There's a hip-hop version of everything

Finals fatigue = Emily making inane posts

[M. Hisataakaa - 風の通り道 (Path of the Wind remix) ft. Karakuri of A.Y.B. force]

Mad chill. Good to listen to while you write papers.

["Dr. Totoro" (Dr. Dre - The Next Episode Remix)]

I literally found this a minute ago. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I just like that it exists.

[djDOYOU - "Make a Man Touch the Sky" (Mulan vs. Kanye West)]

An old favorite of mine. Yeah. It's pretty epic and it makes you want to kick something's ass. Like finals week. Godspeed, everybody.

I think all of you need to hear this.

[Xaphoon Jones (of Chiddy Bang) - "The Jackson Pit"]

First time I listened to this, I couldn't stop smiling.

:)

Girls and Boys

Since last month was Women's History Month, I was going to do some women in music theme post if I didn't have any other ideas. But it's April already anyway, so how about some gender equity instead?

[Sleater-Kinney - "Modern Girl"]

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to post the original or a cover here. This video helpfully makes that a non-issue: the Beatles' original starts playing right after the end of the version from Across the Universe.

[Jim Sturgess & The Beatles - "Girl"]

A combination that works surprisingly well:

[DJ Earworm - "If I Were a Free Fallin' Boy (Beyonce vs. Tom Petty)"]

Based on this clip's Youtube comments, Blur vs. Oasis is somehow still a relevant debate even though the '90s were 12 years ago.

[Blur - "Girls and Boys"]

I also wanted to post "Boyz" by M.I.A. here, but none of the uploads I found were embeddable... which is just as well, since the video is awesome but bordering on seizure-inducing. Here's a link to it on Youtube if you're curious.

And with that, I'll get back to all the work I've been putting off while writing this post.

Why are finals approaching so quickly.

CLARA C

So! I saw Clara C perform tonight. For those of you who haven't heard of her, she's a quirky manic-pixie-dreamgirl of a singer-songwriter who's really gone places in the past year--she won Kollaboration 10 and performed at the White House in May.

Also, She's ADORABLE. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to see her perform, go! To use an awkwardly composed simile, watching her perform is like having a guitar-and-trumpet-and-xylophone-etc.-playing sunbeam bounce into your life.

["Offbeat" - Clara C]

Among all the instruments I just mentioned, she also plays that Casio keyboard thing attached to tubing that you see in this video... which I cannot identify. Any guesses?

ETA: Google Search and an obscure New Zealand store's site tells me it's some sort of mouth organ!

["Use Somebody + Fallin' For You" - Clara C]

This cover really shows how pretty her voice is, I think.

Oh. And. Did I mention she teaches autistic kids? It's unfair how perfect she is.

The Hood Internet

So these guys came to my school last night. I didn't go--I was stuck in my room doing readingsreadingsreadings--but I could hear them from my window pretty clearly anyway so that didn't make much of a difference.

Most mashup artists sound the same to me, but I really like what I've heard from these guys so far. I think they make pretty interesting combo selections, like "Tambourine Reckoning," though I'm not sure how I feel about the song as a whole... it starts out alright, but "Reckoning" might be too dirge-like for this to work.

But anyway! Here are a couple of my favorites.

["Good Ol' Fashion Rump Shaker (Matt & Kim vs. Beastie Boys)" - The Hood Internet]

This song just makes me really happy. :)

I couldn't find any Youtube videos of this next song that didn't make my head hurt, so here you are with a direct mp3 link posted on The Hood Internet's site:

"Can You Hear My Kids Now (Lil' Kim vs. MGMT)" - The Hood Internet

Does it seem like every mashup artist has to make a track sampling "Kids?"

Best of all, virtually everything's available for (free) download at http://www.thehoodinternet.com! Go forth, explore and download at will! Don't you love getting free stuff?