San Francisco’s Tenderlions may be newcomers to the electro scene, but not new to making music. (Originally they were the ‘Tenderloins’, like the SF district/area- but a typo made while creating their Myspace music page changed that!)
Prior to ‘dance’ production, Evan Atkinson, one half of the duo, used to make hip hop beats while John Bryars, the other half, has been playing drums and piano since elementary school.
They’ve been quite busy as of late, playing parties around SF and creating a buzz in the process, and for good reason- these young kitties concoct some very solid music.
Quoting The Tenderlions:
Our set is LIVE, with drums, percussion and MIDI keyboards… Tenderlions want people to GET THE FUCK UP and DANCE!
First up is a Missingtoof exclusive, fresh off the presses. It’s a remix of Def Jam Kingpin Jay-Z’s track ‘99 Problems’…
Toronto’s XI hits on a fierce dubstep (or thugstep) remix of a gangster anthem, O.G. Memphis rappers 8Ball & MJG’s, ‘Relax, Take Notes’, with its epic Notorious B.I.G. sample on the hook & guest vocals by N.Y.’s Project Pat (of sizzurp sippin’ fame). Multiply southern rap by some Canadian dubstep griminess and this is one sinister product (Compare to the original! Video on YouTube).
Beirut, the producer/arranger from Los Angeles (not the popular indie band which shares the name, and came later), just dropped a freebie remix album, ‘The Remixes Vol. 2′, that consists of mostly hip-hop and a few R&B remix tracks. Shit is on in my deck on repeat.
Dig those and you can snag the whole 18 track album for free right here (It’s a 141 meg file hosted on Megaupload; So here’s the drill, go to the download page then, (1) enter the 3-digits, (2) wait 45 seconds, (3) click the “Free download” button). The album features tracks with Lil’ Wayne, E-40, Raekwon, Nas, Ludacris, Mobb Deep, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, and grip more.
If you love what you hear, download the ‘Volume 1′ collection with 180 meg’s of remixes from Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Rakim, Ras Kass, O.C. and more from Megaupload, right here. Below are a few choice cuts from Vol. 1. I played these out hard, and think they compete well with the originals:
I started DJing and crate-digging with this dude about 10 years ago. He got a used EPS-16+ around then and built up the production credentials from there. Holler at ‘em if you’re feeling it. He’s got a MySpace with some original production, no doubt.
Back again is ‘Old rap Wednesdays. In this special, ‘Late homework / Sorry it’s almost Friday edition’.
Audio Two is Milk D. and DJ Gizmo. Rapper and DJ, respectively. Brothers in music and in real life (or maybe half-brothers).
Audio Two had their run between 1985-1992 releasing three LP albums, with slowly ebbing success. They began their career with the (impossible to find) 1985 12″ single titled, ‘A Christmas Rhyme’ on MCM records, but the group really emerged in 1987 on their major-label (First Priority Records) debut single ‘Make It Funky’ with the incredible and classic b-side ‘Top Billin’ which eclipsed the a-side and everything that followed, and still remains as their signature track. ‘Top Billin’ will be the primary focus of this week’s post. Enjoy the original:
Now I’ll say something really journalist-y like, the ‘Go Brooklyn!’ vocal sample looped in the instrumental is so quintessentially late 80s BKLYN. Or so my expertise would lead me to believe—considering I was in, like, 3rd grade and living in LA in 1987.
The popularity of the B-side lead to several remixes, like this remix from a 1988, ‘Top Billin’ promo 12″ (pardon the quality):
The group ended in 1992 because of poor record sales of their third album, 1992’s ‘First Dead Indian’—Undoubtedly when the west coast ushered in ‘Dre Day‘, many of the of the more light-hearted pioneers, like Audio Two suddenly found themselves in the dark.
However, the break up of Audio Two wasn’t the end all. Milk D released one album as a solo artist in 1994. Rick Rubin was a fan and put Milk D. on as one of his early artists on his American Records label. Milk D. dropped the D. and titled his record, ‘Never Dated’. The album was a flop, with very few record sales. And those sales were mostly among hardcore Beastie Boys fans, because of Milk’s tie to the Beasties and their collaboration track, ‘Spam’ which features two of the three Beastie Boys, with Adrock on the mic and Mike D on drums:
Audio Two has never lost relevance. Perhaps most people have heard Audio Two through a proxy, in the form of the Notiorous B.I.G.’s 1994 debut album, Ready to Die. This ‘new’ Brooklyn MC was obviously influenced by the west coast gangsta rap sound and his 1994 debut record was decidedly more gangster than his Audio Two forefathers. Still, on the intro track, which is a skit intended to sum up B.I.G.’s life up until that point, you’ll hear Audio Two’s ‘Top Billlin’ play for nearly a minute underneath the skit’s dialogue.
For Biggie, ‘Top Billin’ is the one song chosen to represent the sound of the late 80s (along with Curtis Mayfield’s I’m Your Pusher Man representing 70s, Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ representing early 80s, and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s ‘The Shizint’ representing the early 90s). I find this interesting because the cultural significance of ‘Ready to Die’ and the impact it had, and how that record payed homage to Audio Two and other (dare I say) prolific artists that came before him in such a direct way (as literally playing their songs on his album). Does ‘Top Billin’ represent the late-80s sound perfectly? I think it does.
And it doesn’t end there! Top Billin’ lives on 20 years later in Uffie’s ‘Pop the Glock’ (produced by Mr. Oizo) which borrows heavily from ‘Top Billin’. If you didn’t notice by now, act like you know! Uffie para-phrases, copies entire lyrics, borrows concepts and audio samples from ‘Top Billin’:
Now you’re up on Audio Two! I’ll end this on one last trivial-pursuit-80s-rap-edition fact: Milk D. is the older brother of MC Lyte, who emerged as a solo artist after the success of her brothers classic single, but went on to even greater hip-hop celebrity.
You can find Audio Two’s first album, ‘What More Can I Say’ on Amazon due to a post-millennium re-release. All other records are harder to locate, and your best/only avenues would be secondary markets like eBay or Amazon affiliates.
[p.s. I know this post was half referential college shit drawing links between stuff and other stuff. Oops. Sorry for making you learn in yr freetime.]
It’s good to be home. Was out in Arizona for a week & half. It was cool to be on vacation not thinking about work or bills or anything. Deserts & cacti are cool but it’s nice to be back in California.
When I got home I was happy to notice that my Blackstone & Atari record had arrived. The B-side of the record was very appropriate for my arrival back in the Golden State.
It has a Notorious B.I.G. ‘Going back to Cali’ vs Jason Schwartzman’s band Phantom Planet ‘California’, a.k.a. the theme song to the T.V. show ‘The O.C‘. Also on the b-side is LL Cool J’s classic ‘Back 2 Cali’.
But the reason I bought it was the Tones on Tail ‘Go’ vs Snoop ‘Drop It Like Its Hot’ mash up. It’s an old track but it’s a dj must have. It also has the original Tones on Tail track also which comes in handy if you dj at an 80’s club like I do.
If you are in SoCal check out Blackstone & Atari @ their night One Nation in San Diego.
You can pick up this 12″ from Groove Distribution (where I got mine) for $7.50!
Check out the Tones On Tail vs Snoop mash up. This took me a million takes to record because my cat Uffie likes to fuck with music equipment, especially turnatbles.
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