Tag Archive for: Music

Yes We Can-Can

In the spirit of the week where we inaugurate Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America I thought I’d post a song of the week.  It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but Obama’s campaign slogan reminded me of it.  The song is by a group called The Treacherous Three.  They were a hip hop group that formed in the late 70’s and had a few hits, including Santa’s Rap, and were featured in movies such as Beat Street and Wildstyle.  One of the members, Kool Moe Dee, went on to have a successful solo career.

With the success of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s song The Message, other rappers decided to try their hand at socially conscious music.  The song I present to you today was released long before Barack Obama declared “Yes We Can” but the sentimants are the same.  Let’s work together.  Let’s treat each other as equals.  Let’s rebuild America.  Yes We Can.  Here is song Yes We Can-Can by the Treacherous Three.

[audio:http://pieceofshep.com/audio/34-Yes-We-Can-Can-(Single_LP Version).mp3]
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Disappointed in the New XM Channel Lineup

The new lineup for the merged SiriusXM satellite radio service came out today. You can view changes here. Two of the stations I listen to, in fact, the two I listen to 90% of the time, have changed. Ethel changed to AltNation. I’m sure the music will be more or less the same. It is still an Alternative station, just with a new name.

The biggest disappointment is with The Rhyme. The Rhyme was an Old School hip hop station. It played classic joints from the 80s and 90s, had great shows with Afrika Bambaataa, and great Progressive hip hop music and discussions. They have done away with it and merged it with Sirius’ Hip Hop Nation, which plays “Some Old Skool Rap.” Which means the rest is going to be new crap, which I can’t stand. If it’s not old school or progressive, I will most likely not listen. The good thing about satellite when it launched was the variety of music that could be featured on the stations. The sad thing is, for at least the rap stations, they sound just like a Clear Channel or Channel One stations across the country. The crap at the top of the charts, over and over and over.

I’ve also noticed that the quality of the online stream seems to be lower than usual and it keeps cutting out. The merger isn’t starting out on a good note, in my opinion. One of my favorite channels is gone and the service is sub-par. XM might have just lost a subscriber.

Tonedeff- Warden (Love Lockdown Rmx)


One of my favorite artists, Tonedeff, created a remix of Kanye West’s Love Lockdown. Tonedeff states, “It’s not so much a remix is as it is a re imagining of the concept – added a bunch of instrumentation, new lyrics & hook, etc.” Well, whatever he wants to call it, it’s a great song. Make sure you give it a listen and then head on over to QN5.com to find out more about this talented artist or download the track, plus a house remix from the blog post. He is a great rapper, singer, producer, and lyricist. This is what good hip hop is about.

The Genius of Tupac

tupacAfter waking up and seeing this article on the front page of Digg, I was instantly in a Tupac mood. The article does a good job of narrowing down his music to 22 of his best tracks (I’d disagree with some of them there) and it made me start thinking about his true place in history as an artist.

A lot of people dismiss Tupac as a typical thug. In fact, one of the comments on the Digg page stated:

People should forget about this thug and spend more time remembering real men like Dr. King, the Tuskegee airmen and Bernie Mac. Question, how long do you think it would take Dr. King to listen to a Tupac album before he hung his head in shame and walked away? Do you think Dr. King would be proud of the whole thug gangsta mentality? I doubt it. I want to see any man become more like Dr. King, not more like Tupac.

I can see his point to an extent, however, this commenter is limited by what the media saw of Tupac most of the time. They never saw the good things he did, they rarely played the deeper songs on the radio, only the party and gangster tracks, they never showcased his poetry. At least his acting ability garnered positive praise (though, he usually portrayed a thug in the movies, but that’s an issue with Hollywood and typecasting of African Americans and not of Tupac himself). Read more

Changing Musical Tastes

I’ve always been a fan of all music. In fact, if you look at my last.fm profile, you’ll notice the diversity in music listed there. I have Miles Davis, Tupac Shakur, Frank Sinatra, Incubus, and CunninLynguists listed. My primary musical love has always been hip hop though, especially underground hip hop. When I got XM Satellite Radio, I listened to mostly the hip hop stations. The Rhyme was the channel I listened to the most, as they were an old school hip hop channel. Then I started listening to Ethel. Ethel is the Alternative Hits station. That’s all I’ve listened to in the past month or so. Now I rarely listen to rap. I find myself listening to bands such as Black Kids, The Ting Tings, The Kooks, The Shins, Peter Bjorn and John, M.I.A, Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, Ludo, MGMT, Phantom Planet and The Raconteurs more than my favorite hip hop artists. One reason this could be is that my favorite hip hop artists haven’t come out with anything in a while. Or maybe it could be that there is some really good and catchy alternative music coming out lately. It could also be that because I’m listening to music a lot more now due to the nature of my job I’m constantly looking for something new. I wonder what other music I’ve missed out on in the past.