Thoughts From the Rap Nest
vol022-039
Thoughts
Stevie update. She has had a setback with her grated eye as it is become infected. We are on an agreesive antibiotic regime to try and stop the infection and save her eye. So thoughts and paws up for Stevie this week! ❤️🐶
There inevitably comes a time when you have played a record, CD or tape for the last time. You don’t know it at the time but when you reshelve an item that may be the last time you ever play that particular item. I have bene thinking about this a lot lately thanks to a something Rove said to em in a recent text exchange. There are 1000’s of 12” singles that I have not touched in years, Some in decades except to move them to their place on the shelf where they currently reside. The 12” single used to be king of the rap world. It used to serve such a great purpose but in a digital world where the pressing of records is both long and expensive it has all but disappeared. They are super annoying to listen to at home as they require a lot of attention. Listening to a radio edit, main track, instrumental and acapella is not really my favorite way to listen to a song. Some are better than others with the main track, instrumental remix and another track and instrumental but they are often short in duration and require you to flip them and change them often.
Time is finite and undefeated. I know my time here is both limited and unknown. I know it is impossible to listen to my entire collection just given the simple math of it. These days when I put a record on and listen to it, I think to myself, will this be the last time I listen to this? The constant incoming of new items to the collection also compounds this problem as newer releases tend to get most of my attention as I am always on the hunt for new music to play on my radio shows. There are items in my collection that I have never played and likely willnever play. I know that sounds crazy, but I think that is the norm with any collection of this size and larger. I try my best to listen to everything at least once but sometimes the medium I have them on dictates how much or if I listen to them if at all. I have heard everything in my collection though. I am talking about items I own in other formats. I also have a few sealed things but they tend to be things I have multiple copies of.
Noblonski was telling me about this guy who scheduled all of his listening to work through his collection. That doesn’t sound very fun to me. It sounds like work and listening to music should never feel like work. I was thinking of adding an index card inside every record when I play it and then logging the date I listened to it and then putting the card back in the record. I wish I did something like this his in the past as it would have been fun to se how much I listened to a record over the years. Or it might just be depressing when I realize how little I listened to a record.
The homie Factor Chandelier has a new video out for the track Return To Garbage Island from his album Time Invested II. The video is super dope and this is my jam from the album so I am happy to see it got the video treatment. Ther are not many better combinations in music than Ceschi, Gregory Pepper, Awol One and Factor. It might be the best one in the indie rap game!
If you missed copping this album tomorrow would be a great day to do it!
It is another Bandcamp Friday tomorrow. I am sure you already know that by the amount of emails from artists that have already started to bombard your inboxes. That is both very exciting and stressful given the upcoming holiday season. The drop that I am most excited (well that I know about in advance anyways) for is The Glass Cutters record produced by beat gawdz Jel and Odd Nosdam on Audio Recon! The covers look amazing and I am glad that this previously under-released album will gain the proper attention that it rightly deserves with the push of this vinyl release.
While you are there, the Serengeti Gentle Fall represses are back from the press and will begin shipping this week.
If you missed Third Verse last night, once again the homies at UGSMAG has you covered as always. Stream or download last nights episode NOW!
There is still time to submit a completed crossword puzzle that appears in Issue 2 of the Ugsmag Zine. I will post my prize pack once I receive it and I hear it is super dope so yeah your luck if you think you got the guts! So far only two of the 5 prize packs have been claimed.
I remember the first time I went to Play De Record. It was so exciting as it’s reputation was legendary and having seen it only on Much Musics Rap City is seemed like the ultimate. I had only heard stories from people who went previous. there us a cool article in Toronto Lifestyle about the documentary HERE. The doucmentary is starting to make its rounds across Canada in select theatres and cities so keep an eye out for it in a city near you. Peep the trailer.
I am sure there are lots of board game enthusiasts who read this weekly who may be interested in this pre-order for the new Kid Koala album Creatures of the Late Afternoon.
20 original Kid Koala tracks!
plus 8x board game tracks!
Gatefold album cover doubles as a board game!
includes inserts with game pieces, dice and 150 (!) game cards including creature character cards, music genre cards, recording equipment cards, and studio time cards, all of which feature new artwork by Kid Koala!
Kid Koala continues to push the boundaries of creativity both musically and visually and this release continues in that vein. Pre-order is up NOW!
Record One
Aj Seude – Hundred Year Darkness
In what is a huge breakout year in 2022 for Aj Suede continues with this latest to get the vinyl treatment again courtesy of Chong Wizard Records. Apologize later (small pro remix) is my jamb. I love the whistle sample in the track. It gives such a timeless vibe to it. Usually whistling in a track would be distracting but that is not the case with this one as it is perfect in the sample. Aj Suede is easily my most favourite rapper I have found over the past 16 months or so. I am so glad so much of his catalogue is being released on vinyl. I have two more Aj Suede records I have preordered this year, I think one is set to ship this month and the other in the spring. I hope there is more because I can not get enough.
Classic Material
Visionaries – Pangea (Box Set)
In a recent rap chat call this record came up. It is hard to put something like this into context in today’s vinyl world. The undertaking it took to get this manufactured is mind blowing to me. The album is pressed on six 12” records and one 7”. A super annoying way to listen to an album but a super sick way to present an album. Pangea was a super continent that broke up into the 7 continents that make up the Earth today. I remember someone telling me back in the day that Atmosphere’s title for Seven’s Travels was Pangea until they learned the Visionaries had an album of the same name dropping and Atmosphere deferred to the Visonaries and changed the name of their “Pangea” album to Seven’s Travels. I am not sure who told me that but it was a credible source at the time.
The six 12” records are all themed and feature the same design and layout with variation to colour and theme. They feature, fire/lava, land/desert, wood/forest, clouds/space, river/rapids, and ocean/beach. The really cool feature is that each 12” comprises one piece of the art that makes up a mural on the back side of the record jackets when put together with the others. Mear One did the album cover portrait that most of you are all familiar with, and the art on the back of the 12” that makes the larger image when put together. The image is super sick. At one time I put all the 12” in record bags and taped them closed and then taped them together and hung them on the wall. It was super dope. Below you can see the front of the 12” and the art work the make together. There is a 7” to make up the continent theme and it is pretty lacklustre in presentation, as it in a white generic 7”insert sleeve. It is however exclusively limited to this boxset. I recently thought I lost it as it was separate from the box set and my 7” records need to be organized. They are the one thing in the rap nest that are not organized according to my system. I am not sure why they are the outlier in this but I will have to rectify that in the future.
The box set is limited to 450 sets. I have number 23 like an MJ fade away!! They pressed more 12” because I have doubles of a few of these records. I am guessing the pressed 750-1000 of each 12” and then boxed 450 of them together and sold the rest of the copies as singles. Maybe this is how the made it work financially. Those numbers outside of the 450 boxsets are purely speculation on my part.
My box is delaminating. The clasp is made of cardboard and was always in rough shape even when I got it. I think if I had been designing this, I would have left the clasp off the box. The box is also signed by each member on the back which is a really nice touch. I got this from the homies soso and Noyz at Phonographoque and they gave me a screaming deal on it at not much over coast and I think I paid around 75$ CAD for it at the time. In today’s retail world this would be like a 450-500$ CAD release. I love releases like this and wish they would happen more, but I get why they don’t.
Closing Ramblings
I have two shirts up at Stylesmakefights.ca One for my radio Show You Know The Rulesdesigned by the homie Aiden Searle and the other for my dj crew The Stone Cold Party Rockers with the homie Rove designed by the homie Awol One. Also the homies at Audio Recon have some dope shirts too
I host two weekly radio shows Third Verse on CFCR 90.5 fm in Saskatoon Saskatchewan every Wednesday 9 -10:30pm CST and You Know The Rules on UMFM 101.5 in Winnipeg Manitoba every Sunday Night 10-11pm They are pretty great and you should check em out.
Also i got some cool shirts, poster and hats in the Ugsmag Shop if you want that fly shit.
**legal disclaimer all records and songs were run through the RAP NEST 5000 SUPER ANALYTIC COMPTROLLER MACHINE that is certified by the I.A.A.R.R.A (International Association of Analytical Rap Recordings Analysis) in layman’s terms, it means the machine is never wrong.
Catch you next week with more thoughts from the rap nest.
Peace
-chaps
Thanks homie, Love you bro and sending madd love to Stevie. Thanks for keeping in so real with the Rap Nest, a needed breath of fresh air and new music to check out on the regular. 100