Paris is Burning

Ladyhawke warned us that Paris was burning back in 2008, but no reason not to continually heed her warnings about one of Europe's greatest cities.  Having admittedly spent zero time there, I'm really stoked to head over to Paris this December and check out the Euro-crazy nightlife scene that I continue to hear so much about.  Here's the original "Paris is Burning" track that brought Ladyhawke into the musical spotlight, as well as a much more electro-intensive Cut Copy remix.

We should all being enjoying the sounds of Diplo

Diplo is no secret but it surprises me how many people still don't recognize the name or the talent. Strait out of Mississippi but getting his start at Temple University in the illadelph, Diplo has become a staple not only in the electronica field since his album Florida, but also in the digital world of remixes, putting his own unique spin on tracks by great artists such as Kanye West, The Beatles, and M.I.A. The two tracks here are a great taste of what this music is about. The first is a reggae remix of "Stay Fly by Three Six Mafia on top of a Tanya Stephens beat. The second is a bit long but worth a listen, as the DJ skills of RJD2 and Diplo face off using some of their best hooks. Enjoy theses choice nuggets.

Musicians Against Arizona Immigration Laws - Sound Strike

Not to get too political on a Wednesday, but having just watched former Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha's press conference announcing a boycott against the state of Arizona called the Sound Strike, I'm already on the bandwagon.  According to de la Rocha, "We have to intervene in order to do whatever we possibly can to limit that state's ability to function and implement the law." So far, he's recruited artists ranging from Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails to Latino bands such as Los Tigres del Norte.

Sound Strike Press Conference (Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Conor Oberst) from Shaun Kadlec on Vimeo.

If you want to check out the full text of the press conference, check out the transcript here, but here's a snippet:

Just minutes from my home I can quickly get to the 10 Freeway. A freeway that connects the communities that I have called home my whole life to the State of Arizona where decades ago my grandfather first crossed the US/Mexico border. Several years ago I was asked by friends and activists to learn more about and join a battle brewing in Arizona. Over the last few years I have learned to more fully grasp the conditions that hundreds of thousands of immigrants face in Arizona. In my visits to Arizona I was repeatedly in awe of the stories I heard that all centered around one man: Maricopa County Sheriff Apraio.

In addition to the officially organized Sound Strike, prominent members of the music community have released their own social critiques of the frightening immigration laws, including Talib Kweli's "Paper's Please".

Pharoahe Monch Shines on W.A.R.

As a native New Yorker I'm clearly an east coast hip-hop guy, but even moreover, I'd argue that NYC is its Mecca.  While I love Biggie and Jay-Z, Pharoahe Monch is one of the most dynamic rappers that the five boroughs has to offer.  "Shine", the first track off of Monch's up coming W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) album, shows Monch's uniqueness in all the best ways - the xylophone beat, the soulful choruses of Mela Machinko, and Pharoahe's socio-political commentary on the greatest city in the world all make this track worth adding to your ipod.

Mashup Monday: Volume 10 - Cypress Hill and DJ Magnet

Cypress Hill are undoubtedly one of the harder rap crews to come out of the 90's but its hard not to love classics like "Insane in the Membrane" and "Rock Superstar". DJ Magnet put out an awesome Cypress Hill mashup on last summer's Summer Booty Mix 2009 that adds a glimmer of happiness to my favorite Latino rap crew from LA.

They didn't get Lebron, but Chi-town still throws down hard

Despite the Cubs not winning a World Series since 1908, Chi-town has plenty to celebrate when it comes to quality artists. From Kanye to Common, the Chicago style is one to be mimicked. This new mixtape, "The Chicago Way, is just more evidence that chi-city rap can stand with the best of them.
This mixtape has great flow from track to track with each song only being about two and half minutes. The range of artists goes from Eminem, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, The Game, Rick Ross, Kanye West, and others. This mixtape though stands out with great hooks used to put together such classics like "Dirt off your Shoulder" and "A Milli". Notice in "Harmony", the hook is the coda of the classic Crosby Still Nash and Young song "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes" (this song is most famous for its live Woodstock version). I recommend downloading the full mixtape, but enjoy these tracks in the meantime and have a great weekend.

For those in DC tonight, make sure to swing by 19th Bar (19th and I) to check out DJ Eskay and special guest performance by Bobby Capri. Come enjoy a drink with Audionugs!

A Soulja Boy Song I Actually Like???

Some of you may be reading this saying wondering why AN is posting some heinous Soulja Boy song with obnoxious beats and pathetically terrible rhymes - but believe it or not, this remix of "Toot it & Boot it" is actually audibly pleasing.  The piano beats are pretty pacifyingly cool and the dude that told us to Supaman that ho lays down a couple good bars.

New Mixtape: DJ Ljiggy's Volume 85

Every week or so DJ Ljiggy puts together a new mixtape of hot new hip-hop and volume 85, and while I'll admit that it is a few weeks old, Vol. 85 stands out as one of the best to date.  With new tracks from Drake, E-40, Eminem, Lil' Wayne, The Roots, T.I., Timbaland and more, DJ Ljiggy's done a great job compiling everything thats worth listening to - I've posted my three favorites below and make sure to download the full mixtape over at DatPiff: http://ow.ly/2dbif 

Also....make sure to check out Rick Ross' new album Teflon Don, which hits ITunes and stores today.

Mashup Monday Volume 10: Ludacris, Steve Aoki, the Cold War Kids & E40

I'm in a house.........not really, but definitely still raging to Steve Aoki's electro anthem, which has taken on a new life with Ludacris on "How Low in the House" by DJ Tripp. Its fast, upbeat, and will definitely kick you in the ass harder than your Monday morning red eye order from Starbucks.



The second mashup of the day comes from the legendary turntables of A Plus D; while many credit Girl Talk with the popularity and rise of mashup music, A Plus D have been throwing it down since '04 or '05 and continue to throw mashup parties around the world.  "Indie Hyphy" is a unique blend of the Cold War Kids and the Bay's hyphiest, dumbest, illest rapper out there, my main man E40.  Of course he can tell me when to go any day of the week and I'd be ghostridin my way down Connecticut Ave....

Spend Your Summer in Brooklyn with Jay-Z and Lil Wayne

No, this isn't some contest where AN actually sends you to Rikers Island to chill with Weezy or out to the BK to kick it with Jay-Z - turns out Quincy Jones just dropped another one of his Cookin Soul remixes, this time taking "Hello Brooklyn" and adding some smooth jazzy beats.  And c'mon, who doesn't wanna spend their summer in Brooklyn, hitting up beer gardens like Radegast while rocking a pair of skinny jeans and taking drags from a Camel gold? Seems like "Hello Brooklyn" has been a popular one among the DJ's lately, another great version of the track is the mashup with Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing".  Even when the man's not involved in producing a new track it's still pretty ill, a true sign of Jay-Z's ascending the throne to becoming a true hip-hop virtuoso (at least he can stop stressing about Bron's free agency and count down the days til the Heat come to town and boo the hell out of him....or at least thats what all my buddies who are Nets fans will be doing).

Kid Cudi Reminds Us That Its Summer

I'm no Al Roker or anything but given that its been in the high 90's all week in DC, and I've been hearing about heat waves across the country, I'm pretty sure its officially summer.  Reminding us further of that fact (beyond the sweat-marks you accumulate on your way to work) is a unique new group of musicians who could be working on an real exciting project together.  I'm admittedly not a huge Kid Cudi fan and cringed through How to Make it in America, but he's teamed up with Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend, whose rumored to be leaving the band after they wrap up their tour in December to put out "All Summer".  What's likely to turn into one of the hipster-pop anthems for the skinny jean and vneck crew, "All Summer" isn't exactly the club banging, fist-pump inspiring summer anthem that some people may be yearning for, but its sure to jog your memory of why you like the hottest season of the year.

Lupe Makes the World Go Round

I know you can't talk about Lupe Fiasco's success without at least mentioning Sarah Green, whose soulful voice has lifted the quality of Lupe tracks on every mixtape and album that the guy has put out.  So this morning on my roundup of new hip hop, I had to check out the new Sarah Green track featuring none other than my main man Lupe Fiasco. Titled "Dirty Rose", the track has that twangy hip-hop guitar riff, creating a unique sound that only Lupe could create, and oh yeah, Sarah Green uses that talented voice of hers to make another great song.

Wale is Back in the Studio

Probably my favorite thing about living in DC is that I can rep Wale, whose literally the hottest thing to come out of DC since the Nationals (who are doing surprisingly well....Strasburg go to hell).  Attention Deficit, Wale's debut album, had some mixtape favorites alongside a couple innovative new tracks with artists like K'Naan, but wasn't as commercially well received as his mixtapes had been among the hip-hop community (check out Wale's AN approved mixtape Back to the Feature in our sidebar).  Wale's newest project which is sure to rock the music world, the hip-hop supergroup All City Chess Club, is slowly building momentum as each of the artists begins to leak new tracks.  "Workin", Wale's first legit track since the album drop, is a Lupe-esque lazer beat with some heavy rhymes from the man that got you DC chillin...  
"I just made it to howard, makin it good for the locals...North Potomac love me like the mothafuckin Jonas's"
If anyone is rooting for this man  to bring back that gogo, Wale, I'm on your side. For everyone else whose not convinced yet, enjoy Wale hard at work in the studio.

Mashup Monday: Volume 9 - Jay-Z & Dr. Dre

As I continue to spend weekends slaving away on my upcoming mxtape, I hafta thank a number of mashup djs for sending me their new tracks, especially Nosbic, the best thing to come out of Canada since disco fries and/or Sidney Crosby.  "Jay-Z is getting hot", which brings back one of middle school's finest hip-hop gems, "Can I Get A" and then throws it in the masher with lackadaisically fun reggae tunes of Beenie Man's "The Streets is Gettin Hot".



The second audio nugget for you folks this morning comes from Funk Valley Records, a crew of DJ samplers in Sweden, who threw together the salacious acoustic tunes of Wes Montgomery with some Dr Dre rhymes to remind us why he's Still Dre.

Killa Kyleon is the Hood

There's no denying that Killa Kyleon is the most hood rapper repping Houston these days, but he proves all that gangsta talk with "I am the Hood", which features DJ Khaled, Rick Ross & Yung Chill. Like every other track that DJ Khaled has been a part of with the word hood in it, "I am the Hood" is worth crankin the volume up to full blast at your pregame or party this weekend.



If you like the track, check out Killa Kyleon's most recent mixtape, Natural Born Killa, here http://ow.ly/2993l

T.I. Joins Rick Ross on Maybach 3

More subtle and softer than the marathon nine and a half minute "Maybach 2" that we had posted a few weeks ago, "Maybach 3" features T.I. and Jadakiss dropping a couple of solid bars, while Erykah Badu carries the chorus with authority.  Hearing Maybach 3 makes me think that there may be much more to Teflon Don than ghetto blaster anthems like "Husslin"; I'm not saying he's a musical prodigy or anything, but the jazzy orchestral composition overlayed by Erykah Badu's soulfully pacifying voice is a lot more musically intellectual and complex than I would have expected.....

Eleanor Rigby Meets B.O.B.

Busy, busy week ahead here at AN but hope everyone had an excellent 4th.  Over the weekend, a buddy of mine introduced me to a pretty cool Eleanor Rigby sample that B.O.B. just dropped called "Lonely People".  The song is borderline ATLien, which I don't think anyone could say is a bad thing, and the video is even stranger, but it's my pleasure to share it with you in your epic quest of procrastination.

The Fizorth: Your July 4th Party Mix

Grills, bikinis, Bud lite, and a shitload of fireworks....sometimes it really is difficult to remember why I love this holiday weekend.  At AN we'll be at a few different DC parties throughout the weekend; make sure to check out the BYT's Capital Skyline Hotel pool party on Saturday (http://bit.ly/a0phRr) and secure a good rooftop for those fireworks on Sunday night.  In the mean time, pour yourself a good one, start playing our July 4th party mix The Fizorth, and get that party started....

Track List:
T.I. - Got Your Back (ft. Keri Hilson)
Ciara - Ride (ft. Andre 3000)
Flo Rida - Club Can't Handle Me (prod. by David Guetta)
Andre 3000 - All Together Now
T.I. - Road to Success
Iyaz - Break My Bank (ft. New Boyz)
Twista - Arabian Dance
B.O.B. - She Can Get It
Travie McCoy - Billionaire (remix ft. T-Pain and Gucci  Mane)
J. Cardim - On It (ft. Rock City, Paul Wall and Ariez Onasis)
Janelle Monae - Tightrope (remix ft. B.O.B. and Lupe Fiasco)
Travie McCoy - We'll Be Alright
Rick Ross - Maybach 2 (ft. Jay-Z, Kanye, Weezy, Fabolous)
Kanye West - Power
Drake - Fancy (ft. T.I. and Swizz Beats)
N.E.R.D. - Hot N Fun (remix ft. Asher Roth and Nelly Furtado)
John Legend and The Roots - Our Generation
Ron Artest - Champions

Andre 3000 and the Klaxons Covers

They say that the best compliment in life is replication; Andre 3000's magically mysterious cover of the Beatles all-time great "All Together Now" is not only a tipping of the hat to Liverpool's best 4some, its also a pretty awesome track in its own right. First put together for Kobe's most recent Nike commercial that was shown during the NBA Finals, Andre 3000 released the cover yesterday for all of us regular folk to enjoy.  No, its definitely not my father's favorite version of the song, but how can you not love the Dirty South twang that the former Outkast rapper adds to the track?




But wait.....there's more today.  I recently stumbled upon this cover of Blackstreet's "No Diggity" by none other than the Klaxons?! The pioneers of British nu rave music, who are just getting ready to release their 2nd album, Surfing the Void, on August 23rd, put together a pretty straightforward cover that takes me right back to Jock Jams: Vol. 4.  If you don't know the Klaxons, check out their Myspace page, which is laden with EP shit to listen to, and make sure to check out their new album next month!