, released the song on one of his endless barrage of half-assed & disposable mixtapes, and ironically ended up performing the song right in front of Black Spade at SXSW the other week. So Spade approaches him after the show saying that he did that beat but liked what he did with it (his opinion, not mine), asked where he got it from, etc. So the jig is up, right? Nope! Aparently, this fool Charles still tried to act like he made that beat and even went on to say that it was HIM singing on there, when anyone who’s ever heard a Black Spade song can clearly recognize that voice as Spade’s.

So with Charles refusing to admit that he took the beat from Black Spade, I’ve decided to post both of them here for you to decide for yourself. Below is Black Spade’s demo beat and then Charles’ song – both of which are coincidentally called “Shinin’.” Besides the different mix, you’ll notice that Charles’ song also has an intro before the beat drops – that’s something that Spade only included on the track when he uploaded it to MySpace, which is how he knows thats where Charles got it from. I’ve included the full e-mail I received from Black Spade after the jump to further explain the story and to seperate his thoughts on Charles from my own.

Now I know beat jacking is nothing new – its probably as old hip-hop itself. But that doesn’t make that shit okay – especially if the thief in question can’t even own up to it when they’re not only caught in their lie, but even given props for the song. And this instance aside, the only reason this kid’s manufactured buzz has worked for him so far is because not enough people have been calling him out on his bullshit from the beginning. Thankfully, more people have been speaking out lately, namely Rhymefest, Xplosive World, and even former supporter, Karen Civil (although she quickly removed her post from her blog the same day it went up).

And I know this isn’t the only story of Charles pulling this type of shit with someone else’s beat – so if you know of a similar situation or just want to add your two cents on the issue, leave a comment and lemme know. (Click Here to read the entire article, listen to the tracks & read Charles Hamilton’s Response)

There is actually too much in this video to hate on, from Auto-Tune to skinny jeans to emo haircut to random screaming this video encompases almost everything that is wrong with pop colture today. Thank you @dominicdb for atleast warning me this video would ruin my day.

So I was going to review this album a few weeks ago, when I was first given a promo copy, but I made the mistake of listening to it before I sat down to do the review. Ever since I have been unsuccessfully trying to convince myself to give it one more listen. I decided today would be the day while I was at Burn Rubber and Cliff Skighwalker claimed that I couldn’t hate it as much as Ketchums. After that was said I decided it was time to torture myself for 38 minutes and 11 seconds and take one last listen to UMC and let everyone know what I think of this album.

Before I really get started with this review I would like to make it clear just how badly I don’t want to listen to this album again. Since I sat down to write this I have been refreshing my Twitter page every 30 seconds hoping there is something there to distract me, made several trips to the kitchen where I already know that there’s no food and made some phone calls that I have been putting off for months. It should also be noted that after the first trip to the kitchen I pressed play on my iTunes and in under a second completely quit the program (instead of just pressing pause) because I knew what was about to play. Okay, that’s enough procrastinating, time for the torture.

Lyrically this album is lazy. The rhyme schemes are overly simplistic, half the lines don’t even rhyme and if they do they are single syllable or bitten. Putting aside the rhyme schemes the overall content of this album is lackluster. There is a mix of sub-par “battle” tracks and girl tracks. The girl tracks are full of corny pick-up lines and the “battle” tracks are so underwhelming I would put my money on Eli Porter in a battle against Common based off this album.

UMC would be better as an instrumental album, but even with that being said it still wouldn’t be any good. The production throughout the album is very predictable, all the girl tracks sound sappy and all the “battle” tracks sound like low-budget, over-produced club “bangers.” It should also be noted that even with the predictable production this album fits together very poorly, a few interludes and a different track order is needed (but still wouldn’t save the album).

Seriously Common, what were you thinking when you made this album? I understand if you were trying to do something different and/or be happy and uplifting, but just like 88-Keys shouldn’t of made a concept album you shouldn’t of made this album. While UMC is less then 39 minutes long, it took over twice that to play because of having to pause the album after every track to prepare myself for the next 4 minutes of torture.

Even with this album being available for purchase on Zune.com for 99 cents, it isn’t even worth that. As I told several people, the only way I would buy this album is if somebody gave me $11, $1 for this album and $10 for an album that wouldn’t immediately end up in my trash, like a solo album by Tbaby. If my feelings for this album aren’t clear enough already I will leave you with this simple equation:

TBaby > Poak Chops > Asher Roth > Auto-Tune > Universal Mind Control.

P.S. Common please go back to the 2000 and earlier days or stick to movies.

Lately I’ve been having a hard time supporting Kanye’s stage antics, and spur-of-the-moment speeches, but this right here is hilarious and stupid all at the same time! Apparently during his recent performance in Melbourne, someone through a penny on stage, and rattled his fragile cage. I guess Mr. West’s thoughts are worth more than that. Listen to how he responds.

I don’t know if I’m late on this or not but this is another sad example of a horrible song that if given to the proper artist would probably be a hit. It’s a corny song with it’s own dance, that’s all a song seems to need to be a hit these days.

This song is mediocre at best. The vocal sample in the beat gets very annoying and should of been cut out during the verses. Also the beat reminds me a little too much of “Swagger Like Us.” Lyrically Jay-Z has a couple good lines but his style on it just gets old and annoying. As for the video itself, the concept was interesting but could of been accomplished better, it just got real boring real quick.

[via:2dp]

Corny Video with a corny song and Auto-Tune. What happened to Busta? (I’m not even gonna touch on the whole pronunciation of Arab thing, the song isn’t worth it).

So I spotted this over at Rappers I Know. It takes classic Hip Hop songs and ruins them by running them through Auto-Tune. This is just further proof as how horrible Auto-Tune really is. Check out the Auto-Tuned versions of “Ante-Up,” “Buck Em Down,” “Electric Relaxation,” “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” and a link to download the mixtape after the jump.

Ante-Up (Auto-Tuned)

Buck Em Down (Auto-Tuned)

Electric Relaxation (Auto-Tuned)

Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See (Auto-Tuned)

Tracklist:

1. Heartbreak Intro
2. Buck Em Down
3. Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See
4. Ante Up
5. Breathe And Stop
6. Elevators
7. Nothin’ But A G Thang
8. One More Chance
9. Electric Relaxation
10. Shook Ones
11. Simon Says
12. You Got Me

Click Here To Download @ Rappers I Know

After I saw that Real Detroit Weekly trashed this album and how much the review pissed off Ketchums, I decided I had to give it a listen.

This album is a perfect example of when concepts go wrong. It chronicles a guy named Adam’s sex life and death. At the end of each song there is a female narrator that sums up the song that follows in 20 seconds or less. Not only does she tell the story better than 88 does, she also gives away enough information that nothing comes as a surprise in the song that follows.

Besides the failed concept, 88 uses an annoying filter on his voice throughout the album. He also sings most of the songs. I don’t have a problem with singing if it’s done right (or at least interesting), but just like the concept album, it’s not pulled off correctly.

There are 3 upsides to this album: the song with Phonte, the song with Redman and the production. Both the song with Phonte and the song with Redman are lyrically solid but probably could have been pulled off a little better in 1 verse and not stretched out over a song. As for the production, 88-keys is a solid producer. Combined with the proper Emcees, songs he produced can be very nice (see Black Star “Thieves In The Night”).

Very few artists can pull off a good concept album and 88-Keys is definitely not one of them. I have to side with Real Detroit on this one. Hopefully on his next album he’ll just stick to production.

So I saw this video posted on the OkayPlayer Message Boards. According to this interview with ?uestlove effective March 2009, The Roots will retire from touring. The reason is because they will become the house band for Jimmy Fallon when he replaces Conan O’Brien as the host of Late Night.

Assuming ?uest isn’t f-cking with us, congrats to The Roots. This should be a good look for them.