One coin, two sides

Above you will find 'Niggas In Paris', one of the finer cuts from the excellent Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration of last year 'Watch The Throne'. In which you will find two of the wealthiest musicians working today rapping about how wonderful it is to be wealthy, and what a magnificent life it is that they live. It's such a wild celebration of indulgence that it's almost a comedy of excess. The album, and tour, continue to make even more money for Jay and Ye, taking them ever further away from their humble beginnings.

Below you will find 'Niggas In Poorest' by Yasiin Bey (who until September last year was rapping under the name Mos Def), which uses the same backing track and lyrical structure to paint a picture of the struggle that the average African American is more likely to encounter.

I only stumbled across this cover today, and I've listened to it at least a dozen times. There's something compelling about his conviction, and I love the way he's subverted a popular track to make his statement. I was just going to post it on facebook with the rest of my video trawl, but I thought it was worth a little more coverage than that.

And that keyboard riff is genius. I imagine we'll be hearing that for decades.

Blurring The Line

As part of my re-purposing of this here music blog to be a place for all my music related ramblings I have increased the number of music related blogs and news sites I regularly check. That way I can bring you, dear reader, all the best and greatest music while it's still fresh and piping hot. The result of this is that I see quite a few stories repeated across the blogosphere as various territories catch on to the news.

Most of the time this is fine. When a new video is released, or tour dates scheduled, or awards are won, I can understand how that qualifies as news. I was struck one day last week when on my way to work, flipping through my various Flipboard feeds, I was inundated with the same item being reported across all the major sites. The problem I had was that the item in question was not about music in any substantial way. It was about the personal/romantic lives of two particular musicians.

Tragically even that much information isn't enough for you to know which story I'm talking about, and I'm not going to exacerbate the issue by going into detail. I don't think that music news should ever be indistinguishable from social gossip, but the line has become blurred.

It is my pledge to you, loyal peruser, that I shall never report the personal lives of musicians. I shall bring you only the juiciest, most relevant, pieces of music news. You will not be inundated with the ever changing parade of who is dating/marrying/divorcing/suing who. The only tearful reunions you will hear about will be on stage or in the studio.

If you want the other stuff it seems there are plenty of places you can go to get it, but this blog will always be about the music. Plain and simple.

Ball Park Music

I do this thing from time to time where I become completely obsessed with an artist, or an album. Sometimes it's a single song. When it happens I listen on repeat exclusively again and again and again. At the moment I'm doing this with Brisbane's Ball Park Music.

I saw Ball Park Music last year. They played Transit as part of a tour of Triple J Unearthed acts. Eagle and The Worm were on the same tour, but they didn't play the Canberra show. No disrespect to the other artists on the bill, but Ball Park Music are all I remember of the night. They played well, but failed to blow me away. I wasn't really paying attention though. I was wedged down the bar end of the club having a conversation with my gig buddy.

As the year progressed upbeat hit after upbeat hit graced the airwaves of the nation's youth broadcaster. Still I was resistant to their undeniable charms. It wasn't until the Hottest 100 that I finally relented and picked up their excellent debut 'Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs'. I've been listening to it almost constantly since. I've even bought both of their previous EPs to get myself as close to the full catalogue as possible (I draw the line at the remix of 'ifly').

Now despite my unashamed love of pop, I normally go in for more of the bittersweet/melancholy end of the spectrum. Which means I'm a little bit blindsided by how much I love Ball Park Music. It's an album of such irrepressible joy, that I defy you not to love it too.