What's up y'all.
Four - two in favour of Donaeo, regardless of whether or not he's grime or funk, and no matter how he spells his name.
The only thing I could find to post as a victory video is a flick of him doing "African Warrior" live at some festival. I think it was shot on a cell phone.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
I'm too busy to be hip: T2 and Jodie Aysha vs. Donaeo
What's up team, sorry I've been a bad blogger (again). I told you from the outset, I have a bad track record with this sort of thing.
So, I've officially decided that I can no longer be cool, at least with regards to music. There are just too many electronic music genres for me to keep up with and I am too busy to keep track of it all. It feels like I've just gotten all caught up on Baltimore Club, only to learn that it's been supplanted by Philly Club, and Baltimore is "so 2007."
Fuck this. I don't care anymore. Next time I want to listen to some heavy bass beats, I'm going to get all 1995 on your asses and listen to some Shy FX.
As a final attempt at being up-to-date, I'm going to run a battle between two artists representing two of these genres that I just don't understand, then I'm going to watch the Phats and Small video with Chris Eubank in it.
The Main Event
In the red corner, from Leeds, England, representing bassline house, T2 AND JODIE AYSHA.
Bassline house popped up in early '07 as a response to grime, which some people felt had stopped being dance music and started working primarily as a soundtrack to gang fights. Bassline house, which is sometimes just called "bassline," is a little more uptempo than grime and about 100 per cent more friendly. So far, there's only been one major bassline club shut down over violence. Compared to grime, which averaged about one club closing a month, that's pretty solid.
Now, to be honest, I don't really get the difference between bassline house and the 2-step that I was listening to in about 2001, the same shit that was declared painfully uncool by 2003.
To illustrate my point...
This is 2-step.
This is bassline.
Can you tell the difference? I can't.
Anyway, the first commercial hit to come out of the bassline house was "Heartbroken" by T2 and Jodie Aysha. Apparently T2 is pretty much the Prime Minister of this whole bassline thing.
Here's the video.
The Opposition
In the blue corener, from London, England, representing "funky," a man who used to do grime before grime stopped being cool. DONAEO!
OK, so funky house is a house subgenre based around soulful vocals and big four-to-the-floor beats, best typified by the shit from the Hed Kandi comps. Funky, or UK funky, is a house-derived subgenre based around r & b vocals, soca-type beats, Latin percussion and UK Garage-style sub-bass. It also appeared as a response to grime being too dark, dank and angry. Confused yet? You should be.
Donaeo got his start 'round about 2003 providing choruses for grime MCs. I first became aware of him on the grime remix for The Streets "Fit But You Know It," which I'm pretty sure is also the first place I heard Tinchy Stryder. After a period of limited output -- Discogs has him doing nothing between 2005 - 2007 -- he came back with two big "funky" solo tracks, "African Warrior" and "Devil in a Blue Dress."
Also, he seems to have difficulty deciding how to spell his name. In about half his output, he's listed as "Donae'o." Further confusing matters, he also releases music under the name Bredren Steve and Mr. Fidget.
Here's the video for "Devil in a Blue Dress." Regardless of how you spell his name, the man has a hella dope hat.
As always, comment to vote, polls close on Friday.
So, I've officially decided that I can no longer be cool, at least with regards to music. There are just too many electronic music genres for me to keep up with and I am too busy to keep track of it all. It feels like I've just gotten all caught up on Baltimore Club, only to learn that it's been supplanted by Philly Club, and Baltimore is "so 2007."
Fuck this. I don't care anymore. Next time I want to listen to some heavy bass beats, I'm going to get all 1995 on your asses and listen to some Shy FX.
As a final attempt at being up-to-date, I'm going to run a battle between two artists representing two of these genres that I just don't understand, then I'm going to watch the Phats and Small video with Chris Eubank in it.
The Main Event
In the red corner, from Leeds, England, representing bassline house, T2 AND JODIE AYSHA.
Bassline house popped up in early '07 as a response to grime, which some people felt had stopped being dance music and started working primarily as a soundtrack to gang fights. Bassline house, which is sometimes just called "bassline," is a little more uptempo than grime and about 100 per cent more friendly. So far, there's only been one major bassline club shut down over violence. Compared to grime, which averaged about one club closing a month, that's pretty solid.
Now, to be honest, I don't really get the difference between bassline house and the 2-step that I was listening to in about 2001, the same shit that was declared painfully uncool by 2003.
To illustrate my point...
This is 2-step.
This is bassline.
Can you tell the difference? I can't.
Anyway, the first commercial hit to come out of the bassline house was "Heartbroken" by T2 and Jodie Aysha. Apparently T2 is pretty much the Prime Minister of this whole bassline thing.
Here's the video.
The Opposition
In the blue corener, from London, England, representing "funky," a man who used to do grime before grime stopped being cool. DONAEO!
OK, so funky house is a house subgenre based around soulful vocals and big four-to-the-floor beats, best typified by the shit from the Hed Kandi comps. Funky, or UK funky, is a house-derived subgenre based around r & b vocals, soca-type beats, Latin percussion and UK Garage-style sub-bass. It also appeared as a response to grime being too dark, dank and angry. Confused yet? You should be.
Donaeo got his start 'round about 2003 providing choruses for grime MCs. I first became aware of him on the grime remix for The Streets "Fit But You Know It," which I'm pretty sure is also the first place I heard Tinchy Stryder. After a period of limited output -- Discogs has him doing nothing between 2005 - 2007 -- he came back with two big "funky" solo tracks, "African Warrior" and "Devil in a Blue Dress."
Also, he seems to have difficulty deciding how to spell his name. In about half his output, he's listed as "Donae'o." Further confusing matters, he also releases music under the name Bredren Steve and Mr. Fidget.
Here's the video for "Devil in a Blue Dress." Regardless of how you spell his name, the man has a hella dope hat.
As always, comment to vote, polls close on Friday.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
So, it's a draw?
Sorry for not updating for a while. Truth be told, I was figuring out how to play this.
Thanks to a vote sent to me on Facebook, which I've set a precedent of accepting, we ended up with a draw in a battle that drew little voter interest.
I've decided to call it a draw and move on.
Here's "Low Rider on the Boulevard" by supergroup Latin Alliance, which feature both Ace and Frost.
Thanks to a vote sent to me on Facebook, which I've set a precedent of accepting, we ended up with a draw in a battle that drew little voter interest.
I've decided to call it a draw and move on.
Here's "Low Rider on the Boulevard" by supergroup Latin Alliance, which feature both Ace and Frost.
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