Respect Authority

This is the first “edition”, if you will, of a feature we’re going to be running regularly called Be Shareful. Be Shareful will highlight a band/musician/hip hop superstar number one in the game/whatever and offer free downloads of some of their music. The MP3s will be available for one week so get them before the RIAA gets me.

Low Budget

I’m a sucker for mashups and remixes, and have recently happened upon DJ Low B aka Low Budget, a Philadelphia based DJ who is known for putting out diverse mixtapes, and as half of the Hollertronix combo, the other half being Diplo of MIA’s heralded Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1 mixtape or the more recent Top Ranking, featuring rising star Santogold. Shit, talk about run on sentences. Anyway, Hollertronix produced 2003’s Never Scared, which the New York Times went on to name their top album of the year.

Low B’s mixtapes are frankly, hot fire, and full of surprising samples. He draws from a wide range of music, blending Baltimore club with dirty Southern rap and further peppering it with rock, pop and even disco. It may sound like a mess, and it is… but, and I never thought I’d say this, God bless this mess. Uh… I mean, the only thing that’s messy about Low Budget’s music is your face after you’ve heard it and are like, “Oh my god, that music is so crazy now my face is all messed up.”

For fans of Girl Talk, Diplo, hip-hop mixtapes, and, of course, people who like to get crunk and get down.

Downloads

December 2005 Mix by Low Budget | Download
Although this mix is a few years old at this point, it absolutely still holds up. Put this on at the beginning of the party and let it run — it’s a 50 minute monster track, masterfully mixed and consistently original, with plenty of new classics to fill the floor. It starts off a bit scattered, but by the time the five minute mark has hit, Low Budget is already hitting his stride. Some highlights: an even more laid back, if that is actually possible, “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, and the fantastic “ATLiens” by Outkast, oh yay yer is right, my man! Low Budget destroys any possibility of not feeling pretty badass while listening to this with an impeccably smooth segue into the now vintage Lil Wayne track “Snitch”. The mix stays strong throughout, also featuring a far more easy going rendition of Pete Rock’s “Warzone” and the pleasantly surprising “Under My Thumb” by a little band you may have heard of before called The Rolling Stones. Just download it and I’ll shut up already.

Feeling Some Kind Of Way by Hollertronix | Download
This is a merciless track, opening with the overtly and gratuitously sexual duet that is “B R Right”, featuring Ludacris and Trina, who, after all, is responsible for the delightfully poetic song title “No Panties”, and then breaks into the explosive, idiotic “Never Scared” by Bonecrusher, a hilarious looking flash in the pan rapper, fairly unanimously regarded as wholly untalented, but an amazing entertainer nonetheless (at least on this, his only single, and moreover, only decent song). The fun doesn’t stop there, next up is Big Tymer’s “Project Bitch”, followed by fucking “Tainted Love”! You seriously cannot go wrong. Light-hearted, ridiculously fun and I don’t fucking know, it just sounds good, okay?

Above: Bonecrusher. I told you.

You can find Low B’s latest work on his site, www.low-bee.com and his myspace page, www.myspace.com/lowbee.