HIDDEN GEMS
Rappin’ 4-Tay | Don’t Fight The Feelin’
If you were listening to hip hop on the radio in ’94, maybe you remember the song “Playaz Club”: smooth boasting over a surprisingly poignant guitar-laden beat and the intimation of real sexy happenings throughout… “more champagne, Mister 4-Tay?” But who’s Mister 4-Tay? Rappin’ 4-Tay is a San Franciscan who’s dropped 14 albums over the past 18 years, with his second, Don’t Fight The Feelin’, outshining all the others. It’s a killer, but relatively uncelebrated, document of all the badassness that was percolating out on the West Coast in the early nineties, complete with high-pitched synth whistle and lots of references to dank.
by Erin Sheehy

Gillian Welch | Time (The Revelator)
Gillian Welch’s third album is the one where she got it all right. Welch and partner David Rawlings recorded and performed the whole thing themselves – it honestly doesn’t even seem as though there’s a single overdub throughout, just Welch’s guitar and Rawlings’ guitars and banjo. Though born and raised in California, all evidence of Welch’s sunshine-y upbringing is nowhere to be found, and Time (The Revelator) is pure moody Appalachian country. Highlights include the title track, “Elvis Presley Blues” and closer “I Dream a Highway” (arguably the greatest extremely long song ever written).
by Brook Pridemore


More on Hidden Gems

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Yesss!!! Listen To Big Boi’s New Song With George Clinton and Too $hort. Though Honestly, It’s Not As Crazy As We’d Hope [Prefix]

Getting Bored With Your Buddha Machine? No Worries, Throbbing Gristle Has Made Their Own Version: Helloo Gristleism! [Pitchfork]

Listen To New Best Coast, “Wish He Was You.” You May Be Sick Of These Lo-Fi Beachy Songs, But We Who’re Already Dreading Winter Need This! [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Morrissey To Release B-Sides Album, Tour West Coast [The Tripwire]

Whaaaa? FAC Supports Lily Allen After All. We’ll See What This Means For Our Theory On The Whole Debacle… [Pitchfork]

San Francisco’s Girls New Single Due In November. Watch Them Perform It Here! [Pitchfork]

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers To Release Fatty, Four-Disc Live Anthology [Rolling Stone]

Have You Ever Wondered What The Inside Of Kyp Malone’s Apartment Looks Like? Don’t Worry, We Have Too. You Can Get All the Mundane (and Exciting) Details Here  [NY Post]

Hells Yeah. Mos Def Making Punk Documentary [The Tripwire]

Stream All Of Ghostface’s Wizard Of Poetry Here [Prefix]

In More Wizard And Music-Related News, ?uestlove and Friends To Play Free Screening Of Wizard Of Oz in Central Park Next Week [Brooklyn Vegan]

compiled by Erin Sheehy