Medium

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

A few months ago I posted up a track by Virginia based band, The Five One, off of the latest series of work they have out entitled the Virginia Complex. If you missed that post or missed their latest, “The Green Complex” go check it out now. If you have checked it out and are fiending for more, starting this week, Medium will be putting out a weekly track of cutting room floor and mixtape material. This week we have The Five One Remix of Lupe Fiasco’s “Fighters.” Peace.

Download
Lupe Fiasco- Fighters FiveOne Mix.wav

Links
Five One Official Page
Five One on Myspace

The Five One - Playground

If you were to just listen to the song above you would have no idea just how many genres and sounds the group manages to pack into each release and sometimes individual songs. The Green Complex is the second release in the group’s Virginia Complex series and 4th release in just two years. The three members of the group are Red, Green and Blue (RGB) all bring something to the group and what comes out is a series unique songs and sounds that are bigger than their individual parts. The group themselves describes the sound of The Virginia Complex series as “…the raw approach of rap with the sensibilities of rock , pop , and reggae music.” Genre mixing, genre bending, genre defying…whatever it is, it’s not your typical rock/rap or hip-hop with live instruments. What I can say is that it’s good fuc*kin music, so don’t sleep on it.

The group has just released the second part in The Virginia Complex series entitled “The Green Complex.” It’s available now at FiveOneband.com and if you need to catch up with the movement you can download their other projects fore free. Go check it out and thank me later.

Links
Five One Official Page
Five One on Myspace

Videos
Music Video for “Active”
Earth Intruders V.1

Artwork for “The Green Complex” by KatiKut.

UNI: Beautiful Day

I’ve always been one to like my Cali raps more Ice Cube than Jurassic 5, or more Dogg Pound than Del the Funky Homosapien. Even other underground representatives of California don’t do as much for me as other people. Either way, I was pretty caught off-guard when I first heard the single for the Inglewood based group, UNI.

The group consists of Inglewood native Thurzday and Seattle native Y-O. Rapping together as a group since High School, the group is out promoting their street album, “Fried Chicken and Watermelon.”I think I might have seen references to the album a few weeks ago, but the title didn’t seem that appealing to me at the time. The second time I heard the group was on El Prez’s video for “Uaintuponthis!” that featured the group. Despite some quality rhymes, I still wasn’t put on by the battle raps and didn’t check into the group further. It wasn’t until I saw the video for the lead single “Beautiful Day” that my ears really perked up.

Video Link

It’s probably the high quality video, at least when compared to other independent rappers, or maybe that I have a weak spot for summer time/feel good sounding hip hop music. It seems to me a bit of a nod to Spike Jonez’s “Drop” but with the feel good vibe and tone of Cube’s “Good Day.” Either way, the video is officially dropping on Mtv Suckafree Thursday March 27, so don’t sleep. I went ahead and checked out the street album, and at first listen (although a bit rough around the edges) you can see that the talent, charisma and star potential is there. From knocking beat on “Lapdance” to the sense of humor from the group on “Fat Girls”, the album is definitely enjoyable. Let’s hope that they keep making good music and don’t just get lumped into to what appears to be a sudden rise of retro raps and get lost in the mess. Peace.

Downloads
Beautiful Day by UNI
Fried Chicken and Watermelon by UNI

Links
UNI Myspace
UNI on ilike

Graphic for story by The Honest Ape. Photo of UNI courtesy of UNI

Listen to the entire Southern Soul Remixtape - Mixed by Dj Rapid Ric

Tracklisting
01 Intro - Chop Steak/Dj Rapid Ric
02 TI, Lil Scrappy, P$C - I’m A King (2020 Remix)
03 Young Jeezy ft. Mannie Fresh - And Then What (Chop Steak Remix)
04 Southbound - Close Your Eyes (20/20)
05 Lil’ Wayne - I’m A D-Boy (2020 Remix)
06 Ray Cash ft. Scarface - Bumpin’ My Music (Chop Steak Remix)
07 Clipse - Mr. Me Too (Chop Steak Remix)
08 Smitty ft. Lil’ Wayne & TwistaDiamonds Remix (2020 Remix)
09 Young Dro - Shoulder Lean (Chop Steak Remix)
10 Lil’ Scrappy - Money In The Bank (Checho Remix)
11 Slim Thug ft. T.I. & Bun B - 3 Kings (Checho Remix)
12 UGK ft. Outkast - Intl Players Anthem (Chop Steak Remix)
13. Slim Thug ft. Young Jeezy & Killa Kyleon - Diamonds Remix (2020 Remix)
14. Young Joc - It’s Goin’ Down (2020 Remix)

After about a year and a half of trading beats and acapellas, Soul 2020 presents the Southern Soul Remixtape, mixed by Dj Rapid Ric. Southern Soul is a side project for the camp and is out just in time for this years SXSW Festival in Austin, so be on the look out for Chop Steak going from venue to venue hustling it. Perfect for the sunny weather and barbecues going on in Austin right now. This remixtape is southern hip hop artist like Lil Wayne, T.I., UGK, etc over the soul-sample-heavy sound of the Soul 2020 production crew of Checho, Chop Steak and 20/20 and on top of that add the mixing of the one and only mixtape mechanic, Dj Rapid Ric.(who also serves as Chamillionaires tour dj) It’s really what I can only describe as a music-to-have-a-backyard-cookout-to. Should go perfect with that free SXSW beer you’re sippin on (or syrup). Texas people, get at Chop in and around Austin this week for a copy.

Videos