WARMER MIXTAPES #1300 | by Joshua Kouzomis (Backyard Bangers, Rad Omen) and Mauricio Rivera (Bleu Collar) of King Fantastic
SIDE A | by Joshua Kouzomis
1. The D.O.C. | Lend Me An Ear
The best mistaken for a West Coast Rapper from Texas ever. The Diggy Diggy Doc may be my favorite rapper of all time. His vocal tone fits everywhere, lyrically he's a beast, and he's a rapper's rapper, unless you know nothing about Rap. Let me not fail to mention this shit BANGS and definitely had a huge influence on my beat making.
2. Squarepusher | Port Rhombus
By far the most beautiful Electronic song ever made. I used to date this girl, you know, the one you were a little too into and it all blew up in your face and you thought she was the one that got away? She wanted to walk down the aisle to this song. You feel me?
3. Buckingham Nicks | Without A Leg To Stand On
I imagine I've been a Fleetwood Mac fan since I was in my mother's womb. I remember hearing Rumors as a kid and it being one of the first records I took from my dad's collection. Unfortunately, it wasn't for a couple more decades that I heard this song and album. This is pre-Fleetwood Mac. If you don't know the story of how the best/final incarnation of the band got together, go watch the moving Sound City. Lindsey Buckingham is an incredible guitar player, singer and songwriter, and Stevie Nicks is motherfucking Stevie Nicks. This song specifically has so many great elements I'm not going to waste my time trying to sound smart talking about it.
4. Point Point | Life In Grey
God bless the Internet and their Craziness. They love a mystery. This song was all the rage due to the anonymity of the group, and also due to the fact it is fucking awesome. In a period where everyone is doing the same bleep and bloops, these French dudes are showing us why France and the French are so wonderful. Not to mention, THE KEYBOARD SOLO, just to show all you suckas what time it really is. If there is one lesson to be learned from this jam it's Do Something Different. Oh, yeah, and also Write Some Real Music.
5. Igor Stravinsky | The Rite Of Spring (Performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic, Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen)
My favorite Classical composition of all time. I remember taking mushrooms and listening to this a nearly having an orgasm. What the fuck? For real. I know, right? I definitely sampled this back in my MPC days too. What a fool I was. Some things should not be touched. If you've never listened to this, you're doing yourself a disservice. It's 30 minutes of beautiful Musical chaos. Turn the lights off, light some candles, and drink that tea you've been brewing. Off to Never Never Land.
6. The Madden Brothers | Brixton
I heard a demo of this song while they were working on the album and it made me excited for Pop Music again. Like when Pop Music was The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Elvis Costello. Also, it was produced by Eric Valentine, a genius in his own right. And, if all of that isn't enough, the tempo change, yes, the tempo change. It's brilliant.
7. Prefuse 73 | Point To B
When I heard this song it pissed me off. It's that good. Prefuse's cut+paste skills are top notch, especially when using Divine Styler's vocals. This one sent beatmakers across the globe back to the lab. Musically simplistic in all the right ways, and a head nodder thru and thru.
8. SBTRKT | Temporary View (feat. Sampha)
If you put this song on while chillin' at the pad with that girl you've been wanting to fuck, this will get the job done. It's perfect for foreplay and don't be afraid to put it on repeat and eat her out like it's your last meal. Or, if sex just isn't your thing and suicide is not an option, get really high and take a drive.
9. Stone Temple Pilots | Vasoline
We all have those bands that when we're young and too cool for School we can't admit liking, and then we get older and are like, fuck it, this shit is good. That's Stone Temple Pilots. And, all craziness aside, this song kicks ass, and it's mixed perfectly.
10. OutKast | Git Up, Git Out (with Thomas "Cee-Lo" Burton & The Goody Mob)
This is Hip Hop at it's finest. The beat is crispy, yet smooth, and the guest vocalists (purposely not mentioned due to their current state of wackness) are great compliments. Big Boi's verse wins the song and is many-a-man's life. Just drop the beat and let this man rap. I also love the fact it's 7 plus minutes long and it doesn't feel like it at all. And... I always repeat this at least once, or ten times.
SIDE B | by Mauricio Rivera
1. Horace Silver | Lonely Woman
My favorite Jazz piano solo of all time. I'm really into ballads, as far as Classic Jazz, and this one is so descriptive, it sounds like it has words. It sounds like the title. I want them to play this song at my memorial service.
2. Phantogram | Fall In Love
It's a perfect Pop/Alt Rock song. The production is Funky as fuck! I heard it on the radio, on a station that came in shitty, in prison. When I got home, I listened to that song over 100 times. It's a knocker.
3. Bobby Womack | Please Forgive My Heart
I have a thing for heartbreaking songs with deep production. This is that. It's Soul crushing because I can hear the regret in his voice. That Old School Soul, juxtaposed against that Electronic slump, had me crying the first few times I heard it. We'd be on the road, and I'd be in my hotel room falling to pieces. Hahaha... Seriously, those lyrics hit insanely close to home in real time.
4. Ice-T | Squeeze The Trigger
This is one of the most politically charged Gangster raps of all time. This came off of the Rhyme Pays album, the first album I learned the words to. I think I was 7. I was blown the fuck away. So L.A., so hard. Print the lyrics, they're just as relevant today as they were in the 80's.
5. Tool | Sober
This used to be my Theme Song. I told all of my exes that as soon as we started dating. They still came along for the ride. Who the hell continues to date somebody who says THAT is their THEME song. Hahahahaha.
6. Devin The Dude | See What I Could Pull
Sitting in front of the ride, drinking and smoking some weed... Checking out the bitches, trying to see what I can see... Man! Devin is really the DUDE. This song is a perfect example of how good he is at putting you where he's at. Great story teller. The philosophy wrapped up in the lyrics are basically Buddhist. He's taking it easy, flirting, being humble, not tripping off shit he can't control.
7. Young Jeezy | Way Too Gone (feat. Future)
If you're out there, living a certain way, you understand this song and this kind of night. You have these nights because you know that your world will eventually come crashing down, so you do it for the memories. I listened to this shit on repeat the weekend before I turned myself in to prison. I sniffed A LOT of coke, popped a trillion Xanax, and drank my weight in Rémy Martin. I tried to do it all in three days. I like Jeezy's Music because he is authentic. Of course, he's over the top with his opulence, but at least he's not a fucking liar. I know for a fact that what he's saying is true, every word of that song.
8. Sade | Love Is Stronger Than Pride
I'm not going to attempt to explain this. She's bigger than us.
9. Sade | King Of Sorrow
I have her tattooed on my forearm.
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience | All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan Cover)
The RIFFS, muthafucka! The RIFFS!!! The solo. Bending. Fucking aye! It defined an era. This shit is THE song that scored Vietnam. They use it in 100,000 movies. How do you outdo Bob Dylan? Jimi Hendrix did that! Also, another stalker tattoo I have, but I don't think it's illegal to stalk a dead person.
1. The D.O.C. | Lend Me An Ear
The best mistaken for a West Coast Rapper from Texas ever. The Diggy Diggy Doc may be my favorite rapper of all time. His vocal tone fits everywhere, lyrically he's a beast, and he's a rapper's rapper, unless you know nothing about Rap. Let me not fail to mention this shit BANGS and definitely had a huge influence on my beat making.
2. Squarepusher | Port Rhombus
By far the most beautiful Electronic song ever made. I used to date this girl, you know, the one you were a little too into and it all blew up in your face and you thought she was the one that got away? She wanted to walk down the aisle to this song. You feel me?
3. Buckingham Nicks | Without A Leg To Stand On
I imagine I've been a Fleetwood Mac fan since I was in my mother's womb. I remember hearing Rumors as a kid and it being one of the first records I took from my dad's collection. Unfortunately, it wasn't for a couple more decades that I heard this song and album. This is pre-Fleetwood Mac. If you don't know the story of how the best/final incarnation of the band got together, go watch the moving Sound City. Lindsey Buckingham is an incredible guitar player, singer and songwriter, and Stevie Nicks is motherfucking Stevie Nicks. This song specifically has so many great elements I'm not going to waste my time trying to sound smart talking about it.
4. Point Point | Life In Grey
God bless the Internet and their Craziness. They love a mystery. This song was all the rage due to the anonymity of the group, and also due to the fact it is fucking awesome. In a period where everyone is doing the same bleep and bloops, these French dudes are showing us why France and the French are so wonderful. Not to mention, THE KEYBOARD SOLO, just to show all you suckas what time it really is. If there is one lesson to be learned from this jam it's Do Something Different. Oh, yeah, and also Write Some Real Music.
5. Igor Stravinsky | The Rite Of Spring (Performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic, Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen)
My favorite Classical composition of all time. I remember taking mushrooms and listening to this a nearly having an orgasm. What the fuck? For real. I know, right? I definitely sampled this back in my MPC days too. What a fool I was. Some things should not be touched. If you've never listened to this, you're doing yourself a disservice. It's 30 minutes of beautiful Musical chaos. Turn the lights off, light some candles, and drink that tea you've been brewing. Off to Never Never Land.
6. The Madden Brothers | Brixton
I heard a demo of this song while they were working on the album and it made me excited for Pop Music again. Like when Pop Music was The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Elvis Costello. Also, it was produced by Eric Valentine, a genius in his own right. And, if all of that isn't enough, the tempo change, yes, the tempo change. It's brilliant.
7. Prefuse 73 | Point To B
When I heard this song it pissed me off. It's that good. Prefuse's cut+paste skills are top notch, especially when using Divine Styler's vocals. This one sent beatmakers across the globe back to the lab. Musically simplistic in all the right ways, and a head nodder thru and thru.
8. SBTRKT | Temporary View (feat. Sampha)
If you put this song on while chillin' at the pad with that girl you've been wanting to fuck, this will get the job done. It's perfect for foreplay and don't be afraid to put it on repeat and eat her out like it's your last meal. Or, if sex just isn't your thing and suicide is not an option, get really high and take a drive.
9. Stone Temple Pilots | Vasoline
We all have those bands that when we're young and too cool for School we can't admit liking, and then we get older and are like, fuck it, this shit is good. That's Stone Temple Pilots. And, all craziness aside, this song kicks ass, and it's mixed perfectly.
10. OutKast | Git Up, Git Out (with Thomas "Cee-Lo" Burton & The Goody Mob)
This is Hip Hop at it's finest. The beat is crispy, yet smooth, and the guest vocalists (purposely not mentioned due to their current state of wackness) are great compliments. Big Boi's verse wins the song and is many-a-man's life. Just drop the beat and let this man rap. I also love the fact it's 7 plus minutes long and it doesn't feel like it at all. And... I always repeat this at least once, or ten times.
1. Horace Silver | Lonely Woman
My favorite Jazz piano solo of all time. I'm really into ballads, as far as Classic Jazz, and this one is so descriptive, it sounds like it has words. It sounds like the title. I want them to play this song at my memorial service.
2. Phantogram | Fall In Love
It's a perfect Pop/Alt Rock song. The production is Funky as fuck! I heard it on the radio, on a station that came in shitty, in prison. When I got home, I listened to that song over 100 times. It's a knocker.
3. Bobby Womack | Please Forgive My Heart
I have a thing for heartbreaking songs with deep production. This is that. It's Soul crushing because I can hear the regret in his voice. That Old School Soul, juxtaposed against that Electronic slump, had me crying the first few times I heard it. We'd be on the road, and I'd be in my hotel room falling to pieces. Hahaha... Seriously, those lyrics hit insanely close to home in real time.
4. Ice-T | Squeeze The Trigger
This is one of the most politically charged Gangster raps of all time. This came off of the Rhyme Pays album, the first album I learned the words to. I think I was 7. I was blown the fuck away. So L.A., so hard. Print the lyrics, they're just as relevant today as they were in the 80's.
5. Tool | Sober
This used to be my Theme Song. I told all of my exes that as soon as we started dating. They still came along for the ride. Who the hell continues to date somebody who says THAT is their THEME song. Hahahahaha.
6. Devin The Dude | See What I Could Pull
Sitting in front of the ride, drinking and smoking some weed... Checking out the bitches, trying to see what I can see... Man! Devin is really the DUDE. This song is a perfect example of how good he is at putting you where he's at. Great story teller. The philosophy wrapped up in the lyrics are basically Buddhist. He's taking it easy, flirting, being humble, not tripping off shit he can't control.
7. Young Jeezy | Way Too Gone (feat. Future)
If you're out there, living a certain way, you understand this song and this kind of night. You have these nights because you know that your world will eventually come crashing down, so you do it for the memories. I listened to this shit on repeat the weekend before I turned myself in to prison. I sniffed A LOT of coke, popped a trillion Xanax, and drank my weight in Rémy Martin. I tried to do it all in three days. I like Jeezy's Music because he is authentic. Of course, he's over the top with his opulence, but at least he's not a fucking liar. I know for a fact that what he's saying is true, every word of that song.
8. Sade | Love Is Stronger Than Pride
I'm not going to attempt to explain this. She's bigger than us.
9. Sade | King Of Sorrow
I have her tattooed on my forearm.
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience | All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan Cover)
The RIFFS, muthafucka! The RIFFS!!! The solo. Bending. Fucking aye! It defined an era. This shit is THE song that scored Vietnam. They use it in 100,000 movies. How do you outdo Bob Dylan? Jimi Hendrix did that! Also, another stalker tattoo I have, but I don't think it's illegal to stalk a dead person.