Imagine what your favorite hip-hop tracks would sound like if they were the soundtrack to your old NES games. Thanks to whizhouse.com, we’ve got a whole medley of ‘em. My fav is of course the T.I. - What You Know melody. Bustin’ heads in Double Dragon could’ve been so much more gangsta…

Full tracklist:
Jay-Z — Dirt Off Your Shoulders
T.I — What You Know
Chamillionaire — Ridin’
Ludacris — What’s Ya Fantasy
Bonecrusher — Neva Scared
Kanye — Overnight Celebrity
Ludacris — Move Bitch
Lil’ Jon — Get Low
Kanye — Gold Digger

Download: Whizhouse - 8 Bit Hip Hop

Peter Bjorn and John’s fifth album, Living Thing, will be released at the end of this month with a lot of questions as to what it will sound like. Their most recent album, Seaside Rock, was almost entirely instrumental, which was a huge departure from the whistling and toe-tapping nature of 2006’s Writer’s Block. If Nothing to Worry About is any indication of what’s to come, we’re in for a treat. I love the crunchy beat juxtaposed with what sounds like a children’s choir singing irreverently. Maybe this is what Stockholm-crunk sounds like.

Download: Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About

DJ Slugger’s new mixtape is exactly the kind of music I like to hear after several Bear Fights. Make sure you play this as loud as possible.

Setlist:
The O’Jays - Listen to the Clock on the Wall
Project Pat ft. OJ Da Juiceman - Keep It Hood
Shawty Lo - Dey Know
Tj Caz ft. Shawty Lo  - Big Ups
Big Tuck - Not a Stain on Me
Oj Da Juiceman ft. Gucci Mane - Good Night
Slim Thug - Woodgrain Wheel
Playaz Circle - Stupid
DJ Unk ft. Blazed - Where My Ladies At
Tigga Bounce - I’m Shinin’
Gucci Mane Ft. Pimp C - I Know Why

Download (via MediaFire): DJ Slugger - Keep It Hood Mixtape

Everyone’s favorite indie-French band is back with their fifth studio album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, on May 26th. 1901 is the first single to be “leaked” from this record and it’s a crowd-pleaser for sure. It’s got everything you would expect from Phoenix, including a pulsating beat that is hard to deny. I feel like Phoenix albums are similar to those of AC/DC. You always know what to expect.

Download: Phoenix - 1901

DJ Lord of Public Enemy at Rock the Bells 2007 in San Francisco

Name:
DJ LORD

Aka:  
Mr. LORD

Website:
www.publicenemy.com
www.trillbass.com
www.myspace.com/trillbass

Where are you from?
Savannah, GA

Who do you work for? 
Public Enemy & TrillBass

What are your Current Project(s)? 
New Public Enemy recordings as well as collabs, the new Trillbass
releases, solo Dubstep mixes, a new collab with Milan’s Gab Gato, ATL’s KUSH, and Contraverse.

Who would you love to work with?
Wow… let’s see…..Tom Morello, Alien from ATL, Divinci from Solillaquists of Sound, Stenchman, Evol Intent, Bobby McFerrin, Rahzel… the list goes on…

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
My Adidas… word.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Eastern Jam (Trillbass Rmx.), P.O.S., Tobacco, Contraverse, KUSH, Aesop Rock, Trill001, Lamb Of God, Metallica

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
R Thomas, RuSan’s, MF Sushi, Surin

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
MJQ, El Bar, GNC, …….Kroger

What are your Pet Peeves?
Dumb Girls, Dumb Girls with bad hygiene… Fake ass people

Shout outs?
Shouts out to my beautiful daughter Arial, my crew Trillbass (Swytch, Claw, 2 Sense), my PE fam, Susan… and ya’ll for having me…

Peace.

Our monthly El Bar party is tonight and we’re proud to announce that world-famous DJ Klever will be trading off on the 1’s & 2’s with resident DJ, Cristo Disco. If you wanna see Klever in action, check this out See you out tonight!

Here’s a glimpse of your boy, Ross Martin, working on a studio session in our downtown ATL digs with the one-and-only, Demun Jones. I’m not allowed to disclose what the project is about yet, but I thought it would be great for everyone to see “Mr. Photo Friday” in action. All I can say is that you best get ready! Stay tuned for more details…

Lily Allen did a cover of The Clash’s Straight To Hell with the original song’s co-writer Mick Jones. You might recognize the intro of the original song from last year’s mainstream-ster hit, Paper Planes by M.I.A. Although Lily’s version won’t cause your friends to do this or this, it is an interesting take on a classic song.

Download: Lily Allen - Straight to Hell

Mike Germon of ThoughtMarker put me on to this track the other day. Adron (Adrienne McCann) grew up here in Atlanta honing her talents and moved off to Brooklyn. She’ll be back in town tonight playing for FREE at the Star Bar thanks to HaveYouHeard.net. I caught the Black Kids at the Star Bar at a similar kind of show last year, if that says anything.

Download: Adron - Never Leave My Room Again

photo by Nate Steiner

Our buddy, Stefan Kjartansson received this voice mail on his apartment call box the other day, shortly after visiting Octane Coffee. Instantly, Aaron Byrd (aka Thriller 2), who was responsible for the hit, Cops On Bikes, remixed the message into a hilarious hip-hop disaster. Too funny!

Download: Thriller 2 - Brown Sugar

I almost drove off the bridge by Philips Arena the other day when I reached over to turn up the radio (Georgia State University’s WRAS 88.5 to be exact) because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Classic Pink Floyd melodies and riffs remixed with hip-hop! The Massachusetts-based hip-hop outfit, The Problemaddicts had apparently been influenced enough by the stoner-ific activity, Dark Side of the Rainbow (that involves syncing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon with the movie, The Wizard of Oz) that they made a concept album about it. The album is called The Dark Side of Oz and this is one of the better tracks off that creative effort.

Download: The Problemaddicts - Breathe feat. Agent 23 & Adam Strange

Earlier this week I caught wind of the hotness that is the Dekalb Police Deptartment’s website. The minute your browser pulls up the site, it immediately starts playing one of many lo-fi crunk beats on loop. I enjoyed the website’s soundtracks so much that I sent the link out to lots of friends and received responses such as “Only in ATL…” and “omg this is awesome”. Unfortunately, the DCPD realized that their website was an internet sensation for the wrong reasons and has since taken the music off of their site, but not before nerdcore-rapper, ytcracker, could got a hold of them. He’s since created a six track album where he and his posse drop lyrics to the beats that were previously hosted on the DCPD website. Each song is named after the web URL where the lyric-less track was originally hosted. Don’t believe me? Get the full story here.

Download: ytcracker - http://www.dekalbpolice.com_index_home.html

Name:
Christopher Schlitzer

Aka:  
DJ Chris Crisis

Website:
www.rehabmusic.com

Where are you from?
Allentown, Pennsylvania

Who do you work for? 
Boonbox Records

What are your Current Project(s)? 
REHAB, WRBN, making Beats/Songs, Demun Jones’ album, the Lamar Williams Jr. album, mixtapes, filming and editing the Rehab Tour DVD!

Who would you love to work with?
Quincy Jones, Rick Rubin, The Neptunes, and people with unique talent.

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
My exclusive zooms Hano Leathers gave me. Or my Nike Aqua socks.

What’s on your iPod right now?
RUN DMC! Forever! It never gets old.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Papi’s Cuban on Ponce

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
Halo!

What are your Pet Peeves?
Popping gum, radio commercials, unstable stages.

Shout outs?
Danny Boone, Steak, MIke Hartnett, Hano Leathers, Foz, Chris Hood, Demun Jones, Lamar Williams Jr., Ron Lewis and of course Epidemik Coalition!

Ted mentioned the other day that it has been far too long since I’ve posted any new music. That’s because during the holidays, the music industry tends to focus on releasing albums from mainstream artists that have proven track records. Therefore, there’s nothing to mention that you haven’t already heard. One of the few gems that I’ve been enjoying as of late is Belle & Sebastian’s BBC Sessions. It’s a double disc album that contains an entire live show from Christmas of 2001. One of my favorite tracks is their live cover of the Velvet Underground’s I’m Waiting For The Man. Here’s to looking forward to new music discoveries this Spring/Summer!

Download: Belle & Sebastion - I’m Waiting For The Man

2008 was a different year for me in music.

It was the first year when all of my new music was acquired from blog surfing, the iTunes store, and from links to full album downloads provided by friends. This was in place of browsing and purchasing the majority of my discs at my local record shop. I kinda feel guilty about it, but I know the internet is a funny thing that both enables and disables success in the music industry. In any case, I have been able to hear more music this year, only a portion of which I ended up keeping. Some people despise this as ‘consuming’ music. I say its just being hungry for what’s new and taking advantage of the internet. I also enjoy reading a bit of the conversation about a piece of audible culture on the blogs and want to partake in it all by clicking download.

Meanwhile, efforts started by Geographic North, a music label co-birthed by Atlanta designer Farbod Kokabi, has emphasized the importance of tangibility and design in their vinyl LP subscription-based system of new artists. It has been great to have both and is a refreshing way to experience music in an era of 1’s and 0’s.

After the jump is my top-5 list for this year consisting of music collected from all the sources mentioned above, with a lil commentary for each. This is not based on music I wanted to advertise, but instead a direct result of sorting by iTunes’ play-count. Enjoy!
Read the rest of this entry »

Name:
Chris Cantagallo

Aka:  
DJ Cristo Disco. Just Cristo for short.

Website:
http://www.myspace.com/cristo1atl

Where are you from?
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and New Jersey, but reppin ATL

Who do you work for? 
El Bar, The Warren, and one time gigs here and there and everywhere.

What are your Current Project(s)? 
Constantly looking up new and old music.

Who would you love to work with?
Justice and/or Rick Rubin

If you had to give all your sneakers away to charity except for one pair, which ones would you keep? 
I would Definitly keep my black Nike Dunk High Nylons with the gold swoosh. They got to be the most comfortable shoes I’ve worn.

What’s on your iPod right now?
Gucci Mane “in the Kitchen”, Justice “Stress, Genesis”,  Metallica “Battery”, Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”, Ice Tea “6 in the morning”, Steppin’ Out (Rob Wonder Rmx), ‘93 Too Short and Kilo, Prince Presto The Glamour Mix, and Slugger Mixes 1, 2, & 3.

What’s your Favorite ATL food?
Fellini’s & wings at The Local

What’s your Favorite ATL hangout?
El Bar, MJQ, Bookhouse, The Local

What are your Pet Peeves?
Harassing Music Requests while I’m playing records. So annoying.

Shout outs?
Farzana, Prince Presto, Rob Wonder, Rosa, Slugger, Dax, Sumner, Corey King Alga, Henry, The Joneses, PROCESS/EC, Colleen, Tara, Frank 151, Lush Life, Freshiam, Standard, Street Local, Oh Snap Kid for the awesome pics, Zach Wolfe, Mimi thanks for the fresh hair did, and my Poncey Peeps. My mind just went blank… lol

Autographed DJ Clark Kent/Black Friday Air Force 1 shoebox

About a week ago, sneaker fiends in New York, Boston, and Miami were camping out for these Nike Air Force 1’s that they had never even seen before. They were set to release early Friday morning, November 28th a.k.a. Black Friday. The designer of the sneaker, DJ Clark Kent, and Nike kept the sneaker a mystery for weeks, yet people were still hyped on its release.

After combing the internet for photos of the shoes on Friday morning, I was disappointed to see the lack of quality images so I got together with Decatur Dan and we made it happen. Also, word on the street is that these will be dropping in other cities soon. ATLiens, check your usual spots for more info.

Don’t forget to download DJ Clark Kent’s hard-to-find Black Friday Mixtape that he made for the release of the shoe. Note: It’s a large file, so I’ll have to take it down in a few days. Get it while you can!

Download: DJ Clark Kent - Black Friday Mixtape

More photos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another track from Lily’s new album, slated to come out on February 9th. I love how the song starts with just piano, allowing for the drum machine to creep in, and how it gets full when the chorus kicks in. I think this album is going to be more genuine and sincere than her first. I’m looking forward to it.

Download: Lily Allen - I Could Say

ATL’s rap extraordinaire, Grip Plyaz, wrote this track a few months ago but how could he have known that NY Giant’s wide-receiver would fall from grace in such a catastrophic way? Grip should have kept it “hometeam” and mentioned the Falcons’ Roddy White in this song’s hook instead. White has more receptions, yards, and touchdowns this season.

Download: Grip Plyaz - Plaxico Burress

Justice’s documentary, A Cross the Universe, from their seemingly endless world tour is going to be released in the US on December 9th. Ross said he’s seen it already, but the whole thing was in French so I’ll wait for the US release with subtitles. Until then, I’m going to enjoy this live cut of Tthhee Ppaarrtty from the documentary’s soundtrack. And for those keeping score at home, it’s my favorite Justice track because Uffie is on it. It’s a no brainer.

Download: Justice - Tthhee Ppaarrttyy [feat. Uffie]