Statik Selektah f/ Big Shug of the Gang Starr Foundation - "Punch Out!" (mp3)
Although it's pretty respectably star-studded, Statik Selektah's Spell My Name Right (The Album) is low key and New York-centric compared to the big official albums by mixtape DJs this year, DJ Khaled's back over the summer and DJ Drama's out this week. The big names on here are guys like Jadakiss and KRS-One and Talib Kweli, not of-the-moment chart-toppers. But it's still pretty impressive that Statik Selektah assembled a lineup like that, considering that he's a doughy white guy who's the same age as me (almost exactly the same age, in fact; I looked up his birthdate and it's the same month as mine). And more impressively, he's not just a glorified A&R, as he produces every single track on the album, with solid if unremarkable boom bap and Primo-style vocal scratches.
Statik Selektah features Termanology pretty heavily on the album, a full third of the songs, and I probably wouldn't even know who Termanology is if Ethan hadn't talked about him a bunch this year and sent me that song he did with Primo and Lil Fame and Papoose. Sometimes he throws Term in the middle of a couple more established MC's that I'd rather hear as a straight duo, like Styles P. and Q-Tip on "Stop, Look, Listen," but he's not bad at all. And there are plenty of good tracks he doesn't get in the way of, like the the Freeway/Cassidy collab "What Would You Do!?" that would've been welcome on B.A.R.S. or Free At Last.
One of the recurring themes of Spell My Name Right is Statik getting drops from other mixtape DJs like Khaled and Clinton Sparks and treating them like celebrities worth featuring alongside all the rappers, which is kind of funny in and of itself. The Clinton Sparks one is pretty weird, though, because he spends his whole interlude telling Statik Selektah stuff like "there's only a couple, a handful of DJs, myself, you, a couple other people that are really hot, too, but the game is so oversaturated with wackness," and I wonder if he even realizes how sketchy it sounds to hear one white hip hop DJ say that to another white hip hop DJ (especially one whose mixtapes and radio shows are as obnoxious and barely listenable as Clinton Sparks). I've come to realize that the central paradox of being a white guy involved with hip hop in any way is that it's a very competitive culture where everyone wants to be the best, or at least say they're the best. But if you're a white guy saying you're the best in a field populated almost entirely by black people, and non-white people, I don't have to explain how that can come off pretty bad if you don't choose your words carefully.
The next track "Punch Out!" is pretty entertaining in a good way, though, less for Big Shug (who I like but have only ever really heard on "The Militia"), than for the crazy video game beat. Idolator's been mentioning a similiarity between Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and "Ayo Technology" at every opportunity the last few months, but this song actually goes all the way to sample the music from the game, and the result is actually pretty dope.
Although it's pretty respectably star-studded, Statik Selektah's Spell My Name Right (The Album) is low key and New York-centric compared to the big official albums by mixtape DJs this year, DJ Khaled's back over the summer and DJ Drama's out this week. The big names on here are guys like Jadakiss and KRS-One and Talib Kweli, not of-the-moment chart-toppers. But it's still pretty impressive that Statik Selektah assembled a lineup like that, considering that he's a doughy white guy who's the same age as me (almost exactly the same age, in fact; I looked up his birthdate and it's the same month as mine). And more impressively, he's not just a glorified A&R, as he produces every single track on the album, with solid if unremarkable boom bap and Primo-style vocal scratches.
Statik Selektah features Termanology pretty heavily on the album, a full third of the songs, and I probably wouldn't even know who Termanology is if Ethan hadn't talked about him a bunch this year and sent me that song he did with Primo and Lil Fame and Papoose. Sometimes he throws Term in the middle of a couple more established MC's that I'd rather hear as a straight duo, like Styles P. and Q-Tip on "Stop, Look, Listen," but he's not bad at all. And there are plenty of good tracks he doesn't get in the way of, like the the Freeway/Cassidy collab "What Would You Do!?" that would've been welcome on B.A.R.S. or Free At Last.
One of the recurring themes of Spell My Name Right is Statik getting drops from other mixtape DJs like Khaled and Clinton Sparks and treating them like celebrities worth featuring alongside all the rappers, which is kind of funny in and of itself. The Clinton Sparks one is pretty weird, though, because he spends his whole interlude telling Statik Selektah stuff like "there's only a couple, a handful of DJs, myself, you, a couple other people that are really hot, too, but the game is so oversaturated with wackness," and I wonder if he even realizes how sketchy it sounds to hear one white hip hop DJ say that to another white hip hop DJ (especially one whose mixtapes and radio shows are as obnoxious and barely listenable as Clinton Sparks). I've come to realize that the central paradox of being a white guy involved with hip hop in any way is that it's a very competitive culture where everyone wants to be the best, or at least say they're the best. But if you're a white guy saying you're the best in a field populated almost entirely by black people, and non-white people, I don't have to explain how that can come off pretty bad if you don't choose your words carefully.
The next track "Punch Out!" is pretty entertaining in a good way, though, less for Big Shug (who I like but have only ever really heard on "The Militia"), than for the crazy video game beat. Idolator's been mentioning a similiarity between Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and "Ayo Technology" at every opportunity the last few months, but this song actually goes all the way to sample the music from the game, and the result is actually pretty dope.
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