FreshNerd

Xiao (The Muse)

Who knew? The man behind the Ecko clothing brand is also an artist. These are a just a few of his paintings and I must say that this guy is a talented artist. More after the jump…

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What up nerds. As promised, here is part deux of my interview with Mr. Hess. You know I had to put him through the 21 question routine. Nobody is safe…

FreshNerd: Invent a new word.
Derek: Clornpik

FreshNerd: You’re on a raft. Jose and Kent are overboard drowning. You can only save one of them. Who do you save?
Derek: I’ll save Jose, my dog. Kent he’s a good guy but he’ll eventually be bought out by somebody with payola.

FN: Carol Brady from the Brady Bunch or Blanche from the Golden Girls?
Derek: Carol…she’s a dirty girl. Have you ever seem her on interviews?!?…..aww man!

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Listen/Download

Jesus H. Christ….where do I start. When I first saw the lineup I automatically assumed that Kanye was gonna rip everything to shreds, but I was wrong like Jay Z’s BP3 leaks (what?). Boi 1da does a sick job on the track as usual while everybody delivers a solid verse (even Wayne). I think every rapper needs to listen to Eminem’s flow and go back to the lab asap.

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Ipods are soft and made for women on elliptical machines, it takes a
real man to rock tapes, and not on no retro shit. Auto-reverse on a
bitch. – J-Zone

It was just the other day I was complaining about not being able to find some hot new music. Today I was just browsing through twitter and came across a Texas producer/MC named Symbolyc One (S1). Not sure what prompted me to check out his myspace page (I hate myspace with a capital ‘H’) but I did and uhhh….this dude has some serious heat. Being a producer myself, it takes a lot for me to give it up like this to another producer unless he has some serious talent and a unique ear. S1 is a combination of 9th Wonder/Nottz/and Dr. Dre (kinda) but from Texas. Do yourself a favor and check out this mixtape and thank me later….

Tracks to check for:

Phonte – Callin’ Me (the one posted above)

Comin Thru – Strange Fruit Project

Download the complete mixtape here

Play Album Sampler

As I listen to this, one thing comes to mind…where is Rza?? I’m not sure who did the bulk of the production here, but I can tell it wasn’t RZA. After being an avid music lover for 26 yrs, it’s safe to say you can’t recreate an album/mood/classic. Nas will never recreate Illmatic, Snoop can never do Doggy Style again (pause) and so forth. There are too many factors that contribute to making classic music from people who attended the studio sessions, engineers used, what was eaten for dinner that day, and how hungry you are (i.e. what your bank account looks like), etc.

I was amped and looking forward to this album until hearing this sampler. I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s not a classic. I think I would’ve felt better if it wasn’t titled ‘Cuban Linx 2′. Shout out to @odiesel for the classic vs. good album mini debate which opened my eyes to a couple of things. The main thing gained from that convo is that classic albums change the game and cause a shift in a genre and that is what this album is not. It does sound pretty good though . Is it too late for an album title change??

p.s. The Dre track ‘About Me‘ is sick!

“I was thinking one day and I realized that if I just had somebody behind me all the way to motivate me I could make a big difference. Nobody came along like that so I just became that person for myself.”
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