Audio Absinthe

Dawaun Parker has already established himself as one of the top up and coming producers in hip hop.  He’s only a couple of years out of college and he’s already produced songs for Jay-Z, Eminem, T.I., Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Nas, and the list goes on.  He’s a staff songwriter and producer for Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label so he’s also working on the upcoming and highly anticipated Detox album from Dr Dre.  Dawaun’s group, The Godbody doesn’t just showcase his first class production, but also features Dawaun on the mic alongside MC Tre Guevera.  This part of his impressive resume, and the two tracks below (recent Eminem tracks Dawaun produced), are just the hip hop side of things.  Dawaun’s also worked with people like Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews, and other artists you wouldn’t consider hip hop.  Having graduated from Berklee School Of Music, he’s well educated and he draws inspiration from the best parts of a variety of genres.  That’s why he’s able to co-produce with Dr Dre and it’s why Dawaun is a next generation producer, one of the next major producers in the game.

Check out Dawaun Parker’s latest interview with dubcnn.com here.

Dawaun is a major part of the next generation of producers.  He’s not just a young and talented, in-demand producer, but because of websites like Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, and the rest, audiences can connect with him and their favorite other acts like never before.  Dawaun just kicked off his vlog (video blog) with a little introduction video.  Check it out below and regularly at DawaunParker.com…

Dawaun vibing and prepping his vlog/live feed @ The Vista Vault – Los Angeles, CA

MP3: Eminem – 3 AM (produced by Dr Dre and Dawaun Parker)

Eminem – Relapse (produced by Dr Dre and Dawaun Parker)

I’ve probably posted too many cover songs, remixes, and mash ups already…

Pharcyde VS Led Zeppelin – Dyer Passin Me By (Fidelski) 
Pharcyde – Passin Me By (Hot Chip remix)

Here are a two different artists’ remixes of Radiohead’s “Nude” and ” two remixes of “Reckoner”.  Which do you like the most? 
Radiohead – Nude (SayCet remix) 
Radiohead – Nude (Three Leaves and a Head remix)

Radiohead – Reckoner (You You’re Awesome remix) 
Radiohead – Reckoner (Three Leaves and a Head remix)

Notorious BIG VS Peter Bjorn & John – Party & Bullshit with Nothing To Worry About (Dave Wrangler) 
 
Common VS Flying Lotus – Universal Mind Control with Parisian Goldfish (The Hood Internet) 

MGMT VS Kanye West – Testify with Electric Feel (Justice remix) (The Kickdrums) 

Beastie Boys VS M.O.P. – Intergalatic Planetary Ante Up (DJ BK)

The last song on The Black Keys’ Attack & Release is a mash up of all the songs on the album-
The Black Keys – Fight for Air (Mr. Dibbs)

Elliot Smith – Blackbird (The Beatles) 
Elliot Smith – My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
Gareth Pearson - Time To Pretend (MGMT) 
James Eric – Time To Pretend (MGMT) 
Bryn Christopher – Sour Times (Portishead) 
William Barnes – Bombs Over Baghdad (Outkast) 

This one is great…
Ben Folds – Bitches Ain’t Shit (Dr Dre / Snoop Dogg) 
Nina Gordon – Straight Out Of Compton (NWA) 
The Gourds- Gin & Juice (Dr Dre / Snoop Dogg) 
Dynamite Hack – Boyz in the Hood (Eazy E / NWA)

First song is “No You Girls” by Franz Ferdinand.  You’ve probably heard the song if you’ve seen those new iphone apps commercials.  I want to know how those deals work.  To advertise the iphone and it’s applications, Apple probably has to pay the people who own the apps and the people who own the rights to the songs in order to use them in the commercials.  But the apps and the songs sell much more copies after the commercials come out.  Everyone involved wins- Apple sells more phones, the app owners sell more apps, and the people who own the rights to the songs sell more music.  Apple knows how to make itself look good.  Most of the time.  I think a lot of that is because someone from KCRW must be picking the music for those Apple commercials.  They’re always playing the same songs on KCRW.
Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls

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Second song is Knaan’s “Take A Minute”.  I wrote about the Somalian born, Canadian MC K’Naan in the earlier post about Coachella.  He’ll be playing on the Sunday.  I don’t like all of his tracks, but there are a bunch that I like a lot.  Here’s another one…  (And check out other K’Naan tracks in the earlier post)
Knaan – Take A Minute

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Third song was just leaked recently.  It’s Dr Dre, Nas, and TI and it’s called “Topless”.  I don’t even know if this is a final cut.  The quality isn’t great but you can get an idea of what the end result might sound like.  The beat is a little redundant but Nas still kills it.  I wish he had the first verse on the track and maybe a third thrown in again after TI.  If anyone knows what this track’s going to be on or what it’s from, let me know!
Nas and TI with Dr Dre – Topless

First song is “Fondue” by Tosca.  Tosca is comprised of Richard Dorfmeister (of Kruder & Dorfmeister fame) and Rupert Huber.  Their new album is called No Hassle and I haven’t been able to figure out if it’s already released or if it will be released in April of this year.  Tosca has mastered the chill out, electronic beats since the 90’s and it really shows with this new album.

Tosca – Fondue
Tosca – Mrs. Bongo (download here)

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Second song is Bishop Lamont’s “Grow Up” produced by Dr. Dre.  There’s been all sorts of stories and controversy with Bishop Lamont, Aftermath, and the rest of the hip hop world but the fact of the matter is, the guy’s got talent.  In the end, as far as the music is concerned, that’s all that matters.
Bishop Lamont – Grow Up 

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Third song is “Yomp” by Thenewno2.  I was introduced to them about a year ago by my friend Jon Sadoff who plays keyboard/guitar/vocals for the band.  I’ve written about them a couple of times before but now I found some links to songs you can play straight off the site.  The band is, according to the band’s myspace: Dhani Harrison: lead Vocals/Guitar, Oliver Hecks: Drums, Jon Sadoff: Keyboards/Guitar/Vocals, Jeremy Faccone: Guitar/vocals, Jason Hiller: Bass.  Dhani is George Harrison’s son and the similarities aren’t just limited to the fact that Dhani looks almost identical to George around the same age.  Their music also bears strong similarities.  I’ve compared Thenewno2’s sound to Portishead and Pink Floyd while others have added Massive Attack and Brian Eno.  They’re playing live on the Conan O’Brien show tomorrow night so make sure you check them out…

TheNewNo2 – Yomp

TheNewNo2 – Give You Love

TheNewNo2 – Back To You

TheNewNo2 – Another John Doe

First song is a new, leaked track from Prince, the 2008 Coachella headliner and the artist formerly known as “the artist formerly known as Prince”.  It’s called “Colonized Mind” and it kind of sounds to me like a cross between Tom Petty and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  That might just be me.  New album is due out sometime in 2009.  I got the chance to see Prince at the 2008 Coachella show and I was really impressed.  He is a ridiculously talented guitar player and an amazing, albeit somewhat strange performer.  One of the YouTube links in the Visual Absinthe section shows why he is considered one of the greatest performers in rock history and why women can’t get enough of the Napoleon-size rock legend.

Prince – Colonized Mind

Second song is Peter Gabriel and Hot Chip’s cover of Vampire Weekend’s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”.  Gabriel and Hot Chip did a great version of the hit single off VW’s self-titled album and it’s been a really popular download online.  The VW album was impressively successful but I kind of thought everyone was talking about them a little too highly.  And I don’t necessarily think they’re overrated, because I do think they’re great and I liked the album a lot, but I think people overreacted to the album.  Let’s see what they do on their next album.

Peter Gabriel and Hot Chip – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Third song is a new, leaked track by Eminem and it’s called “Crack A Bottle”.  From what I can tell, it sounds like this track was supposed to be a Dr Dre track featuring Eminem.  Back when people were calling the leaked version “Number One”, it sounded a lot like a rough draft.  The version linked here is a lot more cleaned up.  Eminem sings the chorus in his typical circus hip hop style- which hasn’t lost any popularity in about 10 years- but Eminem also raps the verse which it seems like he wrote for Dr Dre to rap.  It’s always sounded pretty obvious to me in the past when Dre’s rapped verses written by others.  And I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all.  He has great writers and he’s got a great and very recognizable hip hop voice.  Ice Cube wrote the verses in Dre’s NWA days (listen to “Express Yourself”), Snoop Dogg wrote them in Dre’s The Chronic days (listen to “Let Me Ride”), and it was Eminem later with Chronic 2001 (listen to “The Watcher”).  So this track could be showing the process behind the making of songs featuring Dr. Dre rapping.  He probably records the artist who wrote the lyrics to hear how they meant it for Dre to rap.  Then he records himself and it’s a hit.  But I’m just guessing here…

Eminem – Crack A Bottle (Produced By Dr. Dre)