Return of the B-Boy Mixtape

Between digging through some of my old CD wallets and bumping Strictly Business (1988) at work, the past week was a reminder of just how deep (and I mean, DEEP) into Hip-Hop I was throughout the glory days of junior high and early high school. Rediscovering classics like Mobb Deep's The Infamous (1995), or Mecca and the Soul Brother (1992), records I once memorized from front to back, has taken me on nostalgic joy rides and inspired a renewed appreciation for the music.

  

All of this Hip Hop reminiscing meant I had to throw together a quick mixtape of some of my favorite cuts: 16 tracks that together do a pretty good job of non-chronologically spanning the gamut of Hip Hop's trajectory, from classic old school to some of the genre's more contemporary directions.  You gotta turn the volume up on this one.

Tracklisting:

1. EPMD - Let The Funk Flow, from Strictly Business (1988)

2. Madvillain - Money Folder (Four Tet remix), from Remixes (2006)

3. Ugly Duckling - I Did It Like This, from Journey To Anywhere (2000)

4. A Tribe Called Quest - Vibes and Stuff, from The Low End Theory (1991)

5. Gang Starr - You Know My Steez, from Moment of Truth (1998)

6. Pete Rock - Hip 2 Hip, from Soul Survivor II Sessions (2005)

7. Mos Def - Hip Hop, from Black On Both Sides (1999)

8. People Under The Stairs - The Breakdown, from Question in the Form of an Answer (2000)

9. Common - The People, from Finding Forever (2007)

10. Digable Planets - Black Ego, from Blowout Comb (1994)

11. Handsome Boy Modeling School - The Projects (P Jays), from So . . . How's Your Girl? (1999)

12. Blackalicious - My Pad and My Pen, from The Craft (2005)

13. Atmosphere - Modern Man's Hustle, from God Loves Ugly (2002)

14. Flying Lotus - 1983, from 1983 (2006)

15. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - I Get Physical, from The Main Ingredient (1994)

16. The Nonce - Mix Tapes, from World Ultimate (1995)

Click here to download the entire mixtape in a single folder.

Death to Blogging, A Renewal, and Some Sort of Manifesto

As you surely have apprehended by now, this experiment in music-and-other-"things"-blogging has slowed to a molasses-drip of output that is, at best, pretty pathetic, and at worst, begging the question of what's the point. Nick's hiatus (read: his sugarcoated resignation) and my own dearth of posts both point to a logical conclusion: that hella philistine as it currently stands must die (if it hasn't already, which it pretty much has).  It's been fun, it's been real.  Thanks for the memories.

Which I can't say I'm sad about.  There's been some sense of relief in not worrying about trying to post something just to post something this past month.  I mean, this stuff takes a surprising amount of work.  And keeping up with the increasingly tabloid-like nature of music news and culture is exhausting, self-consuming, and, as I've been starting to find lately--an unnecessary drag.  In all of this, for me, the raw joy I get from music has somehow gotten lost, gone fishing, A.W.O.L.

I'm still gonna keep this blog going, but on some different terms.  The original blueprints have been redrawn, thrown out, incinerated, along with all the bull.  What's left will be non-comprehensive and out of step with the scene; the music shared because I have fun doing it and hope you find something you dig.  

There's so much great music going on out there, and the internet is a phenomenal vehicle for its spread.  But all too often the racing machinery of the blogosphere and its byproducts of hype and status lose sight of a basic truth: Music is not meant to be exclusive. 

So, here we go again,

Truitt