Lil Wayne. SP-33. Escape From Tha Carter.

Meet Ezra Funkhouser, a Chicago electronic musician who goes by the name go SP-33. He sent me a project of his awhile and ago and I’ve been holding on to it.  The record is called “Escape From Tha Carter”.  It is a project that involves remixing Lil’ Wayne’s tracks using the “Escape From New York”  score as the sampling music.  Ezra explains, ‘I am hesitant to call it a mash-up because it isn’t just a mix of “track A” with “track B”.   Instead, I totally deconstruct both the Wayne lyrics and the “Escape From New York” tracks.  Then I reconstruct them to make something completely new. ‘

He continues, ‘this project came about because, for whatever reason, I was listening to a lot of Lil’ Wayne and watching a lot of grimmey and dark sci-fi flicks (Blade Runner, Escape from New York, Tetsuo The Iron Man, Metropolis).  While watching these films I wondered what the pop music on the radio stations would sound like.  So I embarked on creating dark, distorted, and grimmey pop/hip-hop music.  Much like “Escape from New York” and “Blade Runner” the music is muggy and dense and surrounds the audience in a dystopic and unstable environment.’

I simply cannot get enough. Lil Wayne has never sounded so different. Or so good. And yes, you guessed it, you can download ‘Escape From Tha Carter’ for free. You’re welcome!

Gym Class Heroes

“Melding elements of rap, rock, R&B, and funk into one cohesive and melodic sound, upstate New York’s Gym Class Heroes have diverse appeal based on their impressive musical dexterity. Often touring with indie rock and pop-punk bands, they don’t fit comfortably into one specific genre; the quartet’s music is rooted in traditional hip-hop, but features live instruments instead of looped samples or beats. The band’s roots date to 1997 in Geneva, NY, when MC Travis McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley became friends during high-school gym class. Wanting to create a new palette for hip-hop, the duo worked with other musicians before Gym Class Heroes were officially born in 2001.”

They exploded onto the music scene with their hit song ‘Cupids Chokehold’.  “The release of the single Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America, hit number four on Billboard’s Hot 100 and remained in constant rotation on radio and MTV during the spring of 2007.” Their newer single ‘Cookie Jar’ has also climbed up the charts. It’s a reflection of their newer more rap-than-indie sound.

Now “Gym Class Heroes will be touring with Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Teddy P, and Keyshia Cole starting in mid December.” They have certainly hit the big time

Anyone remember their older stuff like ‘The Queen & I’, or ‘Shell Shock’?

Enjoy the video for ‘The Queen & I’ below.

xx

yours in musical madness