N.W.A-Express Yourself 

If you’re not living under a rock during the 90s or you’re a kid of this generation, then you know how huge N.W.A was for Hip Hop. Aside from the gangster appeal, controversies, and the disbandment of the group; Straight Outta Compton is a Hip Hop staple and constantly recognized for its success in commercial music as well. When not talking about G’d up shit and smacking bitches, N.W.A did spread a socio-political message through lessons of the Black Panther Party and race relations in the U.S. You can beg the question if they were true gangsters or not, their impact lives on and defines the West Coast gangsta rap scene.

“Express Yourself” was the last single from the debut album and shows a different side of their music. The song took on the group’s opponents (such as Dan Quayle and the FBI) and censorship of gangsta rap in the 1990s. Not to make a Hip Hop pun, but during the peak of their careers, N.W.A were Public Enemy #1 in the eyes of conservative America. While the song didn’t necessarily help their case, it did top charts and became an instant anthem.

Lyrics.

Video.

-Michi (Written for YDC)

LCD Soundsystem - Home

After digesting this album for a couple of weeks…. i approve and my feelings are still growing.  My favorites right now are Dance Yrself Clean, You Wanted a Hit, and the featured song Home.  I debated back and forth about which one to post, but Home has been the song I flip to whenever I get in my car.  Also, the one that gets a hell of a bedroom performance from me.  This is a perfect album closer to me, it has a great feel to it and leaves me happy.  Close down every club with this song this summer.

Home
Home
Home
Home
Home
Home
Take me home

Just do it right
Make it perfect and real
Because it’s everything
No everything was never the deal

So grab your things and stumble into the night
So we can shut the door
Oh, shut the door on terrible times

Yeah, do it right
And head again into space
So you can carry on
And carry on, and fall all over the place

This is the trick, forget a terrible year
That we can break the laws
Until it gets weird

And this is what you waited for
But under lights, we’re all unsure
So tell me
What would make you feel better?

As night has such a local ring
And love and rock are pick-up things
And you know it
Yeah, you know it
Yeah, you know

Take

Forget your past
This is your last chance now
And we can break the rules
Like nothing will last

You might forget
Forget the sound of a voice
Still you should not forget
Yeah, don’t forget
The things that we laughed about

And after rolling on the floor
And thankfully, a few make sure that you get home
And you stay home
And you better

‘Cause you’re afraid of what you need
Yeah, you’re afraid of what you need
If you weren’t, yeah you weren’t
Then I don’t know what we’d talk about

Yeah no one ever knows what you’re talking about
So i guess you’re already there
No one opens up when you scream and shout
But it’s time to make a couple things clear

If you’re afraid of what you need
If you’re afraid of what you need
Look around you, you’re surrounded
It won’t get any better

Until the night  

DailyCrack Loves Ghostface Killah Podcast

http://www.mediafire.com/?2ztjyoydzgm

Ghost, Ghostface, Ironman, Killah… whatever you want to call him he’s been the most consistent member of wu tang clan with album after album of gems.  Classic material here check the podcast…. enjoys

Tracklisting

• Daytona 500
• Run
• Nutmeg
• Maxine
• Apollo Kids
• Dogs of War
• Stroke of Death
• The Forrest
• Mighty Healthy
• All That I Got Is You

http://www.mediafire.com/?kzonjormzji

This post is dedicated to a DailyCrack Favorite so we will be highlighting 10 of our favorite songs of hers (besides new amerykah part 2 tracks)….. What better way to spend the day.  Press play they are all there.

Didn’t Cha Know

The making of this song, in Erykah’s words

I went to Detroit to work with this cat that I heard a few tracks from that drove me crazy. Common took me over there, we went down to the basement, Common left and Dilla and I sat and talked. He had records wall-to-wall like it was a public library and he goes, “OK, I want you to look for a record.” I’m leaking through these organized, tightly packed crates, and I just pulled out one record and the artist was Tarika Blue. I liked that name. I put on the first track [“Dreamflower”] and I fell in love with the song and I kept playing it over and over again and I said, “I want this.” He showed me how to loop a small part of the bassline, he was very generous in teaching you and letting you be hands on. Then I left the room and when I came back he had looped some drums to a small sample of the song and I started to write to it. I came up with the Ooooh, heeeey melody. I wrote for a few days and then the song came to be. My songs sound different from everyone else’s Dilla songs. The sound is a little bit more bass heavy and the frequencies are definitely different than most of the songs he does, because it’s his world. But when he allowed me to come into his world, it became another kind of world. I think he allowed everybody that kind of space and that kind of freedom because he was so super creative that he would go onto something else while we learned the first part.  

Other Side of the Game

Classic track from Baduizm, with the great video featuring Andre 3000.  This video introduced a lot of us to Erykah Badu when she first came with her soulful jazzy sound that changed the landscape of popular r&b at the time.  There was nothing neo about this it was just straight up soul that fits along with any record from yesterday. 

 That Hump

This song is very emotional; you gotta be dead to not connect with her on this.  The vocals just grab you.  Espcially the part…

ooh, I’m living check to check/I’m just trying to pay my rent and I can feel it/coming down around me and these children/a boy, a little girl and
she so pretty/oooh feel me/we just need a little house hope it comes with a spouses,this building, building ooo/my brother’s sleeping on my floor
a bitch could use a little more

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard anyone cry out like that on a track.  That’s what I’ve been talking about in the past when I say that a lot of music and vocalists are lifeless and without emotion.  Don’t correct there voices with autotune, just let them sing.

I can’t wrap this up though without referencing the flip to Switch’s classic song “there’ll never be.” It comes out of nowhere, yet fits properly. 

A.D. 2000 

This song is beautiful the strumming of the guitar, the light drum, the moog, and of course Erykah’s singing.  This info about the song comes from the Rolling Stone review.

But Erykah wouldn’t be Erykah without some obfuscation: There’s very little hint that “A.D. 2000” is a song about Amadou Diallo, the West African man shot at forty-one times and killed by New York City police officers in February 1999. On the track, she grabs an acoustic guitar and takes on the voice of the slain immigrant, imagining him in heaven defiantly saying, “No, you won’t be namin’ no buildings after me.”

Orange Moon

We had to follow A.D. 2000 up with Orange Moon, they fit together so perfectly.  Can you believe that the original album sequencing for Mama’s Gun was going to put Penitentiary Philosophy in between.  Saying that I hope you all understand how important sequencing is to an album.  We’re a little old school here so that album experience will never die for us.

I Want You

This was the one song that made it onto everyone’s list.  “I Want You” was the standout track from Worldwide Underground.  This song comes in like you’re heart beating over and over as your physical being is completely falling for a person.  I use this word a lot, but screw it, it’s purely classic material.  Then the end when it just goes into a crazy synthed out mess… gotta love it

Danger

Imagine being told a story too in the form of a hot beat, some gunfire, and flushing the ye-yong. This track is one that definitely requires some appreciation when you hear the struggles of the brotha who had a “complex occupation”. It’s like you can feel her pain in describing what led up to the erroneous events of having to have the trunk locked, and having a glock on cock. Life is a danger zone, and everything gets fucked up when you gotta flush the ye-yong. OH NO!

Master Teacher

i wrote this about 2 years ago when the album first came out in reference to this song.  “to me being a nigga instead of a master teacher is being a person who is lost, who just talks, who does not attempt to make anything happen, who is just there. a master teacher is when you get to that point in life where you step up and you take control of your life and work your ass off to make something happen that will make an impact.” 

Stay woke

Honey

The first time I ran into this track I was shocked because it was a hidden track. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but the beat of it kept me listening. She goes on to describe her admiration that she has for the young gentleman, and basically telling him to make the next move. “Tell me slim what you gonna do, when you know I’m in love with you…” It’s about time for him to step up to the plate, but even with the unsureness of his emotion, she continues to let him know that her life is incomplete without this honey in her life. “I’m love with a bumblebee”. I think the best part is when she asks “Can I stick your pinky finger in my tea, cause you’re so sweet to me… oww”. Erykah got mad game in this song, and I will never look at honey the same.

Back in the Day (BC)

The first time I really indulged in this song was in the summer of 2006. It was the summer I would never remember and be referred to probably in 20 years as “back in the day”.  It’s about a time when things were easy, things were free, where there was nothing else to think about except letting the dog go out and bark. This hit home to be as I would sit, with the windows rolled up, and literally thinking about nothing except for the “puff.” Her song would come on, and I would laugh in a dazed high and say “how ironic, we’re doing that now”. Every time this song comes on, I’m taken back to that day in the park (on the street, in a room, in a meadow, etc…) and would just smile as the sounds of this song would let me know everything is O. K.

Ghost, Meth, & Rae - Our Dreams

I finally started listening to Wu Massacre and I’m pleased.  I’ve been a wu tang fan since they came out.  I remember drawing wu tang symbols all over my trapper keeper so this is a good occasion for me.  No one can talk about love and relationships like the wu. And…. they sample MJ come on, this is great.  You gotta love it.  Enjoy

[Chorus: Michael Jackson "We're Almost There" sample]
No matter how hard, the task may seem
Don't give up our plans, don't give up our dreams
No broken bridges, can turn us around
Cause what we're searchin' for, will soon be found

[Ghostface Killah]
Aiyo, listen here, shorty, Camay glow
You know we both make angels when we lay in the snow
Heat the house with the oven when the cheese got low
Cuz Toney, can't be out there pushing that blow
You made plans and dreams, not grands of schemes
I wanna search for the meaning of love, see what it means
Cuz we hustle so hard, cross so many bridges
Made babies, took trips to the mall, for family pictures
And our souls is magnetic, we the meaning of destiny
Be that banker of trust that looks to invest in me
Together, to get her, means for me to get you
We back, reunite like the Wu
See we soul mates, we melt like cookies and cream
And I fiend for the days and the nights to sex my queen
So no matter how hard it seems, dreams come true
Keep Allah in our hearts, hugs and kisses, Toney Starks

[Chorus]

[Method Man]
Uh, still applying the pain
The purple frying my brain, this woman's crying again
She, tired of fighting, my feelings likely the same
That's what happens when you wife 'em and they try to tighten the chain
See, she in the right, so I put her right in her lane
I'm all night with the pipe, I can feel her biting my chain
She, got her own, I ain't gotta buy her a thang
I be burning up the sheets everytime I'm lighting the game
We, go together like, Martin and Gina, but
She get uptight when we fight like Ike and Tina, so
Love her or leave her alone, like I ain't need her tho
A minute later I'm back, like I ain't mean it, yo
We break up, just to make up, she fly without the makeup
Together we upgrade to A plus
So all this bickering ain't us, we bigger than that
You normally cool when I'm digging your back, now fall back, baby

[Chorus]

[Raekwon]
Shorty with the flavor like Breyer's, real sweet with your thick legs
Look like you drink eggs, you lying
Now you met a teflon don, stay high, Levi's on
Wire cell frames, no games
I'm into cashing in, getting this paper, buying up acres
Ride around, and yo, fuck with my neighbors
Pocket full of hundreds and weed, light the Philly cigar up
And go dolo, riding through SoHo
You hear the little baby in the back? That's the sound of sweet life
A sweet wiz'll make you a sweet night
And chill with the pawns we on, cuz life is a chessboard
You better have you sword and vest on
Never hate your enemies, cuz it effects judgment
They only hate it if they know you getting hella cheese
That's what it is, what it do for you
Don't let the truth bore you, word up, don't let the roof spoil

[Chorus]

Violent Kin - Velvet Hideout

Still combing through many tracks from SXSW and ran into this gem. Part of the Western Canadian Artists, Violent Kin has a really cool sound that almost makes it sound like it could be a soundtrack segment for True Blood, or another conquest type of movie, this track really brings out the essence of any day. It has a raw feeling to it with a mixture between rock, blues, electric, it’s sure to hit an interest in you. You can find out more about them at the links below.

http://www.violentkin.com

Erykah Badu - Fall in Love (Your Funeral)

First, I would chalk it up and fall in love with erykah, put the baduizm on me, screw it.  But you gotta love the tongue and cheek aspect of this song.  She knows all about that baudizm she puts on folks (jay electronica, common, andre 3000, and the d.o.c.).  This was one of the stand out tracks for me from New Amerykah pt. 2.  This album sounds a little more accessible and “in the box” for most listeners.  I prefer my erykah a little further out there, but good album anyway.

This song just feels good for a Saturday. Enjoy.

Beautiful Bliss Lyrics

[Wale]
When you feel like this
When you spill out hits
When you fly as a bitch
And you ride with this
And you aint bothered a it now baby

Fresh out the airport
Fresh out the tan with the clippers
Like sean lippet thinking hmm
Im trying to get it like sean get it
If lord giveth a mill and a milf like skibbit
Its slight blemishes and life system
But im giving it foundation when I write lyric
That anvil night hard mine is bright knickers
Maybe not quite the star but my hearts in it
When brett hart meet bret farve
A sharp shooter well exceeding any figure four
You see my figure more or less stick some more
On your vest then my larynx and lungs and this voice I project
My project is like what pros inject
And niggas so fly I should be droved in jets
Its ironic they call me a fresh breath no joke
You see dem boys sign me to the scope right

[J.Cole]
i fall whole to the real they wanna know just how it feel
who woulda thought a lil nigga from the ville could get a deal
and tell dem niggas at the top we want yo spot we are for real
and yet we heard you got it locked but like dem socks we on your heels
so you best be on your toes nigga
especially on your flows nigga
cause man they keep on checking for me especially all your hoes nigga
catch me on your doorstep you see me let me in
all I wanna do is eat im like the freaky lesbian
now all I wanna do ball on tv knee E S P N
they heard im bout to blow so all my enemies say lets be friends
and all these rappers know just know where im bout to go so catch me then
where all the girls that we knew scream fuck you
go let me in im definiately in a class of my own
and dinner with hov hoping that he pass the baton
he just pass the patron
and he aint giving dog is earned if you just live in dog you learn
I let you niggas see the light im like the prison yard I yearn
For that living large but mama I aint done yet
Sit back and watch your son rise
Kick back until yo son set
Forever I aint run yet and I never will
Nas told me lifes a bitch
Pac said fuck the world and I aint come yet
You up yet?
My punchlines like gut checks im raw dog
Im rough sex im on deck im up next
Im godbless im success so fuck stress
You can get the fuck from around me
And if you listening know you wondering
Where the fuck they found me
Im from the ville boy

[Wale]
Another day up in my ES
Wish it was an LS
But elastic is my wallet fuck it
I don’t be stressed like relaxed muscles
Your feedback aint flexing
And you can keep it running like a muffler
When we not in summer
They like A list actors they not no stunners
Too much practice now for me to malfunction
So any beat that function I breathe on and puncture
Leave it like a female Dijon a puncture
Waiting showing you her beauty if shes naked
Its like a view of paintin or a lakehead
This shits how beautiful my day is
Peep me how im raising up the capital for Nathan
Capital im raising like im through punctuating
Or shift keys or it I placement cause
Shift the keys get your capital raised up