David Foster Wallace's guest editor intro to the 2007 edition of The Best American Essays is my Paulie pick of the year. As much of a spirited downer as his classic lobster pot freakout, the essay explores how stepping up and declaring anything as "best" in this bountiful, inconquerable (digital) age is a sham. He fleshes out a pretty strong argument for his own deficiency.
His point is that since we obviously can't consume everything out there, we rely on filters – and that our opinions are only as good as those filtering for us.
http://neugierig.org/content/dfw/bestamerican.pdf
This is what I love about you people and Tall Paul's commitment to this yearly tradition. We're a damn good group of filterers. So here's a fat, dusty scoop from the lint compartment of what I've seen and heard throughout 2009.
Datpiff.com – A spyware & identity theft free (so far!) hip-hop mixtape download site for everything from 2001 and on. You can get all of the Kanye, Lil' Wayne, Lupe, Wale, Kid Cudi, et. al that you need.
Kid Cudi's "Poke Her Face"
Never has manipulating the meaning of a sample made hip-hop misogyny so damn fun. Shame on you, Common!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cDE3Gwn5ZM
Lil' Wayne – This was the year that I finally stopped asking 'what's a goon to a goblin' and learned to love Lil' Wayne. I'm still catching up on that 90+ mixtape appearance binge between Carters 2 + 3 that were highlighted in last year's Paulies. The recent No Ceilings mixtape is great fun. I think the 60 Minutes interview with Katie Couric is what sealed the deal for me. He's a complicated dude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyI26E5agM4
Hipsterrunoff.com – Anyone writing a Pauly must know about this site, right? Well, I'll include it anyway. Written in the voice of a 14-25 year old texting, it's a spot on homage and critique of the "alt" "scene" 4 ur post-indie self. Below is the classic post "Animal Collective is a Band Created By/For/On the Internet"
J. Dilla – The rabbit hole of datpiff.com led me to discover the oft-praised producing work of the late Dilla. A lot of it really is as good as you've heard. Not everything, but lots. Below I've linked his remix of "No Place to Go"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbcazZpCRdU
Lupe Fiasco – Outty 5000
In other news, at some point in the last few years Lupe killed it over Nas' "Get Down". You can imagine him skipping in place in the studio with that delivery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8wQIMHw8eA
Charles Hamilton – Cable in the Classroom
Poor Charles. 2009: Releases 8 mixtapes using countless Sonic the Hedgehog samples, gets into a beef with Soulja Boy, gets punched in the face after talking shit to a girl in Harlem (subsequently posted to youtube) and gets dropped from Interscope. In that order.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWgMTFHpjbs
To wrap things up, here's a video of an elderly woman in a wheelchair firing a machine gun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdDj0Syzrn8
1 comment:
mad props on the DFW and hipsterrunoff, jeff!
Post a Comment