Monday, March 9, 2009

On Rotation - Week of 3/9/09

This week's edition of "On Rotation" features three tracks by Lil' Wayne, whose merits I discovered only yesterday while attempting to relieve boredom. Unlike Kanye West's over-inflated and masturbatory "808's & Heartbreak," whatever madness is behind Lil' Wayne's "Tha Carter III" is downright fascinating. Bewildering and kind of offensive too, but mostly fascinating. As far as I know (and my knowledge of mainstream hip-hop is admittedly scant), nobody in mainstream hip-hop today has ever recorded a rap about suffering from mental illness, being a martian and a "venereal disease" or hated by the seasons. Nobody has rapped about the disorientating experience of going from the ghetto 'hood to the gated 'hood with such self-consciousness. Nobody has had the temerity to claim to be the saviour of hip-hop, referenced Hitler and ESPN in the same song, dedicated a whole track to rapping about a prostitute or fucking the police (literally). He even delivers a diatribe against the Reverend Al Sharpton on "Don't Get It," berating him as a "Don King with a perm." Name a rapper that has done that. The man is "ILL! Not sick." Well, maybe a little.



01 Animal Collective - My Girls from Merriweather Post Pavilion
02 Aphrodite's Child - Rain and Tears from The End of the World
03 Beck - Youthless from Modern Guilt
04 Bill Withers - Can We Pretend from + Justed
05 Bon Iver - Skinny Love from For Emma, Forever Ago
06 Caetano Veloso - Cucurrucucu Paloma from The Best of Caetano Veloso
07 Chad VanGaalen - Echo Train from Infiniheart
08 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Wrote A Song For Everyone from Green River
09 Crystal Castles - Vanished from Crystal Castles
10 David Byrne & Brian Eno - Strange Overtones from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
11 David Ruffin - Heaven Help Us All from David (The Unreleased Album)
12 Deerhunter - Never Stops from Microcastle
13 Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven from A Gift from A Flower to A Garden
14 Dungen - Satt Att Se ("Ways to See") from 4
15 Etta James - I'd Rather Go Blind from Etta James - Her Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection
16 Grizzly Bear + Feist - Service Bell from Dark Was The Night (Red Hot Compilation)
17 Holy Fuck - Nude (Remix) from Radiohead remix contest
18 Isaac Hayes - Wonderful from Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It?
19 Ladytron - Black Cat from Velocifero
20 Lali Puna - Faking The Books from Faking The Books
21 Laura Cantrell - Love Vigilantes from Trains And Boats And Planes
22 Lil' Wayne - Mr. Carter (Ft. Jay-Z) from Tha Carter III
23 Lil' Wayne - A Milli from Tha Carter III
24 Lil' Wayne - Dr. Carter from Tha Carter III
25 Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone from Youth Novels
26 Matt And Kim - Daylight from Grand
27 Miriam Makeba - Olilili from Africa
28 Pinback - Good To Sea from Autumn of the Seraphs
29 The Raveonettes - Dead Sound from Lust Lust Lust
30 Rodriguez - Sugar Man from Cold Fact
31 Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information from World Psychedelic Classics 2: California Soul
32 Sigur Rós - Hoppipolla from Takk
33 Spiritualized - Soul On Fire from Songs In A & E
34 TV on the Radio - Family Tree from Dear Science
35 TV on the Radio - Stork & Owl from Dear Science
36 TV on the Radio - DLZ from Dear Science
37 Vetiver - Everyday from Tight Knit

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