Respect Authority

A selection from Aesop Rock’s “9-5ers Anthem”, a track on his third album, Labor Days. Something for that case of the Mondays.

We the American working population
Hate the fact that eight hours a day
Is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn’t us
And we may not hate our jobs,
But we hate jobs in general
That don’t have to do with fighting our own causes.
We the American working population
Hate the nine-to-five day-in/day-out
When we’d rather be supporting ourselves
By being paid to perfect the pastimes
That we have harbored based solely on the fact
That it makes us smile if it sounds dope.

Mr. Rock (no relation to The Rock) has matured and changed in a lot of ways since then, but nonetheless, it’s a volatile and perhaps even more innovative (although less accessible) collection of music than his newer material. This guy has been pushing the sheer art of rapping for years, regardless of what the mainstream hip hop community might be eating up at the time (these days… singing robots and Louis Vuitton apparently). Oh, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that his beats are hot fire.

Download “9-5ers Anthem” here if you want to see what mainstream hip hop could be if killing people over drugs wasn’t cool and T. Pain never discovered what the word “autotune” meant.

Be Shareful highlights a band/musician/hip hop superstar number one in the game/whatever and offers free downloads of some of their music. The MP3s will be available for one week so get them before the RIAA gets me.

In case any of you haven’t heard the uninspired, trend-whoring, auto-tuned should-but-won’t-be-career-enders Kanye West has been putting out lately, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the state of pop music today is fucking tired. Tired like “I woke up at 5 AM to powerlift, have been drinking beer since noon, and it’s now 10 at night and I’ve got an entire McDonald’s Extra Value Meal in my stomach” tired.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart — Eurythmics

Clearly, a power nap is not going to cut it here, so instead of actually doing something to progress past the monotony, let’s dig even deeper into the abyss of savagely beaten to death tunes and see just how much more blood we can wring out of the 80’s cornerstone that is Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams,” using the unnatural power of mashups. Read More ›

Be Shareful highlights a band/musician/hip hop superstar number one in the game/whatever and offers free downloads of some of their music. The MP3s will be available for one week so get them before the RIAA gets me.

Despite the explosion of mashups available on the Internet and the insatiable consumption of tracks by mash monsters like Girl Talk, there was a hole in the genre that no amount of “Umbrella” samples could fill. R. Kelly may be a flirt, but when would he flirt with bearded indie rock supergroup Broken Social Scene? And how would Lil’ Wayne sound blazing over Modest Mouse? Would Dre ever consider collaborating with synthy sound technicians Fujiya and Miyagi? Well, probably not, but that’s why there’s The Hood Internet.

The Hood Internet

DJs STV SLV and ABX are a fearsome duo, and as unlikely as a couple of dorky white dudes having such a command over booty rocking beats may be, the rap-indie hybrids they produce are perhaps even more so. But considering the extreme oversaturation of popular samples as of late, unlikely is as disarming as a pregnancy scare but, like, way more enjoyable than that. Read More ›

Be Shareful highlights a band/musician/hip hop superstar number one in the game/whatever and offers free downloads of some of their music. The MP3s will be available for one week so get them before the RIAA gets me.

M.I.A.

Today’s Be Shareful tracks are a selection of sticks and stones and weed and bombs compliments of Sri Lankan hipster queen M.I.A. Specifically, I’ve chosen a number of “Paper Planes” remixes and mashups that are not only very good, but also distinct. Considering the song has permeated the inner membrane of America’s skull at this point, these tracks should provide a nice variety, not to mention show how much you really can do with just one song.

For those who gave up on popular music after Outkast’s viral “Hey Ya” infected the airways and subsequently, our every waking hour and even our fucking dreams, and don’t know who the hell I’m talking about — M.I.A. is a British songwriter, vocalist and producer whose music encompasses the most insane swath of genres since… I don’t know… ever? Combining traditional dance and folk styles such as soca and dappan koothu with modern hip hop, electropop, and alt-rock, M.I.A.’s music touches on themes of immigration, war, indie culture, pop culture, poverty, revolution, and personal relationships, amongst other things. To say the least, M.I.A. is a very diverse artist. Read More ›