First of all, let me apologize (good start, right?): I have no idea how overplayed any/all of these songs are in whatever country it is you access this site. After all, only 679 visits came from Italy in the last year, meaning that no one is here looking for the latest remix of Eurotrash Jam ‘10 “Stereolove,” which is fine, because I’m really not interested in hearing that song ever again. In my internet-restricted foreign prison, I’ve been at a loss to keep up with singles. Hype Machine doesn’t even work here. Can you imagine? THESE METH BUGS WON’T LEAVE ME ALONE. You know, the ones I get from not being able to surf Hype Machine. Get it? You get it. But, as such, I’ve been forced to kick it old school, listening to albums like some sort of old man. Grampa’s been able to scrounge up a few songs from between the sofa cushions, though, and he’s taking you all to Friendly’s for Clown Sundaes. Hooray!

First comes Big Boi’s infectious “Shutterbugg.” If that voice doesn’t snap you into an I <3 2001 nostalgia montage, you need clinical help. Outkast’s less cool half (sorry, but true) is shaking that comeback tree, and it sounds like MEMORIES. Damn, y’all. Then comes my favorite track off of what may be my favorite release of 2010 so far, Subiza by the Spanish popmeisters Delorean, which is so good that it inspired me to tweet. Desperate times, right? Next off the blocks is a Harlem Shakes track that’s been kicked up to 11 by Kids at the Bar, which comes at you courtesy of my ear to the ground in all things music, James, who’s been trying his damnedest to keep me looped through these trying times. Finally, the rainmaker: Biggie Smalls’ “Can I Get Witcha” blended seamlessly with honey-voiced Andrea Bocelli’s “Por Ti Volare,” a name which almost certainly means something in Italian. A properly abroad-infused mashup to keep you going. So gobble ‘em up fast, because these took me an hour to upload and who knows when you’ll see the likes of me around these e-parts again. Until June, soul clap, soul clap, can I get a little soul clap?

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Shutterbugg – Big Boi (YSI)

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Simple Graces – Delorean (YSI)

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Strictly Game (Kids at the Bar Remix) – Harlem Shakes (YSI)

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Can I Get Witcha? vs Por Ti Volare – Notorious BIG vs Andrea Bocelli (YSI)

Related posts:

1. This time you can call it a comeback
2. Call A Plumber, Music Has Sprung A Leak
3. A Little Love For Another MJ

It’s alright. You can lean back from the edge of your seat. Our year-end lists are coming to their long, drawn-out conclusion in the form of our favorite mashes of 2009. It was certainly the year of the long-form mashup, with not one but two fantastically different and perfectly executed albums dropping, both of which placed in our favorite albums.

The list sort of reads like it was intended to just be our favorite Hood Internet tracks, but I’m going to go ahead and blame that on the fact that there is no one out there executing as effectively or consistently as those guys, and I really do think they’ve earned all 3 of the spots on this list (and I should probably mention that my own list had “Comfortable Up In Here” filling out the #5 spot, so I’m certainly 100% behind anything and everything Hood releases). Anyway, enjoy, and then help me in looking forward to 2010’s exciting first quarter releases.

• #5: Hathaway – “Party and Bullshit in the USA” – There are some mashups that exist only out of the hilarity of their titles — in fact, for a long time, that was what I thought the most of mashups were, due mainly to icebergxc’s constantly asking me (way back in 07) if I’d heard “Walking in Memphis Down The Boulevard of 99 Broken Problems” or “Kiss You Through the Bananaphone” or “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Panther” — and this one certainly exists out of the merits of its overlapping titles. The strange part is that it works. Really well. Maybe it’s because everyone loves the synth backing of “Party in the USA” or we all like to shout “I’m a bad boy” along with Biggie. Or both. Sometimes, though, it’s best not to question, and to instead complacently enjoy “could you be kicked, pushed, loved, and then take on me while running so far away.” – Edward

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Hathaway – Party And Bullshit in the USA (YSI)

• #4: The Hood Internet – “Cult Logic Forever” – This is a great mashup without a hint of kitsch. “Forever,” on its own, is a disappointment. It’s got the right rappers, but the beat wrecks it mercilessly with sirens and other garbage noise. Stripping the mess off and bringing it up to speed with some talented instrumental from Miike Snow was the best thing that has ever happened to it. Now it’s as smooth as it is sharp and hangs together tighter than BFFs sharing a straightjacket. – icebergxc

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The Hood Internet – Cult Logic Forever (YSI)

• #3: The Hood Internet – “Make The Loop Say Aye” — I’ll admit it: I was one of the Vampire Weekend fanboys who nearly peed his pants the first time he heard “Osaka Loop Line.” I thought Discovery’s LP was going to be my favorite album of 2009. And I swear to god, the tattoo pen was not inches from my upper thigh when I finished the cd for the first time and realized that it was definitely not ink-worthy. But, as the saying goes, those that can’t do teach. And those who don’t know that “who” is the personal pronoun probably shouldn’t be calling others inept. And those who may not have the force to sustain your interest on their own ought to be mashed up. Yes, the song ruled on its own. But this was the late-inning pep-talk it needed. In October, long after I had grown tired of Discovery (although the fantastically polyrhythmic “So Insane” even to this day continues to impress me), I heard this for the first time, and my faith was restored. The Hood Internet perfectly match breaks and builds in every song they assemble, though this may showcase it the best. Beauty, grace, Ms. Mashup #3 of 2009, ladies and gents. – Edward

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The Hood Internet – Make the Loop Say “Aye” (YSI)

• #2: The Hood Internet – “Two Weeks of Hip-Hop” — As Matthew Whipple of the 2009 breakout Cymbals Eats Guitars said, “[“Two Weeks” is] pure ear candy… what a song… I want to be Chris Taylor’s bass line.” So when the Hood Internet’s ABX threw Dead Prez over one of the best songs of the year, chaos ensued in the form of “Two Weeks of Hip Hop.” The opening features two of my favorite intros of all time, the now classic keyboard progression of “Two Weeks” and Dead Prez yelling, “it’s bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop.” The track seamlessly combines genres in a strikingly natural fashion, one which I believe Ethan Ward once said was the ideal goal of mashups (clearly he’s the freaking authority on this matter). A few of my stunningly brainless friends even believed “Two Weeks of Hip Hop” to be the original (don’t fear, I no longer associate with those morons). But in their defense, this is because the two wildly disparate tracks come together like Ben & Jerry’s delicious and all-natural Half Baked to create earth-shattering awesomeness. -DFJacobs

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The Hood Internet – Two Weeks of Hip-Hop (YSI)

• #1: E-603 – “If You Wanna” — On ‘If You Wanna’, international superstar E-603 saves a potentially generic mash-up affair from mediocrity by adding the only possible ironic element to a mash-up: a narrative. Mash-ups and bootleg, by definition, are anti-narrative, deconstructing source texts and transforming them into a work that is based in pure aesthetics. Taking a vocal sample and chopping out pieces and parts, as E-603 does at the beginning of the track, leaves you with nothing but a glorified DJ set. But by adding the song long crescendo, ending with the full story of City High’s gritty ‘What Would You Do?’, the song develops a more full structure that leaves the listener in awe of E-603’s ability to create true songs, rather than mere mash-ups. Bringing the song’s two distinct parts together is a fantastic showcase of technical ability, in what one internet critic called, “some of the most fluid mixing I’ve heard.” A sublime track in itself, it is by far the most accurate representation of E-603’s mature mash-up opus.- Marquis Meowmers

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E-603 – If You Wanna (YSI)

Related posts:

1. Revenge of the Hood Internet: the First Animal Collective Mash-up I like.
2. Top 10 Songs of 2009
3. Wasn’t the Fourth of July Yesterday?

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)

Related posts:

1. I want to be Biggie when I grow up
2. Part B (see previous: Part A)
3. Where'd My Indie Friendies Go?

The Man. The Legend. The Coldest Stare in Hip-Hop.

I do. I want to be Biggie. With the possible exception of the drug-dealing. And adultery. And violence. And baggy pants. And probably the rap — my flow isn’t all that good.

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I want to be morbidly obese when I grow up. It’s part of my life-long goal to be the fattest person at my high-school reunion. And not in a “wow, he’s really stopped caring about himself” sort of way, but instead in a “DEAR GOD WHAT IS THAT THING?” sort of way. It’s a “to the pain” kind of idea. But I’ll be doing it to myself. And I’ll be gross fat. Really gross. And unhealthy, obviously. Ideally, I’d be so big I’d break bones in my legs when I tried to stand. It’s a beautiful dream I’m happy to share with you. But I digress….

I saw Notorious last weekend, and it was a nice film. I call it a “film” because it was serious business. And it was good. I’d recommend it. But you don’t read this because I recommend you films or even movies, but instead because I recommend music.

My all-time favorite hip-hop album is “Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star”, but Biggie’s “Ready to Die” is giving it a serious run for its money. Although his subject matter tends towards violence, it’s delivered with emotional force, which is part of what Notorious gets across. It’s an album with a lot of force, and I’d recommend it. Especially if you’ve seen Notorious – the film contextualizes the album in a very cool way.

Sample my two favorite songs below (one of which, “Juicy,” you may recognize from Girl Talk’s Night Ripper’s climax, when it was paired with Elton John).

Juicy – Notorious B.I.G.

Everyday Struggle – Notorious B.I.G.

If you don’t have it already, buy Ready to Die. Or get it on cassette and play it on your ghetto-blaster, for maximum faithfullness to Biggie’s legacy.

Related posts:

1. When I grow up I want to live in Baltimore so I can hang out at Wham City…
2. Sample Size
3. Don’t Call It a Comeback