Daily Jam - Bring Da Ruckus

Starting the week off with some Wu-Tang Clan.  Listen to "Bring Da Ruckus" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Shimmy Shimmy Ya

Popular music very handily lends itself to broad strokes of characterization for its artists, its icons, its all too fallible gods and goddesses. Fairly or unfairly as it may be, many musicians either fall into or are assigned these roles for easy media consumption. Of course these rolls are overly simplistic and redundant, the kind of recurring slates we can project ourselves onto over and over again. Someone gets me. Someone understands. And as much as I can relate to, or be moved or inspired by the tortured artist or the world weary traveler, the sardonic smartass or the alien, there’s just something about the clown that draws me in every time. From Keith Moon to David Lee Roth to Liam Gallagher and beyond, the befuddled, often booze-soaked troubadours of revelry and irreverence never cease to garner my attention or make me smile. That’s probably why Ol’ Dirty Bastard was always my favorite member of the Wu-Tang Clan (Ghostface Killah is a close second).

Ol’ Dirty Bastard, or ODB, or Big Baby Jesus, or Russell Jones if you will, had a mush-mouthed delivery style to his verses that gave him the air of a slurred and bemused drunk. His incorporation of poorly half-sung bits only added to that allusion. Over the course of his tumultuous career, the rapper was arrested on multiple occasions, did a couple of prison stints, and smoked a lot of crack cocaine. He recorded an unintelligible track for the Insane Clown Posse that had to be re-recorded and re-edited in order to make some kind of coherent sense of his unintelligible rambling. He once visited a welfare office in New York in a limousine to cash a check and pick up some food stamps. And then, like so many of his pop cultural forebears before him, he overdosed and died young.

He also once helped save a four-year old girl from a car accident and frequently visited her in the hospital, so just maybe he was more than the chronically intoxicated cartoon character he portrayed to the masses.

And “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” from 1995’s Return to the 36 Chambers, is still a damn fun song.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Wu-Khruang

I know we're years past the "mash-up" phenomenon, but occasionally something still pops up that makes me turn my head and transform into that Leo DiCaprio in "Django Unchained" meme.  And really, you just can't go wrong mixing Wu-Tang Clan into anything, as has been demonstrated over and over again.  Anyway, the most recent comes from the Tom Caruana Remix Projects with "Wu-Khruang," this time pairing the legendary hip-hop group with the worldly psych and funk sounds of Houston's Khruangbin.  And it fucking works.  Check out "Pinky Ring" below, but then go here to listen to the whole thing and pay what you want for the download.

Cookin Soul - WU XMAS

In between presents and feasting and what have you today, spend a little time with Cookin Soul's latest collection of Christmas-themed remixes, this time around tackling tracks from Wu-Tang.  Listen to all of "WU XMAS" below and get it here.

Daily Jam - Bobby Did It (Spanish Fly)

I've been a member of Vinyl Me Please for a few years and the last record i received from them was the reissue of RZA's "Bobby Digital" album.  I hadn't thought about this album in years, one of the many Wu-Tang offshoots of the 1990s.  Anyway, it's still cool.  Here's "Bobby Did It (Spanish Fly)" featuring Ghostface Killah, Islord, Royal Fam, Jamie Sommers, and Ndira, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Mind Playing Tricks

2015 brought us the fantastic pairing of Ghostface Killah and BADBADNOTGOOD and their collaborative "Sour Soul" LP.  I think it's high time we get another one from the legendary rapper and the soulful jazz fusion band.  Listen to "Mind Playing Tricks" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Protect Ya Neck

Wu-Tang!  Wu-Tang!  Wu-Tang!  Wu-Tang!  "Protect Ya Neck," our Daily Jam.

Ghostface Killah

Gonna keep with the Wu-Tang vibe this morning and check out Ghostface Killah's new album, "Ghostface Killahs."  Yesterday, a friend of mine noted that the rapper samples a track from "Phantom of the Paradise," and i really hope that becomes a thing now.  Check out "Burner to Burner" below and look for the album stream all over.

Daily Jam - C.R.E.A.M.

I feels like a Wu-Tang kind of morning, so here's a classic.  "C.R.E.A.M.," our Daily Jam.

Ghostface Killah

Somehow i missed the fact that Ghostface Killah (probably my favorite member of Wu-Tang) dropped a new album a couple of weeks ago.  "The Lost Tapes" bumps and flows in old samples, stoned beats, and a plethora of guest verses.  Listen to "Watch Em Holla" featuring Raekwon (possibly my second favorite member of Wu-Tang), Masta Killah, and Cappadonna below and order the album here via Daupe.

Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge

Evidently, legendary rapper Ghostface Killah is popping up in all the music sites today because of some perceived slight from rapper Action Bronson.  Like most rap beefs, the whole thing is stupid and generally just amounts to a bunch of chest-swelling bravado and ridiculous machismo.  And that's a shame, because we should be focused instead on how Ghostface has released two excellent albums this year, one being his recent collaboration with BADBADNOTGOOD, and the other being his latest album, "12 Reasons to Die II," a new collaboration with producer Adrian Younge.  It's basically hip-hop meets old school film score.  Oh, and Raekwon's involved as well.  Listen to "Return of the Savage" (which also features RZA) below and grab the record here.

Ghostface Killah, BADBADNOTGOOD, and DOOM

Rapper Ghostface Killah has a collaborative album due in February with Toronto proggy jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD.  Even that wasn't already intriguing enough, DOOM makes an appearance on a track called "Ray Gun."  It's pretty amazing.  Listen below and look for the "Sour Souls" LP next month on Lex.