So Fresh and So Green | Madam Toussaint on Going Green, Art, Hip Hop, and Politics

One of Hip Hop’s latest golden boys, no not Drake, Raekwon the Chef released a mixtape this month. Ok, so many he would be more like a golden man, but this guy has managed to beat back the ravages of “old age” and the ageism in rap that goes with it.

One of my favorite tracks off his Coke Up In Da Dollar Bill mixtape is “The Set Up” which features our leading man in the midst of a sexual encounter first interrupted by DJ Scream? then later on by 3 dudes with guns. Hey, it’s on a mixtape called Coke Up In Da Dollar Bill Mixtape from a track called “The Set Up”, what did you expect?

Anyway, Rae smoothed it out on that one. Take notes, it’s all about the consonants and don’t forget the vowels! So I got to thinking why do cats like Fabolous get so much burn when it’s time to “do something for the ladies” when we have a perfectly good Raekwon here? And he cooks!

I was asked once by my man my mellow Carlito Roc of the tckonbroadway.com what was the best pick up line I ever heard and my first thought was “Yo, what fabric is that?/ It’s only wool and rayon”. RIP Teddy Pendergrass who is sampled for this Ghostface joint. (more…)

I must admit I do like this song, but I thought is was strange when I first listened to it and I still do. Nice soulful 60s type vocal and guitar driven that doesn’t change much to support GZA’s verse. This is not a rap beat but GZA sounds at home here on this very short, sunny day tune.

So who is Mocky you ask? He’s a Somali-Canadian artist and producer whose new album Saskamodie is mostly instrumental. You may remember him from his work on Jamie Lidell’s 2005 album Multiply and Feist’s album The Reminder, which spawned her big hit “1234″.

How did he get together with Mocky you ask? According to Spinner.com:
“When I was making this record my dream was that it would get sampled and used in hip-hop tracks. So to have someone like GZA do a verse over a loop from that record, it’s like a dream come true…

At least three times I thought this just isn’t going to ever happen. Then I would hear ‘Oh, he loves the track, he’s about to do it this weekend.’ I would think to myself, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if you asked GZA right now who Mocky he is, he’d say no.’ “I just could not imagine it. Then one day, (more…)