DAILY NEWS PICKS

Blues Artist Koko Taylor Passes Away [NY Times]

Modest Mouse to Release Limited Edition 7” [The Tripwire]

Jane’s Addiction Offering “Living Room” Sets On Current Tour [NME]

AC/DC on Your Converse! [Prefix]

Afro-Punk Invades Brooklyn [Brooklyn Vegan]

Brilliant Words from Ghostface Killah [Prefix]

Brittney Paying Federline to be a…um, Father? [NME]

The (MGMT) Video Everyone’s Blogging About Today [The Tripwire]

Jay-Z Sets Blueprint Release Date [Billboard]

First Single From Yo La Tengo’s Newly Announced Album [Prefix]

compiled by Elana Jacobs

In 1973, seven years before the release of dive-bar staple “You Shook Me All Night Long,” two Australian brothers formed the hard rock band AC/DC. Songs such as “Back in Black,” “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” and “Highway to Hell” are timeless classics. Although the band has left an indelible mark on Rock and Roll history, AC/DC continues to tour and release albums. Yet there’s something to admire about a band that admits to and takes pride in having recorded album after album sounding exactly the same.

In support of Black Ice, due out October 16 (no news of pre-sale leaks so far), timeless AC/DC will tour North America one more time…(read more to see the dates)
More on AC/DC Back with Black Ice

Despite being originally rock in nature, some of the tracks below have in many ways become more important to hip hop than rock, while others are all time classics in both. Some have been sampled to death, while others date back to the infancy of hip hop with the original DJs cutting up their classic drum breaks for block parties and b-boys – in some cases even before rappers ever started rapping.  This is by no means an exhaustive list either; this is just to give you a taste.

Rush – “Tom Sawyer”
My best personal example of this can be summed up from a card game I was playing with some friends a couple years back. This track came on (via a DJ mix cd) and the guys in the room who could be deemed as the most hip-hop were like “ahh yeah” and the guys in the room who had more rock tendencies were like “eww, I hate this track!” While there are certainly many rockers who love it, its funny to see how people can have such different experiences of the same song.

Jefferson Starship – “Rock Music”
There’s no explanation needed here beyond its inclusion in the Ultimate Breaks and Beats Series, which is essentially a collection of all the original jams played in the parks and clubs by founding hip hop DJs in NYC (i.e. the South Bronx and Uptown) in the 70s and 80s.

AC/DC – “Back in Black”
Sampled by the likes of Boogie Down Productions, the Beastie Boys, and others, as well as being playable to hip hop crowds on its own, this track is definitely classic status. That simple guitar riff and those drums make it both mixable and palettable to hip hop’s 4/4 beat and sample/looping sound.
More on Some Hip Hop Tracks Literally Rock…Whether You Like It Or Not