Tag: "Wu-Tang Clan"

Months ahead of their recently announced new album, an unreleased Wu-Tang Clan song entitled “Execution In Autumn” has found its way online.

Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, RZA and U-God join forces to unleash “Execution In Autumn,” which was produced by Frank Dukes. We’re not sure whether or not this is from the history books or off the new album, but we are positive it’s 100% pure gold. No one flows like the Wu-Tang killer bees, and that is exactly what is on display here. You can stream the song below.

A Better Tomorrow is scheduled to arrive in stores by the end of Summer. Comment below and let us know if you plan on picking it up.

The boys who brought you 36 Chambers have grown into the men who gave hip hop some of the finest records of the last two decades, and it has just been revealed that this Summer they will reunite once more.

Announced with as few details as humanly possible yesterday, the members of the Wu-Tang Clan have revealed plans to release a new album entitled A Better Tomorrow at some point over the Summer. No details regarding artwork, producers, tour plans, or even a release date have been confirmed at this time, but many industry figures are guessing the record will surface in mid-July. A single should find its way online in the next week or two.

Whenever someone ultra-famous such as Wu-Tang announce an album, fans do whatever it takes to get every detail they can in advance of the release. This time there is no other info to be found, so I guess we’ll have to sit impatiently and wait for them to come to us.

Nobody can talk about grassroots success like Canadian hip-hop artist Classified, who has been blazing his own independent trail since 1995. The emcee and producer has toured with the likes of Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and Busta Rhymes, and has sold over 100,000 albums in Canada alone. Oh, and that awesome song in Madden ’12, “That Ain’t Classy?” Yeah, that was him. We sat down with one of the biggest names in Canadian hip-hop to chat about the Nova Scotian scene, his production styles, and his love/hate relationship with Kanye.

OS: What’s the Nova Scotian hip-hop scene like?

Classified: The scene is very Nova Scotian [laughs]. If you’re down here and you’re involved in the scene, you know what’s going on. You can go to the shows and check it out. But besides me and maybe two other guys, there aren’t many guys getting past just Nova Scotia to even the rest of Canada. We’re very secluded. We don’t get as many shows as they draw in Montreal or Vancouver. But it’s a dope scene. There’s been great artists coming out of here since ’95, when I started. People putting out albums, putting out their viral videos and stuff. It just still seems like a lot of people in the rest of the world haven’t been exposed to it because a lot of the artists aren’t pushing their stuff that hard. But really dope scene, great DJs, breakers, graff writers, emcees. Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Classified Talks Beats, Rhymes, And Life’

The group is a celebrated convention of hip-hop music culture. N.W.A. Wu-Tang Clan. Public Enemy. De La Soul. Need we say more? Greater than then sum of their parts, these are groups with famous individual members whose collective efforts are generally more celebrated than their solo material.

Cut to the modern day. The tradition of the hip-hop group is still alive and well. Black Hippy, for example, is a supergroup of sorts though they don’t have a release to their collective name. Ab-Soul and Schoolboy Q both enjoyed well-received releases this year, with Control System and Habits and Contradictions respectively. Yet neither release made the same splash as Kendrick Lamar, the most visible member of Black Hippy, and his major label debut good kid, m.A.A.d. city. But little else did. Even Jay Rock, the fourth and most slept on member of Black Hippy, has seen his profile rise considerably as of late, if only by proxy.

Black Hippy’s success is exceptional in a number of ways. No one release or member can be pointed to as the genesis for the success of the rest. Lamar is flying high right now, but Black Hippy was never entirely his show. It’s also rare for a group to have all of their members do as well as all four in Black Hippy have. In a hip-hop group dynamic, it’s not unusual for a member or two to become prominent. The rest will experience varying levels of popularity but the likelihood that each member fully breaks through is low.

But egos clash. Friendships fray. Artistic visions deviate. So, what happens to rappers who try to make it on their own?

Continue reading ‘Going Out On Your Own: When Affiliates Break Away From The Posse’

UPDATE: Pitchfork has posted a video of the full track with accompanying videos this morning. Check out the video after the jump.

Kanye West has come a long way since the release of his first album The College Dropout. That release introduced us to a Kanye that was hungry and humble. Now, just following the release of G.O.O.D. Music posse album Cruel Summer, Mr. West is still hungry for success. But humble? Eh, not really. And there’s definitely a few out there who have been left cold by West’s dalliances into electronic and bombastic production styles, longing for the days of his more soulful fare.

Well Kanye nostalgists have something special to look forward to today with the leaked preview of West’s “White Dress,” his cut for the soundtrack to upcoming hip-hop kung fu action flick The Man With The Iron Fists.

Continue reading ‘Hear A Snippet Of Kanye West’s Contribution To ‘The Man With The Iron Fists’ Soundtrack, “White Dress” [UPDATE]‘

• Sure to be a hot costume this Halloween…
• Jack White vs. Jack White.
• Punk Scene Investigation.
• Wu is back!
• Robert Plant shares some choice lines.
• An interesting perspective from Tunecore CEO Jeff Price.

It’s a pretty exciting time to be working in music marketing right now. And I mean that.

The Internet is, essentially, a collection of fiber optic cables, gently humming modems, and servers cooled via fans or percolating liquids. All of those quiet pieces have facilitated a din of information that is tugging at your eyes and ears for sensory attention every moment of the day.

So how does a musician rise above the info rabble? Used to be that a few well maintained social media sites, solid music product coupled, positive press, and strong word of mouth was enough to get some attention. Not anymore, though all of that is still really important.

Nowadays, the hot promotional vehicle du jour is the album trailer. Yes, trailer. The visual vehicle has moved beyond the movie theater — hell, even books get their own trailers these days. Album trailers are a pretty recent promotional innovation, and while it’s unclear whether they’ll become an integral part of a release campaign in the future, tons of bands have put out album trailers in 2012. So, we thought we would shine a light on some of our personal favorite album trailers from a handful of acts that we love.

Continue reading ‘What Makes An Album Trailer? We’ve Got A Few Great Examples! (And One Stinker)’

Talk about your wasted opportunities.

Late last week, a few pages of the a comic book originally slated to accompany the Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and Method Man collaborative album Wu-Massacre leaked online. The short comic book, also titled Wu-Massacre, sees the three Wu-Tang Clan members transformed from hip-hop heavyweights into ultra gritty über-badasses.

That’s the first page to the left. We can’t really show the rest as it’s potentially NSFW. Lots of guts, gore, and viscera is splattered across the following panels as the three Wu-Tangers fight against (and utterly destroy) some unknown adversaries. It’s the kind of stuff that must make up the fever dreams of every young male hip-hop star put to paper. The project had some serious creative backing too, with art direction handled by Alex Haldi and character design by illustrator Chris Bachalo.

And just to avoid any confusion going forward, Ghostface Killah is the guy in the white mask, Method Man is rocking the red jacket, and Raekwon is the commando-looking guy. Alas, whatever story there was is lost along with the dialogue. But does it really matter with artwork this fresh?

Continue reading ‘Unreleased Comics From “Wu-Massacre” Leak Online, Are Awesome’

Everyone wants to be a star. Especially rappers. While many brag about their ability to court members of the opposite sex, the wide breadth of their earthly possessions, their height of their stacks, and most importantly, swag, it all really boils down to status. Which, in turn, is attention. The higher one’s prestige, the greater their worth and the more eyeballs and ears they will attract.

Fortunately in hip-hop there is also a deep tradition of collaboration. Posse cuts are always dope. And a rapper without their beatmaker would just be a solo street accapellist. Spitting bars out in public, especially with a hardened affect while talking about violence and an ostentatious lifestyle, would not be a good look on anybody. Except maybe on this guy.

And you’re not him.

Which brings us to the topic of today’s piece, the feature rapper. When would the motivation to stand out ever be stronger then on someone else’s track? A game changing guest verse (or a couple hundred of them, in some rapper’s cases) has been enough in the past to launch careers much in the way a Top 40 charting single would. So here are some of our picks for the best feature rappers in the game right now. Please note that this list is objectively correct; we came to these rappers after a series of rigorous tests that followed the scientific method. Lab coats were worn while this list was put together.

Continue reading ‘Five Of The Best Feature Rappers In The Game’

This week I got the chance to catch up with dubstep producer/DJ Datsik a.k.a. Troy Beetles. The 24-year-old Canadian native recently shared a lot about his performance and production techniques with DJTT, so we focused our conversation on the broader end of the spectrum; discussing the direction of EDM, breaking down the BPM wall, and collaborating with Wu-Tang-Clan.

OS: Like most of the “new generation” of EDM stars; you’ve rocketed to the top in just a couple years, and you’ve spent a good amount of that time out on the road. But electronic music is such a studio-based genre, how do you find the time to keep putting out new music?

TB: Well honestly I tried working on the road a little bit, and it works…but at the same time I love my studio. It gives me a reason to be stoked to come home…other than my girlfriend of course [laughs]. But obviously when I’m on the plane I’ll make patches, or if I’m sitting at the airport I’ll bring my phones and my laptop and just try to jam out ideas. For anything concrete though, I usually wait until I’m home to finalize it.

OS: Your “Fix You” remix from the Mellow-Step EP is a lot different than most of the stuff you have done recently. Do you see yourself doing another EP like that?

TB: It’s always good to do something different from time to time, I think instead of doing a full EP of that kind of sound, it’s more so about integrating that into the stuff I’m already doing. So in one track, you have the very light stuff, and then this crazy drop thats really dark and heavy. Just trying to combine the two a little bit more. I feel like right now I’m going through a weird transition where, you know, I’ve been doing the same thing for a while, and it’s starting to feel… stale. I’m just really stoked to explore different avenues, different tempos, and that has been the most exciting thing for me. I’m working on this 100 BPM track right now that’s really cool, and kind of touches back to my hip hop roots. I’m excited about making stuff again. I’m really stoked about 110 [BPM] right now, and I think I have more fun making that than dubstep. So I’m going through a transitional period which is really cool, as I’m starting to learn different production techniques, and really spread my wings.

Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Datsik Talks BPMs, Ninja-Step, and Wu-Tang Clan’