– “Feel Good Hit Of The Summer 2″

• Feel Good Hit Of The Summer 2

– “C’mon”

• C’mon

– “White Noise”

• White Noise

– “Millie Fell Off The Fire Escape”

• Millie Fell Off The Fire Escape

– “Mother’s Day”

• Mother’s Day

– “They Always Know”

• They Always Know

This man is currently one of the best, yet one of the most underrated beatsmiths doing it. He dropped an amazingly dope album White Van Music last year on Rhymesayers Entertainment and has an upcoming album in the works with Freeway (that shit is gonna knock!!!!!). He has the great ability to produce for all types of artists. These are some of my favorites…

De La Soul – “Rock Co.Kane Flow”

• De La Soul – Rock Co.Kane Flow

This is that shit! From one of the most criminally slept on albums of the last 10 years, De La’s 2004 The Grind Date, this song pulsates with the weird brilliance that both De La and guest MF Doom have made careers of. But the star of the song is Jake’s production.

Freeway – “Blauh”

• Freeway – Blauh

Everyday last December the “Philly Freezer” murdered a beat in his Month of Madness series and the chemistry these two developed on this, and another song, led the way to the collaborative album I mentioned earlier. I don’t know if this was made for Free, but it fits perfectly. Set the tone and let him go.

The Gift of Gab – “Rat Race”

• The Gift of Gab – Rat Race

To many people have never heard this song, or even the 2004 Gift of Gab album Fourth Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, for that matter. So have a listen.

Freeway & Brother Ali – “The Truth”

• Jake One – The Truth

Freeway and Ali over some rock-hard Jake One production!!! This song will still be as dope 30 years from now as it is right now as it’s being played. This is hip hop – simple, straight forward and infinitely better than anything you ever thought of doing. Off of the 2008 Jake One album White Van Music.

Prodigy – “Shed Thy Blood”

• Prodigy – Shed Thy Blood (w/ Un Pacino)

I’m a lyrics guy, but sometimes a beat completely makes up for lackluster rhyming. Case in point, this song from the 2008 album Product Of The 80′s. Seriously, turn this one up.

]]> http://jointcontrast.com/2009/07/the-jukebox-%e2%80%93-produced-by-jake-one/feed/ 1 http://jointcontrast.com/2009/06/joint-contrast-jukebox-%e2%80%93-the-delfonics-the-roots-nat-king-cole-mos-def-slick-rick-brother-ali/ http://jointcontrast.com/2009/06/joint-contrast-jukebox-%e2%80%93-the-delfonics-the-roots-nat-king-cole-mos-def-slick-rick-brother-ali/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:32:58 +0000 J. Charles http://jointcontrast.com/?p=1887 THE DELFONICS – “Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)”

• The Delfonics – Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)

Let’s assume everyone is familiar with the 1996 version made famous by the Fugees. The fact that Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras did it better on “Ready Or Not” doesn’t take away from the original 1969 version from this Philly-bred trio. Hell, The Delfonics have been getting jacked for quite awhile now. I’m sure it pays out nicely though.

THE ROOTS – “Streets Of Philly”

• The Roots – Streets Of Philly

How obvious a choice to blend a track from The Roots with Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets Of Philadelphia” (doesn’t The Boss look like Ben Affleck the morning after a bender?) Too bad we couldn’t get an official track with Black Thought flowing over this instrumental. Until that day, this J. Period version on Best Of The Roots from 2006 will have to do.

NAT KING COLE – “Day In – Day Out (Cut Chemist Mix)”

• Nat King Cole – Day In – Day Out (Cut Chemist Mix)

Released in March 2009, Carole Cole spearheaded her father’s tribute album Re:Generations with a focus on reintroducing Nat’s music to a much younger, hip-hop audience. And most of it is works surprisingly well. There’s Cee-Lo, The Roots, Just Blaze, Nas, and more, making contributions. Yet among those offerings, it’s up for debate how many tracks stand up to this one, or that of the legacy of Nat King Cole himself.

MOS DEF (w/ Slick Rick) – “Auditorium”

• Mos Def – Auditorium

Already receiving the highest of praise from critics and fans alike, the new album from Mos Def (The Ecstatic) features one particular song that’s bound to ware out the repeat button on your stereo. Mos and the legendary Slick Rick rock out over an addictive Madlib beat that’ll have heads noddin’ from hear to the Middle East.

ZION I (w/ Brother Ali) – “Caged Bird Part 1″

• Zion I – Caged Bird Part 1

Back in February, Zion I (made up of AmpLive and Zumbi) released The Take Over with this Brother Ali-assisted track included. And if not for Ali making this appearance, there would be very little worth holding onto from the album itself.

SHAPE OF BROAD MINDS – “Changes”

• Shape of Broad Minds – Changes

You’ve likely never before heard of this creative collective that goes by the name Shape Of Broad Minds. And you’ve probably never had the pleasure of seeing and staring at the album artwork of 2007′s Craft Of The Lost Art, or many of the other artsy covers pushed out periodically by the Lex label. The imagery matches the music.

I’ve tried to get this review started five times now, but I just don’t know how to introduce the fact that Brother Ali is fucking ridiculously talented. Or to find a way to talk about his recently released EP The Truth Is Here without sounding like a Rhymesayers Stan (my previous P.O.S. post doesn’t help). And believe me, there are plenty of Stan’s out there.

Find a white girl (or Dank Lucas) that listens to independent hip-hop and you’ll probably find somebody deeply rooted in the church of Slug (of Atmosphere). Now of course true heads (yes, Dank is included in this category as well) can connect Slug’s lineage to some of the greatest that have ever done it, as well as some of the most promising today. But there is that little pocket of fans that have no idea (or even the ability to recognize) the brilliance that is being made today (or that was made before they saw Atmosphere on MTV) in hip-hop. That makes me a little bitter.

It’s not the fact that Slug is the face of indie-rap (I wouldn’t mind if he was the face of rap all together), it’s just that somebody that listens to Asher Roth probably has an Atmosphere t-shirt. Quite a few Atmosphere fans probably don’t even own any other hip-hop records. So while Slug is guilty by association to his fans, his labelmates and the genre as a whole are often guilty by association through him.

Pretty fucking ridiculous, right? Well I’m a cynical neurotic asshole who chooses to have as little contact with human beings as possible, so on a daily basis I must protect myself from perpetuating the things I hate about them. And today’s topic just so happens to be hip-hop. So as I sing my praises for a particular piece of hip-hop, I must battle the urge to stab myself in the chest when I think that some hipster-herbtastic-fringe fan likes the same music as me.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Can it be all so simple? Inside my brain, no. Even when I enjoy something, I don’t fully enjoy it. But Brother Ali’s music is something that comes close to being fully enjoyed.

Other than Pharoahe Monch, nobody’s rhyme patterns even come close to Ali’s. While Monch is jagged with his delivery, Ali manages to deliver complex syllable groupings with unparalleled fluidity. His voice is as authoritative as we’ve heard in the last decade and his subject matter ranges from the personal to the political, from battle rhymes to pick-up lines. And he does it  all with a sense of humility and graciousness.

The musical backdrop on The Truth Is Here is once again handled by Ant (from Atmosphere, in case you haven’t heard). There is definitely a difference between the beats Ant makes for Slug and the beats he makes for Ali, and in my opinion Ali wins out. The drums hit harder, the samples are broader and the overall feel is more immediate. The exciting thing about this EP is that it might be a true launching pad for Ali. After two borderline classic albums and two amazing EP’s we now await his third full-length release dropping in the fall.

From what Ali has said recently in interviews we can expect outside production this time, and that gets my rap-nerd tentacles (yes, tentacles) perked in excitement. Now, I have the utmost respect for Ant and his production credentials, but for fuck-sakes, did you hear how dope Ali sounds over some Jake One production? I’m not quite sure who the other producers are going to be, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have to worry about the Brother picking any suspect beats.

So I guess in a roundabout way I actually did talk about the album….okay, so I didn’t. But I did get to mention Ali’s dopeness. I also made a quick disparaging remark about that silly little white boy everybody is crazy about at the moment. And I got to compare Dank Lucas to white girls.

And that folks, is good enough for me.

Tear down boundaries. That’s what the Tow Away Zone does every Wednesday morning from 10 am-12 noon in the basement of 91.5 FM (www.WPRKDJ.org) at the Rollins College campus in Winter Park, FL. As 2009 approaches and the one-year anniversary of the show nears, host J. Charles sheds light on the past 11 months…

Why Call It Tow Away Zone? – On Jan. 28, 2008, without a name for my new radio show, I drove in circles around Rollins College in search of a place to park. Running behind schedule (as usual), I made a questionable decision to park alongside a curb that appeared to be out of harms way. Security tried to send me a warning via cell phone. I figured it was about 43 minutes into the show when it happened. I made my way out to the parking lot afterwards to find my car was gone. A $20 cab ride and $100 to get my bucket from the tow yard and I was back in the driver seat once again. So became the name of the show.

Backbone Each Week - Instrumentals and Interludes have been a staple since the show began. For the sake of keeping that element of surprise somewhat intact I offer only the minds behind those sounds (in no particular order)… Wax Tailor, Blockhead, The Budos Band, Omega One, J Dilla, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Jel, RJD2, DJ Shadow.

Most Called Upon, Most Requested – (In no particular order) – Johnny Cash “The Time of the Preacher”; Kid Beyond “I Shall Be Free”; Azeem “Bush Is A Gangsta”; DJ Revelution (w/ Iriscience) “The Revolution”; Spoon “The Underdog”; Murs “Everything”; Bob Marley “Mr. Brown (DJ Spooky remix)”; Mr. Dibbs “Blind Loyalty”; Menomena “Weird”; Flowers Forever “American Dream”; Why? “These Few Presidents”; Q-tip “Shaka”; Black Sabbath “Who Are You”; El-P (w/ Suzanne Venzina) “Constellation (remix)”; South “Wasted”; The Foreign Exchange “Daykeeper”; Tim Fite “All I Need”; Psycho Realm And Street Platoon “The Beginning”; Brother Ali “Here”; Skillz “Pastor Skillz”; Skillz (w/ Common, Talib Kweili) ”So Far So Good (remix)”; Coldplay “Lost”; Radiohead “All I need”; Elbow “Grounds For Divorce”; Vast Aire “Shu (The God of Aire)”; Blur “Brothers and Sisters”; Saul Williams (w/ Zach De La Rocha) “Act III, Scene 2 (Shakespeare)”; Baba “Xperience”; Devotchka “Along The Way”; The Helio Sequence “Halleluhah”.

The Usual Suspects – Along with those bands mentioned above were the likes of (once again, in no particular order)… Beck, The Flaming Lips, Atmosphere, Clinic, John Lennon, The Roots, Mos Def, Ghostface Killah, Digital Underground, Rakim, Nas, Cee-Lo, Jay-Z, Public Enemy, Iggy Pop, Buck 65, Jean Grae, The Beastie Boys, J-live, Jane’s Addiction, Erykah Badu, Modest Mouse, The Beatles, Big Daddy Kane, The Toadies, James Brown, KRS-ONE, MF Doom, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Parliament, Gil Scott-Heron, Presto, Gorillaz, RZA, Shape Of Broad Minds, The Black Keys, Shortstack, Nine Inch Nails, Glue, Gang Starr, Slick Rick, Sage Francis, Lupe Fiasco, Morphine, P.O.S., Primus, David Bowie.

Local Orlando/Florida Connection – On average there have been two songs with local flavor played each week by the likes of Solillaquists Of Sound, X:144 And SPS, DJ Kittybat, Sincere Vega, The Black Hammock Band, All Good Funk Alliance, Kap, Alias The @ikt.

Can’t Forget Back Home – In an effort to never forget where I came from there have been a smaller number of additions to the playlist… AMC “Dun Dun Dunno”; Ryan Weaver “We Dream Tomorrow” and “Long Long Long”; Flux “River Dog”; Vic Freeze “Senora”.

By no means does this cover the whole gamut but it does provide some insight into what the show has evolved into. Tune in to find out where it goes from here.