Omarion- Icebox (Chucks Remix)
[See post to listen to audio]

Pittsburgh PA’s Steeltown Sounds drops their second remix album of the year, this one leans most towards R&B, featuring remixes of recent songs from artists, including, Ciara, Neyo, and Omarion and Chromeo. Definitely veering from the usual Steel Town Sounds fare, Pittsburgh’s Chuz Prez does not dissapoint. From first listen the project as a whole is a bit rough around the edges, but the sample heavy Steeltown Sounds goes so well over some of these songs that it’s a surprise that someone else hadn’t already done it or done it this well.

Tracklist
1. Cassie - Me and U (Chuck’s Abridged Remix) - 1:27
2. Chromeo - Call Me Up (Chuck’s Remix) - 2:48
3. Common Feat. Kanye West - Go (Chuck’s Remix) - 3:32
4. Ciara - Oh (Chuck’s Abridged Remix) - 1.42
5. Chris Brown - Yo! (Excuse Me Miss - Chuck’s Remix) - 3.29
6. Jay-Z Feat. Pharrell - Excuse Me Miss (Chuck’s Remix) - 5:09
7. Lloyd Feat. Lil’ Wayne - Girls All Around the World (Chuck’s Remix) - 4:01
8. Ciara Feat. Bow Wow - Like You (Chuck’s Abridged Remix) - 2:10
9. Olivia Feat. 50 Cent - Best Friend (Chuck’s Remix) - 2:56
10. Ilyas of Tanya Morgan - Losin’ Faith - 1:25
11. Ne-Yo - So Sick (Chuck’s Abridged Remix) - 1:56
12. Common - The Light (Chuck’s Remix) - 3:29
13. John Record - Public Transportation Love (Chuck’s Remix) - 3:16
14. Nas - K.I.S.S.I.N.G. (Chuck’s Remix) - 4:04
15. Plies Feat. T-Pain - Shawty (Chuck’s Abridged Remix) - 2:17
16. Omarion - Ice Box (Chuck’s Remix) - 3:50
17. Alicia Keys - U Don’t Know My Name (Chuck’s Remix) - 3:44
18. Amerie - One Thing (Chuck’s Remix) (Bonus Track) - 3.41
19. Lloyd Feat. Lil’ Wayne - You (Chuck’s Remix) (Bonus Track) - 4:01
20. John Record - Don’t Go (To New York) (Chuck’s Remix) (Bonus Track) - 3:17
21. John Record Feat. Easy Mac - Smoke Signals (Chuck’s No Beat Remix) (Bonus Track) - 3:35

Download
Steel Town Sounds Presents: Chuck Tries R&B and Stuff
Link 1
Link 2

Links
Steeltown Sounds

Mike and Ike at The Parish, August 1, Opening for Devin The Dude

Austin 360’s “A-list” has published some pictures from last Friday’s Devin the dude show. The set includes some pictures from Mike and Ike’s set as well as from some of the other artists. Go over to the A-List website and check them out. If anyone else has any other pictures, feel free to link them up in the comments section. Peace

Hollyweerd- Have You Ever Made Love to a Weirdo
[See post to listen to audio]

Another artist rising from the ATL underground, Hollyweerd has just put up their new project Edible Phat up for download. Blending a bit of funk, soul, hip-hop, and then some, the four man group made up of The Love Crusader, Tuki, The Dreamer and Staggo Lee are definitely fresh. The 18 track Edible Phat  features production from 9th Wonder, Madlib, and Trackademic amongst others.

Download
Edible Phat

Links
Hollyweerd on MySpace

After two arguably successful albums with the former Little Brother producer, Murs has opted for a web only release for his third collaboration with 9th Wonder, a promotional piece leading up to the September 30th drop date for Murs For President. Although I’m not the biggest fan of 9th Wonder and Murs individually their collaborations have always been good for them to widen their audience and you can’t really be mad at being able to hear Murs Cali raps over 9ths soul sample heavy beats. It’s up now at www.mursand9thwonder.com for a small fee of $Free.99, or whatever you choose to contribute to the cause as long as you buy Murs For President on September 30th…or like Murs says, you can steal that too, since you’re a thief anyway, you mooch.

Download
Murs and 9th Wonder - Sweet Lord

Spree Wilson - Where Do We Go
[See post to listen to audio]

Posted up originally at Che Sing The Cool, I had to put this song out there for people to check out. I’ve been seeing more and more people listening up to what’s going on in the Atlanta underground scene and for most hip-hop heads and even writers it’s apparently too easy to differentiate between what Spree and a handful of others are doing when compared to what people have grown to consider the Atlanta club sounds of Lil’ Jon, Shawty Lo or even T.I.  Personally I hope Spree gets more attention from the casual listener and less from the hip-hop fans and writers that are so quick to declare what is “real hip-hop” and what is not because judging from Spree’s influences and capeablities, he’ll probably take hip-hop wherever he feels like going, making Mr. Wilson’s music more real than some might be ready for.

Links
Spree Wilson on MySpace

Download
Spree Wilson -Where Do We Go.mp3

Renowned illustrator Antar Dayal has just released his limited edition Obama print, the latest in the Artists for Obama series which includes prints from Shepard Fairy and Scot Hansen. Perhaps not as well known by the cool kids as Shepard Fairy, Antar Dayal is a prolific illustrator, best know for his scratchboard engravings. His client list ranges from Bank of America and American Express to Apple Computer and Captain Morgan and now the Barack Obama campaign. Mr. Dayal tells us his reason for creating the print for the campaign.

I am honored to support Barack Obama’s history-making presidential bid through one of his many visionary platforms, including recognizing the importance of art in America. My artwork is inspired by his words, wisdom, accomplishments, and expression of our hopes and dreams for a better America. Our world is facing seemingly insurmountable economic and environmental challenges. It is a rare occurrence to behold a leader like Barack Obama who understands what America must do in order to reclaim itself on the world stage. As a first generation immigrant, I have confidence that America can collectively overcome these challenges under Obama’s presidency. YES WE CAN!

There are some pretty cool images of the engraving and printing process up on his blog, so go check it out and check out the video from the Obama campaign. Purchases of the Artists for Obama prints are 100% contributions to the campaign and count toward your overall contribution limit of $2300.

Links
Artists for Obama/Obama Store

Texas hip-hop icon, Devin The Dude, will be bringing his eccentric brand of hip-hop to the 512 on August 1. Outside of his longtime Rap-a-lot partnerships Devin has also worked with everyone from De La Soul to Dr. Dre and is definitely one in a million in terms of showmanship and dedication to his craft. Opening will be Austin natives Gerald G, Southbound and BigBadMedium.com comrades, Mike and Ike. Also opening will be Fat Tony, Giovanni, COD and Kriminals. Quite a varied display of Texas hip-hop, which should go over well with Devin’s varied fan base.

Links
Devin The Dude
Gerald G
Southbound
Mike and Ike
TheScrewShop.com
AustinSurreal.com

The big homie Dj Manny was on News 8 Austin today looking like Richie Tenenbaum …working out and dj’ing at Pure Austin off of only two hours of sleep.  The story is pretty interesting…but the video really makes it great.

“Hot girl, we’d look hot.”  © Dj Manny

Good stuff homie.

Check out the video here. 

Yo! It’s been a bit since I’ve caught up with y’all, been busy with all sort of stuff, but what I always do is listen to music. I just posted up some tracks onto Muxtape.com…how come no one told me about this earlier? Apparently it was just launched in March, but it’s a pretty cool way for wannabe djs to post up some playlist and real djs to post up actual mixes. For us non-djs , it’s sort of like when you used to make record a tape for someone, except easier and all online. According to wikipedia, the website has a pretty cool backstory:

Muxtape is a website that allows users to upload playlists of MP3s, based on the idea of a mixtape. It was created by Justin Ouellette in March of 2008.

Ouellette came up with the idea after being a disc jockey at his university’s radio station. The site became unexpectedly popular within two days of its launch. In April, Ouellette estimated the number of users as “ostensibly … more than the population of Germany, less than the population of Japan”, however this fact is not supported by any third party traffic estimates, which show muxtape userbase at being less than 100,000. The site is supported by links to Amazon.com. It has a very simple design and cannot be searched. Ouellette explains that the important part of a mixtape, which he tried to preserve on his site, is about discovering new music instead of someone finding music they are already familiar with.

Any site that is about discovering new music is cool with me, especially when it has usable features like linking to your current last.fm account to scrobble your songs. I posted up the Southern Soul mix to test it out, pretty easy uploading and easy way to share what you’re listening to. Either way go listen to my muxtape (and a few others as well) Post up yours in the comments section, let us know what you’re listening to.

http://thehonestape.muxtape.com/

http://rawla.muxtape.com/ 
(very dope LA mix by RawLa)

http://starvingartist.muxtape.com/
Australian artist Paul Walsh’s mix

Damn! I thought last weeks remix was fire….for the second in The Five One’s series of remixes and cutting room floor material we have a The Five One’s remixed and revamped version of N.E.R.D.’s “Kill Joy.” Not only does it feature new verses from The Five One, but it’s reproduced with some added sections and keys. Peace!

Download
NERD-KillJoy (The Five One Mix)

Links
Five One Official Page
Five One on Myspace