If you have ever had the pleasure of having a conversation
with me about hip hop or music for that matter I will have told you how highly I
rate this guy. I have been talking him up to anyone who will listen since I 1st
heard his mixtape ‘The Warm Up’ in 2009. I have seen him live twice and I really
think that he’s the real deal.
Since that effort in 09 there have been a few more mixtapes
and a well-received debut album, and now the build-up has begun to the release
of the follow up to ‘Cole World: The Sideline Story,’ ‘Born Sinner’ which is
due 25th June.
This track isn’t a single and isn’t a preview of what the
new album will sound like (apparently) It’s just a track he threw out on
Twitter last night. But we do find Cole at the top of his game rapping about anything
and everything, over a beat with an absolute killer sample. What more do you
want?
So far on throwback Thursday I’ve given you guitars and hip
hop separately, so this week I’m going to give you both at the same time.
People who don’t know about rock music love this record.
People who don’t know anything about hip hop love this record. And people who
hate both love this record!
Of course it’s RUN DMC and Aerosmith and ‘Walk this way’. It’s
taken from the album ‘Raising Hell’ (Which is a classic by the way) and was
released on 4th July 1986. The song was the brainchild of legendary
producer Rick Rubin. If you know anything about me you’ll know that I think
that this man is one of the all-time greats, you should really check him out.
RUN DMC were initially not very impressed with Rubin’s idea but a combination
of Rubin and the groups DJ Jam Master Jay talked round the other 2 members and
one of the most famous tracks in rap history was born.
This track was the 1st rap video ever shown on
MTV, so launched the career of RUN DMC and resurrected the career of Aerosmith
who had been having a shocking time in the mid-80’s. Oh
and this version is much better than the original.
Here’s the blog that I know at least one of you is waiting
for. Admittedly this is probably one more than the usual number of people
interested in what I write.
Our topic today ladies and gentlemen is my and the rest of
the world’s love affair with training to music. You can visit as many gyms as
you want up and down the land but it will always be the same, the vast majority
of people whether they are lifting weights or churning out the miles on the
treadmill people will be listening to music. Some use music to hold a rhythm
especially when running, others use it for motivation. Other people are just a
bit weird and watch TV, but for the purposes of this blog I’m going to ignore
these people. (They are a strange lot
anyway)
Personally I find it very difficult to train without music,
like I find it very difficult to train with other people, in the sense that
when I’m running or whatever I’m very much in my own head, with my own
thoughts, having my own personal battle with myself. So the music I listen to is picked
specifically for training. It’s loud, its aggressive it’s hard hitting. We are
taking about stuff like Marilyn Manson, M.O.P, and Eminem. If it’s loud and has
guitars in there’s a fair chance I’ll listen to it. When it’s playing I’m dead
to the outside world, I’m just focussed. I’d also like to point out here that
if you haven’t trained at least once to any of the ‘Rocky’ soundtracks you need
to sort your life out. Music associated to ‘Rocky’ has magical powers, trust
me. I’ve always found Bill Conti’s ‘Going the distance’ is immense. (Think
strings and running up steps)
However some people take this all a bit less seriously than
me. (Bridg, this is your bit) For example, my friend Bridg will listen to
whatever is on the radio at the time. There is absolutely no thought that goes
into it what so ever. She will happily just cycle away on the bike content that
something is on in the background. Now, I have one problem with this, how do
you train to a ballad? Picture the scene… you’re going through the pain barrier;
your personal best time is in sight just as the DJ on the radio announces ‘Up
next it’s Robbie Williams with Angels’… Yeah exactly. That’s not going to cut
it for me. But apparently for Bridg its fine, it makes no sense (much like
Bridg herself) but whatever makes floats your boat.
So maybe it’s just about having something on in the background?
Who knows? Robbie has never really done it for me though I’ll be honest.
Anyway, I will now present to you some of the songs I train to. Try them out,
you never know, they might just make those painful and monotonous hours in the
gym a little easier to bear.
Despite all of the controversy about government protests and
the like there was actually a grand prix in Bahrain at the weekend, and a
pretty good one at that.
Yes Sebastian Vettel may have strolled to victory without
having to break sweat but there was plenty to keep the fans entertained.
Nico Rosberg started on pole and made a decent start but as
the majority of the paddock predicted he was going to need a miracle to stay
and sadly for the German driver that miracle didn’t arrive. The Mercedes has
built a bit a reputation for being quite hard and so it proved here as Rosberg
spent most of the race defending his position and going backwards than trying
to challenge those at the front. Vettel’s closest challenger was expected to be
Fernando Alonso, and he may have pushed the reigning world champion had it not
been for a faulty DRS system which caused him to make an extra early stop, this
issue also meant he had to drive the rest of the race without DRS. And now that
DRS is such a major factor on tracks with long straights like the start/finish
straight in Bahrain he was at a big disadvantage, so his 8th place
needs to be put in perspective.
The final 2 steps on the podium were filled by the 2 Lotus ‘with
Kimi Raikonnen and Romain Grosjean finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively,
which strangely meant that the podium looked exactly as it did at this race
last year. Paul Di Resta did alright and
brought his Force India home in 4th while after apparently sleep
walking through the 1st half of the race Lewis Hamilton eventually
woke up and pulled his Mercedes up to 5th position, which considering
the tyre issues is a pretty good result.
But it seems that the biggest story to come from yesterday
is that Jenson Button is less than enamoured with teammate Segio Perez. Button
and his young Mexican teammate clashed on more than one occasion, with Button
appealing the team over the radio to call Perez off. Funnily enough it was only
last week when McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh was calling for Perez to be more
aggressive, I’m guessing he didn’t think it would work out like that. But for
me this is what I want to see a bit more of from Perez, at least he was close
to Button this week and let’s be fair the Britton also gave as good as he got. It’s
been reported today that the 2 of them have cleared the air, but frankly I’ll
wait until the next race before deciding whether I believe them or not.
So overall not a bad race at all, there was some good racing
and a bit of incident. Mercedes fell back a bit this weekend because their tyres
were being destroyed by the heat, so hopefully when the series comes to Europe
next time out we will have 4 teams battling for supremacy once more. Bring it on.
If you follow me on Twitter you will know that I have been
majorly looking forward to hearing this since I wrapped my ears round the
preview the other day, so I am very pleased to have now come across this.
This is the full, official single edit of ‘Get Lucky’ the 1st
single from the duos new album ‘Random Access Memories’ which will be released
on 20th May in the UK.
It features Nile Rodgers and Pharrell. This has to be the 1st
thing I’ve actually like Pharrell on for a good 7/8 years. It sounds exactly
like you’d want a Daft Punk single to sound. Funky. As. Hell. It’s much more in
the vein of ‘Discovery’ than ‘Human After All' which is a good thing if you
ask me.
Take my advice and turn this up, Daft Punk, ‘Get Lucky’ and
it’s out now.
Yes, you did read that right; we have new music from legends
Black Sabbath. And I have to say that it is brilliant.
It’s taken from the bands upcoming album ‘13’ which is due
out on the 11th June. (There you go Sam) ‘13’ will be the 1st
full studio album from the group since ‘Forbidden’ in 1995 and the 1st
to feature Ozzy Osbourne since ‘Never say die’ in 1978!
When I saw early last night that Zane Lowe had got the world
exclusive 1st play of the new Sabbath single I was very very
nervous. I was excited because I’m a huge Sabbath fan and the thought of
hearing the band at the top of their game once more was incredible but in the
back of my mind I honestly thought it was going to be crap. It’s a well-known
equation. Older/established group + new material = crap. Some when I tuned in I
just didn’t want it to be awful. I really shouldn’t have worried.
It’s a classic Sabbath record. 8 minutes and 52 seconds of
brilliance. It builds slowly, Ozzy’s vocals eerily wrapping themselves around
the slow atmospheric heavy chords of Tony Iommi’s guitar. Around the 6 minute
mark the track really picks up and hammers towards the finish with a nice little
guitar solo thrown in for good measure. It’s 2 songs in 1. Think War pigs/Luke’s
wall.
Original drummer Bill Ward has passed up the chance to be
part of the reunion and the new album so the group have recruited Brad Wilk
(Rage Against The Machine) and he doesn’t let the side down. Rick Rubin has
been drafted in for production duties and trust me you can tell. If you know
anything about me you will know that I think Rubin is a genius. He resurrected
the career of Johnny Cash as well as producing for likes of Run D.M.C, Beastie
Boys, Jay Z, Slayer, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Adele. He takes artists back to
basics, no frills, do what you do best.
This track does all of those things, its back to basics, the
band are back doing what they are good at. But most importantly it sounds
amazing.
It’s Thursday, so it’s an excuse for me to present to you an
old song that I really like.
My original plan for today didn’t actually involve this song
but after a dramatic turn of events over the last 24 hours I think this track
is more suitable.
So ladies and gentlemen I bring to you Snoop Dogg and the
classic ‘Gin and Juice.’ This track is taken from one of the greatest hip hop
albums of all time. If you ask any rap fan to list their top 10 rap albums of
all time this album will almost always make an appearance.We are of course talking about Snoop’s debut ‘Doggystyle.’
Released in 1993, it launched Snoop’s career, helped define
the sound of an entire coast and is in my eyes one of the best produced hip hop
albums ever and maybe even one of the best produced albums in history full
stop. And to top it off it's got a great video.
‘Gin and Juice’ was the 2nd single from the album
and was released on 15th January 1994. The production is amazing,
the song is beyond smooth and it sounds immense when the sun is out. I know some of you will see Snoop Dogg in the title and not
give the track a listen, but just try it, you never know it might open your
ears to something you may never have considered listening to before.
It’s Thursday so it’s time for the most un-original feature
in the history of blogging. The feature may not have the best title but the
songs my friends are pretty fantastic.
It’s at this point I’m going to have to hold my hands up and
admit that I didn’t actually pick the song this week. I got as far as deciding
that I wanted to use an Oasis song from one of their 1st two albums.
So I enlisted someone to do the thinking for me. It seemed only right seen as
she is a massive Oasis fan and a bit of a Noel Gallagher disciple. So Abbie…
Thank you. And that brings us nicely to the song, and what a song. ‘Don’t
look back in anger’ is without doubt a classic, even people who have no
knowledge of Oasis or even popular music know about this song. Yes the opening
piano may bear just a slight resemblance to John Lennon’s ‘Imagine,’ and yes it’s
been played to death since it came out, but it’s just a fantastic record.
It’s the 1st Oasis track to feature Noel on lead
vocals, and he has also admitted that he has no idea what the song is actually
about. But for me this is what makes Noel such a great songwriter. The song may
not make sense on paper but everyone knows what it means. And ‘Don’t look back...’
is definitely one of these songs, it can mean anything that you want it to
mean. But there is one line in there that people should actually take note of. And
that line is as follows... ‘Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock
and roll band, and throw it all away.’ Wise words Mr Gallagher, wise words. Trying
to live your life by the words of a song will not end well, trust me on this
one.
Anyway I could bore you to tears with info and stories about
this track but 1) you don’t want to read it and 2) the football is on in a
minute and I want to go and watch it. So for now I bid you fair well. And
remember, don’t drink and drive.
Didn’t see this one coming, but anyway no complaints we have
a new Jay Z track. I’m a big Jay Z fan so maybe I’m a little biased but I love
this record.
It's produced by Swizz Beatz, but Timbland has had a massive
hand over this as well if you ask me (I’ve seen him listed as a feature) just
classic Timbaland production.
Jay is back on form, the production is on point, great
track.
Recently I have turned into the blogger who does not blog,
and to be honest I think it’s time to change that. There are loads of really
good reasons why I haven’t written anything for a while but frankly I can’t be
bothered to list them and you probably can’t be bothered to read them.
So here we go then. Those of you who used to read my old
blog will know that I used to run a feature called Throwback Thursday.
Basically I pick an old track I really like and share it with you lot, and I do
this every Thursday. (Well they do say anyone can be a blogger these days)
Those of you out there who are regular readers will also
know that my taste in music is so varied it is impossible to put a label on it,
so it’s not like I’m just going to pick hip hop tracks every week.
And so to this week’s choice…..*drumroll*……. The classic ‘Alive’
by Pearl Jam.
Despite what Kurt Cobain thought Pearl Jam are a fantastic
band, and even if people don’t know anything about them they know this song. It
was released as a single in the UK in 1992 and charted at number 16. Proof if
ever it was needed that the charts mean nothing when it comes to the quality of
music.What really stands the song out though
is that solo… My God! If that solo can’t get you turning up your speakers to
breaking point and playing air guitar you’re dead to me quite frankly. (Not
literally obviously, I need all the readers I can get)
So boys and girls there you have my offering for week 1. If
there is anything you want me to profile or write about in future, get at me on
Facebook, Twitter or even in person if I know you. If you don’t, please don’t try
and hunt me down, that’s a bit weird.
