Video: The Year in Pop in 8 Minutes - Daniel Kim

Music Mash-up artist Daniel Kim has once again compiled his end-of-year compilation of the years best pop  music.  Eminently enjoyable.

Video: Big Boi feat. Kelly Rowland - Mama told me

Big Boi's latest Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors drops on December 11 and here's the first video from the album 'Mama Told Me' featuring Kelly Rowland in a wig and some speccy graphics.  Big Boi is known for releasing video's for most tracks on his albums, so expect more where this came from.

Review: Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City

Kendrick Lamar’s new album is many things.  Most classic albums are.

It’s a coming-of-age story, capturing a tumultuous time in a young man’s life.  It’s a commentary on life in general as it exists in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles made famous by  many rappers over the years, but also a poor suburb beset by violence.

It’s a west coast Hip-Hop album, in both production (overseen by Compton’s greatest export Dr Dre), and in its reverence of the history of Californian rap (appearances by MC Eiht, references to Ice Cube lyrics).

It’s about the power of family to influence decisions and to ultimately save.  It’s about the temptations in the broader society that test those same familial bonds (drugs, alcohol, and peer pressure).

It's also great.

In trying to capture all of the above, Kendrick risks confusing his audience, but this never happens.

The narrative is clear and runs steadily over the course of album. 

At the outset, Kendrick illustrates his protagonist and his surroundings.  A giddy young kid is trying to get the girl, whilst trying to make sense of his world and impress his friends.  The laid-back groove of ‘Bitch, don’t kill my vibe’ hides the troubled thoughts of a pressured teen, while ‘backseat freestyle’, backed by booming beat from Hit-Boy, uses  teenage bravado to disguise fear of failure. 

Now that we know who we’re dealing with, the story sets sail. The intensity is quickly turned up on ‘The Art of Peer Pressure’ as Kendrick and friends get caught up in a shoot-out and car chase following a house robbery gone wrong.  The tension is palpable, and the scene is vividly rendered through lines like “They knew we weren't from round there, cause every time we down there we pull out the Boost Mobile Sim cards”.  The details are specific, emotive, and you feel every heavy breath.

‘Poetic Justice’ finds our protagonist back on safe ground, this time brimming with confidence and laying down his best lines on his ever present romantic interest ‘Sherane’.  The track takes a sample from the Janet Jackson track of the same name, and a verse from the ubiquitous Drake, and turns it into a summer smash.

Both ‘Good Kid’ and ‘m.A.A.d. city’ catch Kendrick in the crossfire of violence brought about by the decades-old feud between the Crips and Bloods.  It’s a part of the tapestry of the area and it’s a little unsettling as a fan of the early 90’s movie ‘Boyzin the Hood’ to realize that this feud is still an issue.  ‘m.A.A.d city’ also breaks down halfway into a industrious beat that would sit beautifully alongside Ice Cubes classic records, and allows west coast veteran MC Eiht to give some aged perspective to the contemporary violence.  It’s a nice touch.

Once we move past the day-to-day stress of the just-beneath-the-surface violence, Lamar finds that there are very few escapes made available to young poor men, and alcohol is one of the more prevalent (and acceptable) vices.  ‘Swimming Pools (Drank)’ is one of the best contemporary songs about the addictive nature of alcohol and its effects.  It also highlights how especially effective alcohol is as a tonic to the ever-present violence. 

The track leads directly into a consequence of that violence, the death of a sibling.

‘Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst’ finds Lamar looking at these consequences from not only his perspective, but also those of a prostitute and the recently deceased.  It’s delivered sincerely and self-effacingly over a gorgeously restrained track, accentuated by a sliding lead guitar and slight orchestral flushes.

The redemptive arc of the story is provided in ‘Real’, a track that ends with two young boys listening intently while a woman street preaches and engages both of the boys in prayer. 

Of course, every success story needs a triumphant arrival anthem, and that’s ‘Compton’, a bombastic Dr Dre track that seems out of place on this album, but then really, that’s the point of it.

Kendrick Lamar joins Dr Dre’s Aftermath label at an interesting time.  Big name artists and groups have come and gone from Dre’s label in the last 5 years, and the only real releases in that time have been the Eminem albums.

So the fact the Lamar album has surfaced show how much faith and confidence that the Doctor has in his new protégé, a similar enthusiasm that drove him to sign and produce the classic Eminem and 50 Cent records.We can only hope that Kendrick resists the commercial and societal temptations that have rendered his peers either irrelevant (50 Cent) or a cautionary tale (Eminem).

Stream: Rihanna feat. Kanye West - Diamonds Remix (prod by Kanye West)

Kanye takes on Rihanna's 'Diamonds'.

Video: Freddie Gibbs - BFK

It's pretty clear at this point that Freddie Gibbs won't be making any concession in his sound any time soon in a bid to win mainstream love.  They call him 'Gangsta' Gibbs, and he's not about to relinquish that moniker any time soon.

His recent mixtape, Baby Faced Killa, continued his string of strong releases, and 'BFK' was a standout.  Given his street persona, where else could he film the video clip than his hometown, the city of Gary, Indiana.   It's as economically poor a city as you'll find, and the city represents Gibbs as much as Gibbs reps for the city.

Hardstyle: Is it all in the name?

What is hardstyle?  I’ll be honest, I was one of those uneducated types who’d avoided any contact with any type of hard dance music and had lumped ‘hardstyle’ in with ‘hardcore’.  This was a big mistake.

Hardcore purists are a world away from their Hardstyle second cousins.  Hardcore celebrated brutal node-destroying beats and breaks, whilst Hardstyle was living off the ether of rave and slowed-down nu-gabber.

When discussing dance music (or any music), you have to talk about the way that it makes you feel.  In a lot of cases (including hardstyle) you don’t have vocals to give narration to the story of the song, and so the weight of translating emotion in the song is laid entirely on the beats and melodies.

The beats in dance music serve an important function.  House is perfect for those who want to go to a club and dance but not spill their drinks from dancing too hard, whereas a style like down-tempo is more likely to be consumed at home in a relaxed position in your lounge-room.  I am generalizing a bit, but you get the picture. The beats drive action (or inaction, in the case of down-tempo).

Hardstyle is uptempo, as its name would suggest, but not as speedy as its Hardcore brethren (Speedcore, Metalcore).  Its predecessors such as Rotterdam and Nu-Style Gabber were embraced by soccer fans and dis-affected college students.  Hardstyle was born out of those styles but became somewhat slower and more deliberate, making the beats and synth stabs more pronounced.

The sped-up beats of the older Hardstyle music do not carry with them much emotion, although compared to the hardcore genres they do allows a small amount of room for introspection   Hardstyle seems less angry, but yet still fronts with a somewhat tough facade.

The current hardstyle offers a little more variety, and the emotion is measured in the rise and fall of the melody.  It uplifts, and then uplifts a little more before leveling out and waiting once more for the coming build up and bass drop.  Recent Hardstyle sounds have been dressed up with vocal clips and other random aural accouterments cribbed from the stadium-sized sounds of the Euro Trance cliques, making for a more commercial sound.

Today’s hardstyle certainly has a lot more variance than it’s early incarnations, and even tries for a real punt at emotional connection that isn't ecstasy.  Where it goes to from here is anybodies guess.  Music cross-pollinates these days in ways that it never did before, so I don’t think Hardstyle is immune to change or about to die out. 

Its strength is comes from two directions – its power and ability to empower the disaffected and angry youth (of which there will never be a shortage), and its desire for pure ecstasy, the fleeting delirious thrill sought by many young dance music aficionado's.

Maybe one day we will evolve to the point where any emotion can be expressed at 140bpm, and Hardstyle will be  a rebellious outlet for a new wave of musical genius.   Or maybe it continues morphing and moving, it’s lack of relative connection with the everyday confining it to the basements of the world.  

We will see.

Video: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - Thrift Shop

I'm a bit late with this one, but if you haven't seen it, prepare to enjoy.  The chorus "I'm gonna pop some tags, I got $20 in my pocket" is all you really need to know, as newbie indie-rapper Macklemore waxes lyrical about the virtues of looking GQ-style on the cheap.  That's a philosophy we can all get behind.



There was also a short doco made about their DIY rise through the independent music scene.  Worth a watch.

Why we dance - dance and the brain

Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman tells us that the brain can be conceived of as being two systems.  System 1 is the part of the brain that makes the quick and easy decisions that we make every second of every day, whilst system 2 becomes engaged when there is deep thinking to be done.

As you can probably guess, dancing is more of a system 1 task, which is to say that most of the time it’s easy to do (unless your trying to remember last nights choreography from class).  The ease with which we retrieve from our memory a dance move that we want to do is called cognitive ease.  For example, when Gangnam Style comes on, your brain doesn't have to work very hard to retrieve memories of Psy doing the horsey dance, and these simple moves (which you've probably repeated often in your own bedroom) are easily recalled and then performed.

This process could also explain why people avoid dancing.  If dancing becomes more about the context in which the dance is performed – who is watching me and what are they thinking, am I too exposed – then the decision to dance becomes more complex and induces those uncomfortable feelings that we all try and avoid.

If you have a friend who never dances, chances are they are experiencing some of these emotions.  It may even be that they just don’t know or enjoy the music, and that the process of deciding how to dance to the unfamiliar music is too hard.  This is what’s known as cognitive strain, and it’s what happens when you engage your system 2 and start deep thought, and it makes you frown and produces negative emotions.  

For an easy example of System 2 thought, try multiplying 24 by 32.  The answer, like an unfamiliar dance move, will take time to come by, if at all.  It’s hard.

In contrast, System 1 is more likely to tackle 2 x 2, a familiar math sum, and it’s availability to be recalled is similar to how you quickly and easily you remember ‘Gangnam Style’.

The key to remembering your dance moves then, is to dance early and often.  The more you do it, the more you become used to it.  Soon it will consume you and all the various dance moves and techniques you learn will become embedded neural patterns in your brain. 

Do it enough and those patterns will be with you forever.

Video: Nicki Minaj and Cassie - The Boys

Nicki and Cassie show 'The Boys' how it's done, with a video that somehow manages to match the craziness of the track.

Video: S-Type - Billboard

I first heard this track as part of Rustie's now classic Essential Mix in April this year, which you can get right HERE.

It sounds huge and makes you want to win a gold medal so they can play it the background while you celebrate.  Turn it up, you'll love it.

The BET awards were held last night, and amidst all the pushing and shoving that comes with putting some of Hip-Hop's 'hardest' crews in one room, there were some real highlights.

Every year the awards showcase Cyphers, and they're usually the highlight of the night.  Last night was no exception, especially the West Coast roundtable which featured legends (DJ Quik, Snoop, Xzibit) and up-and-comers (Kendrick Lamar).

There was also a tribute to Chris Lighty, the legendary Hip-Hop entrepreneur, who was instrumental in the careers of some many classic 90's acts.  Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, A Tribe Called Called Quest, LL Cool J and others were on hands to lay it down in respect.

West Coast Cypher



Chris Lighty Tribute



East Coast Cypher - 'Iron Fist'



Kendrick Lamar - The Recipe

Stream: Pusha T feat. Future

Pusha T, formerly of The Clipse and now a member of Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music crew, has a new single from his forthcoming album.

Review: Robyn @ Parklife 2012

"Can you sing one of her songs?"  Not having been acquainted with the Swedish songstress, our friend was hoping for a preview of what he could expect.  A few terrible bars of 'Dancing on my own' later, and I was quite surprised he decided to say.  I dare say he was glad he did.

Robyn was supposed to be here a couple years ago, hot on the heels of her triumverate of stellar pop albums Body Talk 1,2 and 3, but she didn't make the trip.  She was determined to make it up to us.  "I hope you've forgiven me Adelaide!"  I think it's safe to say we had.

She walked out to the strains of 'Dont f***ing tell me what to do', put the crowd on alert as to what to expect - in-your-face pop music, no bullshit.

She launched into 'Dancing on my own' early on, and it was clear that she was doing her own thing.  Whilst most people may have been worried that playing your most popular song so early in your set would be a disastrous move, it instead set the tone for the show and Robyn made sure we were locked in from there on out.



The song has a propulsive 4/4 beat that is prevalent in all the best Robyn tracks, and instead of coasting on the songs mammoth sound, Robyn rides it like a bucking bronco.  She brings a physicality to her stage show, whether it's through slyly choreographed hand movements or shadow-boxing the crowd with the intensity of Mike Tyson.

'Be mine' rocketed out of the gate, so much so that we were still recovering from the last track when it started, and the by the time the breakdown arrived after the second chorus, Robyn was on her knees, leaning back to the floor like the scarf she coveted in the song was actually still a issue for her!



Every song seemed to be a mission statement in itself, and Robyn imbued tracks like 'Kobra Style' and 'Fembot' with more chutzpah than I would have thought they deserved.  I was happily wrong.

By the time she encored with 'With Every Heartbeat', she hadn't so much won the crowd as slapped us in the face and forced us to comply with her code of honour - dance with emotion.  You're welcome back any time Robyn.

Video: Solange - Losing You

Full disclosure, Solange is Beyonce's younger sister.  It's tempting to paint a picture where nepotism was the sole reason for Solange's career, and there may be a little truth to that, however I think the world is a better place with Solange in it, so nuts to the haters.

She's been bubbling around the fringes of Pop and R&B for a while now, releasing great but under-appreciated tracks like 'Sandcastle Disco'.

That should change with the release of 'Losing you'.  The track is produced by Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion and combines a slower-than-expected beat with a mournful synth to great effect.

This appears to be a new direction for R&B and Pop, a track that is simultaneously large and yet intimate. It's an effect that 80's artists seemed to pull out with outstanding regularity, but has been largely ignored in recent RnB and Pop music in favour of balls-to-the-wall synth tracks and four-four beats.

Solange's voice is cavernous, and yet it's still ethereal and reverberates around the track like it's an empty concert hall.

Lets hope she starts a new revolution.

Stream: Kendrick Lamar feat. Dr Dre - Compton

I've mentioned Kendrick Lamar a few times now.  After releasing his stellar debut album last year called Section 80, Dr Dre swooped in and pulled Lamar under the Aftermath umbrella.  His first album on that label is Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City and will be released shortly.

A couple of tracks have already surfaced from this album ('The Recipe' and 'Swimming Pools'), and they, along with this track, suggest a more expansive soundscape over which Kendrick can spit his rapid-fire flow.