Tossing that AutoTune shit aside for slowing down tempo and pitch, Young MC reminds us he’s still relevant with this new recording. Download only if Bust A Move isn’t just an addicting video game to you.

Young MC - My Life

Is there anyone more inconsistent than Kanye West? Don’t criticize because the man will literally fight you. Sure, he gives a pretty bizarre performance at the VMAs but you know what? I actually liked it. Kudos, Kanye.

You see, I really want to like Kanye West. I really do. The album he produced for Common was some of Common’s best work in my opinion. I think Kanye West is a uniter. He is the key to getting you closer to your “regular” friends; an act you can both sit down and enjoy. But man, he BLEW IT with his last album. In the war between him and 50 Cent, neither won. Both albums were horrendous.

But here we go again with a new single. It’s not another “Stronger” but you know I actually kind of liked that song when it first came out. Kanye is the king of putting out great singles that annoy the hell out of you a month after the fact. Anyhoo, now we have “Love Lockdown”. It makes you wonder where he’s going with all of this. After downloading 5 different leaks of it, I buckled and bought the single from iTunes and wouldn’t you know it, the production is still sloppy and gritty as hell. But you know what? Maybe that’s how I like my Kanye.

Kanye West - Love Lockdown

Is Old Spice / LL Cool J killin’ it or what?

LL Cool J - New York, New York

So France’s own Don Rimini released a beast called “Hools” that absolutely crushes. It will probably be remixed to death but Swiss duo TANZ / TANZ throw their remix out there early. The result is epic.

Hey remember when I used to post a lot of music? Consider this the start of what I like to call “getting back on the horse”.

Don Rimini - Hools (TANZ/TANZ Remix)

On a personal note, I tried my hand at boxing once again late last year. The decision was 100% inspired by Evan Tanner. Sharing now and then exchanges which I’ve never confessed to hardly anyone in my life, I don’t think I can even begin to describe how devastating it is to hear he was found dead this afternoon. But I was very fortunate to have those exchanges at all. He left a trail of amazing accomplishments. Sorely missed.

“It is a shame that in this society we’ve been taught to judge a man’s worth by what he owns instead of who he is. Everything is surface, and so few look beyond it. A man will sell his soul, he will lie, cheat and steal, for money. If he has it, he can buy respect. Wear the right clothes, drive the right car, have the right friends, that’s all that matters. Our lives are consumed in a selfish, self absorbed quest for possessions, the latest and the best in a never-ending cycle until the day we die. We forget what it means to be truly human. We forget the things that really matter. We lose the magic of what life should be.

I won’t live by rules that make no sense to me.”

Rest In Peace, Evan.

A couple weeks back, I DJed for a Sugar City show to benefit the opening of a new art space in Buffalo. From beginning to end, the show was a lot of fun. Starting off with a lot of old funk and disco to capping the night off by getting busted up by the cops. You couldn’t ask for anything more. However, the police disrupted the peak of the set I was playing. Therefore, I did a one-take of the set and now I’m posting it online. Hope you enjoy it. It runs a bit over an hour so find a comfortable seat. Track list after the cut.

Keedz - Stand On The Word
M.I.A. - Fire, Fire
Kurtis Blow - The Breaks
Positive K - I Got A Man
Bobby McFerrin - Don’t Worry Be Happy
Umyo - Shawty (Umyo Ringtone Mix)
Usher - Love In This Club (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Static - I Got My
Chromeo - Tenderonia (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Will Smith - Men In Black
P Diddy - Last Night
Rye Rye - Wassup (Crookers Remix)
Puddle Of Mudd - She Hates Me (no shit!)
K7 - Come Baby Come
The Pack - Vans
The Cars - Let The Good Times Roll
The Fat Boys - The Fat Boys Are Back
Lupe Fiasco - U Me Him Her
Busy P - Rainbow Man
James Brown - Living In America

Jeez, that was quite a vacation, wasn’t it? Anyhoo, I’ll be resuming activity on here soon. I’m in the home stretch with the EP. It’s sounding pretty great thus far and will be recording the last bits tomorrow and the next few days. Then it’s on to piecing this big monster together. So far, so good. I haven’t listened to any music except “Sweetest Girl” by Wyclef on repeat and that song came out last year I think. Oh well. See you all soon!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s summer. And in Buffalo, that lasts maybe like 2 weeks. So lately, I’ve been enjoying eating outside and I bought a yacht (lie) to boat across Lake Ontario and declare war on Canada.

Seriously though, aside from my life as an MP3 blogger, I do like to now and then produce my own music and frankly, it’s getting down to crunch time for recording my EP. All my free time is being put into it so this blog has to take a backseat for a little bit. I will continue to post but certainly not as frequently for the time being so I can provide you maybe with some of my own music and mixes as well as others. While this will no doubt disappoint the people searching on Google for “Lil Wayne”, which is bring my bandwidth to its knees every night, I will be back once things settle a little.

In the meantime, enjoy this jam:

Basement Jaxx - Wheel N Stop

Divine Machine is what happens when the love of analog meets the obsession of horror. And it never hurts to have one of the most talented tattoo artists in the country, Cory Cudney, taking his passion of said genre and plowing it through Buffalo, NY. One listen of any of their recordings draws so many parallels to Goblin or any other soundtracks of your typical 70s / 80s horror films. It’s one thing to try and recreate aura of the era, but it’s another to make it enjoyable, which Divine Machine does very well. You may remember another act that is currently dabbles in horror samples… a small French outfit named Justice. Pushing any sampling aside, Divine Machine could easily be mistaken for the real deal sounds of anything from Italian  to early 80s American pulp horror. Remaining relatively low key, Divine Machine is quite an impressive sound.

Divine Machine - Hyperspace Cadets