Ear Drums Pop: May 2010

This series is a thinly veiled excuse for me to cram personal music preferences down my readership's collective throats. Each month I'll be posting 10 random songs from all over that I can't get enough of. I'd like to have these posts spark some sort of discussion, as I've been unsuccessful in getting people to post comments with almost every other HITS project I do. I'm aiming to focus on somewhat rare/forgotten/under-appreciated gems. If you'd like to see something from a specific artist in Ear Drums Pop, let me know.


"Deja Vu"- Nas

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One of the all-time great Nas cuts, this songs origins can be traced back to his pre-Illmatic demo album. The T.R.O.Y. Blog has done a bang-up job providing some background info on this cut, as well as posting a new, higher quality version, which you can download by clicking here.


"24-7-365" FWC feat. Lil' Keke

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Great slice of obscuro H-town rap with a nasty feature from Lil' Keke. According to Deadly Grounds, FWC was signed to Underground Records, a label under Rap-A-Lot, where they released their first and only album.


"Tour Stories"- Souls of Mischief

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One of my favorite cuts off of the Souls most recent effort, which was pretty damn good front to back. Props go to Domino for crafting this extra smooth beat.


"Smoke"- Mr. Tinimaine

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An early 2000 NO gem, I discovered this incredible weed anthem on my boy Kid Slizzard/Jib Kidder's Twankle & Glisten Blog. I don't know much about Mr. Tinimaine beyond this song, but would love for readers to help school me in Tinimaine history and current projects.


"Things I Dream"- CunninLynguists

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Although I had a hard time digesting Dirty Acres when it first came out, re-discovering cuts like "Things I Dream" have me questioning my initial impressions. In my mind, Kno is one of the great producers of the past decade, and this track is a perfect example of why.


"Hay"- Crucial Conflict

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I owe Pandora a shout for re-introducing me to this forgotten Chi-town smoke out anthem. In addition to some nice production, "Hay" contains the memorably offensive line, "That hay got me so goddamn horny, but i don't like that tramp. The only reason I'm poppin' that coochie cause the hoe had a book of food stamps."


"Po' Pimp"- Doe or Die feat Twista

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Twista dominates this beat, delivering what some consider his best verse ever. Between the smooth hook and Twista's devastating clean-up verse, this song equaled an instant hit for Do or Die when it dropped 12 years ago.


"Impossible"- Diz Gibran

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Queens producer Moonshine created a masterpiece when he utilized one of the most unlikely rap samples in recent memory for LA based MC Diz Gibran. If you're feeling this cut, make sure to download this duo's full-length in high quality MP3 format compliments of them.


"In The World"- Akinyele

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An overlooked gem from Ak's Put It In Your Mouth EP, this song owes much to its DJ Enuff production, which often gets the silver medal when put up against the Large Professor version. Personally, I like Enuff's version better.


"As The World Turns"- C-BO feat. Sherelle Fortier and Spice-1

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Vintage soulful west coast shit from an often overlooked legend. The style might take a minute to get used to, but give this a chance before writing it off.