NO TRIVIA

May 30, 2012 – The highlight of Brooklyn-via-Pittsburgh producer/DJ Skinny Friedman's 2011 Trap Rave EP is "Nine Piece (Blowin' Moombahton Fast Pt. 2)," a sea of Rick Ross barks, handguns being cocked, and clacking, snapping percussion, all set to the mid-tempo, Jimmy Buffet-on-Ecstasy shuffle of moombahton. Though don't sleep on Trap Rave's seven-plus-minute moombah remix of Juicy J and Lex Luger's "Who Da Neighbors," either.

May 29, 2012 – "I'm not a star, somebody lied / I ride the subway as a car, I'm getting by." That's Oddisee on "Do It All," the collaborative track with his DC supergroup Diamond District, from his new album, People Hear What They See. The producer/rapper just kind of throws that line out there, subtly grounding Rick Ross' hammy modesty with a gentlemanly dose of honesty.

May 25, 2012 – I've been meaning to talk about RJ Smith's The One: The Life and Music Of James Brown for a few months now. I guess it's a biography of James Brown, though it's more like a very long essay about J.B.

May 25, 2012 – "Stay humble," "keep it real," etc. are core values tha tevery rapper has internalized. For Pepper Boy, however, they're the only ones that seem to matter. On his new EP Days of Grace, the Little Rock, Arkansas, rapper is exceedingly humble and nobly sincere, lacing his street tales with an inviting kindness that always take care to steer clear of cynicism and cruelty.

May 23, 2012 – Detroit producer Skywlkr, best known for his contributions to Danny Brown's XXX, has been releasing beat-tapes — actual cassette tapes — before every blissed-out beatmaker jumped on the post-Clams Casino instrumental mixtape bandwagon. In 2010, Skywlkr released Strawberry Cough and following the success of XXX, he pressed-up a sequel, Blueberry Cough.

May 18, 2012 – One of my favorite songs by the late Chuck Brown is 1988's "That'll Work (2001)," a go-go version of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra." The credits on the 12-inch read like this: Written by Richard Strauss, arrangement by Deodato, additional arrangement by Chuck Brown. So specifically, "That’ll Work" references Eumir Deodato’s take on "Also Sprach Zarathustra" from 1972’s Prelude.