Cidinho e Doca - Rap Das Armas

A tropical take on the politics of violence: this is gorgeous. It's got Brazil's veteran MCs Cidinho e Doca going to work on a baile funk tune, with incredible results.

The song's about the Morro do Dende favela, which is dominated by drug trafficking and in which the only police presence is heavily-armed incursions to arrest dealers (often with significant civilian casualties). Their chorus is "Mais Morro Do Dendê também é terra de Deus" - "But Morro Do Dende is also God's earth"

Humanitarianism and babes in bikinis - what's not to like? Also, the tune is phenomenal. I am going to be playing this until my neighbours start joining in with the chorus



Incidentally, it was these guys who made funk carioca mainstream in 1994, with this

Biggie Smalls - Can I Get Witcha (Paul Simcoe Remix)

It's been a while since I heard sweeping strings in an intro and didn't want to vomit. But here the slush is cut with Biggie's best attempts at chat-up-lines, and a perky little boom-bap beat. And it actually has a phenomenal tune, and a nice swell to it (I recognise it, just wish I could name it. This is almost as embarrassing as my failure to recognize Hotel California).

This is so smooth, and available for free download. The original was solid, but I like the irony of the romantic strings, and Biggie's ode to the b-u-t-t.

The genius responsible makes a ton of mash-ups, most of which are downloadable. Check it out.

Can I Get Wit Ya (Remix) by psimcoe3

Nneka - Heartbeat

This sounded weirdly familiar, only because I knew it from the Chase and Status remix, which was everywhere a few years ago.

The remix is definitely catchier and cleaner-sounding, but I prefer the original hands down. The live drums are incredible: apparently* people program drum machines to try to make them sound more imperfect and human. They should just hire this guy.

Nneka's vocals are growing on me - it's not the sound that I usually go for, but she murks this track. And she's very cool: I have yet to see her get naked in a video, and she wrote this little stormer. Take that Rihanna.

*according to my friend Jon, who knows about things like this.

Ghostpoet - Survive It

I know I keep going on about the weather. Forgive me, I'm British. That's how we do.

It's sunny, glorious, cloudless. So I'm not spending so much time burrowed in an internest searching for new music. But this is the sort of beautifully-produced meditative little number that it's worth coming indoors for.

Ghostpoet's Brummie musings draw comparison with Birmingham-born Mike Skinner: they're two sides of the same coin. Ghostpoet's less maudlin, more sombre, less in-your-face.

This video is ace.

Mos Def - Can You See The Light

The other day, someone said to me that they only like hip-hop from the Golden Age. Sigh. Why should anything produced after 1997 be inherently inferior? I refuse to believe that we're living in some kind of hip-hop Dark Ages in which there is only rape (Horrorcore), pillage (Gangsta) and sanctimony (Backpack rap). There's more than that.

That said, a little throw-back to boom-bap does sound really good, especially on a sunny afternoon. That delicious instrumental is the work of DJ Krush - Japan's first hip-hop DJ, with a life story that would make gangsters squirm. Mos Def goes suitably old-school on the vocal - chanted, simple, rhythmic, shout-outs. This is one to bump in your car. Or in my case, on my bicycle. I really need to grow up.

Aventura & Hector Acosta - Me Voy

Possibly the funniest breakup song ever written, this is sung by a man who's leaving his wife. In typical bachata style, it's incredibly over-the-top - he says he's selling the wedding ring, and that death would be a relief, but that he'll be careful not to sin, for fear he'll meet her in Hell.

The best part of all this is that, being a bachata, it's meant to be danced pegao - with couples literally "glued" together on the dancefloor ("pegado", meaning "glued" or "stuck" is pronouced pegao in some parts of Central America). I think this little reggaeton ditty illustrates the meaning of pegao pretty graphically. So you have couples cozying up on the dancefloor to the strains of a singer explaining why all relationships are doomed. Oh yes.

Mos Def - No Hay Nada Mas

This is a free-verse composition in Spanish, by an English speaker, about metaphysics. Sounds pretentious and doomed to failure, right?

But it's got the magic touch of Mos Def, who has come up with two of my favourite couplets ever:

"familia, crianza, la luz en la distancia... mi vista, mi casa, mis suenos, mi alma"
"family, childhood, the light in the distance... my view, my home, my dreams, my soul"