Slick Rick

Rick the rulaa! The best storyteller in the biz, England-born Slick Rick had a hugely influential style that enlightened Snoop Dog, Tupac, Biggie, Nas, etc. He had a career de-railed by a trip to prison for shooting a innocent bystander in a crazy gunfight, was released, and took a while to collect his thoughts. The difference between 1998's classic The Great Adventures of Slick Rick and 1999's true sequel, The Art of Storytelling in terms of quality is nothing. They're both awesome. He's got a few scattershot albums out there, but on these he's just about the best there is in terms of flows, lyrics, hooks, and his cool, calm delivery.

Songs like "Children's Story" and "Mona Lisa" are two of the best songs in...aw hell, the entire pantheon of Western music. The Art of Storytelling has some classics too like "I Own America Pt. 1," "Street Talk (W/OutKast)," "Who Rotten 'Em," "2 Way Street" and "Unify (W/Snoop)." Thus making them both essential. Go buy/steal them. Just absorb them and compare all wack Mc's to Ricky D.

P.S. Slick Rick is now a landlord in the Bronx.

P.P.S. Slick Rick is probably a weird landlord.

(Left Click All Of These To Download)
MP3- Mona Lisa

MP3- I Own America

MP3- 2 Way Street

MP3- Children's Story

MP3- Unify (W/ Snoop Dogg)

MP3- Who Rotten 'Em?

MP3- Street Talkin' (W/ OutKast)

HEALTH- Get Color

To all good artists and albums in 2009- it ain't over yet. A challenger approaches. HEALTH's Get Color is a droning, percussive beast reminiscent of only a handful of other stuff I've heard (the Liars' Drum's Not Dead is it's closest sonic neighbor). The insularity of HEALTH's early work was allowed becasue they're avant gardists who have a safe scene in LA's the Smell, yet touring with Nine Inch Nails probably showed the dudes that they need to get some "bigger" sounding songs that don't devolve into a clusterfuck of noise every other 16 bars. The batch they've concocted here is easily their best work and one of the best you'll hear all year. "Die Slow" will most likely floor you, assuming you have a soul. It's rockin' and danceable and (thank God) too weird to get on the radio. Happily, I can now report, the rest of the album follows suit.

HEALTH have not so much toned down the din of their noisy parts, but tempered it to work within songs better (aka no songs that are just creepy noise passages like on the Wavves album). Get Color is pretty accessible thanks to the amount of melody in the vocals and geets and the fat tribal stomp of the drums. It's rough but often beautiful. Seriously can't say enough good about this album, yet another reason 2009 owns as far as music is concerned.

P.S. As in the case of "Crimewave" with Crystal Castles, I'm sure these songs will be the basis for a fuck ton of good remixes and other songs.

MP3- Die Slow

MP3- We Are Water

MP3- Eat Flesh

HEALTH "DIE SLOW" from Lovepump United on Vimeo.