#hiphopjuly is going very well, thanks for asking. I had a bit of a quiet day yesterday as I saw Twin Shadow in the evening (who was fucking unreal by the way), but was back on it today properly. At the end of the week I’ll post something about my week or some shit. I’m sure nobody is interested in even that, let alone a daily digest of what I’ve been listening to.

In the meantime let’s share some music. One of the great things about hip hop is the seemingly endless supply of free mixtapes. There is something new every day to download, and that’s what I’ve been doing. Three of the most recent are available for you right now. Childish Gambino’s is the highlight. The multi-talented Donald Glover’s offering gives us choice tracks featuring RZA, Danny Brown and Tina Fey among others. Yes. Tina Fey. You can grab it here.

Theophilus London is still striving for something to match his early mixtapes after the disappointment of debut long player Timez Are Weird These Days. Rose Island is by no means perfect but is certainly a step in the right direction. Guests include A$AP Rocky, Blood Orange and the awesome Lunice. Get this one it here.

Finally we have Tyler, The Creator. Odd Future have been in the news a lot this week after Frank Ocean’s declaration that he is in love with another man. As brave as I think Ocean has been, and glad I am that he has come out, I think it’s a real shame that it is still such a shock and seen as such big news these days. I would have liked to think we live in a time when a rapper can come out and not lose a ton of fans straight away. Apparently not. Still, it’s those idiots that are losing out. Anyway, back on topic and Tyler has a follow up to last year’s Summer Camp mix. He’s going under the moniker Dj Stank Daddy again (thanks spikeus). Obviously. There’s an awful lot of non-hip hop here and the name of the genre that Tyler has given it is probably the best description – fucking awesome. Download here.

it should come as no surprise that this month’s playlist is a bit of an amy winehouse special. i wasn’t blogging very regularly last weekend so didn’t really mention her on here. enough has been said anyway, so it isn’t really worth saying much apart from how much she’ll be missed. especially her music. as it happens, i’m in the camp addiction is a disease and it doesn’t matter how what the situation around her life was, she was a young girl who lost her life. and that’s bad. just in case you haven’t read it by the way, russell brand wrote an amazing piece about her.

these playlists aren’t just about what i’ve written about on here, but also what i’ve been listening to in the background. as most new bits of music i like get included on the blog, the extras are often older stuff. this month i’ve broken out crazysexycool for a bit of tlc love. i had to include them on here. also on an rnb feel you’ll find some cassie. a few days ago i had her playing on youtube (she’s hot, so it’s always video rather than mp3 with her) and accidentally started ‘rudie can’t fail’ by the clash on itunes. suffice to say that the two mixed together brilliantly and i now rate myself as the next carl cox.

enjoy the playlist, which can be found here and any feedback (especially tlc love) is always appreciated. also a quick thank you to emma who chose the amy winehouse connected songs to close the set.

you know how i love tyler, right? not as much as emma loves tyler, but i do love him. he was great performing with one leg earlier this month in camden and i still fucking love his album. i’ve also always loved a bit of clipse, so it’s good to see him link up with pusha t for this. i’m pleased he is taking care of that leg and cruising around on an electric chair while causes trouble as well.

live review: ofwgkta. electric ballroom, london. 6 july 2011.

i witnessed odd future take over camden’s electric ballroom last night from the balcony. the reasons for this were three fold. i’m old these days; i didn’t want to ruin myself for today’s beach boys gig; my glasses are fucking expensive. despite my aerial view, i am still able to confirm that tyler, the creator is a superstar in waiting. yeah, he’s got the whole thing about slightly unsuitable lyrics for heart fm holding him back, but he will be a superstar.

the entire collective performed a pretty impressive, if slightly disjointed, set with each and every one of them bringing something to the table. hodgy stood out for me, but i’ve spoken to others who have said domo genesis and mike g did the same job for them. that’s the beauty of odd future. there is something for everybody.

the highlights of the gig all centered around tyler though. tyler and his broken leg. whether he was calling the guy in the purple shirt who threw a shoe up to get a beating from hodgy beats (and then advising him not to actually come up) or sitting there deciding what song to do next as there was no playlist, tyler had the crowd in the palm of his hand. he even stage dived, broken leg and all. i’ll repeat. stage dived with a broken leg. he came across a lot more human than i imagined he would. he joked. he chatted. he is one enigmatic mother fucker. he also has a new fan in emma.

any negatives? a couple. there was no frank ocean (and therefore no ‘she’ or ‘novacane’). the shoe throwing incident happened in the middle of ‘splatter’ and that was therefore cut short. it also meant that my favourite line was missed completely – “somebody tell satan that i want my fucking swag back”. these were minor though and if everybody had been there i have no idea how the (particularity energetic) crowd would have fitted into the tight venue.

this review has gone all over the place so i’ll sum it up. tyler is going to be huge. talent and personality go a long way.

update: i meant to coin the phrase hipster hop at some point in this review but forgot

tyler called in odd future buddy frank ocean for the goblin track that probably explains tyler’s appeal more than any other. ‘she’ manages to be both disturbing and sweet at the same time. sweet probably isn’t a word you’d associate with tyler, but this song is a love song and in it’s own way sweet. the addition of frank ocean gives the song the sort of sound that could even make this radio friendly and widen it’s appeal. don’t worry though. there is also a bit about masturbation and stuff to keep the daily mail happy.

album review: tyler, the creator. goblin. 9 may 2011. xl recordings
(buy here)

goblin’s eponymous opener is somewhat of a disclaimer for pretty much anything tyler has ever done. he opens up to his “therapist” (a pitched down version of himself, yes his voice can be even deeper!) about how he’s dealt with his relative success so far, then goes on to counter his critics. this track also contains probably the most actually disturbing lyric of the entire album “i’m just a teenager, who admits he’s suicide prone/my life is doing pretty good, so that day is postponed…for now”. the two current hits, ‘yonkers’ and ‘sandwitches’, are of course present – along with next single ‘she’ (featuring one of of’s biggest talents – frank ocean) and the disclaimer-prefixed ‘radicals’ which is fast becoming an odd future live favourite no doubt thanks to it’s “kill people, burn shit, fuck school” chorus.

the most serious song on the album is by far ‘her’, which is to all intents and purposes a love song, and much more relatable than most of the lyrical content of the album. production wise, tyler’s much talked about neptunes influences are very much apparent with his somewhat sparse beats and chord progressions brilliantly complementing his lyrics – which in the wrong hands could’ve led to too much going on in the songs. however, left brain’s raucous production contribution on ‘transylvania’ is a welcome change of pace, although could’ve possibly done with being a little later in the album. the main themes of dealing with his success and feeling unfairly judged (though ultimately not caring what people outside of his circle’s opinions of him are anyway) clearly run through the whole album – it’s bookended by another dark, semi-breakdown track in ‘golden’, bringing everything to a very disturbing but very tyler climax.

the sheer length of the album is astounding, with only five (bonus cd excluded) of the tracks under four minutes. this could be considered a major error on his commercial debut, but i think the lengthiest of the tracks definitely need the room to breathe that he’s given them. the album isn’t entirely perfect of course, jasper and taco’s verses seem fairly redundant (which could of course be the reasoning behind the ending of the song, although probably not) and ‘window’ could’ve done with getting to the point a little faster, but other than that it’s difficult to find fault in the way he’s put this album together. goblin is very much bastard’s older brother, there are a lot of similarities to be drawn between the two however i think he’s made enough progress in such a short time both musically and lyrically that it justifies a new release, and i hope the same thing happens with wolf next year.

once all the hype has died down around this release, i think people will still come back to it as an uneasy but enjoyable listen. what eminem was 11 years ago, tyler is now. even if you don’t agree, he doesn’t care anyway.

9.5

words by richard coatsworth (twitter)

listening. on repeat.

01 goblin
02 yonkers
03 radicals
04 she
05 transylvania
06 nightmare
07 tron cat
08 her
09 sandwitches
10 fish
11 analog
12 bitch suck dick
13 window
14 au79
15 golden

swag.

can’t wait for this to arrive now.

this is pretty much perfect timing. i was going to blog about how brilliant tyler, the creator‘s remix of lykke li’s ‘i follow rivers’ was today anyway. now i can also mention the performance on jimmy fallon last night.

for those that don’t know, tyler is the main man of rap collective odd future wolf gang kill them all. they’re a bunch of young rapeprs who are about to take the world by storm. they rap about rape, drugs, sex, violence and everything that the daily mail will hate. i get confused as to which members are in which internal group and who’s been sent to boarding school. this is where wikipedia helps.

tyler’s work on lykke li is fantastic and shows that they aren’t just all about being controversial. download it now. love it. then watch the video from last night. and remember how fucking cool mos def is as well. “swag swag swag”.

you should definetley follow tyler on twitter as well (unless you’re one of those easily offended types). you need to know why he can’t be a moose because he’s lost his shoes. and similar stories.