I frequently get a lot of music for free, I get to go to shows for free… but I also still enjoy the process of BUYING and supporting dope music.
There are a lot of people in this business (artists and corporate personnel) that bitch and moan about how artists aren’t making any money, or how music sales are down and it’ll cost them their job. These people are the same cocksuckers who refuse to buy music, or pay for a show. They often try to exhaust every contact they have to get something for “free”. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with “free”. But would it really kill folks to support (financially) the music and business they believe in, occasionally?
With that said, I’m going to try to let you all know as many of my purchases throughout the year. While this will give you a view as to my tastes, ideally it just gives you that little push/desire to support as well… or, maybe you’ll just take thee over to LimeWire. Let’s get it going…
CD: King James – Chapter 1: Verses 1-5
Where Purchased: Fat Beats, Los Angeles
The big homie DJ House Shoes put together this dope release in a cardboard slip-case, “King James – Chapter 1: Verses 1-5“. With the help of DJ Rhettmatic, Shoes compiled a gang of songs that the late, great J.Dilla used as inspiration for a small portion of his body of work. What’s really dope about this compilation is that all of the tracks were taken from original vinyl… can you imagine the gang of records Shoes has? (I’ve seen a small portion of his collection, and it’s ridiculous)
I can only recognize but a small fraction of the songs that are on the King James disc. But what’s so great is that this CD makes me want to go back and revisit all the Dilla songs I have collected over the years, and see if my ears can’t pick up how Dilla flipped the samples. It’s truly amazing to hear these originals, and then realize how much of a genius that man really was, to hear the things he heard.
Now, King James… isn’t going to be for everybody. You only get about 30 seconds of the originals, and each of the 5 tracks on the CD (each track is a “verse”) contains countless originals that were carefully arranged and mixed by House Shoes. People who weren’t / aren’t familiar with Dilla probably won’t understand the concept of this album, and that’s okay… because this isn’t for you. But for any fan of Dilla… King James is a must-own, and if Shoes is involved in the project, you can bet your ass that he’s making sure a portion of the proceeds go to where they belong. Also, with a title like King James – Chapter 1… you can be rest assured that there will be another disc coming for us common-folk to continue to understand Dilla’s genius.
King James – Chapter 1: Verses 1-5 is available now at Fat Beats and online at RenSoul.com
Other Links:
DJ Houseshoes MySpace Page
some things you just won't understand... 