Anticon.

My late teen years consisted almost entirely of me and my 3 friends hanging out at each other's houses, going to shitty suburban punk shows, watching mystery science theater 3000 like it was going to be outlawed soon, and listening to Anticon records. Sure, i looked like a punk, listened to punk music, and went to punk shows...but my true love was this crazy, absurdist rap music that was unlike anything anyone had ever heard before. Here are the records they put out that totally changed my young world:

"Themselves: Them" This is two members of anticon, Dose One and Jel, with Dose handling the rapping and Jel doing all the beats. Dose was always my favorite out of the bunch, and still remains my favorite rapper of all time. This is Themselves' first album, back when they were just called Them.

Download (Sorry, all i could find was a megaupload link.)

"Sole: Bottle of Humans" I wasn't big on this one when i first heard it, but my friend Luke was obsessed with Sole in the way that i was obsessed with Dose One. Bottle of Humans grew on me after a while, though, mostly because of how much luke liked it.

Download

"Buck 65: Man Overboard" I bought this record from Buck 65 himself when i got to see him perform in Portland, ME in 2000. His live show was so much more of a real show than i had ever experienced at a hip hop show. After i saw him live and bought this record, i went on a two or three month binge of listening exclusively to Buck 65.

Download

"Clouddead: Clouddead" Clouddead was/is Dose One and Why? rapping and Odd Nosdam making the music. This is still one of my top 5 favorite albums ever. It's a completely enveloping experience. The beats range from having some kind of traditional 'bounce' to them, to being super ambient, atmospheric, and almost heavy. The album has a real sense of sadness and nostalgia about it that few, if any, hip hop records have ever had.

Download

"Themselves: The No Music" This is the second Themselves release. It's a way better album than the first one, in terms of sounding like a consistent whole and not just a collection of songs. It's also way more experimental without sacrificing their hip hop roots.

Download

I doubt these albums will have the same impact on you as they did for me, but they're still totally worth checking out if you like hip hop, or just weird music in general.

Terrorfied.

Ego Trip - 1979

The sun is warming up chicago once again. This means that, just like every other year, my musical pallette shifts ever so slightly from the sad/epic/melancholia that sounds so good in the winter time to the partyin'/sword-wielding/good time jams that feel so great in the summer time. On top of all the nwobhm, thrash, and early black metal (funny that that's 'good time jams' to me), i break out the hip hop once again.

This is a collection of 'the greatest hip hop singles of 1979', according to a mid-ninety's magazine called Ego Trip. They made one of these collections for every year up to 1998, so hopefully i'll get around to posting them. In the mean time, though, enjoy this. Classic old (old, old) - school hip hop. This is strictly for the parties; they had no artistic intentions with it whatsoever. Get some money, grab your girl, and hit up the block parties. Have a blast.

Here.

*repost from 4/1/10*

Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness

Back in the mid to late 90's, there was this really amazing thing happening where underground rappers were attempting to be scientists, historians, mythologists, ufologists, and theologians all at the same time. It was, i think, the best period in hip hop. Period. This is a perfect example of that time. I introduce Jedi Mind Tricks' 1997 masterpiece, "The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness". This album, their debut, goes between all of the above categories within seconds of eachother non-stop the entire time. It's kind of like listening to that crazy old man on the street corner that's handing out flyers of his home spun conspiracy theories for an hour straight. Only there's music, which makes it a little more bearable. Here.

Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness

Back in the mid to late 90's, there was this really amazing thing happening where underground rappers were attempting to be scientists, historians, mythologists, ufologists, and theologians all at the same time. It was, i think, the best period in hip hop. Period. This is a perfect example of that time. I introduce Jedi Mind Tricks' 1997 masterpiece, "The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness". This album, their debut, goes between all of the above categories within seconds of eachother non-stop the entire time. It's kind of like listening to that crazy old man on the street corner that's handing out flyers of his home spun conspiracy theories for an hour straight. Only there's music, which makes it a little more bearable.

Here.