The second was recent, and lasted longer than most of my musical phases last. It started in similar places as the first one, and rapidly expanded. There’s will likely few more installments of Audiophilia dedicated just to Minneapolis-based rappers, but for this one I’ll just name some stuff that anyone remotely into hip hop will already know. But hopefully I’ll reach someone who hasn’t wandered into that territory too heavily and cause the occurrence of a significant rap phase.

Disclaimer: This is rap, so there’s several swears and some “N Words” contained herein. Also note that I am extremely white.

Slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse is pretty mainstream, actually. The 4 person rap group was signed fairly recently to Eminem’s Shady Records, which I imagine gave them a major boost. “Our House” is the first track off of their debut album. It’s essentially an introduction to themselves and the album, showcasing each member of the group as well as Eminem who makes several appearances on the record. The last song I’ll showcase from Slaughterhouse is “Get Up”, which does something that has probably been done before but was new to me. There are some words sung as part of the beat, and they seemingly effortlessly rap around that. It’s pretty awesome; I had to listen to it several times in a row the first time I heard it just to bask in it.

Slaughterhouse’s “Welcome to Our House” doesn’t quite break free from the misogyny that pervades a lot of rap, which slightly disappointed me. But the album is well polished, written, and executed, and has some killer beats and hooks. If the above songs did anything for you I’d check it out.

Hopsin

Hopsin is probably the most famous underground rapper out there. His “Ill Mind” YouTube series has lately been garnering millions of views, and his latest album “Knock Madness” got quite a bit of buzz. This first song is off his second album “Raw”.

Hopsin is an interesting character. He technically is a character, played by rapper Marcus Hopson. He wears white colored contacts on stage, in videos, and for interviews. He’s portrayed as a sort of cantankerous soap-box preacher, supremely confident in his superiority over all other rappers. The man behind the character is a toned down version of that. Marcus has a lot of ideas about where rap is and where it should be, and he’s not afraid to call people out.

At the same time, he’s created his own label. He writes lyrics, mixes and produces his own beats, sings a lot of the hooks himself, and clearly has a handle on self-promotion (see the aforementioned white colored contacts; he’s pretty easy to recognize). His album “Raw” dealt with a lot of his feelings about his interactions with Ruthless Records, who signed him for some small amount of money and basically buried his debut album “Gazing At The Moonlight”. That first album sold only 47 copies. Subsequently he broke away and started the “Funk Volume” label, to which he’s been signing up-and-coming rappers who meet his pretty rigorous standards.

He spent a long time on the follow-up to “Raw”, releasing “Knock Madness” in 2013. Production values were emphasized on this record, and you can definitely tell there’s a technical leap between the previous song, and the next one I’ll include.

Hopsin is great, and you should totally listen to at least his Funk Volume records.

Bonus!

Yelawolf is another rapper who’s blowing up. He’s been touted as the next Eminem, by Eminem no less, and was also signed to Shady Records. He’s actually pretty good, and has the mystique of originating from Alabama. But I’m including the song “Get Away” off of “Radioactive”, mostly because it makes me laugh every time. Yelawolf’s stuff is good, the first guest verse is all right, but the second guest verse by Mystikal is so over-the-top, to the point where it doesn’t really even fit in the song, I can’t help but crack up. Hopefully it’s not just me.

I didn’t start listening to music, really, until I was about 18 years old. Before that, I knew two bands really well (They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies), and I had a fair amount of exposure to pop and classic rock through the radio. The only CDs I owned were acoustic instrumental guitar music of a variety known as Fingerstyle. Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges, and Billy McLaughlin dominated my listening time and taught me to play the guitar (probably the wrong way to learn).

Once I had enough disposable income to purchase consumer electronics, I found myself with an iPod. I had to fill it with something. Thus began my voracious consumption of music, mostly obtained at random via highly legal internet sites.

I felt like I had to make up for lost time. I never really stuck to an album, or band, or even genre for a lengthy period of time, and to an extent that’s still the case. So I’d like to share some of the music that’s stuck with me, from wherever and whenever. All opinions are opinions held by me, and should be considered opinions.

There might be a theme, there might not be. But this week, we’re going to start with the letter E.

Elbow – Fly Boy Blue/Lunette

From “The The Take Off and Landing of Everything”. A good friend of mine bought the album “Cast of Thousands” by Elbow about 10 years ago. At the time we occasionally would purchase media with no prior knowledge of it. Usually this ended up going poorly. For example, I bought the film “Ultraviolet”. My friend ended up with this Elbow album, which he wasn’t thrilled with. I thought it was okay, but I didn’t give it much attention.

When Elbow released this latest album, I listened to it solely due to that experience, not expecting much. What I got was basically Peter Gabriel filtered through the body of British pop and/or alt rock since Peter Gabriel was influential. It was actually partially recorded at Gabriel’s Real World Studios. This album is really solid, and I recommend it.

Editors – Formaldehyde

From “The Weight Of Your Love”. I ran into Editors as a recommendation for fans of Interpol (I’m a fan of Interpol). I can see where they were coming from, especially on older Editors releases. It’s a little less pronounced on “The Weight Of Your Love”, but you basically get lyrics that are quite a bit less ridiculous than Interpol in exchange for rhythm section that falls just short. Which is actually a compliment; Interpol’s rhythm section is bananas.
I can’t help myself. Here’s some more Editors. Just go listen to the whole album.

Ellie Goulding – Figure 8

From “Halcyon”. Ok, ok, I know. Ellie Goulding is popular and what not. Plus she’s on a particularly crowded boat with all the other synthpop acts (including a lot of mainstream pop). Plus she dated Skrillex. BUT! Sometimes you just need something engineered to be catchy, and I’d rather go with someone who can write and sing.

That’s going to do it for me, folks. Thanks for getting this far if you got this far. Feel free to disagree/comment below, and I’ll be shoving more music at you soon.

BONUS

I don’t necessarily promise to do new releases, or have this many songs in an article, but I just heard this today and have to include it.

The Both – Milwaukee

From “The Both”. I don’t know a lot about Ted Leo, but Aimee Mann is a crazy talented songwriter. This collaboration between the two of them is pretty great, and hooked me right away. The video is a little goofy, but it was the only one I could find with the album version of the song.

Audiophilia is DOOM’s rotating musical recommendation column. It’s where we come together to give you some listening choices every month. This month Aaron Poole and Michael Harris give you their picks.

Aaron:

Brothers Or Not is an Austin, Texas based rock band that is kind of a super-group of the Texan live scene combining former members of The Tastydaclyls, Veloura, and Westbound Departure. I would be remiss to leave out that I have been a fan of both Veloura and The Tastydactyls previously and was disheartened to see them both quit music, so it’s not too surprising that I was excited and pleased to hear that this band had formed.

This new, self titled, and debut EP from the band is a good representation of this mix of musical pasts. You can hear a touch of all previous bands in the songs. Blake Rawlings takes up lead vocals once again and it’s nice to see him really let loose and power his way through some of these songs. In the past, The Tastys bordered on that pop line but Brothers Or Not is rock without a shadow of a doubt. This is the kind of stuff you want to hear in a bar and sing/shout along to.

There is a significant change of pace in the four tracks with the song “Switch”. A much moodier and slower song but in my opinion quite possibly the most enduring because of it. While the others like “C. Gaines” has that rock edge, there is something still more cutting about the lyrics and tone with “Switch” that means while it may not be as catchy as the others, it will stay with you for longer.

Anyway, check out the EP preview below and if any of it takes your fancy you can download the whole EP for FREE at this link here.

Michael:

I heard this months pick on the radio of all places. That’s right folks, you heard it here. Radio is not dead! Not completely anyways. I tend not to listen to local radio because most stations operate on the standard model of only playing 15 songs about 50 times per day plus something classically popular every once and again. Recently, however, I’ve been giving a pretty good listen to KSPC Radio which is a very local college radio station that has a lot more freedom to play new and strange sounds (last week there was a block dedicated to Beatles covers that were specifically featured in Beatles movies, and every Friday they have a block of video game and video game related music).

That being established I was introduced to a band that I’ve been fairly enamored with over the past couple weeks: Dirty Ghosts. I really don’t know too much about the band, unfortunately. They’ve enlisted the production talents of hip-hop talent Aesop Rock for their album Metal Moon and I just really love the sound that they’re putting out. Easily the catchiest song on the album and the one that got me hooked is the first track on the album, “Ropes That Way”, another favorite of mine off the album is “19 in ’71”. If you want to do a bit of looking, the 7″ Single version of “Shout It In” is a bit better than the album with a cameo by Aesop Rock.

Metal Moon is available for listening in its entirety on Spotify if you want to give it a try. They’re also currently finishing up a tour with their final show in their hometown of San Fransisco.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention one of my favorite albums of the year with Milo Greene’s Self-Titled album released in July. Lovely album that I can’t stop listening to, no matter how much it makes me nostalgic for being in a relationship and having lovey dovey feels. Here’s my favorite off of their album and slightly reminiscent of Landon Pigg, “Silent Way”.