Hip Hop Hooray (Leah)

Finally, this sad sad March comes to an end.  Sure, some people got married or had babies or birthdays in there (congrats, I guess!) but this year’s music festival that drives all the bloggers wild experienced a tragedy that kind of put the people bitching about waiting in line or paying for drinks into perspective.  Yesterday, DeAndre Tatum, 18, the fourth victim of the driver Rashad Owens passed away because of his injuries sustained on the night of the crash. My thoughts go out to DeAndre’s family.

It’s a sad time for Austin, as it asks whether there were measures that could have been taken to prevent such a tragedy; whether SXSW is just getting too big and wild for the APD to adequately control; whether better public transportation would have kept that drunk asshole out of his car. I’m inclined to think that a wasted sociopath could and would do something like this on any night and in any city, and the fact that it fell on a busy night during SXSW is just shitty coincidence. If you’re in need of a stiff drink and some sad songs to make it through the rest of March, I recommend highly heading over to John Gross’s post on this blog: Sad Bastard Music, and attending his monthly No Dancing event at The Volstead. Then call a cab.

In the meantime, I’ve made a mix for you that is neither sad nor happy, but kind of rides the line as we transition into a hopefully happier April.

SONG OF THE MONTH:

:Jay Electronica – Better In Tune With The Infinite:

This track maybe heralds the highly anticipated release of Jay Elec’s Act II, for which fans have been drooling for since 2007’s Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) and about which we spoke a bit on another blog I write for. And let me tell you, this song does nothing to stop the drooling. It’s beautiful, mellow, and who needs drums in a hip hop song? NOBODY, that’s who.

MARCH MIX:

:Diamond District – Streets Won’t Let Me Chill:
:POS – Fuck Your Stuff (WDELH/MDS/RMX):
:Afro Classics – Whoa:
:Rapsody – Dark Knights (Featuring Wale):
:See-I – Real Steel (Fort Knox Five Remix):
:Aesop Rock, C Rayz Walz, And Vast Aire – Karma Killerz:
:Vince Giordano And The Nighthawks – The Sugarfoot Stom (Pete Rock Remix):
:Rita J – No Regrets:
:House Shoes – So Different (Featuring Chali 2Na):
:NORMAN – Lag City: (Exploded Drawing)
:Vampire Weekend – Step (Featuring Danny Brown):
:Bishop Nehru – You Stressin:
:Multi-Tracker – Shadlib: (Exploded Drawing)
:Ras Kass – B.I.B.L.E.:
:Elements Combine – Blazy: