Most of the new favorites I pulled from there, however, were from bands like Nick Cave's Grinderman, avant tardesters the Liars, and the Tori Amos-esque Bat for Lashes. It never ceases to amaze me- and always bugs me- that out of the 100 songs they post, there are always at least 30% which I've never ever ever heard of. Some of these are songs I've enjoyed all year, but some are songs I just nabbed off Pitchfork's best of 2007 list last week and I liked immediately. I'm considering this the 10th and perhaps final Favorite Songs of 2007 post. But those songs are just sitting out there not being enjoyed, so go enjoy them already. And I should be cleaning my house right now, because it's turning into Chez de McCormick this weekend as my roommie's family crashes it. I uploaded these tunes a few days ago, anticipating some procrastinating digression from studying in the form of blogging, but it never happened. Purchase Mos Def Black on Both Sides from Amazon. Purchase Blu & Exile Below the Heavens from iTunes. Purchase Blu & Exile Below the Heavens from Amazon. Mos Def - "Speed Laws", from Black on Both Sides Mos Def - "Ms Fat Booty", from Black on Both Sides Yeah, good description, right? Just go download, listen, and purchase if you like it enough.īlu & Exile - "My World Is.", from Below the Heavensīlu & Exile - "Blu Colla Workers", from Below the Heavensīlu & Exile feat Ta'raach - "Juicen' Dranks", from Below the Heavens "Juicen' Dranks", with Detroit's Ta'raach is the most J5 -sounding tune, if not only for T's Chali 2na -like guest verses and the Jayou-esque flute.Īll in all it's very good, and very. And each time I listen to it I half-expect Mos or Talib to chime in with a few verses. Opener "My World Is.", with the female vocal samples sounds like it coulda been Blu's guest spot on a Kanye-produced track. The beats of Below the Heavens seem pretty Jay Dilla -influenced. But that's not to discount Mos Def at all. Listening to this album the first time really reminded me of Black on Both Sides, which probably stands as my favorite hip hop album ever, since I grew up listening to Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins and got into the hip hop game a little late.
But Weiss is a little more knowledgeable in the hip hop game, so. Weiss likens Blu his hometown's Jurassic 5 but I'm going with Mos Def. Thanks to Passion of the Weiss and his inclusion of Blu & Exile on his list of best LA-area albums of 2007, I now have some really good hip hop to listen to instead of the new Lupe album, which of course is great but I don't wanna get sick of it before the year is over.