The Summer is coming to a sad end but as New Yorkers we very well know that we must go out with a bang first! And we sure will with the hottest party to happen in NYC. Forever Fresh, S.O.B.’s and Noizy Cricket have put together a ’90s VS Naughts Yacht Party to take place this upcoming Saturday, August 16th at 10:30 p.m. on the Luxury Infinity Yacht at Pier 40, 353 West Street.

As you can see on the flyer above, it’s going to be one hell of a night! And we are prepared to give one lucky person a pair of tickets to attend. All of you high rollers that enjoy a good time on a yacht, hit us up on Twitter and enter to win! The contest is running from today up until Thursday, 12 p.m. EST. You must hit us up on Twitter and tell us what your favorite ’90s hip hop song is. And for those of you that don’t win, you can always purchase tickets to attend. Good luck!

The post Contest: Win a Pair of Tickets to the 90s VS Naught Yacht Party appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Doris didn’t fall out of the sky. Since the release of “Home,” Earl Sweatshirt‘s first official song since being spirited away during the heyday of Odd Future‘s exciting ascent , Doris has been anxiously anticipated, almost annoyingly so. Part of the anxiety was the lack of an apparent lens through which to anticipate exactly how the album would sound. Earl‘s voice was deeper, his flow had become more dense and his content was no longer shockingly appalling . Moreover, despite Earl‘s presence on stages, on notable features and in a very limited number of interviews, Earl didn’t seem to be actively directing how we should receive him. Unsurprisingly, because patience and understanding are no longer acceptable forms of behavior, this anxiety gradually morphed into doubt and ridicule. People began to claim that Earl had no future. Earl eventually responded to this ridicule, sardonically mocking his detractors.

This nigga earl fell off bruh. This nigga boof.

— Earl Sweatshirt (@earlxsweat) July 21, 2012

This response was then followed by an explicit declaration a month later.

I hope i lose you as a fan if you only fuck with me cause i rapped about raping girls when i was 15.

— Earl Sweatshirt (@earlxsweat) August 12, 2012

In this tweet, Earl essentially provides a lens through which to view his new music: “I am not Earl.” Months later, the world received “Chum” another explicit declaration about the direction of his music. Then, as the months rolled by, these declarations increased, reaching us via performances, verses, music videos and “confessions.” There’s no need to intricately detail the ways in which Earl led us down the road to Doris, or to pretend that the journey and the music are equivalent, but one stop along the road is particularly useful for understanding exactly what Doris is (and what it does).

This special moment came less than a week ago, via Williams Street in Atlanta, Georgia, home of Adult Swim. Backed by Thundercat‘s careful bass and sandwiched between Captain Murphy (Flying Lotus) and Viktor Vaughn (MF DOOM), Earl is right at home. And it’s not because these three are the “3 Kings” of dark humor and internal rhymes or because DOOM is one of Earl’s biggest influences. Earl fits in here because, like DOOM and Captain Murphy, the line between his alter-ego (Earl Sweatshirt) and himself (Thebe) is blurred, possibly nonexistent. Thus, his explorations of villainy take an interesting turn. He is literally between villains: his mischievous, relationship, damaging self and his witty rap persona, both of which are guilty of regrettable actions. When he removes his mask (sweatshirt?) at the end of the day, there’s another one underneath, ad infinitum.

Doris takes this perpetual oscillation and gives it life, burying the listener between this ongoing inner battle via blindsides from both directions. The album begins with “Pre,” a song that has a vintage Odd Future sound (dark, scratchy, echoing synths), yet features none of its members (besides Earl). Earl and unexpected feature artist SK La’ Flare make dark boasts involving pickaxes and other sharp objects while producer Michael Uzowuru envelops us in evil. Then, on “Burgundy” this macabre momentum is stifled as Earl juxtaposes damning thoughts about his poor prioritizing with an enlivening  and cheerful Neptunes beat. Notably, Vince Staples snidely mimics Earl‘s fans, who prioritize new music over Earl‘s well-being. This switch-up between Earl the rapper and Thebe the person occurs again between “20 Wave Caps” and “Sunday.” On these tracks, similar to the organ driving the two songs’ instrumentals, Earl himself anchors the tracks despite their different directions.

The oscillation becomes less pronounced as Doris continues, but that seems to be the point. As Earl and Thebe melt into each other, another protagonist emerges: randomblackdude. randomblackdude is ostensibly Earl‘s producer alias, but “RBD” is more than just another moniker. “RBD” has production credits for nearly half the album and manages to maintain the album’s atmosphere even in the absence of vocals (See “523”). Furthermore, as a name, “randomblackdude” perfectly captures Earl’s life: he is an unexpectedly talented guy who attempts to be treated normally by nominally downplaying his talents all while showcasing them. That’s a whopper of a sentence and a whopper of a situation, but throughout Doris Earl treads this ground with sly aplomb, mining words and sounds for unseen treasures while casually delivering these gems with a calculated air of indifference. In other words, Earl is excited by wordplay and sound experimentation, but he doesn’t feel forced to embody this excitement himself; he leaves his creations to their own devices, content with their meticulous design.

For some listeners, this lackadaisical, hands off approach is stultifying; it indicates a lack of passion. They ask how they’re supposed to engage with a work that has, “I’ll fuck the freckles off your face, bitch” (“Molasses”) as its most memorable hook. They wonder how to get excited by the music of an artist who looks ambivalent about being on Jimmy Fallon, playing with living legends, The Roots. They look to the sky and wonder where the hell this album came from.

This album comes from the mind of a villain with no interest in either heroics or villainy. His motive is simply to tell his story and his means is through guttural, word-warping, ear-pinching rap music. The result is variably oblique, opaque, offensive and off-putting, but on the whole, it’s enriching. This is what music can be when we let the villains remain at large.

Further reading.

The post Album Review: Earl Sweatshirt – Doris appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

When Lord Willin’ dropped back in 2002, you could feel the tremors it made. Backed by The Neptunes and fronted by Pusha T and his brother Malice, Lord Willin’ was a groundbreaking album that changed The Clipse‘s career forever. Ten years later, it still hits. Life and Times recently caught up with Pusha T to discuss both the legacy and the future. Peep this excerpt on “Grindin’.”

L+T: When you first heard “Grindin’,” did you expect it to be a staple of lunchrooms everywhere?

PT: I didn’t, but it was a record that I knew was gonna be way too innovative. I think it was probably the first time I rewrote a record—and a record that me and my brother honestly rewrote a couple of times—just because it was unorthodox, it was new. We were like, “Wait a minute, where does the beat start? Where’s the verse? Where’s the hook at?” It really threw us for a loop.

The way it was presented to me…I was actually home and Pharrell was in the studio and he called me and he was like, “Listen. Get up here right now. Get up here right now—I’ve got this record and if you’re not up here in 15 minutes I’m just giving it to JAY Z. I am. I’m giving it to him. If you’re not here in 15 minutes…I know you’re home. You’re home. You’re home. Your house is 10 minutes from here. That means you’ve got five minutes to get ready and get over here. If not, I’m giving it to Jay.” I couldn’t really deal with that. And I was there, needless to say, in 13 minutes (laughs).

Read the full interview here.

The post Pusha T Speaks on the 10th Anniversary of <em>Lord Willin’</em> appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

This cute little record popped up on the Net yesterday, an unreleased Neptunes track from 2007 by Jakk Frost and Amerie.  Says Mika from TheNeptunes.org:

Philadelphia rapper and the founder and CEO of Cold World Music Jakk Forst just leaked this unreleased track titled ‘What A Thug Like’ featuring Pharrell and Amerie on the net. So whats the story about this tune, where is it coming from. Most of y’all will say that we’ve heard this before and that the tune sounds like Gwen Stefani’s ‘Candyland’, well indeed. This is actually the original Gwen Stefani version of ‘Candyland’ that didn’t make it on her second studio album ‘The Sweet Escape’, but we’ve only heard the version with the Kill Bill sample mixed by Gwen’s DJ back in 2006 at one of her Fashion Shows.

We all wondered also what happened to Amerie’s Neptunes Studio Session from 2007 of ‘Because I Love It’.

The post New (Old) Music: Jakk Frost & Amerie – “What a Thug Like” – Prod. by the Neptunes appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.