Better Than No Motion
G-Side – “Alpine Tick“
from Sumthin 2 Hate (Slow Motion Soundz, 2007)
DX just ran my review of Starshipz & Rocketz, the sophomore LP from Alabama duo G-Side. Brief summary: shit is nice. It’s really satisfying to hear album oriented hip hop from young rappers.
As a bonus, I tossed up one of the stronger cuts from their debut, Sumthin 2 Hate. “Alpine Tick” is just so pristine, from its haunting bass tones to the weirdly simplistic turn of phrase of the title. It’s some real house of crystals fortress of solitude shit.
Both albums are available over at CDBaby.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Gave this a listen a few months ago, it’s smooth. ‘Bama be making moves!
December 11th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
“get paper then forget why we get paper, like they lose touch with reality!”
“no tv couldn’t watch the flintstones so I went outside with them boys and flipped stones!”
so many gems
props to these guys
December 11th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
did block beaters produce this whole album?
December 11th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
“did block beaters produce this whole album?”
Yes. With co-production by Darrien on one track.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
The album’s such a treat. The beats really carry the album faaar. Where did these Block Beataz dudes come from? Have they worked with anyone else?
I’m not too impressed by the rappers though. Like my favourite verse was the guy in “we own the building”, the one where he goes “i’m the epitome of what y’all pretend to being/ i know they sick of me, but they haven’t found a remedy yet” who was that? his verse was the only major notable one i can remember. Aside from that, there’s a few one liners here and there that are decent like your review pointed out. Maybe I should give the album a few more listens.
Also, is it just my naive ass or is ‘we own the building’ beat really, really reminiscent of Ghostface’s ‘ Saturday Nite’ off supreme clientele? It sounds like a slowed up version of the rza beat
and thanks noz, coz i never would have checked for the album, were it not for your listening rotation mention.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Block Beattaz are from Huntsville, Alabama and also produce for Paper Route Records, who released a really strong mixtape this year with Benzi and Diplo on Mad Decent, which can be found here: http://www.maddecent.com/paperroute/. Most of the production here is handled by Block Beattaz, with a couple of other productions and remixes from Diplo, Emynd, and the Knocks. Additionally they’ve done production for a bunch of Huntsville rappers that have yet to release anything significant. Here’s a playlist of some of their shit, and also a really good interview with them.
http://fairtilizer.com/playlists/6758
http://blog.fairtilizer.com/rap-hip-hop/playlist-and-interview-block-beattaz/
December 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
“Also, is it just my naive ass or is ‘we own the building’ beat really, really reminiscent of Ghostface’s ‘ Saturday Nite’ off supreme clientele? It sounds like a slowed up version of the rza beat”
It’s the same sample. That Black Bach shit. Monch also used it on “Mayor”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcmqktc_060
December 11th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Flex – I think I mentioned this here before but I don’t really understand the point of that tape. A bunch of inferior remixes of tracks where the primary appeal was the production. It’s like whats next the Group Home remix project?
I mean, I get that knowing Diplo probably expands their extra-bama audience by like 100x but that doesn’t mean much musically. Diplo is hot but he isn’t half the producer that BB are. Business wise I don’t think it’s very smart for them to be chasing the hipster/fader/blogosphere dollars just yet either. They need to be solidifying a core audience right now, because hipster love is the most fleeting.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Hipster love is certainly the most fleeting, but as BB put it in their fairtilizer interview, they owe a huge amount of success to the internet. Fader picked up Rollin’ and Wood Grain and really through exposed them to a big audience. As a dude that has equal love for southern hip-hop and club music, it’s been jaw-dropping to see the amount of remixes and spins some of their tracks have been getting among the hipset.
I think the Diplo deal works the same way- it allows these dudes to expose themselves to a larger audience and give people an introduction to Paper Route. One of the versions of the mixtapes includes a bunch of the original tracks that were remixed for the album, and while I agree Diplo’s remixes tend to suck here, Emynd’s remix is pretty nice, especially for a dude that is usually known for his high-tempo Philly club tracks. Diplo kind of did the same thing for a couple of other niche-genre producers- Bmore club prodigy Blaqstarr (who is a terrible rapper, btw, but has been moving away from 130+ bpm club music and has been making some really interesting rap tracks recently) and dancehall Timbaland knockoffs South Rakkas Crew. Like the Paper Route mixtape, none of the shit they’ve released through Mad Decent has been as thorough or authentic as their more grassroots products, but distribution deals through Mad Decent for those dudes got them buzz from a whole new audience as well and they’re now starting to get a lot of traction within the industry as well. Just because Mad Decent happens to be a trendy label run by a dude who tries to have a hand in every emerging scene doesn’t mean nothing good comes from distribution deals with them.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
These dudes seem like they can put together one hell of a 8Ball & MJG or Clipse album.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
On behalf of the whole Slowmotion/Block Beattaz staff thanks for all the love pos or neg. We thankful cats are willing to listen to our music which is truly our lives and some southern cats that love this shit called Hip Hop. To the cat that listened on a skim, get by your self homie, and really listen to this. You gotta focus now, It took us two years to put this together. Last but not least we did this for yall, the people looking to believe in good music. Peace
Codie G
December 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
No bed to sleep/No pot to piss/No food to eat/No spot to shit/No options/Optionless/A n***a gotta put a stop to this…As far as I’m concerned that’s the best line my generation has yet supplied
December 11th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I thought a lot of those remixes were great, the Rollin and Wood Grain remixes, the Bama Gettin Money remix. Of course the originals are a little better, but they’re also a year old. And it’s not comparable to a Group Home remix project at all, the rapping on those tracks was very good (certainly a shitload better than the rapping on this G-Side album – soporific and basic as fuck). The rest of the tape slacks, but the rapping on the remixed songs doesn’t. Basically I look forward to more material from Jackie Chain, Jhi Ali, Hood Headlinas(z?), remixed or otherwise, and less from all the others, including these two. In fact, especially these two.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
the beats on this are crazy — i think the rappers get lost sometimes, not lyrically but like, lost in the beats, they almost overwhelm them. there arent many rappers who can fill that kind of canvas.
the other thing — man noz i know u like to give dap to pimp c and organized noize but but real — the beats dont sound much like either. MAYBE some organized noize traxx like “trans df express” where they get real out there w/ the euro influence but this is straight up TRANCE RAP and i know u cant admit that that could be a good thing but for real, the reason this is so great is bcuz they’re really sampling from shit that hasnt been sampled yet — a lot of soft, almost euro/techno/emotionally soppy dance music.
i havent been a fan of everything thats gone this path, but whats so great about this stuff is it doesnt sound like everything else out there
December 11th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Deej are you talking about the G-Side record or the Paper Route/Diplo tape? The trance rap shit is totally toned down on much of the G-Side. Like I said in the review, it’s a compromise between the ONP shit and more modern trance shit (though I didn’t actually use the phrase trance rap), with the second half of the album admittedly tipping more to the electronic side of things. But are you really gonna tell me “Swanging” or “Swagga” or “Back Of The Chevy” or “Strictly Business” or the title track are even remotely trance rap? Synth heavy, yes, but straight up southern soul rap in composition. There are like two dance records on here, and that’s being generous.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
[...] to aficionados writing about Slow Motion Sounds on websites that lots of people read. My eagerness for the [...]
December 11th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
no, im def talking about the g-side album
i do kinda think tracks like ’strictly buzinezz’ fit well w/in that sorta soppy emotionalism, its a venn diagram-style overlap w/ the trance rap stuff. but tracks like ‘run thingz’ and ‘everywhere i go’ are just as much a part of the album — and the interesting thing to me is they do that kinda interpolation a lot better than shit like that “ghetto musick”. i agree that its a compromise, im not claiming its straight up rave music but its still obviously hugely influenced by that wistful style.
its not about it being a dance album, its about that influence, because this doesnt sound very much like traditional southern rap in a lot of ways, its different — and it seemed to me like u glossed over that in order to make sure this stuff was placed in the pimp c lineage or whatever. i definitely dont begrudge you worrying about the dance stuff being overdone what w/ a diplo rave remixes cd or whatever it is but i think its dishonest to deny that this stuff has totally embraced these pretty ‘cheesy’ (imo in a good way) sample sources
December 11th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
mayn mah mafuckin college trynna book Th Cool Kids fo’ our spring concert! FUCK MAYN! dey charge 20K i told em we cud get PlayBoy Tre fo less dey laughed at me mayn! can i get a MAYN HOL UP!?!?!?
December 12th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Well I guess it boils down to whether you’re looking at the palette or the canvas, you know? I obviously don’t know enough about trance music to ID samples, but the end results are definitely only trance in the slightest way, and yes, very much in the linage of ONP/UGK. At least it is to my ears, though I’m pretty sure if you asked those dudes they’d tell you the same (then again who knows they are all over the place in terms of influences in the interview linked above – i mean linkin park man?). Realistically I should’ve compared it to i dont know someone like T-Mix or Mo-Suave-A instead of Pimp C, people who were making synthy shit in a similar vein and occasionally sampling from cheesier/poppier sources like cameo and (aha!) starfish and coffee and still occasionally coming up with some darker shit, but then that would assume that anyone ever read the production credits on the old swisha credits in the first place.
December 12th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I forgot to say that rapping over space age beats and trying to somehow “use space as an analog to the space around them” by saying you don’t know a lot of astronauts is lame. Because it isn’t even an analogy, it’s a dis-analogy. It’s like they’re saying, “this beat in no way relates to what we actually rap about or how boring our flows are, but we’ll pretend it does by talking about how non space age Alabama is.”
December 12th, 2008 at 1:51 am
Yeah I sometimes suffer from dramatic lapses of reasoning. Deal with it.
December 12th, 2008 at 3:08 am
haha
a lot of rappers love linkin park man! ive seen that in more than 1 interview
December 12th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Tray would you please google Huntsville, Alabama. Would you please look at the images of the space and rocket center. Would you please study NASA and see where it started. Would you please study the origins of the Saturn V that we used on the cover and it’s origins. All that shit started here. The whole astronaut line is saying that billions of dollars are pumped into our city for the Ares 1 to replace the shuttle, but the kids from the pjs can’t get funding for schools, hence the cover. It’s more of statement concerning gentrification. They spent 50 million dollars alone building an expansion to the space and rocket center, but the projects (actual projects) are being torn down as we speak to build a river, and families are being displaced. I believe we are the most space age city in the world. How about you look up Cummings Research Park and study how it is the second largest technological park in the world. Discovery Channels founder from here. See why they call Huntsville the Rocket City. It’s not a gimmick. You don’t like the album cool, but check the facts first. So I think everybody else is using space as a joke, but we see this shit everyday. Do you? I think not. Everybody in this city, Metro 500,000 can understand the space theme. When we see other people do it we look at them as fakes. Like I said google Huntsville, AL.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:25 am
sonned!
December 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Props Noz on showing love to the whole Slow Motion Soundz movement (word to Codie G) and I definitely agree with the whole UGK/ONP references with regards to Block Beataz.
This is a little live mix I did from stuff I pieced together earlier in the year after discovering just how dope the music coming out of Huntsville was and wanted something to share with people to get them initiated. Check it out, it features loads of the bigger hits from both SMS and Paper Route and a few less obvious joints:
http://www.southernhospitality.co.uk/huntsville.htm
Since then we’ve featured them in our UK mag Hip Hop Connection a fair few times and it’s good to see them getting exposure via CBRAP.
Keep up the impeccable taste Noz.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
FINALLY!
Thanks, noz. You know I’ve been waiting for this.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Good review, but yeah, like Tray, you missed the whole Space Program thing. Your Boi sure covered that well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5smPcN8AoE
December 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Having lived in ‘Bama, I can say that it’s ready to blow! While these Huntsville boys deserve their props, don’t forget about the Gump! Dirty Boyz, Queazy, Jungle Baby, and so many more… why doesn’t Montgomery get any love?!
December 15th, 2008 at 6:09 am
FIRST OF ALL I WOULD LIKE TO THANK COCAINEBLUNTS FOR THE LOVE AND SUPPORT. I KNOW ITS BEEN ALOT OF TALK ABOUT STARSHIPZ AND ROCKETZ. TRUST ME FANS WE PUT ALOT OF TIME IS THIS ALBUM. WE STARTED WITH LITTLE MONEY AND WITH THE HELP OF GOD 2YRS LATER IN MY HEART WE MADE A CLASSIC OR SHOULD I SAY A NEW BABY TO HIPHOP. THIS ALBUM WAS DEDICATED TO THE ARTIST THAT HELP US MAKE IT THROUGH OUR STRUGGLE. 8BALL&MJG,OUTKAST,UGK,GHETTO MAFIA AND THE GHETTO BOYS. THIS YEAR IN 09 FOR EVERY RAPPER THAT READ THIS . LETS BRANG HIPHOP BACK BY GOING 100% ON EVERY ALBUM. AND FOR THE NEW RAPPERS PLEASE RESPECT THE GAME AND THE ARTIST THAT PAYED THE WAY FOR US TO BE HERE. HIPHOP IS BACK. YUNG CLOVA AKA UK CLOVA. SLOWMOTION SOUNDS/G-SIDE. THE BLOCKBETTAZ.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:41 am
“LETS BRANG HIPHOP BACK BY GOING 100% ON EVERY ALBUM. ”
Yes. This is really all I ask of rappers.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:09 am
That Southern Hospitality mix represents the scene way stronger than Diplo’s. SMS create some of the only music that excites me at the moment. Props to everyone that pushes this shit, you’re making history right now even if no one knows it yet..
December 17th, 2008 at 4:11 am
TSF: Don’t you feel like Dirty Boyz fell way off on their last couple of albums? They ain’t making tracks like Sholl Iz, If I Die Tonight or Vogues anymore..
December 17th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
What up people,we are definitely humbled by the criticism, whether good or bad its all welcome. I think this is the very reason bama has been over looked because we couldn’t invent a sound to call our own. Dirty was the closest group to do that. Now I love dirty and recognize them as front runners in my state musically, but that first visual hurt them/us. They over exaggerated the country aspect of Alabama. Now there are rural extreme rural areas here but huntsville is a whole different animal. We are directly responsible for the defense of this country.like he said earlier, google is. But huntsville had to undergo a transition into sophistication in order to accommodate this industry. So hence the name slowmotion, it just depends on which side of the window you are looking thru. We see the world as slow, yet they see us that way until they hear music.we dropped an album called industry threat because that was what we were. We haven’t signed to a major because they are afraid of the 72bpm tracks. Too slow!! People get fustrated after a year of doing music and decide to conform, but we would rather stay in our lane and service our base. That’s what good music is supposed to be about. Yeah its about the money, but at the same time its not. Hell, it took damn near 10 years for the world to recognize and appreciate 3 6, and they been jammin. More later…respect
January 8th, 2009 at 1:34 am
hey guys.. sorry i didnt impress you guys enough on the mixtape.. but I dont think that the trendsetter/hipster kids are useless to promote too. i mean i feel in a way u have to say that u gotta stay safe in your backyard/ get rep there and remember where u come from to end up anywhere else and all that .. but yeh i mean even these days for PRGz and all the huntsville/alabama kids take over the south.. that shit takes a long ass time and a lot of hard work to move all the angles – and first strike against them is not being in houston or atlanta true.. BUT the only place that everyone record is equal is the internet.. and that is my stomping ground and where we have the same muscle as a major.. or at least we can pull guerilla warfare tactics with no budget. we arent a big operation, only thing we got a lot of capital in is ideas.. but yeah i mean… with an artist i produce like MIA.. we went from hipsterdom to urban radio so its not impossible, we have a platium single after it was poppin in the cool kids clubs and then stayed poppin in the cool kids clubs to the black kids club to (grammy nominated) and still works in a club.. we didnt break it with a million dollar video and ad campaign.. (we got lucky and got it in a stoner movie)
the only thing I learned from all of this and also workin close with the PRG record is that u can never aim for success or popularity (i guess some people can but i just dont have the recipe) but instead u gotta just do u and aim to bring the audience in.. (that how u gonna really carve a place out for yourself these days) people cant deny innovation very well, and to sound like the only person in your genre is the a huge attribute..the way all block beater trax sound like a block beater trax .. not cause of the way they play the keys but because their far our ideas for sample and concepts are in each track…
real shit that is truely good and not just hype has longevity .. i loved the project from the artwork (i knew huntsville was just a crazy ass suburban like city.. it doesnt have huge as rundown buildings and alleys. its got walmarts and cable tv channels some space center and NASA and a hell of lot of creative kids. i grew up in mississippi and florida and i daydreamed about makin music and id run around to record shops and make beats and think that its cool but im not authentic cause im not actually in LA or NYC right? (shit did i mention im white too?!) but fuck that . outkast and UGK among others opened the doors but we never had a set of rules by which we had to make this music .. just a hell of a lot of pressure from the rest of the industry because we didnt have the real access to audience – but now we do . cause its bigger than our small town .. its all over the world. for instance . .mad decent is pressing up a small run of a screwed and chopped version of the PRGz mix.. in japan only.. why .. cause thats pretty funny and kids were interested in it. do u think mali boy and jhi ali thought of that when they first started to lay down trax.. shit i bet they never even knew who the fuck i was…. we are just writing our story as its happenin. and i think everyone involved is pretty cool that way it turned out
cause this isnt an easy time when we might get local radio to play local music.. naw, urban stations seem to be the last to blow up a couple of local acts. . instead u might be lucky to hear more than 6 R&B songs in a 2 hours span.. seriously. even in new orleans over the break I couldnt find any radio djs mixing any new bounce trax.. i could only buy black and mild mix CDs at motheruckin fuckin club passions! but i musta heard beyonce 1312089 times. (not mad)
and even if we cant afford to get some of these mixes spins on radio.. we can start out by gettin em in clubs where djs control the formats locally..
also im jammin all the block beaters records
also I dont make “rave remixes”
January 8th, 2009 at 9:59 am
props to SMS/PRR
been a listener since 2004 as soon as i heard Lacs N Prices
i don’t even have a desire to critique the guys, they hella fresh which makes up for any shortcomings som might prolly find in they music
and yeah internets make ya’ll shit global, unfortunately that doesn’t always means paper influx as a result
i’m just keenly watching how soon u go fed, cause global is haight n all that, that’s a bonus, still u gotta get a grip on your home market and this is what i wanna be an eyewitness to
greets from Ukraine
January 8th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
yo diplo….we got some crazy exclusives straight off the press…hit my email @ slowmotion_soundz@yahoo.com and lets see if we can get some things str8…100
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:16 am
this one of my favorite albums of 2008 hands down. the first 4 songs are like one long anthem that has me bouncing for 15 minutes straight.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
“Massa try’na make it to Mars, I mean NASA try’na make it to Mars”
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
RE: rave remixes
Fucka outta here with that. All I know is they are HOT. The beats on things like Huntsvegas are original are go hard as hell. Keep up the good work Diplo and the rest.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
for the record i really love the g-side album and the Huntsvegas mixtape. you guys got us college kids in athens, ga goin nuts.
but seriously – does anyone know who produced this track from Birmingham?
http://www.divshare.com/download/6271849-9a8
Southern Charm – I Feel
this shit is unbelievable but i can’t find anything about it
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
[...] happened by this mix while reading a particularly lively discussion on CB. It’s a Huntsville compilation that features many of the same rappers as the Paper Route [...]
January 24th, 2009 at 5:14 am
dip how that mia pussy taste
December 7th, 2009 at 5:01 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GghSQFvW-3g