#54 – X-Force Told Me To

This time it was a deejay called X-Force’s turn to tell me a little about music. He is a bit of a Hip Hop mixologist / aficionado / fan and his first single is out now from all good online retailers. Anyway, anything I can say about him will be bettered by him talking. You can listen to his single up here and then scroll down to listen to his choices…

X-Force’s Theme [Buy]
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Here are my three songs – I could probably name 50 more but these are the main ones that spring to mind! Enjoy.

Public Enemy – Welcome To The Terrordome [Buy]

When I first starting getting into deejaying as a teenager I was buying rooting through some vinyl sleeves when I came across ‘Fear of a Black Planet’ by Public Enemy. I was mainly in to a combination of techno, house and hardcore at the time (around 1992) and the first thing that drew me in was the band’s logo and album artwork. I thought – this just looks badass – lets see if it sounds as good as it looks. Now I’d heard Bring The Noise with Anthrax courtesy of my older brother and loved that and swiftly took the sleeve to the shop owner to play the record for me. Cue best intro ever on an LP, cue Welcome to the Terrordome…WOW… “I got so much trouble on my mind/Refuse to lose!” – my hip hop love affair started at that moment. I think I waited about 20 seconds and I quickly pulled the money out of my pocket fearing someone else in the shop might snap it up before me. For me PE ARE hip hop. No question, no sellout.

Wu Tang Clan – A Better Tomorrow [Buy]

I actually heard this on Radio 1 of all places to begin with and whilst firstly being amazed at Wu Tang being played (during the daytime!) it led me to the attention of the imminent release for the second Wu Tang LP – Forever. I don’t think I’ve actually ever held so much anticipation to an LP as with this one and ‘A Better Tomorrow’ just felt deep to me. Inspectah Deck virtually always kills it on anything he rhymes on and probably is my favourite Wu MC. I think in terms of lyrical content and music this has to be my favourite Wu Tang track (although I’ve probably got like 50 Wu Tang favourites at least!).

Edan – Sing It, Shitface [Buy]

Now I tried for a second to think of some stuff that wasn’t entirely hip-hop related for this but you know… these three tracks I’ve chosen will probably always live in my record box. A lot of hip-hop gets categorized these days relating to certain eras or whatever but for me, there are certain songs that will be on my playlists forever… literally. Edan was one of those artists like AntiCon in some ways who had HUGE internet hype but boy does he back it up. When you’ve got an MC who can beat juggle (whilst MCing) and beatbox as well… its kind of ridiculous but in a good way. I like this kind of music because its both intelligent and melodically moving. The japanese kids sample used on the chorus is amazingly good and anyone using strings in hip hop normally gets my vote.