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kottke.org posts about rap

Snoop Dogg’s Peaches N Cream lyric video

Snoop Dogg’s next album, BUSH, doesn’t drop until May 12, but until then, we’ve got a very cool lyric video for the first single, “Peaches N Cream,” featuring Charlie Wilson and directed by Wolf & Crow.


Doctor Who gonna bust a cap in yo ass

Sometimes the simple things in life are best…like a compilation of clips of The Doctor shooting guns with a gansta rap soundtrack.

(via ★interesting)


“Thank You, Vocoder”

“Vocoders are an instantly recognizable synthesizer sound, having been used in popular music since the 1960s. They allow you to ‘talk like a robot’, which while fun, is often not musically useful.”

This from “Introduction to Vocoders,” proves the point that the vocoder does not, in fact, turn a song into music. The voice analyzer/synthesizer system that was originally developed in the 1930s to facilitate early telephony has now become a seemingly inescapable accessory to popular music.

Rapper Ice Cube also awkwardly reflected on the negative effects of vocoders on rap:

“Records sales really not concerned to me as much as doing it my way. And doing the kind of records I want to do. Without some A&R dude trying to tell me to go find T-Pain and get you a voice box. Ya know, all this stupid stuff that they do that mess up a lot of records, mess up a lot of artists.”

This clip of T-Pain v. His Vocoder is the audio equipment equivalent of Stephen King’s Christine, and it certainly backs up Mr. Cube’s claim.

Update: Turns out that the actual device Mr. Pain uses to alter his voice box is referred to as an Auto-Tune, and it’s the weapon of choice for Cher, Kanye, and T-Pain, who seems just as oblivious as this author was. The two machines are entirely different.

Thx jason freeman


An up-and-coming rapper gets shot outside a

An up-and-coming rapper gets shot outside a Manhattan radio station studio, scrambes inside the building, and does a 2-hour interview/freestyle session like nothing happened. Fun article.


The social networks of the rap music

The social networks of the rap music world “differ from all other human networks”. By and large, successful rap artists don’t collaborate/hang out with one another, as usually happens in other human social groups. (via cd)


DMC, the latter half of Run-DMC, has

DMC, the latter half of Run-DMC, has abandoned his trademark (my) Adidas for Le Coq Sportif.


Explicit Content Only, NWA’s Straight Outta Compton

Explicit Content Only, NWA’s Straight Outta Compton edited to contain only the swear words. The full version makes it seem like my laptop has Tourette’s and the edited version is pretty funny.