One Song - 2023 Recap & 2024 Trends

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Join hosts Diallo Riddle and LUXXURY as they recap their favorite (and least favorite!) things of 2023, and look ahead to new music they’re excited for in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. So today we're going to be doing something a little different. from our regular episode. We're basically going to be talking through some of our favorite new songs that we've only discovered in the past year. That's an important distinction. We discovered it. It came across our path just in the last 12 months.

And we'll also be giving you some hot takes, sizzling, sizzling hot takes on a few things. I don't know how hot they are. They're going to be sizzling. I can answer that question. How hot are they going to be sizzling hot? Okay. They're going to be sizzling hot takes about some of our favorite new music books, music documentaries, and possibly even some of our favorite old drum machines.

All right. Let's not keep the people waiting anymore. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, Diala Ripple. And I am producer, DJ, and songwriter, Luxury, aka the guy who makes short videos about interpulation. And this is the, these are a few of our favorite things episode of one song. Why do I always sound angry when I whisper interpulation? I mean, I'm about a kind of interpolation.

You've got to talk to your therapist about that. I've noticed. I have a lot of things I need to talk to my therapist about. That's just one of them. All right, luxury, as we kick off our 2024, we want to say, damn, a lot has happened in the last 12 months. happened. Been big year.

I mean, like we had Beyonce's epic Renaissance tour that both you and I saw wearing our silver. Did you hear?

Because I didn't hear very much of it. But you saw it and you heard it? My audio was terrible is all I'm trying to say. Yeah, we were both there. Sofi Stadium,

not so good in the audio department. No, no. It was, there's something going on at Sofi. That stadium does not sound great. I'm definitely seeing the movie

so I can finally hear what I was watching earlier this year. But by the way, we both wore our silver. We did. Yeah. Technically,

I actually, it's like the family wore silver, like collectively we wore the silver. I did not myself. You did not wear silver. But I do understand that a lot of the silver garments are being returned frequently. Really? Really? The goodwills are being inundated with people bringing their silver clothes back just weeks after going to show. That's funny.

Actually, you know, I thought this was such a good joke. I was going to wear like a Rihanna t-shirt. Like under my silver. Risky. And Brittany was like, I can't, I don't want to be a single parent. Yeah, that is, that could have been dangerous. Also, Taylor Swift had her own juggernaut year with her ERAs tour, her re-release of

1989 sold over a million records. Who's buying, who's pending money on CDs? Right. That's a good question. And by the way, not just the tour being successful and the film being successful, but like the word eras was like kind of maybe runner up to Riz for word of the year. I mean, everyone started saying eras this year. Oh, Lord. My kids, they cringe. They cringe so hard. It is a very cringe. Anytime I use the word Riz and it's just like, come on, your dad is the king of Riz. You are the king of Riz.

Between the two of us, I think you're the king of Riz. This is your Riz era. Usher closed out as Vegas residency after creating countless viral moments and after ruining, sadly, a whole lot of marriages. Not mine. I was going to say. My wife and I went to go see Asher, I emerged unscated. Art of the weekend. Yeah.

I was just like, don't look at him. Is he that handsome? I missed that show. I'm sorry. He's a good looking man. He knows how to dance. He knows how to sing. He knows how to do a lot of time.

He knows how to do a lot of time. He's only like three years younger than me. Okay. Well, you're right to be wary, but... I'm concerned. Yeah, I think you're going to be okay. I'm concerned. She was making a lot of eye contact. I was like, Brittany, I can't afford to be a single parent. Also, the landscape of how we listen to music continue to change.

TikTok minted more and more hit songs, broke new artists, but also some of the biggest bands of all time. Legacy artists kept making music, too. The Stones dropped a new album. We even got a new Beatles song. And maybe the biggest surprise of the year, Andre 3000's, flute album, which brings us to luxury, Shall we get into it?

Yeah. Today we are going to share some of the songs that have come on to our radar in the last year. Our lists are not necessarily songs released in the last year, but rather songs we discovered in the last year. They can be from 2023. They can be from 1923. You know, so I saw Paul Whitehead songs on Scratchy, you know, like, what was that, 78s? 78s, yeah. Scratchy 70s.

Yes. By the way, always like stacked on top of each other. Whoever collected 78s, God bless them, they're always scratched. They're so thick. And they are resilient. though. You can't still listen to them. They're still here. They're still here. Most of those songs in the public domain, by the way. So get to sampling. You ain't got to pay anybody for those old 1920s.

It's 2024. Not only is it in the public domain, my friend, but you know what else in 2024 is now in the public domain? What else? Mickey Mouse. This is the Mickey Mouse here, my friend. My Mickey Mouse horror movie is now going to get greenlight. You can make, you can green light that and make that without giving of 99% of the I'm sad to see Mickey go that route because, you know, far be it for me to protect the intellectual property of a billion dollar business. They don't need it. Time for them to move on.

I like going to that, you know, seeing that Ferris Will with Mickey's face on it at Disneyland. Like, you know, come, leave Mickey. I don't want to see him get the Winnie the Pooh treatment. Okay. That Winnie the Pooh poster, I won't even watch that movie. That is absolutely frightening. It's not good. So I wanted to actually start out with a song that for me, what I was kind of looking for,

what is the number one song in my mind that I think will forever be associated with 2023? This is a song that is so, so zeitgeist, so of the most. and it's like kind of embedded in amber in this year. If there was a tree and then there was a tree, you know, the, what do you call it, the rings of the tree? Like, and you cut down the tree like in a hundred years. On that ring.

This time would be on that ring. On the 2020 ring. Have I made myself clear about how embedded in 23 this one. So first of all, I want to just go, a couple runners out. This is a tough one to pick. But for me, one of the big, you can't talk about 2023 and not talk about Pink Panthers. Okay, so. Love Pink Panthers.

been in love with Pink Panther's since her own album came out. And, you know, and I might talk about it a little bit later. I love Pink Panther. But go ahead. I think I know where you're headed. Well, no, I was just going to say, like, I fell in love with her on the boiler room. Did you see that boiler room a couple years ago? I did not.

Yeah. I mean, for me, like, I love that she was bringing back drum and bass. I love that she was, like, adorable and just, like, really this sort of... We're on the same page. Sort of proper at the same time, British. So this combination of factors all goes into the music. And in particular, this song is so 2020. not just because it's Pink Panthers,

but also because it features Ice Spice. And here we go. Boys a Liar, Part 2, part 2, really. All right, so that's the runner-up. That's a runner-up. Didn't make the number one spot. Let me throw Pink Panther song into the mix. I really thought her album, to hell with it, which came out, I think, at 2022. I first heard about her on the BBC.

I thought it was an amazing song. I thought it was an amazing song. album. And I was so happy to see her do a song with Ice Spice the last year because I was like, oh, maybe now people will go back and discover To Hell With It. Let me play really briefly a song off to Hell with it. This is Break It Off. That song, of course, sampling the famous track Circles by Adam F came out in the early 2000s. Great drum and bass track. I love that so much. I'm so glad you played that example because that is, that's what I first heard, is the drum and bass coming back, the jungle beat. It's so fast.

But it's also you can do the half-time. Don-d-do-do. It could be that or do-d-d-d-d-d-d-. If you want to get it to some DJ talk, most drum and bass is somewhere between, like, I'd say, 160 and 170 beats per minute. But, ironically, as we've said on the show before, if you have the beats p.m., beats per minute,

it's 80 to 85, which lines it up with a lot of hip-hop. And so you can go from drum and bass to hip-hop. I'm going to mention some more about drumming bass later in the episode. But now back to your list of songs. Okay, let's continue with my second runner up. And this is, now we have proper ice spice all alone. This to me was neck and neck with number one because to me... So you're feeling the spice.

You were feeling the spice this year. I was feeling the spice. And one of my favorite things about this song is that it's one of those, we talked about the phenomenon of TikTok music. This is one of those sound first and then artist later moments. Because there was at least a two-week period where everybody on TikTok was this. What I'm baddie, she's showing her panty. She's shaking like jelly.

Hunting bans of Chanel. But I'm so shaking ass in a deli. With my brisk out of daddy. He like him already. What I love about it, again, if we're talking about for me, like, what is my favorite song that to me will probably always be 20, 23? This song definitely is 2023. I love the fact that it's associated with these videos on this platform, which is a big part of my

sort of daily experience, both as a viewer and a creator. So like, and I love the fact that the trends, like, start within milliseconds of it being like a cool trend. You've got like Reese Witherspoon or whatever. Like so many like weird celebrities doing this trend, which was like the lights going on and off thing with the crew behind the day thing. I watched all of them. I watched literally all of them.

This is a trend that I will watch every trend. I will watch everyone. But this was weird. Okay. But this is that weird thing about TikTok, right? Because the song you just played is Deli. Sorry, I don't think I properly announced it. This is Delhi by Ice Spice. Thank you very much. Produced by Wright.

But a lot of those videos used a song called Benjamin's Deli by Jay. It's a matchup of all about the Benjamin's and Deli which for our listeners who haven't seen all those videos like I did. Here it is right here. And what's interesting about

that is like almost everything on TikTok, everything's sped up. Like you got to cram so much into that little bit of time. So even deli as fast as it is is like you know, much much faster. He added 5 or 10 VPN. Yeah. I love it. And thank you for playing the original. I love the whole phenomenon though of like

of you hearing it in that format and then you sort of researching or discovering the original, like, actually, I like this form of discovery. I know the music industry isn't crazy about it because it's all over the place and unpredictable. You can't strategically like set out to make this type of phenomenon. But it led me to find the song.

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, TikTok algorithm. 100%. I'm not the first person to say it, but I fundamentally believe it. TikTok is what the radio used to be. TikTok makes the hits. That is discovery. That is discovery. Music discovery is TikTok. I would have never. By the

way, I got to, now I got to give a special shout out to, can I give a shout out to the TikTok song that I was kind of blown away by? Yeah, I want to hear. Here's what I'll say. I was at first transfixed by the, by the, I don't even know if you can call it a dance, by the movement everybody was doing to this. Okay. And then I like, I was like, that voice on there sounds familiar.

And I found out it was a sample of the boondocks, which was like one of my favorite cartoons. This is a song called a Pimp named Slickback. Oh, I know what you're going to do. All right. So the fun fact is that I was like, wait, that's definitely Kat Williams's voice, but where is it from? And it's because Kat Williams was playing a pimp name slipback. And every time he would be like, somebody would say to him, oh, hey, what's up, Slipback? He'd be like, no, I'm a pimp name slipback.

Like a tribe called Quest. You wouldn't just call them Quest. I'm a pimp named Slipback. That's great. It's a funny line from an old show. and in general, going all the way back to the Skrillex states, I love it when someone takes something from like a YouTube video or a movie clip and then unlicensely throws it out there and puts it in a song.

I love it too. By the way, I think we both heard that Crystal Waters sample in there. Let's listen to it. This is Gypsy Woman by Crystal Waters. Also known as La D La D La Dada Dow. Also known as she's homeless. It's got a million names. Yeah, when I first heard it in, when you were playing a little bit,

just now. I was like, I knew that it was gypsy woman, but for a minute, I was like, is this one of those Beyonce Show Me Love kind of things? Because if I had made what you played, I wouldn't do the sample and lose like all my money because then you got to clear it and you got to publish and whatnot. You would just interpolate it. That's a keyboard sound that anyone can buy. Yeah. Because it's a preset, maybe on the M1, I'm not sure. And then you had a clap to it because that's what I heard. There was an 808 clap. So it's one of those situations like the Beyonce Show Me Love thing was like, you don't have to sample it. You can kind of just make it. I wonder how they did it. It's a question I have.

I love that you ask the questions that nobody else has asked. A question. Only on one song. All right. So here's, that was tough choice, man. What is the most, what's my favorite 2023 preserved in amber moment? And I think it's got to be this one. At the end of the day, it's Killville by Sizzins.

I mean, you couldn't go anywhere with that. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing that song. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing that song. And there's something about it that to me, when I first heard the song, it's kind of like a like Paul McCartney yesterday scrambled eggs moment where I'm like, this song has always existed. It feels really perennial. Like it's simultaneously my pick for this is totally 2023. And yet it's very, it feels like it's been around for a long time.

I will say, well, first off, this song reminds me of Steve Lacey's bad habit from 2022 in the sense that like, I bet you they're about the same BPM. I bet you this is about, it's a good connection. This is probably about like 87, 88. and I bet you his was a little slower around like 84, 83 ppms, but like there's something about that tempo. If you can nail a good melody at that tempo, I think you're halfway to a hit.

Yeah. Also, there's nothing more disturbing than hearing the lyrics of Kill Bill sung by your 13-year-old. Oh, man. That is creepy. Oh, man. Don't sing that anymore. Don't talk about killing anybody. No, please don't.

It sounds so beautiful and lightweight, and then you get into it. And then you're like, oh, this is a lot heavier. so special is the juxtaposition of how beautiful and dreamy and melancholy sounding. It almost reminds me of Sly and the Family Stones. Thank you for letting me be myself again. Which was also a fun, fun song with some crazy dark lyrics. Absolutely. Or the entire Smith's catalog or something, right? The just position of music and lyric. That's a good choice. I like that. Thank you so much, my friend. All right, Dallel. Back over to you. I want to know what you got for me. Yeah, you know, like I am a big fan of trying to discover new songs constantly.

And sometimes those are like rare songs from like the 70s that I didn't know existed. And sometimes they are the songs that are, you know, you're just diving deep. You're like listening to, I listen to a lot of BBC and Pandora. And one thing that's really important to me is always refreshing with, you know, new music. It might be new to me. But there's just a part of me. I always want to try and find stuff that I think is. like a little underground, not everybody's listening to it because that's how I got into music

in the first place. I started off DJing the music that the other DJs weren't playing. I'm not a contrarian, but I'm always like, why aren't more people listening to this or to that? It's missing. You noticed it missing. Yes. I want to bring it back. Yes. And so, especially like, I love it when black artists are dabbling in music that for whatever reason, at least in America, we aren't associated with. A lot of electronic music comes to mind. And this song comes to mind. This song is by SIFO. Is it SIFO? Is that how he pronounces it?

This is the other thing about listening to Underground artists. You don't always know how to say their name. You don't always know how to say their name. So shout out to SIFO or SIFO. I don't know. Normalized not knowing everything about all the music. SIP H-O.

Everybody can come to me in the comments. I'm trying to learn. This is a safe thing to learn. He did a song called Sober that I absolutely love and I want to play a little bit of it. The next 10 seconds are probably not going to do it full justice, so I suggest you go out and listen to it. But this is sober by SIFO.

And when we get done with it, I'll tell you what I... I can't listen to hear. I don't know this. This is great. I'm learning. That's just a snippet. That's so nice. But I think that that shows you where that song goes.

He's from Birmingham. And so maybe somebody, one of our listeners, to be clear, Birmingham, UK, not Birmingham, Alabama. But if somebody in Alabama knows how to pronounce Sipo, you are also welcome to write in and tell us how it's pronounced. That was super cool. I really love that and love the drum and bass thing. You want to talk a little more about that?

Well, listen, I mean, like... Or jungle. Do you consider a jungle? or drum and bass? Well, you know, I don't really worry. I consider it a little bit more drum and bass. Jungle was almost a very specific sound in the mid-90s a lot harder, I think, than this. Drumming bass was always a little bit more atmospheric.

Yeah. When Puffy started to take over hip-hop in the late 90s, I became a little bit disaffected because I was like more from the DJ Premier Pete Rock school of like, no, when you sample something, you got to change it a lot. And some of those Puffy and Mace hits, like they barely changed Hollywood swinging, you know. Yeah. No change in no money more problems. So personal taste, I just wanted to hear something different around that time. And that was around the time that to go back to Pink Panthers, I discovered Adam F, I discovered Goldfinger, and I discovered this wealth of jungle and drum and bass artists. And I was always like, man, I think if more, at the time, this was my thinking, I was like, if more black people got into drum and bass, they would like drum and bass.

Drum and bass and Jungle in some ways are the black, are black music from the UK. and we need to get it. What's ironic is that now, you know, everybody's listening to UK rap, which, you know, it went almost like drum and bass to UK grime. And then at some point, this wonderful drill sound came out of the UK. So now everybody's on to it. But I would ask, hey, guys, listen to some drum and bass. It's fun music.

It's got a great tempo. Yeah. And, yeah, so this is why this song was like, you know, this is a brand new song for the most. I think it came out in October. So, like, you know, get into that. The whole album's good. All that is one song off of it. It's super fascinating to me because it is kind of an area that I don't really know much about.

Like I bought that one Goldie album a long time ago. Yeah, Goldie. I really, I really, that there's obviously an entire episode, I think, to be made. We should do a drum-based episode. We should do a drum-based episode. But also connecting it to Grime and, you know, getting into like... And UK Garage, which... Get into UK Garage and two-step and all these different sub-genres.

And I just kind of as a result of our show and a lot of the deep dives we've already taken on air. Yeah. Like, I, as you were playing that, was hearing the connection to all of the massive attack and Jamaica's stuff that we've been talking about. in these various shows. Another cool thing about what I was hearing in that for the first time, maybe, to my ears, was making the connection to your point about UK about, like, the sound system culture there. Yes.

Because that bass sound... It's almost dubby, right? That bass is very dubby. Both the sound itself, but also the minimal use of it. There's not a lot happening, but it's powerful. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Bacelines like that are made for sound systems. And they're talking about...

And they devastate you on the dance floor in the club. You're talking about the bottom in, but I would also point out that... one of the things I like about this song is that while they have that bottom in, there's also like there's strings happening way up here. Yes. And maybe one day we will get the stems for this song or maybe have CIFO on the show. And we can break down all the, because there's so much going on in this song, I would love to break down each individual part.

Super cool. Great choice. All right. After the break, we'll be back with more songs we're excited about, songs we think you should discover as well as some more hot takes, fun listens, and musical trends we want to see more of in 2024. stay tuned. Sizzling hot takes, not just hot takes, sizzling hot takes. Yes. Welcome back to one song

and listen, we have more of our favorite songs to share, but I want to take a brief detour and ask you luxury for some book recommendations because I like to read. You know what I really like to read too? That makes two readers up here. I'm so glad you asked, I read a bunch of books this year mostly about music. In fact, I don't think I read any fiction last year, which is maybe the sign of a warped brain, but here we are. And we're doing this show.

So part of the reading actually was for the show because there are a few, not a few, many gaps in my knowledge. As much as we all like to get up here and pretend we know everything, which I don't think we do. I think it's pretty clear that we have some passion about certain things. And there's other things we're all learning about. We're all learning. I'm ready to reveal that there is a wizard behind the curtain. And he is just a man. We are just men here.

And before we started making the show, my hip-hop knowledge was not what it ought to be in my personal opinion. So I read it. I think you're being too hard on yourself. Well, I appreciate that. But I read a bunch of really excellent hip-hop books, not the least of which was in my top three for the year. And it's called The Come Up by Jonathan Abrams. It's one of my favorite styles of book is the first-person account where you just like testimonials. You'll see like a quote from this person, a quote from that person. So this book is just like, it'll be like a quote from Kulmodee.

And then like a quote from like someone, the guy who founded the KMEL radio station that in the Bay Area that made hip-hop really huge. then it'll be a quote from MC Hammer. And it's just three or 400 pages of the story of early hip hop as told by the people that were there. I love that. In quotes. So I really enjoyed that. And it led me to Spotify and Pandora to listen to this song and the next one. It's a great way to kind of like bone up on an area that you feel like, I need to bone up on this area.

If you want to bone up, bone up up up on your hip hop. Be sure to check out. If you want to bone up. Especially in time for the 50th anniversary. What is it called? Good time to bone. It's called The Come Up and it's by a jubon. and it's by Jonathan Abrams.

Awesome. What's the next book? And next up, this is another category. This is a category that we've talked about recently on the show, which is the dub Jamaican, all things, Dubbed Jamaica. That is where I have the biggest stack of books, where I'm least deficient potentially. It's a very short period of time that I have this passion for.

1968, Rocksteady, up till the end of Roots Reggae in 82 or so. My favorite book on this category, if this is of interest to anybody, maybe the Sister Nancy episode you've heard recently. Yeah. It's by Michael Veal. It's called Dub. And what I love about this book is that it's not just a book about music. It reads just like any, like it's written so beautifully. And it talks about both history and geography and politics and colonialism and music. All of these are woven into this really, really delicious combination of words, for lack of a better word, which made it a real fun read for me. So that's Dub by Michael Veal. And what would be the last one?

And the last one is I brought it. with me. If you're watching at home, I'm currently holding up the book because it is a beautiful book, and it is called Quantum Criminals, Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and other soul survivors from the songs of Steely Dan. It is a book all about Steely Dan. It's by Alex Papademus and Joan LeMay. It takes a song-by-song tour of the band, and it's got these really fun illustrations in it, and it's got the sort of sardonic wit and sense of humor that the band itself has. We are planning on doing a Stelian episode at some point in the future. So another fun read,

Quantum Criminals. That's the one. That's awesome. Thank you for those. Something else I know that you're really passionate about music documentaries. Can't get enough. What did you bring us? The nonfiction is exclusive also on the television set. I only watch comedies and documentaries about music. So this

past year, the three documentaries I watched that kind of made the biggest impression on me. I think I started the year watching a documentary from 2017 about the Slits. Punk band, post-punk band, Here to Be Heard. And really fun watch. And I didn't know much about the Slits.

They don't have a lot of albums. No, no. I usually came across among, like, compilations. Yes. But every Slit song I came across, I was like, oh, yeah, this is great. It's great. And it's Ari Up, whose mom was married to Johnny Rotten for many years and just

passed away recently. And she had Dreadlocks, really, like, amazingly creative, interesting person. Their album, their first record, I should say, was produced by Dennis Bovel. But will we call them, will we call them punk or postpart? Well, I would call them. I would call them post-punk. Post-punk, to me, post-punk is... Shout to all my post-punk friends.

Anytime you meet somebody and you're like, oh, you like post-punk too? You've made a friend for life. Go on. Well, the distinction being, I think, the absorption of other genres, not the least of which, in the Slits case, is dub music.

Because they have the dance punk songs that are sort of faster than your average dance song would be and obviously grittier and angular guitars, but they also, and shouty lyrics, so that's where the punk comes in and the speed. But they also have, their album was, produced by Dennis Beauvel, who goes by Blackbeard, who's a Jamaican dub producer who moved to the UK. And it has all these dub elements to it, and there's dub remix is happening. And this is from an

album in the early 80s by a bunch of white women in England. So it's a really cool cross-pollination of genres, of sounds, of just everything in the mix. Learned a lot about some of this documentary. So that's called Here to Be Heard, and It's About to Band The Slits. What's your next pick? And for my next pick, again, many documentaries, but these were the ones that I was finding myself still thinking about. In the 70s, there's this music magazine out of Detroit called Cream, C-R-E-E-M. And there's a great documentary about them,

which is called America's Only Rock and Roll Magazine. This is also from 2019. I just happened to finally get around to this year. Really fun to sort of have that be the focus, the Detroit angle and the rock and roll angle and the writer angle. So this sort of snapshot of music, writing, and journalism at this really crucial time

when it was really changing and evolving. And all these famous writers, a lot of whom still right to this day came out of this crucible of this tiny office in Detroit called magazine called Crean. It's so funny. Anytime I see something, anytime I discover something and it's like from 2019, I'm like, wow, that's like before the pandemic. Like I could have been listening to this like all pandemic long or I could have been reading this or watching this all pandemic long.

I'm like, where was I? What was I into? We thought we had all the time in the world. You're right. That number just evokes that sort of before times. It's the first thing I think. It's always like, where was I when this got, when this came out? Marketing departments, do your job, please.

It's too much cool stuff going under the radar. And then I would be remiss if I didn't fully admit to the fact that my favorite documentary, the best, most entertaining, most joyful documentary was the Netflix documentary about George Michael and Andrew Ridgley. That's right. I'm talking about Wham. Yes. And it's called Wham. It was such a joy to watch.

And even though I knew all the songs and you think you know everything about it, I was really blown away by not just the revelation that Andrew Ridgley was more than the second, Nana. But he was so much more. He was like, and continues to be as he is still alive, RIP George Michael, but such a kind and generous person to George specifically and their friendship is so beautiful. I was very moved by this documentary. And of course it's a pleasure to see all the footage of them judebug, like, you know, all the songs, all the bouncing 80s songs. I mean, listen, I think it's interesting that, you know, Wham, it was, they were such a huge force in the 80s. Yes. To the point that I was watching the British film The Firm, And there's the, actually the remake from 2008, I think it is.

And there's like an Andrew Ridgely joke in there. And I told you that joke. You're like, no, no, no, but you've got to see this documentary. Andrew Ridgely is not a joke. This is perfect because we've been having this conversation recently about, like, about Outcast, about Andre and Big Boy. It's like there's something about duos. And as we know from firsthand experience, no one really knows what's happening behind the scenes. And there's almost always a misperception on the outside that's kind of an injustice.

Sparks. We don't even know who really wrote the soft. The songs and sparks. I mean, we're pretty sure it was Ron. I will say that's the documentary that I would like to see in 2024. I have gone looking. I have not seen what I would consider a definitive history on soccer hooliganism. And I would be so interesting.

That sounds terrifying to me, actually. There are parts of the UK that I feel like maybe it's a little bit like there are colors I don't know I shouldn't be wearing. Like there's a whole, that whole soccer hooliganism. You could die if you want to want them to the wrong. They kill people. Why? I don't understand it at all. Very good. Yeah. Thanks for us. Well, speaking of coming up, I think we're both looking forward to, you know, in the coming

year, there's this great Sly documentary we keep hearing about that Club is working on. That Sly document is going to be great. My guess is we share an excitement for this being our, you know, on next year's list. Yeah, absolutely. Maybe we can get Sly or Novina Carmel, his daughter. Maybe we can get them to come back. Yeah. Or I guess in Sly's case, to come to the show for the first time and talk about it. Oh my God, that would be a dream come true. Absolutely.

All right, that's great. Let's get back to our song picks. Our favorite songs that we discovered in 2023, what you got for? So for the next song, as we were just talking about, like, these are songs we discovered in 2020. And I'm going to be super vulnerable here. These are these next two songs, the runner up and then the winner of this second song, are both songs that a lot of our listeners, maybe most of them even. I'll be like, dude, you did not know these songs. Possibly, this is how life is.

I haven't heard all the songs. You don't always get around to seeing everything. I don't know all the music. Yes, I can't agree more. It's like every now and then you find out someone hasn't seen that movie that everybody's seen. You know what? I was doing other stuff that year. So, yeah, exactly.

You just told me, Spinal Tap. You haven't seen Spinal Tap? Oh, man, you're going to out me like that? Oh, okay. I was vulnerable. I told you that in confidence. Oh, man, I didn't. Sorry.

No, that's true. No, it's true. Right? I have not seen Spinal Tap. It's a long story. By the way, I've seen all the clips, guys. I feel like I'm going to watch this. You know all the jokes.

The volume goes to 11. I get it. I get all those jokes, but I've never actually sat down and watched the entire movie. See, I didn't even know the clips. I didn't even know the clips. So these are tracks that, like, I didn't even know the clip. Okay, so what's your runner up? The runner up for the song I discovered this year that is now in my life forever

and how did I miss it all this time is I'm so afraid to say it. Say it. Here it comes. Just play it. Okay, just play it. Oh, God. And await your judgment. And yo black, it's time.

Word. Bird's timing. It's time, man. I'm leaving this show. Yeah. Straight out the fucking dungeons of rap. I'm so sorry. Internet.

Diallo. I don't know how to start this. How wonderful. But let me just say this. No, no, no. You have nothing left to say. You have nothing left to say. You had since 1993 to hear that song.

And somehow you avoided it. you didn't listen to it? You know what? This song has one host. This song has one song, one host, because I quit. I quit. The man does not know the first song on I'm sorry. Go ahead.

I appreciate how you're just... Unforgiven. My vulnerability has been rewarded over here. I know, I'm a jerk for that. This is payback for the spinal tap moment. Payback for spinal top. I understand. No, look, this is the thing.

I am actually really proud. This is an idea I want to propagate, which is that not knowing everything is okay. It's okay. It's okay on the individual level. You can't possibly have heard all this time. You can't possibly heard the greatest hip-hop album of the 1990s. Who's got the time for that?

Never going to let it go. You're too busy watching Spinal Tad. Never going to let it go. Never. Oh, my God. You heard it for the first time on the show? I heard it for the first time preparing for the show. I heard it for the first time in my readings about hip-hop and being like,

oh, man, I missed this. I can't wait to catch up a hook air. Because, like, there's eras. I know every word to that. There are eras where I'm just like obsessively listening to, punk and then I get into my metal phase and then I get into my but my hip hop phase like you must have ended the year before because I was listening to all that jungle brother tribe called quest and digible you were listening to the native tongues I just missed this I just missed it's like New York I just left

New York at the wrong time the wrong day the month later I would have been in yeah yeah yes or I would have been James Murphy I didn't know this this is fascinating okay yeah that's that's the runner up if that's the runner up I cannot even wait to hear what the other song is I'm terrified for what your reaction is going to be based on what just happens. I cannot wait to react. Okay. Here we go. The vulnerable moment.

This is the number one song that I discovered in 2023. That is not from 2023. And you will probably be shocked. Oh, what's up? This is Tajay of the mighty souls of mischief crew. I'm telling my man best. I'm blessed my man. Oh, you know, he's dope.

And right now, you know, we're just maxing in the studios. We're hailing from East Oakland, California. And sometimes I get some. little hectic out there. But right now, you know, we go up you and how we just chill.

So, if I curl up in a volume, I had never heard Soul's a Mischiff 93 till Infinity until February 2020. What's crazy is the song

is called 93 to infinity and that's the amount of time you thought you had to listen to the song. Yeah. Yeah. What is going on in your life? So one came out in,

Elmana comes out in 94. This single comes out in 93. What is going on in your life that you missed these? I love our friendship so much that on my behalf, you are that. That's what this is a reaction to on my behalf. No, I'm kind of shocked. My friend is missing something crucial is what you're feeling. One of them is a huge radio hit for the time.

I mean, 93 to Infinity was everywhere. It was listening to radio. This is a kill bill of the hip-hop radio charles. I am literally in real time thinking about what was happening to answer the question because it's a great question. There are definitely years that go by where I'm completely off the radar of popular culture 100% for different reasons.

One of which most recently is because I'm making stuff like an album or whatever. I'm sorry, you're like, I was making stuff. I was busy. Music listener. I mean, it's a fact. I'm terrible at making music. I was making stuff too.

I was making A's in class. I'm terrible. It's not a skill I possess in abundance that I'm able to like focus on the song I'm working on and also like listen to any music. I just can't do both. Because it always just distracts me because if it's good, then I'll be like,

oh, man, I should just give up what I'm working on. Or, you know what I mean? Like, it's really challenging for me. I mean, there are times when I'm like, I don't want to watch any comedies today. I'm going to watch unsolved mysteries, my true crime obsession. Well, that's exactly.

And then I go on my phone, I'm like, that's still, it's still ain't solved, you know? Like, seriously, like the updates. They're disappointing updates. Very disappointing updates. But then there are times when I do. invest in what's going on and like catch up and you know learn about the music of the era you've got caught up to like 93 94 well but it's interesting I couldn't I can't wait to see your

reaction in like 95 there's spotty man there's spotty things there's there's spotty stuff yeah throughout my musical knowledge and all things all knowledge is for that matter I have a question yes is there like there divorce going on in your family like did uncle Joe die in 94 like why weren't you listen is it really just a creative decision I mean You're like, I can't believe you brought up Uncle Joe like that. Was it Uncle Charles? Did you know the guy that Bone Thugs sings about? I'm like, I was in school.

That's not an excuse. I was in school too. I was like, I think it's kind of. You're just like, that's when I fell off the mountain. And I was in coma. I think the really quick answer is, here's the honest truth. It's like I was working at a college radio station in college. I was the music director.

Ironically. Something else I didn't know we had in common. I worked at W.H. RB in Boston. Shout out to the beauty. But listen to the irony of the fact that I'm the music director and I'm not absorbed

I'm not exposed to these. I think what was happening musically in this subworld of college radio is white music. Like let's just call it what it is. Like I'm getting all kinds of records that are more sort of what would have been alt rock or indie rock.

I'm probably listening to smashing pumpkins and urge overkill. Now I hated the crampberries. But I was super into smashing pumpkins and Jane's addiction and urge overkill. I like those groups too. So a lot of white rock and Nirvana

is still around at this point too. So like, there's a lot of mud honey, there's a lot of subpop. There's a lot. It's rock music and it's mostly white. And prior to that, my entire 80s upbringing is all the sort of disco and funk and synth pop. It's a lot more mix. And then I've just come from having this hip-hop moment as we were discussing where it's

Tribe Called Quest. And then we've got a couple years here that are very white in retrospect. I hadn't thought about it before. No, listen, I was at WHRB. I had a hip-hop show. So, you know, obviously I had the hip-hop that I feel like, everybody's heard. But then I also, like, I think back on some of the vinyl that was coming out at that time. And I'm like, man, some of that stuff, I don't even know if there are MP3s for it.

Because some of that stuff got released and the label went under. And, you know, I don't know if all that stuff is still out. And are they sending you Kildozer and built Big Black? I mean, no, but you know what? Do you even know these bands? So like, maybe it's a, a culture size thing. Right, right. But I, but I also knew Smashing Pumper. Yeah, yeah. Well, they were huge. And all that kind of like sort of the more indie stuff like from Touch and Go records. Like, well, you know, I would. I was into Britpop. That was my rock of the 90s. And to be fair, I was into oasis and blur and pulp.

I equally missed all that stuff too. So for what it's worth, I have a huge gaping hole. I just kind of find a better way of saying this. Yeah. Huge. Just say there's a, there's a absence there. There's a huge absence. By the way, if I can say one more thing about college radio,

I remember the very first Erica Badu 12 inch. It came with a stick of incense that you could burn. And I thought that was at the time, I'm like a college student. I don't know who Erica Badu is. But you need the incense. I wanted the incense. You got a smelly room. It was, it was Kadar Massenberg, apparently, his idea.

He's a very important A&R in terms of, we'll do a whole, we should do an Erica Badu episode and have back our good friend, Duran Bernard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, it was, you know, I burned the incense that I put on the record and I was like, who's this woman who sounds like, you know, Billy, you know, sounded like Billy Holiday, but she was singing about hip-hop stuff. So I think we should, at some. some point do it, Eric, about do it. I love it. Talk about working at college radio. And gaping

holes. All right, Dialli, you're next. What do you got for me? Song number two, I think we're on for you, right? Gosh, yeah, one of my favorite songs to spend this year. I'm a big fan of, like, you know, dance music, and I wish I could say, like, some DJ playlist for me or some, you know, cool person that hit me with a playlist. No, I was asleep in bed. My wife had been watching a movie, and at some point, the credit sequence came on, and I was like, it was so good this has happened a couple times in life it woke me up like I woke up and been

and I looked at the TV screen I didn't even know what movie was I hit just it turned out as Magic Mike 3 but hey the song was cool and it's really just it's enjoyable it reminds me of summer the past summer and I feel like it's just

a great song anytime I play people are like oh what is this it's really cool the artist is uh it's actually two people it's Diplo and Jungle and the song is don't be afraid So that's just a sampling of that song That's great, I never heard that It's one of those songs

You know, one thing that I think Dance Music does understandably It's like a lot of times They'll give you 16 bars of just a drumbeat So that the DJ can mix it in You know, mix it in But I like a dance song that comes in with just confidence Like that song just starts up

You know, it's just like If you gotta do And by the way, I also like a good falsetto I don't know, I'm just realizing now This song, Don't Be Afraid My previous song Sober by Sypho both male falsetto voices. Like I like a good falsetto.

I'm right there with you. And actually, Jungle, in particular, this band, in this most recent batch of material that I've been making as luxury, they are one of the sort of role models for me. They're so good. They're so good. There's certain kind of... Brit Jungle, just so you know, not to be confused with the genre of music jungle,

is a British electronic group. Two guys, really, actually. Two guys, yeah. And I would ask everybody go check out. They have like four albums, I want to say, right now. think one last year, one in 2020, regardless, go check out their albums. Jungle is making really cool dance electronic music.

Totally, yeah. And their first record, when that one came out, I was in the midst of doing kind of a rethink on my own music. I was kind of going from a harder, synthy-poppy, you know, electro-clashy kind of sound. And I was moving into something that was kind of more classic disco. And they were really representing to me like, oh, this band is kind of doing what I want to do.

So I definitely borrowed a lot of ideas, not the least of which is the falsetto, the live bass playing, and some of the sort of disco grooves and sort of the use of roads, keyboards, this band to me was very important. And they feel like a band, don't they? They feel a little bit more like a man

than most electronic outfits. Well, that's the thing is that their live translation of what they were doing is essentially two guys in the studio, at least when they first started. That was another inspiration. The fact that they had backup singers and drums, they weren't doing it electronically.

They were doing it, even though it was sort of made, I would presume, kind of electronically. samples and in the studio at home. But live, they perform with a full, they perform with a full band where it's a drummer, it's bass, guitar, backup singers. Speaking of British duos, I feel like

Baseman Jacks was one of the first electronic groups, when you saw them live, they had a full band. Like Chemical Brothers famously got up there with like their, their keyboards and their banks of electronic. And both things work, but like sometimes a band is definitely the way to go. I've also noticed that's satisfying. Chemical Brothers,

Baseman Jacks, disclosure. Like, what is it about British electronic duo? outfits. It's always two guys. A couple of white dudes. Yeah, it's usually white guys, but you know what? We could change that. Yes, we can. You and me can change that. And we will, you know, stay tuned, 2024.

Here we come. One song is coming to a city near you. I have my third song. This is for that moment when I'm vibing on the couch. At the end of the day, everyone's gone to sleep and I can't do anything productive at all, not even watch a show. So I will go to my vinyl record collection, which recently has been, I've

lost two years I've only bought like dub records. And my favorite dub records that I bought this here is the first one. This is the runner-up. This is Burning Spear, and this is actually the, you know, as we talked about with Jamaican music, the dubs sometimes get their own album. So he has a record called Marcus Garvey, but I bought the dub version of it, which is called Marcus Garvey's Ghost. It's perfectly named because it's the dub versions of all those songs. Okay. And this song is called The Ghost. That's just, you know, I'm just chilling on the couch. It's instrumental. I don't think about anything. I'm journeying to Jamaica in the 70s or wherever I'm going.

Yeah. So that was the runner-up, though. Here's the number one song. Are you ready for it? I don't know that I am. Okay. Well, are you ready for it now? We'll see.

Okay. Okay, so this song is called People Make the World Go Round. It's actually a remake of a song by The Stylistics, but this version is by Hortense Ellis. And what I love about it is that you can kind of hear the American song in it as redone by a Jamaican artist. And here it is. So just a really beautiful song. Yeah.

Just a really beautiful song. I feel like that song got licensed in a couple of movies and stuff I like too. It's definitely in Crooklin. The Spike Lee movie, Criclin. But that song is a great song. The original, the stylistic version? The original. Yeah, yeah.

It's a great song. Yeah, it's a great song. And just the proof of a great song is that it can be covered. It can be remade in so many different forms. Interesting that you just chose like a remix too, right? I think on a few, yes, I would say in a future episode we should do our favorite covers. Yeah. That totally reinvented the song.

Love it. You know I'm down for that one. So, Diyah, those were my three picks for the year, and I can't wait to hear your third and final pick. Well, listen, I am always a fan of trying to get more people to listen to electronic music. That's no secret here. And one of my absolute favorite songs is a song called Clouds, featuring Shabazz Palaces. The artist's name is Jarv D. And shout out to my friend Kathleen, who played this for me.

And I was like, yo, this is so great. I was talking to Vic Minza one time about how just there aren't enough black people and rappers who are really getting down with dance music. But I feel like in the past 12 months, that's changed drastically. You start hearing more of an urban influence coming back into dance music. And this song is definitely an example of that. So here's Clouds by Jarv Dee. There's no mango for me, damn. You know how my CD be.

I'm going to me else. I ain't never coming down. Like that a shake. I just mind my business Come up with the Popeye's been An extra bar in a I'm a night of the bitch too I mean in the club on those speakers

That just goes so hard That was amazing It goes so hard And I and it reminds me You know to go back to what we were saying earlier Like you know Whether it's Cipo on a sober doing like drum and bass Or an artist like this

Like I just love to hear You know just New influences throwing in on dance music When we had Cascade on our show Last year one of the things he said was like people are moving away from the idea that dance music has to be one thing. Yeah. And it's becoming this thing where everybody from urban to country to country urban, you know, like everybody's throwing in on dance music and I love to see it happens.

So that's why Clouse by JARVD definitely goes hard. You know. Great pick. Love it. Yeah. All right, to wrap things up, I'm going to give you a few rapid fire categories. These are rapid fire categories. Okay.

Rapid, rapid. Rapid, rapid. I will not delay. I want you to show what you. whatever comes to your mind first. Okay. Don't overthink it. Cool.

Here we go. Three, two, one. Artist, you would most like to make a comeback. A comeback? Comeback. Who's been away and who needs to come back? Don't call it a comeback. Well, okay, this is going to be controversial, and I don't want to put it by all.

I'm going to say disclosure. And the reason being that they haven't really gone anywhere, but I feel like the music that they're making now is like of a different genre. And I really want them to go back. Vintage disclosure. I want them to go back to 2012. Because they haven't had an album like two months ago or something. That's why I said it's a con. controversial take because they're still coming out with stuff but settle in 2012 i mean i go back and

listen to it all the time i made an imprint on you such a great absolutely when a fire starts to burn comes in so strong january featuring jamy wound is an amazing song everybody knows latch but i would say those album cuts like they they introduced a whole new type of i would argue sort of garagey deep house style dance music that I just haven't heard from them since. So I really want to see them. I think there's a song called Wicked Gow out now by Bambi and Lady Likely. Lady Likey who sampled one of their songs. And it sounds great.

And it's actually what reminded me. I was like, damn, I used to freaking love. So I like the new disclosure. But in terms of a comeback, I'd love to hear Disclosure just do an album that takes me back to settle. You want them to come back but be completely different in the way that they would be completely the same as they used to be. In other words, you want them to... A little bit like they used to be.

You want them to be like they used to be. All right. I know there's a longer answer in a rapid fire session, but I just wanted to put that out there. Well, technically, your answer was fast. So you got the rapid fire right there. I spoke fast when I said it. Yeah.

Coming up next, rapid fire, rapid fire. Here goes, dream collab. Dream collab. Shoot, man, I would love to... I would love actually to work with you because we've worked on music before. We did that song, Black Nerd for Sherman Showcase. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But we're not above. that. Anyway. I don't know if you've heard. All right. So, self-promotion to the 10th degree. No, but I think that like if we could work with Mark, that would be a dream collab.

All right, what's the last one? All right. Last one. Dream genre crossover. Dream genre crossover. Believe it or not, I'm going to say I want to see a current UK garage song blast off because I would argue that right now. the trend that I want to see more of in 2024 is just,

it's this tempo. We saw it. Everybody saw it with the Little Uzi Vert song, Just Wanna Rock. Like, that song is so fast, it shouldn't really work with a hip hop crowd, except that from, you know, Chicago Juke to Miami bass. Like, we've been dancing at tempo for a long time. But that tempo, that 150 BPM tempo, has not truly crossed over. But this year, in the past, yeah, man, in the past,

year I feel like that song, you were mentioning Delhi with Ice Spice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I want to see more stuff get into that really high sort of like 140, 150 BPM range that the Craig Davis and the Artful Dodgers and this group that I've been following. I think they pronounce a parallel because it's written weird. It's got like P-Rollel. But they have a song called I Know. And it's also a really fast song.

I want to see things get more into that BPM. Do you want to see that kind of stuff cross over to the mainstream? I want to see that stuff cross over to the mainstream and sort of say it. Because I think we've had, look, I'm from Atlanta. I've had a lot of like the 65 to 75 BPM hip-hop song. Like Migos came in strong with that, but like it's been 10 years. What I'm hearing you say is TikTok, get on it, start getting those faster tempos up there. And D'allel will be happy.

This is how you please them. I will be really happy. I would be very happy with it. Because I want people to dance again. And a lot of people were on this trip. I mean, it wasn't just Louis DeVert. Baby Keem and Kendrick had the Hillbillies, which is another really fast tempo song. Like I said earlier, Delhi by Ice Spice, there was a song by a Korean group called New Jeans called Super Shy.

You know, like all these songs were like 150. Exactly. Like Super Shy is also 150. So I want to see more groups play in this beat range because it's something new and fresh. And let's start working on a sound for this decade. It doesn't sound just like the decade we just finished out of it. luxury we've had a lot of fun this episode on a more serious note what message of hope do you want to leave the one song listeners oh man that's a big burden to put on my head but i would

say just thinking about even as we've talked about on the episode i think one theme that's emerging is the idea for this show i think at large is that we are not we always talk about we're not gatekeepers no we really believe strongly that like it's the musical journey we're all on is different and we're sharing ideas and songs and facts that we know and love but we also are learning ourselves constantly. And as I just revealed, there's lots of songs that we don't know, just like you don't know. Nobody knows all the songs.

And I think having some comfort in the idea that that's okay. Yeah. Like, I think there can be some pressure to like, especially in Goulter at large, that you're aware of everything that's going on all the time on every Instagram account. Listen, man, our friendship is safe. Okay. But I am going to task you, go home and listen to Nas's Illmatic album. Well, now I've heard the album.

tell me this a year ago that's what I needed to know it. I've heard the whole album. I've listened to the whole thing once or twice. If you definitely stump me, you are definitely able to stump me. That was very, that was a very light response. Oh, but you know what? Another thing you're making me realize is like it is true that you can't really cram either. So there's like a certain degree to which I'm able to comfortably talk about Metallica or whatever on some episodes. And there are other episodes where I'm definitely doing my homework.

And you're definitely like talking more than me and vice versa. So collectively we hope to like spread. joy about the music, spread some new ideas, spread parts of songs you've heard before that you've never noticed. All of that's coming from this love of music, which is always growing and we're always learning ourselves. Absolutely. Diallo, what is your message of hope for 2020? My man, ain't no hope. Stay indoors, close your windows. Now, I have a lot of, I love your cat doors. I think 2024 is going to be great. And I'm going to wish a great 2024 for all of us, all the listeners and all the people who aren't even listening.

Let's have a great year, y'all. Let's do it. Love it. All right, luxury. Help me in this thing. I'm producer, DJ, and songwriter, luxury. And I am actor, writer, sometimes DJ, and big Ielmatic fan, Dialla Riddle. Oh, my God. I'm also a big Illmatic fan.

Now. Lies. I am now. Where's the lie everywhere? One song at a time. Literally, you can only listen to one song at a time. You can only listen to one episode at a time. And this has been one song.

We will see you next time. See you next time. No black. It's time. Word. Burr's Tommy. It's time, man. I'm leaving this show.

Dungeons of rap. I'm so sorry. Internet. Diallo. I don't know how to start.