Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Nope - Melba

Posting time is tight right now for yer man Naedoo, as I try to run the gauntlet between impending moves in real life and blog life (former: we're building a new house, latter: we are moving this baby to Wordpress as we speak), and so you can expect a steady diet of this here kind of post. What kind of post is it? Simply one where I tell you about a group, album, or song, then tell you it's good, and you take it from there. I get a post up, you get music without all my usual waffle. It's win and then win again.

Today's group then? It's The Nope, which is a duo comprised of Psy from the Oddities and Canada's rap endurance champ, Moka Only. Their debut album, Melba came out on Urbnet in December, and if you like anything in Moka's substantial back-catalog, you're gonna be saying Yep to The Nope in a hurry. After all, according to their bio, the guys aren't trying to break any ground here:

As The Nope emcee Psy shares, "We're exactly the same as every other music group you've ever heard before. So, prepare for absolute boredom." For once, a rapper tells the truth.

Certainly a little bit of the facetiousness in there, as they play on the fact that so much hip hop does sound alike in '010, but there's no much boredom to be found. What you can find is Moka's trademark chugging grooves in their production, and Psy is a perfect lyrical foil for Ron Contour, as they are both able wrap the lightest of lyrics around the most mundane topic.

It's good springtime music, this, so go check it out.

MP3:: The Nope - Rain All Day
MYSPACE::www.myspace.com/itsthenope
GET IT::thenope.bandcamp.com

Labels: Canadian Hip Hop, Hip Hop, Moka Only, Vancouver

Posted at 1:04 PM by naedoo :: 0 comments

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Video Hits:: k-os, Josh Martinez, Grand Analog, Animal Nation

All right, the Ack is off gallivanting around Montreal with all the fancy music biz swells at M For Montreal, and yes, that leaves me back in Halifax minding the cyber store. And it also happens to be Thursday, so that means one thing: videos. We've had a couple of jam-packed editions of Video Hits over the last couple of weeks, and I wanted to keep that going, but I'd also been hyped on Canadian hip hop after spending the last week with Ghettosocks new album on repeat. So, guess what you're getting today? Yep, a jumbo CanRap edition of Video Hits.

Although it has been out here in Canada for ages, k-os' latest album, Yes!, was just released in the US this past Tuesday (my talking points post for it went up in March). Perhaps to celebrate this, k-os has just released a new X-produced video for I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman, which features k-os & Big Sox ripping it up Dukes of Hazzard style. I love this jam (Saukrates is awesome) and like any fellow my age, I loved the Dukes back in the day, so this is a no-brainer. We follow that up with another two-man, homage-style vid, this one from Josh Martinez and Moka, with their gonzo Fear & Loathing clip for Underground Pop (another jam I love, from Josh's excellent World Famous Sex Buffet).

Grand Analog's video for Take It Slow (Spaces and Places), is a little more traditional, the ole "let's film ourselves as we play on the back of a truck driving through Toronto", but it's no less enjoyable. Two things people love: animals and those videos where people hold signs with the lyrics on them, so I'm thinking you folks will enjoy the clip for Party Animals from Ugly Duckling-eqsue BC duo Animal Nation. We're gonna wrap up with a video that's been out for a while, but I love it and have been meaning to post for ages: Pop & Chips by More Or Les & Fresh Kils which also features Ghettosocks, Timbuktu & Uncle Fester. Enjoy.

k-os - I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman