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2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: DJ Drama on De La Soul

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Mr. Thanksgiving, DJ Drama, on De La Soul.

DJ Drama: I remember when motherf*ck*n’ “Me, Myself and I” first dropped. I think seeing the video was the first time I really [was exposed to De La Soul]. Clearly, they were a little different. It became known as the D.A.I.S.Y. Age. They may have gone over a lot of people’s heads, but when you go back and listen to them, they were groundbreaking. They were a little eccentric, eclectic, and it was something interesting. I liked their sound. You couldn’t pinpoint it. It didn’t sound like anything else. As far as an album goes, the way their album was put together was groundbreaking at the time because, nobody had really did like skits back then, so they really kind of introduced that to the game. I’ve been a fan of De La ever since.

Rhapsody Exclusives: F*cked Up, Jolie Holland & More

What's new? What's good? What will you find here that you won't hear anywhere else this week? Sit back, relax and click through to the premieres, the originals and the exclusives available only on Rhapsody! This week:

F*cked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life (Rhapsody Premiere)
One of the most invigorating punk rock bands of the decade. In a rule-breaking genre, they break all the rules.

Jolie Holland, The Living And The Dead (Rhapsody Premiere)
Americana's dark angel warbles through a new effort of maudlin story-songs and jazz-inflected folk.

Rhapsody Song of the Day

Song: Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
Album: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Artist: Burt Bacharach & B.J. Thomas 
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: September 30, 2008

Paul Newman was one of the best screen and stage actors of all time. He also dedicated his life to charity work and his family. Part of his success was that he often played rebels who were beloved by members of all generations. Grandparents, hippies and punks all rooted for Newman’s onscreen fights against The Man. There are a number of movie themes that are associated with Newman, including works written by jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Johnny Mandel and Lalo Schifrin (Newman was a lifelong jazz pianist and fan). This soft-rock gem from 1969’s Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid was a huge hit, earned an Oscar for Burt Bacharach, and has lyrics that speak of Paul Newman’s rebellious appeal.

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2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Killer Mike on Cypress Hill

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Atlanta emcee Killer Mike on West Coast hardcore rap pioneers Cypress Hill.

Killer Mike: 1991, there was a mom and pop gospel and hip-hop store -- in the hood you find the same stores do well with both of those genres -- and there was one right up the street from my high school. I walked in there and saw, in the 99-cent bin, a single for "How I Could Just Kill a Man." "Pigs" was on the B-side, I think. It was a cassingle. I saw that in the bin, and I saw the skull logo and that grainy black and white image of Muggs and B-Real, and the other side was red. So, just based on the imagery, I was like, "I gotta hear this." I just grabbed the tape, unheard, and threw it in the walkman. The walk from the record store to the train station was about five minutes. And in the span of those five minutes, I was a fan. I was like, "This is the dopest sh*t ever." I wouldn't even let my man listen to it.

Legendary and Glamorous Southern Soulsters Live Up to Their Adjectives

Even in the grits-and-gravy world of chitlin circuit Southern soul, the Legendary Moody Scott may not genuinely qualify as a bona fide legend. And likewise, I don’t doubt that there are more glamorous singers out there somewhere than the Glamorous Bertha Payne. But that they bill themselves thus only makes their homemade records more endearing.

Rhapsody Song of the Day

Song: La Mexican Cornershop
Album: Pequeno Transistor de Feria
Artist: Radio Zumbido
Selected by: Sarah Bardeen
Date: September 29, 2008

Really, a single song doesn't do this electronic outfit justice. Listen to the whole album and let their odd aural soundscapes suck you into a different world.

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Concentric Pleasures: Classic By Any Name

by Philip Sherburne

Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.

Classic is back! The label, run by Chicago house mainstay Derrick Carter and U.K. house maverick Luke Solomon (of the duo Freaks), shut down in 2005, but not for the usual reasons. Instead, having begun with catalog number 100 and run, via reverse numerical order, down to 000, they pulled the plug on the series, and Classic became what its name had proclaimed all along. Now, finally, the label has made much of its back catalog available digitally. There's a wealth of material to revisit, from the crossover hits (Isolee's "Beau Mot Plage," Blaze's "Lovelee Dae," Markus Nikolai's "Bushes") to powerful, unconventional house tracks from Red Nail, Rob Mello, Gemini, DJ Sneak and many more. Here are a few of my favorites from over the years.

Rhapsody Song of the Day

Song: Close (To the Edit)
Album: Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?
Artist: Art of Noise
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: September 26, 2008

Modern hip-hop and electronic acts owe Art of Noise a huge debt. This English act artfully used the earliest digital samplers to painstakingly craft exquisite yet daftly original ditties made of everything from classical symphonies to old TV commercials. This was the hit that brought new wavers and break-dancers together. (The crazy destructo video rules, too.)

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Jose Gonzalez and the Death of the Album

At a glance, last night's performance by Argentinean/Swede folk phenom Jose Gonzalez wasn't much to see: the final set of a two-day, sold-out stand at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA, mostly featured Gonzalez at center stage, hunched over a nylon-string guitar. Sitting between a heavy red curtain and a curious mix of the jazz club's typical chardonnay-and-maki crowd and reverent doe-eyed fans, he was occasionally buttressed by singer Yukimi Nagamo and percussionist Erik Bodin. There was almost no banter ("This song," he said in the honeyed shush of a yoga instructor, "is about tribalism") and few frills beyond those inherent in Gonzalez's faux-traditional Brazilian finger-picking and melancholic evocation of Joao Gilberto. Even the setlist -- drawn from his similarly elegant, bare pair of albums and scattered with new material -- didn't raise eyebrows, save for a forceful cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" that was trotted out for an encore. But, Gonzalez demonstrated that he's one of the most commanding songwriters of recent years by achieving the difficult task of what architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe called "an interesting plainness." The set also made it plainly apparent, and never more serenely unobjectionable, that Gonzalez, is also someone who thrives in an industry that's seen the death of the album-based career. He could be the poster child of its passing.

Heavy Metal Ketchup # 4

The elephant in the heavy metal room, obviously, is that this band released a new album this month. For the record, it has a couple good guitar solos on it, and not a whole lot else. (Best summation I've read, from somebody posting here: "commendable, like a deadbeat dad finally paying half his child support.") So maybe check out these discs instead?