A Blunted Nineties Rap Mix
The impact of drugs on the evolution of music is no less significant than the impact of weather on farming. The fact that the music went down a psychedelic path in the sixties wasn't because mankind naturally decided that an eighteen minute guitar solo within a concept album about sunshine was a good idea, drugs did that. This psychedelic haze would clear by the end of the seventies, when the clarity of cocaine marked the arrival of disco. The spirit of wonderment and community that came with the acid trip sixties gave way to a narcissistic ultra-confidence as the seventies and eighties became less about changing the world and more about appreciating how amazing you are.
By the nineties, a couple of amphetamine fueled decades gave way to a subconscious realization that music on the whole needed to chill the fuck out, and hip hop emerged from a plume of green smoke. With analog samplers manipulating old jazz and soul records, the music exhaled a genuine warmth and sense of hand-me-down soul. The attitude was decidedly laid back, like a fat man eating an ice cream cone.
By the turn of the century, hip hop moved from the basements to the clubs, and became enamored with the same white lines that defined their disco forefathers. The production eschewed the fuzzy warmth of the old gear in favor of the potent and pristine sound of digital production, and the lyrics reflected the same migration from social consciousness to narcissism that defined the leap from psychedelia to disco. That being said, it's possible that the wholehearted embrace of Kendrick's album signals a shift back to the blunted sounds of hip hop's golden age.
Track List
DJ Vadim – Brother’s Ain’t Ready
Jungle Brothers feat De La Soul - How Ya Want It? (Radiohead Remix)
Grand Puba - Check (Caspa Remix)
DJ Krush - Only the Strong Survive (Dilinja Remix)
Fugees - Ready or Not
DJ Vadim - London Mind State
Grand Puba - Check It Out
Digable Planets - Where I’m From
De La Soul – Plug Tunin
Arrested Development - Let It Rain
The Roots feat Common - Hip Hop
Common - Time Travellin’ (A Tribute to Fela)
Reflection Eternal – Fortified Live
Vyvette Michelle - Hey DJ
B.U.M.S - Free My Mind
INI – Microphonist Wanderlust
Nas – One Love
Mary J Blidge feat. Method Man
Slick Rick - Impress the Kid
Prince Paul - Chubb Rock Freestyle feat Biz Markie
Steinski - Hit the Disco/ Easin In
DJ Q Bert – Four
Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Sean Lennon - Sunshine
Luke Vibert - Get Your Head Down
De La Soul feat. A Tribe Called Quest , Jungle Brothers, Monie Love
DJ Vadim - The Next Shit
Boogie Down Productions - Poisonous Products
The Herbaliser - Forty Winks
Fila Brazillia - A Zed and Two Lâ’s
Gangstarr - Love Sick
Lemon Jelly - Come
Lighter Shade of Brown - Lowrider Madness
Gangstarr - DJ Premier in Deep Concentration
Autechre - Lowride
Quannum MCs – Concentration
