MC Solaar – Hasta La Vista

 

A blast from the past. Don’t know what ever happened to him, pretty sure he hasn’t released anything for a good 5-6 years at least.

That aint the blues…

The daily grind, especially in the first few cold months of a year, can be a struggle. Its reinforced almost daily by the news  too, which means its factual. More houses go on the market in January following Christmas rows and marriage breakdown, and if that isn’t happening, you’re paying off the debts of December’s hedonism. The fourth monday in January is known as blue monday and often cited as the most depressing day of the year.

Whilst most of the time, listening to music is a great form of escapism, serving to take your mind off all that workaday shit completely, sometimes you just want your music to empathize a little. Just for a moment, stop about the a) highly glamorous or b) dangerous life.  I love hip hop, but the truth is, I, like the majority, work a fairly mundane job, and the genre doesn’t always seem to cater for you if you aren’t hustling in some way, shape or form. Its fair to say that guitar based rock, and a few artists like Adele, have a monopoly on depression and a bleaker outlook on life.

Sometimes you just want to hear someone who’s struggling a bit, or at least someone who sounds like they know what its like to struggle a bit. Someone with an understanding of good old mundane life. Unfortunately, keeping it really real can sometimes mean keeping it dull, plus, doesn’t always sell records in the same way selling a fantasy or dream can.

We all get the blues, and sometimes you need some blues to get you through a day. Whether it be work related or just general life getting you down, here’s the stuff that won’t tell you to throw your work weary, blistered hands in the air to make it appear to those around you that you just don’t care……

1. Kanye West – Runaway

We all have those days where we think we’re pretty shit really, this is anthemic in its recognition of that, and shows that Kanye does old fashioned self pity as good as any indie rock band. The piano loop, relentless, dirgey bassline that grows in intensity throughout. The gothic, urban, sound scape as Kanye warns his soon to be bride, ‘Baby I got a plan, run away as fast as you can’. Of course, if you really are pissed off, you need a good shouty singalonga chorus, sure, pretend you don’t, but you do. And singalonga choruses don’t come much better than this one, ‘Lets have a toast to the douchebags, lets have a toast to the assholes, lets have a toast to the scumbags, every one of them that I know, lets have a toast to the jerk offs, kind who never take work off….’ Superb slice of blues.

2. MC Solaar – Hasta La Vista

That line you wish you’d said as you walked out the office in at least one job that you quit. Its definitely the more stylish one line option to the boss if your planning on walking out, preferable to the ‘Fucking stick it up your arse you wanker’ that is immediately in your head. Less is more, less is more. Its suitably moody with its spanish flamenco guitar loop and loose and easy beat, but more to the point, its French, which means you probably don’t understand it fully unless you are French yourself. French is a great language to do thoughtful mean and moody  in though, and so it speaks to you, and so its essential.

3. Rapsody – Believe Me.

Not entirely on theme, although the line, ‘Landlord telling me come through – rent due’ works beautifully and is delivered with such perfection that this line alone makes it important to this list. The simple, dusty scratchy vinyl piano loop and a heavy beat ensures it makes the list instrumentally too. Plus Rapsody rocks!

4. Phonte – The Good Fight

The whole track an anthem to the reality of life in whatever decade we are in (tens? teens? anyone?) The intro sums it all up, ‘When you wake up in the morning, I want you to go to the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say – FUCK YOU! Fuck your hopes, fuck your dreams, fuck all the good you thought this life was going to bring you….’

Then there’s the whole losing your job ‘cos we got defunded’, and ‘if you’re thinking about quitting you should probably wait, cos everybody got to do a fucking job that they hate.’ This track is as perfect soul blues masterpiece as your likely to find, and beautiful too.

5. Eric B and Rakim – Paid in Full

This is essential to this playlist, all you need to know is, ‘Thinking of a master-plan, cos aint nothing but sweat inside my hand. So I dig in my pocket, all my money spent, so I dig deeper but still come up with lint’. No need to say any more, its a classic.

6. Run DMC – Hard Times

This is one of my favourite Run DMC tracks, with the lines, ‘Hard times got our pockets all in chains, I tell you what homeboy it don’t have my brain’ a reference to 80s financial issues in the US and rising taxation, basically, they can take my money, but they can’t take my mind. It goes on, ‘All day I have to work at my peak, cos I need that dollar every day of the week’, and we’ve all done that thankless task at the height of our abilities just to pay a fucking gas bill.

7. Outkast – Rooster

The world crashing in around you? Life running to fast for you to keep up? You think you have it bad? No, Big Boi has it worse on this track, to the point that his son pisses all over him when he’s changing his nappy. This track is jumpy, rapid, and just reflects exactly how you feel when the world is spinning to quickly for your brain, its fun, yes, but its not a party track by any stretch. It oozes paranoia and excuse making and is one of my favourite tracks from Outkast.

8. Jean Grae – Haters Anthem

Again, the essential keys, a simple three notes does it, over a beat and a nice simplistic bassline and this is pretty complete as far as feeling a bit dark and wanting some hip hop is concerned. This makes the list purely because of the ‘Fuck you fuck you fuck you’ bit to be honest, but the imagery is so deliciously dark, and violent, and enough to keep you satisfied in the knowledge that you are right, they are wrong, so fuck them.

9.The Roots – Dear God 2.0

Just had to get The Roots in this list, and it was more difficult that I thought. In fact, listening to a load of music in trying to work out what an ideal, self righteous empathetic mix would sound like I was surprised that a few of my go-to artists didn’t make the cut, Talib Kweli, Common, couldn’t really find the right vibe with any of them. There’s a few The Roots tracks that could be in here, but I like this little prayer to God, from the opening line of ‘They said he’s busy, hold the line please, Call me crazy, I thought he could mind read’, that moment when if you did believe in god, your whole set up right now is so shitty that you just gave up on that belief. The line, ‘I get off work, right back to work again’, whilst referencing the bands work ethic, reaches out to its listeners on a number of levels. The most profound line, and the one that seals its place in this list, is ‘Why is the world so ugly when you made it in your image? And why is living life such a fight to the finish’.

Ends at track 9, could push for track 10, in the name of completeness, but sadly, I failed (press repeat) *insert sad face here*