Before the rise and fall of the club banger in the late 2000s, there was the rise and fall of electro-infused funk and soul in the early 1980s. Welcome to Cameo.
These are the fools who popularized the phrase "Word Up!"
This is the shit your parents were stumbling to at clubs and bars when they were your age, or my parents at least. Regardless, your parents probably heard these songs in their more youthful days, and I’m sure you’ve probably heard one of these tracks on I Love the Insert-a-Decade-Here TV series. So get ready to groove. Click the links to download.
I’m happy to see that even in Orlando, HIP HOP LIVES.
Meet Stellar Dexterz.
Residing right here in Orlando, JERZY-ROCZ and HBK are changing the face of fly. I’ll let their tracks speak for themselves. Check out what rhymes they have to offer on their myspace page. If you like what you hear you can check them out on July 17 at Will’s Pub or on July 25th at AKA Lounge. Make sure you thank them for keeping Hip Hop ALIVE here in Orlando.
Hey! Before you listen to these BANGER$, make sure you’ve got “Bangers” turned on in iTunes. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about: iTunes > “View” > “Equalizer” > “Bangers”
In case you haven’t heard, the Hands Up Blog is Orlando’s self-proclaimed psychic crystal-ball blog for Hip-Hop. In other words, whatever you read/see/listen to on this blog is THE FUTURE OF HIP HOP.
New Boyz are what I consider “Hip Hop Gumbo.” Take one part “The Pack,” two parts “Lil’ Wayne,” and seven parts “The Cool Kids.” Place in a large pot, add water. Serve cold.
Clipse and Kanye come together for a special occasion in which they rap about how awesome they think they are. Not out of the ordinary, but a decent track nonetheless.
Busta’s back…for real this time…I swear. He’s rapping fast, shouting non-sensical phrases and repeating himself again, just like back in the mid-90s. Hell yes! NOTE: This track is produced by Pharell, so expect to hear some random adlibing from Hip-Hop’s other Diddy.
If you download any track in this post, or even on the entire page, let it be this one. Dead Prez are back and just as socialist as ever. This is a MUST-LISTEN.
Our local fave teases us with another other-worldly mash-up. Please forgive him for toying with this Dead Prez classic, an act which even he considered “Sacrilege.”
Don’t think that because you’re not french you can’t make great electro/house music. Thanks to some really cool foreign web designer named Matias Najle, you’re now able to do all the crazy shit those robots do from the comfort of your own home! Check this shit out:
It’s been too long. Far, far far too long since MSTRKRFT has released their electro MSTRPC (masterpiece), The Looks. Now, about 3 years later, Canada’s synth-shredding superheroes are finally ready to release their long awaited sophomore effort, Fist of God.
After 2008, an entire year deprived of quality electro, will MSTRKRFT be able to revive the young and dying genre? Will Fist of God jumpstart the electro renaissance of ’06/’07. Unfortunately, I think not.
For this second LP, those crazy Canadians have enlisted the vocal help of a slew of artists, including Ghostface Killa and E-40, but I assure you, this wont help resusitate a quickly dying breed. The only thing that this new album guarantees is the complete transformation of electro, from underground club gold to mainstream radio crud. MSTRKRFT’s tracks WILL receive radio play. I’m predicting that now. That’s not even a bold prediction, see as how Crookers have managed to seep into the airwaves through their remix of Kid Cudi’s “Day and Night.” MSTRKRFT will manage to have the first (and last) decent electro track climb up the charts, and once that happens we all know what comes next:
PSEUDO-INDIE
I’m not going to post any of their new tracks, since they aren’t that great and we’d probably be asked to take them down anyway. Instead I’m going to take you back in time, so that you can reminisce about the era in which MSTRKRFT was DFA 1979…with drum sequencers.
Every once in awhile, between listening to really shitty/girlie electro, I like to listen to dudes like S.P.A. to help salvage what’s left of my manhood. Proceed with fucking caution!!
If you're an artist, and we throw you some blog love by posting your tracks, let us know if you would like them taken down. We will abide.
If you're an artist and you'd like to get some of your work posted on Hands Up, email your tracks to handsuporlando@gmail.com and we'll give them a listen!
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