Freeload: Flying Lotus ft. Blu, “GNG BNG Remix”
- story THE FADER
Flying Lotus covered the New Soul edition of our digital supplement F2 last year, and we have been jamming his Los Angeles EP since then whenever we smo… thought about stuff. It’s difficult to pull a favorite since it’s more a musical voyage (to Stoneyville! oops) than a collection of songs, but one notable bonger banger is “GNG BNG.” And it looks like our favorite LA/Long Beach underground rapper Blu feels the same way since he lopped a chunk of it off for this remix. As usual, he’s posted the lyrics on his MySpace blog, the best of which are clearly With My Beef Jerky Out In The Open, Smoking Keesh/ So Danky That It Stank Like A Qweef From Ya Antie. Fans of Flying Lotus can catch him and Hyperdub’s Kode 9 at the Echoplex in LA this Friday and a week later in NY at the next installment of our One Step Beyond series at the American Museum of Natural History. Bring your vaporizers!
Download: Flying Lotus ft. Blu, “GNG BNG Remix”
- posted in MP3 / STREAMS
- tags Blu, electronic/dance, Flying Lotus, freeload, hip hop, Kode 9
Freeload: Blu, HerFavoriteColo(u)r. Mixtape
- story THE FADER
If you follow LA rapper Blu like we do, you know he’s prone to post up new songs on MySpace as frequently as we post up at Papaya Dog on 7th Ave (daily). Finally, he’s decided to collect a lot of these into one mellow, fuzzy mixtape that seriously has us shamelessly deliberating over the purchase of one of these (side pockets for Nag Champa). Download below, get the tracklist after the jump and see Blu with Exile at the Paid Dues Festival in San Bernardino at the end of March.
Download: Blu, HerFavoriteColo(u)r. Mixtape
- posted in MP3 / STREAMS
- tags Blu, freeload, hip hop
Freeload: Johnson & Jonson, “Up All Night”
- story THE FADER
Johnson & Jonson is our boy Blu from LA and producer Mainframe, and their new self-titled album coming out September 23rd on Tres Records has actually “been out” for almost a year as the leaked Powders & Oils, initially meant as a mixtape but turned out too good to not be properly released. It’s full of soul-sample-heavy production and Blu’s dependably entertaining raps, and, if we didn’t think it would wrinkle our Steven Alan shirts, we would absolutely go buy a new Jansport and wear it everywhere, even on dates, assuming we could get one. Okay, we’re digressing into pasts we’d like to forget, but this shit is too excellent! As it turns out, Blu and friends are celebrating the release of Johnson & Jonson tomorrow night at Grand Star in Chinatown, Los Angeles, and we happen to know firsthand that dude rocks a party and that Grand Star gets nuts. And to get ready, enjoy “Up All Night” from the album and the video for “Bout It Bout It” above.
Download: Johnson & Jonson, “Up All Night”
- posted in MP3 / STREAMS
- tags Blu, freeload, hip hop, Johnson & Jonson
Video: C.R.A.C., “Buy Me Lunch”
- story THE FADER
It’s funny how sometimes you listen to a song you love and envision what the video for that song might look like, and then the video comes out and it’s a total piece of crap and ignores your vision. Fortunately, that didn’t happen with this clip for “Buy Me Lunch”, one of the songs already firmly planted in our summer music garden. C.R.A.C. (pronounced crass) aka Blu and Ta’raach, with the help of directors Noni Limar and Adam Tillman-Young, put together the ideal mix of little kids pretending to be adults, pranks in the park and general shenanigans that a song like this demands, and we would like to offer our general support of fun videos for fun songs.
- posted in MUSIC VIDEO
- tags Blu, C.R.A.C., hip hop, Ta'Raach
Freeload: Blu, “Departing Flights” + “Up All Nite”
- story THE FADER
If Blu keeps rapping this focused-ly over semi-weird psych-rap productions, we might have to cut up our last remaining copy of Electric Circus. SIKE WE ALREADY DID. Just kidding. But this kid is good and prolific and we will definitely be keeping an eye on him. For more, check out him and Ta’raach’s C.R.A.C. album on Tres Records.
Download: Blu, “Departing Flights”
Download: Blu, “Up All Nite”
- posted in MP3 / STREAMS
- tags Blu, C.R.A.C., freeload, hip hop
Video: Blu & Exile, “Blu Collar Workers”
- story THE FADER
Our boy Blu is putting out 763 albums this summer—all collaborations. He will make 1,892 videos and is planning on vinyl singles with unreleased b-sides and rare videos for every song on every album to be released every minute until September 21st. I.E. The dude is summer. His name is even the same as the sky’s color. That’s dedication. And this is his latest video with Exile off their Below The Heavens album which actually already came out so it doesn’t count against the 763 total.
- posted in MUSIC VIDEO
- tags Blu, hip hop
Freeload: C.R.A.C., “Buy Me Lunch/Like Life”
- story THE FADER
If you haven’t been listening to The Let Out on EVR, you probably don’t know that we played “Buy Me Lunch” a couple weeks ago, freaked out, played some El Guincho after it and have been checking for dudes every day since. Actually, you wouldn’t know all that even if you had listened, so there it is. And technically we’ve been checking for them since they both played our Issue 43 party in LA last year. We have been checking is all. And now is our time. Individual C.R.A.C. members Blu and Ta’Raach have each put up a bunch of new tracks from their forthcoming album The Piece Talks, some of which are free for the downloading, including “Buy Me Lunch,” which is the song we played on the radio, and “Like Life,” which is just really good. The Piece Talks, which is shaping up to be a pretty weirdly awesome and unconventional album, will be in stores on April 22nd, but in the meantime, pilfer all that you can.
Download: C.R.A.C., “Life Like”
Download: C.R.A.C., “Buy Me Lunch”
Audio/Video: Blu, “Spanish Winter/Just Another Day”
- story THE FADER
We’ve been keeping out eyes on LA-based Blu since he dominated mic time during Ta’Raach’s set at our Issue 43 party in LA last year (that’s him 2 and 3 from the bottom). He’s buzzed his hair off since then, but we still you see you dude! Check another new song “Spanish Winter” below, then go download it at his MySpace.
- posted in MP3 / STREAMS
- tags Blu, hip hop
