The Animal Show » Kanye West

Good Friday

dfjacobs — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:00:01 +0000

"You are now in the midst of a real MC"

I’ve been introducing myself to hoards of new people recently, and when the conversation inevitably broaches the subject of music, people often say, “you have fantastic taste, not to mention you’re brilliant and irresistibly handsome, you should write for a music blog.” Perhaps I embellished that conversation a tad, but only the part about my music taste, everything else was embellished a lot. Anyway, it’s always embarrassing to admit that while I already do write for a blog, I haven’t posted in months. Apparently ladies aren’t as impressed by lethargy as I had hoped.

Like Edward Ruler of the Polar Bears, I too have been unimpressed by the majority of summer releases. There have certainly been gems among the crap, but the ratio of Sir Lucious Left Foot to everything else is less than favorable. That said, my life-changing experiences at Lollapalooza should have amassed a three-part series of Pulitzer-worthy journalism, but again, I plead inertia.

As I often do on articles ending a hiatus, I’ll keep the words to a minimum and just deliver three of my favorite recently played songs. The first is “Good Friday,” one of the greatest Yeezy beats of all-time, and unlike its peer “Runaway,” this one does not feature the lyrics “find pictures in my email/ sent this girl a picture of my dick.” “Good Friday” is the best of a surprisingly strong (with the major exception of “Runaway”), batch of Good Friday releases; welcome back Ye. Next is the breakout hit off the latest Das Racist mixtape, Sit Down, Man. The track “hahahaha jk?” proves the incredible lyrical prowess of these Wesleyan alums and dfjacobs favorite. The apotheosis of their lyrical adroitness is without a doubt, “call me Dwight Schrute the way that I eat beats.” Finally, I leave you with the 2nd single off the Glitter & Bones’ eponymous debut. A song that has tons of “Top Gun” eighties flavor despite being created by a kid born in ’92. Think Tunnel of Love meets the Ivy League, mostly because it’s Adrian of the Ivy League’s new project.

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Good Friday (feat. Common, Pusha T, KiD CuDi, Big Sean & Charlie Wilson) – Kanye West (YSI)

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hahahaha jk? – Das Racist (YSI)

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Summer Boys – Glitter & Bones (YSI)

Will Heartbeats Ever Flat Line?

dfjacobs — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:00:53 +0000

Whether due to highly flammable vocals, otherworldly beats or the mere presence of Weezy, certain songs are simply mashup gold. Recently I used the phrase “mashup darling” to describe Down’s “Lean Like A Cholo,” and surely any track by Jigga or the Young Money inmate would also fit the bill. However, the apotheosis of this phrase is undoubtedly The Knife’s “Heartbeats.” The first track off the Swedish duo’s sophomore album Deep Cuts is an astounding combination of poignant lyricism and an infectious beat. The song manages to be both haunting and explosive; a lethal blend that makes it irresistible to a wide-range of listeners (and mashup artists).

In addition to popular covers by Jose Gonzalez as well as Scala & Kolacny Brothers, I discovered six different mashups featuring the track in my iTunes library. While this may only confirm my consistent taste and overwhelmingly large music collection, I believe it’s also a testament to the far-reaching appeal of “Heartbeats.” With mashes by A-Trak and E-603, featuring the likes of Drizzy, Yeezy, M.I.A. and Grizzly Bear, the variations of “Heartbeats” feature some of the best in the business. To evaluate the tracks, I channeled the Sports Guy (that’s Bill Simmons you hipsters) and created a pyramid to illustrate their varying levels of success.

Level 1 a.k.a. “the flyest of the fly” features A-Trak’s “Get ‘Em High (Remix)” and POTAMIC’s “The Way Heartbeats (Eminem vs. The Knife).” Both mashups take similar approaches; introduce incredible rap verses to the contagious “Heartbeats,” let them get to know each other, and watch the sweet harmonious love-making that ensues.

Level 2 a.k.a. “still fly with unforgivable shortcomings” includes, E-603’s “Bittersweet Heartbeats,” DJ Topcat’s “Paper Heartbeats (M.I.A. vs. The Knife),” and Press Play Deejay’s “Heartbeats Forever (Drake vs. The Knife).” E-603’s Something For Everyone hit finds itself in Level 2 due to it’s lesser quality, but more importantly because of Mr. Ward’s prolonged failure to accept my Facebook friend request (I mean seriously, what’s a brotha gotta do?). DJ Topcat’s mashup finds itself demoted to Level 2 because the “Paper Planes” beat is far too incredible to ever be removed. And finally Press Play Deejay’s cardinal sin is the removal of Eminem’s career-saving verse. Lebron tell Press Play what’s up.

Level 3’s a.k.a. “great song choices but half-ass combination” sole member is PARRKA’s “Knife/Heartbeats (Grizzly Bear vs. The Knife). I love both songs, and especially the witty wordplay of “Knife” vs. the Knife (that’s sharp, aaand boom goes the dynamite). However, PARRKA tries too hard to let both lead and in the end, neither song benefits. Perhaps because they are too similar, the tracks never truly unite and instead amount to an inept 5+ minute mishap.

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Get ‘Em High (A-Trak Remix) – Kanye West (YSI)

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The Way Heartbeats (Eminem vs. The Knife) – POTAMIC (YSI)

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Bittersweet Heartbeats – E-603 (YSI)

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Paper Heartbeats (M.I.A. vs. The Knife) – DJ Topcat (YSI)

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Heartbeats Forever (Drake vs. The Knife) – Press Play Deejay (YSI)

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Knife/Heartbeats (Grizzly Bear vs. The Knife) – PARRKA (YSI)

We Should All Be So Lucky to Find Something in This World That Makes Us This Catchy

Edward — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:01:47 +0000

You son of a bitch.

It’s been a long, hard fight, but I’m giving up. You win this time, Owl City. Your shittastic, Postal Service-ripoff top-10 single “Fireflies” has bored a hole through my skull and penetrated the deepest recesses of my cranium. The meaningless lyrics of the song will continue to worm their way through the soft gray mass there until I’m so numb to overpopularity that I’ll round up a group of friends to record a webcam tribute video to “I’m On A Boat” and put in on youtube under the username ***<3TEAMJACOB!OREDWARD!ICAN’TMAKEUPMYMIND,YA’LL!<3***

I’ve read enough Sophocles wikiquotes to know that it’s my sad fate to kick against the pricks for the remainder of my drudge-working mortal existence. Well, this time I’ve lost. Pricks: 1; Edward: 0. But I’m not raking out my eardrums yet.

Here’s the thing: I can’t make “Fireflies” cease to be catchy. It’s like telling NBC’s hit sitcom F-R-I-E-N-D-S (now in syndication on TBSveryfunny) to stop being so HILARIOUS. “Joey ordered two pizzas?? For himself??? I can hardly eat a pizza by myself!!! Even if my cats help!!!!!! THIS IS SO FUNNY.” In a lot of ways the show and song are very similar: they’re like the Olsen twins, especially because one noticed that her career was over and died (RIP MKO). I loved the Postal Service and Friends with equal passion in 2003, but then 2004 rolled around we were all like “Go Sox!” or whatever. But here’s the harsh light of day: we can’t all watch Joey for the rest of our prick-kicking lives. The seasons go round and round, and we wonder why that’s the only Joni Mitchell song our friends know.

So, this is what is: we’ll indulge for a little. Then we’ll pretend like this song never happened. I’ve provided a few transition songs, including my favorite mashup of fall 2009, “Cult Logic Forever,” and my favorite remix of the final days of August from this past summer. Enjoy. But consider yourselves warned. You’re entering into highly contagious musical territory.

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Fireflies – Owl City (YSI)

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Cult Logic Forever (Drake feat. Kanye West & Lil Wayne vs. Miike Snow) – The Hood Internet (YSI)

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Waking Up In Vegas (Calvin Harris Extended Remix) – Katy Perry (YSI)

No related posts.

Sample Size

dfjacobs — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:04:05 +0000

This has to be one of the coolest groups I have ever seen

Firstly, I just want to say that I trust your gluttonous feast was a raging success. Hopefully your family interactions were not horribly painful and you managed to scrounge up at least some good leftovers. For me, my brother and I have pretty repetitive conversations. We basically talk about two things, fantasy football (which has no relevance to this column) and music. And since he hates all of my “whiny white s***,” that conversing normally pertains to hip-hop. So when he sent me a link to this website last spring, we both nearly peed our collective pants (those pants extend from Rhode Island to NYC).

The website, whosampled.com, can only be described as one of the coolest sites for anyone who appreciates the DNA of music. What does this website do you ask, great question. It has a database of thousands of songs, and the original they sample. And while I have never had less respect for Biggie than when I heard Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit,” I still think the website is insane. The site allows you to hear both songs side by side and even tells you when the sample begins.

I know many of you are saying, “We haven’t gotten new Animal Show in so long. These are not the blazing new singles that I’m used to, this is just a gushfest of some admittedly awesome website.” For that I apologize, but I thought you would all want to check this out. I mean “Juicy” has an identical pair. Notorious legitimately changed nothing, simply removed the lyrics, and spat hot fire over the remnants. It’s still incredible — don’t get me wrong — I’m just glad that whosampled.com allows me the opportunity to credit Mtume with a funktastic classic.

Possibly even cooler than “Juicy” is “Big Pimpin’.” Timbaland merely Americanizes a Baligh Hamdi song (since that version was never recorded, whosampled.com uses the Hossam Ramzy version). The owners of the rights to the song even sued Timbaland, Jay-Z, Linkin Park and EMI Music for lifting parts of it note-for-note in 2007. And while you could have known all of this if you did any research, whosampled.com gives you all the tools and the tracks.

And while most music fans will know the first two, I’m sure fewer knew that “So Fresh So Clean” was similarly lifted? Jo Simon’s 1977 track “Before the Night Is Over” features the exact same beat as the Outkast classic. Again, I do not take anything away from the artists for sampling. I love sampling. I think it’s one of the best parts of Hip-Hop. Artists connect generations with beats, and put their own twists on classics. All I’m saying is that I want to make sure all listeners understand that not all the beats they hear are created out of the genius of Kanye West’s producing abilities, but rather many feature help from previous generations, or at least contemporary artists of different genres. And the true greatness of whosampled.com, is that it gives recognition to both the old artist, and credit the new for building a masterpiece on a solid foundation.

I’ll assume you have the newer masterpiece (yes all of the aforementioned are masterpieces) and just give you the sample, but go to whosampled.com and check out their crazy database that extends far beyond the realms of Hip-Hop. And if you’re looking for some more fun samples check out “Jump On It,” “Brooklyn’s Finest,” “School Spirit” and “It Was a Good Day”. All of those feature some pretty awesome samples, and please leave some more cool ones in the comments.

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Juicy Fruit – Mtume (YSI)

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Khusara Khusara – Hossam Ramzy (YSI)

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Before the Night Is Over – Joe Simon (YSI)

My Day: A Friday in Mashups

Edward — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:39:47 +0000

This is how it is

It’s a Friday, ya’ll. I know because I have a page-a-day calendar, and when I peeled off the page from yesterday (which was a Thursday page, fyi), it revealed a page which said “Friday,” replete with an adorable picture of a kitten in a fireman costume. This is how I know the things I know. Citation: Adorable Kittens Page-a-day 2009, page 310. Harper Collins, Detroit. 2008 ISBN: 8173372300-1. That is the proper Chicago format for citing page-a-day calendars. Memorize it; it’ll come in useful later.

It being a Friday and all, you need some mashups. You need them so bad. And I’ve got some sick new ones, from a few mashup artists you almost certainly haven’t heard of yet.

The first comes from Xaphoon Jones, who’s a Philly artist responsible for a seriously nasty mixtape. You may have heard of him before, because he produces for Chiddy Bang, whose “Kids” was a debut single for the ages. Believe it or not, my proper introduction to him came from the New York Times write-up of the Stereogum-affiliated CMJ, where he got a pretty huge shout-out. His Radiohead/”Touch the Sky” pairing is surprisingly awesome.

Next is an artist I’m very proud to have the internet debut of: my good friend Nate Fritts, who mixes, chops, and screws under the slip-pad name Carpe-DMC. Nate’s a huge Weezy fan, and one day I tried to play him the Animal Show’s favorite summer mash, “Comfortable Up in Here.” His response was, “nah, man, you’ve got to hear this!” and then he put on a Ratatat-Wayne mashup he’d made. I’m going to save that one for another day to keep you salivating; for today, rock out to his “Move, Barry,” which manages to make “Barry Bonds,” arguably the weakest song off of Graduation, a serious gem, tying it to LEN’s timeless classic, “Steal My Sunshine.” Keep your eyes here for more from Carpe-DMC…

The final is a perfect outro, crafted by another newbie, DJ Moondance, whose body of work, frankly, is entirely non-noteworthy. Seriously. His first album was a Jay-Z/DMB effort. But this shows serious promise, with a nice Blink-182 sample behind Birdman/Lil Wayne. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to his mashes in the future.

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Testify (Kanye West vs Lupe Fiasco vs Radiohead) – Xaphoon Jones (YSI)

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Move Barry (Kanye West vs Ludacris vs LEN) – Carpe-DMC (YSI)

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Stuntin 182 (Blink-182 vs Lil Wayne vs Train vs Birdman) – DJ Moondance (YSI)

Good Friday

Did Brown Reinvent the Wheel?

dfjacobs — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:42:28 +0000

Teenage fun

After reading my first few articles, hopefully you are all thinking, “Edward struck gold again, who is this young Renaissance man?” And while I hope that the belief applies to more of you than my mother, I trust that you are not so outraged by my writing and musical selections that you find yourselves collectively organizing to storm my house, pitchforks in hand, asking for my head, or at least my wordpress password. Remember, Edward has his reasons for everything; I was not just brought to the Show to end my incessant begging.

You see, young Skywalkers, the educational establishment which I attend happens to be the very same institution that famed Ivy League front man Adrian Simon and lesser known yet equally awesome Ivy League guitarist Alex Beer attend. And it just so happens that I am actually pretty good friends with the both of ‘em. Now, what does this mean you ask? Didn’t the Ivy League disband? Well, yes and no. Yes they did, but it lasted about 30 minutes. They have a new CD in the mixing stages and from the one or two songs I’ve heard, you will not be disappointed. “Adrian Simon and other kids playing instruments” stay true to their bubble gum pop roots and a bust out an even tighter record than their debut (I say all this having heard only two of their new songs, although I have heard most of the others live).

But for all of you New York based readers (or at least those of you within 6 hours driving distance), boy, do I have a surprise for you! November 14th at Don Hill’s, Adrian, Alex, Dan Hockstein (the regular bassist, for all of you non-Ivy aficionados), and Griffin Emerson (a dashing young drummer who’s been groomed for the role of drummer for about 4 years), will all assemble to play a show entirely devoted to covers. And good ones too, I can’t reveal the set list, but I can give you three previews of classic Ivy covers. I think it’s safe to say I’ll see most of you in a few weeks.

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The Good Life (Kanye West Cover) – Adrian Simon (YSI)

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Sleepyhead (Passion Pit Cover) – Adrian Simon (YSI)

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Buy U a Drank (T-Pain Cover) – The Ivy League (YSI)

But really, go to the Ivy League concert, it’s gonna be insane.

Audio Safari — Bigger and Backer

Edward — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:44:29 +0000

The Animal Show does not and never will condone violence against any creature on the Earth. But, c'mon dudes, it's Tintin!

I can hear your thoughts. Fact. And I hear you thinking, “where the hell is Edward? Did that bastard ditch us again?” Shut up, mind noises. I’m right here. In fact, I’ve been sitting right here for the 2 weeks since I last posted. DOING WORK. Do you know what that’s like? No, you don’t, because you waste all your time reading WEBSITES. Laaaaaaaame. Seriously, I’ve been doing meaningful shit. Like analyzing pure monadic schemata. How much schematic analysis have you done recently? That’s what I thought. But now I’ve come out of the logical woods and back into civilization, arms full of musical goodies to distribute while you’re asleep, like Santa but with creepier facial hair. So leave your stockings near your router, because here I come.

First, it’s time for a hats off to Dave, for covering my absence so ably and wordily. He enlightened us with some pretty sick Arcade Fire b-sides, hit us with a NASTY Sufjan mash-up, and titled a post so well, I thought I was about to read some Magic Tree House fanfic (not the first time I’ve been disappointed by not finding some Magic Tree House fanfic). More importantly, however, Dave did the important work of reintroducing some oft-mentioned, never (til now) realized Animal Show features, namely album reviews. I’ve got a couple in the pipe, that I’m going to hit you with early next week (NEW SUFJAN NEW SUFJAN NEW SUFJAN). But first, I’munna bust you in the face with some JAMS. ANIMAL SHOW STYLE.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to the often-maligned but never forgotten Audio Safari! I set the bar pretty high there with how much I liked the Silver Sea’s “Imaginary Girl” (and if you don’t have that song, you should immediately click the link above and go download it and listen to it a million bajillion times and then burn it onto mix cds for all your friends, drawing hearts and stars around it on the enclosed tracklist). But I still stand behind these songs. They rule. Like them. Now.

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Flashing Lights (High Contrast Remix) – Kanye West (YSI)

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Never Chasing Pavement (Urban Noize Remix) – Jay-Z feat. Adele and Kanye West (YSI)

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Sleepyhead (The Knocks Remix) – Passion Pit (YSI)

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The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance (Miike Snow Remix) – Vampire Weekend (YSI)

Keep your eyes peeled for my promised review of Late for the Sky, as well as much BQE goodness.

Poker Face? I hardly know her!

marquismeowmersiv — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:12:09 +0000

I don't think that is Common or Lady GaGa to the right of Kanye, but it's probably close enough...

Collaborations. Samples. Super groups. In this post-modern era, it doesn’t take much time for a chart topper to become sample fodder for another chart topper. So when I stumbled on this track whilst shamelessly perusing PerezHilton, I wasn’t shocked that the CURRENT number 2 song in America is now the lead hook for what is bound to become another chart topper. The Lady GaGa sample is AMAZING, and it sounds like some solid Kanye production on the track. Speaking of Kanye, his verse is refreshing: no auto-tune, not too much singing, no lovey-dovey crap. Just smooth Kanyeezy flow and hilarious innuendo (”… I love college / gettin’ brains in the library / cuz I love knowledge”). Kid Cudi shows that he really can drop a verse here and there rather than a repetitive-yet-catchy chorus, and Common just tears it up like always. Seriously folks, this song is bound to be a hit very very soon… so good!

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I Poke Her Face – Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West, Common, and Lady GaGa (mediafire)

Part B (see previous: Part A)

icebergxc — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:52:21 +0000

Something about Han Solo and Carbonite

So remember that time that I blogged a blog about some new songs from Party Ben? It was all like “these are some good songs, but there is another one that he hasn’t released yet, so chill out a sec, willya?

He released that last one. It’s a lively mashup of Justice, Kanye West, Soulwax, and Walter Murphy he’s calling “Let There Be Love/Beethoven Lockdown”. As the format of the title implies, it’s got this tight two-part thingy going on, but is best taken all together for maximal effect. Truly, it is a work, one of those where the instrumental works so hard that you just want to sing along with it even though you’re not an instrument. Also, the video for this one is really really tight, check it out on Party Ben’s site.

In case you were wondering, the Classical groove that you taste is from Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth of Beethoven”, the same song that popularized A plus D’s mega (well, as mega as mashups get) hit Beethoven’s Fifth Gold Digger. If any mashups can be said to be played out, this is one (the other being Boulevard of Broken Songs by Party Ben).

But before I start to ramble, here’s what you came here for:

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Party Ben – “Let There Be Love/Beethoven Lockdown” (mp3)

What Comes Before Part B?

icebergxc — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:59:16 +0000

This is what happens when you google image search "partay"

ANSWER: PARTAYY!!

I’ll give you a minute to figure that one out and then smile weakly.

Ok, with that out of the way it’s time to drop a couple of hawt tracks on you that were released earlier this month by the self-proclaimed Showbizznessman with the Dumbest Name: Party Ben. If you go to his site, you’ll find videos for these two tracks plus another one, which I had watched almost before he posted them because I’m a blogger and that’s what I do. Then I was going to wait for him to master the tracks and release them. Then he took forever. Then he pooped the first two out. Then he made a post about fart jokes and I was like eff this ess and just (JUST) decided to post the first two for now.

First is the worst: another version of the Boulevard of Broken Songs, this time mashed up with Kanye West’s critically overplayed “Flashing Lights” (and I cite GTA IV for that assertion. Gamers know what I’m on about). I’m not posting this so much because it’s “good” per se, or even just because it came in a 3-pack with two actually good songs. No. This song is special, because it’s a primo example of a META-MASHUP. Dude took one of his old mashups (2004), and mashed it with a newer song! Sweet Jesus! (P.S. I hereby coin the term “Remashup” and all permutations)

Second is the best (of two): I hate (love) saying this, but I was listening to Rihanna and T.I.’s “Live Your Life” waaaaay before it got popular. By the time I heard it at a party, I was totally over it. But now it’s back, and totally appropriate for this hipster blog because it’s mashed up with…wait for it…VAMPY WEEKEND! Hurrah! Those wacky dudes in their solid-color American Apparel tightie-purplies (or whatever color) completely rob Rihanna of her significant intense tonage and make it an affair to skip gaily about to. I dig this song hard, and I expect you will too. Otherwise we’re not friends anymore.

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Boulevard of Flashing Lights – Party Ben (MP3)

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Live Your Life, Punk – Party Ben (MP3)