Our last mashup of Nina Simone and Kanye West was very well received, climbing as high as #2 on the hypemachine. So here’s another for your consideration. It’s a mashup using the instrumental track Let’s Ride from Gonzales’ Soft Power album and the vocals from Jay Z’s allure. I think the feel of both songs go well together, let me know what y’all think (be kind).

Jay Z vs. Gonzales – Let’s Ride Allure (zshare)

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If you can’t wait until Diplo and Switch to drop Major Lazer for your summer dubstep fun and games, check this out. Houston based Squincy Jones has releaed a dubstep mix using 8 bit Nintendo loops and hip hop samples. And it’s called Nintendub.

via awwready

Tacklist:

* Mario Ds Screwed Intro
* Rogue State – Lions Paw (Metroid – Kraid’s Hide Edit)
* Babylon System – Dancing Shoes (Draped Out Edit)
* Walsh & Kromestarr – Panik Room (3 Kings Edit)
* Marlow – Road Kill (Goonies Edit)
* Benga – Zombie Jig (Wizards & Warriors Kryptonite Edit)
* Rusko – Hornz Cru (Diet Kryptonite Edit)
* Loefah – Disko Rekah (Goonies Pop Trunk Edit)
* Unsolved Mysteries Theme
* Chimpo – Lockoff (Freaky Girl Edit)
* Nastee Boi – Bangorz (Knuck if you Buck Edit)
* Mike Lennon – When Science Fails (Hektagon Remix) (Shorty Swing Edit)
* Babylon System – Loaded
* DJ Unk – Beatn Down Yo Block
* Woogie – End Dub
* Rustie – Response
* DZ – Just Rolling
* Rustie – Jagz The Smack (Zelda Edit)
* Gerard McMann – Cry Little Sister
* Kode 9 – 9 Samurai
* Kode 9 – 9 Samurai (Quarta 330 Remix)

Squincy Jones – Nintendub (zshare)

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From Ustream:

Beginning at 23:30 on Saturday May 16th and through 4:00 Monday May 18th, Gonzales will attempt to break the Guiness World Record for longest concert by a solo artist. The previous record is 26 hours and 12 minutes and was performed by Prasanna Gudi (India) at the Mallikarjun Mansoor Kala Bhavan public auditorium, Dharwad, Karnataka, India from 28 to 29 December 2008.

Gonzales explains his motivation: “I will do this to push my muscial and physical stamina. I believe music is part art, part athletics and this 27-hour concert will demonstrate both aspects.”

Gonzales has been consulting with the Guiness Book of Record to ensure a smooth attempt and an Official Guinness Judge will adjudicate the event on site. Repertoire will touch on recognizable songs from all eras and styles of music, in new and surprising arrangements. There will be no repetition of material during the attempt. As Gonzales himself says “I will break the record without sounding like a broken record”.

The record attempt takes place at the theatre of notable French film director Claude Lelouch and his daughter Salome, Theatre Ciné 13 at 1 avenue Junot in Paris. The attempt in its entirety will be streamed live on www.Arte.fr and look out for a documentary of the event in the future.

I’ve accumulated a few more Twelves remixes that are as always, worth sharing. Classic 80’s song Take on Me by Aha and the new metric single Help I’m alive. I don’t believe the twelves have ever made an appearance in Montreal but if they do I think I’ll have no choice but to check them out. They definitely know their musical composition.

Aha – Take on Me [Twelves Remix] (zshare)

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Metric – Help I’m Alive [Twelves Remix] (zshare)

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I’m writing a feature about hip hop concept albums for my friends at Snap! Magazine right now and as a result I’ve been listening to The Streets album A Grand Don’t Come For Free lately. The album is about a guy who loses 1000$ dollars and his trials trying to recoup it. I was surprised to see Pitchfork give it a whopping 9.1, it’s the kind of album that is slowly growing on me. It took me some time to get used to Mike Skinner’s voice and cadence. This is one of my favourites, the story is simple and believable. The chorus talks about how the character heard on tv that when a girl plays with her hair, she really likes you. The girl he’s with is playing with her hair so he reckons he “might well be in”.

I found this video the other night which is apparently some “experiment” mike skinner undertook with a bunch of his friends. I can’t really understand what the experiment is because all that happens is he buys drinks for everyone and pours huge amounts of alcohol into the mouths of women. Good scientific method Mike Skinner.

The Streets – Could Well Be In (zshare)

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Hip Hop in Canada has never been much to write (home?) about. Way too many social safety nets? Every time i open a “Canadian” magazine and read about the next big Canadian hip hop artist it’s usually just novelty act that I never hear about again. The few exceptions, in my mind are rappers Classified and Shad. Classified is a white guy from a Enfield (population 3,200) Nova Scotia of all places. His discography goes all the way back to 1995 and looks like he’s starting to finally get his due. He played a show with Nas in Halifax last year and his 2009 album Self Explanatory is one of his best yet.

One of the tracks on the album features Shad, another talented Canadian rapper. He was born in Kenya and raised in London, Ontario. You might know Shad from his goofy single The Old Prince Still Lives at Home, which spoofs fresh prince of Bel-Air. It looks like Shad and Classified have a lot of collaboration going on to help promote themselves. Canadian rap is evidently a hard sell so they’ll need all the help they can get. Oh and also, unless I’m mistaken this Classified track sample the guitars from the Flight of the Conchords show, which is a nice touch.

Classified – Get out the way (zshare)

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Shad – I Don’t Like To (zshare)

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So South Park did an episode featuring Kanye West as an Ego-Maniac and then he blogged about it; admitting that yes, he does have a big old ego. He’s even got a song about his ego on his latest mixtape, LVs and autotune. LVs of course a reference to his new louis vuitton shoe design. Here’s a track from the mixtape featuring Common and Q Tip. The whole mixtape can be downloaded here.

Kanye West – We Fight, We Love (Feat. Q-Tip, Consequence) (zshare)

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Team Teamwork is from Massachusetts. The Ocarina of Rhyme is a 10 song album of hip hop mashups using samples from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time game. If you spent anytime with an Nintendo 64 you probably know this game and will recognize the iconic game music. Here’s the full tracklist and my two favourite picks.

1. Clipse – Virginia (Lost Woods)
2. Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg – Still D.R.E. (Getting treasure)
3. Jay-Z – No Hook (Meeting the Owl)
4. Pimp C, Li’l Keke & P.O.P. – Knockin’ Doorz Down (Hyrule Field)
5. Common – I Used To Love H.E.R. (Hyrule Market)
6. Aesop Rock – No Jumpercables (Goron Village)
7. Edan – Fumbling Over Words (Battle)
8. MF Doom – Vomit (Horse Race at Lon Lon Ranch)
9. Spank Rock – IMC (Zora’s Domain)
10. Slim Thug & Mike Jones – Still Tippin’ (Great Fairy’s Fountain)

Team Teamwork – Slim Thug & Mike Jones – Still Tippin’ (Great Fairy’s Fountain) (zshare)

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Team Teamwork – Clipse – Virginia (Lost Woods) (zshare)

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