Fifteen minutes into Mother’s Day. I’m still up writing this letter, and taking care of some other stuff for tomorrow/today.

Thought I’d give the good people of tumblr a Sunday Soundtrack. Kanye says it best:

As we knelt on the kitchen floor,
I said, “Mommy I’ma love you till you don’t hurt no more. 
And when I’m older, you aint gotta work no more.
And I’ma get you that mansion that we couldn’t afford.”

A single 7 minute track of good music for a Sunday afternoon. Sit and back and enjoy the vibes, or perk up and hear the message. Asher’s got a knack for conversational soliloquy, to the point where you almost forget he’s rhyming. Check the music video if you’d like.

Also, the hook and beats feature the almighty 1500 or Nothin’ band, a hip hop collective out of LA and Chicago. Enjoy.

“We turn on the television, but all they tell us is to listen to is gossip. They’re all monsters .
Convincing you they’re living under the bed or even in the closet, but they’re in our work, in our church, in our conscience and
in our schools, in our rules, in our congressmen.
Confused, use God as defense, but how soon we find out even God’s with them.
My God, your God, who’s side you with?
My God’s your God two sides of sin.”

“Dope Sh*t” -Asher Roth

Common remains one of my favorite rappers of all time, for many reasons. His new album “The Dreamer/The Believer” is a return to the early-90’s flow, samplehead hip hop that I’m a huge fan of.

But this song comes from one of his older, but still modern albums: Finding Forever.

This track deals with a paradox: Sometimes the effort that someone puts into their goals is the very thing that prevents success. Each of the three verses deals with people trying too hard to find 1) celebrity status 2) respect and 3) love. And Lily Allen provides a great hook.

Hope you enjoy.

“It’s a shame what they do for fame and to be respected. Joe, you coulda got it if you never woulda stressed it.”

Drivin’ Me Wild (feat. Lily Allen)- Common

Wasn’t a fan of Asher Roth until I looked beyond “I Love College.” That track is the exception, not the rule. This is the title single off of his new album Pabst and Jazz, dropping this week.

Great song to vibe to on a beautiful morning like this.

Pabst and Jazz- Asher Roth

“Friend of the People” and “Enemy of the State” (Lupe’s two most recent mixtapes) have been on repeat all day. For everyone that say’s hip hop’s dead. Lupe Fiasco begs to differ. It doesn’t get wittier than this.

Came up from the bottom of the eye exam- zoom
Now I’m like the biggest G up in the room,
Still hard to see me like the truth on TV
or the roof from the sidewalk, I don’t flow (floor), I ceiling
My mama said they need me, ‘cause,
I’m made from the best stuff on earth like Snapple Tea Leaves,
their glass is half full so I spit into them like Celie, (Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”)
no longer G, now you can see me
but your letter’s still under my sea like seaweed
C(Sea) and G but nothing ‘bout me CG (computer generated),
It’s all real, none of this is green screened.
“Shut Up and Let Me Go” just like The Ting Tings,
I’m feelin’ like a Mac, standing around a bunch of PCs.
I’ve rocked it from the shouters to the soccer moms,
try to stop what’s going on,
you’ll see the back of my hand like the tops of palms.
I’m balling (balding) like the tops of pawns,
circle of influence getting bigger like the ripples on the tops of ponds.
Short-footed (sure-footed) and war-headed like the tops of bombs,
Domino’ing (knocking over & pizza) n****’s, delivery is Papa John’s.

Say Something- Lupe Fiasco

Lounge jazz with a twist. 

Lupe Fiasco is one of my favorite rappers of all time. His lyricism is unmatched in hip hop today. His metaphors have metaphors that have metaphors that have double meanings that take far more than one listen to completely understand. For example, this song, off Lupe’s Friend of the People mixtape, is a story about a woman looking for love. Simple topic, but Lupe takes it so poetically.

She said love is a hard thing,
Somewhere between golfing and gardening,
or parole board pardoning
But she was still down for a hard swing
Flowers she would pick like guitar strings
For a real good whiff
Of how life behind par seems
Until then she a bar-tend
And pour hot lead shots out of carbines
If an inmate ever even think about departing

Everything links back to another reference. “Down for a hard swing”- golfing. “Life behind pars (bars)”- Parole board pardoning. Life behind par- back to golfing, but also a homonym for life behind bars- jail, or when taken literally, life under her expectations as she’s looking for love. Bar-tend could be actual bartending, but he makes it sound like tending the bars of a jail. Jail, because she was willing to pour lead shots (bartending?) out of a carbine, a type of gun- or shoot (lead) out of a gun at any man that leaves her. And that’s all in the first 30 seconds of the first verse.

Complicated, but even if you don’t want to think about the lyrics, the blend of jazz and lyricism is incredible. Just sit back and enjoy.

Life, Death, and Love From San Fransisco- Lupe Fiasco

Woke up this beautiful morning and listened to some of my older music, namely, Sucka Free CJ’s remix to Good Girls. This track came out on SFCJ’s “Trill Life” mixtape way back in August, and it’s been a fairly regular feature on my iPod since then.

The Cris Cab’s chorus still carries that all-important message, while Sucka Free CJ’s chill flow in the verses makes the vibe of this song.

Good Girls Remix- Sucka Free CJ