Not Drugs – Art, Graffiti, Music and Culture for the Almost Grown-Up

Doesn’t adding a Z instead of a S make things so much doper?  Nah?  Just me? Word.

The Not Drugs jump off has seriously jumped back off.  We changed the site up.  Added new team members.  Changed the game up.  Moved Locations.  Made new plans, new focuses.

But we’re still hood.  We’re still futuristic.  We’re still forward moving.  We’re still Not Drugs.

Summer time is a great time to get in your car and blast music.  I tried to do it in winter, but with poor results.

So, you might say, “Damn, Ju, I’m trying to play/bump new music in my car, but I can’t seem to find a thing worthwhile.  Got any ideas?”

To which I would reply: “I got you.”  Which is the truth:  Don’t fret.  If you ever needed a kidney or help moving to a new house, then I might not be the one to call.  But if you need new music, then, of course, I got you.  Here’s 4 albums I’ve had on repeat in my car:

J Dilla – “Jay Stay Paid”

Dilla. Dilla.  Dilla.  I’d been waiting for this album for a while, but DAMN.  Even in death, he killed it.  This album, with its offbeat timing and eclectic composure will have any head nodding in traffic.

Mos Def – “The Ecstatic”

I’ve been a fan of Mighty Mos for almost a decade now and with each album he just pushes his style into something I’ve never heard before.  Re-invention of style is almost as important as having style.  The Ecstatic is maybe one of the craziest albums to come out in a while, so you should dig on it.

Wilco – “Wilco (The Album)”

Wilco has always caught me off guard with their style.  It went from the alternative country in the beginning (A.M., Being There), to a very electronically, Pro Tools influenced middle stuff (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost Is Born), to a softer approach in their last album (Sky Blue Sky).  This album, although good, is something that I’m not sure how to classify yet.  However, it is good to play in the car…so try it.

The Mars Volta – “Octahedron”

Ok.  So take the Mars Volta.  Take away the intensity and replace it with contemplation.  Keep the weirdness.  That’s the new album.  It has such a different feel then their other stuff, but I’m in love with it.  Thank you to the band that always keeps me guessing.

Hope this list proves useful.  Maybe so and maybe not?

Stay up.

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to a new mashup intently. For a little longer than a month my ipod was broken and the only thing I had in my car was a scratched up Best of Jazz cd and Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals. So that became a little repetitive.

Luckily my ipod went under surgeory and now I’m back to conducting regular vehicular auditory research. And it’s awesome.

Ever since my initial listening of Night Ripper, I haven’t been able to find another mix that evokes a similar mystified feeling. But this mix, it unleashed that astonished/jaw hanging/is that serotonin I’m feeling? unique sensation.

I hate to assume a standard that everything in a genre has to be compared to, but in the world of mashups Mr. Gillis is a founding father and a stepping stone. And Easter Egg’s Jackin for Beats is a step forward.

Spread across 28 tracks, Ratatat’s LP3, The Beatles, Estelle, all sorts of Crunkalicious noise, H to the Izzo, Dr. Dre, The Pharcyde, DJ Shadow, more Ratatat, Weezer, Clipse, Hall & Oates, Dell, Weezy F. Baby,  and gosh he says upwards of 240 tracks are sampled. Jackin packs more eclectic punch than anything else I’ve heard in a long time and manages to be incredibly smooth.

It’s unfortunate that there are so many similar samples across the genre. I think everyone, and I mean everyone samples “I’d Rather” by Three 6 Mafia. But Nathan Pharm aka Easter Egg, at the ripe age of 22, is presenting an even more contemporary (if that’s possible?) dance party mashing foray into our underground-pop music scene.

Keep spinning kid, this stuff kicks ass.

Download Easter Egg’s Jackin for Beats for free here: Jackin for Beats download.

Things look shabby around here, huh.

Go figure.

With that whole graduation thing, Mr. Williams and I have been shifting and shaking a whole lot. He’s on the the other side of the country. I’m glued to warm surfaces near bodies of water.

But as you can see, things are getting shnazzier. Check back in like…a fortnight. Everything will be moving real well by then.

Good luck,

Winn

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Things Done Changed – Biggie